Episode II: A quick survey

For kicks, I did a (relatively) quick look through all the occasions when the word 'poor' was used. I can't imagine how much more I might uncover on the subject if I were to look at the rest of the Bible's content on the subject (or how long it might take). A guy called Jim Wallis famously took his Bible and cut out every reference to the poor and our response to them, and was left with more holes than paper!

Here's three ideas I noticed constantly coming up. Each has some pretty heavy implications for our response.

1. God carries out justice on behalf of the poor
   
2. The poor are fundamentally equal to all other people
   
3. God expects his people to be compassionate to the poor
   

Warning: the following contains a serious amount of Bible text references. I don't like them either, but some of the things I noticed are quite startling and you'll probably want to check out what I've said.

1st bit: JUSTICE

The Bible clearly views oppressing the poor as 'evil' (e.g. Isaiah 32.7). And it recognises that oppression comes in many shapes and sizes:

• economic injustice (Isaiah 3.13-15),
  
  corruption/prejudice in the judiciary & government (Isaiah 10.2, Amos 5.12-15),
  
• dodgy business practices & power building (Amos 8.4-6),
  
• stealing from charity (John 12.6),
  
• business efficiency causing them harm (Exodus 23, Leviticus 19, 23),
  
• giving false testimony (Exodus 23.2),
  
• abuse of labour (Jeremiah 22.13-30),
  
• devising evil against individuals (Isaiah 32.7),
  
• favouring the rich(James 2.1-13)...
  

Oppression can happen through all areas of our lives, whether we're aware of it or not. This is only more true in our globalised world today. I've heard a lot of people express what seems a quite reasonable idea – that they're not hurting anyone, so why does it matter what else they do? I was thinking about that in one of those semi-conscious moments as you're waking up, and I realised – I'm doing loads of things which cause other people hurt, simply by living in this country and engaging in it's economy. And I remembered from somewhere, 'For evil to prosper, all it takes is for good men to do nothing.' And Maxi Jazz crooning, 'Inaction is a weapon of mass destruction'. We can't actually live without effecting, without hurting other people. So even if you look at it from a karmic point of view, we ought to be going out of our way to assist the poor simply to balance the harm we're doing all the time.
fdgege

Here's a sobering point that is actually quite encouraging when you think about it: the Bible clearly shows that God will enact vengeance on those who oppress the poor. For example, he may give hardships in life (Ezekiel 22) or ignore prayers (Zechariah 7.13). And as we just observed, we're guilty. In fact, the Bible shows that God will even enact vengeance against believers! (E.g. James 2.1-13; Jeremiah 2.34-35, 5.28-29; and many more.) This raises the question, 'In the western church, are our prayers for revival unanswered because we are oppressing, however indirectly, the poor of the majority world?' (Especially as 'revival' type fruitfulness has been common in Africa, East Asia and South America for the last hundred years – during which time the US and European powers have been particularly oppressive.)

And here's another discovery that surprised me: God enacts this judgement (against those who oppress the poor) in history as well as at the end of time (1 Samuel 2.1-10, Psalm 109, Isaiah 25.4, Jeremiah 39, masses of Proverbs...) If you look at Isaiah 26.6, you'll actually see that the poor will participate in enacting God's vengeance on their oppressors! One can't help thinking about international terrorism, as well as rioting, revolution and coups d'état in specific nations. This is heavy.

On a more positive note, God's justice involves practically helping those being oppressed. He defends & shelters them (Isaiah 25.4), provides for them (Jeremiah 39.10), answers their prayers (Isaiah 41.17), and gives them faith (James 2.5)... I've seen God answer so many prayers for people at our drop in, and provide food, accommodation, and money for me when I've been stuck with nothing.

What does this tell us about our role? Here's a few things that seem clear to me:

• We can expectantly pray for God to both punish oppressors and help the poor right here and now.
  
• We must pay close attention to every aspect of our lives to ensure we aren't oppressing people.
  
• It's not our job to punish oppressors ourselves.
  
  What do you think?
  

To summarise; have a listen to this... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=toVB_WevG_A