the poor and the alien
In my reading thru Leviticus, I came across these verses. (lev 19:9-10)When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest. Do not go over your vineyard a second time or pick up the grapes that have fallen. Leave them for the poor and the alien.
the concern God has for the poor and the alien (foreigners) is incredible, he includes them all the time in his commands to Israel. These practices- not gleaning your own field (going back and picking up the leftovers after you do the main harvest) and leaving a border around your plot of land unharvested- are great examples.
And then i think about us. Not only do we harvest in such a way that NOTHING is left behind for anyone else (or for savings), we harvest what is in other people's fields! (the average american spends more each month than they make, going further into debt)
God was trying to teach Israel that he would give them enough, in fact more than they needed. This meant that they could (1) be content and (2) share their abundance with those less fortunate. In the richest country in the world, we don't do either very well. Agreed? But maybe the key is to start with #2, if we're waiting around to one day finally feel content, we'll be waiting forever. But maybe contentment comes when we start giving what is "ours" away, because then, and maybe only then, will we see for ourselves that we've got more than we think, and way more than we need.
posted by Dion @ 1/25/2006 10:33:00 AM
2 Comments
2 Comments:
They were also supposed to cancel debts in the 7th year correct?
I agree that I cannot find contentment easily. Perhaps giving more is the answer. I certainly agree that leaving some edges on the money side would make it easier to be content... I know folks who measure out every penny being good "stewards". Perhaps there's a bigger picture not in focus.
Weren't all these "crazy" ideas supposed to draw foreigners to Israel to learn about the one true God? What are some crazy ideas we can practice as Christians to attract others to Christ?
Good post.
I have to agree...good post. I dont know what it is but it seems that i have been able to relate the bible more and more to my A.P. Euro class.
This post stood out to me because it reminded me of how in the really late 17th and early 18th centuries, when they developed new farming systems, after the farmers would collect their crops the peasents would go through and glean the field. And it showed that this was their only way of survival because either they gleaned or they died...and i guess the corolation is that leaving behind things in the field helped them live, so us giving (leaving things behind) will help other people less fortunet carry on with their lives in a somewhat better way.
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I found another relation as i was reading aswell. We were studying the French revolutions and all the revolutions that were taking place in Europe in the 18th century and my teacher brough up a story of how they took one of the more disliked "leaders" of the time, cut him into six pieces, and hung those pieces on a windmill so that his blood would be spread throughout the whole country to represent the heinous things he had done. Well, that brought me back to one of your bible studies one morning, from the book of Judeges...Judges 19(all) and 20: 1-7 (to be exact)...Of how a mna traided his concubine for the hospitality of another man and in the morning his concubine was dead, and the levite man cut her up and sent the pieces to the 12 tribes of Israel o show what horrible things had been done.
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I dunno...but i think i'm starting to find history to be a little more interesting. ;)
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