Micah 3:1-4

Edwin Sutherland first defined white-collar crime in 1939. He defined it as “a crime committed by a person of respectability and high social status in the course of his occupation”. White-collar crime uses deceit, concealment, or violation of trust and is not dependent on the application or threat of physical force or violence. According to Sutherland’s definition, the leaders of Judah and Israel were guilty of white-collar crimes.

Our society gives lighter sentences to nonviolent offenders than we do to violent offenders. Some in our society are foolish enough to believe that nonviolent crimes victimless. Many people respect intelligence, and secretly admire someone who is able to get ahead by bending the rules and taking advantage of the system. They do not see white-collar criminals as being evil like people who use guns and knives to hurt people are evil. That is not my point of view, but it does seem to be the view of many. It was most definitely the view of the leaders of Israel. They did not see themselves as evil men. They were simply men with power who were using it wisely to benefit themselves.

As leaders of God’s chosen people, they should embrace justice and be the protectors of the flock. Instead, not content to shear the flock, they actively butcher and consume it. They hate all that is good, and they love and wholeheartedly embrace evil.

Micah told them that God saw their nonviolent crimes as being cannibalistic. They were stripping the skin from the flesh, and the flesh from the bones of the people of Israel. When the pieces are too big to fit in the small cooking pots, they broke them into pieces. They chopped the bones up, so that they can consume all, without wasting even the smallest portion. They were rebellious and they were willfully disobeying God’s law. They were full of “iniquity,” and their actions were wicked and evil.

Iniquity does not come in shades of gray. Seeing sin, as God sees sin, changes everything.