April 29

Apr 29 - Today from Proverbs 29 we look at verse 13
"The poor man and the oppressor have this in common; The Lord gives sight to the eyes of both."

The poor man. The term here means destitute. It's a man utterly lacking any means of subsistence. He is to be most pitied -- yet seldom does he find it. People turn their heads and pretend he isn't there. You may have seen him digging though a dumpster looking for something to eat. You may have seen him sleeping in a doorway as busy commuters and shoppers walk by him -- only the children slow to stare as mothers quickly hurry them by. If you have ever traveled to a third-world country and walked through one of their crowded cities, you probably experienced a sickening, even irritating bombardment of pleading and begging poor. They are like so many flies lighting on a piece of sweetcake. You brush them away only to see them joined by more. These social cast-offs have no dignity. They have nothing to loose. The poor man in this text is nothing more than an unwanted blemish of society with absolutely nothing to contribute.
The oppressor. The KJV calls him the deceitful man. The contrast here is social position. This is the man who planned and schemed and connived, taking every advantage to gain power and influence in society. He is willing to crush any who would stand in the way of his ambitions. However, he is accepted and esteemed in society because he is a deceitful man. His oppressive and scheming ways are well hidden under a veneer of proper social conduct. He has learned to be very political. He has charm, and when appropriate, a winning smile. He has learned how to put together 'win-win' situations heavily weighted in his favor. He is admired by his fellow socialcrats and is envied by the lower classes. The paths of his society never cross with those of the poor man. They live in two different worlds.
What can they possibly have in common?
They are both created in God's image, and they are both beneficiaries of God's common grace.
Standing on the horizon of social class, man measures the great distance from the bottom to the top. This is a great determining factor in setting his values. Looking from above, God sees no distance between them. He does not withhold His grace accordingly. Jesus never just turned His head and walked by the leper, the beggar or the prostitute, pretending they didn't exist. Jesus was never impressed with the extreme social status of the Scribes, the Pharisees or the Sadducees. He saw from the Father's perspective. He taught from the Father's perspective, both in word and in deed.
The trait we inherited from our federal head, Adam, was that which he inherited from Satan when he gave into temptation; the original sin of PRIDE. Our old nature, that which is dominated by pride, is what distorts our values system and causes us to measure ourselves against others. It is our pride that causes us to think that perhaps God was made in our image, and that He measures by the same standards. In realizing that when these two men meet and stand side by side, and that God sees no difference in their value, our pride quickly vanishes. God does not give grace to one and withhold it from the other.
Proverbs 6:16, 17 says that there are seven things detestable to God. The very first on the list is haughty eyes. Haughty eyes are eyes that see through the lens of pride. They measure the worthiness of men according to social status, education, material possessions, and yes, even physical attributes. Strangely enough, they are often convinced that God also has haughty eyes, and they appoint themselves as God's personal spokespersons in pointing out just where these people fit in God's values system. No wonder God hates haughty eyes -- they totally misrepresent Him, and they bring a negative witness to a world that is already inclined to embrace such a corrupted system.
Wisdom seeks to see through the eyes of God, and to be agents of God's grace to all men.