A WORD TO THE WISE. Proverbs 29: 13

Proverbs 29: 13     The poor man and the oppressor have this in common: The Lord gives light to the eyes of both.

Proverbs 29: 13.  This scripture highlights a contrast and a connection between two socioeconomic classes.  The classes here are the poor and the people who keep them poor in order to profit from their poverty. 

Now, immediately something rises up in some  of you that says, “Wait a minute now.  Poverty isn’t somebody else’s fault.  Some people are poor because they are lazy or because they make bad decisions.” 

Granted.  And the Bible speaks to those situations, but the Bible also speaks to the very real situations in which poverty is the product of oppression, not laziness, not stupidity, not sin. 

The whole counsel of God demands that we see the poor in a more nuanced light.  They aren’t all simply the lazy dregs of the far-right or the innocent invalids of the far-left.  The Bible points out poverty is a bit of both.

The poor and their oppressors are contrasted in Proverbs 29: 13 as the robbed are contrasted to the robbers.  But they are also connected by the common work of God. 

God’s light shines on the poor and oppressed just as brightly as it shines upon the rich and corrupt. And, vice versa.

God’s mercy, God’s grace, God’s longsuffering offer of another chance to do things right are always available to the bottom rungs of society.  That same mercy, grace, and another chance are equally available (and needed) at the top of ladder.

When the opposing classes meet in the course of business they assume positions of spiritual superiority.  The tenant thinks, “God will definitely let me into Heaven because I’ve suffered so much , and He will definitely send my landlord to Hell because he’s made me suffer.”

The slumlord thinks, “God doesn’t care about these people or why would they suffer?  Surely God loves me more because He’s kept me from being like them.”

Both are wrong.

God shows the same light and Truth to slumlord and to tenant, to disenfranchised citizen and to corrupt politician, to middle-classed drug dealer and to homeless addict.  The light of God’s Word shines on the Truth that: ALL are sinners.  ALL  have come short of God’s standard (Romans 3: 23).  ALL need to repent and be saved in through Jesus Christ because God loves ALL of us (2 Peter 3: 9).

---Anderson T. Graves II

Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is the pastor of Hall Memorial CME Church

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