If you look on the internet, you will discover that around 22% of the world’s population lives in poverty. You could assume, as some would have us to believe, the world is over populated and we need to reduce the number of people living on the planet. However, if you think about other possibilities, such as war, exploitation, and greed, you realize that some in the world are profiting off of the systems in place while others are suffering. The world can support the population, and then some, if we used it’s resources justly. Before someone reads something into my comments that isn’t there, let me say I am for a free market economy and for having a military to defend our nation.
Although, I am for a free market economy and do support our military, just a little critical thinking reveals a banking system that has been gamed to benefit the lenders. War has also been exploited and gamed to benefit lenders. War is destructive and costly for the nations that engage in it. It is doubly costly if it happens on a nation’s home soil. Throughout history lenders have financed both sides of the war. No matter who wins the war, or if their cause was just or not, it is a win-win for the lenders.
Interest and interest rates have also been gamed to benefit the lender. The goal for them is not to necessarily have us pay our loans off. It is for us to continue to pay interest on the loan. They would rather refinance a loan when we get in trouble than take the collateral because they make money off of the interest we pay. If you want to see how the banking system has been gamed to be very lucrative for a few while making many more impoverished, read The Creature from Jekyll Island by G. Edward Griffin.
Sometimes we wonder what the world will be like when Jesus returns. I don’t believe Jesus will be content with a world where more than 20% of the population languishes in poverty. In Leviticus 25, we hear of a concept that God set up called Jubilee. In the year of Jubilee, certain properties that were sold were returned to their original owners. In the year of Jubilee, debts were canceled. In the year of Jubilee if one had sold themselves into slavery to pay debts, they were set free. There is a clear message that comes from the concept of Jubilee. In the explanation of Jubilee in Leviticus we read, “Do not take advantage of each other, but fear your God. I am the Lord your God.” Leviticus25:17NIV
Poverty and the systems that keep some people in poverty for generations are not God’s plan for humanity. One day when Jesus returns, systems that have enslaved people will be broken. Until that day, we should help others when we can with the resources God has given us. We should also work to free people from oppressive systems by either fixing the systems or replacing them with something better.
Jubilee was God’s idea! Let’s work toward it for the benefit of all mankind.
Prayer:
Dear God, Thank you for creating a world of abundance! Thank you for your love for me and for my fellow man. Help me not to take advantage of others for personal gain and help me to work to free people from poverty. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Thinking About and Being a Child of God 