america's made state of rebellion: american hoarders

“…The heart of the sons of men is full of evil, and madness is in their heart while they live…” (Ecclesiastes 9.3)
  
Wherewith shall I come before the LORD,
and bow myself before the high God?
He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good;
and what doth the LORD require of thee,
but to do justly, and to love mercy,
and to walk humbly with thy God? (Micah 6.6, 8)

america's mad state of rebellion: american hoarders
​9 february 2022
​

In exploring homelessness and the state of housing in America, the author of a recent piece made the following observations:
 
“… in the 1950s the median price of a single-family house was around 2.2 times the median American family income. Today, the Fed says, the median house sells for $374,900 while the median American income is $35,805 — a ratio of more than ten-to-one…
 
“… what’s taken over and is really driving home prices today are massive, multi-billion-dollar funds that sweep into neighborhoods and buy everything available, bidding against families and driving up housing prices…
 
“After stripping neighborhoods of homes families can buy, they then begin raising rents as far as the market will bear” (“Wall Street’s Barons Are Causing Homelessness for Profit,” Thom Hartmann, Truthout).
 
The piece goes on to report that it is not unusual for these rents to be up to 1/3 of annual income for working class families—as opposed to the investor class, who do no work, notwithstanding the popular myth of the “American work ethic.”
 
Now, we must not and will not let such investors hide behind the fact that what they do is “legal.” While their culpability may be slightly less than that of the black-hearted legislators who enact unjust laws and make such banditry possible and legal, there is nothing that demands that the investor class act upon policies and laws that are corrupt from the legislators’ signing pens. Investors are free to choose. They can act morally, though those who govern do not. And because they are free to choose, they are accountable for their choices. I, for one, look forward to the day when accounts will be settled and payment made for the injustices perpetrated in the name of “its legal.”
 
It is certain that the American economic system is utterly different than that of Biblical Israel. As opposed to some ill-informed “Christians,” we would not and do advocate for the institution of “Biblical Law” in America. Nevertheless, there are Biblical principles that can be applied to our system and the ways in which we conduct our business. There are legitimate comparisons that can be made between economic practices and policies of the Biblical world and our world today. Here is one. When we read of the immoral real estate practices that our legal system allows and the hardships they impose on working people, we think of one of Isaiah criticisms of “real estate” practices in his day.
 
Isaiah 5 begins with a parable, or song of lamentation, in which Israel is likened to a vineyard. This song explores Yahweh’s sadness in witnessing the social injustices that are allowed to proliferate in Israel—a nation that had been called for the express purpose of being an ensign to the world by, among other things, being exemplary in governing itself according to ethical and just principles. Likening the vineyard’s sweet grapes to Israel’s social justice and the vineyard’s sour grapes to Israel’s social injustice, Isaiah ends with this tragic observation.
 
“Understand: the vineyard of Yahweh Ṣebā’ôt is the house of Yiśrā’el.
   and the men of Yehûdâ, a planting in which he delighted.
He watched anxiously for justice.
   But, look! Violence!
He watched anxiously for equity. 
   But, look! Cries of distress! (author’s translation)
 
With the conclusion of this tragic song, Isaiah launches into a series of six “woes” or expressions of pain, each of varying length. This series of “woes” catalogues some of the specific injustices only alluded to in the song but prevalent in Israelite society. Today, and in light of what is happening to housing in America, we are particularly interested in the first woe which alludes to one of the injustices among the many committed in ancient Israel.
 
“Oh, the pain caused by you who expand, house by house, field by field,
   hoarding until there’s nothing left
      and you dwell all alone in the midst” (Isaiah 5.8, author’s translation).
 
We do not know all the ways in which ancient Israelite greedy and lustful hoarders managed to pull off this property coup. We can be sure, though, that the writing of grievous laws and making of unrighteous decrees played a role (See Is. 10.1). We can also be sure that the individual hoarders that brought pain to less advantaged citizens were accountable for their actions and have been held accountable for their wicked deeds.
 
We can also say that Isaiah’s “woe” reminds us that people never change. We can say that the same type of hurtful behavior—behavior hurtful to individuals and hurtful to society as a whole—of which Isaiah complains is alive and well today. We can say the America’s investor class has preyed upon the poor, widows, orphans, children, and every other vulnerable class of citizen (See Is. 10.2). We can confidently warn America’s investor class to repent. We can confidently predict that God has heard the cries of America’s poor as he heard the cries of Israelite slaves in Egypt, and that he will act. He will recompense the pain that those vulnerable to the investor oppressors have suffered and will visit oppression upon the oppressor. We wish this day of recompense and visitation had already arrived. But let it be sooner or later, we will rejoice in that day when “a feast of fat things [is] prepared for the poor; yea, a feast of fat things of wine on the lees well refined” (DC 58.8).
 
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!