Deuteronomy 15:4
But there will be no poor among you; for the Lord will bless you in the land that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance to possess—
Deuteronomy 15:11
For there will never cease to be poor in the land. Therefore I command you, ‘You shall open wide your hand to your brother, to the needy and to the poor, in your land.’
Tag: Poor or No Poor?
Chapter 15 of Deuteronomy is all about the Sabbatical Year. It is about the nation of Israel living radically different from the world around it. Israel was chosen to be God’s special people so that the nations would know what is like to serve a holy and righteous God. Nothing can be more radical in the thinking of mankind than the concept of the Sabbatical Year. In our county “capitalism” reigns supreme. The “market” determines the prince! We have a system where wealth can be created. However, in that system, we also see that greed and power are birthed and that eventually brings forth death. Imagine the concept of the Sabbatical Year being introduced to Wall Street ... intruding a time where power and greed are balanced out and we are all set back to zero! God knew that mankind, having had a sip of success, would eventually become drunk with power and greed. The Sabbatical Year shows God’s amazing character for social justice and social change. The early church saw this too ... read Acts 2 and the desire to care for the poor. Social justice is not a political football to be tossed around ideologically. It is a character quality at the heart of God. God wanted the nation of Israel to live and to make sure there was NO poor. But, God also knew the heart of man that some would become so lazy as to not earn and some would be driven as to exploit the other. The Sabbatical Year was God’s remedy to keep man from devouring one another and to reset the stage so that all actors had the same opportunities. This is a radical thought now and would be then. It would have made Israel completely different from the world. The Church should be that different today. When we look the same as the world around us, we are not practicing the character and mind of God.
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