Deuteronomy 15:7, 8 If there is a poor man among your brothers in any of the towns of the land that the Lord your God is giving you, do not be hardhearted or tightfisted toward your poor brother. Rather be openhanded and freely lend him whatever he needs. --NIV In the name of the One Who wants us to be kind to the poor, amen.
God reminds us not to be hardhearted toward the poor because it is so very easy to be hardhearted. It is against our selfish human nature to give away what we have worked for. We tend to look at the poor and label them as lazy or irresponsible. Now, to be sure, there are those who are. We talk about such people when we talk about the commandment against stealing. For now, we consider how we need to help those who are poor and need our help. And, as more and more people become laid off, there will be more and more poor who need our help. Add to that the reality of broken families, or families that never were to begin with, and we end up with a lot of people who need help.
We are not in exactly the same situation as the Children of Israel were when God caused our passage to be written, but Christians are God’s chosen people. We also live in a land that has been very blessed. It is a sort of Promised Land that many pious Christians came to in order to worship God according to His word and their conscience. So, we who dwell here should be very mindful of the principle that God gave concerning the poor.
If we remember that we were spiritually poor and without hope, and remember that God made us rich in Christ Jesus; if we bear in mind that everything we have ultimately comes from God and is our to use only for a time; if we focus on the reality that everything belongs to us in Christ, even if we can’t make use of everything yet, then we will realize that sharing with the poor is not a burden. We will see that it doesn’t rob us of anything, but is a grateful reaction to the wealth that God has poured out on us. Amen.
Prayer: Heavenly Father, You have blessed us in so many ways both spiritually and materially, that we cannot even begin to list our blessings. But we live in a sinful, selfish world that urges us to be selfish. Forgive us for our selfishness, and protect us from the influence of the world so that we share with others as You have shared with us. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.
Copyright 2001 Reformation Lutheran Church http://ReformationChurch.org --