The righteous care about justice for the poor, but the wicked have no such concern. – Proverbs 29:7

Today's Scripture Reading (November 26, 2022): Proverbs 29

Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel argues, "There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest." Injustice, wherever it happens, is the job of all of us. As people who love justice, we should be upset because Russia invaded Ukraine. We should be angry every time a young woman is killed in Iran for a morality violation in how they dress. It should terrify us that anyone wants to take advantage of the poor among us. We do not have the right to say, "Oh well, it is happening so far from where I live. What does it have to do with me?" We should not gain comfort because of an accident of being born in a safe place rather than in a place where violence reigns. Injustice might always be with us, but it should never be accepted, no matter where we may live.

On September 11, 2001, the United States suffered the worst terrorist attack that the nation has experienced on its territorial lands. It was an even worse event than the Canadians setting fire to the White House in 1814. (Okay, it was the British because Canada didn't exist then, but the attack came from the land that would one day be Canadian.) And while the September 11 attacks were terrible, they revealed the support the United States had worldwide. As had happened before, the British, French, Germans, and Canadians among many others stood with their American brothers and sisters, doing what they could to fight the injustice that had been visited on the civilians and people without power in the United States. American assistance to nations who had suffered an injustice was not a one-way street; their kindness would be returned. 

Proverbs asserts that the righteous care about any injustice committed against the poor, while the wicked have no such concern. The wicked are free from any responsibility for just behavior. In many ways, they have an advantage over the righteous because just principles do not restrain them. But their practices also reveal who they really are and what they believe.

Proverbs does not say that the righteous will eliminate injustice. It is not that the righteous have all the answers and solutions to the problem of poverty and injustice. Even Jesus admitted that "You will always have the poor among you" (John 12:8). Poverty and injustice are just part of this broken world in which we live. But the fact that injustice and poverty will always be with us does not give us an excuse to do nothing. We care, and because we care, we will fight against injustice wherever we find it. We may not be able to do much, but what we can do, righteousness demands that action of us all.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Proverbs 30