OPEN HEAVENS DEVOTIONAL-SUNDAY-03/07/2016-GUILTY OF INJUSTICE?-BY PASTOR E.A. ADEBOYE
GUILTY OF INJUSTICE?
Memorise
Ye
have condemned and killed the just; and he doth not resist you.
James
5:6
Read
Amos 8:4-10,
4 Hear
this, O ye that swallow up the needy, even to make the poor of the land to
fail,
5 Saying, When will the new moon be gone, that
we may sell corn? And the Sabbath, that we may set forth wheat, making the
ephah small, and the shekel great, and falsifying the balances by deceit?
6 That
we may buy the poor for silver, and the needy for a pair of shoes; yea, and
sell the refuse of the wheat?
7 The Lord hath sworn by the Excellency of
Jacob, Surely I will never forget any of their works.
8 Shall
not the land tremble for this, and every one mourn that dwelleth therein? and
it shall rise up wholly as a flood; and it shall be cast out and drowned, as by
the flood of Egypt.
9 And
it shall come to pass in that day, saith the Lord God, that I will cause the sun to go down at noon, and I
will darken the earth in the clear day:
10 And I
will turn your feasts into mourning, and all your songs into lamentation; and I
will bring up sackcloth upon all loins, and baldness upon every head; and I
will make it as the mourning of an only son, and the end thereof as a bitter
day.
KJV
MESSAGE
Injustice has been in existence with mankind
since the fall. The unfortunate thing is that God hates injustice because He is
the God of justice and equity. In our Bible reading for today and in several
others verses of the Bible, we see that God vehemently abhors injustice. This
injustice is all-inclusive, because it is found among traders through false
measure, the employers of labours who do not pay the correct wages or delay it
unnecessarily and the employees who cheat on their employers by not putting up
their best for the wages they earn. James 5:4 says:
“Behold the hire of
the labourers who have reaped down your fields, which are of you kept back by
fraud, crieth: and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the
ears of the Lord of Sabaoth.”
It is injustice when an employer keeps the
wages of the labourers unpaid or holds back some of the wages meant for the
workers. God says He will not take it lightly with whoever is guilty of this
act. In the same vein, when an employee uses the time meant for his employer to
do something else, it is injustice. This is why many employees do not have
anything tangible to show for the wages they earn. When a man works for fifteen
days put together in a month and he is given a salary of thirty days’ worth, at
the end of the month, the value of what he will use the money for will not be
more than his actual wage for fifteen days. Many traders are fond of using
false measures to sell their merchandise. Only ignorance makes people indulge
in such practices, because the God of justice will always bring judgement upon
such businesses.
“Ye shall do no
unrighteousness in judgement, in meteyard, in weight, or in measure. Just
balances, just weights, a just ephah, and a just hin, shall ye have: I am the
Lord your God, which brought you out of the land of Egypt.”
Leviticus 19:35-36
The consequence of the above injustice is
written in our text for today:
“The Lord hath sworn
by the excellency of Jacob, Surely I will never forget any of their works… And
I will turn your feasts into mourning, and all your songs into lamentation; and
I will bring up sackcloth upon all loins, and baldness upon every head; and I
will make it as the mourning of an only son, and the end thereof as a bitter
day.”
Amos 8:7, 10
Beloved, beware of injustice of any kind so
that you are not found guilty of practicing that which the Lord hates. The
Bible says:
“Divers weights are
an abomination unto the Lord; and a false balance is not good.”
Proverbs
20:23
Action Point
Examine your life; if you are
in any way indulging in injustice, repent today and restitute your ways.
Bible in one year
Acts 20:17-22:21, Song of
Solomon 5:10-6:9
No comments:
Post a Comment