“Oppression” means something more than the contempt and neglect dealt with in verse 21. He who acts such a part “reproacheth His Maker.” For, first, he acts as if the poor were of another species—an inferior order of beings; whereas they have all the attributes of the same manhood with him by whom they are condemned. Second, he acts as if the circumstances in which the poor are placed were a warrant for him to imitate the Divine conduct and depress them still further, which is a reproach of God, as if He dealt with the poor in spirit of unkindness or partiality. . . . A man may have mercy on the poor who does not “honour God.” Humanity may, and often does, exist without godliness; but godliness cannot exist without humanity.—Wardlaw.
We treat God with no respect (1) when “the poor,” who are His children are not treated as such; (2) when the poor, who are his dependents, are left unhelped, so as to seem to bring Him into discredit, but (as is most intended, judging from the whole drift of this part of the chapter) (3) when the poor, who are His instruments, and are sent to exercise our virtues, are not treated as such, but our “Maker” thwarted in the work of making us better by these needy visitants. Life moves by such sort of influences.—Miller.
God takes it for an honour, how should this prevail with us. How exceedingly shall such be honoured in that great panegyris at the last day, when the Judge shall say, “Come, ye blessed of My Father, I was an hungered, and ye gave me meat.”—Trapp.
He that reproacheth the poor reproacheth his own Maker, and showeth himself unworthy to have been made by Him; reproacheth the Maker of the poor, as if either He could not help him, or else as if He had made him to be oppressed by making him poor. But God, who suffereth thee to oppress the poor, will not suffer thee to be unpunished for it, and seeing thou sparest not to reproach Himself, will not spare to scourge thee. Tully saith, “Men in nothing come nearer God than in giving,“ and Gregory Nazianzen goes further, and tells us, “Thou mayest even by no labour be made God, do not, therefore neglect the opportunity of obtaining a Deity. Make thyself God to the miserable, by imitating the mercy of God.”—Jermin.
The ancient Church possessed in full the glorious truth, that of all the real compassion which flows through human channels, the fountain-head is on high. He who gets mercy shows it.—Arnot.
main homiletics of verse 32.
The Death of the Righteous and the Wicked.
I. The wicked man dies unwillingly. He is “driven away.” Our first parents,—conscious of the severance of a moral bond between them and God—knowing that they had fallen from their original position, in which they would have gone fearlessly and joyfully to any part of God’s universe—ignorant of the unknown and dark future that lay before them—left their first home unwillingly. They had to be “driven out” of Eden (Gen. iii. 24). A man who is conscious of a moral distance between himself and God, seldom quits this world willingly. An undefined dread, perhaps, but still a dread, of the unknown state beyond death possesses him, and he is made subject to the laws of death “unwillingly.” As Adam had to be driven out of Eden, so he quits his present abode, not from choice, but from necessity. His unwillingness to go arises from his condition of heart—from his moral standing. He “is driven away in his wickedness.” Adam’s consciousness of guilt made him unwilling to quit his abode in Eden. The same consciousness makes men fear to die. “The sting of death is sin” (1 Cor. xv. 56). The man whose sins are unpardoned is conscious that he has much to fear in the unknown future. His spirit witnesses to the truth of the Divine Word, “After death, the judgment” (Heb. ix. 27).
II. But to the righteous man the hour of death is a time of hope. He does not die in his sin. A separation has taken place between him and sin. He is conscious of having been delivered both from its guilt and its dominion. The severance that has already been accomplished has wrought a greater change than that which death can work. The change of relationship to God and of character which he has already experienced, has made a mere change of place a matter of small moment in itself, and the change from this world to the heavenly city an occasion of hope and rejoicing. The angel of death is no officer of justice to bring him before his judge, but a messenger to guide him to his Father’s house. The objects of this hope have been considered in Homiletics on chap. [x. 24], [28]; pages 176 and 181.
outlines and suggestive comments.