Give the Laborer His Wages!

Give the Laborer His Wages!

“Come now, you rich, weep and howl for your miseries that are coming upon you! . . . Indeed the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, cry out; and the cries of the reapers have reached the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth.” James 5:1, 4.

The world has enough money and food to sustain millions of soldiers and horses on the battlefield for years. Before the war, conditions were so poor and miserable that decent, hard-working people watched many of their children waste away with tuberculosis brought on by malnutrition.

Rich employers and state and local governments paid their workers so stingily that many a good parent had to turn each penny over many times before they let it go. When they had finished their workday and needed to rest, they had to go out and find a second job to keep hunger and sorrow at bay. But now suddenly the money is there because the god of war demands billions—and so the nations sacrifice. The wages that were withheld from the workers in the time of peace suddenly appear. Jewelry and gold is laid on the altar. We certainly could have avoided this world catastrophe if the Rulers of this World had not withheld the wages of their employees. The world has more than enough resources; there is sufficient grain and wine, and there is clothing in abundance, if only people received wages according to the real value of their work. But vanity, greed, covetousness, miserliness, drunkenness and gluttony blind people to such a degree that they steal the food out of the mouths of the poor and their children. So their own gold rings become thicker, their clothes finer and more fashionable, their cigars more expensive, their seats at the theater and music hall more prestigious. But now the days of vengeance have come, and they will continue to come on a far greater scale. “Your riches are corrupted and your garments are moth-eaten. Your gold and silver are corroded, and their corrosion will be a witness against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have heaped up treasure in the last days. . . . You have lived on the earth in pleasure and luxury; you have fattened your hearts as in a day of slaughter. You have condemned, you have murdered the just; he does not resist you.” James 5:2-6.

Rationing certainly will not terrify the poor, because they scarcely received this much in peacetime conditions when the rich fattened their hearts as in the days of slaughter. The rich certainly knew where to find all the choicest meats and the fat on the thigh and shoulder, and they certainly knew how much to pay their workers. But the time to weep and howl will soon be at hand. The days of abundance are fewer, the laborers demand more for their work, and war taxes and other taxes sit like rust on their gold, corroding it before their eyes. Rend your garments; lift up your voice and weep.

The blood of Abel cried out from the earth for vengeance, and now the wages of the laborers shriek out, the very wages they should have received in peacetime, when they reaped the fields of the wealthy. The many groans of anxious mothers and weary fathers who have been treated unrighteously have reached the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth. The God of all flesh has heard their prayers and the cries of their children, and now He has arisen to give retribution.

Is it any wonder that the masses murmur after centuries of oppression and subjugation? Now they emerge from the earth like wild hordes and demand their rights. They demand vengeance for the mistreatment of their fathers. They have seen their mothers weeping in despair as they fought to provide the bare essentials. In their childhood years, they sat as silent witnesses and looked on as the rich and their children enjoyed all the pleasures of life. Is it any wonder that their hatred is aroused over such unrighteous treatment? Even today, unrighteousness rules to such a degree that people ought to be ashamed. Board any steamship and you will discover that nearly the entire boat is designed for the comfort and pleasure of those who can afford the best. For those who have less money, a few spaces are available in the bow of the boat, hidden among the barrels and sacks of flour. Things are starting to improve, but they are not nearly the way they should be.

It is becoming second nature for people everywhere to accept that there should be a glaring difference between those who have money and those who have little or nothing. This unrighteousness is seen as righteousness, and a consequence of this is that everyone becomes gripped by the love of money, because money brings honor, position and fame, despite the fact that inwardly, such people are as hollow and empty as old rotten oaks.

In such circumstances the natural man finds it quite easy to take matters into his own hands, believing that he is in the right. However, the Scriptures say otherwise: “Therefore be patient, brethren, until the coming of the Lord.” James 5:7 [Emphasis added].

Vengeance belongs to the Lord, and it will come. Our calling is to be patient and not to have fellowship with those who want to turn things upside down in their own strength to obtain their rights.

When the Lord gives us our rights, He does it much more thoroughly than if we were to do it ourselves. This is why our beloved Lord Jesus Christ also committed all judgment over His enemies to Him who judges righteously.