Slides: Rich and Poor

By David Feddes

What causes poverty?

• Personal faults: Poor people cause their own poverty by being wicked, foolish, lazy, drunken, impulsive, wasteful, or careless.
• Social injustice: Rich people make others poor by oppressing, exploiting, defrauding, discriminating, and rigging the system.

What helps the poor?

• Take personal responsibility: Individuals must become moral, wise, hard working, sober, steady, thrifty, and careful.
• Pursue public justice: The system must limit the powerful, lift the lowly, and honor equality. People and government must be fair, compassionate, and generous.

Faults bring poverty

Lazy hands make a man poor, but diligent hands bring wealth. (10:4)

He who loves pleasure will become poor; whoever loves wine and oil will never be rich. (21:17)

He who works his land will have abundant food, but the one who chases fantasies will have his fill of poverty. (28:19)

Injustice brings poverty

A poor man’s field may produce abundant food, but injustice sweeps it away. (13:23)

A ruler who oppresses the poor is like a driving rain that leaves no crops. (28:3)

A tyrannical ruler lacks judgment, but he who hates ill-gotten gain will enjoy a long life. (28:16)

Rich dominate poor

A poor man pleads for mercy, 
but a rich man answers harshly. (18:23)

The rich rule over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the lender. (22:7)

The righteous care about justice for the poor, but the wicked have no such concern. (29:7)

No profit from the poor

If any of your fellow Israelites become poor and are unable to support themselves among you, help them as you would a foreigner and stranger, so they can continue to live among you. Do not take interest or any profit from them, but fear your God, so that they may continue to live among you. You must not lend them money at interest or sell them food at a profit. (Lev 25:35-37)

A good man does not commit robbery but gives his food to the hungry and provides clothing for the naked. He does not lend to them at interest or take a profit from them… An evil man oppresses the poor and needy… He lends at interest and takes a profit. (Ezekiel 18:7-13)

Profiting from the poor,
 forgetting the Lord

You take interest and make a profit from the poor. You extort unjust gain from your neighbors. And you have forgotten me, declares the Sovereign Lord. (Ezekiel 22:12)

Power and poverty

Poor Jews were saying, “We are mortgaging our fields, our vineyards and our homes to get grain during the famine… We have had to borrow money to pay the king’s tax… We have to subject our sons and daughters to slavery… We are powerless, because our fields and our vineyards belong to others.”  (Nehemiah 5:3-5)

When I heard their outcry and these charges, I was very angry. I … accused the nobles and officials. I told them, “You are exacting usury from your own countrymen! … we have bought back our Jewish brothers who were sold to the Gentiles. Now you are selling your brothers, only for them to be sold back to us!”

“I and my brothers and my men are also lending the people money and grain. But let the exacting of usury stop! Give back to them immediately their fields, vineyards, olive groves and houses, and also the usury you are charging them—the hundredth part of the money, grain, new wine and oil.” (Nehemiah 5:3-11)

Poor are shunned

The poor are shunned even by their neigh-bors, but the rich have many friends. (14:20)

Wealth brings many friends, but a poor man’s friend deserts him… A poor man is shunned by all his relatives—how much more do his friends avoid him! 
Though he pursues them with pleading, 
they are nowhere to be found. (19:4, 7)

Power and poverty

He who oppresses the poor to increase his wealth and he who gives gifts to the rich—both come to poverty. (22:16)

Income from charging high interest rates will end up in the pocket of someone who is kind to the poor. (28:8)

If a king judges the poor with fairness, his throne will always be secure. (29:14)

When poverty is better

Better a little with the fear of the LORD than great wealth with turmoil. (15:16)

Better a little with righteousness 
than much gain with injustice. (16:8)

Better to be lowly in spirit and among the oppressed than to share plunder with the proud. (16:19)

What a man desires is unfailing love; 
better to be poor than a liar. (19:22)

Better a poor man whose walk is blameless 
than a rich man whose ways are perverse…

A rich man may be wise in his own eyes, 
but a poor man who has discernment sees through him. (28:6, 11)

Middle class prayer

Give me neither poverty nor riches, 
but give me only my daily bread. 
Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you and say, “Who is the LORD?” 
Or I may become poor and steal, and so dishonor the name of my God. (30:8-9)

What causes poverty?

• Personal faults: Poor people cause their own poverty by being wicked, foolish, lazy, drunken, impulsive, wasteful, or careless.
• Social injustice: Rich people make others poor by oppressing, exploiting, defrauding, discriminating, and rigging the system.

What helps the poor?

• Take personal responsibility: Individuals must become moral, wise, hard working, sober, steady, thrifty, and careful.
• Pursue public justice: The system must limit the powerful, lift the lowly, and honor equality. People and government must be fair, compassionate, and generous.

How Christianity 
Increases Prosperity

• Private property
• Worthwhile work
• Stewardship & calling
• Personal responsibility
• Strong families
• Positive outlook
• Moral capital
• Public justice

Speak up and rescue

Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute. (Proverbs 31:8)

Rescue those being led away to death; 
hold back those staggering toward slaughter. If you say, “But we knew nothing about this,” does not he who weighs the heart perceive it? (24:11-12)

Share freely

There should be no poor among you, for the Lord your God will greatly bless you in the land he is giving you as a special possession… There will always be some in the land who are poor. That is why I am commanding you to share freely with the poor. (Deut 15:4, 11)

Gaining through giving

One man gives freely, yet gains even more; another withholds unduly, but comes to poverty. A generous man will prosper; he who refreshes others will himself be refreshed. People curse the man who hoards grain, but blessing crowns him who is willing to sell. (11:24-26)

Generosity pays,
 stinginess costs

A generous man will himself be blessed, 
for he shares his food with the poor. (22:9)

A stingy man is eager to get rich and is unaware that poverty awaits him. (28:22)

Kind to the needy

He who despises his neighbor sins, but blessed is he who is kind to the needy. (14:21)

He who gives to the poor will lack nothing, but he who closes his eyes to them receives many curses. (28:27) See Jesus' parable of Rich Man and Lazarus (Luke 16:19-31).

Maker of rich and poor

Rich and poor have this in common: The LORD is the Maker of them all. (22:2)

The poor man and the oppressor have this in common: The LORD gives sight to the eyes of both. (29:13)

God takes it personally

He who oppresses the poor shows contempt for their Maker, but whoever is kind to the needy honors God. (14:31)

He who mocks the poor shows contempt for their Maker. (17:5)

He who is kind to the poor lends to the LORD, and he will reward him. (19:17)

"When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.

"Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.'

"Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?'

"The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.'

"Then he will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.'

"They also will answer, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?'

"He will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.'

"Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life." (Matthew 25:31-46)