Skimping The Measure, Boosting The Price and Dishonesty

Amos 8:1-6 - This is what the Sovereign LORD showed me: a basket of ripe fruit. “What do you see, Amos?” he asked. “A basket of ripe fruit,” I answered. Then the LORD said to me, “The time is ripe for my people Israel; I will spare them no longer. “In that day,” declares the Sovereign LORD, “the songs in the temple will turn to wailing. Many, many bodies—flung everywhere! Silence!” Hear this, you who trample the needy and do away with the poor of the land, saying, “When will the New Moon be over that we may sell grain, and the Sabbath be ended that we may market wheat?”—skimping on the measure, boosting the price and cheating with dishonest scales, buying the poor with silver and the needy for a pair of sandals, selling even the sweepings with the wheat.

Psalm 14:4 - Do all these evildoers know nothing? They devour my people as though eating bread; they never call on the LORD.

Amos 2:7 - They trample on the heads of the poor as on the dust of the ground and deny justice to the oppressed. Father and son use the same girl and so profane my holy name.

Ezekiel 45:10 - You are to use accurate scales, an accurate ephah and an accurate bath.

Leviticus 19:35 - “‘Do not use dishonest standards when measuring length, weight or quantity.

Application:

· Do I rely on the Lord?
· Do I care for the poor and oppressed? Do I protect them from injustice? Do I defend them?
· Do I handle my finances unjustly?
· Am I dishonest?

All Scripture verses taken from NIV