The Care of the Poor in Ancient Israel as a Paradigm for Contemporary Nigerian Church

Abstract

The response of the church to the cry of the poor in the contemporary Nigerian society is far below the expectation. In the church today, it seems that God’s concern for the poor and marginalized is often overlooked. The church gives necessary attention to spiritual matter but often completely neglects the physical. However, in the Old Testament (OT) corpuses most especially, the Pentateuch (Law), the Poetry and the Prophets, the care, provision and redemption of the poor and the marginalized are of the utmost concern to God. God instructed His people, the Israelites in form of legislation to actively care for the poor while discouraging any mistreatment of or indifference toward the needy (Exodus 22:21-23; Leviticus 23:22; 25:39-43; Deut. 15:7; Proverbs Isaiah 10:13: Malachi 3:5). Thus, this paper, using social-historical and textual approaches examines the OT stipulations for the care of the poor in ancient Israelite society with a view to challenging the contemporary church in Nigeria to rise to her social responsibility by advocating for the poor, caring for their needs and pursuing justice on their behalf. This paper revealed that many Christian denominations/churches in Nigeria have neglected or care less about the social needs of their members for those needs that are spiritual as against Christ's spirit of empathy and sympathy with the poor and marginalized. The paper recommends that the present day church in Nigeria should practically emulate the step of Jesus Christ and that of the early church by making the care of the body and spirit a priority in their evangelical programmes. The church should not allow bad theology and poor excuses to keep them from responding to the cry of the poor and marginalized in their communities.