Why Are There Poor People?

Deuteronomy 15:4-5, 7, 11

However, there need be no poor people among you, for in the land the Lord your God is giving you to possess as your inheritance, He will richly bless you, if only you fully obey the Lord your God and are careful to follow all these commands I am giving you today.

If anyone is poor among your fellow Israelites . . .

There will always be poor people in the land.

Moses is telling the people all the laws God is giving them to obey and follow in the good land they are entering into to dwell there. He knows that these laws are so just and comprehensive that if the people will only fully obey and always live their daily lives according to it, then the result would be that no one would be poor. Whenever we live according to God's rules, running this world in alignment with how God made it to work, then the result will be that we enjoy all the benefits and bountifulness that is here (there is no "shortage" of anything), and God receives the credit, as the Designer.

But Moses knew that these people were human, and would not always be faithful; allowing themselves to be deceived by all the distractions of the world and the pagans living among them. So there may be some poor; no, there would always be poor people among them. 

And there will always be people in the world who are poor. That's one reason why every Christian is to "do the work of an evangelist" (II Timothy 4:5) in sharing God's Truth with the people whose lives touch ours: The Good News of Jesus' substitutionary death on the Cross and His Resurrection, conquering death, which will give them a new life; and His just and comprehensive rules for living that will inform them in how to live in alignment with how God designed this world that will result in receiving its abundance and prosperity. Then "there need be no poor people among you."

Even so, come, Lord Jesus!