Saturday 5 Aug 2023

August 5: Leviticus 25:14-17

Key Verse: Leviticus 25:17
Do not take advantage of each other, but fear your God. I am the Lord your God.

Devotion:
When I came out of university there was a bit of a financial slump going on and finding work, even as a graduate, was difficult. Needless to say I did try various jobs to get money in which is where I found out about the greed some people and companies have; something I could not live with.

God has tried to educate people time and time again about living together as community, sharing what we have and supporting each other. This has prompted some to give up on things and live some pretty radical ways of life. But God also taught about buying and selling, supporting ourselves, having businesses and much more. This points to a very varied society where people look out for each other a live by fair rules and fair trade.

What we have in modern society is very far from that in many cases. We have a few people making big businesses out of supplying what people want and extorting what they can from the supply chain in order to turn a profit, not caring for the individual but rather the corporate profit margin instead. This sees the workers who make products or farmers who grow produce getting offered lessor wages whilst the people buying the goods being forced to pay more.

God wants us to love our neighbours. This means putting aside greed and profit margins to make sure our neighbours get what they need and not what you want them to have. Each of us does have to make a living, but we do not need to extort others in order to get what we desire.

Points to Ponder:
Do you try to earn as much as you can?

Do you help others as much as you can?