God's attitude towards poverty and hunger.

Do you know how God regards poverty and hunger? If you look in the Bible, you won't have far to look. You'll find the same thing told in both the Old and New Testaments – in God's laws, in the Prophets and in Jesus' teaching in the Gospels.. Our reading for today is just one place where we find God's concern for the poor – and I shall be mentioning others as we go along.

God's attitude comes across in verse 4: There should be no poor among you! This is teaching so radical, it takes our breath away! for God is not suggesting that we should be more generous to the poor. Nor is he saying we should do our best to see that there are fewer poor. He is actually saying that if we all live as he wants us to live – there will be no poor among us!

You see – God has created a world which can provide for the needs of everyone – provided (1) we exercise our stewardship of the world responsibly, so as to care for it – not polluting or destroying it; and (2) we share its resources and produce fairly among all people. But we won't do this if we waste God's bountiful provision, or consume it greedily, without regard for our neighbour.

Poverty is no part of God's intention for mankind – it is the result of our fall into disobedience. Unequal distribution and consumption is not an unavoidable economic law. It is a consequence of human sin, that has become embedded in the very patterns of our work, our trade and our behaviour as consumers.

God's provision for poor people.

After God had rescued his people from slavery in Egypt, he gave them instructions on how he wanted them to live. These laws would be for their own good – and as a light to the surrounding nations, revealing God's character and his intention for everybody. God's laws were intended to restrain selfishness, and help people to live just and compassionate lives.

Thus, in Leviticus 19, God tells the farmers and vineyard owners, that when they harvest their crops, they are to leave some for the poor. By not reaping to the very edge of their fields, nor going over the vines a second time, or picking up any fallen grapes. (Lev 19:10) The gleanings were for the poor and the alien, who could take what they needed for their families, so that their children would not be malnourished. And this provision would require labour, and so preserve the dignity of the poor, rather than just receiving charitable hand-outs. All of this shows God's compassionate love and mercy.

The same is true of the provision in our reading for the cancellation of debts. Every seven years, those struggling under the burden of debt, were to have their debts cancelled. In this way they were given a fresh start, and be able to climb out of poverty. God asks his people to interpret this rule generously. Not to refuse to lend to those in need, as the seventh year approaches, because they were unlikely to be repaid!

This is an extraordinary requirement by our standards today – especially when we bear in mind that lenders to fellow-members of God's people were not to charge interest either! (Lev 25:36,37) God makes it plain that lenders were not to be hard-hearted or tightfisted towards the poor, but ungrudging and generous. To be anything else would be sin; but generosity would please God, who would be generous in turn.

Finally, the situation of the desperately poor, who sold themselves as unpaid servants to fellow-citizens – was hedged about with kindness. They were not to be treated as slaves, but as if they were hired workers. They had to be released after six years – and not just dismissed, but sent on their way with a liberal supply of the means to support themselves. The masters were to give as the Lord had given to them, and they were not to forget that they had been redeemed from slavery. (Exod 21:2-6; Lev 25:39-43; Deut 15:12-18) All of these rules were intended to bring about the elimination of poverty, so that there would be no poor among them.

True Worship.

These instructions were given when Israel was newly formed as God's redeemed people – and would have made them a just, united and harmonious nation. But sadly they were soon neglected and forgotten, because of human waywardness and disobedience. (e.g. Jer 34:8-17) It was his knowledge of human sin, that led God to say, There will always be poor people in the land. (Deut 15:11)

It was the prophets who called the people to return to God's way. A powerful example of this is found in Isaiah 38. In his day, the people think they are doing exactly what God wants of them. They fast regularly, they worship according to the prescribed ritual, they pray and believe they are keeping God's laws. So they wonder why it is that God hasn't answered their prayers. Why have we fasted and you have not seen it? (Isa 58:3)

But God's response is to exclaim, Is that what you call a fast? Just a time of ritual, going through the motions of worship, while there is injustice at the heart of your relationships with others? (Isa 58:4,5)

God identifies four wrong things: exploitation of their workers, oppression of the poor, disregard for justice and neglect of those in need. All of these result from the self-indulgence of the rich, and their failure to take God seriously – for he points out that they treat the Sabbath day as a day to do as they please, not as a day to honour the Lord and rejoice in him. (Isa 58:13)

God reminds them of what they ought to do: share their food with the hungry, release the oppressed, clothe the destitute, respect and show kindness to the vulnerable. This is the fast I want: Remove the chains of oppression and the yoke of injustice, and let the oppressed go free! (Isa 58:6 GNB)

Only when his nation puts people before profit, loving justice and being generous to the poor, will God pour out his blessing on it.

Our own world.

Of course our own world is very different from the one that faced Isaiah and the other prophets – but the underlying principles are the same – God has not changed, and basically, neither have we. To apply these Old Testament passages to ourselves we need first to look below the surface of our own affluent culture.

It's true that, unlike the Quechua of Bolivia, we don't have to worry about our children being under-nourished, or reckon that 20% of our children will die before their first birthday, as the Quechua do. If we have problems with food and other resources, it will be those of over-consumption – obesity, waste and pollution.

But the fact of distance doesn't cease to make the Quechua, and other poor people, our neighbours. And if the first commandment is that we should love the Lord our God with all our heart, with all our soul, and with all our strength (Deut 6:5) – the second, which flows from it, is that we should love our neighbour as ourselves (Lev 19:18) (Matt 22:37-40; Mark 12:30,31; Gal 5:14; Jas 2:8)

Second, like the people of Isaiah's day, we need to be aware of the devastating effect of sin on all people, not least upon the rich and powerful – which we in the West are, and the nations we are members of.

The powerful nations of the world have the power to trade unfairly, paying the global poor as little as they can, to safeguard their own profits. As a result farmers in the developing world may not be able to provide for their families or even afford to harvest their crops.

The powerful nations can default on their agreement to cut back on fossil fuel consumption and the emission of greenhouse gases – but the poor will feel most acutely the effects of climate change. The powerful can hold the economically weak nations to ransom through failure to cancel debts, and requiring first world interest rates – so the poor suffer hardship, hunger and child malnutrition. Of course, nations in debt must also be just, and distribute wealth fairly – but that doesn't relieve our responsibility towards them.

Applying the biblical principles to ourselves.

What then should we do? Here are three ways we can apply these biblical principles to ourselves:

1. We can look at our own lifestyles and consumption patterns and see if we are living at the expense of others. We are doing that if we are wasting, or using too greedily, the earth's resources, or if we willingly and knowingly buy food or other goods, that have been produced without a fair return going to the grower or original maker. And, of course, we are to be honest and just in all our dealings with those we employ.

2. We can put pressure on governments in affluent countries, to be generous to countries whose people are held in poverty by those countries' debts, or by restrictive and unjust trading practices. Not only by the cancellation of debts, and reform of trading rules, but by generous aid budgets.

3. Individually, we can be generous to those in need, and we can support projects carried out by Christian agencies, such as those of Tearfund, which work through Christian partners on the ground – such as Yanapanakuna, which have a true and deep interest in the welfare of their people, and bring the love of Christ into their lives. Surely, this is just what we are commanded to do by Jesus! I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me. (Matt 25:34-40; 1 John 3:17,18; Jas 2:15,16)