Day 20: The Princes and the Lowly

Luke 1:52 :

He has put down princes from their thrones.
And has exalted the lowly.

A good thing about being poor is that it gives God a lot to work with. When we are feeling rich, it is easy to think we are self-sufficient and able to live life without God. There’s a good proverb that deals with this:

Proverbs 30:8-9 :

Remove far from me falsehood and lies.
Give me neither poverty nor riches.
Feed me with the food that is needful for me;
lest I be full, deny you, and say, ‘Who is Yahweh?’
or lest I be poor, and steal,
and so dishonor the name of my God.

There are evil influences in the world that tend to move us into a place where there is a wide gap between the rich and the poor. We can see from these verses that it has the effect of moving us away from God. The God of the Jews brings people together and doesn’t permit a class system and we read here that God takes a personal interest in making sure that things get evened out.

It doesn’t appear from the Bible that God has given mankind this task and there is a problem when mankind tries to take on this job. It is very complicated; too complicated for us. The words “rich” and “poor” alone are hard to define unless you really understand each individual’s situation. On top of that, it isn’t the riches that define lowliness. A very poor person can be as proud as a king and a very rich man can be humble and recognize that his end is near! An attempt to regulate even the monetary system is so complicated that it has proven to be ineffective, how can we possibly regulate humility? I believe that this partly reveals why Socialism fails. It is a simpler system that attempts to control a complex one that only God knows how to control. Only God knows which “princes” to put down from their thrones and which of the “lowly” need exalting. God knows the heart and He is capable of doing this alone, but if we are so proud that we take the job from Him, then I think we get what we deserve. Instead God has given us a Bible that we can understand. If we respect God and live by the Bible, it makes life work the way it is supposed to.

As Christians we should continue in humility, knowing our correct position in life. We are not gods and instead we have a God that deserves our respect, obedience and worship no matter what our circumstances are. Even if we go through hard times, the Holy Spirit gives us plenty of power to do what is right, which is a truly wonderful gift we have been given. We have been taken from our sinful state and made into the children of God and we can be happy about this whether we are rich or poor.