PROVERBS 17
Better is a dry morsel with quiet
than a house full of feastingwith strife.
2 A servant who deals wisely will rule over a son who acts shamefully
and will share the inheritance as one of the brothers.
3 The crucible is for silver, and the furnace is for gold,
and the Lord tests hearts.
4 An evildoer listens to wicked lips,
and a liar gives ear to a mischievous tongue.
5 Whoever mocks the poor insults his Maker;
he who is glad at calamity will not go unpunished.
– Proverbs 17:1-5
PROVERBS 17 WHEN YOU MOCK THE POOR
A poem by ILMA inspired by these verses
When you serve the Lord your God, you must be impartial
To prefer the rich rather than the poor insults your Maker
God created humans and he made them all equal
When you mock the poor, you are also mocking your Maker.
The book of James in chapter 2 talks about the sin of partiality. He says that if you serve the Lord Jesus Christ, you should have nothing to do with any form of discrimination. He gives the example of a situation when a rich man enters an assembly and wears a gold ring and fine clothing and another poor man in shabby clothing also comes in and you give preference to the rich one and treat the poor man badly, you have made distinctions and become judges with evil thoughts. Then James continues to tell us that God has chosen the poor to be rich in faith and heirs of his kingdom.
Solomon also admonishes us not to mock the poor because if we do so, we are insulting our Maker. Genesis 1:27 says that we are all made in God’s image, man and woman alike. He didn’t make one better than the other, but he has all his DNA of righteousness planted in our hearts. When we go against the way he made us we are mocking him. We are presuming that we know better than he does.
REFLECTION
- What are some ways we can mock the poor that can insult our Lord?
