The Bible and Defending the Helpless (Part 1 of 10)

There is nothing new under the sun (Ecclesiastes 1:9). There has always been those who have power and those who do not. There have been those who abused power and those who are abused. Sadly, the dynamics of power and abuse have become so political in a postmodern, secular, divisive United States that we often cannot hear the crying out of the oppressed because the cries of others are louder. These may be crying wolf, and such may turns us off to the legitimate needs of the oppressed. It is easy to be confused, defeated, and to throw our hands up in despair. But the Bible speaks. God is not silent. Amidst a plethora of voices shouting various things, we begin with clear Biblical teaching.

There are clear connections from the Old and New Testaments. First, God cares for the oppressed. Second, God is not deaf to their needs. Third, God expects His people to advocate for the oppressed and administer justice to them. Fourth, when justice is lacking, God sees and will hold the unjust accountable. 

Psalm 10:17-18 | O LORD, you hear the desire of the afflicted; you will strengthen their heart; you will incline your ear (18) to do justice to the fatherless and the oppressed, so that man who is of the earth may strike terror no more.

Psalm 82:3 | Give justice to the weak and the fatherless; maintain the right of the afflicted and the destitute. Rescue the weak and the needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked.

Isaiah 1:17 | Learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow's cause.

Isaiah 10:1-4 | Woe to those who decree iniquitous decrees, and the writers who keep writing oppression, to turn aside the needy from justice and to rob the poor of my people of their right, that widows may be their spoil, and that they may make the fatherless their prey! What will you do on the day of punishment? … For all this his anger has not turned away, and his hand is stretched out still.

Jeremiah 22:3 | Thus says the Lord: Do justice and righteousness, and deliver from the hand of the oppressor him who has been robbed. And do no wrong or violence to the resident alien, the fatherless, and the widow, nor shed innocent blood in this place.

Malachi 3:17-4:2a | 16)  Then those who feared the LORD spoke with one another. The LORD paid attention and heard them, and a book of remembrance was written before him of those who feared the LORD and esteemed his name.  (17)  “They shall be mine, says the LORD of hosts, in the day when I make up my treasured possession, and I will spare them as a man spares his son who serves him.  (18)  Then once more you shall see the distinction between the righteous and the wicked, between one who serves God and one who does not serve him. For behold, the day is coming, burning like an oven, when all the arrogant and all evildoers will be stubble. The day that is coming shall set them ablaze, says the LORD of hosts, so that it will leave them neither root nor branch.  (2)  But for you who fear my name, the sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings…

Matthew 18:8, 10 | Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea….See that you do not despise one of these little ones. For I tell you that in heaven their angels always see the face of my Father who is in heaven.

Luke 4: 18-19 | The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.

James 1:27 | Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.