After Pentecost Devotional - Day 37

“The Levites have no land of their own, so you must give them food from the storehouse. You must also give food to the poor who live in your town, including orphans, widows, and foreigners. If they have enough to eat, then Yahweh your God will be pleased and make you successful in everything you do.” Deuteronomy 14:29

Unlike so much of the political and economic rhetoric we hear, the Mosaic code required that the poor and disenfranchised be cared for as a precursor to the economic welfare of the nation. Caring for the poor, voiceless, and landless was a prerequisite for Yahweh's blessing for the nation as a whole. Rather than care for ourselves first and then take care of others with our excess, the motif here is to assist those in need and then look to our own interests.

That is pretty much the inverse of the “American Dream.” Our ideals and values are to become wealthy in order to be able to care for others out of our excess. Deuteronomy tells us to care for others in order that we might become wealthy. It places God's provision as contingent upon our accepting responsibility for others.

Despite what so many prosperity gospel preachers might claim, God is not so much interested in increasing our wealth and comfort. He is first of all interested in increasing our generosity and care for others. In God's economy, it is in being generous that we become wealthy. It is in doing more for others than we believe we can do that God enters our lives to provide abundance.

This verse is background to the widow who fed Elijah her last meal, unsure whether there would be enough left for herself and her son. It is background to Boaz making sure that ample gleanings were left for Ruth to care for herself and Naomi. It is background for the principles of judging one's righteousness on the basis of how one cares for others whose needs are more glaring than one's own. It is background to the boy who shared his lunch with Jesus who used it to feed the 5,000. It is background to the widow who gave her last mite and Barnabas who sold a field to meet the needs of the hungry in the Jerusalem church.

When Jesus tells the disciples to feed the crowds who are hungry, he is referring to this same principle. It is the principle that God expects us to widen our concept of economic responsibility. As we have economic resources equivalent to holding fields that were the central source of economic production in Israel, we are responsible for seeing that their use goes beyond meeting our selfish ambitions. We are responsible for using those resources to care for others.

In this economy, amassing wealth is not a primary value. It is secondary to the distribution of wealth. As strange as it sounds to our capitalist ears, Yahweh promises to use the distribution of wealth to create abundance for all. The nation would become wealthy as it cared for its widows, orphans, priests, immigrants, lepers, lame, poor, blind, and deaf. Its wealth would grow in relation to its care for its underclasses. Reality says we don't really believe in God's pattern of economics. With wealth as our primary objective, we never really get around to caring for others.

Does your checkbook demonstrate a focus on caring for others?


"Lord, help me trust that as I live out your justice, You will remain faithful."


—©Copyright 2016, Christopher B. Harbin
http://www.sermonsearch.com/contributors/104427/ 
My latest books can be found here on amazon

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