An Early Victory Against the Bourgeois! part 2

 My idea of the Christian life, as a truly sincere religious fanatic, is one of constant challenge and that concept I still hold to.  I wanted to take on the toughest task, to serve the most needy, to tackle the nastiest problems.  To me, that’s just the challenge of Jesus—he’s given me so much, I want to give as much as I can in return.  I was interested in becoming a missionary because that seemed to be the most challenging work in the church.  My friend Diane and I, when we were sixteen, were ready to sign up on a missionary/service ship.  We knew that it would be hard work, but we felt ready for it.  We were told to return after we were eighteen, graduated from high school and generally more mature.  I suppose if there was a list to be a martyr, I would have signed up.  “Whoa!  Ministry opportunity in Mecca!  Cool! I love religious suicide!”

I did volunteer at a Sunday school class for the developmentally disabled.  I went out with the visitation team to give the gospel to unbelievers who came to our church.  I volunteered to go every year to go to Arizona to teach a Vacation Bible School to Navajo kids.  And I volunteered to go to Mexico, to serve and teach there.

            Mexico was the first cross-cultural trip I had ever made (even before my trips to Navajo Arizona).  It was short, only over a Thanksgiving weekend, and it was organized through my youth group (which I barely kept connection with) through an organization called YUGO—Youth Unlimited Gospel Outreach.  We went through many days of orientation, in which we learned what we were to do and a number of songs in Spanish (I still love “Alabare”).  We were split into teams, each of which would go to different villages, pass out tracts in Spanish, do service for a congregation there and offer two services filled with evangelistic songs and sermons.  I suppose the main purpose of us going was the same as a congregation offering a “revival” in the United States.  Hopefully, you have something interesting (like people from another country) that would draw unbelievers into the church and then pray they get converted. This doesn’t really work anymore—if people want to experience a religious show, they can turn on the television and get more entertainment there than in a small congregation. 

            In my team, I was chosen to give one of the sermons, so I had to learn how to speak through an interpreter, and I was given a text to preach.  It was something along the lines of, “How to be Born Again” and it was very similar to the end of the Jack Chick tract I had read when I was twelve (See A Lame Odyssey, Part 2).  It wasn’t really satisfying as a message—having the spiritual maturity of a zygote— but it was a sermon, and I was excited and nervous to be a fourteen year old speaking to adults. 

            On the weekend of our ministry, we were told a bit more about the village we were visiting.  I don’t remember the name, but I clearly remember the circumstances that church was going through.  It was a Pentecostal church (see, I told you it was the Pentecostal’s turn) in the midst of—of course— a Catholic community.  Many of the men of the village would gather together and threaten those who attended the church.  One evening not long before our visit, some of the men were drunk and threw stones at the church while they were having a meeting and broke windows, disrupting the meeting.  I was stunned.  I grew up in Orange County³, California, where I had never heard of such goings on. Sure, in other countries—mission fields, right?— but I had never seen it. 

And these poor people, well, they needed encouragement.  That’s just it.  I looked again at the sermon they gave me.  I can’t preach this drivel to a suffering church!  They don’t need an evangelistic sermon!  They need to hear from God’s word about their circumstances!  As far as I was concerned, well, that was it. 

So I went to my youth leader and told him that I wanted to preach a sermon about persecution the next night.  He thought about it and decided it was a good idea.  So he approached the leadership of YUGO .  The first response he received was completely negative—“No!  We must have Control over what these kids say!  If we let him come up with his own sermon, who knows what he would say!  And besides No One Has Ever Done This Before  Absolutely not!”    (I’ve heard that a lot.  I think that some people have bracelets around their wrists that read NOHEDTB.  Those folks are constantly seeing a triple six on my forehead.)  In my humble, even-handed way, I also determined that I COULD NOT preach the sermon they gave me to these suffering people.  They needed a real teaching.

My poor youth pastor.  Trapped between two stubborn, religious prigs.  He said he would take care of it, and that I needed to focus on writing the sermon if that was going to be done.  He was as good as his word.  The leadership said that I could preach a sermon on persecution, if they saw it ahead of time.  So it was time to focus on writing it.  Outside the church in San Diego we were staying in, I sat on the steps, opened my Bible and prepared.  My bible, at that time, was (warning: prepare yourself for technical lingo here) a New American Standard Open Bible.  What was significant in this is that it had (more technical lingo ahead) a Biblical Cyclopedic Index.  In other words, it is a subject index of the Bible.  This is just what the neophyte preacher needs!  I looked up “persecution” in the index, and found a brief but interesting section on that subject.

It had two sub-topics: “Persecution, caused by;” and “Persecution, Christian’s attitude under.”  After that was a single reference under “Persecution Psalm.”  Looking at this list today, it seems pretty paltry compared to the depth and multitude of texts that deal with persecution, especially in the New Testament.  But for a first time speaker, fundamentally ignorant of Biblical themes, I was pleased with the number of texts.  Plenty for me to work with. 

But this list was disappointing, in that my purpose was to encourage the persecuted believers, while the far majority of texts listed focused on the cause of the persecution.  I think the church in this situation knew the cause of the suffering they were under.  They needed to know what God had in store for them because of their suffering.  Ah, well, beggars can’t be choosers and I only had so many hours to write the sermon—and to sleep!

            On a number of sheets of paper I wrote out my sermon in my printed scribble.  I passed it on to my youth pastor who passed it on to the Powers That Be, who reluctantly approved it.  The next evening I prepared to preach my first sermon at fourteen years old. 

            Today, I wish I had the text of my sermon.  I know it primarily consisted of me explaining the texts I found in the Biblical Cyclopedic Index, as best I could.  My principle then, and it hasn’t changed much since then, is to do little more than to say what the text says, as simply as I can, while opening up the core of the meaning to those listening.   Since my purpose here was to encourage, I suspect that part of my sermon sounded kind of like this:

            “Matthew 5:12—‘Rejoice and be glad for your reward in heaven is great, for so they persecuted the prophets before you.’ Jesus has a special promise to those who are persecuted.  If you are suffering for Jesus, then you can be assured of this: you will gain all the best that heaven has to offer.  Perhaps now things look grim, and you feel like you want to give up.  But in the end, Jesus is preparing for you a reward which you cannot imagine.  Yes, now things look difficult, and the world is stubbornly, fiercely against you, but someday soon Jesus will exchange all of this suffering for a joy that will never be extinguished.  The promise you receive right now from Jesus is greater than the sufferings you are enduring for only a short time.”  Well, something like that, anyway.

            After the service was over, one of the men of the congregation came up to me, shook my hand, smiled and said through the interpreter: “Someday you will be a great preacher.”  I spent many hours trying to decide if that smile was patronizing or sincere.  At the same time, perhaps he was wondering if my sermon was naïve or just handed to me from someone else.  



3. Okay, yes, so you know now.  I grew up in Orange County.  The “OC” (gag).  Let me tell you, growing up there in the 70s and early 80s—sure, it was suburbia, but it wasn’t the hotbed of economic prestige and teen angst/lust.  Look, if you want to make fun of me because I grew up as a suburbanite, fine.  But don’t think that I grew up super-rich or spoiled.  Well, perhaps a little.  More about that later.

An Early Victory Against the Bourgeois! part 1

My religious life began as a Righteous Prig.

When a person becomes a religious fanatic, there are many options open to them.  The most common religious fanatic and the most popular (to non-religious-fanatics) is the Baptized Secular—the one whom God changes their life, only to basically do what they were already doing, only they talk about God (a little) more.  The Converted Secular is similar—God takes them out of who they were, only to have them go to a different kind of life than what they lived before.  This is kind of like a mid-life crisis, except God is much more involved.  The other kinds are less comfortable for others.  There is the Born Again Fanatic, who knows that they have experienced something amazing and life changing from God, but they cannot articulate it in language that anyone can really understand.  There is the Converted Sinner who has changed from one form of anti-social lifestyle to a barely-more-tolerable-religious lifestyle.  The Converted Sinner would be just fine, if they didn’t talk about their experience all the time to everyone they met.  There is also the Entombed Church Member, who is so involved in church life and society that they don’t really know anyone outside of that context.  And, of course, there is the most hated religious fanatic—the Copy Machine.  This person has a specific experience and insists that everyone they meet have exactly that same experience.  The Pentecostal church began this way.¹ Frankly, so did a lot of denominations.  But today we get to pick on the Pentecostals. 

            I, however, was none of these.  I belonged to the second most hated order of religious fanatic—the holier-than-thou, looking down the nose, would-that-everyone-were-as-good-as-I, Righteous Prig.  This is a pretty common type of religious fanatic, and I believe that it is a genetic defect, caused perhaps by a bent chromosome or a group of mitochondria that perhaps partied too much.  As with most genetic maladies, it requires a specific environment to be triggered, and it seems that for many God’s grace on them triggers the Righteous Prig malady.  The most amazing part of this malady is to assume that everyone should be at the moral place the Righteous Prig is at.  “Yes, it took me 40 years to be able to accept this ethical sainthood from God— but you should have learned it before I!”  It is well and good that God is more patient with us than Righteous Prigs are or else the earth would be filled with lightning scars, and long since depopulated.  In other words, it’s a good thing I’m not God.

            My form of Prigishness was quieter than others’, and so I judged others in silence (mostly).  This allowed me to keep what few friends I had.  But it made it difficult to make new ones.  I attended church regularly after my conversion—forcing my parents to drive me every Sunday—but I never attended the youth group.  I wasn’t interested in hanging with those my own age, for they weren’t “serious” enough.  By this I meant that they didn’t realize that the Christian life wasn’t a bunch of fun and games (you know—joyful activities, because joy is obviously not a Christian virtue).  I attended the adult services, and adult Bible studies filled with Scripture memorization and difficult theological concepts such as dispensationalism.²

^{Story continues in An Early Victory Against the Bourgeois! Part 2...}

1. I love the Pentecostal church, and have learned much from them.  But I don’t understand why the traditional Pentecostals must force tongues down everyone’s throat—so to speak.  The book of Acts is great, but some analysis of I Corinthians 12-14 (perhaps one not dissimilar to Gordon Fee’s) is certainly in order. Gordon Fee, the premier Pentecostal biblical scholar, actually has an excellent commentary on I Corinthians, but the exegetical analysis is rarely listened to in comparison with popular theology.
2. Dispensationalism is, like most theologies (such as Marxism) a good idea taken too far. The basic idea is that God works in different ways at different times and that one can draw a line at particular point in time and say, “Everything is different after this.”  Biblically, this can only be said about the cross, and even there, many of the implications of dispensationalism  don’t hold.  Dispensationalism is often associated with a form of fundamentalism, and historically it was, but it doesn’t have to be.

Anawimless Society: Obtaining God's Blessing

A depiction of cross references in the Bible

In our blog, up to this point, we have travelled a wide breadth of Scripture.  

At the very beginning, creation itself, we found that God chose humanity, not because of their glory, but because of their weakness, compared to the other “gods” He had as options to rule the world.  We also looked at how God chose the weak and helpless to uphold so that He could be seen as the One with strength.  God’s help, we saw in Psalm 146 is for all the poor, to grant them food and to deliver them from oppression.  And from Samuel’s mother, Hannah, we learned how it is God’s plan to raise the poor from the dust to no smaller place than the top of the heap of humanity.  And, finally, we saw how Jesus actually chose the poor to make up his school, as an indicator of who would enter into God’s kingdom.  The anawim are the apple of God’s eye, the focus of His salvation. 

What Jesus didn't say

Yet we look at our churches today, and they don’t reflect God’s vision in this way.  In many ways, we indicate that the poor are separated from God’s people, not the heart of it. In many churches, they see a “spirit of poverty” as a form of oppression.  Of course, poverty is a limitation, a difficulty, but it is just as much a symbol of blessing as it is a kind of oppression.  In testimonies and stories of the church, we talk about poverty as something we used to have, but have been delivered from.  This implies that God’s true people aren’t people burdened by poverty. It has been an assumption and often a bold theological point that God’s blessing and sign of approval is to be wealthy or at least living a middle class lifestyle.  Yet Jesus declared the poor to be blessed and to be God’s people. 

The church is a culture as well as a spiritual people.  And the culture of 99 percent of American churches is the culture of the middle class who have the next level in the social order as their goal.  Our church leaders usually want to fill their churches with suburbanites instead of single moms with drug babies.

The poorest of the poor are not found to darken our door—the homeless, mentally ill, panhandlers, illegal immigrants, itinerant farm workers, sufferers from AIDS.  And this is not because we do not welcome them.  It is because they see the culture of the church as being different from the culture that they live with.  To be a part of the church, for them is to be converted, not to a spiritual reality, but a social and ethical system which is unknown to them.

When our churches do talk about the poor, it is about ministry ‘to’ the poor, not being ‘of’ the poor.  We are seen as the people who are wealthy who need to assist, help, save, deliver, feed, clothe or house the poor.  Even in this, the poor are on the outside of the church and the church is “reaching out” to them.  Why?  Because in our hearts, we know that we don’t commune with the poor.  They aren’t a part of us. 

The religion that began as a gathering of the poor, now finds itself locked out of the blessing God offers to the poor.  We are outside of many of the promises of Jesus because, frankly, we don’t need them.  We pray the Lord’s prayer regularly, but we don’t really mean that we want God’s kingdom to come, because that would mean that the economics and society that our current salvation is found would have to be set aside.  We don’t really need to pray for our daily bread because we have our refrigerators full of this month’s food.  And, often, we don’t see God as our deliverer, because we have so many resources at our fingertips.

We need to seriously consider the option that our churches feel empty of the Spirit, seem devoid of life, have pews filled with air more than bodies because we have stopped taking God seriously as a means of salvation.  If we refuse poverty, how will God gain the glory of delivering the poor?  If we no longer are the needy, then how will God grant our needs?  Yes, we are responsible, we are strong, we care for those we have to take of.  But will God be found among a people who speak His glory, but never reach out for it, never live it out in their lives?

Celebrity News

Good day, dear readers!  

Marcella Glibb here, again giving you all the news fit to be tied!  Today, your faithful reporter of the stars bundles up in loose, blandly colored robes and a head scarf to enter into the country of the tightly-wound.  Yes, that’s right, Marcella Glibb will undergo any sacrifice, even her most dear sense of fashion in order to speak to the up and coming celebrities that you need to know. 

 Today, she travels to backwater Galilee to speak face-to-face with Yeshua bin Yosef, AKA Jesus!  The star of the Jews, the new radical professor is also getting to be well known among the popular jet sets, so lets talk to him and find out what he is really about!

            Your overly-covered reporter enters a medium sized home, packed full of lounging, dirty men and women.  Jesus is supposed to be running a school, but these students of his seem more like they have just spent a month in a rag-tag caravan.  They are all exhausted, filthy and the smell—well, it is good your well-prepared reporter keeps some sweet smelling cloths with her!

            But there, on the other side of the room is a man who is almost radiant!  Young, short curly hair, beardless, skin the color of camel’s hair, he seemed to positively glow with charisma.  What some women wouldn’t do to spend some time alone with him!  But your reporter was all business, ready to discuss with him what you most want to know.

            So, is there a Mrs. Jesus around?

            Foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no where to lay his head.²⁵

(Oh, how cute, he speaks in aphorisms!)  So no home life for you?  I suppose that’s why your students all look so worn, because they have to follow you around.

            If anyone would come after me, he must take up his cross and follow me.²⁶

           

I suppose that wouldn’t be an easy school to be a part of, travelling cross country with you.  What kind of tuition do you charge on top of all that?

            Freely they have received, so they must freely give.²⁷

           

Tuition free!  Hear that all of you potential students?  The best deal in town!  But still, this isn’t an easy school. Why do you make your disciple’s life so difficult? 

            We must go to other places, for the Son of Man came to preach there also.²⁸

           

Ah, so you are fated to travel around.  So you have your lecture circuit in addition to your private school?  That must keep you busy!  But don’t you think that it is difficult on your private students to travel around?  After all, it makes them more like paupers than educated men.

            Blessed are the poor for theirs is the kingdom of God.²⁹

           

So you purpose to make your students poor?

            No one can be my disciple who does not give up their possessions.³⁰

So are you giving rich kids the experience of being poor, or are you actively seeking the poor to be your students?

            It is written, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor, to proclaim release to the prisoners and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free those who are oppressed.”³¹

           

A school for the poor!  Fascinating!  You are so unique Jesus!  And what sacrifices you have made, I am sure.  I can tell by your speech, however, that you are not a peasant, nor, I think, have you lost all your wits in living as a poor man.  Do you really enjoy the company of the poor?

            There was a banker who had two women who were both indebted to him.  He called on in, and forgave her debt of a thousand dollars.  The other he forgave a debt of ten thousand.  Which do you think loved him the more?³²

           

Ah, I see your point.  So you really do enjoy the company of your disciples?  Is this why there are some women who follow you around as well?  I understand there are some here who have special skills, as well.  Do you ever give private lessons?

            There are eunuchs who are born that way, other eunuchs are made that way by men and some eunuchs make themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of God.³³

           

Thank you for making your point so… graphically.  I’m sure my readers will never forget it.  So, suppose I or some of my readers wanted to be a student of yours, what will they learn?

            Life is more than food or clothing.  Consider the birds of the air: they do not sow or reap and yet their Father in heaven provides all food or them.  Consider the lilies of the field: they do not spin or toil but even Solomon was never dressed as well as they.  Don’t worry about what you will eat or drink, but seek God’s kingdom and all these things will be granted to you as well.  Instead, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven, which no one can steal away from you.³⁴

           

That’s beautiful, Jesus.  Just beautiful—although I doubt that many of your reporter’s diligent readers will be ready to give up their gorgeous houses and lovingly crafted robes to follow you around.  Do you have any word for them?

            Beware and be wary of every kind of greed—for even when one has an abundance does their life consist of possessions.³⁵

           

Ahem.... Well, I’m sure we’ll all take that into account.

            Let’s all say “ta-ta” to our aesthetic professor of Galilee!  Honestly, your reporter is ready to check out Cardineus’ latest fashion trends after being bathed in grime and poverty!

25. Luke 9:58

26. Mark 10:34

27. Matthew 10:8

28. Mark 1:38

29. Luke 6:20

30. Luke 14:33

31. Luke 4:18

32. Luke 7: 41-42.  SKV dynamic translation.  The “SKV” is my own version that takes some liberties, but keeping the same idea of the Greek.  I hope.

33. Matthew 19:12

34. Luke 12:24, 27, 31, 33

35. Luke 12:15

Free Quiz: Are YOU an Anawim?

Are you an “anawim”?  Take this quiz to find out:

1. You win the lottery and get a million dollars—what would you do with it?

a. Take a trip around the world

b. Pay off what you owe to others and give the rest away to those who also have needs.

c. Invest in your future

d. Get a big house for your family and a few others you know.

2.Would you ever find yourself homeless?

a. I’d never let myself get in such a position

b. Too late! I’ve already been there!

c. I try my best not to find myself that way

d. Who knows where God would lead me?

3. How important is money in your life?

a. How could anyone live without money?

b. Money is a useful tool, but I don’t really need it

c. I need more of it!  Now!

d. I wish I didn’t need it, but it’s essential

4. How do you feel about our society?

a. The world has never failed me

b. I wish God would take it away and create a new one

c. It’s not perfect, but it’s the best society anyone could ask for

d. It is deeply wrong, but it can be fixed

5. How much suffering have you experienced?

a. I know what I’m doing—I’ve always avoided suffering

b. I’d love to start my life over

c. God’s always blessed me, I’ve never experienced that much suffering

d. I’ve had rocky roads, but God has helped me survive.

6. In times of difficulty, how would you describe your relationship to God?

a. God isn’t involved in my life.

b. I cry out to God until He helps me out.

c. I don’t pray much, but I know God is there.

d. I see God as my comfort.

7. What is the most important support in your life?

a. My regular check

b. My relationship with God

c. My family

d. My church

Answers at the end of this post.

Mommy, what's an anawim?

We invent words all the time.  Every sub-culture has its own vocabulary that no one else understands.  Some sub-culture words enter into the mainstream, such as “dis” or “dysfunctional” or “anti-disestablishmentarianism”, but most words remain obscure to all but a small segment of the population.  English has the capacity of a million words, but we will typically only use 20,000 on any kind of regular basis.  Why so many words? We do this because we have concepts that we use frequently, and so we invent new words (or import words from other languages) that communicate succinctly what we want to say.  After all, why say “the study of the end times” every time that subject comes up, when you could just say “eschatology”? (Which begs the question as to why the Russian language has reserved one of their most difficult-to-pronounce  words for “hello”).

            In Hebrew there was an idea that was frequently used in Scripture, and supposedly in everyday life, so that a new vocabulary word had to be invented.  The idea went something like this—“You see, there are these people, but they’re poor—or, well, most of them are economically poor, but not all of them.  Well, actually, they are rejected by modern society, outcasts… well, not always outcast, but they aren’t in the mainstream, and they are looked down on.   And sometimes they’re just sick.  Or attacked.  Anyway, it seems like nobody likes them.  But they are righteous—um, well, righteous in a way, anyway.  As a group they seem to sin a lot—but they repent!  Of their sin, that is.  I mean, they really regret it and they do what they can to stop the sin.  But they pray a lot.  Not to be holy, because these people aren’t holier-than-thou—uh uh, no way.  No, they pray because they need to ask God some pretty big requests.  Like for their basic survival.  And to be delivered from their enemies.  And for justice.  And instead of scrambling around working on every plan to get them out of their troubles—like that would help, anyway—they depend on God.  Yeah, that’s who they are.”  That’s a mouthful.

            So who are these folks, exactly?  Let’s get organized:

1. They are vulnerable

They are in a place that they are exposed to difficulties.  Perhaps they are a part of a social group that is vulnerable, or they have chosen to expose themselves to a hard life.  Whatever the case, difficulties often come their way because they are unable to fully protect themselves.

2. They are oppressed

Because they are open to difficulties, there are some people who will take advantage of them.  So, at one point or another, the anawim experience theft, hatred, rejection, and sometimes violence. 

3. They have experienced poverty

They don’t have to be poor, even as the long-suffering Job was actually wealthy.  But it is more likely that the anawim will be poor, and they certainly have experienced poverty at one point or another in their lives.  The anawim don’t have to have a low income, but it is likely that they don’t have much in their accounts at any given point.

  

4.  They have experienced the failure of worldly systems

They, because of their vulnerable position, find themselves in a place where the world cannot help them.  The world doesn’t set up its system of help for these kinds of folks, and if the world does help a little, it is not enough to pull them out of their difficulty.  The anawim has found that they can’t depend on their governments, their families or their religious groups.

5. They depend on God

Because the world can’t (or won’t) help them, they have found that the only one who will be there for them is God.  And God has truly been there for them.  They have still suffered deeply, but God has helped them survive in surprising ways.

6. They live for God

Out of gratitude, they try their best to live for God.  They may not look or act like saints all the time, but they are doing their best to live a right life before God.  And because they have experienced oppression and poverty, they will try to never cause another to experience such things, but do their best to be merciful.

 In sum, these folks are the poor or outcast who depend on God for their deliverance.  “Deliverance” doesn’t mean some spiritual transformation, but it means that you’re in trouble and you need to get out of it.  So the Hebrews had this idea, and because they didn’t like the option of saying “outcast who depend on the Lord for deliverance” every time they used the concept, they shortened it.  The word is anawim.  (This word will no longer be italicized for convenience’s sake.  My convenience, that is.)

            Yeah, right, that’s the name of this site.  Or something similar to “anawim” anyway.  We’re going to be talking about them for a while, here.  But you probably already got that idea.

            The word is used a lot in the Hebrew Scriptures.²²  The root of it is used some 116 verses.²³  It is translated as “poor” or “needy” or “afflicted”.  And when the New Testament (in Greek) uses the words “poor” or “meek” or “humble” they are referring to this concept.  Forms of these Greek words are used in the Greek Bible (Old and New Testaments) in some 329 verses.²⁴  Anyway, you get the idea.  It’s a busy word.  This is no small idea in the Bible.

            On occasion you might hear about this idea.  In English theology you might hear the phrase “righteous poor” flitting about.  But it is never covered as a major theme in theology.  Nor is it often mentioned by preachers, teachers, Bible Schools and their ilk.  They’d rather talk about the other major words of the Bible, such as “grace” (277 verses OT and NT use that word), “predestination” (6 verses), or, “Trinity” (0 verses).  But Jesus used this concept quite frequently.  It was very important for his theology.

But, before we get to Jesus, let’s see the answers to the quiz!

If most of your answers are “a”:

You aren’t one of the Anawim at all.  You are self-reliant, and it’s pretty much worked out for you.  However, God’s word warns that you will be heading for a fall—get ready for it!

If most of your answers are “b”:

You are Anawim!  You have suffered much in your life and looked to God for help.  Perhaps sometimes He helped you, and sometimes He didn’t do as much as you wanted—But God’s promise is that you will have another chance at life to make up for this sucky one!

If most of your answers are “c”:

You aren’t really anawim. You’ve had some difficulties in your life, perhaps, but not enough that you’ve really had to desperately seek God.  Again, difficulties will come—get your relationship with God in a place that will prepare you for that coming trial!

If most of your answers are “d”:

You are really close to being anawim.  You’ve had some difficulties, and you want to do what is right before God.  But God alone—not the church, not your job, not your family—is the answer to the problems in your life.  Depend only on Him and He will deliver you in times of trouble.

Notes:

1. Let me list some of the verses that include the term ana or anawim just in the  Psalms:

“For the needy will not always be forgotten, Nor the hope of the afflicted perish forever.” 9:18

“O LORD, You have heard the desire of the humble; You will strengthen their heart, You will incline Your ear” 10:17

You save an afflicted people, But haughty eyes You abase. 18:27

“The afflicted will eat and be satisfied; Those who seek Him will praise the LORD. Let your heart live forever! 22:27

He leads the humble in justice, And He teaches the humble His way. 25:9

This poor man cried, and the LORD heard him And saved him out of all his trouble 34:6

But the humble will inherit the land And will delight themselves in abundant prosperity. 37:11

Since I am afflicted and needy, Let the Lord be mindful of me. You are my help and my deliverer; Do not delay, O my God. 40:17

May he judge Your people with righteousness And Your afflicted with justice. 72:2

When God arose to judgment, To save all the humble of the earth. 76:9

If Your law had not been my delight, Then I would have perished in my affliction 119:92

The LORD supports the afflicted; He brings down the wicked to the ground. 147:6

2.  Some of the more important places ana or anawim are used in the Hebrew Scriptures are: Genesis 29:32; 31:42; 41:52; Exodus 3:7; Exodus 22:24; Leviticus 19:10; Deuteronomy 15:11; 24:12, 14-15; I Samuel 1:11; II Samuel 22:28; Job 24:4, 9, 14; 29:12; 30:16; 36:6-8, 15, 21; Psalm 9:13, 19; 10:2, 9, 12; 12:6; 14:6; 22:25; 25:18; 31:8; 34:7; 35:10; 37:14; 68:11; 72:2, 4; 74:21; 82:3; 88:9; 102:1; 107:41(heck, the whole of Psalm 107—just read it!); 119:50, 92, 153; 140:12; Proverbs 3:34; 14:21; 15:15; 16:19; 22:22-23; 31:9; 31:20; Isaiah 3:14-15; 10:2; 41:17;  48:10; 49:13; 51:21-23; 54:11; 58:7; 66:2; Jeremiah 22:16; Ezekiel 16:49: 22:29-30; Amos 8:4-7; Zephaniah 3:12; Zechariah 9:9.
3. The term ptoxos is used for “poor” in the Greek, both in the translations from the Hebrew, as well as in the New Testament.  The Greek work tapeinosis is used for “affliction”, and the term tapeinos is used for “humble” or “meek”.  These are the words usually used to translate ana or anawim in Hebrew. Let me give some of the New Testament passages (I don’t know why I say “let me” when I’m going to do it, whether you like it or not): Matthew 5:3-5; 11:5, 29; 19:21; Mark 10:21; 12:42-44; Luke 1:48,52; 4:8; 6:20;14:13, 21; 16:22; 19:8;  Acts 8:33; Romans 12:16; II Corinthians 7:6; Philippians 3:21; James 1:9, 10; 2:1-6;  I Peter 5:5; Revelation 3:17.

Pride and Prejudice (Based on I Samuel 1-3)

My heart exults in the LORD;

My horn is exalted in the LORD,

My mouth speaks boldly against my enemies,

Because I rejoice in Your salvation.

There is no one holy like the LORD,

Indeed, there is no one besides You,

Nor is there any rock like our God.

Boast no more so very proudly,

Do not let arrogance come out of your mouth;

For the LORD is a God of knowledge,

And with Him actions are weighed.

The bows of the mighty are shattered,

But the feeble gird on strength.

Those who were full hire themselves out for bread,

But those who were hungry cease to hunger.

Even the barren gives birth to seven,

But she who has many children languishes.

The LORD kills and makes alive;

He brings down to Sheol and raises up.

The LORD makes poor and rich;

He brings low, He also exalts.

He raises the poor from the dust,

He lifts the needy from the ash heap

To make them sit with nobles,

And inherit a seat of honor;

For the pillars of the earth are the LORD'S,

And He set the world on them.

He keeps the feet of His godly ones,

But the wicked ones are silenced in darkness;

For not by might shall a man prevail.

Ancient Hebrew Song, otherwise known as I Samuel 2:1-9

Eli and Samuel, two ancients, have a heart-to-heart.  For an ancient, Samuel is pretty young, about ten.  Eli, though, is pretty old and tottery.  Eli is the priest in charge of the tabernacle, the center of prayer to Yahweh, the God of the twelve tribes of Israel.  Samuel is his adopted son and assistant.

Eli: Samuel, my son, come to your old man and let’s have a talk.

Samuel: Is this another one of those serious talks?

Eli: Well, yes, it really is.

Samuel: (sighs) How many of these will we have?  C’mon, can’t I figure out something by myself?  Hey… you aren’t going to tell me about the locusts and the bees, are you?  You know that Phinehas already let me know about that.

Eli: Yes, I’m sure he has.  Probably more than he should, too.

Samuel: I don’t know, I’m still curious…

Eli: (Interrupting) Yes, of course you are, son.  But I want to talk to you about other matters.

Samuel: Okay, shoot.

Eli: As you know, someday you will be judging Israel…

Samuel: You mean, telling everyone how they suck?

Eli: No, that’s what Hophni and Phinehas often do…

Samuel: Oh, you mean standing before people and telling them what they should do.  Oooo!  I can’t wait!  Can I tell Hophni what to do?  He’s bossy…

Eli: No, son.  The people come to us from all over the twelve tribes in order to worship Yahweh and to request from Him guidance.  We are the only ones who hold onto God’s law, and so we receive of their meat and then we declare the law of God to them about their difficulties.

Samuel: Don’t they have people who can give them wisdom in their own towns?

Eli: Yes.  But only we are keepers of God’s law.  We hold the true wisdom, the word of God.  So while human wisdom can be gained anywhere, we are the ones who hold God’s wisdom, how Yahweh founded the nation.

Samuel: So do Hophni and Phinehas have the law memorized?

Eli: By no means.  I am still studying it daily.

Samuel: Then why don’t they ever look at it?

Eli: (Sighs) I don’t know, son.  I wish they did.  Perhaps then their judgments would be just instead of… idiotic.

Samuel: Is that why you have me read it every day?

Eli: Yes.  I have failed in so many ways with my other sons.  I thought that they would naturally follow in my ways.  Perhaps I forgot how much discipline was given to me from my father.  But Yahweh has given me one more chance in my old age with you, son of Elkanah and Hannah. 

Samuel: (Gasping) What, you mean I’m adopted?

Eli: (Irritated) As you know well…

Samuel: (Chagrined) I was just joking…

Eli: When your mother put you under Yahweh’s charge, she gave you to me, charging me to keep you for Yahweh’s service.  Then she recited the oddest poem.  I have spent much time considering it.

Samuel: Really, what did it say?

Eli: I have set the text of it on your table.  I wrote it out for you just last night.  But I would like to speak to you about it.  It concerns the lords of our land and the poor.

Samuel: You mean the Ignorant Dirty Savages?  Who come just so they could bathe once a year?

Eli: Did you learn that from Hophni?

Samuel: I thought that’s what everyone called the poor?

Eli: Do you think that’s what the poor call themselves?

Samuel: Probably not.

Eli: Then not “everyone” calls them that.

Samuel: But the poor don’t really count.  I mean, they aren’t like real people.

Eli: Who are “real people”?

Samuel: You know, the people we are friends with.  Who come to dinner and talk about important things.  The poor are just lazy buffoons.

Eli: Ah, another way in which I’ve failed my sons.  Perhaps we should have more common folk to dinner sometimes… nevertheless.  Hear me, my son, the poor are just as real, if not more real than we are.  If nothing else, there are far more of them than there are of us.

Samuel: But they don’t plan the path of the tribes, do they?  They do not talk to Egyptians or Philistines or other important nations.

Eli: And what makes them important?

Samuel: For one, they have kings and we do not.

Eli: Never say that!  We have a king—Yahweh, the king of the universe.  Our king is one that cannot be seen, but He is more powerful than any human king anywhere!  Do not degrade our God like that!

Samuel: (Ashamed) I am sorry, lord.  Please forgive me.

Eli: (Waving his hand) Of course, of course.  I don’t mean to show you my temper, my son.  You are learning so much from my sons whom I have failed many times over.  This is why we have these talks, my son.  Now, the poor…

Samuel: The Ignorant Dirty Savages?

Eli: Yes, them.  You understand that your mother was one of them, right?

Samuel: (Furious)  Never!  My mother is a noblewoman, wife of the great Elkanah, master of Ramathiam-zohim!  No one in the region is greater than he! 

Eli: Just listen to me, for a moment.  She was not born the wife of Elkanah, was she?

Samuel: No, of course not.

Eli: And where did she come from?

Samuel: Well, I don’t know.  I suppose I thought that my father and she were cousins as was Pininnah, the other wife.

Eli: Not at all.  Rather, she came from the tribe of Manasseh, of a small, poor village.  Your father was passing through there and fell in love with a young peasant girl.  And his love for her grew every day.  But she was nothing, her father was nothing.  He was blessed to have sired a child, to be able to feed her, let alone to have her marry such a powerful man as your father.

Samuel: My father relates to the poor?  Phinehas says that he only talks to them because he has to in order to judge them.

Eli: Yes, your father does.  Perhaps not often, but often enough to know their plight and to have compassion on them.  Your father is a great man, as I’m sure you know.  But his greatness is not that of wealth and fame—although he has much of that.  Rather, your father is great because his heart can take in all people, servant and master, powerful and poor, weak and mighty.  Your mother, however, is greater than he…

Samuel: How can that be?

Eli: Because of her vision.  She is, in some way, the caretaker of the heart of God in a greater way than we are here in Shiloh, keepers of the tent of Yahweh.  We can read God’s law every day and not understand what she knows.

Samuel: What is this wisdom?  Please, for I know it is my heritage.  Please tell me.

Eli: That the poor are the power of the world.

Samuel: Wow.  I can’t believe… (He is silent for a moment).  Eli?

Eli: Yes, son.

Samuel: That is the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard.  And that is my inheritance?  My mother’s background has addled her head…

Eli: Don’t say such things…

Samuel: But really!  How can the poor be the power, when it is the non-poor that make the decisions!  The poor are powerless, that is the truth of the world.  The poor are not blessed by God, as shown by their poverty, so they don’t deserve to be powerful.  The poor are ignorant, as shown by this belief of my mother’s…

Eli: (Sharply) Be silent!  Now!  (Calming his voice some, but still angry) You are failing to understand the wisdom of your mother.  Listen to me for a moment.  Yahweh is the great judge, and He is no respecter of persons.  He does not hold one person over another based on their social status or power or race.  And yet, in this world, the poor are separated from justice.  They do not get heard as others do, for the powerful pay attention to the powerful.  And, as shown by your own attitude, the poor are seen as ignorant, and so they are ignored.  And those who are heard do not get justice.  But the poor are  heard by one person—Yahweh, judge of the universe.  No one else may pay attention to them, but Yahweh will hear their cry and will give them justice.  Even in harsh ways, such as destroying oppressors.

Samuel: Then why are not the poor wealthy?  Why does not Yahweh grant them all things they desire?

Eli: Most poor do not cry out to Yahweh, as your mother did.  She was barren and abused by others because of her poverty.  Yes, your father loved her, but still she was poor in the sight of all else.  So she came to Yahweh—she came here, in fact, before this very tent, and prayed to Yahweh.  I could hear that she was an ignorant poor person and so I rebuked her for her drunkenness.

Samuel: And rightly so.  Poor people are often drunk.  Not my mother, of course.

Eli: And why shouldn’t they be drunk?  How else can they forget the sorrow of their oppression?²¹  In any case, I had wronged your mother.  And when she had explained her situation, I was ashamed and begged Yahweh to listen to her cry.  But my prayers were unnecessary.  For Yahweh heard her cry to Him and granted her a noble son—you, my boy. 

Samuel: And even though she gave me up to Yahweh, she has many more children now.

Eli: And so Yahweh raised her up from poverty to nobility.

Samuel: I see.  So Yahweh is the protector of the poor.

Eli: Yes, absolutely.  But more than that.  Yahweh knows the power of the poor.   You claim the poor are ignorant.  But, don’t you see, the poor know one thing the powerful do not know—they know what it means to be poor.  And this is a benefit in all things.  To know what it means to be poor is to know how most people live.  We powerful are, by definition, unjust because we do not know how most people live.  We do not understand oppression, so how can we battle it?  By being ignorant of oppression, we end up creating conditions in which oppression thrives!  But the poor, their knowledge is greater than ours.  And so in the end, Yahweh will cause us to fail…

Samuel: He will take our positions away from us?

Eli: Surely.  My sons, as you know, they are already targeted for death by Yahweh for their injustice, their oppression of the poor.  But you, my son, you have hope.

Samuel: But how can I?  How can I, raised as a mighty one, be the hope of the poor?

Eli: You are the son of the poor.  And knowing this, you can change how justice is done in the tribes.

Samuel:  But I have so much.  I am not poor.  I have not the knowledge.

Eli: I will make sure you do know the poor.  And from now on, when you listen to my sons judgments, pay attention to the cries of the poor.  Understand their perspective.  Because they will be our rulers.  They will rule the whole world.

Samuel: How can this be? 

Eli: One day, Yahweh will hear the cries of the poor and set us aside, and place them as rulers over us.  You will see that in your mother’s vision.  The powerful crushed and the lowly become the powerful.  And the poor will reign forever.

Samuel: So there is no hope for us?

Eli: There is hope if we would change and listen to the cries of the poor, as Yahweh does.  If we would give them justice, on their level, then it will happen.  Listen to me, my son, can you do this?  Yahweh has promised, you will be the great judge of Israel.  Can you do so justly?

Samuel: I… I don’t know.