Proverbs 18:23

This verse from Proverbs is a simple, unflinching observation about human behavior — not a command or a promise, but a mirror held up to social reality. A poor person has no leverage; they must plead, appealing to another's mercy because they have no other currency to spend. A rich person, by contrast, has the power to answer however they choose — and often answers harshly. Proverbs regularly holds up uncomfortable truths about how people actually behave. The implicit challenge is clear: if you are in the position of the rich man, how will you respond when someone comes to you with a plea they had to humble themselves to make?

Father, I don't always notice when someone is pleading rather than just asking. Soften the places in me that have hardened with comfort or security. Make me quick to hear the vulnerability beneath a request, and quicker still to answer with mercy. Amen.

Think about the last time you needed something from someone who didn't need anything from you — a job interview, a favor from a neighbor with all the leverage, a conversation where the other person held the answer and knew it. There is a particular kind of smallness that comes with being in the asking position. This proverb names it plainly. The poor man doesn't request or negotiate. He pleads. And the rich man's response? Harsh. Not necessarily cruel — just hard. Efficient in a way that forgets the person asking is a person. Proverbs is wise enough not to moralize endlessly — it simply states the fact and lets it sit. But the fact has weight. Power and security quietly reshape how we speak, listen, and respond to those who need us. If you've accumulated any measure of stability, comfort, or influence — and most people reading this have some version of it — this verse is worth sitting with honestly. Not as an exercise in guilt, but as a genuine question: when was the last time someone came to you with a plea, and what was the tone of your answer? Tone often tells the truth about the heart faster than any words do.