Throwing Money Away; Meditations from Ezekiel 7:19-20

19 They cast their silver into the streets, and their gold is like an unclean thing. Their silver and gold are not able to deliver them in the day of the wrath of the Lord. They cannot satisfy their hunger or fill their stomachs with it. For it was the stumbling block of their iniquity. 20 His beautiful ornament they used for pride, and they made their abominable images and their detestable things of it. Therefore I make it an unclean thing to them.

How about this indictment from Ezekiel on American spirituality? Yes, I know that in this context, silver and gold were used to forge idols. In the US, we've got it so streamlined that we just worship the money. We don't even need to forge it into anything!

Money is given to us as a good thing ("beautiful ornament"), but pride defiles it. We use it for our own purposes and then God takes away the delight of it. It does not satisfy us, and so now it is cast into the streets.

Have you seen how many self-help books now are casting silver into the street as an unclean thing? Many.

May we look past these gifts to the giver and find the joy we were created to know.