Let’s consider God’s economy vs. the economy of Babylon—because since the days of Cain, the world (and frequently God’s chosen ones) have repeatedly become so immersed in the opposite of God’s economy—so enticed and captivated by the economies of Babylon, that like Isaiah warned, “Seeing we may not see, and hearing we may not hear” what is really happening.
What is really happening is the increasing numbers of poor and needy in the world in these days of incredible advancements? BUT WHY? Why, when there is so much opportunity; so much prosperity, so much wealth in so many places?
We frequently hear politicians and others lay the blame squarely to the poor—even using such harsh words as lazy, shiftless, losers, moochers on the system.
But if that is really true why do Jesus and His prophets have such compassion for the poor and needy? Probably there is no group in all scripture that Jesus empathized with more than the poor and needy.
Why such empathy? Perhaps for at least two reasons. First, He understood the way of the world. He told Moses:
For the poor shall never cease out of the land: (Old Testament | Deuteronomy 15:11).And then throughout scripture, He explained.
The ancients of this people, and the princes thereof have eaten up the vineyard; the spoil of the poor is in their houses. They beat my people to pieces, and grind the faces of the poor (Old Testament | Isaiah 3:14-15, as summarized).Dozens more scriptures detail the human consequences of oppression, fraud, robbery, violence, persecution, and so much more.
They decree unrighteous decrees, and write grievousness which they have prescribed; to turn aside the needy from judgment, and to take away the right from the poor of my people, that widows may be their prey, and that they may rob the fatherless! (Old Testament | Isaiah 10:1-2, as summarized; see also Book of Mormon | 2 Nephi 20:2).
They speak villany, and practise hypocrisy to make empty the soul of the hungry, and cause the drink of the thirsty to fail. They devise wicked devices to destroy the poor with lying words, even when the needy speaketh right (Old Testament | Isaiah 32:6-7, as summarized).
Old Testament Jeremiah accused the king of building his house by unrighteousness, and his chambers by wrong; of using his neighbour's service without wages, and giving him not for his work; and that his eyes and heart were for covetousness, and for oppression, and for violence…. (Old Testament | Jeremiah 22:13-17, as summarized).
[The wicked] swallow up the needy, even to make the poor of the land to fail, … falsifying the balances by deceit? That they may buy the poor for silver, and the needy for a pair of shoes; … (Old Testament | Amos 8:4-6, as summarized).
They rob the poor because of their fine sanctuaries; they rob the poor because of their fine clothing; and they persecute the meek and the poor in heart, because in their pride they are puffed up (Book of Mormon | 2 Nephi 28:13).
Of course, God knew that not all the poor were without fault, but when one compares the scriptural warnings to the poor with those to the rich, there is no comparison—God’s expressions of compassion and His promises everywhere in scripture are weighted heavily in favor of the poor and needy. He knew and saw in His society how long and hard many of the poor worked—the laboring poor—a reality of every age. And perhaps He understood their plight more than we have considered.
So the second reason for Christ’s deep compassion/empathy for the poor and the needy, I pose in the form of a question: Could Jesus, during His life have been one of the poor and the needy because of robbery, violence, injustice, corruption and so forth? Could He have endured (at various times) everything the poor and needy endure? Why did He say?
Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head (New Testament | Matthew 8:20; Luke 9:58).Why did Alma say:
And he shall go forth, suffering pains and afflictions and temptations of every kind; … that he may know according to the flesh how to succor his people according to their infirmities (Book of Mormon | Alma 7:11-12).Abinadi said:
[He] suffereth himself to be mocked, and scourged, and cast out, and disowned by his people (Book of Mormon | Mosiah 15:5).The Apostle Paul wrote:
For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich (New Testament | 2 Corinthians 8:9).And why, after describing a litany of tribulations to Joseph Smith in Doctrine and Covenants 122, did Jesus say:
The Son of Man hath descended below them all. Art thou greater than he? (Doctrine and Covenants | Section 122:8).Of this, Elder Tad R. Callister, in his book, The Infinite Atonement, wrote:
… the Lord was saying, “Joseph, no matter what the world throws at you; no matter what you suffer, no matter what temptations you face—I faced it all and more.”Is that why Isaiah called Him “a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief” (Isaiah 53:3)?
The Savior’s plunge into humanity was not a toe-dipping experience. It was a total immersion. He did not experience some pains and not others. His life was not a random sampling, a spot audit; it was a total confrontation with and internalization of every human experience, every human plight, every human trial. … For this descent he would fully bare his human breast. There would be no godly powers exercised that would shield him from one scintilla of human pain. Paul knew this: “For verily he [the Savior}] took not on him the nature of angels; but he took on him the seed of Abraham. Wherefore in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren” (Hebrews 2:16-17) [p. 96]. …
There is no mortal condition, however gruesome or ugly or hopeless it may seem, that has escaped his grasp or his suffering. No one will be able to say, “But you don’t understand my particular plight.” The scriptures are emphatic on this point—“he comprehended all things” because “he descended below all things” (D&C 88:6, see also D&C 122:8) [p. 104].
If the adversary targeted the nigh-perfect Job with such great afflictions, reducing him to a state of poverty and need, what can we imagine he tried to do to the perfect Redeemer of the world? After Satan’s failure at the wilderness temptation, do we imagine he left the Savior alone or did he use the Babylonian system of 30 A.D., amongst other things, to try and destroy the Plan of Salvation? He failed, but Satan’s work of destruction continues for each of us individually and one of his prime tools is the economic systems of Babylon—the obsessive pursuit of power and gain (warned about so frequently in the Book of Mormon) and the injuries and pain that flow therefrom.
In ancient days, the Lord sought to minimize the disparities and inequalities of the Babylonian economic systems by the forgiving or release of debt every seven years, and the return of heritage lands in every Jubilee year. But for the inbetween times, God said:
The same advice that King Benjamin taught in Book of Mormon, Mosiah 4 (plus the counsel not to judge the reasons for another’s poverty and need).2For the poor shall never cease out of the land: therefore I command thee, saying, Thou shalt open thine hand wide unto thy brother, to thy poor, and to thy needy, in thy land. (Old Testament | Deuteronomy 15:11)
... thou shalt not harden thine heart, … Thou shalt surely give him, and thine heart shall not be grieved when thou givest unto him: (Deuteronomy 15:7, 10).
So what is God’s economy? When we study scripture, we encounter at least four fundamental aspects: GIFTS, GIVING, FORGIVING, and GRATITUDE.
The scriptures are full of this gift economy: good gifts that build and bless with cautions about evil gifts that blind and corrupt.1 But the gifts of God are good and endless:
Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. (New Testament | James 1:17)Here is a small sampling of God’s gifts:
▪ gift of Creation and its abundanceBut why do we fast? Why not just make an offering? Perhaps God wants us to feel a little of what millions feel everyday of their lives. Hunger. Thirst. Weakness. Dependence on Him. Compassion. Gratitude.
For the earth is full, and there is enough and to spare; yea, I prepared all things, and have given unto the children of men to be agents unto themselves. Therefore, if any man shall take of the abundance which I have made, and impart not his portion, according to the law of my gospel, unto the poor and the needy, he shall, with the wicked, lift up his eyes in hell, being in torment (Doctrine and Covenants | Section 104:17-18).▪ gift of Agency
▪ gift of Life and breath (everything we achieve deriving from gifts of God):
I say unto you that if ye should serve him who has created you from the beginning, and is preserving you from day to day, by lending you breath, that ye may live and move and do according to your own will, and even supporting you from one moment to another—I say, if ye should serve him with all your whole souls yet ye would be unprofitable servants. (Book of Mormon | Mosiah 2:21)▪ gift of the Atonement
▪ gift of Grace
▪ gift of the Holy Ghost
▪ gifts of the Spirit
▪ manna and water in the wilderness
▪ the culture of “gleaning” in the fields as Ruth did, as the Savior and his disciples often did.
▪ the prayer “give us this day our daily bread”
▪ gifts of consecration
▪ the Fast and Fast Offerings
And perhaps our fast and fast offerings fulfill Isaiah’s description of the fast that God desires—a fast to help undo the causes of poverty:
Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness [of Babylon], to undo the heavy burdens [of Babylon], and to let the oppressed go free [out of Babylon], and that ye break every yoke [of Babylon]? Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house? when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him; and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh? (Isaiah 58:6-7).Maybe God wants our hands to open wider, not just in fast offerings to the Church (not just in the “I gave at the Church Office mentality”), but on the very personal involvement of our individual lives and actions.
In fulfillment of Matthew 25, will He be able to say to us individually as we stand before the pleading bar of God:
For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me. ... Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me (New Testament | Matthew 25:35-40).Let us make greater effort to see the poor and needy through the eyes and words of Jesus. Let us re-read and apply King Benjamin’s advice in Book of Mormon, Mosiah 4;[2] and let us seek, within our ability and God’s inspiration, to live as best we can within God’s economy of gifts, giving, forgiving, and gratitude.
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1. Book of Mormon | Moroni 10:30 ~ And again I would exhort you that ye would come unto Christ, and lay hold upon every good gift, and touch not the evil gift, nor the unclean thing.
2. Book of Mormon | Mosiah 4:16-27 ~ 16 And also, ye yourselves will succor those that stand in need of your succor; ye will administer of your substance unto him that standeth in need; and ye will not suffer that the beggar putteth up his petition to you in vain, and turn him out to perish.
17 Perhaps thou shalt say: The man has brought upon himself his misery; therefore I will stay my hand, and will not give unto him of my food, nor impart unto him of my substance that he may not suffer, for his punishments are just—
18 But I say unto you, O man, whosoever doeth this the same hath great cause to repent; and except he repenteth of that which he hath done he perisheth forever, and hath no interest in the kingdom of God.
19 For behold, are we not all beggars? Do we not all depend upon the same Being, even God, for all the substance which we have, for both food and raiment, and for gold, and for silver, and for all the riches which we have of every kind?
20 And behold, even at this time, ye have been calling on his name, and begging for a remission of your sins. And has he suffered that ye have begged in vain? Nay; he has poured out his Spirit upon you, and has caused that your hearts should be filled with joy, and has caused that your mouths should be stopped that ye could not find utterance, so exceedingly great was your joy.
21 And now, if God, who has created you, on whom you are dependent for your lives and for all that ye have and are, doth grant unto you whatsoever ye ask that is right, in faith, believing that ye shall receive, O then, how ye ought to impart of the substance that ye have one to another.
22 And if ye judge the man who putteth up his petition to you for your substance that he perish not, and condemn him, how much more just will be your condemnation for withholding your substance, which doth not belong to you but to God, to whom also your life belongeth; and yet ye put up no petition, nor repent of the thing which thou hast done.
23 I say unto you, wo be unto that man, for his substance shall perish with him; and now, I say these things unto those who are rich as pertaining to the things of this world.
24 And again, I say unto the poor, ye who have not and yet have sufficient, that ye remain from day to day; I mean all you who deny the beggar, because ye have not; I would that ye say in your hearts that: I give not because I have not, but if I had I would give.
25 And now, if ye say this in your hearts ye remain guiltless, otherwise ye are condemned; and your condemnation is just for ye covet that which ye have not received.
26 And now, for the sake of these things which I have spoken unto you—that is, for the sake of retaining a remission of your sins from day to day, that ye may walk guiltless before God—I would that ye should impart of your substance to the poor, every man according to that which he hath, such as feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, visiting the sick and administering to their relief, both spiritually and temporally, according to their wants.
27 And see that all these things are done in wisdom and order; for it is not requisite that a man should run faster than he has strength. And again, it is expedient that he should be diligent, that thereby he might win the prize; therefore, all things must be done in order.
