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The DEEP

How We Treat the Poor

says a lot.

Exodus 23:1-9 (NK.JV)

“You shall not circulate a false report. Do not put your hand with the wicked to be an unrighteous witness. You shall not follow a crowd to do evil; nor shall you testify in a dispute so as to turn aside after many to pervert justice. You shall not show partiality to a poor man in his dispute.

“If you meet your enemy’s ox or his donkey going astray, you shall surely bring it back to him again. If you see the donkey of one who hates you lying under its burden, and you would refrain from helping it, you shall surely help him with it.

“You shall not pervert the judgment of your poor in his dispute. Keep yourself far from a false matter; do not kill the innocent and righteous. For I will not justify the wicked. And you shall take no bribe, for a bribe blinds the discerning and perverts the words of the righteous.

“Also you shall not oppress a stranger, for you know the heart of a stranger, because you were strangers in the land of Egypt.”

As with the previous passage, these are not laws with specific schedules of punishment, but rules for righteous living for God’s people.

And these rules hold Israel (and us) to an even higher standard than that. Even your enemy's ox must be rescued in times of trouble. The same rule holds if you see the donkey of one who hates you lying under its burden. This goads people into being better than they feel like being.

Also, we must treat the poor fairly. You shall not pervert the judgment of your poor in his dispute. So, how do you apply this in a modern wealthy nation? We don’t have the kind of poor that existed back then.

I learned what real poverty looks like on my business trips to Brazil. The town we were in (San Jose dos Compos) has, right smack in the middle of it, a neighborhood known as the black hole. At night, the black hole is totally dark and the rest of the town is a lighted ring around it.

The black hole is a valley with no electricity, partly because it’s a flood plain. The people who live there are poorer than most Americans can even imagine. They have few possessions and little income. People like these frequently get hit by misfortunes and injustices.

This passage commands us to not add to that. God holds a special place in His heart for the poor.


Our poor may not be a poor as the folks that lived in the black hole but they’re poor enough. We are commanded, in no uncertain terms, to minister to them.

But whoever has this world’s goods, and sees his brother in need, and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him? – 1 John 3:17 (NKJV)

If we don’t minister to those in need, people won’t be attracted to our message – nor should they be.


The weekly study guides, which include discussion questions, are available for download here:

https://www.ailbe.org/resources/itemlist/category/91-deep-studies

Mike Slay

As a mathematician, inventor, and ruling elder in the Presbyterian Church in America, Mike Slay brings an analytical, conversational, and even whimsical approach to the daily study of God's Word.

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