Bible Commentaries

BE YE KIND!

‘Remember that thou wast a bondman … therefore I command thee to do this thing.’

Deuteronomy 24:18

I. What tender, beautiful thoughtfulness pervades this chapter!—For the poor man’s self-respect, on account of which his house might not be broken into; for the servant’s wage, which must be paid at nightfall; for the bondslave and foreigner, who were to receive just judgment; for the fatherless and widow, in the gleanings of the harvest and vintage. There was no class so needy or lowly as to be beneath the beneficent thought of this religious nation, which was to repeat on earth something of that Divine life which God was living in heaven.

II. What a shelter and protection the poor and oppressed have in God!—The man whom the poor bless for his courteous thought, is remembered for righteousness in the day of trouble by the Most High; whilst the cry of the poor against his oppressor brings sin and condemnation with it, as it ascends into the ear of the Lord God of Sabaoth. The gift of beneficence to the poor will return in Divine blessing on the man that makes it. It would appear as though God especially espoused the cause of the poor, identifying Himself with them, and accepting as for Himself all the treatment meted out to them. It seems as though throughout this chapter we could hear the voice of Him, who for our sakes became poor, saying, ‘Inasmuch as ye do it to one of the least of these My brethren, ye do it unto Me.’

Illustration

‘How wise and just and merciful all these items were; so human and so divine. As we consider them, we instinctively look round to find Him speaking, whose words have filled our world with sweetness and light. Ere these words were spoken the Father had committed all judgment to the Son. Let all who are poor and fatherless, and widowed and lonely, take heart at these words, and look trustfully up into the face of God.’