Money Matters

Incline my heart to Your testimonies, and not to dishonest gain.  Psalm 119:36  NASB

Dishonest gain – What is the strategy that prevents humanity from seeking profit by unrighteous means?  Ah, the answer is simple.  History!

Incline your heart to God’s testimonies.  What are those?  You’ll recall that “testimonies” is the plural of ʿēdût, a word that expresses God’s continuing interactions with Mankind.  In other words, if you want to resist the temptation to get more for yourself at the expense of another, remember what God has done.

We should add a few remarks to this lesson.  First, we need to emphasize that crucial point that erasing or modifying the history of God’s handiwork in the world is the first step toward economic abuse.  Forgetting His sovereignty leads directly to usurping the rights of others.  Greed is a function of historical blindness.

Second, and just as importantly, the psalmist does not eschew all gain.  He chose the Hebrew word beṣaʿ.  “ . . . the more common connotation of the root is based on a slightly different aspect of ‘cut off.’ That is to cut off what is not one’s own, or in the slang of our day, to take a ‘rip-off,’ thus to be greedy, covetous.”^[1]  Legitimate profit is biblically approved.  beṣaʿ isn’t.  It is “Personal advantage derived from some activity.”^[2]  Ah, but now we see that beṣaʿ  isn’t limited to money.  “Personal advantage” covers a much broader ground.  Oswalt’s comments are relevant:

The contexts in which bāṣaʿ and beṣaʿ occur emphasize two points concerning the lust for personal gain. First, it is a special temptation to leaders, and those showing any predilection in that direction should be disqualified (Ex 18:21). The leader who succumbs to this temptation to use his position for his own ends will certainly play his people false (Ezk 22:27). Again and again in the ot, it was the desire of the leaders for personal gain which led Israel into disaster (cf. I Sam 8:3; Isa 56:11; Jer 8:10; 22:17, etc.).

Secondly, lust for personal gain is in direct opposition to unselfish devotion to God (Ps 10:3; 119:36; Isa 33:15) and must inevitably destroy the person who succumbs to it (Prov 1:19; 15:27; Hab 2:9). Perhaps its most disastrous result is its tendency to dull the hearing of God’s word (Ezk 33:31).^[3]

Where do you suppose this leaves us today?  Isn’t beṣaʿ rampant among our political leaders?  Aren’t they deaf to God’s voice?  And doesn’t that mean disaster follows?

Topical Index: ʿēdût, testimony, history, beṣaʿ, personal advantage, gain, disaster, Psalm 119:36

^[1] Oswalt, J. N. (1999). 267 בָּצַע. In R. L. Harris, G. L. Archer Jr., & B. K. Waltke (Eds.), Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament (electronic ed., p. 122). Moody Press.

^[2] Ibid.

^[3] Ibid.