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

What's Working

Claudia at  My Fascinating Life  wants to know what's working in our lives. I've been pondering this for several weeks now. A lot of things are not working the way they should be. My resolve to exercise more has been thwarted first by getting my period every other week over the course of five weeks -- the HRT pills were NOT working -- and then a recalcitrant and painful case of the shingles in my hip, which means no running or biking. This of course means my resolve to lose weight is not working either -- and doesn't bode well for an early triathlon attempt. My one word for this year "declutter" is not working out at all as I'd hoped. I started with the kitchen table. I get it decluttered. Two days later....back to square one. Not being able to recycle the hundreds of papers that come home from kindergarten when a certain child is around to see what is going on doesn't help. But this is supposed to be a posting about what is working. So here goes: Tim
Read more

Adopting the Older Child -- Part 4: Power Struggles

Image
The stairs at the right of the photo were the site of one of our early power struggles -- T wanted to jump from the platform, and I didn't want to him cracking open his skull. "I don't like you. You mean." I hear that a lot, typically in response to things like "Time to pick up your toys," or "You need to take your vitamin," or "It's time to get dressed for school," or "Time to brush your teeth." Basic, every day power struggle stuff. T wants to keep playing, doesn't want to go to school, doesn't like any of his clothes, doesn't understand why he needs to brush his teeth twice a day every day, and most definitely does not want to take those yucky vitamins. He even rebels at being called to the dinner table. I try to avoid power struggles by using the options approach: "It's time to get ready for school -- do you want to get dressed first or brush your teeth first?" Or, "It's time to get
Read more