God’s Care for the Poor
477
The Lord declared to Israel: “The land shall not be sold forever:
for the land is Mine; for ye are strangers and sojourners with Me.”
Leviticus 25:23
. The people were to be impressed with the fact that it
was God’s land which they were permitted to possess for a time; that
He was the rightful owner, the original proprietor, and that He would
have special consideration made for the poor and unfortunate. It was
to be impressed upon the minds of all that the poor have as much right
to a place in God’s world as have the more wealthy.
Such were the provisions made by our merciful Creator, to lessen
suffering, to bring some ray of hope, to flash some gleam of sunshine,
into the life of the destitute and distressed.
The Lord would place a check upon the inordinate love of property
and power. Great evils would result from the continued accumulation
of wealth by one class, and the poverty and degradation of another.
Without some restraint the power of the wealthy would become a
monopoly, and the poor, though in every respect fully as worthy in
God’s sight, would be regarded and treated as inferior to their more
prosperous brethren. The sense of this oppression would arouse the
passions of the poorer class. There would be a feeling of despair
and desperation which would tend to demoralize society and open
the door to crimes of every description. The regulations that God
established were designed to promote social equality. The provisions
of the sabbatical year and the jubilee would, in a great measure, set
right that which during the interval had gone wrong in the social and
political economy of the nation.
These regulations were designed to bless the rich no less than the
poor. They would restrain avarice and a disposition for self-exaltation,
and would cultivate a noble spirit of benevolence; and by fostering
good will and confidence between all classes, they would promote
social order, the stability of government. We are all woven together
in the great web of humanity, and whatever we can do to benefit and
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uplift others will reflect in blessing upon ourselves. The law of mutual
dependence runs through all classes of society. The poor are not more
dependent upon the rich than are the rich upon the poor. While the one
class ask a share in the blessings which God has bestowed upon their
wealthier neighbors, the other need the faithful service, the strength of
brain and bone and muscle, that are the capital of the poor.