Listen To What God Really Says
"'He (King Josiah) defended the cause of the poor and needy, and so all went well. Is that not what it means to know me?' declares the LORD." -- Jeremiah 22:16
We loudly proclaim ourselves to be Christians yet we are hard-hearted when it comes to the poor and needy. We don't want to share and we don't want to accept responsibility for anyone else. We turn a blind eye and call ourselves justified.
I am forever amazed as those who do this and then hold up their Bible as though it offers proof that they are right. It doesn't. Indeed, it condemns them again and again. Funny how that works. Just as we always find help and hope in God's Word, it seems we can also find excuses to justify our bad behavior. Don't they feel ashamed to use the Bible in such a bad way?
People always seem to blame the poor for their status in life. Sure. Sometimes they've made bad decisions that have led them to where they are at. Not always. It's truly difficult to learn and advance when you're growing up with no one to help you. Impossible? No. But the odds are really stacked against you. Many years ago I helped tutor first graders who were struggling to read. One little girl was having an especially difficult time. The teacher explained that it wasn't that the little girl's parents didn't care. It's just that they didn't read well enough to help her.
It's also difficult to blame someone when their job is eliminated. Plants close. Companies downsize. Layoffs are part of reality in a down economy. But we blame the unemployed -- especially when they don't immediately get another job. We demand they take any job and not be so proud. Then we criticize and condemn them for taking a job without health benefits or a liveable wage.
Nobody wants to pay for health benefits. Nobody wants to pay workers a liveable wage. But we all want to receive both. It can't be both ways, so we blame those who are caught in the middle. We point our judgmental fingers at the working poor in a vain attempt to justify ourselves.
God repeatedly tells those who have to help and give to those who don't. In this Bible passage, God is condemning a king for not following in his father's footsteps. God praises King Josiah for defending the poor and needy. Yet we condemn leaders who do the same, demanding that they take care of the haves.
Everyone is talking about the election. Christians are supposed to vote one way. Yet that way condemns the poor. Is that what God wants? I think we need to get past political parties and our own pocketbooks and select people who actually listen to God. He knows what to do. We just need to stop pulling our views from His Word and hear what He has to say.
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