From the get go, this chapter is challenging me in regard to my generosity toward people in need. The overall sense of the opening 2 paragraphs is that if the people were faithful, God would provide enough for all Israel to live and not be poor. At the same time, some brothers/sisters may be poor. Thus those with more than enough should give (lend, but with a clear understanding that in the 7th year debts are canceled) freely and good heartedly to those in need. The NIV uses the words openhanded and freely to describe the kind of giving God enjoins. God would provide enough for all, but God’s distribution plan is that those with plenty will give (lend) to those without. In other words, people on top of the ‘have’ pyramid need to be generous so that all people in the pyramid have what they need.
And this is precisely the rub… world-wise, I am on the top…
Oh, God, am I being faithful in my care for those brothers of mine in need? Even as I begin this prayer, Matthew 25 fills my mind. Pictures of children I have seen and met in Nigeria, Nicaragua, Liberia, and Mexico fill my thoughts. Missionaries I know are serving without being fully funded. People in my church don’t have good or enough food.
Oh, Lord, blast away the hardness of my heart, my Sinicism, my fear of giving…
Through Jesus, my Lord, who gave EVERYTHING… I pray. Amen.
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