Give help to the powerless.
| posted 1/30/2009
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Ever since the Babylonians had overrun Jerusalem and burned the temple in 586 B.C., the Jews had commemorated that event by mourning during the month that the destruction occurred (see Jeremiah 52:12, 13). For seventy years, this act of commemoration had been an important part of their religious identity.
Imagine how earthshaking it was for the Jews to hear that these religious acts weren't the Lord's main concern at all. In fact, when they asked the Lord about them, he changed the subject. "Should you not have obeyed the words which the LORD proclaimed through the former prophets?" (7:1), the Lord said. "Execute true justice, show mercy and compassion everyone to his brother. Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the alien or the poor. Let none of you plan evil in his heart against his brother" (7:9, 10).
Forms of worship may change, but the Lord's message is the same today: Seek justice, care for the poor, and make a home for the homeless. God continues to speak that message in the New Testament: "Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world" (James 1:27). (See also 2 Samuel 9; Nehemiah 5:1-13; Lamentations 2:11-13; Jonah 4:5-11; Matthew 6:1-4; Luke 9:10-17.)
Good Words to Remember:
Thus says the LORD of hosts: "Execute true justice, show mercy and compassion everyone to his brother." Zechariah 7:9
Today's Challenge:
How do you seek justice, care for the poor, or make a home for the homeless?
Copyright 2001 by the author or Christianity Today International/Christian Bible Studies.
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