Inactive Duty

by Ben

I read Deuteronomy 19-24.

Much of this section either dealt with laws about murder and punishment, who can do what, and what you should or shouldn't do. In reality, it started to remind me of Proverbs (in that there were short, one or two line directions about life).

The part that I'm going to write about today deals with Deuteronomy 24:19-22.

"When you harvest our grain and forget a sheaf back in the field, don't go back and get it; leave it for the foreigner, the orphan, and the widow so that God, your God, will bless you in all your work. When you shake the olives off your trees, don't go back over the branches and strip them bare--what's left is for the foreigner, the orphan, and the widow. And when you cut the grapes in your vineyard, don't take every last grape--leave a few for the foreigner, the orphan, and the widow. Don't ever forget that you were a slave in Egypt. I command you: Do what I'm telling you."

This is all about taking care of your neighbors ("neighbors" defined through the story of the good Samaritan). Yet, as I sit here, I struggle to find a modern day example that doesn't come off as contrived. I think that in order to apply this story to the world that we live in today, we have to note that few people grow their own food. And still, this story has meaning for our lives.

The foreigner, the orphan, and the widow all represent those in poverty. The Interpreter's Bible explains it in simple, yet profound terms: "The style of Deuteronomy reverberates with the phrase the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow. It is nearly an antiphon to 'the mighty hand and outstretched arm" of Yahweh. As these alternate in a kin of double refrain, love for God and love for man are inseparable." Another commentary relates this direction to the Golden Rule of Jesus.

No matter how you look at it, the larger picture here is how to care for others, even through our inaction.

You lost a ten dollar bill? Let it go...someone who needs it more will find it and use it. As worried as we could ever be about our finances, someone else needs it more.

Now, you could argue that someone undeserving, who has plenty of money, could find the $10. But is that really for us to decide?