Mon, 19 June, 2006: Today’s Bible readings.

Deuteronomy 24:19-22

¹⁹ “When you reap your harvest in your field and forget a sheaf in the field, you shall not go back to get it. It shall be for the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow, that the LORD your God may bless you in all the work of your hands. ²⁰ When you beat your olive trees, you shall not go over them again. It shall be for the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow. ²¹ When you gather the grapes of your vineyard, you shall not strip it afterward. It shall be for the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow. ²² You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt; therefore I command you to do this.

God commanded the people of Israel to provide for those who had no ability to provide for themselves by allowing them to glean from the crops grown on the land.

What do we learn from this?

Those who can do work should do work. There are people who can’t provide for themselves and their families. Although we should be concerned to help them, we should not do it in a way that encourages their laziness.

In Israel, if the poor wanted food, they were allowed to glean after the harvesters. Thus they got food, but at the cost of their own labor. They had to work to eat.

I think this speaks to how we should administer help to the needy today. In our charity, we must also encourage people to work for their sustenance. We should not just give handouts and teach those we are helping that they need do nothing toward their own support. Of course there are cases when people can’t work, but if someone can work, they should.

Where is Christ in this passage?

In remembering the poor of the land and in giving them assistance, Israel was to recall their own bondage in Egypt and how God had freed them.

So too, as we act to help those in need around us, we are encouraged to remember what God has done for us in bringing us out from our bondage to sin. We have come to God through faith in Jesus Christ and so we have are now no longer slaves to sin.