A Passionate Commitment to the Poor Pt. 2
Last week we looked at the phrase God of gods in reference
to the Lord our God. When God declares that He is the God of gods He’s not comparing Himself to other heavenly beings, rather He is stating that He and He alone is the only, unique, supreme being in the universe. That has a number of implications and applications for His people. Among them are the realities that God and God alone provides us with authentic significance and meaning, identity, healing, hope and of course salvation.
This week we continue to examine this precious passage as we discover the biblical basis for our care and concern for the poor and powerless.
The issue for us is: why should God’s people have a passionate commitment to the poor and powerless?
1. We’re passionate about the poor in obedience to the Lord God who is the Lord of Lords.
Moses goes on to say that He is the Lord of lords. Now the term lord was one that the Hebrews were well aware of. For in their not too distant past the Egyptians were their lords. Lord is a term connected with slavery in its various forms as well as one that accurately described the authority of a king over his subjects. Two aspects of lordship are important to us this morning.
First, the lord had absolute control over every area of the slave or subjects life. For example he had exclusive use of the slave or subject’s time, talents and treasure. In the ancient world a king had the authority to make use of your time as he saw fit. He could command your talents and abilities to build his palace, drive his chariot or make war with his enemies. And of course he could tax your land, your income and anything else he wished to tax.
Secondly, the lord could command you to carry out whatever task he wanted you to do. The word of the lord was not subject to debate, discussion, alteration or disobedience. You belonged to him either as his slave or subject. You either obeyed what he said or suffered the consequences. Jesus accurately described how worldly lords exercised their authority when explaining biblical leadership to his followers.
But Jesus called them to him and said, "You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. Matt. 20:25.
In His sermon on the mount Jesus asked those who called him ‘lord’ why they didn’t do what He commanded. Jesus said this because the basis for the lord servant relationship is that the servant is bound to do what the master says.
The Hebrews were bound to obey the Lord their God because of all the masters in the world and all the masters they had encountered He was the master of masters. He created the time that governed their lives and thus had the absolute right to command all of it let alone a day of worship from them. He created them with innate gifts, talents and abilities as well as gave them the wisdom and understanding to acquire new skills and thus had every right to command all of their skills for his service.
He created the land that produced their wealth, gave them the strength to work the land and kept them safe so that they could enjoy the blessing of the land so He had every right to command all that they had to live on let alone tell them to give a tenth of their produce.
And there is no doubt that the Lord who rescued them from the hand of brutal slave drivers had the absolute right to tell them how to live their lives. He had the right to tell them to respect their parents, to value life and who and who not to be intimate with. It is the nature of lordship to exercise rule and authority over those who call you Lord. When Moses therefore claimed that YHWH was the Lord of lords he wasn’t just stating that God is the ultimate and final master. He wasn’t simply saying that He is the master of all the other lords who exercise some kind of rule throughout the earth. Nor was he merely saying the Lord is the supreme master in the absolute sense in that He has the unquestionable right to rule since He is the creator and sustainer of the earth and all who live in it. It’s not just because this Lord rules with absolute grace, absolute goodness, absolute wisdom and absolute knowledge. That’s all true and if that was where God’s lordship stood that would be enough. What takes it to another level is the reality that the Lord’s lordship is of such a different and higher quality and caliber of any other Lord.
That’s because the same one who is God of gods, and Lord of lords knows Himself what it’s like to become a servant of servants. He who from eternity ruled in total majesty became subject to the very creatures who by right owed Him their complete and unconditional obedience. See Phil. 2:5-11.
Jesus Christ is God the eternal second Person of the holy mysterious Trinity. Paul wrote that He was equal with God the Father. That is Jesus is the full bodily manifestation of the supreme God of the Old Covenant. Yet, this Lord of lord’s became a servant of servants for the sake of His people. Jesus therefore knows exactly what it’s like to give all His time, all His gifts, all His treasure and His whole self for the sake of the Father’s will. How many lords or masters humiliate themselves in front of and on the behalf of their servants? We gladly submit to the Lordship of Jesus Christ because He submitted to the will of the Father and served us by dying for our sins.
Matt. 20:26 - It shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, 27 and whoever would be first among you must be your slave, 28 even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many."
2. We’re passionate about the poor because it’s consistent with the God’s nature and character. He is the great, mighty and awesome God who connects His character with His loving concern for the poor and powerless.
Moses uses words to convey the utter, supreme uniqueness of God’s person.
God is exceedingly, weighty, heavy and magnified in His Person, nature, acts and character. The Scriptures use adjectives great, mighty and awesome to describe God’s supreme, utter and spectacular uniqueness.
His attributes are the qualities that help to describe God’s character and nature. Some of those qualities are unique to God while others are found in mankind since we’re created in His image. These qualities set Him apart from us and testify of His greatness. God is therefore the self-existent, self-sufficient, all powerful, everywhere present at the same time, all knowing of all things completely, intimately and exhaustively, glorious God who lives in eternal splendor and majesty and is infinite in love, sovereignty, holiness, goodness, grace, wonder, mercy, forgiveness, wisdom, compassion, glory, wrath, perfection, righteousness, justice and salvation. See Isaiah 40:12-31
God’s greatness, power and might are the cause of our wonder and worship. He also therefore the One whose character, nature and actions we aim to imitate and model in our walk before Him. Thus, if God is concerned about the poor and powerless then His people are concerned about them also.
Because of His supreme splendor, uniqueness, might and awesome greatness God cannot be corrupted in any way shape or form. We cannot get God to change His standards of righteousness to accommodate our sinful hearts.
We cannot pay God off so that we can continue to ignore His word, His will and His way and still be accepted by Him. Within this immediate context we will never get God to disavow His care and concern for the poor, powerless and marginalized. The rich can never pay God off so that He will look the other way and ignore the plea and plight of the poor, Amos 5:21-24 "I hate, I despise your feasts, and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies. Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them; and the peace offerings of your fattened animals, I will not look upon them. Take away from me the noise of your songs; to the melody of your harps I will not listen. But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.
Also see Isa. 1:10-17.
What is the Lord saying in these two passages? That He will not be bribed into looking the other way while His people oppress the poor just because we bring Him a form of worship.
As I said last week it’s here that the passage takes and unexpected and surprising direction. Moses has just finished describing and declaring the absolute, matchless greatness of God’s nature and character. It seems at this point that he could have done one of two things. First he could have exhorted the people to worship God on the basis of the perfection of His being.
Or he could have encouraged the people to revere God by solemnly obeying His word and His will.
Instead, the Holy Spirit takes the opportunity to speak of the great God’s concern and care for the poor and powerless. It is here therefore that God links the supremacy of His being, His absolute right to rule and the total greatness of His nature and character with His desire to look out for the poor and powerless. It thus follows then that to know God, to come into an increasing understanding of who He is, to be in a growing relationship with Him to really begin comprehending biblical theology is to have a strong desire and burden to look out for, care for and promote the cause of the poor and powerless.
And that’s exactly what God said through His prophet Jeremiah in Jer 9:24-25. 23 Thus says the Lord: "Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the Lord."
3. We are passionate about the poor because God Himself executes justice for the poor and powerless.
He makes universal laws that apply to the fair, upright and just treatment of all people. There are some things that we just know are wrong in relation to how people who are created in God’s image should be treated. See Amos 1:6-10.
"For three transgressions of Gaza, and for four, I will not revoke the punishment, because they carried into exile a whole people to deliver them up to Edom.
Capturing people for the express purpose of merchandising them and treating them like chattel is such a brutal crime against the image of God that it brings the strongest condemnation the Lord could send.
The people of God must always stand up for and speak out against injustice, oppression and crimes against humanity. We are the ones to declare that people made in God’s image must be treated with common decency, fairness and care.
He gave specific, precise instructions in His word concerning how the poor and powerless were to be treated. These instructions can be grouped into several general categories.
The poor and powerless were not be mistreated, oppressed or marginalized. to be treated justly with fairness and equality. "You shall not pervert the justice due an alien or an orphan, nor take a widow's garment in pledge. Deut. 24:17.
'Cursed is he who distorts the justice due an alien, orphan , and widow.' And all the people shall say, 'Amen.' Deut. 27:19.
From this passage we are to adopt the biblical presumption that the poor and powerless can and will be oppressed. We do not begin our dealings with the belief that the poor must prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that they are being oppressed.
The poor and powerless were not to be cared for, looked after and given the opportunity to work for a living wage. They were not ever to be marginalized and put in a situation that locked them into generational poverty "At the end of every three years you shall bring out all the tithe of your produce in the same year and lay it up within your towns. 29 And the Levite, because he has no portion or inheritance with you, and the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow, who are within your towns, shall come and eat and be filled, that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hands that you do. Deut. 14:28-29.
It is the ministry and responsibility of the church to use some of our resources to care for the poor and powerless. For example a group of churches in one particular city or community could take a tithe of their tithes to set up programs that serve and care for the poor. For now clf must look for how we can use our human and financial resources to care for the poor here and abroad. With that in mind please look to increase your giving to the orphanages we support when we take our monthly offering after communion.
19 "When you reap your harvest in your field and forget a sheaf in the field, you shall not go back to get it. It shall be for the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow, that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hands. 20 When you beat your olive trees, you shall not go over them again. It shall be for the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow. 21 When you gather the grapes of your vineyard, you shall not strip it afterward. It shall be for the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow. 22 You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt; therefore I command you to do this. Deut. 24:19-22.
The poor are to work for their living. Yet when they work it must be for a living wage. Everyone who works to support a household should be paid a living wage for their work.
The poor and powerless were to given the opportunity to break out of the cycle of poverty. In the year of Jubilee they could return to their own land and those who were in slavery could be set free. 12 "If your brother, a Hebrew man or a Hebrew woman, is sold to you, he shall serve you six years, and in the seventh year you shall let him go free from you. 13 And when you let him go free from you, you shall not let him go empty-handed. 14 You shall furnish him liberally out of your flock, out of your threshing floor, and out of your winepress. As the Lord your God has blessed you, you shall give to him.
Deut. 15:12-14.
Our society should devise creative ways to invest our resources into the poor so that those who wish can have a legitimate opportunity to break the cycle of poverty. That can mean investing in education, giving the poor access to capital to start small businesses and giving them greater opportunities to purchase their own homes.
In His word God instituted a political system that prioritized justice for all and saw to it that the poor and weak were not to be oppressed from unjust laws.
"You shall appoint judges and officers in all your towns that the Lord your God is giving you, according to your tribes, and they shall judge the people with righteous judgment. You shall not pervert justice. You shall not show partiality, and you shall not accept a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and subverts the cause of the righteous. Justice, and only justice, you shall follow, that you may live and inherit the land that the Lord your God is giving you. Deut. 16:18-20.
The political system that God set us was one that would not allow the rich and powerful to have their way through bribery.
Moreover, God expressed strong condemnation to those who would not enforce laws that ensured justice for the powerless as well as those who made unjust laws that served to marginalize and take advantage of the poor.
Woe to those who make unjust laws, to those who issue oppressive decrees, to deprive the poor of their rights and withhold justice from the oppressed of my people, making widows their prey and robbing the fatherless. Isa. 10:1-2. Also see Pslam 82:1-4.
We are to work within our political system to ensure that justice is given to the poor and powerless. We cannot ask or expect God to bless this or any other country if we oppress or willfully ignore the poor and powerless.
Finally, God commanded that we love the alien and be open hearted toward the poor. "So show your love for the alien, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt.
Deut. 10:19. Also see Lev. 19:33-34.
If that seems to hard or this too much consider the fact that spiritually we were in the very same position as the poor, fatherless, widow and minority. We are passionate about our commitment to the poor and powerless because we were poor, powerless, hopeless and completely unable to contribute anything to our own salvation.
We were spiritually poor and didn’t have the moral cash, credit or capital to pay for our own sins, nor secure the rich, vital, new life given to us by grace through Jesus Christ.
We were orphans without a heavenly Father to love, care for and take responsibility for us. But praise God that through Jesus Christ God is our Father.
We were widows who did not have a husband to provide for us and show loving, affectionate care to us. Praise the Lord Jesus Christ is the husband of the church. He has provided salvation for us by dying for our sins and has shown the full measure of His great love toward us. Moreover, He’s promised to take us to Himself to forever shower and lavish His steadfast loving kindness on us.
Finally we were the ultimate alien, stranger, foreigner and minority. We had no right, no standing and no access to God and His covenant community. The Lord Jesus has shown His love to all those who were aliens and strangers by bringing us into God’s community and making us full-fledged, permanent members of His family.
To Him Who Loves Us…
Pastor Lance
