How does oppressing the poor show contempt for their Maker (Proverbs 14:31)?

And what is it to oppress the poor, but to reproach Him that made him and his lot? Whereas he honours the faithful Creator, that shows compassion to the needy.

How dreadfully evil it is for anyone to oppress the poor, for in so doing he reproaches his Maker (v. 31). Will his Maker think nothing of this wicked insult against himself? If however, one wants to honor the Lord, he will gladly show mercy to those who are in need. "The wicked is banished in his wickedness" (v. 32). How dreadful for them to hear from the lips of the King, "Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels!" (Matt. 25:41). Yet they would not choose to be in the presence of the One whose grace is so greatly treasured by the godly, and there is only one alternative. But the righteous, even when death comes, has a secure refuge in his Lord.

Of the poor and the rich we read that the poor is hated; the rich has many friends (14:20). He that oppresseth the poor reproacheth his Maker: but he that honoreth Him hath mercy on the poor" (14:31). To deal kindly with the poor and the lowly is God-like. The righteous will manifest his righteousness in a practical way by considering the poor.

"The rich and the poor have this in common, the Lord is the maker of them all" (v. 2). The poor are more likely to remember this than the rich will, and the rich especially tend to act toward the poor as though they are not as truly creatures of God as are the rich. But the Maker of them all is not partial.

In the essentials, how little is the difference! Alike they come into the world, and alike they stand when the world passes away. "Rich and poor meet together; Jehovah is the maker of them all." This the poor man is entitled to remember, and the rich man ought not to forget. Job had it distinctly before him: "If I despised the cause of my bondman or of my bondmaid, when they contended with me, what then should I do when God rises up? and if he visited, what should I answer him? Did not he that made me in the womb make him? and did not one fashion us in the womb?"

Verse 20 is a sad commentary on the proud, selfish attitude of people generally! Why do people hate a poor man? Because they cannot expect to gain anything from him, while many are glad to be friendly with the rich for evident reason! There may be various reasons for one's despising his neighbor, but none of them are valid. God made his neighbor, and if we despise him, we despise the work of God (v. 24), and of course this is sin. But one who has mercy on the poor is truly happy in doing so.

In such a world of disorder, of violence and corruption, we have always with us the poor, whom no man that has eyes or ears can fail to meet. This tests the heart practically; for to say, Go in peace, be ye warmed and filled, and to give them not the things needful for the body, is to cheat ourselves quite as much as them. Man was to represent God who loves a cheerful giver in a wilderness world, and here encourages the man to pity those that have not. "He that pities," or is gracious to, "the poor lends to Jehovah," as He deigns to count it; "and what he bestows He will pay him again." What security can match this? Think too of the honour of being creditor to Him!

It may seem singular to say, "Rob not the poor," and in particular "because he is poor"; but it is a warning especially, so base, selfish, and cruel as human nature is now. The rich who might appear the more inviting prey to the unscrupulous are able to take care of themselves in ways that the poor would or could not essay. Hence, bad men flatter the rich for gain, while they also rob or oppress those who ought to be objects of pity. But Jehovah has His eye on such villainy, at the very gate whence justice should flow, pleads the cause of the poor and the afflicted, and repays heavily those who despoil them.

Dishonesty and untruthfulness He prohibits, especially with the profanation of His name; and He denounces oppression of one's neighbour, were it but in delaying for a single night to pay what was due to a poor labourer. Wealthy Jews were guilty in this way: is it confined to men of Israel? Vers. 11-13 are of great weight. The employment of labour is often conducted in a hard spirit, grinding the faces of the poor. It is no compensation but rather an aggravation in God's eyes for masters to give liberally to so-called Christian or to philanthropic objects what is wrung out of tears and curses. And what has not trade or commerce to answer for in the oppressive desire to grow rich?

Nothing can be more painful to a tender heart than the lack of kindly consideration for the poor, so often manifested by the rich. These latter can sit down to their sumptuous repast after dismissing from their door some poor industrious creature who had come seeking the just reward of his honest labour. They think not of the aching heart with which that man returns to his family, to tell them of the disappointment to himself and to them. Oh! it is terrible. It is most offensive to God, and to all who have drunk, in any measure, into His grace. If we would know what God thinks of such acting, we have only to hearken to the following accents of holy indignation: "Behold, the hire of the labourers who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, cries: and the cries of them that have reaped have entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth." (James 5:4) "The Lord of Sabaoth" hears the cry of the aggrieved and disappointed labourer. His tender love tells itself forth in the institutions of His moral government; and even though the heart should not be melted by the grace of those institutions, the conduct should, at least, be governed by the righteousness thereof. God will not suffer the claims of the poor to be heartlessly tossed aside by those who are so hardened by the influence of wealth as to be insensible to the appeals of tenderness, and who are so far removed beyond the region of personal need as to be incapable of feeling for those whose lot it is to spend their days amid exhausting toil or pinching poverty. The poor are the special objects of God's care. Again and again He makes provision for them in the statutes of His moral administration; and it is particularly declared of Him who shall, ere long, assume, in manifested glory, the reins of government, that "He shall deliver the needy when he cries; the poor also, and him that has no helper. He shall spare the poor and needy, and shall save the souls of the needy. He shall redeem their souls from deceit and violence; and precious shall their blood be in his sight." (Psalm 72:12-14)

May we profit by the review of those precious and deeply practical truths! May our hearts be affected, and our conduct influenced by them. We live in a heartless world; and there is a vast amount of selfishness in our own hearts. We are not sufficiently affected by the thought of the need of others. We are apt to forget the poor in the midst of our abundance. We often forget that the very persons whose labour ministers to our personal comfort are living, it may be, in the deepest poverty. Let us think of these things. Let us beware of "grinding the faces of the poor." If the Jews of old were taught by the statutes and ordinances of the Mosaic economy, to entertain kindly feelings toward the poor, and to deal tenderly and graciously with the sons of toil, how much more ought the higher and more spiritual ethics of the Gospel dispensation produce in the hearts and lives of Christians a large-hearted benevolence toward every form of human need.