by Craig Mayes on August 24th, 2011

As a freshman in college I took a Bible overview course- just a quick look at each of the 66 books and how they formed a coherent story. I recall the professor referring to Jeremiah as the “weeping prophet” and the book he penned to be one mostly about impending misery. Very depressing.

 

Perhaps that’s one of the reasons I have not spent much time over the years reading Jeremiah. But for reasons I cannot now recall, I began to read it this summer. It is a depressing book- about unrepentant sin, stubbornness, and certain destruction on the way. To be honest, it has not been that enjoyable to read- and I have been going at a snail’s pace.

 

Along the way, however, there have been words which have really caught my attention. A couple of days ago, there was a passage where, in the middle of rebuking the current king (who was a rotten king), reference is made to the previous king, who was what a king should be. Consider these words written about this man:

 

He did what was right and just, so all went well with him. He defended the cause of the poor and needy, and so all went well. Is that not what it means to know me?" declares the Lord .  (Jeremiah 22:15b-16).

 

It’s the last phrase that caught my attention.

Question-  What does it mean to know God?

Answer: To defend the cause of the poor and needy.

 

If you ask a thousand people, (or perhaps a thousand people who believe in God), “what does it mean to know God”, I wonder how many would answer with “to defend the cause of the poor and the needy.” Would such a statement make the top 10 for most of us? Prior to reading Jeremiah 22 this week, if I had been asked the question about what it means to know God, I would have answered with things like: “loving God and others”, “following Jesus”, obedience”, “spending time with Him”. Those are all good answers, and perhaps a life that includes caring for the needy and the poor are subsumed under those things. But the specificity of the words in Jeremiah really struck me. I’ve “known God” since I was a child- and during most of those years I have not given much thought to the poor or the needy.

 

As our small group made some meals and walked Monday evening along the East River to share food with our homeless neighbors who live there, I was thinking about knowing God and it’s connection to the poor and needy. God cares a great deal about the poor. In Matthew 25 Jesus also links knowing God and caring for the poor (… I never knew you. When I was hungry, you did not give me anything to eat…, etc.).  Jesus is saying that if I really know him, than I will know what matters to him, and that will be reflected in the choices I make, and how I make room in my heart, and in my budget, for the poor. Knowing God and never caring for the poor are incongruent. If I don’t care for the poor, than I can say what I will about my relationship with God, but I don’t really know him.

 

I think that this is a great tool for evaluating my relationship with God. I can easily (and misleadingly) measure it through church attendance, Bible study, spiritual disciplines, and other means. But if the poor and the needy are not regularly on my radar, than there is some space between God and me, between his heart and what matters to him, and my heart. That’s a measure that is hard to fudge. As God himself asks; “Is that not what it means to know me?”