Silver and Gold

Haggai 1:15b-2:9

In the second year of King Darius, in the seventh month, on the twenty-first day of the month, the word of the Lord came by the prophet Haggai, saying: Speak now to Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and to the remnant of the people, and say, Who is left among you that saw this house in its former glory? How does it look to you now? Is it not in your sight as nothing? Yet now take courage, O Zerubbabel, says the Lord; take courage, O Joshua, son of Jehozadak, the high priest; take courage, all you people of the land, says the Lord; work, for I am with you, says the Lord of hosts, according to the promise that I made you when you came out of Egypt. My spirit abides among you; do not fear. For thus says the Lord of hosts: Once again, in a little while, I will shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land; and I will shake all the nations, so that the treasure of all nations shall come, and I will fill this house with splendor, says the Lord of hosts. The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, says the Lord of hosts. The latter splendor of this house shall be greater than the former, says the Lord of hosts; and in this place I will give prosperity, says the Lord of hosts.

God, if all the money is yours, you have some explaining to do. And BTW, you said that a long time ago and things are still pretty much the way they have always been. I’m suspicious that when believers defend you by saying things like “God’s ways are not our ways,” they’re really just showing that they believe things are this way because in your great wisdom, you ordain or allow it. I believe that’s the is = ought fallacy.

This passage speaks of wealth redistribution. Really, God? We’re told that wealth distribution is evil and communist. I’m suspicious people say that because the way wealth is currently distributed suits them just fine, and they don’t want to even entertain the idea of upsetting the apple cart. But those same people are just fine with wealth redistribution as long as it benefits those whom they understand to be your chosen people. Wealth is always being distributed and redistributed. The question is who gets to control it and how will it be determined?

Right now the answer is it is distributed in such a way that we have a billion dollar junk food industry on a planet where people are starving. If all the silver and gold is yours, why God, why?