Crushed grapes

What do you mean by crushing my people, by grinding the face of the poor?” declares the Lord God of hosts. Isaiah 3:15

They are kind of cute, the bumper stickers I mean.  Become the 1%.  Work Hard.  and Occupy a Desk.  Get a Job.  But it’s not that simple.  

The context of this verse is that the wealth of the leaders came from somewhere— (option shift hyphen, Sue) crushing their laborers like grapes, grinding their faces between stones like wheat. 

One of our presidential candidates didn’t quite get it.  When asked if questions dealing with distribution of wealth and power were a question of fairness, he answered, “I think it’s about envy.  It’s about class warfare.” And as I have grown older, I realize that it is not all about “hard work and risk taking and their dreams -- maybe a little luck.”

I don’t think he has ever worked his way through the church directory, asking for money to deal with an abscessed tooth.  Someone called me yesterday.  Or been filled with the despair of being a fifty-six-year-old man who has been downsized. He has taken to running around the park, in between filling out hundreds of job applications.  Or shoved his head under the pillow and wept as a drunk uncle pounds on the bedroom door.  She was one of my students.

I ran into a little problem once.  Yep, I used the word “little” one time too many, in describing a doctoral thesis that equated biblical worldview with free enterprise capitalism.    Everything hit the proverbial fan, and I was challenged to find ONE Bible verse to support my socialistic tendencies.  Beside the year of Jubilee, to begin with?  And the stuff about two coats and no coats.  

We are told not to judge.  However, one can weigh fruit.  And consider.  

 It’s going to be a long read, the book of Isaiah and the judgement of the LORD.  But I was struck, when reading the Gospels how often Jesus referenced this book, and I decided that I too will bury it deep within my heart.

The LORD enters into judgment against the elders and leaders of his people: “It is you who have ruined my vineyard; the plunder from the poor is in your houses.  Isaiah 3:14

מנא ,מנא, תקל, ופרסין

Mene, Mene, Tekel u-Pharsin

It is indeed a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.