We can all agree that the world is broken. Terrible things happen every day to good people and bad people. You cannot even watch the news or scroll through social media without seeing how horrible people can be and how deeply broken this world has become.
Parents killing their children. Fathers abusing their daughters. Children being abused by people they should have been able to trust. The rich treating the poor as though they are less human. People exploiting, cheating and hurting one another.
It is truly a terrible experience.
And while all of this is happening, somewhere a young boy or girl is thinking, “Once I make money, I will escape all of this.”
Once I have enough money, I will move somewhere safer. Once I have enough money, my family will never have to experience this. Once I have enough money, I will be able to protect the people I love.
And there is some truth in the fact that money can improve certain circumstances. Poverty can make people vulnerable to terrible situations, and having resources can certainly provide safety, comfort and opportunities.
But why is money always the solution we imagine?
Shouldn’t we also desire to become better people and, in turn, make the world a little better for everyone else?
If I see a broken world and my greatest concern is making enough money to ensure that I and my family never have to experience its brokenness, what does that reveal about me? Perhaps even our desire for relief can expose our own selfishness.
What happens to the people who cannot escape?
What happens to the child who cannot protect themselves, the poor person who cannot afford to leave, or the person without the resources or influence to create a better life?
If everyone is only trying to make enough money to get themselves and their families out, who is left to care about the people who cannot?
This is why I don’t think the real problem is simply poverty, lack of education, bad systems or even a lack of money. Those things can certainly make suffering worse, but there is something deeper.
The human heart is broken. Sin has eaten us too deep.
And this is what makes what Jesus came to do so much greater than simply making our lives more comfortable. Jesus came to deal with sin. He came to reconcile us to God and give us a new heart that desires to obey Him.
God has always cared about how we treat one another. Even in the laws He gave Moses, we see this clearly. The Israelites were told not to harvest every part of their fields but to leave some for the poor and the foreigner (Leviticus 19:9–10). They were told to help when they found a neighbour’s lost animal, rather than simply ignoring it (Deuteronomy 22:1–4). They were commanded not to exploit poor workers or withhold their wages (Deuteronomy 24:14–15), and to be generous towards those in need (Deuteronomy 15:7–8).
These laws show us something about God. He wasn’t only concerned with religious rituals. He cared deeply about whether people were being treated with dignity.
The prophets made this even clearer.
Through Isaiah, God told His people that their sacrifices and religious gatherings meant nothing to Him while they continued to do evil. He told them to “learn to do right; seek justice. Defend the oppressed. Take up the cause of the fatherless; plead the case of the widow.” (Isaiah 1:16–17)
Through Jeremiah, God confronted people who were coming into His temple while continuing to steal, murder, commit adultery and oppress the foreigner, the fatherless and the widow. He essentially asked them, Do you really think you can do all these things and then come into My house and claim that you are safe? (Jeremiah 7:5–10)
And through Amos, God condemned Israel for selling the innocent, exploiting the poor, denying justice to the oppressed and committing sexual abuse, even while they continued their religious activities. (Amos 2:6–8)
Ezekiel gives us an equally sobering picture. God listed their oppression of foreigners, orphans and widows, sexual sins, bribery and exploitation alongside their desecration of His holy things. (Ezekiel 22:6–12)
This is important because Israel’s judgment and exile were not simply about forgetting religious rituals. Their rebellion against God showed itself in how they treated human beings. They oppressed the vulnerable, shed innocent blood, exploited one another, abused one another and dealt unjustly with each other.
God cared about worship, but He never accepted worship that existed alongside cruelty and injustice.
He wanted a people whose relationship with Him transformed the way they treated one another.
He knew that if people obeyed Him, society would become more livable.
But even good laws cannot change a heart that is hardened by sin.
We can create better systems, make more money and even remove some of the people who are causing harm, but none of these things can remove sin from the human heart. A person can escape poverty and still become an oppressor. A person can become wealthy and still be selfish. A person can leave a terrible environment and carry the same brokenness with them.
We cannot “out-good” God. He knows what is good for humanity because He created us, yet we continue to rebel against the One who actually has our best interests at heart.
That is why we need more than an escape.
We need transformation.
And until the day Jesus makes all things new, we are called to live differently in the middle of this broken world. We shouldn’t put all our hope in money as our escape. We live according to God’s wisdom, treating people with dignity and doing the good that is within our power to do.
It may not fix the whole world.
But it makes the part of the world God has placed us in a little more livable while we wait for the perfect world He has promised.
