Poverty was regarded by the Jews as a great evil. Indeed, they considered it a mark of retributive justice. There was, however, a kindly spirit manifested in the law which made humane provision for the alleviation of the sufferings of the poor. Numerous special enactments favored them, such as the right of gleaning (as we learn from the book of Leviticus) a portion of the produce of the land in sabbatical years, reentry upon the land, manumission of Hebrew bondmen in jubilee year, and so on. This provision by law for the poor symbolized the ever-present kindness and mercy of God, and foreshadowed the full, satisfying, complete provision for the poor of the earth that was to come later through a clearer revelation of the law of Spirit.
Of the Messiah it was foretold that he should judge the poor and needy and preach the gospel unto them. "Desirous" is the meaning of the Hebrew word translated by the English word poor. It seemed natural that Jesus should begin his ministry among the poor, those who were filled with desires and longings which had never been satisfied. This preaching of the gospel, the New Testament provision for the poor, came in the natural order of progressive unfoldment of the law of truth and justice through which God provides for man, His idea. The gospel, or God-story, according to the Anglo-Saxon translation, was the joyful intelligence that the Saviour had come among men. It was the good tidings of redemption from all bondage; in the words of the psalmist, "Thou, O God, hast prepared of thy goodness for the poor."
Jesus declared that he did not come "to destroy, but to fulfil" the law; that not one jot should pass from the law, but that all should be fulfilled. He always insisted, however, upon the spiritual meaning of the law. He turned the thought of his hearers from material things to spiritual truths. He knew that, as practised by mortals, however humane their intention, the bestowals of the prosperous upon the indigent have ever failed to remove the causes of poverty, or to make of it a "blessed" condition. While the human consciousness clings to matter as substance, its belief in material wealth is utterly unable to eliminate the correlative belief in material poverty, for the simple reason that materiality cannot quench the endless desire typed by the poor. The law that would be something more than a mere palliative, must be one that would destroy the material sense which looks vainly to matter to satisfy its need; and logically, the desire which could be satisfied by spiritual law must be a spiritual desire.
