Gustavo Gutierrez: Job's Response To Poverty

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Gustavo Gutierrez: Poverty According to Gutierrez the bible responds to poverty by using an example of dealing with poverty on a personal level and teachings on how to help people in poverty. He offers the example of Job. Job is put to the test by the tempter, weaker men would have fallen short and cursed God. But Job resists the tempter. The bible also gives us Jesus’s teachings to show us how people in poverty and explain to us why it is so important to help people in poverty. Before the temptation Job was blessed by God, he had many possessions and a large family. Job is described by God as “blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil.” (Job 1:8) According to Gutierrez, Job followed a “doctrine of temporal retribution, which says that the upright are rewarded with prosperity and health, while sinners are punished with poverty and sickness.” (147) The Devil twists Job’s theology and puts him to the test. According to the devil “you have put a hedge around him and his household and everything he has. You have blessed the work of his hands, so that his flocks and herds are spread throughout the…show more content…
Job lost all his oxen, donkeys, sheep, camels, all of his children, and all but four of his servants. Job lost everything, he went from very well of to being in poverty in a matter of minutes. That is enough suffering to make most men to give up and curse God for allowing this pain. Job is the biblical response to poverty, he “tear’s his robe and shaves his head. Then he fell to the ground in worship and said, naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I will depart. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; may the name of the Lord be praised.” (Job 1:20-21) That is an incredible response to life’s most challenging test. Job understands that everything he has is because of God, if God can give him great blessing he can also take them
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