Unfortunately, when dealing with the term poverty, one is limited by language. The word poverty has many different meanings and is expressed in many different ways. These meanings and their subsequent expressions often seem to contradict one another, so it is important to understand the correlating concepts in order to impact individuals affected by poverty.

The biblical worldview, shaped by the original languages of the Scripture, understands poverty in very concrete ways. The Lausanne Committee for World Evangelism published a report detailing the various Hebrew words for poverty and the poor. Among their conclusions was the following observation:

The language of poverty in the Old Testament indicates an understanding that demands the attention of Christians. The poverty of “the wretched of the earth” is clearly shown to be caused by injustice. They are oppressed and downtrodden, subjected and dependent, powerless, defenseless and exploited, yearning for justice and dignity. The economic poverty they experience is the result of a prior social poverty that is politically structured and maintained. Biblically, they are powerless and poor because others are powerful…they are kept dependent to conserve the position of the privileged.

#Do people really choose to be poor?

Very true Op!

If it was up to every man to chose to be poor or not, then poverty was the choice of prophets and righteous men of God like Moses, Elijah, John the Baptist, Peter, John etc.

But obviously, that couldn't be any further from the truth, because these men were the most the most approved of God in their day, so if that saying was indeed true, these ones should have been the richest of their day.

Therefore although "righteousness exalts a nation", these above instances of men prove that righteousness isn't a guarantee that an individual would be rich, hence that poverty was not a choice.

God bless.