Poor And Needy

Do not exploit the poor because they are poor,and do not crush the needy in court,for the LORD will take up their caseand will plunder those who plunder them.

Proverbs 22:22-23 (NIV)

This proverb is both a warning and a promise. On one side, there’s a warning. It’s a warning from God himself that he cares about the poor, and just because they seem defenseless, he personally will defend them when they cry out to him. This is a warning to those who take advantage of the weak. God himself will avenge them.

On the other side of this proverb there is a promise: a promise to you who are poor, whether in money or in strength or in influence. Maybe you’re a single mom, and you definitely feel poor in all three areas. Sometimes an ex-husband will go to court to reduce his obligations or to gain custody of the children, not because he cares for them, but for spite. A single mom with no funds for a good lawyer can feel defeated and forsaken. If this is you, will you turn to the God who cares for you? Don’t fight wrong with wrong. Jesus said, “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth” (Matthew 5:5, NKJV).

Listen carefully: as your first and primary line of defense, call out to your Father in heaven. Listen to the words of Psalm 46:1-2, 7: “God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea. . . . The LORD Almighty is with us; and the God of Jacob is our fortress” (NIV).

Make It Personal . . . Live It Out!

Through the years, God has used ordinary people, like Irena Sendler, to bravely risk all to aid the needy. In 1942 the Nazis herded hundreds of thousands of Jews into the Warsaw ghetto. Granted permission to enter the ghetto as a sewer specialist, she left each day with children hidden in boxes and potato sacks.

“Can you guarantee they will live?” Irena later recalled the distraught parents asking. But she could only guarantee they would die if they stayed. Irena placed the children in non-Jewish homes, orphanages, and convents. “No one ever refused to take a child from me,” she said. With the assistance of many Christians, almost 2,500 were taken to safety.

One Year Bible Reading

Song of Songs 1:1–4:16; 2 Corinthians 8:16-24; Psalm 50:1-23; Proverbs 22:22-23