Pickin' Corn

O. T. #418 "Pickin' Corn"
December 8, 2014
Deuteronomy 24-Part 2
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.  Deuteronomy 24:19 NIV

LET IT GLOW

Are you hungry? Let's go pick some corn. Nothing like eating an ear of golden, luscious corn in the summer. I used to raise a garden and enjoyed its fruit.
Jesus compassionately took care of His disciples and followers. Not only did He meet their spiritual needs, but He met their physical needs, also. Several times He even whipped up a meal in a flash. Specifically, when the disciples were hungry, they picked corn in a field with Jesus. That was the time when the Pharisees criticized them for working on the Sabbath. (Mark 2:23-28)

How did Jesus answer these guys? The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. so the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.

I wonder if those Pharisees expected the disciples to go hungry all day. Did they ever do so in order to keep the Law and go hungry all day? Pondering.
What about us? Do we get hung up on a law and not have compassion for others in need?


LET IT GROW

In the rest of this chapter we read of the various and several prohibitions in regard to life.
David Guzik's Bible Commentary on the internet gives us an outline:

• act swiftly when leprosy breaks out; (verses 8-9)
• handling a pledge rightly; (10-13)
• command to pay your workers; (verses 14-15)
• each shall bear his own sin; (verse 16)
• a command to be compassionate and fair; (verses 17-18)
• leave behind some of the harvest for the poor. (verses 19-22)

We must always deal with others remembering how much God has blessed and forgiven us. Farmers were to have a generous heart, and mad the poor to be active and work for their food. It made a way for them to provide for their own needs with dignity.  (Guzik)

Especially during this Christmas season, specifically as the year ends, we have so many opportunities to give to various organization which meet our communities needs. Are we using discernment in which to support? There are even food and clothing pantries who help those in need.
I think our society as wavered the command for the poor to work for their food. They have come to expect a free handout, instead, which is not how God intended it.

An example in the Old Testament is fond in the book of Ruth. She did not expect a free handout for her and her mother in law's food. She went through the fields picking up the gleanings of the grain. (Ruth 1:22).

LET IT GO

Share and care live and give.

Show compassion to those in need.

Thank God for meeting my needs.