March 5

Although I would like to go over the part about the children honoring and obeying their parents, I’ll refrain.

What I saw was the command of the tender heart of God. After all of the sacrifices and laws and the penalties that we have been reading about, here is the heart of God for others plainly displayed. He speaks about your neighbor and his livestock that you should care about, the people who planted a vineyard or just got engaged and especially the widow and orphans and the poor. (Not to mention the aliens among us). What a beautiful picture of His endless care for the downtrodden and the unfortunate of this world.

We are not supposed to use everything (gather every fruit off the tree), that the Lord blesses us with. We are supposed to leave some for others to come and get. We are not supposed to USE EVERYTHING TILL IT DIES – we are admonished to share. That is the point that hit me – share, give and take care of others.

There is one more thing that I want to point out. The poor were to come and gather their own food. How wonderful is that! God provides a way for poor people, or widows or orphans to work for their food so they can have a sense of accomplishment. They know they are in hard times, but God is saying you can fen for yourselves under my covenant and care. Beautiful!