In the first issue of Prophecy Today, 30 years ago, we carried an article under the title “A World of Inequality” which said that more than 10 million children had died of starvation during the previous year, 1984.

There were 500 million people in Africa suffering from malnutrition. It was at a time when huge swathes of eastern Africa were suffering from years of drought. 1 million people had died of starvation in Ethiopia and 7 million people in that country were living under the threat of starvation.

From 1985 to 2015

Prophecy Today joined others in sending out an urgent appeal for aid from the rich countries of the West to be sent to people facing death. In July 1985 Bob Geldof responded with the first ever Live Aid when pop stars freely gave a concert at Wembley to raise funds for the starving. Later that same year Comic Relief was founded on Christmas Day 1985 which was later linked with Sport Relief and Children in Need. These events, attracting huge television audiences, have raised hundreds of millions of pounds which have undoubtedly brought relief to many communities struggling with poverty.

"World poverty was halved between 1990 and 2010, according to the World Bank. But the world of inequality still exists."

World poverty was halved between 1990 and 2010, according to the World Bank.¹ But this does not mean that poverty has been eliminated. The world of inequality still exists despite the immense amount of aid that is poured into developing countries. One billion people still live on less than $1.25 a day.² Most of the world’s population still lack basic services which people in the developed nations take for granted – access to safe water, healthcare, electricity, schools and adequate food.

Inequality persists

In 1985 we said:

The rich nations use their muscle to protect their prosperity. They control the world’s capital investment. They control the price of basic commodities on the world markets, such as grain, seeds and fertilisers. They have a monopoly of technology which they deny to third world countries thus keeping them dependent on the West and limiting competition. They control interest rates and thus ensure that any aid given to poor countries comes back to the rich nations to increase their overflowing abundance.

That situation still exists today and should be a serious warning to us because justice and righteousness are part of the nature of God. When we deny justice to the powerless we are actually offending God who says “For I, the Lord, love justice, I hate robbery and iniquity” (Isa 61:8). There are plenty of instances in history where nations or communities have brought disaster upon themselves through injustice and oppression. Sodom and Gomorrah are two good examples.

"When we deny justice to the powerless, we are actually offending God"

Most people think Sodom and Gomorrah came to disaster because of sexual deviance but the Prophet Ezekiel says something different. He says there was another reason why God destroyed those two great cities. “This was the sin of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters were arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy. They were haughty and did detestable things before me. Therefore I did away with them as you have seen” (Eze 16:49).

Western wealth offensive to God

What are the things that are most offensive to a God of justice and righteousness? They are surely the vast wealth controlled by 1% of the world’s population while so many struggle with poverty. The enormous amount of money spent on slimming aids and reducing obesity in the rich nations while others die of starvation must be deeply offensive to God. He said to the Prophet Isaiah that the kind of justice and righteousness he wants is “to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wander with shelter – when you see the naked, clothe him...Then your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the Lord will be your rearguard” (Isa 58:7-8).

"The nations have the power and the technology in our generation to feed the hungry and to care for all people, but we choose to indulge ourselves"

The monumental amount of money spent on weapons of destruction by the nations is deeply offensive to God. We are more concerned with destroying one another than with caring for the poor and those who are powerless to provide for themselves. “The Lord is angry with all nations; his wrath is upon all their armies. He will totally destroy them, he will give them over to slaughter” (Isa 34:2).

The nations have the power and the technology in our generation to feed the hungry and to care for all people, but we choose to indulge ourselves, to pile up wealth that we can never use such as the grain mountains, the butter mountains, the meat mountains of Europe and America. We choose to maintain vast armies and vast stocks of weaponry and we turn a blind eye to the poor, the powerless and the hungry.

What will a God of justice and righteousness do with this generation?

References

1 World Bank Poverty Overview, 2011 data.

2 Ibid.