The Foreigner, Widow and Fatherless

“If you thoroughly amend your ways and your doings, thoroughly execute judgment between a man and his neighbor, do not oppress the stranger, the fatherless, the widow. Do not shed innocent blood in this place. Do not walk after other gods to your hurt. Then, I will cause you to dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers forever and ever.” [1]

Jeremiah spoke at the gate of God’s house. His goal was to call his listeners to repent of sin and to return to the Lord. He turned up the volume. He stood in a public place. He vocalized with vim and vigor what God wanted them to hear.

When Jesus entered God’s house in Jerusalem some 500 years later, He did so with a whip in hand. The Spirit of the Lord led Him to drive the buyers and sellers out. He overturned the tables of money changers. Jesus referenced Jeremiah’s temple message, when He asked them, “Has this house, which is called by My Name, become a den of robbers in your eyes?” [2]

The Lord uproots and removes evil before planting and growing goodness. For example, after Jesus cleansed the temple, something wonderful happened. He healed the blind and lame. [3]

I am glad that Jesus drove evil out of my temple. He dashed my idols of fame and fortune to the ground. Jesus replaced my counterfeit faith with true religion. “Pure religion and undefiled before our God and Father is to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.” [4]

Once, after I asked the Lord to help visit me a widow and a fatherless child, He connected me the very next day to a young lady who had lost her father. She invited my family to visit her widowed mother. This widow and her three daughters believed in Christ. Three years after that, the Lord opened the door for us to serve orphans. The orphans included a blind girl named Ho Sui Kam, a lame girl named Taan Fa and boy with an enlarged heart named Chan Ling. We talked of Jesus together and sang songs of deliverance.

I am so glad God fills us with His love for foreigners, the fatherless and widows. Humble ministry to the poor is better than extravagant temples and meaningless religious ceremonies. I am glad that Jesus is more than just a building and a name.

True religion involves communicating directly with God and healing people. True religion involves joy in caring for foreigners, the fatherless and widows. In Christ, true religion can spring forth where once only dead counterfeit religion existed.

[1] Jeremiah 7:5-7
[2] Luke 19:45; John 2:15-17; Jeremiah 7:11
[3] Matthew 21:12-14
[4] James 1:27