Today’s Devotion
Topic: They Are Counting On It!
Text: Deut 24: 14- 15
14 Do not take advantage of a hired worker who is poor and needy, whether that worker is a fellow Israelite or a foreigner residing in one of your towns. 15 Pay them their wages each day before sunset, because they are poor and are counting on it. Otherwise they may cry to the Lord against you, and you will be guilty of sin. Amen.
The God of Love we profess to worship is also the God of Justice. Time and time again, a number of us bank on God’s love as an excuse for neglecting certain vital virtues of our Christian faith.
Many of us occupy influential positions in our workplaces, with subordinates who are accountable to us. Some are even entrusted with the divine mandate of ‘dispersing’ wages to these subordinates. This morning’s scripture speaks four distinct lessons to us as believers, especially when we engage the skills and services of others. The lessons are:
1) Do not take undue advantage of your subordinates / employees. Do not exploit them because you see them as poor and needy. Sometimes the temptation to take advantage of such individuals is high because they are defenseless, “voiceless”, powerless and above all vulnerable.
2) Never practice discrimination or partiality. Treat your subordinates / employees without favouritism on ethnic, gender or racial lines. The same work ethics must go for all subordinates, be they family members or strangers.
3) You must recognise that your employees depend on their wages. Do not withhold it from them unduly; they are counting on it. The main motivation to work is the reward it attracts at the end of the day. It is therefore very unfair to unduly withhold the wages of subordinates. They are counting on it.
They may have promised their spouses and children that this is the day (pay day), that God will put a smile on their faces.
Some are counting on it to pay debts or school fees. Others for food, clothing or shelter. Simply pay them their due.
4) Whenever any genuinely offended subordinate/employee cries out to God against his employer, his course is upheld by God, and the employer is held guilty by the Almighty. Even if the employer happens to be an organization, private company, church or even the state. God will hold you responsible.
God wants us to treat each other fairly and do our part to help meet one another’s needs. Do not close your eyes to the plight of the people you work with. Christian employers should sit up and begin to do what is right now. We are expected to be loyal both to our God and fellow man. Always remember this.
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