OT DAY 268 - Open Wide Your Hand to Give (Please click here for English podcast)

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Silence

1.   Put on your “brakes” and stop for a moment of silence

2.   Wait for God. Breathe deep for God's peace and feel His presence. Exhale your worries.

Praise and Thanksgiving

1.   Think through your day, all the times that made you smile

2.   Thank God for all those moments, and for all those people

3.   Open your heart to praise the Lord

        
            Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth;
             break forth into joyous song and sing praises!
5           Sing praises to the Lord with the lyre,
             with the lyre and the sound of melody!
6           With trumpets and the sound of the horn
             make a joyful noise before the King, the Lord!

                                  Psalm 98:4-6

Confession and Repentance

1.  Pray for the Holy Spirit to work in you:

     “Dear Holy Spirit, shine your light into the places of darkness in my life. Show me my sins, everything that blocks me from encountering God. In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen.”

2.  Through the Holy Spirit, examine yourself for a short silence and then pray:

     "Dear Lord Jesus, thank you for dying on the cross for our sins and being victorious over death and sin. I confess my sin to you(pause, to tell Jesus what the Holy Spirit has shown you). Forgive my sins by your blood and help me follow you. Holy Spirit, fill me that I may be able to receive your gift to love God and His people. In Jesus Name I pray, Amen."

The Word (Deuteronomy 15:1-11)

English(ESV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Deuteronomy 15&version=ESV

“At the end of every seven years you shall grant a release. 2 And this is the manner of the release: every creditor shall release what he has lent to his neighbor. He shall not exact it of his neighbor, his brother, because the Lord's release has been proclaimed. 3 Of a foreigner you may exact it, but whatever of yours is with your brother your hand shall release. 4 But there will be no poor among you; for the Lord will bless you in the land that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance to possess— 5 if only you will strictly obey the voice of the Lord your God, being careful to do all this commandment that I command you today. 6 For the Lord your God will bless you, as he promised you, and you shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow, and you shall rule over many nations, but they shall not rule over you.

7 “If among you, one of your brothers should become poor, in any of your towns within your land that the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not harden your heart or shut your hand against your poor brother, 8 but you shall open your hand to him and lend him sufficient for his need, whatever it may be. 9 Take care lest there be an unworthy thought in your heart and you say, ‘The seventh year, the year of release is near,’ and your eye look grudgingly on your poor brother, and you give him nothing, and he cry to the Lord against you, and you be guilty of sin. 10 You shall give to him freely, and your heart shall not be grudging when you give to him, because for this the Lord your God will bless you in all your work and in all that you undertake. 11 For there will never cease to be poor in the land. Therefore I command you, ‘You shall open wide your hand to your brother, to the needy and to the poor, in your land.’

                   Deuteronomy 15:1-11

Let's have a time to be still and give the Holy Spirit space to speak through the passage of scripture we have just read. Offer this time up to Jesus as you listen to him, while listening to "Gabriel's Oboe"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jmax47l2hLU

My Listening

     Moses tells the Israelites about the command of God to open wide their hand to God especially on the command to tithe in yesterday's passage. Here in today's passage, God commands the Israelites to open wide their hand to all people, especially to the poor and needy. Lend money to the poor and the needy, cancel their debt after seven years. Then, God says there won't be poor among them. Is it possible? 

Let's see how Professor John Goldingay tells us: 
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Goldingay) :

    

     Deuteronomy presupposes a situation in which a family was unable to make ends meet because it could not grow enough to survive…it would be the responsibility of someone else in the village to lend them what they need for the next year. The loan thus need not have a seven-year term, but if the person could not pay it back by the seventh year, the loan would be cancelled. Lending in the Torah is thus not a way of making money but a way of helping needy people. 

John Goldingay. Numbers & Deuteronomy for Everyone. Louisville,KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2010, p.147.

      The world at that time 3,400 years ago and nowadays is somewhat the same. Wealthy people are more and more wealthy and poor people are more and more poor! God's command to open wide your hand never happen and what God says "there should be no poor among you" never happen.
      When more and more poor people surface, revolution comes, rulers and wealthy people would be slaughtered. Those elites of the poor become ruler and history happen again! 
      Yes, this won't happen to the world until the return of Jesus. But, this can happen to you if you are willing to open your hand to God and His people. To love God and His people is not a theory but a practice and a lifestyle.

      Are you willing to open wide your hand to give and not to get?  
       
Dear Lord Jesus, 
Help us to be willing to open our hand to give and not to get. In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.

Reflect on these questions:
1. Do you agree what God says if His people open wide our hand to give there should not be poor among us?

2. Are you better to get or to give? Are you willing to open wide your hand to give? What does that mean?

Praise and Thanksgiving

Let's give thanks for God with us. Let us praise Him:

10,000 Reasons

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXDGE_lRI0E

You may choose to follow my other daily blog:

Daily Devotion on Fire: http://bishopsilas.blogspot.ca/

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