The one who mocks the poor shows contempt for their maker. Whoever gloats over disaster will not go unpunished. ~Proverbs 17:5
Listen, my dear brothers: has not God chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom He promised those who love Him? ~James 2:5
Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it because if it prospers, you too will prosper. ~Jeremiah 29:7
Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everyone. If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge. I will repay,” says the Lord. On the contrary: “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; If he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.” Do not be overcome by evil. But overcome evil with good. ~Romans 12:17-22
Love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, because He is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful. ~Luke 6:35-36
“Seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it because if it prospers, you too will prosper.” This was Jeremiah’s advice to those who had been taken from Jerusalem and were now living, as captured slaves, in Babylon, the home of their enemy. “Pray for them? Pray for our enemy because, if they prosper then we will? We would rather that they die for what they did to us and our country. We should pray for THEM?”
Sometimes, God calls us to walk a hard road. Sometimes, when we are the one better off, it’s easy to give ourselves credit for our position. “The one who mocks the poor shows contempt for their maker.” In the case of the exiles from Jerusalem, we are tempted to see the Jews as the victims here. In truth, they are there because of God’s judgment upon them for not caring for the poor, and, in truth, showing contempt for their maker. They blew it big time before the Lord and now they are paying for it. They were the haughty ones and now the lesson is to humble themselves and pray for people they thought were beneath them.
They are not given the privilege of sitting around, nursing their wounds and feeling sorry for themselves because of their, now, lowly state. They are called to pray. And for who? They are to pray for the ones that God chose to use to punish them. “If your enemy prospers, you will too.” I know that I’ve said it before, but it just needs to be said again: there is always more to the story than what is right in front of us.
Probably, before the exile the poor Jews of Jerusalem, thought that God didn’t see how the powerful Jews in the land were treating them. They knew that they were being oppressed and mistreated. They were losing hope because they thought God wasn’t noticing. Never in their wildest dreams would they expect the powerful to be taken away into captivity while they were left behind in the homeland. Our unpredictable God is always the God of surprises. He usually never acts as we would expect Him too. But he is always just. The punishing judgment of exile was inflicted mostly on the oppressive rich. The poor got to stay home.
“Listen, my dear brothers: has not God chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom He promised those who love Him?” This is another of God’s surprises. We are so conditioned to think that when we are blessed in a way that this world would recognize as “blessed,” that God loves us and approves of us. “Somebody up there likes me.” James, however, says the poor have been chosen to be blessed, to be rich in faith, and through faith to inherit the Kingdom of Heaven.
I’m not saying here that the poor automatically make it to heaven, but they are blessed with many more opportunities to lean on Him, watch Him work on their behalf and be blessed as a result, which will increase their faith even more. Yet, many mock the poor, because they do not see the unseen blessings that are taking place, and in so doing, they show contempt for God and His way of working things out.
“Whoever gloats over disaster will not go unpunished.” Things are not always as they appear. We may think we know, but we may not know fully. Why is someone getting away with evil? He isn’t really. We just don’t know how God plans to deal with it. Why is that person so blessed? We don’t know the whole story. Is their blessing temporary? Did they begin in poverty and struggle? God knows what He is doing with that life. We are not His consultants or advisers. We need to remember that and take care with our God ordained position accordingly.
After 70 years, Babylon did fall. The disaster was huge, but the Jewish people who had been in captivity among them were not released from Jeremiah’s charge to pray for them. They were supposed to show mercy and not gloat over the disaster that had befallen Babylon. They would be coming home to Jerusalem, which was another disaster that had not been repaired, to live among the poor who had been left behind. This would be an opportunity for restarting and rebuilding, if they were willing.
Vengeance, and mocking and gloating and ripping open old wounds would only bring about further disaster. It’s easier to work together for a better future if those sinful human tendencies have not been indulged in the past. If someone is our enemy, if someone is poor, if someone is different from us, and everyone is, God calls us to apply the law of love in all situations and trust Him to work out the details. What keeps us humble in our attitude toward others, either the poor, those not like us, or even our enemies, is the thought, “Except for the grace of God, there go I.”
This Proverb was actually a challenging couplet to mesh together. We don’t usually think of the poor as an enemy, but would one mock a friend? Similarly, one would not gloat over the disaster of a friend, but would rush in to provide aid. Hence, my ruminations led me to include an attitude adjustment toward our enemies. It’s good that the proverbs, at times, call us to think outside the box. If today’s proverb, and subsequent message left you scratching your head for a bit, good, because it means you’re working with it and examining it and taking the lessons that are meant for you, even if it may have been a bit unclear to others.
Prayer: Father, I never thought of myself as a mocker or gloater. But maybe I wasn’t paying attention to what my attitudes really meant when I looked down my nose at others, even ever so slightly. Help me love as You do Lord! In Jesus’ name, amen.
Song:
Listen, my dear brothers: has not God chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom He promised those who love Him? ~James 2:5
Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it because if it prospers, you too will prosper. ~Jeremiah 29:7
Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everyone. If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge. I will repay,” says the Lord. On the contrary: “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; If he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.” Do not be overcome by evil. But overcome evil with good. ~Romans 12:17-22
Love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, because He is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful. ~Luke 6:35-36
“Seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it because if it prospers, you too will prosper.” This was Jeremiah’s advice to those who had been taken from Jerusalem and were now living, as captured slaves, in Babylon, the home of their enemy. “Pray for them? Pray for our enemy because, if they prosper then we will? We would rather that they die for what they did to us and our country. We should pray for THEM?”
Sometimes, God calls us to walk a hard road. Sometimes, when we are the one better off, it’s easy to give ourselves credit for our position. “The one who mocks the poor shows contempt for their maker.” In the case of the exiles from Jerusalem, we are tempted to see the Jews as the victims here. In truth, they are there because of God’s judgment upon them for not caring for the poor, and, in truth, showing contempt for their maker. They blew it big time before the Lord and now they are paying for it. They were the haughty ones and now the lesson is to humble themselves and pray for people they thought were beneath them.
They are not given the privilege of sitting around, nursing their wounds and feeling sorry for themselves because of their, now, lowly state. They are called to pray. And for who? They are to pray for the ones that God chose to use to punish them. “If your enemy prospers, you will too.” I know that I’ve said it before, but it just needs to be said again: there is always more to the story than what is right in front of us.
Probably, before the exile the poor Jews of Jerusalem, thought that God didn’t see how the powerful Jews in the land were treating them. They knew that they were being oppressed and mistreated. They were losing hope because they thought God wasn’t noticing. Never in their wildest dreams would they expect the powerful to be taken away into captivity while they were left behind in the homeland. Our unpredictable God is always the God of surprises. He usually never acts as we would expect Him too. But he is always just. The punishing judgment of exile was inflicted mostly on the oppressive rich. The poor got to stay home.
“Listen, my dear brothers: has not God chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom He promised those who love Him?” This is another of God’s surprises. We are so conditioned to think that when we are blessed in a way that this world would recognize as “blessed,” that God loves us and approves of us. “Somebody up there likes me.” James, however, says the poor have been chosen to be blessed, to be rich in faith, and through faith to inherit the Kingdom of Heaven.
I’m not saying here that the poor automatically make it to heaven, but they are blessed with many more opportunities to lean on Him, watch Him work on their behalf and be blessed as a result, which will increase their faith even more. Yet, many mock the poor, because they do not see the unseen blessings that are taking place, and in so doing, they show contempt for God and His way of working things out.
“Whoever gloats over disaster will not go unpunished.” Things are not always as they appear. We may think we know, but we may not know fully. Why is someone getting away with evil? He isn’t really. We just don’t know how God plans to deal with it. Why is that person so blessed? We don’t know the whole story. Is their blessing temporary? Did they begin in poverty and struggle? God knows what He is doing with that life. We are not His consultants or advisers. We need to remember that and take care with our God ordained position accordingly.
After 70 years, Babylon did fall. The disaster was huge, but the Jewish people who had been in captivity among them were not released from Jeremiah’s charge to pray for them. They were supposed to show mercy and not gloat over the disaster that had befallen Babylon. They would be coming home to Jerusalem, which was another disaster that had not been repaired, to live among the poor who had been left behind. This would be an opportunity for restarting and rebuilding, if they were willing.
Vengeance, and mocking and gloating and ripping open old wounds would only bring about further disaster. It’s easier to work together for a better future if those sinful human tendencies have not been indulged in the past. If someone is our enemy, if someone is poor, if someone is different from us, and everyone is, God calls us to apply the law of love in all situations and trust Him to work out the details. What keeps us humble in our attitude toward others, either the poor, those not like us, or even our enemies, is the thought, “Except for the grace of God, there go I.”
This Proverb was actually a challenging couplet to mesh together. We don’t usually think of the poor as an enemy, but would one mock a friend? Similarly, one would not gloat over the disaster of a friend, but would rush in to provide aid. Hence, my ruminations led me to include an attitude adjustment toward our enemies. It’s good that the proverbs, at times, call us to think outside the box. If today’s proverb, and subsequent message left you scratching your head for a bit, good, because it means you’re working with it and examining it and taking the lessons that are meant for you, even if it may have been a bit unclear to others.
Prayer: Father, I never thought of myself as a mocker or gloater. But maybe I wasn’t paying attention to what my attitudes really meant when I looked down my nose at others, even ever so slightly. Help me love as You do Lord! In Jesus’ name, amen.
Song:
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