He who shuts his ear to the cry of the poor will also cry himself and not be answered. Proverbs 21:13.
And recognizing the grace that I [Paul] had been given, James, Cephas, and John—those reputed to be pillars—gave me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship, so that we should go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised. They only asked us to remember the poor, the very thing I was eager to do. Galatians 1:9-10.
If there is a poor man with you, one of your brothers, in any of your towns in your land which the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not harden your heart, nor close your hand from your poor brother; but you shall freely open your hand to him, and shall generously lend him sufficient for his need in whatever he lacks. Deuteronomy 15:7-8.
However, there will be no poor among you, since the Lord will surely bless you in the land which the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance to possess, if only you listen obediently to the voice of the Lord your God, to observe carefully all this commandment which I am commanding you today. Deuteronomy 15:4-5.
Today your LORD (יהוה) God says:
Do not ignore the cry of the poor. Proverbs 21:13. My Son told you about certain rich people that only grew rich for themselves and neglected the poor and it did not end well for them. There was the rich man who feasted splendidly every day and would not even give the scraps from his table to the poor man Lazarus right outside his gate. He just passed him by. Do not put off for tomorrow the good you can do today. And that man ended in hell. Then there was that man with a super abundant harvest that had no where to store so much. So instead of sharing it with the poor, he built bigger barns and kept it all for his own consumption. But he never got to partake of it for I demanded an accounting that night. You will notice too, if you read the accounts of their lives carefully, neither one of those men ever consulted Me about anything. They only grew rich for themselves, and in both cases their god was their belly.
It was never My intention that anyone would be poor. I desire above all things that you prosper and be in good health, even as your soul prospers. I take delight in the prosperity of My people. My first words to mankind were the BLESSING, empowering them to be very fruitful and to have dominion over the earth. Jesus is the vine and you are the branches and attached to Him you will bear MUCH fruit. After Adam put you all in survival mode by handing his authority to the devil and turned the earth into a waste, though I created it to be inhabited and to be a Garden of Eden, I so wanted to give you back that abundant life that My Son emptied Himself and took on the curse so that though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, so that you through His poverty might become rich. 2 Corinthians 8:9.
I hate poverty. I call it a curse. Just read Deuteronomy 28. There is no lack in My Kingdom of Heaven. When Abraham entered Covenant with Me, I was able to bless him to be a blessing and I made him very rich in silver, gold and cattle. And I was able then to bless his descendants for he had entered an everlasting Covenant with Me and taught it to his descendants. Later the Israelites entered Covenant with Me with Moses as mediator, and I taught them to profit and to gain wealth. And I told them there should be no poor among them. I even instructed landowners not to glean the edges of their fields to leave grain and supplies for the poor. But because people do not follow My Words that was not happening, so I introduced the Jubilee, when all debts were to be cancelled, those who had become slaves to their creditors set free, and all lands returned to their ancestral owners. This was to eradicate poverty, but the Israelites did not keep My Jubilees. Survivalist mentality never has enough, never sees abundance, all it sees is lack and runs constantly to fill that lack.
I have asked each of you to have a generous heart and bless the poor with provision. If you give to the poor, you lend to Me and I repay. With interest. As you give, so it is given to you. The measure with which you measure is measured back to you. I tell you that the righteous man gives generously to the poor. And the result? Wealth and riches are in his house. It is actually in your best interests to give to the poor because that will be measured back to you and more besides.
If you have been reluctant to help those in need thinking it will impoverish you, I will share with you some of the benefits of helping the poor that you find in My Word.
Psalm 41 begins: “Blessed are those who are kind to the poor! The Lord rescues them when they are in trouble. The Lord protects them and keeps them alive. He gives them prosperity in the land and rescues them from their enemies. The Lord sustains them on their sickbed and restores them to health.”
Psalm 112:9: “He has given freely to the poor, his righteousness endures forever; his horn will be exalted in honor.”
Proverbs 11:25: “The generous man will be prosperous, And he who waters will himself be watered.”
Proverbs 14:21: “He who despises his neighbor sins, but happy is he who is gracious to the poor.”
Proverbs 14:31: “He who oppresses the poor taunts his Maker, but he who is gracious to the needy honors Him.”
Proverbs 19:17: “One who is gracious to a poor man lends to the Lord, and He will repay him for his good deed.”
Proverbs 21:13: “He who shuts his ear to the cry of the poor will also cry himself and not be answered.”
Proverbs 22:9: “He who is generous will be blessed, for he gives some of his food to the poor.”
Proverbs 28:27: “He who gives to the poor will never want, but he who shuts his eyes will have many curses.”
Isaiah 58:6-12: “Is this not the fast which I choose, to loosen the bonds of wickedness, to undo the bands of the yoke, and to let the oppressed go free and break every yoke? Is it not to divide your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into the house; when you see the naked, to cover him; and not to hide yourself from your own flesh? Then your light will break out like the dawn, and your recovery will speedily spring forth; and your righteousness will go before you; the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard. Then you will call, and the Lord will answer; You will cry, and He will say, ‘Here I am.’ If you remove the yoke from your midst, the pointing of the finger and speaking wickedness, and if you give yourself to the hungry and satisfy the desire of the afflicted, then your light will rise in darkness. And your gloom will become like midday. And the Lord will continually guide you, and satisfy your desire in scorched places, and give strength to your bones; and you will be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water whose waters do not fail. Those from among you will rebuild the ancient ruins; you will raise up the age-old foundations; and you will be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of the streets in which to dwell.”
Matthew 25:31-46: “But when the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then He will sit on His glorious throne. All the nations will be gathered before Him; and He will separate them from one another, as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats; and He will put the sheep on His right, and the goats on the left. Then the King will say to those on His right, ‘Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me something to drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in; naked, and you clothed Me; I was sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me.’ Then the righteous will answer Him, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry, and feed You, or thirsty, and give You something to drink? And when did we see You a stranger, and invite You in, or naked, and clothe You? When did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’ The King will answer and say to them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.’ Then He will also say to those on His left, ‘Depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels; for I was hungry, and you gave Me nothing to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me nothing to drink; I was a stranger, and you did not invite Me in; naked, and you did not clothe Me; sick, and in prison, and you did not visit Me.’ Then they themselves also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not take care of You?’ Then He will answer them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.’ These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”
It is very important to Me how you treat others. There is a reason I told you to love your neighbor as yourself and to do unto others as you would have them do unto you, there is also a reason I told you not to judge others and you will not be judged for the measure with which you measure will be measured back to you. If people truly understood what law is working here, they would behave far differently in their dealings with others. If you saw what you did to others and how you thought and talked about others as the determination of what is done and judged about you there would be more far more care and self interest in how you treated others.
By how you treat others, how you speak about others and how you judge others and even how you forgive others you alone are determining, establishing, and ordaining the standard which must be used in what I can do for you. Do not limit Me by repelling all the good, blessing, abundance, and love that I wish to lavish on you. Remember Psalm 112? The righteous man gave generously, lavishly to the poor. The measure with which you measure is measured back to you. Wealth and riches are in his house and his generations are blessed. He has no fear of evil tidings and stands his ground to see good and not evil all the days of his life. As you sow, you shall reap, and you determine the amount of your harvest, just as the farmer does in the physical realm. If you sow sparingly, you reap sparingly. If you sow bountifully, you reap bountifully. If you put Me first—if you honor Me, then I put you first and I honor you. If you despise Me you will be lightly esteemed. Now you may say, “but Lord I honor and put you first,” the Pharisees thought they did too, they recited long prayers every day, but actually they were neglecting the love of neighbor and were despising the people as beneath them and judging them lost and not holy, they even judged Jesus that way. I am not just looking at how much you go to church and give Me lip service, I am looking at what is in your heart towards your neighbor. My beloved John put it this way: If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from Him, that the one who loves God should love his brother also.” 1 John 4:20-21. But let Me set forth the entire passage for your meditation:
“Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has seen God at any time; if we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is perfected in us. By this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit. We have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son to be the Savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. By this, love is perfected with us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment; because as He is, so also are we in this world. There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love. We love, because He first loved us. If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from Him, that the one who loves God should love his brother also.” 1 John 4:11-21.
I love you. Be careful how you walk—make sure it is in love because then you are sure you are walking with Me and with Me you bear much fruit and you always triumph. Let Me work in your life.