I'm not always sure why a particular word or verse appears to jump out at me from any one reading, but I suspect that God has buried down in my thoughts, some idea that I need to look at. Or it may be that the idea has been planted long ago and still lies dormant without producing any fruit.
Regardless, here is what I read this morning from John 11:
"For the poor you always have with you, but you do not always have me.”
The word poor appears 205 times in the Bible (I used the King James Version for my search), all the way from Genesis to Revelation. This word is used in a variety of ways, but I tried to focus in on my individual responsibility to the needy, because I feel that was what God was calling to my attention, again.
Then, somewhere out of my past, I remembered a phrase, also from the KJV, that was an admonition about the poor, so I searched for that. I found this in Proverbs 29:7:
"The righteous considereth the cause of the poor: but the wicked regardeth not to know it."
So what is the "cause of the poor"? What responsibility do I have in this matter? I am only one man, in a sea of poor and hungry, what in the world can I be expected to do, or even think about? From Deuteronomy, chapter 15:
"7 “If among you, one of your brothers should become poor, in any of your towns within your land that the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not harden your heart or shut your hand against your poor brother, 8 but you shall open your hand to him and lend him sufficient for his need, whatever it may be. 9 Take care lest there be an unworthy thought in your heart and you say, ‘The seventh year, the year of release is near,’ and your eye look grudgingly[a] on your poor brother, and you give him nothing, and he cry to the Lord against you, and you be guilty of sin.10 You shall give to him freely, and your heart shall not be grudging when you give to him, because for this the Lord your God will bless you in all your work and in all that you undertake.11 For there will never cease to be poor in the land. Therefore I command you, ‘You shall open wide your hand to your brother, to the needy and to the poor, in your land.’
Then there is Jesus talking to the rich young ruler, in Matthew 19:21:
"Jesus said unto him, If thou wouldest be perfect, go, sell that which thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, follow me."
I catch the drift of this Old Testament law and this New Testament challenge by Jesus, but where do I fit in. I want to do what God says, but how far do I go?
It seems to be not how little I can do to meet the minimum requirement, but how much I really care for someone else, someone in trouble.
I know the truth of all of this, but still have a hard time doing it. From John 8:32:
"and you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free."
If I only follow it..................
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