What the Bible says about Orphans and Widows
There have always been
poor people in the world. Jesus told his followers that in Mark
14:7. Orphans and widows are a special class of the poor. The
Bible gives believers guidance in looking after these unfortunate souls. A
multitude of Scriptures in the New and Old Testaments paint a clear picture of
God’s intentions for these people. This article will present and
explain several of these Scriptures.
Before discussing God’s
commands for caring for these souls, it is important to ask the question, “Why
is it so important for God’s people to care for the downtrodden in this world?” God
will provide the answer to the reader who completes this article.
Jesus instructed His
followers in His Sermon on the Mount and quoted in the book of Mt. 5:3-4: “Blessed
are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed
are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.”
Jesus reached out to the
poor and disenfranchised of this world with a wonderful message of hope. The
poor and those who mourn will one day be comforted. God sees their
plight and He will provide from His heavenly riches. But in this
world, He has provided the Body of Christ, His representative, to reach out and
apply soothing ointment to the wounds of the poor, orphans and widows.
The brother of Jesus,
James, instructed the believing church in Chapter 1:27: “Pure and undefiled
religion in the sight of our God and Father is this: to visit orphans and
widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.”
Religions of this world
are defiled in God’s eyes. Many are simply false teachings that do
not promote or glorify the One God of creation. But the piercing
gaze of our God even exposes the nakedness and darkness of Judaism and the
Christian religion. These religions abound with rules, regulations,
dress codes, idol worship and a drive to impress the world. Jesus
repeatedly castigated the Pharisees for their religious practices. Jesus
implored them to examine their hearts and remove the filth of their ways. James
subsequently defined what simple, pure and undefiled religion is in the mind of
God. He explained that God desires His followers to remain unstained
from the worldly religious system and simply visit the orphans and
widows—ministering to their needs. Why strive for complex laws and
regulations? That is the worldly system.
Early in the history of
mankind—even before God gave the law to Moses and His people—God instructed His
followers to give special attention to the orphans and widows. The
Book of Job was written before Moses lived and possibly even before Abraham was
called by God. Several Scriptures recorded there suggest God was
very interested in providing for the poor orphans and widows. “You have
sent widows away empty, and the strength of the orphans has been crushed. Therefore
snares surround you, and sudden dread terrifies you…. (Job 22:9)” Job
asserts his integrity and pleads his case:
If I have kept the poor from their desire, or have caused the eyes
of the widow to fail, or have eaten my morsel alone, and the orphan has not
shared it (But from my youth he grew up with me as with a father, and from
infancy I guided her); If I have seen anyone perish for lack of clothing, or
that the needy had no covering; If his loins have not thanked me, and if he has
not been warmed with the fleece of my sheep; If I have lifted up my hand
against the orphan, because I saw I had support in the gate, let my shoulder
fall from the socket, and my arm be broken off at the elbow. For
calamity from God is a terror to me….(Job 31:16-23)
The Bible explains Job
attempted to please God by extending his hand to orphans and widows.
Hundreds of years later
God delivered His people, Israel, from a wicked worldly oppressor, Egypt. He
gave them the Law through his servant, Moses. He instructed His
children that His ways were different and distinct from those of Egypt and the
world. He commanded them:
You shall not afflict any widow or orphan. If you afflict him at
all, and if he does cry out to Me, I will surely hear his cry; and My anger
will be kindled, and I will kill you with the sword and your wives shall become
widows and your children fatherless (Ex. 22:22-24).
The Levite, because he has no portion or inheritance among you,
and the alien, the orphan and the widow who are in your town, shall come and
eat and be satisfied, in order that the Lord your God may bless you in all the
work of your hand which you do (Deut. 14:29).
The blessings of God
follow the obedience of His children—especially when the orphans, widows, and
aliens are cared for. It is noteworthy that God defines aliens as
those who dwell in a foreign land without hope, without promises, of which the
world is not worthy. (Eph. 2:19, 1 Peter 2:11; Heb. 11: 9,
37-38) All Christian believers are aliens in a foreign land –
previously without hope and without promises.
You shall not pervert the justice due an alien or an orphan, nor
take a widow’s garment in pledge … When you reap your harvest in your field and
have forgotten a sheaf in the field, you shall not go back to get it; it shall
be for the alien, for the orphan, and for the widow, in order that the Lord
your God may bless you in all the work of your hands (Deut. 24:17,19).
He (God) executes justice for the orphans and the widow, and shows
His love for the alien by giving him food and clothing (Deut. 10:18).
God clearly
intends that His people care for the orphans and widows, or His justice and
consequences will prevail.
One thousand years
before the birth of Jesus Christ, King David wrote about the orphans and
widows:
God is “helper of the orphans.” (Ps. 10:14)… a father of the fatherless and a judge for the widows is God in
His holy habitation. (Ps. 68:5)… Vindicate the weak and
fatherless; Do justice to the afflicted and destitute. Rescue the weak and
needy; Deliver them out of the hand of the wicked. They do not know
nor do they understand; they walk about in darkness. (Ps. 82:3)…The Lord
protects the strangers; He supports the fatherless and the widow. (Ps. 146:9)
King Solomon wrote: “Do
not move the ancient boundary or go into the fields of the fatherless, for
their Redeemer is strong; He will plead their case against you.” (Pr. 23:10)
Once again, the
Scripture implies consequences and God’s judgment for His people who do not
minister to the orphans in their midst.
God later used the
prophets as His mouthpiece to castigate Israel for not reaching out to the
orphans and widows living among them. They heaped God’s judgment
upon their heads. Ultimately, God made them orphans
and widows. He banished them from their own land.
Jer. 5:28, 29
reads:
“They are fat, they are sleek, they also excel in deeds of
wickedness; they do not plead the cause, the cause of the
orphan, that they may prosper; and they do not defend the rights of the
poor. Shall I not punish these people?” Declares the Lord, “on a
nation such as this shall I not avenge Myself?”
Is. 1:17 reads: Learn to do good; seek justice, reprove the
ruthless, defend the orphan, plead for the widow.
Jeremiah goes on to say:
“If you do not oppress the alien, the orphan, or the widow, and do
not shed innocent blood in this place, nor walk after other gods to your own
ruin, then I will let you dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your
fathers forever and ever.” (Jer. 7:6)… “Leave your orphans
behind, I will keep them alive; and let your widows trust in Me.” (Jer. 49:11)
Then God poured out His
judgment upon His people. He allowed other nations to destroy their
homes, ravage their wives and children and kill many. They were
carried off into foreign lands. Then they cried and mourned like the
orphans and widows they had previous ignored.
Lam. 5:3 reads:
“Remember, O Lord, what has befallen us; Look, and see our
reproach! Our inheritance has been turned over to strangers, our
houses to aliens. We have become orphans without a father, our
mothers are like widows.
Generations later, God
allowed the Jews to return to their homeland and rebuild their temple and the
walls around Jerusalem. Once again, God used His prophets to command
them to look after the poor:
Zech. 7:9-12 reads:
Thus has the Lord of hosts said, “Dispense true justice and
practice kindness and compassion each to his brother; and do not oppress the
widow or the orphan, the stranger or the poor; and do not devise evil in your
hearts against one another.” But they refused to pay attention and
turned a stubborn shoulder and stopped their ears from hearing….therefore great
wrath came from the Lord of hosts.
Mal. 3:5 reads:
“Then I will draw near to you for judgment; and I will be a swift
witness against the sorcerers and against the adulterers and against those who
swear falsely, and against those who oppress the wage earner in his wages, the
widow and the orphan, and those who turn aside the alien and do not fear Me,
says the Lord of hosts.”
God’s people did
not hearken to His commands. Over and over again they disobeyed
Him. His judgment fell and they were nearly destroyed by their
enemies. God dispersed the remaining Jews far from their homeland
into the wicked nations of the world. Their “promised land” lay
uninhabitable in ruins, malaria infested swamps, and controlled by their
enemies.
Human nature is selfish
and sinful – as before. Today, we are God’s people – the Body of
Christ in this world. God’s command to care for the poor and orphans
is no different. God does not change. He is
immutable—unchangeable. Yet the poor are ignored, and the orphans
remain homeless. They have little hope in this wicked world.
When Jesus came into
this world, He was born to a poor couple from Nazareth. They had no
home, no hospital, and no help to birth their infant son. People of
the world paid no attention. The Son of God was born in a cow’s feed
trough and clothed in burial cloths—in abject poverty. Jesus had the
riches of the universe at His fingertips prior to His incarnation, yet He chose
to come into this world through a poor, insignificant family with virtually no
material possessions. He lived His entire life as a poor person and
died without possessions.
The Apostle Paul wrote
in 2 Cor. 8:9: “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that
though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, so that through His
poverty you might become rich.”
Every human soul born
into this wicked world is born with a sinful nature and in spiritual poverty –
an orphan, without a Father God. The child’s spiritual father is
Satan, God’s enemy. Given to his natural inclination, the child will
grow and embrace the worldly system of his father. Then someday he
will die and his spiritual father will drag him into an eternal
abode—hell. Father God intervened in this hopeless situation. He
sent His only Son into this world as a poor helpless human infant—at the mercy
of a wicked, worldly system. Jesus, as God’s human extension,
reached out to all the fatherless children who have lived since the beginning
of time. He ministered hope to them. He redeemed them
from the crooked fingers of His enemy, Satan. We are
those orphan children.
The Apostle Paul, once
again, exhorts believers to look to Jesus as their role model in Phil. 2:4-11:
Do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also
for the interests of others. Have this attitude in yourselves, which
was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not
regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the
form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. Being
found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the
point of death, even death on a cross. For this reason also God
highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so
that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and
on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus
Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
God’s adopted children,
believers in the Body of Christ on this earth, must continue living the example
of Jesus. This is God’s command. Christ’s followers must
reach beyond their personal interests and grasp the needs of the widows,
orphans and poor of this world to provide food, clothing and spiritual
hope. As this calling is heeded, the poor of this world will become
spiritually rich in Christ.
All believers were once
poor, downtrodden, and without hope—without a Father in Heaven. But,
thanks be to God, He has adopted them as His children! Jesus became
poor that we might become rich. We must reach out
to the poor in like manner.
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