Let us hear the word of the Lord:
Leviticus 6:2-4a If a person sins and commits a trespass against the Lord by lying to his neighbor about what was delivered to him for safekeeping, or about a pledge, or about a robbery, or if he has extorted from his neighbor, or if he has found what was lost and lies concerning it, and swears falsely—in any one of these things that a man may do in which he sins: then it shall be, because he has sinned and is guilty… and in 19:13, ‘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.
Deuteronomy 25:13-16 “You shall not have in your bag differing weights, a heavy and a light. You shall not have in your house differing measures, a large and a small. You shall have a perfect and just weight, a perfect and just measure, that your days may be lengthened in the land which Yahweh your Elohim is giving you. For all who do such things, all who behave unrighteously, are an abomination to Yahweh your Elohim."
Hear those words! ‘That your days may be lengthened in the land He gave you!’ Almighty God is telling us a second time that living an honourable life is one of the keys to living a long life; a life that is full, healthy, and produces goodness for others. In the Fifth Commandment, honour your father and mother, we find the first commandment containing the promise that this sort of obedience may make our days long upon the land. In Genesis 31, we see how Laban is beginning to pay a stiff price for his selfishness and, shall we say, less than honourable life.
In Proverbs 20:14, Solomon tells us, ‘“It is good for nothing,” cries the buyer; But when he has gone his way, then he boasts.’ This is an example of low-balling a deal in order to gain an unfair advantage, then going and boasting to others about what a “steal” you got without adding that you engaged in the deceit. Then in verse 23b, he goes on to teach that ‘dishonest scales are not good’. Not so long ago, we saw a TV show that joked about how a Jewish family got rich by first coming to America, second by opening a deli, and third by putting their thumb on the scale. The audience laughed, but Christians should not be laughing at sin that way. This behaviour, like Laban’s, serves only to glorify the works of the enemy among us. You see, just before in verse 17, Solomon told us that ‘Bread gained by deceit is sweet to a man, but afterward his mouth will be filled with gravel.’
Isaiah writes about the goodness of living in righteousness in chapter 32. Here, he is not giving a prophecy about any specific period of time, but one of how it is to live under righteous leadership. He writes in vv. 5-8, ‘The foolish person will no longer be called generous, Nor the miser said to be bountiful; For the foolish person will speak foolishness, and his heart will work iniquity: To practice ungodliness, to utter error against the Lord, to keep the hungry unsatisfied, and he will cause the drink of the thirsty to fail. Also the schemes of the schemer are evil; He devises wicked plans to destroy the poor with lying words, even when the needy speaks justice. But a generous man devises generous things, and by generosity he shall stand. (emphasis by author)
It's neither my job to pass judgment nor to even point a finger here. Let the reader decide. As Scripture says: By their fruits you will know them.
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