The Prosperity Misconception Part 2: The poor will always be among you.

What an incredible thing to say. The poor of the people. The nation of Israel was the covenant nation of God. They were they chosen of God, the apple of God’s eye, the people through whom God would bring the salvation of the world. And some of them are poor. Don’t let that one get away from us.

You listen to some preachers and you get the impression that the nation of Israel was Paradise on earth and that even today they are incapable of error. But the thing that is so striking here is the fact that THE people have poor among them. Note that this Psalm was written by Solomon. These are the glory days of Israel. The Kingdom is larger than it will ever be again. There is prosperity and peace and exploration and education and more. It is the height of Israel’s political, economic, educational life. And the King offers a prayer for the poor.

Wherever you find great wealth you will find great poverty, and the glory days of Israel were no different. These poor are not less chosen than anyone else. They are not half citizens. They do not live in the faithless district of Jerusalem anymore than anyone else does. In fact, when the nation does fall away from God and His Law, it will be the rich who will be blamed for their abuses of the poor. These poor are the brothers and sisters of the rich. They are full participating members of the commonwealth of Israel.

The church of Jesus Christ is the chosen of God. We are a chosen race, royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession. And there are poor of whom this is true and for whom we should be petitioning our God.

The sad reality, in the church in North America is that so few churches have poor people who are an integral part of their assembly. We hear Christian people talking about their church’s efforts to “help the poor”. But so often there is a tone of “us and them”.