Summer Series: #2 - Social Justice

Deuteronomy 24:19-21
When you are harvesting in your field and you overlook a sheaf, do not go back to get it. Leave it for the alien, the fatherless and the widow, so that the LORD your God may bless you in all the work of your hands. When you beat the olives from your trees, do not go over the branches a second time. Leave what remains for the alien, the fatherless and the widow. When you harvest the grapes in your vineyard, do not go over the vines again. Leave what remains for the alien, the fatherless and the widow.

The opportunities I have had to work with the poor while attending Bible College have raised all sorts of question about social justice. What is the best way to care for the poor? If we feed the less fortunate, are we simply making them reliant on us? Do our caring actions just make the problem worse? If so, what is the best way to show our love to these people? It's interesting to see the different ways that God answered these questions in his Torah. The passage above talks about how the Israelites were told to leave some of their crops in the fields so that the aliens, the fatherless and the widows would have something to eat. Notice, however, that these people still had to work for their food. The Israelites didn't go back and collect what was left over and then give it out. Instead they made those who were in need come and get it for themselves.