"to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke,

to set the oppressed free and break every yoke?

Is it not to share your food with the hungry and

to provide the poor wanderer with shelter’

Isaiah 58v6

There are more than nine hundred verses in Scripture reminding us that God expects his people to provide for the needs of the poor.     Here are a few…

After giving the ten commandments, God said to the Israelites…
‘If there is a poor man among your brothers in any of the towns of the land that the Lord your God is giving you, do not be hard-hearted or tight fisted towards your poor brother.

Rather be open handed and freely lend him whatever he needs.’ Deuternomy 15v7–10

God says, through the prophet Isaiah…

‘Seek justice, encourage the oppressed. Defend the cause of the fatherless and the widow.’ Isaiah 1v17
‘Woe to those who make unjust laws, to those who issue oppressive decrees, to deprive the poor of their rights and withhold justice from the oppressed.’ Isaiah 10v1

Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter, when you see the naked, to clothe him, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood’ Isaiah 58v6

The Psalms talk about poverty…

‘The poor will eat and be satisfied’ Psalm 22
‘from your bounty O God, you provided for the poor’  Psalm 68
‘Blessed is the man who fears the Lord, who finds great delight in his commands…Good will come to him who is generous and lends freely…He has scattered abroad his gifts to the poor’  Psalm 112
‘He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the ash heap;
he seats them with princes’  Psalm 113
‘ For the Lord has chosen Zion…her poor will I satisfy with food’ Psalm 132                      

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