Biblical perspective on poverty and social justice in Israel

Biblical View on Poverty, Social Justice

Poverty emerges as the result of deprivation from accessing the basic necessities including health and food. From time immemorial, the role of poverty plays is crucial for sustainable development of human beings. It is worth noting that poverty is one of the most common themes in the bible. The poor keeps on featuring in God's plans and they are commonly referred as the oppressed and deprived. "God has a plan for the poor," that is the main theme that always come when the poor are being mentioned. From the term being used to describe the poor, the bible brings to our attention that there are some "external forces" that is oppressing and depriving the poor, which of course should be the other human beings who are rich. From this, the term social justice sets in, since if justice was to prevail the poor could not have been oppressed or deprived of their basic need. Not only was poverty a menace to the Israelites, it also present a serious threat to the daily lives of the modern people and its discussion will be of much importance to the whole world. This paper discusses the what the bible say about poverty and the role of social justice especially among the Israel's who were the main subject in poverty discussion.

The biblical version of poverty

Views in the Old Testament

The Hebrew Bible mainly uses the Israelites as the subjects to poverty. Due to lack of justice from the Egyptians, the Israelites are oppressed and made to serve the former making them to be poor (Malchow, 1996). Therefore, this made the Israelites know what injustice could do to their own society. In their own land, the Israelites had to look for a way of eliminating injustice which would prevail among them. This could come because of the rise of the stratified society composed of the merchants and the poor. The merchants acquired much land thereby leaving the other group, which consisted of families without land and were unable to trade, in a poor situation (Tighe 1989). The different family structures during their exodus from Egypt could have also paved way for the injustice among the Israelites. This gave rise to an imbalance of the economic order among the Israelites. According to the Hebrew Bible, this paved a way for the Near Eastern concern which was more of a structure to support the weak. It started from the gods, then the monarchs who represented the former in the societies, then finally to the ordinary people who had to keep watch of their brothers (Malchow, 1996). The gods provided the rulers with the special responsibility of ensuring that there was justice in the society. The Israelites law book also designed a structure in which there was prevention of accumulation of much wealth among the rich. The law also prevented the rich from exploiting the poor. To ensure that the law had it way, during the harvesting period, the edge of the harvesting field was not subjected to clearing. The social justice could be spread through the hymns and the variety of writings which were wisdom based. Apart from the writings, there were also occasional calls for charity which could see the rich dividing some of their wealth to the poor (Malchow, 1996).

My own biblical response to poverty

From the discussion of the two books, Old and New Testament, there is a similarity between the views given by both. While the former seems to be talking about the Israelites, the latter talks about the general and modern life. However, this does not bring any difference, since both are using social injustice as the cause poverty in the society. From these, it is worth noting that social injustice goes hand in hand with poverty. In the modern world, social injustice has gone too far in affecting the lives of the people in the society. For instance, the injustice existing between the already developed economies and the undeveloped economies has made the later continue in their current situation. The exploitation by the former clearly shows that there is no love between the two as was provided by Jesus. If there is a need to alleviate poverty, it is true that the world should copy the way of the Israelites which would see the rich countries providing a helping hand to the poor countries. The world should also adapt to Jesus teaching about loving one's neighbor thereby promoting the sense of equality. As provided by the bible, social justice is the key treatment to the ailments presented by poverty.

Reference

Grassi, J.A. (2003). Informing the future: Social justice in the New Testament. New York:

Paulist Press.

Malchow, B.V. (1996). Social justice in the Hebrew Bible: What is new and what is old.

Minn: Liturgical Press.

Tighe, Miriam (1989). What the Bible Say About Poverty. Retrieved from:

www.irishchurches.org/files/WhattheBiblesaysaboutPOVERTY.pdf