The last verse that I want to include here is Deuteronomy 26:12-13. God did not want them to be left out of anything that pertained to His Blessings. This was also true of the Feast of Weeks and the Feast of Booths. When the Children of Israel were to enter in the feasts of the Passover, they were to include the fatherless and the widows and the travelers in with their own families so that they would not be excluded. It is for the fatherless orphans, the sojourners and the widows.”(Deut 24:20-21) The third year tithe was for the purpose of supporting the Levies, the sojourners and the fatherless and widows.(Deut 14:29) It was to be shared responsibility of the community for the needs of the helpless and for those who had no support.God told His people that they shall not pervert justice: to the fatherless (orphans), the Widows (Deut 24:17) He also commanded that they “When you reap your harvest,…beat your olive trees,…gather your grapes…. Those who were without defenders had God as the advocate. This was the beginning of God’s Law for the care of the fatherless and the widows. What is the next thing on His list is (Deut 10:18) “He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widows, and the alien, giving them food and clothing.” This begins a long history of how God looked upon the the care of the needing and the homeless. Verse 17 states that God is impartial and takes no bribes. It is a matter of understanding and obeying God’s will as set down by his Law given to Moses in the desert.ĭeuteronomy 10:12-13 reads as this: And now, O Israel, what does your God ask of you but to fear the LORD, your God, to walk in all His ways, to love Him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and to observe the LORD’s commands and decrees that I am giving you today for your own good.” (NIV) It is followed by telling who God is to the people and how His might is great.
This is not a debate over the liberal or the conservative outlook of our governments, it is the critical responsibility of all. We can not ignore or allow the churches, governments or each other from neglecting, abandoning or abusing the needs of the elderly or the very young. Just because we are not “bound” to the Law does not excuse us from honoring it. The point I am making is that just because Jesus may not have addressed the caring of widows and orphans directly, it is still the our responsibility to see to the welfare and care of them. It became the responsibility of the Church, the Government and the individual to Obey and to serve God’s will. Not only for the Nation and its people but also for the leaders of the Religious community and for the leaders of each tribe of the Sons of Abraham. The Law was not only for the individual but for community.
He established the Church and the nation of His people. And when God spoke to Moses and gave him the Law, He spoke to the Nation of Israel. When we say to God that we love Him and yet neglect those in the most need of care and assistance, we forget that Jesus said that we are to care for the least of these. It is as if because we are “free from the bond of the Law” we seem to think that it allows us to ignore the needs of our church families and the needs of the many people throughout the world that are in special need of Christian Love.
But it seems to me that in today’s policies that we have as churches and as communities forgotten that the Law of God still applies. The caring of the “fatherless” orphans and the widows is a long tradition under the Law of God.