God commands His people, “And when ye reap the harvest of your land, thou shalt not wholly reap the corners of thy field, neither shalt thou gather the gleanings of thy harvest. 10 And thou shalt not glean thy vineyard, neither shalt thou gather every grape of thy vineyard; thou shalt leave them for the poor and stranger: I am the LORD your God” (Leviticus 19:9-10). Again He warns, “Ye shall do no unrighteousness in judgment: thou shalt not respect the person of the poor, nor honour the person of the mighty: but in righteousness shalt thou judge thy neighbour” (Leviticus 19:15). God creates people poor: “For there will never cease to be needy ones in your land, which is why I command you: open your hand to the poor and needy kinsman in your land” (Deut 15:11).
Why did not God, when He established the Theocracy, also establish a system that ensured the elimination of poverty? Nations around the world seek to establish laws that mitigate the disparity between rich and poor. Why does it appear that this is more important to man than it is to God? Jesus said, “The poor you will have with you always” (Mark 14:7). Although Jesus ministered to the poor, He never rebuked government for allowing people to be poor; He never called man’s tolerance of inequality a blight on his ability to properly govern himself.
Although any endeavor to answer this conundrum is conjecture, simply because God never addresses the question, we can nonetheless make this application: Life is intrinsically unjust, at least as we perceive reality. Even if man eliminates poverty by dividing the common good among the common man, he still must live with the inequalities of life brought about by Providence. People are born autistic, blind, severely deformed, etc. They suffer from terrible diseases that make them dependent upon others for their wellbeing. All the advances in science will not eliminate such suffering.
Into this mix God places His people, requiring them to respond biblically. On the one hand, you cannot blithely pass by those in want and say, “Be ye warmed and filled…” (James 2:16), and yet Jesus warns, “What shall it profit a man if he gains the world and loses his own soul?” (Mark 8:36). What do you profit a man if you meet his temporal needs and he spends eternity in hell?
God does not want man to solve his problems; rather He wants man’s problems to drive him to Jesus for His grace, forgiveness, and salvation. As you seek to biblically respond to the needs of others, never forget that God created those needs to both draw these needy people to Himself, and to test you. May God grant all of us a double portion of His wisdom on how to pass His tests.
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