Proverbs 13:23 Turning graves into gardens
Abundant food is in the fallow ground of the poor, But it is swept away by injustice. Proverbs 13:23 NASB
One could read this two ways: The fallow ground is producing the food on it’s own — a volunteer crop; or the land has much potential, if only there was one to cultivate it. Either way, the food is there. The problem is injustice which steals from the poor who need it.
There are two types of food, that nourishes the body and that nourishes the soul.
Food for eating
Food is abundant. There is more than enough. The earth is primed and poised to produce all that man needs. Similarly, our adversary, who has no regard for man, is poised to sweep it away along with all the humans it could be feeding. The ground will yield its abundant crops but often with a struggle. Between inclement weather, available seed, disease, and problems created by other humans — the poor have that least ability to overcome obstacles that break the intended rhythms of life. Even so, the food is there waiting to bust out. Although God cursed the ground that Adam would work “in painful toil” he also declared that he would “eat from it all the days of his life.” His intent was that we still prospered — but it would take work.
When Noah departed the Ark, God told him: “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth.” (Genesis 9:1 NASB) Managing population growth is not the answer for scarcity. Our Father set up the earth to sustain people with everything they need—even knowing men were fallen and with great potential for evil. He said, “Multiply!” And with people comes the need for food. God has infused multiplication everywhere, including in the fallow ground, not being seeded for whatever reason.
Whether one is rich or poor, the land produces. Yet there is something about poverty which is an invitation to injustice. Men who do not have resources to challenge and overcome a more powerful opponent bend quickly to a superior foe. Our adversary comes to kill, steal, and destroy. He preys upon weakness and has no lack of evil men willing to keep their foot on the neck of the weak. And the weak then may readily concede, “I have nothing…”
He who has, more will be given, but he who has not, what he does have will be taken away.
It’s easy to be poor and predict more poverty. To be sick and predict death. It’s not as easy to be in abject poverty and predict “supply beyond comprehension.” Who would do that when our adversary’s boasting is so easy to hear? And our own reasoning declares, “I have land, but I have no money for seed, without which will be no sowing or reaping”?` Yet Solomon is saying something incredible here. The lack that I feel in my heart and the need that is ever present cannot darken the brilliant truth of Yahweh Jireh: God provides. Jesus made bold and significant declarations to us: “Don’t be anxious, if he provides for the sparrow, he provides for you. I’ve come to give you life abundantly. Believe in me and you will never die!” These are the seeds. And they are many and free. As they take root in my heart, they grow into their own harvest. And what happens in the heart of man will be lived out in life. Abundance cannot, will not stay trapped inside.
Spiritual food for feasting
Before hitting the “post” button on this blog, it struck me that I missed the most important application. Physical food is good, but there is a meal that comes from people themselves that I originally didn’t consider.
There is a feast in each of our souls. A feast of experience, perspective, wit, wisdom, gift and talent! Goodness that God designed to blossom and flourish. In another analogy, he said there would be streams of life-giving water flowing from us. The staggering volume of supply available in each person is closely followed by the uniqueness that each of us represents. I think about those things that have motivated and inspired me: a book, a movie, someone’s shared journal, an artistic expression, the faithfulness of service, business instinct, the ability to plan — and the list goes on. Or if I think of literal people that embody these gifts, I think of Charles Martin, Steven Spielberg, Madeline L’engle, Sue Severin (an artist), Demos Shakarian (Full Gospel Businessmen’s Fellowship), and Solomon. Real people offering others food for living by their life lived.
The sixth chapter of John is often misunderstood, but with those with ears to hear the message, Jesus makes a very cogent point:
For My flesh is true food, and My blood is true drink. He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him.
John 6:55-56 NASB
The person Jesus — the life he lived, the service given to his Father, the words he spoke, the promises he uttered — are all things that nourish me today, several thousand years after he departed. Similarly, he told me, “You are salt,” “Arise, let your light shine,” and to his disciples he said, “Feed my sheep.” Whatever Jesus was, I am to become. He was food. Now, I am food. Or, to be more precise, in my body and life I represent the physical land which may have seeds planted in good ground, producing a crop which is plentiful. Me. My person. Who I am.
Justice is a daily activity
What stops this great mystery which may feed so many? Poverty and injustice. Injustice is defined as the quality relating to unfairness or undeserved outcomes. (Wikipedia)
One will often find in an individual both a storehouse of goods and an equivalent measure of something robbing her of the goodness that should be present. In life, not everyone’s cold case is solved. We each have a story of trauma, abandonment, abuse, victimization, and violence (whether physical or interpersonally). How we process these things determines if our ground remains fallow or furrowed. Imagine a little girl whose voice sounds like an angel, who sings with a sense of joy and euphoria unsurpassed by any other activity. On her own in the shower, or on a walk in the woods, she explores the limits of both her voice and her joy. But that same girl has a jealous neighbor who attends the same school. This neighbor overhears her sing and starts to violently mock her. At school, the girl teases her relentlessly, especially in front of the boys. Soon the little angel voice disappears and is withdrawn beneath a protective shell. No one else knows or sees, nor comes to her aid, speaks healing, encouragement, or strength. The little seed of beauty in music, that tender sapling, was trampled under a jealous neighbor’s feet. In this case, injustice guards the fallow land. Now add an extreme dose of poverty. An idea is injected in my thinking by my family and circumstances: I never did have anything which I may call my strength or joy. From the very outset of my life, born to victimized parents I learn carefully of their poverty and ability to cope in life with little to nothing. But the reality is that to the children of the Most High God, both poverty and injustice are lies. He is a good Father and gives us something different.
Abundant food. And more than just food. More than enough of everything. Jesus comes to break that cycle. To create freedom to live a life that is more than the waste of time looking for my next meal. At times, he uses the agency of those seeking justice. I think of compassionate and empathetic attorney, Bryan Stevenson who wrote about his efforts to defend poor death row inmates in his book and movie, Just Mercy.
Defend the weak and the fatherless; uphold the cause of the poor and the oppressed.
Psalms 82:3 NIV
To do what is right and just is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice.
Proverbs 21:3 NIV
He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.
Micah 6:8 NIV
Like poverty, injustice will be with us until our beloved’s new kingdom is established on earth. Yet, like the foretaste of kingdom in the Holy Spirit, and in the forgiveness of sin, and in Christ’s defeat of the evil one who already has had judgement passed on him — waiting for the thing that will surely come but is not yet, does not mean we cannot enjoy it today.
Injustice is temporary. If God has the final say on earth, every injustice will be visited. Justice served. Then judgement or mercy handed out. The poor, my lack and need, and the injustice of others are but a moment, along with those who cause them.
Poverty calls to Supply. Injustice calls to Justice. Those who respond are fierce.
The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, and provide for those who grieve in Zion— to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of his splendor.
They will rebuild the ancient ruins and restore the places long devastated; they will renew the ruined cities that have been devastated for generations. Strangers will shepherd your flocks; foreigners will work your fields and vineyards. And you will be called priests of the Lord, you will be named ministers of our God. You will feed on the wealth of nations, and in their riches you will boast. Isaiah 61:1-6 NIV