Some sayings in Proverbs were written especially for the ruling class. They insist kings stand accountable to God and must exercise their power in stewardship for the wellbeing of others.
**29:13-14 The poor man and the oppressor meet together; the LORD gives light to the eyes of both. 14 If a king faithfully judges the poor, his throne will be established forever.
Derek Kidner comments:
“The test of a man in power, and his hidden strength, is the extent to which he keeps faith with those who can put least pressure on him.” (Derek Kidner, Proverbs, 175, commenting on 29:14)
Thomas Jefferson famously opened the American Declaration of Independence by appealing to unalienable human rights:
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights…” (In Congress, July 4, 1776.)
While scripture does not endorse a right of political revolution per se, yet Jefferson does align with the Bible in asserting universal human dignity grounded in our common origin as creatures of God.
14:31 Whoever oppresses a poor man insults his Maker, but he who is generous to the needy honors him. 22:2 The rich and the poor meet together; the LORD is the maker of them all. 28:5 Evil men do not understand justice, but those who seek the LORD understand it completely.
And yet most current appeals to human rights do not ground their substance in the glory of God.
It was Jefferson’s appeal to the court of Heaven which carried the force of his argument against King George. George III could scarcely defend the injustices carried out in his colonies as divinely ordered – esp. as a Christian king.
Ellen Davis observes:
“It is because biblical faith affirms that we have political rights precisely as the creatures of God that totalitarian governments must always suppress it. They can only be effective and secure as long as they perpetuate the myth that no one and nothing is more than a creature of the state, its tool and hopeful beneficiary.” (Ellen Davis, Proverbs…, 96, italics hers)
This is why it is next to impossible to find a Bible in a place like North Korea.
But, sadly, even among those with convictions about universal human dignity we find that by force of custom or desire for profit our personal convictions are easily set aside in practical matters.
Thomas Jefferson himself described the wicked irony of his own custom of slave holding:
“The whole commerce between master and slave is a perpetual exercise of the most boisterous passions, the most unremitting despotism on the one part, and degrading submissions on the other. …And with what execration should the statesman be loaded, who permitting one half the citizens thus to trample on the rights of the other, transforms those into despots, and these into enemies, destroys the morals of the one part, and the amor patriae of the other.” (Jefferson, Notes on the State of Virginia, chapter 18)
Despite these convictions, Jefferson never released his slaves – not even at his death (as Washington did). Often we see injustice clearly, but we don’t know what to do about it and so we look the other way. We leave it to the next generation to redress the balance. (I say this not to villainize Jefferson, but because his story dramatizes the kind of intense ironies and inconsistencies which permeate the human condition. Jefferson did more than most to put slaves on a trajectory toward emancipation by writing about freedom and equality as he did. Yet he failed to align his actions with his words.)
21:13 Whoever closes his ear to the cry of the poor will himself call out and not be answered. 28:27 Whoever gives to the poor will not want, but he who hides his eyes will get many a curse.
We are skilled at selective attention. We may or may not know the death tolls in current areas of political conflict like Syria, Egypt, and the Central African Republic. But most of us will be sure to hear the outcome of the first UGA football game this weekend (at least those of us here in Athens). I am all for sporting diversions, but we can easily fill our lives with pleasant distractions to the neglect of greater matters.
To find justice, we must seek it. It’s not fun to look upon things that are unpleasant, and in this way it seems the poor often get in the way of the rich.
17:5 Whoever mocks the poor insults his Maker; he who is glad at calamity will not go unpunished.
Why would anyone be glad at calamity? Because calamity sweeps some of the wretched poor out of the way so that we can get on with our lives and business – we suppose they are probably better off dead – and our collective conscience is relieved.
Poverty is not simply about not having money. An orphan with money still has no parents; a widow with money still has no husband. The wealthy fool still lacks wisdom. And the unbelieving sinner in a hearty economy still lives in bondage to his own flesh and alienation from God. The dead with money…are still dead (they don’t really have the money anymore either).
As Flannery O’Conner once put it in the voice of her character Francis Tarwater:
“’The dead are poor. …You can’t be any poorer than dead. He’ll have to take what he gets.’” (The Violent Bear it Away, chapter 1 – originally a short story entitled, You Can’t Be Any Poorer Than Dead.)
Part of poverty is lacking a voice. The poor are easily ignored. Few in America are destitute, but many are poor. The poor are those from whom we turn our faces.
22:22-23 Do not rob the poor, because he is poor, or crush the afflicted at the gate, 23 for the LORD will plead their cause and rob of life those who rob them.
Why would you rob the poor? Because it’s easier than exploiting the rich! The poor are not well defended; they have few advocates. Hence King Lemuel’s mother exhorts him to speak up:
31:8-9 Open your mouth for the mute, for the rights of all who are destitute. 9 Open your mouth, judge righteously, defend the rights of the poor and needy.
The best advocate for the poor is one who lives among them and identifies with their plight – even if he is truly wealthy. That’s what Jesus did for all of us. Christ completely identified with human poverty – even the poverty of death, the poverty of abandonment, the poverty of betrayal, the poverty of our sin and folly he made his own.
Luke 6:20 “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.
And in his lowest place, stripped of all but love, he spoke for us:
Luke 23:34 And Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” And they cast lots to divide his garments.
The Holy One was counted as nothing by the ruling classes of his day.
Another reason the poor have few faithful advocates is that there are pressures from power interests not to speak against the status quo. Bribes and threats and violence are effective and ancient tools for silencing dissent.
13:23 The fallow ground of the poor would yield much food, but it is swept away through injustice. 17:23 The wicked accepts a bribe in secret to pervert the ways of justice. 18:23 The poor use entreaties, but the rich answer roughly.
16:8 Better is a little with righteousness than great revenues with injustice. 29:26 Many seek the face of a ruler, but it is from the LORD that a man gets justice.
The good news today is that we cannot save the world from oppression and injustice – not in our own strength – but that God can; God has done so, and God is doing so. God has the resources to accomplish his goals and he wants us to be part of it. Jesus died so that we might live – he chose to.
2 Corinthians 8:9 For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich.
In Christ, God came not only to die, but to live – to overcome our sins with sacrificial forgiveness, to swallow up death with the victory of resurrection life. And you can’t be any richer than that!
John 10:10 …I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.
Do you know yourself to be poor enough to need the charity of God? Are you wealthy in terms of material capital, but poor in terms of spiritual capital? Or are you materially poor and tired of being pushed to the margins of society? Are you willing to accept the bounty of God today? Are you willing to become an instrument in sharing the wealth of God? If so, hear the words of the prophet Isaiah – words which Jesus claimed were about himself (cf. Luke 4:16-21):
Isaiah 61:1-4, 8, 11 The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, because the LORD has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; 2 to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favor, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn; 3 to grant to those who mourn in Zion- to give them a beautiful headdress instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit; that they may be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that he may be glorified. 4 They shall build up the ancient ruins; they shall raise up the former devastations; they shall repair the ruined cities, the devastations of many generations.
We cannot redress injustice by our own strength – we are too poor. But by faith in Christ we can participate in God’s own justice and mercy – God’s own strength to fulfill his promises. Indeed, by faith in Jesus we become members of the royal household of God – with all the responsibilities thereto appertaining. The proverbs written to kings are therefore also written to us. And this is not a call to drudgery but to great joy!
Isaiah 61:8, 11 For I the LORD love justice; I hate robbery and wrong; I will faithfully give them their recompense… 11 For as the earth brings forth its sprouts, and as a garden causes what is sown in it to sprout up, so the Lord GOD will cause righteousness and praise to sprout up before all the nations.
(**Verse citations are from Proverbs unless otherwise indicated. All Bible quotations are from the ESV.)
Speaking Truth in Babel 