“Begging For Bread”

Tuesday, June 23, 2015

I believe the Bible does not contradict itself in any way, as it is inspired of God.  Yet, I have pondered two scriptures and wonder about them.

In Psalms 37:25, King David writes: "I have been young, and now am old; Yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken, Nor his seed begging bread."

But what about Luke 16:19-20?

As the story goes, the beggar died and was carried away by the angels into Abraham's bosom while the rich man also died, but found himself in Hades in torment.

I am curious about your thoughts on Lazarus and the fact that he was a beggar before he died.

Sincerely, Begging For Answers

Dear Begging For Answers,

The most likely reason for this seeming inconsistent is the nature of how the Psalms are written. The Psalms, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes are written in a generic way. They are intended to highlight what happens in 99.9% of the cases. Even David admits that he was stating what ‘he had never seen’ – the Psalm is an observation of what happens most of the time. It could even be argued that David begged for bread from Nabal during his time in the wilderness (1 Sam 25:5-8), so that even David knew he was making a generality. The fact that there have been some righteous people who have suffered such economic loss that they had to beg does not negate the fact that the vast majority of the faithful do not ever have to.

There are other examples of this generality of speech in the wisdom books (Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon):

1. Pr 22:6 – not all children that are raised well remain faithful later in life… but the majority do.
2. Pr 28:11 – not all rich people are conceited, but many are.
3. Ps 112:3 – not all righteous people are wealthy, yet prosperity does come to God’s faithful more often then not.

In fact, Solomon addresses that there are exceptions to these rules (Eccl 8:14), and that those exceptions are sad and grievous things. Lazarus is an exception that proves the rule of Ps 37:25. But even though Lazarus suffered in this life, great is his reward in heaven (Lk 16:25).

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