16th Sunday After Pentecost. September 8th, 2024. Series

Proverbs 22:1-2, Proverbs 22:8-9, Proverbs 22:22-23, Psalm 125, Isaiah 35:4-7, Psalm 146, James 2:1-17, Mark 7:24-37.

A). THE CORRECT TREATMENT OF THE POOR.

Proverbs 22:1-2, Proverbs 22:8-9, Proverbs 22:22-23.

We have here three pairs of poetic couplets about attitudes to the poor. It is not that the Bible is against wealth itself, or even wealthy people. King Solomon, the writer of some of these Proverbs, was gifted with riches by God (1 Kings 3:13).

Proverbs 22:1. Nevertheless, having a good name, (i.e., a good reputation) is more desirable than the getting of riches. We should live as those upon whom God has cast His good favour, and should give no reason for other people to hold us in disfavour.

Proverbs 22:2. The rich and the poor may look different to each other, may dress differently, may have different attitudes, different priorities, different reasons for voting differently. But they have this in common: they are all made by the same God (whether they know it or acknowledge it or not!) Our common standing before God is perhaps the best foundation for democracy.

King David once reckoned himself a poor man (1 Samuel 18:23). Yet, after all, he proved to be ‘a man after God’s own heart’ (1 Samuel 13:14). Later, in Nathan’s parable, King David is now the rich man, and the prophet describes the poor man as one ‘who had nothing but one little ewe lamb’ (2 Samuel 12:1-3).

Proverbs 22:8-9 are best understood in context with the preceding verse (Proverbs 22:7). Rightly or wrongly, the reins of power often rest with the rich. And financial power is often wielded negatively against the poor, with interest rates potentially making the poor poorer.

Proverbs 22:8. The “iniquity” suggested here refers to injustice. Those who rule, and those with responsibility to exercise justice, have a duty towards God to get it right - as did Solomon in his early days, and as does Jesus always (Psalm 72:1-4; Psalm 72:12-14). They are going to reap just what they sow (Galatians 6:7-8), both those who get it wrong (Job 4:8; Hosea 8:7), and those who get it right (Hosea 10:12).

Proverbs 22:9. There is a beatitude here, and as with all beatitudes it is not that the blessing is earned, but rather that the action arises from the fact that the person is a blessed person. As all good things come from God (James 1:17), so the “bountiful eye”, or generous heart, is given by our bounteous God. Giving to the poor is lending to the LORD (Proverbs 19:17; Proverbs 28:27), and there will always be those - sometimes not even all that rich themselves - who will “share their bread” with those poorer than themselves. They are blessed in the performance of this deed, and will also reap a reward in the hereafter (Ecclesiastes 11:1).

The opposite of a “bountiful eye” is an ‘evil eye’, sometimes translated as a ‘stingy eye’ (cf. Proverbs 28:22).

Proverbs 22:22. Our final poetic couplet begins in the imperative: “Rob not the poor, because he is poor.” The reference here is to a court case: “the gate” is the place where the city elders would hear and judge legal cases. Jesus mentioned one such case in His parable of the unjust judge and the importunate widow (Luke 18:1-5).

Proverbs 22:23. It is the LORD who pleads the lawsuit of the poor, and “spoils the soul of those that spoiled them.” He is both the defender of the vulnerable, and the judge of their oppressors. (Cf. Luke 18:6-8; Micah 2:1-3).

Part of the proof that Jesus is the Christ is that ‘the poor’ have the gospel preached to them (Matthew 11:5). In His time upon earth, Jesus was forever championing the cause of the poor, the widow, the orphan, the marginalised.

‘Gospel’ means ‘good news’ - and what is that good news? It is that ‘we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous’ (1 John 2:1). Jesus has procured pardon for our sins with His own blood upon the Cross (Acts 20:28). By His stripes we are healed (Isaiah 53:5).

Jesus is the helper of the helpless, and the only hope for the hopeless.

B). A STURDY FAITH?

Psalm 125.

Sometimes we speak of a person’s great faith, or their unwavering trust in the Lord, as if this was not attainable by any and each and all of us. ‘Oh,’ we say, ‘he has such faith’. Or, ‘she trusts so entirely upon the LORD’. But Jesus, whilst He gently rebukes His disciples, ‘O ye of little faith’ (Matthew 8:26); also says that it only takes faith ‘the size of a mustard seed’ to accomplish things which we might otherwise have thought impossible (Matthew 17:20; Luke 17:6)!

Our problem, sometimes, is that we put too much faith in our ability to ‘get up enough faith’ (whatever that may mean), rather than placing our trust in the Lord. Do you see the difference? One focuses on US, the other on HIM.