You might read this proverb and think to yourself, "Yeah, and that's about all they share in common." Doesn't it seem the poor and the oppressor would be worlds apart? In many ways they certainly are. The oppressor has great power and uses it to intimidate and control others. He has neither regard nor compassion for them, with his only goal to increase his power and influence. The poor, on the other hand, has very little power, at least in the earthly sense. He is the victim of the oppressor and his very poverty may indeed be the result of having the adversary's foot squarely and firmly against his neck. The poor has control over nothing, but perhaps his own thoughts and actions.
With two individuals at such polar opposites, is it not interesting that YHWH, through the writing of Solomon, chooses to express a commonality? He tells us they have this in common: the Lord gives light to the eyes of both. We know nothing about the spiritual condition of "the poor" in this verse, so it would be purely speculation to assume he has a right standing with Almighty God. We can know the oppressor absolutely does not, merely by who we're told he is.
In addition to being recipients of the Lord's provision of light for their seeing, there are some other things they would share in common. In the song, "Coming in From the Cold", Bob Marley sings:
Well, the biggest man you ever did see, once was just a baby
Have you ever thought about that? The biggest, richest, most powerful- and even the most wicked, was once just a baby. Even Adolf Hitler, at one time, needed his diapers changed, needed to be fed and bathed and otherwise depended on others to care for him. It is hard for us to imagine someone so cruel at one time being so helpless. And so, the oppressor and the poor are also bound together in that both were at one time infants in need of the very same things. But there is more.
"That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust." (Matthew 5:45 KJV)
Though the poor may be good and just while the oppressor is certainly neither, the Father provides the rising sun and falling rain for each of them. The sun shining on you, wherever you are, is the same sun shining on me.
What I take today from the message in this proverb is that all of humanity are recipients of the grace of Almighty God. He is the one who gives natural sight and spiritual sight. All of creation, including the light-giving sun, bears witness of His creative power. Likewise, the light of Christ, the Light of the World, is available to the poor and the oppressor alike. As a result, each of them, should they become regenerated through Christ, would one day share the greatest of all commonalities: eternal life with Him!
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