The widow, the fatherless, the stranger and the poor

7:10 And oppress not the widow, nor the fatherless, the stranger, nor the poor; and let none of you imagine evil against his brother in your heart.

(King James Bible, Zechariah)

Emily is Smiling is one of the blogs I found when I was searching on the Internet for people who want to be candles for God. This post is written for Emily, in response to her posts about her 7 experiment.

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Beyond what you say, in the introduction on your blog, about your heart for orphans, I see orphans, and some of the world's most ravaged people, as all-pervading themes in the blog. In the posts about your 7 experiment I see some parallel themes, including the extravagance in our lives, yours and mine; and learning to free ourselves from slavery to our passions and possessions.

Your heart for orphans and for ravaged people brings to my mind one reason I've seen in the Bible for  God's recurring wrath against Israel: its mistreatment of the widow, the fatherless, the stranger and the poor. The theme of the extravagance in our lives brings to my mind some connections I see between that and the ravaging, which might possibly have been in your mind also. The theme of learning to free ourselves from slavery to our passions and possessions is the part which seems to me to correspond the best with my break from Internet discussions. The only way I've found in the past to manage my Internet addiction has been to abstain altogether for a few months at a time. This time I abstained for just three weeks, the first three weeks of a three-month cycle of personal growth that I'm experimenting with. I had some experiences during that time that might interest you (or not, I'm not sure), but before that I want to write about what we can do for the world's most ravaged people, near and far.

A new idea came to me, from a Bible passage I found when I was searching for passages about the widow, the fatherless, the stranger and the poor:

19:9 And when ye reap the harvest of your land, thou shalt not wholly reap the corners of thy field, neither shalt thou gather the gleanings of thy harvest.
19:10 And thou shalt not glean thy vineyard, neither shalt thou gather every grape of thy vineyard; thou shalt leave them for the poor and stranger: I am the LORD your God.

23:22 And when ye reap the harvest of your land, thou shalt not make clean riddance of the corners of thy field when thou reapest, neither shalt thou gather any gleaning of thy harvest: thou shalt leave them unto the poor, and to the stranger: I am the LORD your God.

(King James Bible, Leviticus)

I'll be pondering that, as part of my preparation for some following posts.