Systematic Theology -- Session 2: The Doctrine of the Word of God: Forms and Canon

The Blessing of Poverty

     When the captain of the Babylonian guard carried the Jews into captivity, he left in the land of Judah some of the poor people who owned nothing and gave them vineyards and fields (Jeremiah 39:10).  All the wealthy people of Judah, the people of prominence, officials, even King Zedekiah himself, were carted away to captivity but for many of the poorest, poverty was replaced with wealth.

     The first of the beattitudes given by Jesus is this: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:3).  The spiritually impoverished are the ones who when everyone else is carried away inherit the benevolent rule and protection of God.  The poor in spirit are like the poor who were left in the land in Jeremiah’s day.  They own nothing in a spiritual sense.  They have nothing to offer to God by way of righteousness.  They have no basis on which to put a claim on God.  Their only hope is in His mercy and grace.

In his letter to the Ephesians, the Apostle Paul described the nature of human spiritual bankruptcy.  “And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you formerly walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind” (Ephesians 2:1-3).

      Spiritual poverty is a reality for every human being.  It is not an impairment but an inability, not a shortage of righteousness but a complete absence of it, not merely a lack of fellowship with God but enmity with him, not merely a grave illness but death.  To the praise of the glory of His grace, God raises those who are destitute and dead, giving them life, giving them riches in Christ.

     We, whose admission is that we have nothing but need, are the recipients of every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.  Being captivated with Christ starts with a de-captivation with ourselves as having anything of ourselves to bring to God.  It continues as the eyes of our hearts are opened to know God, to have hope, to have riches in Christ, and to have His power at work in us.

Cling to Christ

In Jeremiah 13, we read how God directed Jeremiah to purchase a linen loincloth and to wear it around his waist. Then the Lord instructed him to take it and put in a rocky place by the river. Later Jeremiah retrieves the cloth at the instruction of the Lord. He finds it ruined and good for nothing. Once an intimate garment which he wore, now the article is wasted.


The Lord tells Jeremiah that Israel and Judah are like the wasted undergarment. They were made for intimacy and they were made to cling to Him; they were made to reflect His glory, but they rejected Him, running after other gods. Jeremiah 13:11 says, “For as the loincloth clings to the waist of a man, so I made the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah cling to me, declares the Lord, that they might be for me a people, a name, a praise, and a glory, but they would not listen (ESV).”


Lord God, I do not want to be a wasted loincloth! It is my longing to cling tightly and relentlessly to You, not seeking anyone or anything other than You. As the psalmist cried, so let me cry, “Whom have I in heaven but You? And there is nothing on earth I desire besides You. My strength and my heart fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever (Psalm 73:25-26, ESV).” Lord, make me a man for You, a name for You, a praise and a glory for You! This You will do as I, by Your grace, cling to Jesus.