Sermons
Providing for those in Need
Providing for Those in Need
I. Introduction
There’s an interesting law in the book of Deuteronomy that begins:
Deut. 24:19 When you reap your harvest in your field and forget a sheaf in the field, you shall not go back to get it. [All scripture references are from the English Standard Version.]
It goes on to explain why. Can you guess the reason? We’ll come back to it in a few minutes.
The laws that God gave Moses at Mt. Sinai served several purposes. Of course, they instructed the people in what was right and wrong. You shall not commit adultery, steal, lie, etc. There were also many laws having to do with worship, sacrifices, the tabernacle, feast days, etc. And then there were also laws that governed their society, how they were to interact with each other. There were laws about loans, and inheritance, and property damage, and trials. And there were rules put in place to provide for the poor among them.
The rule I cited above is one of them. Here’s the whole thing.
Deut. 24:19-22 “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.
This came to my attention when studying through Leviticus for our Sunday morning series. There are some similar laws there, as we will see in a moment. As we think about these things, we can see learn several things about how God wanted his people to deal with the poor and downtrodden in their midst.
Even though we are not under the Law of Moses today, I believe we’ll find that the underlying principles are repeated in the New Testament as well.
So let’s dig into these rules and see what lessons we can learn for our lives today.
II. Leaving a remnant
So let’s make a list of these rules to see what they have in common. So far, from the one in Deut., we see:
- Don’t go back after a forgotten sheaf
- Don’t beat your olive trees a second time
- Don’t strip your grapevines after gathering
Now let’s add a couple from Leviticus.
Lev. 19:9-10 “When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap your field right up to its edge, neither shall you gather the gleanings after your harvest. 10 And you shall not strip your vineyard bare, neither shall you gather the fallen grapes of your vineyard. You shall leave them for the poor and for the sojourner: I am the Lord your God.
This is repeated in Lev. 22:23. So now we can add three more rules to our list.
- Don’t reap to the edge of the field
- Don’t gather the gleanings after the harvest
- Don’t gather the fallen grapes
And what was the reason for these rules? It was so that there would be something left for the poor and the sojourner.
Think for a moment about how difficult it would have been to abide by these rules. You work hard digging, plowing, planting, weeding, working all summer, and then finally it’s harvest time. And you have to leave some of the produce behind. Some border of the wheat field would go un-gathered. Olives that ripened after the harvest would be left on the field. Grapes that fell to the ground were left there. And even after you finished cutting and gathering the wheat into bundles, if you looked back and realized there was one you missed, you have to walk away and leave it there. Basically, everywhere you look, a certain amount of your crop, whether it be grapes, olives, wheat, or whatever, would be left behind and potentially wasted.
From the farmer’s point of view, this would probably seem wasteful. But God was not only concerned with the farmer’s point of view. Think of what this would mean to the poor, the fatherless and widows, and the sojourner. Everywhere throughout the land of Israel, there would be leftovers of the crops available for eating.
Now why would these people need these things? The passage in Deut. Specifically mentions three groups of people among the poor: the fatherless, the widows, and the sojourner. Think of what would happen in a farming community if the man of the house died, either from injury or in war, or disease or old age. How would his children eat? I’m sure the mother would do what she could, but presumably she would need help to feed her family. Also, think of the widow, perhaps an older woman. She, too, would need help.
And what about the sojourner? This was someone who was passing through. A visitor or traveler, or just someone who didn’t have any land of his own to farm. How will he eat? If he’s wealthy, he may be able to buy his food. But what if he isn’t wealthy? He will have to find his own food somehow or rely on the generosity of others.
So you might be thinking, “wait a minute—these people could just walk into someone else’s field and eat from their crop?” Yes. The Law specifically allowed it.
Deut. 23:24-25 “If you go into your neighbor's vineyard, you may eat your fill of grapes, as many as you wish, but you shall not put any in your bag. 25 If you go into your neighbor's standing grain, you may pluck the ears with your hand, but you shall not put a sickle to your neighbor's standing grain.
In the society God set up, it wasn’t considered stealing to eat from another person’s crop. Now you weren’t allowed to bring in a basket or a sickle—that would be wrong. But you could eat as much as you needed to satisfy your hunger. So if I had some grape vines behind my house, and if I looked out there and saw a stranger helping himself to some of the grapes, I wouldn’t run out and say, “Hey, what do you think you’re doing!” I would be fine with that. Now if he was loading up a basket, that would be different. But if he was hungry, he was welcome to those grapes.
That seems strange to us, doesn’t it? I’ve heard old timers talk about sneaking into someone else’s field and stealing a watermelon. But in Israel, that wouldn’t have been considered wrong if you were taking it to eat.
So now that we’ve looked at those laws, let’s think about two general principles that they illustrate, and then we’ll look at what the New Testament has to say about it.
III. God cares for those in need
First of all, we see in these provisions in the law the obvious fact that God cares about those in need. That’s why he put these things in the law, to make sure that people would have food to eat.
This principle is seen over and over in the Old Testament.
Ex. 22:21-24 “You shall not wrong a sojourner or oppress him, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt. 22 You shall not mistreat any widow or fatherless child. 23 If you do mistreat them, and they cry out to me, I will surely hear their cry, 24 and my wrath will burn, and I will kill you with the sword, and your wives shall become widows and your children fatherless.
Deut. 10:17-19 For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who is not partial and takes no bribe. 18 He executes justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the sojourner, giving him food and clothing. 19 Love the sojourner, therefore, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt.
Psa. 68:5 Father of the fatherless and protector of widows is God in his holy habitation.
Psa. 146:9 The Lord watches over the sojourners; he upholds the widow and the fatherless, but the way of the wicked he brings to ruin.
Isa. 41:17 When the poor and needy seek water, and there is none, and their tongue is parched with thirst, I the Lord will answer them; I the God of Israel will not forsake them.
Clearly, the Lord has a special concern for those in need.
IV. God expects his people to be merciful
God cares for those in need, and he expects his people to care for them as well. It isn’t just that God will see to it that the widows and orphans have food—he instructs his people to accomplish that by sharing what they have.
Deut. 15:7-11 “If among you, one of your brothers should become poor, in any of your towns within your land that the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not harden your heart or shut your hand against your poor brother, 8 but you shall open your hand to him and lend him sufficient for his need, whatever it may be. 9 Take care lest there be an unworthy thought in your heart and you say, ‘The seventh year, the year of release is near,’ and your eye look grudgingly on your poor brother, and you give him nothing, and he cry to the Lord against you, and you be guilty of sin. 10 You shall give to him freely, and your heart shall not be grudging when you give to him, because for this the Lord your God will bless you in all your work and in all that you undertake. 11 For there will never cease to be poor in the land. Therefore I command you, ‘You shall open wide your hand to your brother, to the needy and to the poor, in your land.’
Prov. 14:21 Whoever despises his neighbor is a sinner, but blessed is he who is generous to the poor.
Prov. 19:17 Whoever is generous to the poor lends to the Lord, and he will repay him for his deed.
Job gives us an excellent example.
Job 31:16-22 “If I have withheld anything that the poor desired,
or have caused the eyes of the widow to fail,
17 or have eaten my morsel alone,
and the fatherless has not eaten of it
18 (for from my youth the fatherless grew up with me as with a father,
and from my mother's womb I guided the widow),
19 if I have seen anyone perish for lack of clothing,
or the needy without covering,
20 if his body has not blessed me,
and if he was not warmed with the fleece of my sheep,
21 if I have raised my hand against the fatherless,
because I saw my help in the gate,
22 then let my shoulder blade fall from my shoulder,
and let my arm be broken from its socket.
But in fact, this attitude seems to have been the exception rather than the rule. In spite of God’s clear instructions and even his laws that he put in place to protect the weak and helpless, time and again he blasts his people for failing to help the helpless, and even for taking advantage of them.
Passages like this are all over the prophets:
Ezek. 22:6-7 “Behold, the princes of Israel in you, every one according to his power, have been bent on shedding blood. 7 Father and mother are treated with contempt in you; the sojourner suffers extortion in your midst; the fatherless and the widow are wronged in you.
And therefore, the call to repentance often had to do with learning to be merciful.
Isa. 58:6-8 “Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the straps of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke? 7 Is it not to share your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover him, and not to hide yourself from your own flesh? 8 Then shall your light break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall spring up speedily; your righteousness shall go before you; the glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard.
V. New Testament
Now I ask you, is God any different today? Are these two principles still true?
Yes, God, still cares for the needy, and he expects us to, as well.
Luke 14:12-14 He said also to the man who had invited him, “When you give a dinner or a banquet, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, lest they also invite you in return and you be repaid. 13 But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, 14 and you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you. For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the just.”
Jam. 1:27 Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.
Gal. 6:10 So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith.
And remember the laws about leaving some of your crop behind? How does that apply today?
Eph. 4:28 Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need.
It would be very tempting for the Israelite farmer to say, “this is mine. I cleared the ground, I plowed the field, I planted the seed, I pulled weeds all summer, and now the harvest is here, and it’s all mine.”
But God sees it differently. God gave him the land. God created the seed. God sent the rain and the sun. God gave the produce. It was a blessing from God, and he expected the farmer to share.
The same is true with our jobs. Everything we receive, even our paycheck, is a blessing from God, and he intends for us to be generous with it, not stingy or selfish.
The Israelites failed to be merciful over and over in their history. I’m afraid I’ve failed to be merciful, too. It’s an easy trap to fall into.
Conclusion
There are many other aspects of this subject that we could get into. God did not expect anyone to be lazy. There are many proverbs about the sluggard. Also, God instructed a certain amount of the crop to be left behind, but that would require some initiative by those in need. Like Ruth, they would have to get out in the field and gather it. God did not establish a society where a good chunk of the people sat around doing nothing and waited for others to provide for them.
At the same time, God required his people to set aside a portion of their produce to be available to those who needed it. And I believe he expects us to be ready to share as well.
We’ll never end the problem of poverty or hunger. Jesus said the poor will be with you always. But the challenge for us is to embrace Job’s attitude, and be generous and willing to share with those in need.
INVITATION
