A Ray of Hope
The litmus test of a godly society can be found in the way it treats the people at the bottom of the heap — in this case, widows, orphans and those who reject foreigners (3:5) — and the Messenger is anxious to assure everyone that however badly these people are suffering at the hands of their fellows they have definitely not dropped off the bottom of God’s agenda.
Since they are still there when we open the New Testament with the Magnificat (Luke 1: 46-55) 500 years later, and in most societies today 2,500 years later, cynics may be forgiven for wondering how active God has been, but that is not the point. When people’s spirits are as low as these people what matters more than instant action or superficial results is a ray of hope that God intends to have things differently and that is what the Messenger offers.
Integral to the hope also is the conviction that the offenders will not get away with it for ever. Justice will catch up with them, society will be refined and reformed (3: 2-3; 4: 1) and the golden age restored (3: 4; 4: 2).
But it is an achievement which God cannot manage on his own. Nobody must expect it to drop down from the sky. The pleasure arising from the benefits of the ray of hope is for those who set change in motion and for their successors who maintain it. Only when people return to God will God be able to turn to them. Some readers may still feel that the chances of this happening look no more hopeful than when the Messenger started his utterance. After all, nothing has changed.
But then that is another reason why the faithful must not give up. Underlying it all is that what we on our own have no means of achieving and what God is unable to achieve on his own becomes a real possibility once we work together.