Foundations for Christian Mission, Student Workbook, SW04

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F O U N D A T I O N S F O R C H R I S T I A N M I S S I O N

• The Scriptures define several causes of poverty, including natural disaster and calamity (e.g., famine, drought, storm, etc.), personal laziness and slothfulness (e.g., bad decisions, immoral character, hard idleness, heartedness, etc.), and oppression and injustice from the hands of the powerful (e.g., mistreatment, exploitation, defrauding wages, etc.). The term “the poor” in the Scriptures is linked to a number of different concepts which serve as synonyms including “the widow,” “the fatherless,” and the “stranger.” • God’s covenant standards of generous and just treatment of the poor serve as a witness to his own heart for them. He made special provisions for the care of the poor which were factored into the harvest and gleaning stipulations of the Law, and justice in the courts where all matters, measures, and transactions were to be done honestly and rightly. The resources of the people were to be shared in the Sabbatical year, with the poor being provided a share of the produce of the fields and vineyards. • The people of God were forbidden to charge interest to the poor, and instructed to pay a just and timely payment for a day’s work (i.e., wages to be paid the same day with no oppression or defrauding allowed). Radical hospitality was to be practiced to the poor (an “open hand policy”) and resources were to be set aside for them (i.e., certain portions of the tithe and bounty to be given to the most needy and vulnerable in the midst of the community). The poor were to be included in all celebrations, and in the year of Jubilee, the poor were to recover their property, with provision made for those whose funds were short or absent. • The implications of these standards for God’s covenant community are plain: God’s people were in all their actions to reflect God’s identification with the poor, informed by God’s deliverance of them at the Exodus, and were to demonstrate the Lord’s shalom in all their relationships and dealings with others.

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