Biblical View on Poverty, Social

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).

Views in the New Testament

Besides the Hebrew Bible which mainly refers to the Old Testament, the New Testament also has its views about poverty and social justice. The New Testament majorly makes use of the Christian virtues throughout the whole book with Jesus His disciples being the main mentors. Most of the Christian virtues given by Jesus and the latter seem to be favoring the poor. The prayer that Jesus gave His disciples to recite gives the insight for the need of social justice in the society: "…love your neighbor as you love yourself…" Mark 12:28-34 (Grassi, 2003). This verse indicates that if an individual is rich then he should find a way of making his neighbor be in the same status. This makes the New Testament no different from the Old Testament since this is the greatest commandment that was given to the Israelites. This commandment was given out by God himself implying that God was ready to protect the poor. This commandment would have helped in a harmonious living between the poor and the rich in the society hence the social injustice proclaimed in the Old Testament (Grassi, 2003). Manifestation of social justice also sets in the New Testament when the rich man comes to Jesus and asks him what he should do so that he inherits the God's kingdom (Grassi, 2003). In response, Jesus tells him that he should go and give out some of his wealth to the suffering. When Jesus talks about fasting, social justice sets in again, with the need for giving the oppressed food during the fasting days. Therefore, love between the rich and the poor comes in handy in the New Testament.

My own biblical response to poverty