Proverbs changes in its character a little bit towards the end of this chapter. Instead of the free-flowing wisdom of the previous parts, we now see some more formal segments. You read of the thirty sayings of the sages, and similar.
It is sometimes easy, when you read a book that is thousands of years old, to forget how subversive the ideas in it can be. We comfortable Westerners live in a world in which the rich and poor share legal rights, and whilst there certainly are advantages to being wealthy and privileged, all people from the very richest to the very poorest lead lives of comparative luxury. In our world it would be rude in the extreme, for example, to fail to shake another person’s hand simply because he happened to be poorer than us; and there is absolutely no necessity for the poor person to avoid contact with the rich.
In the ancient world it was a very different matter. Class boundaries were rigid. There was a very clear distinction between the upper and lower classes, and a poor man would not look at the King, much less shake his hand!
Now you are ready to understand the impact of these words from Proverbs: “The rich and the poor shake hands as equals – God made them both!”
More shocking, this was not written by a pauper wishing to challenge the social order; it was the writings of a king wishing to acknowledge the claims of his Lord on the loyalty of all those in his kingdom, including himself.
A man who has everything to gain from the status quo challenges it. Quite an amazing concept, don’t you think?
God makes a difference in peoples’ lives, not the least by demonstrating His enormous love and value for us. And more than that, He wishes to make it clear that even the poorest human holds value in His eyes.
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