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DEUTERONOMY 24–26

Week 10, Day 7

Someone has said that a society can be judged by the way it treats those who are least able to defend or care for themselves. So many of the commands in Deuteronomy are for the protection of the poor or the alien. When you collect for a loan, you wait outside for the pledge (24:10-11), thus respecting the dignity of the borrower; and if the pledge is a poor man’s garment, you return it to him in the evening because it is his only nighttime covering (24:12-13). So, too, you pay wages at sunset so the day laborer has food for his family (24:14-15). You extend justice to the alien because “Remember that you were a slave in Egypt” (24:17-18). You purposely leave some food behind when you harvest, so the poor can glean on your property (24:19-22). If you will so live, “it will be to your credit before the LORD” (24:13).

Personal honesty also rests in godly belief. You have honest weights and honest measures because “all who act dishonestly, are abhorrent to the LORD your God” (25:13-16).

If Israelites heard the Law rightly, all of life had a divine glory about it. The harvest time was more than simply an issue of abundance; it was a reminder of the One who had given this land to their ancestors when they were slaves (26:1-15). With the tithe of the harvest one is able to bless the “aliens, the orphans, and the widows” (26:13); thus a person’s resources become a quality of mercy rather than just wealth.

PRAYER: O Lord, help me see that what I have is yours and that I am privileged in being able to share it with others; in Christ. Amen.

List instances in Deuteronomy 24 and 25 where the Law seeks to protect the helpless or disadvantaged.