September 30, 2019 - Suggested Reading Joshua 15 for the October 6th message on Micah 1 &2 in our worship service at 10:00AM

“The allotment for the tribe of Judah, according to its clans, extended down to the territory of Edom, to the Desert of Zin in the extreme south.”

Joshua 15:1 (NIV) 

The book of Joshua records that the people of God received their land from God’s hand through the casting of lots. This system of allowing God to determine what property they would own and live is the ultimate example of a surrendered life, and is foreign to most of us who live in Ontario in 2019.

Private property ownership is the bedrock of a free society and a quick study of the places where people are the freest in the world bears this truth out. To enable its citizens to own their own property, and live there without undue tax burdens or confiscation risk is a primary responsibility of the government of a free society. One of the identifying factors of a communist or totalitarian government is their quickness to confiscate properties and their large forced relocation projects. It would be pretty hard to find someone in power in Canada who would argue against the ownership of private property, for Canada so far is a relatively free society with a higher than normal ratio of land relative to population.

Joshua records that God gave tribes, families and individuals ownership rights over the promised land, and therefore set the basis for a free society in ancient Israel.

The problem that Micah chapter 2 is addressing is the taking away of those rights along with the property from the poor and/or weak by the rich and/or powerful through various schemes. (1 Kings 21 records one of those schemes)

This sin is grievous to God, for He will destroy the nation, and He will punish them in accordance to the crime - they take away land - therefore God will take away their land.

The lesson for us is to keep our hands off what belongs to someone else – and like every other sin it starts in our heart - so the lesson is don’t covet what God gave to someone else.

How can we not covet someone else’s land or job or wealth or spouse?

Psalm 16 contains the answer which is thankfulness - can we say verse 6 to God and mean it from
our heart? 

When that is the attitude of our heart and the words of our mouths, we will not covet and we will
not steal.