Micah 3:11 The heads thereof judge for reward, and the priests thereof teach for hire, and the prophets thereof divine for money: yet will they lean upon the LORD, and say, Is not the LORD among us? None evil can come upon us.
Does it matter what motivates you? That is a probing question. Somebody said, writing about motivation in business, that most people who accomplish anything worth anything are not motivated primarily by money, except that money has to be taken off the table as a problem. Meaning, you have to be able to feed yourself. But, most people are motivated by things like self-determination, the power to have some choice over one’s own destiny.
Much could be said about motives, but our motives do matter. Is it possible for someone to do the right thing for the wrong reason? Yes! We find this in the New Testament. So I’m not suggesting that you be super introspective. I don’t think we know our own hearts. It is amazing how mixed our own motives can be. But I will tell you that your actions will rise or sink to the level of your motivation.
Israel had everything she needed but nothing God wanted. She had priests, prophets, and judges, but all of them were serving for their own gain. Micah talks about this when he says, “But truly I am full of power by the spirit of the LORD, and of judgment, and of might, to declare unto Jacob his transgression, and to Israel his sin.” The “I” is emphatic. He is saying, “As opposed to judges who are judging for money and prophets who are declaring a message that isn’t true because it gains something for them, I am full of the power of the spirit of God. I am going to tell this people what God told me to tell them even if it hurts me.”
Verse 11 makes even clearer what was going on. It says, “The heads thereof judge for reward, and the priests thereof teach for hire, and the prophets thereof divine for money: yet will they lean upon the LORD, and say, Is not the LORD among us? none evil can come upon us.” So, you had judges who should have known judgment was coming on them because they were taking advantage of people. They were taking bribes. You had people who were teaching the truth, but they were teaching for money. That was their motivation, what drove them.
The prophets were all about giving a message as long as it was for money, which meant sometimes they weren’t giving the right message. Yet they were smug, “Yet will they lean upon the LORD, and say, Is not the LORD among us?” In other words, they were manipulative of everyday money and then expecting God to give them big-picture guidance. They thought, “God’s going to take care of us. We have Jerusalem. We are God’s chosen people.” Nothing could be further from the truth.
Don’t pretend to trust God for the big picture if you are not trusting Him for daily bread. I can trust God with the big picture, but I can also trust God with everyday issues. The question is, “What motivates me, mission or money?” Money is not evil, but when I am motivated primarily by money, that is a problem. It is great to do the right thing, but if I am doing the right thing for the wrong reason, I am going to be limited at best and probably going to end up in some kind of self-destruction. A person that is serving self is not leading others. This self-serving was where the prophets, priests, and judges were in Israel.
In short, your actions will rise or sink to the level of your motivation. I know that there are needs that you have. Trust God for those things. Your trust in Him will be proven when you do the right thing, whether it brings you gain or not. Trust God to take care of you as you honor Him.