"There Shall Be No Poor Among You"

“There Will Be No Poor Among You!”

Deuteronomy 15:1-11

            This sounds like an order, but it is a promise.  Actually, it’s both.

Moses is making his farewell speech to the Israelites.  They are preparing to enter the Promised Land, but God has told him he will not be making the journey with them.  He will die and be buried in the wilderness.  As his final gift to his people he summarizes God’s commandments.  He wants the last thing they hear from him to be God’s law.  If he reminds them of God’s instructions perhaps they will take them into their new homeland, be governed by them, and teach them to their children.

            About halfway through his address Moses reminds the Israelites of God’s commandment concerning the sabbatical year.  Every seven years all debts to fellow Israelites are to be forgiven.  This allows everyone to begin anew.  There will be no multigenerational poverty.  There are to be no poor among the Israelites, for God will bless them all abundantly.  That’s the promise—and the command.

            But what if there is a reversal of fortune?  Someone’s land is flooded, or there is too little rain and too much sun—drought conditions—or a person’s house burns and everything in it.  What happens then? 

            Moses deals with this in vv. 7-11.  No matter when disaster strikes, those who have are to lend to those who don’t have—to lend even if there is no possibility of being repaid.  What happens if your neighbor needs help in the sixth year?  “I’m not going to help,” you say.  “If I do, I must forgive the debt at the end of this year, and I’ll never see that money again.  That’s not fair to me.  It’s his tough luck.  He should have been more careful.”

            God (through Moses) deals with this directly.  “As the Lord your God has blessed you, you shall give to him.”  Or her.  Or them. 

            God promises (v. 6) to bless the Israelites, “if only you will strictly obey the voice of the Lord your God, being careful to do all the commandments that I [Moses] command you this day.”  Not much wiggle room is there?  We are to care for the poor, help the poor, forgive the debts of the poor so that there will be no poor.  Only if we fulfill our obligation to help those less fortunate will we be blessed.  This is the catch to the promise.

            So…does that mean we have an obligation to help even if it’s their fault they’re poor?  That’s the way I read this passage.  Herman Melville, the great American author, said, “Of all the preposterous assumptions of humanity over humanity, nothing exceeds most of the criticisms made on the habits of the poor by the well-housed, well-warmed, and well-fed.”

            He said that over one hundred years ago.  We still have poor.  We still haven’t listened to God’s voice saying, “There will be no poor among you.”

            Why haven’t we heard these instructions?  Because we don’t want to.  “But,” you say, “such a system of wealth distribution isn’t possible.  How could we redirect wealth from the rich to the poor in any meaningful way?  That’s socialism—communism even.  We certainly don’t want to be that kind of country.”

            First of all, neither did Israel.  To the best of anyone’s knowledge the sabbatical year never happened.  They couldn’t bring themselves to do it.

            Second, we’re already a socialist country.  We have social security.  We have Medicaid.  We have Medicare.  I don’t believe we would want to see those social programs end.

            Eric Hoffer said, “The only index by which to judge a government or a way of life is by the quality of the people it acts upon.  No matter how noble the objectives of a government, if it blurs decency and kindness, cheapens human life, and breeds ill will and suspicion—it is an evil government.”

            Sounds like Moses speaking God’s words, doesn’t it?