Still at risk

How different Israelite society was 3,400 years ago! The conquest of Canaan had just begun; most of the people had a subsistence lifestyle and owned no property or home.

How different and yet how much the same. There will always be people whose well-being and lives are at risk, people who need the help of others to survive. “At the end of every three years, bring all the tithes of that year’s produce and store it in your towns, so that the Levites (who have no allotment or inheritance of their own) and the foreigners, the fatherless and the widows who live in your towns may come and eat and be satisfied, and so that the LORD your God may bless you in all the work of your hands” (Deuteronomy 14:28,29).

Moses’ words still resonate. Like the Levites, church workers today have a certain vulnerability. They don’t unionize, never go on strike, and don’t argue much over salary. Foreigners, whether documented or not, are always taken advantage of by earlier arrivals. Widows have more protections today but deserve special consideration by their churches. And how is fatherlessness any less a curse today than it ever was? It is an epidemic and getting worse. A congregation can be a rich source of role models, coaches, and mentors to help boys and girls without dads in their lives.

God loves it when people help people. It makes him want to turn on the resources faucet for the helpers.