Everything is Mine

Everything is Mine
July 18, 2011
Psalm 50:9-10 "I have no need of a bull from your stall or of goats from your pens, for every animal of the forest is mine, and the cattle on a thousand hills."

Everything in the world belongs to the Lord. Everything! It is all His. He may do with it as He chooses and does not need any assistance from us. He may use His property at His discretion for all intents and purposes. This means the Lord may keep His riches to Himself or re-distribute to others for their consumption. Either way, everything is His. No matter what you have, it is not yours; it belongs to the Lord. Your wealth and property are not your own, they are His. The Lord said, "I have no need of a bull from your stall or of goats from your pens, for every animal of the forest is mine, and the cattle on a thousand hills." Let's examine this statement.

Bulls or goats in someone's pens were considered their property. The livestock someone could keep penned up was probably enough to feed an extended family for a year. At the time the Bible was written, a family could keep maybe a few bulls or goats in a pen, but not hundreds or thousands. It would have been too expensive. Naturally, animals in the forest would be considered anyone's game, but must be hunted. Cattle on a hill, however, were the choicest of property. If cattle were on a hill, they were put there by a wealthy owner or rancher under the protection of his herdsmen. The grass on a hill is considered a tougher grass that is harder to digest. It makes for a longer growth period to the time when the cow can be slaughtered for meat. However, the meat is superior. Cattle out in the open are also a target for predators or thieves; they are easily seen and readily hunted. Hence the need for herdsmen who could defend the cattle better from a hill than an unprotected valley. In short, if cattle were on a hill, they were placed there intentionally as a wealthy man's property.

But those cattle on that hill, the Lord said, do not actually belong to that rich man. The wealthy owner may place them there and think they are his property, but the wealth belongs to the Lord. The Lord said He owned the cattle on a thousand hills. He was suggesting that all the wealth of all the richest men combined were His alone. This is disheartening if you are one of those few rich men who put his cattle on a hill. In the United States alone, the richest one percent control about 42% of the wealth. The top 10% of people control about 93% of the wealth. That leaves seven percent of the United State's wealth divided in the hands of 90% of the population. WOW. How unbalanced that seems. But the Lord, He owns that top one percent's wealth. In fact, He controls it ALL.

What you have is not your own. You are entrusted with it and asked to be a good steward with it. But at any given moment, the Lord may do with it as He will. The Lord is apt to re-distribute His wealth as He sees fit to accomplish His own purposes. Don't be so selfish and think the little you have stored up belongs to you, to do with as you feel appropriate. It is the Lord's and He will do with it as He pleases. Change your mindset right now regarding the paycheck you will be earning this week. ALL of it is the Lord's. Feel blessed if He lets you use some of it for your own consumption, but feel extremely blessed if He asks you to re-distribute it to others who may need it far more than you. The Lord doesn't need your money, it is already His. If you consider it His from the onset, it will not hurt as much when He asks you to give some of it away.

Don't take my word for it; look it up: Psalm 37:25, Psalm 50, Prov 13:22, Prov 18:10-12, Luke 16:11, 1 Tim 6:17, 1 Peter 4:10, Rev 3:17