Passage Read: Isaiah 3-6
Meditation Verse: 5:8
Thought
What an interesting verse. There are those who are house to house and field to field, and they end up isolated, alone in the land. They build ever bigger houses, and the expand their fields, until they have driven off their neighbors and there is no land left for anyone else. This is how we farm in America today, but God says "Woe" to such people! It's like God never meant for a few people to acquire all the land in an area, and then dwell alone, far from others. It's like God meant for everyone to own enough land for each to farm or have a significant garden. It's like He meant for us to dwell near others, not far away and isolated.
Application
Solomon said that all activity under the sun comes from envy of a neighbor. It is a motivation for greed. This one has more than me, so I want more. This one has nicer things than me, so I want more. Some see how they can grow their wealth by buying up a neighbor's land and adding it to his field. The house can be removed, the materials used to enlarge my own. I can buy more slaves or equipment to farm a larger plot. I am becoming more wealthy than my neighbors. But someone else has still more. So I buy another neighbor's land and add it to my fields, and on and on. Till one man lives alone in a vast network of fields, and all the rest, who sold their land because they couldn't work it, because their sons thought there was better money off the farm or they think that themselves, less labor for more money, all the rest cluster together in cities where they hope the better money is. God says such a thing is not right! I don't need to be richer than my neighbors, and I don't need to collect everyone's property and drive them away from me, their own greed helping me do it. God designed me to dwell near to my neighbors, so that we could help one another and serve one another and keep each other faithful to God! But we prefer isolation, even when we live ten feet apart, because we don't want accountability, we don't want others nosing into our business. Seeking isolation so I can do whatever I want is just as bad as the greed that enables it.