I WON’T FORGET YOUR ILL-GOTTEN WEALTH

Micah 6:10
Am I still to forget your ill-gotten treasures, you wicked house,
and the short ephah, which is accursed?

The prophet Micah seems concerned about corruption in Israel, poor governance, and mistreatment of the vulnerable. God speaks through Micah and the message is against vices that are now rampant even in our society today. God is against the few people who grow wealth at the expense of the majority, using dubious means. In our text today, God has a message for the wealthy Israelites who have made it in life through corruption. I won’t forget your ill-gotten wealth!

We live in times when everyone wants to get rich quickly in the shortest way possible. Education doesn’t pay as it promised. Hard work doesn’t pay much as has been touted. Corruption of process seems to be the real way to make money and be comfortable in life. God is concerned that there is a lot of ill-gotten wealth around. God knows how each one has made money. God has a message to those who have made it illegally. I won’t forget your ill-gotten wealth!

Micah 7:11-12 tells us that the ill-gotten wealth is through dishonesty, violence, and lies. The person who deserved the position was denied so that you get it. All that income from that position is ill-gotten wealth. The person who deserved the deal to deliver goods and services was denied through dishonesty so that you make the big supply and hit the jackpot. That income from that supply that was not rightfully yours is ill-gotten wealth. Violence against competitors to set them back so that you go ahead of them is wrong. Violence against political competitors so that you win, makes your income from the political win to be ill-gotten wealth. Violence against someone you compete with, so that they make loses or even they die or you drive them out of business, that makes your income to be ill-gotten wealth. God had a message and still has a message even today. I won’t forget your ill-gotten wealth!

Micah 7:13-16 God tells the people that He has begun to destroy their ill-gotten wealth. God says that at some point He will come and destroy all the ill-gotten wealth. God who doesn’t need an investigation team that will miss some hidden wealth, says He is the one to destroy it. God whose case and actions can’t be stopped by courts, or armed goons and whose case can’t be appealed is coming to destroy ill-gotten wealth. During the destruction, God will not forget any wealth that was made the wrong way. I won’t forget your ill-gotten wealth!

Are you wealthy by selling destructive addictive narcotics to people? Are people wasting away so that your wealth base solidifies? That is ill-gotten wealth. Are you a conduit of drug trafficking? Just a small section of the big chain of moving narcotics to destroy people? Your wealth too, however small, is ill-gotten. Do you plant, sell, manufacture, and supply that which destroys people but makes quick money? Yours too is ill-gotten wealth. Do you sell weapons illegally? Weapons to criminals who terrorize people and take lives? Weapons that have accelerated crime? Your income is ill-gotten wealth. God has a message for you. I won’t forget your ill-gotten wealth!

Are your education certificates a forgery? Did you succeed in school through cheating in exams? Are your projects, reports, theses, dissertations, all a result of cheating by paying people to do it for you? Are your licenses illegally acquired? If anything has a background of dishonesty, God knows it and He calls the proceeds of it, ill-gotten wealth. Is your wealth from blackmail and extortion? Setting up people to scary situations so that in fear they pay you? That income is ill-gotten wealth. Money acquired from commercial sex activities, from sexual immorality, that too is ill-gotten wealth. God has a message for you. I won’t forget your ill-gotten wealth!

Luke 19:8
And Zacchæus stood, and said unto the Lord, Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor; and if I have wrongfully exacted aught of any man, I restore fourfold.

Luke 19:9
And Jesus said unto him, To-day is salvation come to this house, forasmuch as he also is a son of Abraham.

God has a record of all ill-gotten wealth and He will come and destroy it. Zacchaeus had ill-gotten wealth and he had to confess and repent by restoring what he could. He paid back those he robbed. Whatever was stolen from the public must return to the government. Whatever was stolen from the church, must return to the church. Failure to return tithe and offering is stealing from God and that makes our money, ill-gotten wealth. We must confess, repent, restore and we will be spared from God’s punishment of those who are illegally wealthy.

Dear God remind me of my ill-gotten wealth. Help me to know how to fix this mess. What I can’t fix forgive me and give me a new page in life. May I today going forward desist from ill-gotten wealth, in Jesus name, Amen!