Today, I am reading and commenting on  Leviticus 24-25.

This passage contains a rule which a society must follow in order to be a just society: the same law, the same rules, apply to everyone, foreigner and native-born alike.  That extends to our personal lives as well.  We should not have higher standards to which we hold others than that to which we hold ourselves, or those close to us.  I do think that it is OK to hold ourselves to a higher standard than that to which we hold others. This connects to the other part of this passage which I want to write about, but I am unsure how to express that connection.  While laying out the rules for the Year of Jubilee, the passage says that if one “your fellow Israelites” become poor and unable to support themselves help them as you would a foreigner and stranger.  First, I think that we should think of “fellow Israelite” as fellow Believer.  Now one might be inclined to think that one would not give much help to a foreigner, so that this passage is telling us not to give much help.  However, the next couple of verses make clear that is not the case.  Instead what we realize is that we should help the poor, whether they are fellow Believers, members of our “tribe”, or complete strangers (although it says that they are living amongst us, so they are people about whom we know something).  Further, it is an instruction about how we, as individuals, should interact with those in need, not something we can pawn off on the government.

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