Job Didn’t Deny the Poor
As we continue through Job 31, we now see him declaring that he had not denied the poor. Listen to his words: “If I have denied the desires of the poor or let the eyes of the widow grow weary, if I have kept my bread to myself, not sharing it with the fatherless— but from my youth I reared them as a father would, and from my birth I guided the widow— if I have seen anyone perishing for lack of clothing, or the needy without garments, and their hearts did not bless me for warming them with the fleece from my sheep, if I have raised my hand against the fatherless, knowing that I had influence in court, then let my arm fall from the shoulder, let it be broken off at the joint. For I dreaded destruction from God, and for fear of his splendor I could not do such things.” (Job 31:16-23 NIV11)
So for Job it would be sin to deny the poor. It would be sin to keep bread to himself while others starve. It would be sin to see somebody in need of clothing and not give them some. He says “for fear of God’s splendor I could not do such things” (v23). His respect for God is so great that he can’t imagine himself not giving to the needy, as a person who loves God.
Compassionate Call to Action
John Wesley was a similar type of man. In the 1700s in England, there was much poverty. But he always encouraged his people to spend time with the poor and give them great love and affection. In one of his letters he wrote this to a fellow preacher: "I want you to converse more, abundantly more, with the poorest of people, who, if they have not taste, have souls, which you may forward in their way to heaven... Creep in among them, in spite of dirt and a hundred disgusting circumstances; do not confine yourself to genteel and elegant people. My friend, let us walk as he walked.”
For Wesley, aiding the poor was the duty of anybody seeking to live like Jesus. For Job, it was simply the way of any God-fearing person. How about us? Would God be able to call us out for our lack of compassion for the poor?
A man named Terry Bell tells a story about being on a mission trip to South India when he was 20 years old. After 2-and-a-half months there, he was really craving a cheeseburger, and was bored out of his mind, and so he sat out on his balcony in this building out in the middle of the jungle and started to tease the little monkeys by giving them doughballs made from the bread he had. He was having such fun giving these monkeys these doughballs until he looked down and saw many local people angrily pacing under his balcony. Bell says “One thin-faced, sickly looking boy looked up at me with bulging eyes. In broken English, he said, “Master, feed poor boys, not monkeys.” It was like a stab in the heart. In the street below were orphans, beggars, lepers… Mothers and fathers who had starving children. Children who watched malnourished parents die. Parents who would watch their hungry children watching them die, knowing they left them to a miserable life on the streets. And there I was, playing games with the bread that for them was so precious. I was cut to the heart.”
Generosity in Action
And then he says this: “Every day this scene is reenacted in thousands of padded-pew churches, whose priorities are playing games with monkeys.”
Let’s not play games friends. Let’s feed the precious people in our communities who are hungry. Let’s give out of our abundance to those who have nothing. Let’s be sure that like Wesley and like Job, we can stand blameless before God because we didn’t play games with what we had, but gave generously to those who are in need.
