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{Since the Heavenly Trade Is the Best Trade…
Exhortation and Counsel to Earthly Traders
Counsel Three: Search for the Cause of Your Afflictions
Cause: Unfaithfulness in One’s Callings}
Unfaithfulness [sinful conduct] in people’s callings puts them out of the path of blessing and causes disasters on their concerns (Micah 6:10–14).1225 The Lord had a controversy against His people (Micah 6:2),1226 and until this was resolved, all their religious services were to no purpose; sacrifices and duties could not prevail or stop His displeasure until their sins were removed (Micah 6:6–7).1227 God called for more than waiting on Him in public duties, but “He has shown you, O man, what is good; And what does the Lord require of you But to do justly, To love mercy, And to walk humbly with your God?” (Micah 6:8 NKJV). In this they had been remiss, and therefore He had brought a rod upon them (Micah 6:9),1228 had struck them with sickness and would make them desolate (Micah 6:13).1229 They would eat but not be satisfied, they would be thrown down, and they would be blasted in their labors and concerns. They would sow but not reap, tread olives but not anoint themselves with the oil, have sweet wine but not drink it. God then comes to reckon with them; therefore, this was brought upon them: “Are there yet the treasures of wickedness In the house of the wicked, And the short measure that is an abomination? Shall I count pure those with the wicked scales, And with the bag of deceitful weights? For her rich men are full of violence, Her inhabitants have spoken lies, And their tongue is deceitful in their mouth” (Micah 6:10–12 NKJV). They were full of wickedness, and along with their other sins, they were false and deceitful. They did not walk humbly with God, nor deal justly with people, but were deceitful in their callings,1230 had false weights, undersized measures, were injurious to others, and not just and faithful in their dealings. They oppressed some, defrauded others, were over others as cruel taskmasters exacting labor from them, ground the faces of the poor (Isaiah 3:15),1231 and ate them up as bread (Psalm 14:4),1232 by defrauding them of their due and cheating laborers out of their wages by fraud and injustice (James 5:4).1233 Dr. Manton said that they do this by not giving them fair wages, taking advantage of their necessities, and sucking out the strength and quality of life from their laborers.1234 A sin that cries in the ears of the Lord of Sabbaths is a sin that cries out loud. The groans of the oppressed enter His ears as a God of vengeance to require it, and to give His poor a Sabbath and rest from their oppression.1235 It is a sin that God will surely and severely punish. “‘Then I will draw near to you for judgment. I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, against the adulterers, against those who swear falsely, against those who oppress the hired worker in his wages, the widow and the fatherless, against those who thrust aside the sojourner, and do not fear me,’ says the Lord of hosts” (Malachi 3:5 ESV). This passage joins such sins as adultery, sorcery, perjury [swearing falsely]—provocations in God’s ears and actions that plainly show the lack of true fear of God in such people—with daring to oppress poor laborers, changing their wages as Laban did Jacob’s wages (Genesis 31:41).1236 God will lay hands on these people; he will be both judge and witness against them. He will not delay, but proceed to speedily sentence and execute the sentence against the kind of people who oppress their poor laborers. Of all oppression, oppression of the poor is the worst; it carries the most cruelty in it. To tread on those who are already down, abuse those who have no helper, take bread out of the mouths of those ready to starve, and to defraud of their wages those who must live hand-to-mouth—God calls it downright robbery (Leviticus 19:13).1237 To build houses and raise up estates on the ruination of poor laborers is to lay the foundation in blood; it has a woe pronounced on it from the Lord of Hosts (Habakkuk 2:9–12).1238 This is one of those sins that bring a people to the ground and make them desolate.1239 “The Lord will enter into judgment With the elders of His people And His princes: ‘For you have eaten up the vineyard; The plunder of the poor is in your houses. What do you mean by crushing My people And grinding the faces of the poor?’ Says the Lord God of hosts” (Isaiah 3:14–15 NKJV). “Her gates shall lament and mourn, And she being desolate shall sit on the ground” (Isaiah 3:26 NKJV). This is a God-provoking and an estate-wasting sin, and one of the great visible, crying sins of this day.1240
[Not mentioned by Ashwood: sloth and distractions from our work.1241 Ed.]
1225“Are there yet the treasures of wickedness In the house of the wicked, And the short measure that is an abomination? Shall I count pure those with the wicked scales, And with the bag of deceitful weights? For her rich men are full of violence, Her inhabitants have spoken lies, And their tongue is deceitful in their mouth. Therefore I will also make you sick by striking you, By making you desolate because of your sins. You shall eat, but not be satisfied; Hunger shall be in your midst. You may carry some away, but shall not save them; And what you do rescue I will give over to the sword” (Micah 6:10–14 NKJV).
1226“Hear, O you mountains, the Lord’s complaint, And you strong foundations of the earth; For the Lord has a complaint against His people, And He will contend with Israel” (Micah 6:2 NKJV).
1227“With what shall I come before the Lord, And bow myself before the High God? Shall I come before Him with burnt offerings, With calves a year old? Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, Ten thousand rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, The fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?” (Micah 6:6–7 NKJV).
1228“The Lord’s voice cries to the city—Wisdom shall see Your name: ‘Hear the rod! Who has appointed it?’” (Micah 6:9 NKJV).
1229“Therefore I will also make you sick by striking you, By making you desolate because of your sins” (Micah 6:13 NKJV).
1230The magnitude of being deceitful in one’s calling becomes more evident when it is realized that Christians are not their own, but are bondslaves of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has given them one or more specific callings in life. That is, the Master calls out orders to His bondslaves. To act in such a capacity sinfully—or worse, as a curse to others instead of a blessing—is hideously contrary to the One who endured the equivalent of eternity in Hell so that believers would not suffer that eternal damnation.
1231“‘What do you mean by crushing My people And grinding the face of the poor?’ Declares the Lord God of hosts” (Isaiah 3:15 NASB).
1232“Have they no knowledge, all the evildoers who eat up my people as they eat bread and do not call upon the Lord?” (Psalm 14:4 ESV).
1233“Behold, the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, are crying out against you, and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts” (James 5:4 ESV).
1234This does not refer to wages determined by a fair market; this editor has never met anyone who thought he or she was overpaid! The reference is to not paying what was promised, unjustly manipulating the labor market, such as isolating workers in “company towns,” and otherwise treating people unfairly. All of this can also apply to how contractors and vendors are treated.
1235It appears that Ashwood became a bit confused here, but his point is still valid, especially today when people are forced by employers to work on the Sabbath for nonessential things such as retail stores. Christians should adamantly refuse to work on the Sabbath (Sunday), except for essential services such as provided by police, medical professionals, or even such things as home furnace service calls in winter. There are also some industrial processes that must run continuously either because they take many days to complete, or are very difficult and even unsafe to start and stop. Ashwood’s confusion seems to come from the KJV rendering of James 5:4: “…the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth.” Lord of Sabaoth can also be translated Lord of Hosts, as in the ESV above. The Greek for Sabaoth is Σαβαωθ, and the Greek for sabbath is σαββατον, which the reader may see are two different words. Sabaoth and Σαβαωθ are both translations of the Hebrew צְבָאוֹת [tsaw-baw´], which means hosts or armies.
1236“These twenty years I have been in your house; I served you fourteen years for your two daughters and six years for your flock, and you changed my wages ten times” (Genesis 31:41 NASB).
1237“You shall not cheat your neighbor, nor rob him. The wages of him who is hired shall not remain with you all night until morning” (Leviticus 19:13 NKJV).
1238“Woe to him who gets evil gain for his house, to set his nest on high, to be safe from the reach of harm! You have devised shame for your house by cutting off many peoples; you have forfeited your life. For the stone will cry out from the wall, and the beam from the woodwork respond. ‘Woe to him who builds a town with blood and founds a city on iniquity!’” (Habakkuk 2:9–12 ESV).
1239“Can wicked rulers be allied with you, those who frame injustice by statute?” (Psalm 94:20 ESV). God rebukes not only individual oppression, but bodies politic that pass, or allow to be passed, laws that oppress or enable oppression.
1240This is still very true in America today; sinful human nature never changes apart from the work of the Holy Spirit in Christ-redeemed hearts. To identify oppressors, go look in the mirror. We are all, in one way or another, guilty of taking advantage of others at times, this editor included. Those who have power simply have more ability and opportunity.
1241The ubiquity of internet-connected devices, advertising, and entertainment makes it astonishingly easy to lose large amounts of time from many seemingly short interruptions and distractions. These take time from productive work and can lead to poor stewardship and consequent losses.
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