Honor, Wealth and Land in the Ancient World
Honor, Wealth and Land in the Ancient World.
Did you know that wealth in ancient culture was not attached to capital as it is in our modern western
mindset?
It was land that was of the utmost importance in antiquity. And the more lands that you owned, the wealthier you became and in turn acquired higher honor within society.
Therefore owning Land equates to wealth, and wealth equates to Honor. We can see this in just about every generation and society, including our own as nations are rising against one another. You conquer the land, then you gain all that land’s resources.This gives a bit more perspective to wars and acquiring commodities and natural resources of other lands and countries. This is literally what drives economies around the globe.
So more Land/ Resources....the more Honor and Wealth.
With that in mind it is also true for the opposite…
Loss of Land equates to Loss of Wealth, Loss of Wealth equates to Loss of Honor in ancient culture.
So when a king was conquered by another, his honor and wealth are diminished due to his losses.
One particular reason why this so crucial to grasp is that it is all attached to the inheritance. Remember
that in antiquity, everything was about carrying on the family name. This was done by two avenues,
children and…inheritance. Inheritance of Land.
Just by recognizing these facts of Honor, Wealth and Land we can now see a new facet to YHWH’s
Honor, His Wealth and His Land. simply because He is the Creator, He is the One who owns all the Land
of the Earth and he has granted it to Man. He has also granted the Land of Israel to the People of the
Covenant, And for thousands of years, the enemy has been attempting to dishonor YHWH by means of
taking His Land, and gaining that wealth for himself.
Do we see the severity of the Land Grant now?
YHWH has legal authority to bring war, to bring judgement upon anyone who is trying conquer His Land.
Why? Because it is attached to His Honor as the Great King.
There are so many other connections like the Shmittah and the Yovel, and the Temple being the House of
the Great King where all the wealth and distribution of lands is based.
A bit of a different perspective on the Promised Land.