Devise Wickedness

Micah 2:1 ESV

Woe to those who devise wickedness and work evil on their beds!

                When the morning dawns, they perform it, because it is in the power of their hand.

They covet fields and seize them, and houses, and take them away;

                They oppress a man and his house, a man and his inheritance.

Tyranny is an awful thing. Tyrannical rule pressed the colonists to renounce their British citizenship and rebel against their once beloved England. It did not occur overnight though. In his book, Founders at Home, Myron Magnet helps us watch as legal and media debates worked themselves into the thought life of the American settlers. To such an effect that any number of men on the street would be able to debate the finer points of Locke, Trenchard, and Gordon. Not simply retweet or chant slogans on Facebook but to actually talk and discuss the issues at hand.  A populace had to be educated of not only the realities but the ideologies that undergird them. To this end William Livingston would print articles as early as 1733. The foundation must be laid before the building can be placed upon it.

This morning I read of a judge placing a junction on Section 1005 of “The American Rescue Plan”. Not knowing what that meant I kept reading. The law said the people of the United States would pay the FARM LOANS of minority farmers and ranchers up to 120% of outstanding loan amount, meaning a little bonus at the end, as a way to right the wrongs of the past. I am not real familiar with farm loans but my feeling is that these can get quite large. At the moment the thing holding this program up was the reality that only race separates a white farmer from getting this same treatment. How did we get to the place that government handouts are not worth a second look? As important, how do we regain the nobility of work?

In the text of Micah, we read of God condemning those that would think and plan how they would do evil until that moment they have the power to do so. They look at the goods and property of others and want them for themselves, so they make plans. Then the moment comes and they have the power so they take what is not theirs, seizing the labor of others. This is what the people of the United States are now in the midst of doing. Having waited for the moment we have now stolen the inheritance of future generations and spent it on ourselves. Justifying our covetousness under the guise of knowing the cost of sin against an individual, as if it is a matter of money (2 Samuel 21:4). It, however, is blatant covetous theft which the people of the United States have engaged in. And so, we, as a people, are guilty and in verse three, God tells us of the disaster planned for those who do such things. Abraham Lincoln noted that a nation will pay for its crimes. If God is merciful to us, we will be able to survive and thrive after such a time, as we did after “every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword” (Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address). If he is not, we will join the throngs of nation states that have come and gone.

I asked the question earlier about how to regain the nobility of work?” The answer is Decades of Work, are we ready to begin? From Abortion to theft our nations sins are pilling high. May God still be merciful to us and give us the decades we require but if not, “the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.”

Coram deo