Saying Two

Proverbs 22:22-23

Do not rob the poor because he is poor, nor oppress the afflicted at the gate; for the LORD will plead their cause, and plunder the soul of those who plunder them.

Don’t challenge God in court. You’re going to lose.

When a rich man’s Corvette is stolen, he checks his security camera footage, hires the best lawyer he can find, and prosecutes the thief for as much as he can manage. He can afford to do this, and so he does. When a poor man’s 2004 Corolla is stolen, on the other hand, there is often nothing he can do, and the thief may well get away. The car probably wasn’t registered anyway.

For this very reason, the poor are often oppressed: because they are poor. They have no way of revenge, or repayment. Jesus, in a similar context, argued “they do not have the means to repay you” (Lk 14:14). Whether for good, or for evil, the statement holds true.

“The gate,” in biblical times, was where legal matters were handled (Deut 21:19, Ruth 4:1). To “oppress at the gate,” therefore, means to deliberately exploit a person in need of justice.

Suppose, for example — and this is purely hypothetical, of course — there existed a society (let us, for the sake of argument, call it Australia) which daily murdered upwards of two-hundred of its smallest, weakest, most innocent people for the ‘crime’ of being inconvenient. A simple wrong-place-wrong-time situation. When their limbs are torn apart, no one raises an objection. When their skull is crushed, there is a polite silence. When they are vacuumed through a nozzle, dumped in a pile of biological waste, and forgotten forever, never to know the joy of being addressed by name, it is the murderer who is comforted.

Were this to happen, who would stand on the side of the afflicted? Who will be the prosecutor appointed to him because he cannot afford one? Saying Two points out that this prosecutor is God Himself. Yahweh, the Great King of the universe, will hold trial against the oppressor. He will plead the cause of the poor and afflicted.

Despite appearances at times, there is a moral gravity in the universe. Bricks fall to the ground; and injustice is avenged. These are two laws that must be obeyed. The only question is when it will happen. Will the Lord await your death in order to bring you into judgement afterwards? Or will he initiate his curse upon you within your lifetime?

With striking consistency, although not quite without fail, the latter is found to be true. Men do not, in fact, get away with injustice — not even in this life. Injustice does turn upon them for a divine curse, and they live to bear its weight.

The warning of John, therefore, is quite poignant:

For if our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and knows all things. (1 John 3:20)

As sinners by nature, we are naturally dulled to the putridity of sin. Our hearts are like myopic colour-blind eyes attempting to discern red flowers on a tree a hundred metres distant. If the injustice we perform is so atrocious that our own sinful heart can detect it, one can only imagine the thoughts of an omnipotent God who cannot look upon sin.

The warning of Saying Two, therefore, is this: do not prompt the omniscient Maker of the universe into raising a legal case against you; He will dig up some dirt, and you won’t get away free.

The principle applies both personally and corporately. Every time you personally take advantage of someone weaker than yourself, you should view it as a carefully prepared petition to your Father in heaven, handwritten in your most beautiful cursive, humbly requesting him to destroy you. At the corporate level, when a nation routinely and cheerfully murders its most vulnerable members, it is actually pleading with its Righteous Judge to rerun the Sodom-and-Gomorrah script with extra lights and sounds.

A discussion of divine legal battles could never be complete, however, without reference to the gospel.

Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. (Romans 8:33-34)

For every exploitation committed by the elect, justice has already been served. For every child murdered by the elect, a man already suffered the death penalty. Christ took your legal hopelessness upon himself, and exhausted the wrath of God’s justice against your sin. In Christ, you have passed through your punishment already, and have been declared legally guiltless.

More than this, he grants you freedom from the sin of oppression. He changes your passions so that you, too, hate the very thought of exploiting the weak. Christians, therefore, ought to walk worthy of this calling, and root out all mundane, everyday instances of exploitation. Being Christians under the blessing of God, it is possible to abuse what would otherwise be gifts:

1. Employers with successful businesses: do not exploit your employees through underpayment. Bring your savvy entrepreneurship to Christ in repentance, and he will use it for his kingdom.

2. Men with silver tongues: do not exploit your neighbour through slander. Bring your smooth-talking to Christ in repentance, and he will give you an atheist to evangelise (or, if you're lucky, a vegan).

3. Women with charm and beauty: do not turn hearts into trophies. Bring your presence to Christ in repentance, and he will show you where to aim it.

In summary, do not poke the judge in the eye. He sees everything, and he doesn’t lose cases. If you are in Christ, the judge has already ruled in your favour, at the cost of his Son. So live like it.

Scriptures for Comparison

Proverbs 21:13

Psalm 10:17-18

James 5:1-4

Luke 18:7-8

Psalm 146:7-9

Romans 12:19

Deuteronomy 27:19