Is this not true knowledge of me?

There’s a very nice passage in Jeremiah 22 that has God, through Jeremiah, comparing two kings, father and son, Josiah and Jehoiakim. Jehoiakim was a bad king who ripped off poor people. He’s accused of spending his time building cedar houses—cedar being a metaphor for enormous luxury—trying to prove his rank among kings. His father, Josiah, on the other hand, was a really good guy. King Josiah did what was “right and just.” And God says, “Because he dispensed justice to the weak and the poor, it went well with him.” Then God asks, “Is this not true knowledge of me?” That’s an extraordinary comment: knowing God means caring for the poor and the needy. The passage doesn’t say if you know God, you will care for the poor. It doesn’t say if you care for the needy, you will get to know God. It says that caring for the poor and needy is the act of knowing God.

~Walter Brueggemann, Like Fire in the Bones