Luke 4:18. Micah 6:8.
Oppression maketh a wise man mad;
Ecclesiastes 7:7a.Thou shalt not pervert the judgement of the stranger, nor of the fatherless, nor take a widow’s raiment to pledge.
Deuteronomy 27:17.For the poor shall never cease out of the land, therefore I command thee, saying, Thou shall open thine hand wide unto thy brother, to thy poor, and to thy needy in thy land.
Deuteronomy 15:11.The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor,; he hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted , to preach deliverance to the captives , and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised. Luke 4:18.
The Bible’s classification of the poor includes the stranger, the fatherless , the widow and the needy as well as the lame, the infirm , the blind, the physically- challenged person’s and those with debilitating and terminal diseases like leprosy among others. Plus those who suddenly fell into poverty by reason of war, famine and loss of wealth by unforeseen circumstances like flooding, earthquakes and fire. This explains why God commanded Israel to take care of the poor because they will always be there, from generation to generation. They must not be oppressed. Besides, because Israel was once strangers in Egypt they also must care for the stranger.
Going by the Scriptures, the woman caught in adultery by the Jewish men, and brought to Jesus – to confirm the charge of death by stoning against her , falls into the class of the poor. Maybe she was a widow. And they wanted to get her oppressed by stoning to death.
Meanwhile the male partner- in-crime wasn’t brought for same judgement. This is almost the pattern in most African societies where men rampage all over seeking immoral and carnal lucre at the expense of their wives. Yet nobody hinders them. Even the church hardly does because they could leave and join other denominations, or quit outrightly to the damage and disadvantage of their insecure wives and families. This is the sad reality of the poor in our society. They are open to the abuse of the powerful, the influential and those who dominate their space. Yet the LORD Jesus Christ came for them also.
The poor are victims of their rich brethren around them including well placed politicians, senior government officials, over bearing neighbours, their employers and more privileged brothers and sisters who should reasonably protect them .
Even then , the point must be made that God has promised to defend the poor, the fatherless and the widow. In fact Jesus said: I have come to set the captives free, and put at liberty those that bruised. The poor are indeed under the captivity of human agents of the devil who bruise them to destruction and death ,if unrestrained.
Look around today, and you will see widows and fatherless families being oppressed by their more privileged ones. Mrs Emmanuel (not real name,) lost her husband. Whereas she had tender male and female children, the husband’s family opposed the burying of her husband in their family compound where the late husband built a mansion. They had planned to chase away the grieving family immediately after the burial , and take over the property. It took the intervention of the community elders, some of whom were bribed, to sanction the burial in the family compound. This case is a routine occurrence in our clime.
Oppression of the poor for whom Jesus also came to save and to deliver as stated in Luke 4:18 is real.
Many widows and the fatherless have been denied access to their family land by their more powerful family members, or husbands’ brothers or fathers’ brothers, as it were. Very few get to the courts for justice, especially given that most of these evils occur when the children are still young. Or when the widows are still mourning their dead. As a child of God, are you entangled in this kind of wickedness and unjust behavior? These are also souls Jesus was born to save, as we celebrate.
Oppression of the poor has become a pass time in our time and age.
Very often, governments come out with obnoxious laws to oppress the poor. Think of the destruction of some living spaces or environments by the government in Nigeria and elsewhere , and how such spaces were taken over by government and their agents. Call it land grabbing, and you will be right. Those who make evil decrees shall be ensnared by it, according to God’s word.
Meanwhile, there hundreds of people who engage daily paid workers, and foolishly refuse to settle them at the end of each day’s labour. Some even mount on motorbike and refuse to pay when they get to their destinations. These are clear cases of satanic oppression of the poor. The violence of the poor by the privileged.
Some employers of labour do not factor regular payment of salaries into their budget plan. They simply use the labour of their staff free. When the serving staff resigns out of frustration, they engage new ones to start owing them all over. Those who engage house helps are not free from this evil either. They oppress their maids or nannies or apprentice boys in ways that depict cruelty and ungodliness. Our laws are sparingly engaged to capture these unreasonable and wicked people, according to Apostle Paul in 2Thessslonians 3:2. The Psalmist in Psalms 140: 1-5 calls them violent and wicked people who wage war to upturn the goings of the innocent, poor.
But God is concerned about the oppression of the poor and the needy?
If God is not concerned, the Jews would have stoned the woman caught in adultery and brought to Jesus to condemn her, to death. At the point of their carrying out their mischief, Jesus came into the scene to change the narrative.
Medical practitioners also took advantage of the woman with the issue of blood, before Jesus delivered her to alter the equation. Do you do similar things against disadvantaged class of people? In a particular village, some people arranged with a fake eye doctor, and went about broadcasting that there is a specialist eye doctor around. For some months, they gathered scores of people seeking eye medics solution. By the time they had made enough fleecing of the village folks, the fake doctor disappeared.
Some professionals also cheat their ignorant clients like the fake eye doctor. Taking advantage of the poor. There is God ooo, who rules and reigns in the affairs of all people. Watch!
If God is not concerned, He would not have specially assigned Jesus the deliverance of the poor, as a critical component of His ministry here on earth. In fact, all the miracles of Jesus were carried out on people who couldn’t help themselves: the cleansing of the leprose men, the raising of Lazarus from death , the healing of the palsy and the lame at the pool of Bethesda, among others. These are demonstrations that Jesus also came for the POOR and the OPPRESSED.
Today, if you are doing things that negate God’s kindness , grace and will for the poor, it’s time to repent. Yes. Repent. Be conscious of the reality of God’s judgement upon those who work iniquity against the poor. God told Israel thus:
“He hath showed thee, O man, what is good , and what doth the LORD require of thee ? but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God”
Micah 6:8. Jesus represents this humble walk that cares for the poor and the oppressed. The failure of the oppressor to repent has grave consequences:
” Cursed be he that perverted the judgement of the stranger, fatherless and widow. And all the people shall say, Amen”.. Deuteronomy 27:19. Happy Sunday.
God bless. Happy celebrations. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year in advance.
Thank God for your being there throughout the year. May your heaven open for great grace, favor and mercy ahead of the New Year, in Jesus’ name. Amen.
ABOUT THE PREACHER
Pastor Okoro is a revivalist, and marriage counselor. He can be reached on:
08051000462.
©All Bible references are from KJV; Except otherwise stated.
December 25, 2022.