March 19

Deceptive Wages
Proverbs 11:18

The Book of Proverbs contains some meaty advice.  Here is a good example.
Deceptive.  The word means tending to deceive, to be fraudulent, a sham.  How can wages be a sham?  We view wages, quite rightly, as proper compensation for our work.  Indeed, the very concept of wages is that someone has earned them.  There is nothing unjust in this proverb.  The wicked work their wickedness, and receive a reward in kind.
Interestingly, God stressed throughout the Old Testament (and even James has something to say about it) that the wages of the laborer were to be paid promptly.  It was sinful to hold them even so long as overnight, for the day laborer lived from day to day on them.  The wages of sin is death, as Paul told the church in Rome.  It seems that God is merciful in withholding such wages for a short while.
This is the nature of wickedness:  they earned it.  A thief considers it no wrong to steal from another thief.  When a man turns his way to the wicked, he is only assaulting himself. 

• One way is this:  when a man falls in amongst thieves, he runs the risk - and eventual certainty - of being their victim as well as their comrade.  Just by being around such people makes you vulnerable to them.
  
• Another way is this:  how do you quit?  The rewards of sin are a lure;  soon you become accustomed to the life of stolen wealth.  Then how do you turn around and become an honest man?  Will your "friends" not turn you in?  What will you do to earn a living?  Sin is bondage, stronger than any chain.
  
• Does wickedness affect you alone?  I have often visited people in prison for their crimes.  The saddest sight is to see a young mother, with two or three small children in tow, going to see their father in prison.  How does a four year old explain that daddy is in jail?  How does mother explain it to the four year old?  The pain of sin is not yours to bear alone.