Deuteronomy 15:6 KJV
For the LORD thy God blesseth thee, as he promised thee: and thou shalt lend unto many nations, but thou shalt not borrow; and thou shalt reign over many nations, but they shall not reign over thee.
God made a promise to Israel that if they obeyed his voice He would bless them in such a way that
• There would be no poor in the land
• They would loan money to other nations but never have to borrow money from those nations.
But then God said there would be poor in the land always and they were to open their hands wide to them. It does not appear to me that the poor were in the land as a consequence of their personal sin but as a consequence of the corporate sin of the nation. Therefore those who were wealthy and those who were poor were in the state they found themselves through no real merit or demerit of their own, but because of an overriding nature of disobedience to God. And therefore those who had much were not to see themselves as more righteous than others. They were not to think that they were in the place they were in because they worked harder or studied more or had more motivation. They were to, in no way, judge the poor but open wide their hands and help them.
We, who have been so blessed, have been conformed to believe we have because we earned it. We are conditioned to pick on the weak and make them that much weaker. That is not the Spirit of God in us and it must be resisted. We must chose instead to reach out to those who are in pain and hurting to do all that we can to be a blessing to them.
For the LORD thy God blesseth thee, as he promised thee: and thou shalt lend unto many nations, but thou shalt not borrow; and thou shalt reign over many nations, but they shall not reign over thee.
God made a promise to Israel that if they obeyed his voice He would bless them in such a way that
• There would be no poor in the land
• They would loan money to other nations but never have to borrow money from those nations.
But then God said there would be poor in the land always and they were to open their hands wide to them. It does not appear to me that the poor were in the land as a consequence of their personal sin but as a consequence of the corporate sin of the nation. Therefore those who were wealthy and those who were poor were in the state they found themselves through no real merit or demerit of their own, but because of an overriding nature of disobedience to God. And therefore those who had much were not to see themselves as more righteous than others. They were not to think that they were in the place they were in because they worked harder or studied more or had more motivation. They were to, in no way, judge the poor but open wide their hands and help them.
We, who have been so blessed, have been conformed to believe we have because we earned it. We are conditioned to pick on the weak and make them that much weaker. That is not the Spirit of God in us and it must be resisted. We must chose instead to reach out to those who are in pain and hurting to do all that we can to be a blessing to them.
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