The Bad Theology of 36:47

The verse stages a small drama. The believers are told to give from what God has provided. The disbelievers answer with something that sounds almost devout:

36:47 When they are told, “Give from GOD’s provisions to you,” those who disbelieve say to those who believe, “Why should we give to those whom GOD could feed, if He so willed? You are really far astray.”

It has the shape of piety. It appeals to God’s power. And it is completely backward.

The argument works by taking something true and bending it toward something false. It is true that God could feed anyone He wills. From this the disbelievers conclude that they themselves have no business feeding anyone. If the poor are poor, that must be God’s arrangement—so who are they to interfere?

This is fatalism disguised as reverence. It treats God’s power as a reason for human passivity. But God’s power was never an argument against responsibility. It is the ground of it.

Notice what they have missed. They speak of the poor as those God “could” feed, as if He is not already at work. But the provision in their own hands is God’s provision—”Give from GOD’s provisions to you.” The wealth they are clutching is the very means by which God feeds the hungry. God’s answer to poverty was placed in their pockets.