Texts in Conversation
Isaiah describes wealth as one of the reasons God is judging Israel, an attitude Jesus repeats in Matthew when describing the difficulty of a wealthy person entering the kingdom of heaven.
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Isaiah 2:7
Hebrew Bible
6 Indeed, O Lord, you have abandoned your people, the descendants of Jacob. For diviners from the east are everywhere; they consult omen readers like the Philistines do. Plenty of foreigners are around. 7 Their land is full of gold and silver; there is no end to their wealth. Their land is full of horses; there is no end to their chariots. 8 Their land is full of worthless idols; they worship the product of their own hands, what their own fingers have fashioned. 9 Men bow down to them in homage, they lie flat on the ground in worship. Don’t spare them! 10 Go up into the rocky cliffs, hide in the ground. Get away from the dreadful judgment of the Lord, from his royal splendor!
Matthew 19:23
New Testament
21 Jesus said to him, “If you wish to be perfect, go sell your possessions and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” 22 But when the young man heard this he went away sorrowful, for he was very rich. 23 Then Jesus said to his disciples, “I tell you the truth, it will be hard for a rich person to enter the kingdom of heaven! 24 Again I say, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter into the kingdom of God.” 25 The disciples were greatly astonished when they heard this and said, “Then who can be saved?”
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Notes and References
"... The righteous God of Israel expected righteousness from the people. God wanted Israel to form an egalitarian society, different from that of the Egyptians or the Canaanites who had a monarchy that survived by the toil of the peasants. The law given with the covenant sought to prevent an accumulation of wealth and power by one group. When the people disregarded the intention of the covenant, their treatment of the poor and the powerless—the orphan, the widow, and the stranger—were indicators of the disease of their society. The prophets used harsh imagery and bizarre actions to penetrate the numbness and satiation of the wealthy, comfortable members of society ..."
Stout, Tracey Mark
"Would That All Were Prophets" in Kruschwitz, Robert B. (ed.) Prophetic Ethics
(pp. 9-15) The Center for Christian Ethics at Baylor University, 2003
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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