Today, I am reading and commenting on Deuteronomy 14-17.

I was debating what to write about on today’s passage.  It starts out talking about clean and unclean foods, then gets into the regulations for tithes.  Then in the middle of talking about canceling debts every seven years I came across this sentence, “However, there need be no poor people among you, for in the land the Lord your God is giving you to possess as your inheritance, he will richly bless you,  if only you fully obey the Lord your God and are careful to follow all these commands I am giving you today.”  If we fully obey God He will bless us and the land we live in so that no one need be poor in the land.  Nevertheless, Moses gave instructions about how they should, how we should, treat the poor.  He told us to be openhanded and lend freely to them whatever they need. Further, Moses instructs us to give generously to the poor and to do so ungrudgingly.  Also in this passage Moses gives instructions concerning how the king should behave.  Interestingly, nowhere in his instructions for the king, instructions for the government, does he say anything about the poor.  Moses gives instructions to the people about how they should treat the poor, but does not give the king any instructions about what the government should do for the poor.  We should care for the poor, we should lend them resources without concern about whether they can pay us back before the seven years are up when all debt is cancelled.  We should not attempt to fob off on the government our responsibility to help the poor.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.