IN THE OLD TESTAMENT
It’s good news that God, the all-powerful Creator, is the defender of the weak and lowly. “A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows is God in his holy dwelling. God sets the lonely in families, he leads out the prisoners with singing; but the rebellious live in a sun-scorched land” (Psalm 68:5,6). Psalm 146:9 repeats this theme, “The Lord watches over the foreigner and sustains the fatherless and widow, but he frustrates the ways of the wicked.” He heard both Abel and Naboth’s plea for justice. To Cain God said, “Your brother’s blood cries out to me from the ground” (Genesis 4:10). Centuries later God told Elijah, “Go down to Ahab king of Israel. . . . He is now in Naboth’s vineyard, where he has gone to take possession of it. Say to him, “This is what the Lord says: Have you not murdered a man and seized his property? . . . . In the place where dogs licked up Naboth’s blood, dogs will lick up your blood—yes, yours.” (1 Kings 21:18-19).
To be rich, powerful and well-favored, and then to be proud is very dangerous. God does not allow anyone to occupy his position. Hannah, the mother of Samuel, in sorrow and anguish cried out to God asking for a son. The Lord heard her prayer and in gratitude she praised God, “The Lord sends poverty and wealth; he humbles and he exalts. He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the ash heap; he seats them with princes and has them inherit a throne of honor” (1 Samuel 2:7-8). Overcome by the angel Gabriel’s announcement that she would be the mother of the Son of the Most High, the One who would assume the throne of the eternal kingdom promised to his father David, Mary sang, “He (God) has brought down rulers from their thrones but has lifted up the humble. He has filled “the hungry with good things but has sent the rich away empty” (Luke 1:52-53). Jesus said at the end of the parable of the workers in the vineyard that the first would be last, and the last first (Matthew 20:16). See also Matthew 19:30, Mark 10:31 and Luke 13:30. In fact, Jesus said that the person who wants to be greatest in the kingdom must be the servant of all (Mark 9:35). His brother James, who became one of the principal leaders of the Jerusalem church wrote,
“Believers in humble circumstances ought to take pride in their high position. But the rich should take pride in their humiliation—since they will pass away like a wild flower. For the sun rises with scorching heat and withers the plant; its blossom falls and its beauty is destroyed. In the same way, the rich will fade away even while they go about their business” (James 1:9-11).The despoiling of the rich and powerful is seen in the great liberation and salvation of Israel from Egypt. God appeared to Moses at the burning bush at the base of Mount Sinai, and said, “I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. So, I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them into a good and spacious land” (Exodus 3:7-8). After seeing God’s mighty miracles performed through Moses, having experienced the impoverishment of his land and the loss of his firstborn, the Pharaoh was finally willing to let Israel go.
And Israel did not go empty-handed. God made sure that they would be paid for their years of slavery. In the wake of the last plague, the death of the first-born, the Egyptians literally drove their slaves out. As they were leaving, the Israelites “asked the Egyptians for articles of silver and gold and for clothing. The Lord had made the Egyptians favorably disposed toward the people, and they gave them what they asked for, so they plundered the Egyptians” (Exodus12:36).
So, if Egypt was brought low and Israel was exalted through her liberation by the Lord’s mercy and power, she must never forget God and start to oppress the poor and the weak. If God opposes the proud, Israel must never become proud because of the prosperity that God provided. That pride would provoke God to become her enemy to teach her humility.
In the legislation that God gave Israel at Mt. Sinai in the wilderness through Moses, God made special provisions for the weak: the Levite who had no inheritance of land, the widow and the orphan, and the foreigner who lived among the people. God said, “Do not mistreat or oppress a foreigner, for you were foreigners in Egypt” (Exodus 22:21). “At the end of every three years, bring all the tithes of that year’s produce and store it in your towns, so that the Levites (who have no allotment or inheritance of their own) and the foreigners, the fatherless and the widows who live in our towns may come and eat and be satisfied, and so that the LORD your God may bless you in all the work of your hands” (Deuteronomy 14:28-29). “When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap to the very edges of your fields or gather the gleanings of your harvest. Leave them for the poor and the foreigner residing among you” (Leviticus 23:22). “If any of your fellow Israelites become poor and are unable to support themselves among you, help them as you would a foreigner and a stranger, so they can continue to live among you” (Leviticus 25:35). “If anyone is poor among your fellow Israelites . . . do not be hardhearted or tightfisted toward them. Rather, be openhanded and freely lend them whatever they need” (Deuteronomy 15:7-8). “Do not take advantage of a hired worker who is poor and needy, whether that worker is a fellow Israelite or a foreigner residing in one of your towns. Pay them their wages each day before sunset because they are poor and are counting on it. Otherwise they may cry to the LORD against you, and you will be guilty of sin” (Deuteronomy 24:14-15). The widows Naomi and Ruth were blessed by the faithfulness of a wealthy landowner of Bethlehem named Boaz (Ruth 2:2-9). Proverbs 14:31 says, “Whoever oppresses the poor shows contempt for their Maker, but whoever is kind to the needy honors God.”
In the fiftieth year, the Year of Jubilee, Israelites who lost their land, their inheritance from the Lord, because of poverty or who sold themselves to pay a debt had the debt cancelled, were given their freedom, and could return to their land (Leviticus 25:13, 28, 54). God considered the land his and the people his tenants (Leviticus 25:23). Even though sold into servitude, they could not be made to work as slaves, but rather like hired workers (Leviticus 25:40)
In Isaiah’s day the people complained that God was not helping them even though they offered sacrifices and fasted with prayers, but God’s answer to this complaint was, “Yet on the day of your fasting, you do as you please and exploit all your workers” (Isaiah 58:3). He continued, “Is this not the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter—when you see the naked, to clothe them. . . . Then you will call, and the LORD will answer; you will cry for help and he will say: Here am I” (Isaiah 58:6-7,9a). “Blessed are those who have regard for the weak; the LORD delivers them in times of trouble” (Psalm 41:1).
In his prayer at the dedication of the temple Solomon made this request, “As for the foreigner who does not belong to your people Israel but has come from a distant land because of your great name and your mighty hand and your outstretched arm—when they come and pray toward this temple, then hear from heaven, your dwelling place. Do whatever the foreigner asks of you, so that all the peoples of the earth may know your name and fear you, as do your own people Israel, and may know that this house I have built bears your Name” (2 Chronicles 6:32-33).
Although Solomon received the Queen of Sheba and treated her royally, he did not treat the Canaanites still living in the land that way. He conscripted them to serve as slave labor, a practice that continued to the time of the captivity (2 Chronicles 8:7-8). Not only did he oppress the Canaanite, he also took advantage of his fellow Israelites. To build the temple, and probably his other projects including palaces and cities, he conscripted 30,000 laborers from all Israel and sent them in shifts of ten thousand a month to work in Lebanon. He had 70,000 carriers and 80,000 stonecutters in the hills. A man by the name of Adoniram was in charge of the forced labor (1 Kings 5:13-16). After Solomon died, the northern tribes under the leadership of Jeroboam asked that his son Rehoboam “lighten the harsh labor and the heavy yoke” that they had suffered during his father’s reign.
The northern tribes were torn away from the line of David because Solomon married foreign wives and worshipped their idols (1 Kings 11:1-5, 11). God used the social unrest provoked by the oppression of those outside the tribe of Judah to bring this about.
In a time of seeming prosperity, in the time of King Jeroboam II of Israel Amos spoke out against the oppression of the poor, “They sell the innocent for silver, and the needy for a pair of sandals. They trample on the heads of the poor as on the dust of the ground and deny justice to the oppressed” (Amos 2:6-7).
Even rich and privileged women were reprimanded, “Hear this word, you cows of Bashan on Mount Samaria, you women who oppress the poor and crush the needy and say to your husbands, ‘Bring us some drinks’” (Amos 4:1). He warned that the time would come when they would be taken (into captivity) with fishhooks (Amos 4:2). The Lord continues his charge against Israel, “You levy a straw tax on the poor and impose a tax on their grain, therefore, though you have built stone mansions, you will not live in them” (Amos 5:11). He pleads, “Seek good, not evil, that you may live” (Amos 5:14). “Let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream” (Amos 5:24).
In the perilous time before the fall of Jerusalem, King Zedekiah made a covenant with the people of the city to proclaim Jubilee, freedom for the slaves. But then the king and the wealthy of the city changed their minds and forced the poor back into slavery. The word of the Lord came to Jeremiah, “This is what the LORD says, ‘You have not obeyed me; you have not proclaimed freedom to your own people. So I now proclaim ‘’freedom” to fall by the sword, plague and famine’” (Jeremiah 34:17). In just a few short years the wealth, power and privilege that the rich enjoyed was totally destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar’s besieging forces.
When David was facing great danger, possibly when he was fleeing for his life from King Saul, and later from his son Absalom, David humbled himself to the position of the poor when he made his appeal to God, “But as for me, I am poor and needy; may the Lord think of me. You are my help and my deliverer; you are my God, do not delay” (Psalm 40:17). Even as king at the height of success and power, he understood that God took the side of the poor. Nathan came to him with the parable of a rich man who stole a poor man’s only lamb. By taking Bathsheba and killing her husband, David was trampling on the rights of the poor. Convicted of sin, without innocence to stand upon, and completely broken David pleaded with God for forgiveness (Psalm 51) and the Lord graciously answered (Psalm 32). He knew in his heart that God was the defender of the weak and the poor.
When we speak about God’s special concern for the poor in the Old Testament, we need to remind ourselves that God also calls the poor to moral responsibility. They are not merely victims of abuse or neglect. God calls everyone, both rich and poor, to be holy and righteous. In the Law of Israel, God reveals himself to be just. He tells his people, “Do not pervert justice; do not show partiality to the poor or favoritism to the great, but judge your neighbor fairly” (Leviticus 19:15). This a warning to all of us engaged in ministry to the poor to excuse their sin. We may understand what circumstances influenced the person to engage in criminal behavior. A child may grow up with the presence, love and guidance of his father, but that does not excuse his disobedience and disrespect to his mother. “Whoever disregards discipline comes to poverty and shame, but whoever heeds corrections is honored” (Proverbs 13:18)
Many of the poor are suffering the consequences of their own folly. Sloth and laziness will bring someone into poverty (Proverbs 6:9-11, 10:4-5) All hard work brings a profit, but mere talk leads only to poverty” (Proverbs 14:23).. Those who conceal their sin continue to be plagued by it. “Whoever conceals their sins does not prosper, but the one who confesses and renounces them finds mercy. Blessed is the one who always trembles before God, but whoever hardens their heart falls into trouble (Proverbs 28:13-14). But if we have escaped the consequences of our sin, we must never gloat over the disaster of others lest we suffer God’s punishment in our life (Proverbs 17:5). I once laughed when my brother was punished. What did my mother do? She took me by the arm and punished me as well. Israel was punished for her idolatry, but the nations that scorned her and gloated over her also entered condemnation.
Yet God is merciful to those whom he has humbled. He let them suffer from their folly, yet he saves and redeems those who call out to him in their trouble (Psalm 107:6, 13, 19, 28, 41). We might think, “They are getting what they deserve,” but we should be careful lest we become proud and suffer the same fate. We need to humble ourselves before God, and imitate his forgiving and compassionate ways to others.