May 10, 2022

Leviticus 19: 9 (NIV)

“When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap to the very edges of your field or gather gleanings of your harvest. Do not go over your vineyard a second time or pick up the grapes that have fallen. Leave them for the poor and the alien. I am the Lord your God.”

Jesus . . . taught that care for the poor is an integral part of one’s relationship with God.*

A friend – a single guy – arrived in Florida with a few dollars in his wallet and no home to go to. By the time I met him, he had a good job and a place to live, and was actively involved in church. Because of his past circumstances, he had a heart for the down-and-out, so one day, in the course of his job delivering electronic equipment, he encountered a man displaying the ubiquitous “will work for food” sign. My friend stopped and told the man he would pay him if he would help him unload the truck. The man said, “Couldn’t you just give me the money?”

Providing for the poor is the duty of the people who aren’t poor. God does not distinguish between the deserving poor and the deadbeat poor. There was bound to be abusers of the system described here but God put it in place for the benefit of those who could not help themselves. Should we allow a person to go hungry just because someone else is a scam artist? And if a man is hungry because of his own bad choices, is he not still hungry?  Is there any record of Jesus saying, “I’ll help you but you have to promise not to sell the food to buy cigarettes”? Jesus’ charity came with no strings attached.

Read the verse again. Note that God didn’t impose a law that prevented the farmer from making a profit from his crop. As a matter of fact, what God required was no hardship at all. The farmer was not going to miss the grain or the grapes that got left behind in the initial harvest, but it could make all the difference to a single mom and her kids or an old drunk down on his luck. And take note of that final, ominous pronouncement: I am the Lord your God. Are you going to argue with him?

Who do we think we are, showing no grace to those who need it most?*