The Bible on Our Obligation to the Poor, Week 2

Note that the cattle herders are children. They should be in school. But they are needed for the farm work. Every day, twice a day, they must drive their herd of cattle across the main road between Addis Ababa and Awassa -- because they live on one side of the road and the water is on the other side. They must do this dodging cars, trucks, and buses -- that are cruising at highway speed -- without losing any of the herd or their own lives. We saw children as young as three and four herding sheep and goats, with toddlers in tow -- caring for both their siblings and the animals that provide their families with their livelihood. 

Lev. 19:19ff. Now when you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap to the very corners of your field, neither shall you gather the gleanings of your harvest. Nor shall you glean your vineyard, nor shall you gather the fallen fruit of your vineyard; you shall leave them for the needy and for the stranger. I am the LORD your God.



Prov. 19:17. He who is gracious to a poor man lends to the LORD, and He will repay him for his good deed.



Is. 58:10. "And if you give yourself to the hungry, and satisfy the desire of the afflicted, then your light will rise in darkness, and your gloom will become like midday. And the LORD will continually guide you, and satisfy your desire in scorched places, and give strength to your bones; and you will be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water whose waters do not fail."



Prov. 29:7. The righteous is concerned for the rights of the poor; the wicked does not understand such concern.



1 John 3:17. But whoever has the world's goods, and beholds his brother in need and closes his heart against him, how does the love of God abide in him?



Mt. 19:20ff. The young man said to Him, "All these commands I have kept; what am I still lacking?" Jesus said to him, "If you wish to be complete, go and sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you shall have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me."


And just for good measure, one that comes from Dr. Seuss rather than the Bible, but advocates an approach to life that particularly resonates with me, both metaphorically and literally:

"You're off to Great Places!
Today is your day!
Your mountain is waiting,
So...get on your way!



I've climbed a few of these. Hope to climb more!

Comments

  1. barb_alootMarch 4, 2012 at 9:04 AM

    I absolutely love this! Yes, parallel universes sounds right. :-) And your timing is better than you know.

    ReplyDelete
  2. KMarch 4, 2012 at 9:40 AM

    I guess what I don't get is why we need an archaic book to tell us that helping others is the right thing to do. Why can't we figure it out for ourselves?

    ReplyDelete
  3. kareydkMarch 4, 2012 at 12:46 PM

    Well, and here's the thing. There's a certain trio of Republican candidates for the presidency who decry our lack of "Christianity" but apparently have never cracked open the Bible. If they're going to use their religion as the basis for the way they would govern, they better get cracking. It's not me who's said we need to govern via the teachings of some archaic book -- it's them, but they don't seem to know what it teaches! I thought I'd help them along here. Now I just need them to follow my blog! Why they can't figure it out for themselves -- greed would be my guess. How are you going to drop a couple thou in Tiffany's if you've used it to build a hospital in Ethiopia? I wonder to what third world countries any of them have traveled and where they stayed/what they saw. You just cannot walk among the people of Ethiopia without it changing your life forever. Not that I wasn't a caring and giving person before. But it's on a different level now. And it's not to earn my way into heaven -- never has been. It's just the right thing to do. Oh, now I've got a new posting brewing in my head...

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Autumn Leaves -- Too Quickly

Image
When I was younger, fall was my favorite season. It seemed, as I day-dreamed out the school windows, that the crimsons, golds, and fiery oranges were a painted canvas to be enjoyed for weeks on end. Now the leaves are a fleeting show of glorious colors one weekend only to be ripped off by a windstorm the next, leaving us to stare at a world of gray and white for the next seven months. Perhaps if I actually had a window to look out while working, I could contentedly watch the season ease into into its show throughout the weeks of September and October, until finally exploding into the grand finale -- and not feel so cheated when the leaves are so unceremoniously flung to the ground to make way for the coming snow. Oh, autumn, to quote Marvell: "...yonder all before us lie Deserts of vast eternity. Thy beauty shall no more be found..." So while I was at Green Lakes over the weekend, I took time to just soak in the colors, albeit with a five year old at my side peppering m
Read more

Break My Heart

Image
"I happy you my Mommy and Daddy." Teshale has often shared that he misses his house and his family in "'topia." He seemed to really like his new home until his English expressive language developed to the point he could talk about his feelings, and likes and dislikes. "I no like this house," he would say as we would return home after school. "I want MY house." "MY house" means his house in Ethiopia. "I no like this house!" he would say at bedtime. "I want MY house." For quite a while, he expressed his desire to go back to his family in Ethiopia. He seemed to like us ok, but let's face it; he knows he has a "real" family in Ethiopia -- "real" in the sense of the one he was born into. He remembers his siblings and his Gashe -- his uncle, and the woman he called 'Ama' -- mother -- quite clearly. And he misses them terribly. If someone plucked me up from my home in the northeas
Read more

The Last Time

...But at my back I always hear  Times winged chariot drawing near...                                                                              --Andrew Marvell Part I, Early 2016: An older gentleman walks three miles around our neighborhood every day -- rain, snow, sleet, or occasionally, shine. Stickman, we called him until I asked his name, dubbed for the large stick he carries swinging and twirling first in one hand and then the other, back and forth as he walks, to get an upper body workout along with his daily constitutional. I see him often from my office window, and I smile. He's become part of my life, my daily routine, a bright moment in generally an otherwise gray and stress filled day. I admire him for his perseverance. Three miles a day, every day. He tells me that he used to run, but his knees eventually gave out, so now he walks. He has aged noticeably in the eleven years we've lived in this house. He walks more slowly, swings the stick less st
Read more