My son, if sinners entice you, do not give in to them. If they say, “Come along with us; let’s lie in wait for someone’s blood, let’s waylay some harmless soul; let’s swallow them alive, like the grave, and whole, like those who go down to the pit; we will get all sorts of valuable things and fill our houses with plunder; throw in your lot with us, and we will share a common purse”—my son, do not go along with them, do not set foot on their paths; for their feet rush into sin, they are swift to shed blood. How useless to spread a net in full view of the birds! These men lie in wait for their own blood; they waylay only themselves! Such is the end of all who go after ill-gotten gain; it takes away the lives of those who get it. Proverbs 1:10-19 (NIV)

When people conspire to take the wealth of others, especially those who have done them no harm, they lay a trap for themselves. Greed and envy is the twin motivation discussed in this proverb. Notice the promised practice of socialism among the conspirators. They will share and share alike as they take someone else’s wealth away. Their desire to redistribute the wealth through theft is aimed at “some harmless soul” whose only crime is that he has what they want. Notice that such practices are regarded by the Bible as sin, an offense to God.

Theft is theft whether practiced by a criminal gang or a government. And we are warned in this Proverb to take no part in it. Voting for someone who takes people’s wealth away just to get your vote and voting for someone just because he or she promises you that you will get a share of what others have worked to earn are, according to the principle established in this proverb, sins against God. They can be the equivalent of joining a criminal gang in order to get a share of the loot.

Not only are such people plotting sin, they are also setting themselves on a path of increasing sinfulness. Their “feet rush into sin” and “they are swift to shed blood.” This is another reason why we are warned not to “go along with them.”  This path ultimately leads to violence for it fosters an attitude of violence toward others. Like all sin it soon leads to such moral and spiritual blindness that it becomes obvious to others. Sin leads to banality because it is a rebellion against the logic and reason of God’s universe and ultimately leads to sloppy thinking and confusion. So many lies have to be told that it becomes hard to keep them straight. Also, humans always seem to feel the need to tell someone the truth. In fact, that is how a lot of criminals are caught. Ultimately, people can see their traps. This is why the passage exclaims, “How useless to spread a net in full view of the birds!” Those who earned the wealth are not stupid. Eventually they see through the conspiracy and prepare themselves for it. And, the ill-gotten gain is lost or fails to continue to profit the conspirators. This is why the passage says “These men lie in wait for their own blood; they waylay only themselves!”

When a nation decides to move to a system of self-plunder and internal conspiracies it will meet the same fate. The only hope of avoiding the fate of the would-be plunderers in this proverb is to “not go along” with those who suggest this course of action. So each of us should avoid all forms of criminal conspiracy; even those that government does not call criminal. We must heed the warning here about ill-gotten gain; that ultimately it “takes away the lives of those who get it.” Such people risk their very humanity. They can never be all God intended them to be. God expects us to work for what we get not plunder others for it.