Ordinary Days #11: Law concerning the Oppressed.

 May your ordinances

   bring help. (Psalm 119:175)

The Ten Words spoken from the mountain and preserved in the Ark of the Covenant, require ordinary everyday laws covering the “But ifs…;” like, “But if someone steals an ox or a sheep, and slaughters it or sells it, the thief shall pay five oxen for an ox, and four sheep for a sheep. The thief shall make restitution” (Ex 22:1). It is assumed God’s people will fall short of the Ten Commandments written on stone tablets. They will need ordinary laws and decrees, statutes and ordinances, for ordinary life.

One of those ordinances concerns how they treat the oppressed: “You shall not wrong or oppress a resident alien, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt. You shall not abuse any widow or orphan. If you do abuse them, when they cry out to me, I will surely heed their cry” (Ex 22:21-23),

That must be why James tells us “to care for orphans and widows in their distress” (Ja 1:27), It was the first task of the church requiring the office of deacons to care for the widows and to make sure the Greek cultured widows were being cared for just as well as the Hebrew speaking widows “because the Greek-speaking widows were being neglected in the daily distribution of food” (Ac 6). Seven deacons where chosen to make sure both cultures within the church—Hebrew and Greek, were treated equally.