The Heart of God: Caring for the Fatherless

Early in my post-college years, I spent too much time arguing about the Bible on internet forums and social media. There was so much to argue about and so many hard positions to take. Eschatology (are you pre-, post-, or a-millennial?), modes of baptism (paedo or credo?), Calvinism (4-point, 5-point, infra- or supra-lapsarian?). It was easy to find disagreement, and it seemed like the Bible was saying different things in different places at different times. However, one thing consistently found throughout the Scriptures, and difficult to argue with, is God's special love and care for the poor and vulnerable.

The writers of the Bible refer to what has come to be known as the quartet of the vulnerable: the poor, the widow, the orphan, and the immigrant. These communities have historically been at risk of missing out on society's benefits and blessings. They are prone to being left behind, outcast, downtrodden, and oppressed. They often have no voice in society, no one to take up their cause. Let’s look at a few examples from different places in Scripture.

Starting in the Torah, we see God’s heart early on. Exodus 22 tells the Israelites, “Do not take advantage of the widow or the fatherless.” It continues with serious consequences if they do. In Deuteronomy, Moses tells the people, “He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the foreigner residing among you, giving them food and clothing,” and “Do not deprive the foreigner or the fatherless of justice, or take the cloak of the widow as a pledge.” So God is establishing this emphasis in the fledgling nation that He was setting apart to be a light to the world.

Moving to the prophets, we can see that God’s people were not always faithful in caring for the vulnerable. Malachi prophesies that God will put the people on trial, and those who oppress the widows and the fatherless will be judged with sorcerers and adulterers and perjurers. Isaiah offers them a way forward, saying “Learn to do right; seek justice. Defend the oppressed. Take up the cause of the fatherless; plead the case of the widow,” and later, “if you spend yourselves on behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday.” Jeremiah promises them a long life in the land if they care for the poor and the vulnerable.

Finally, the Gospels and Epistles offer the same viewpoint. Jesus, in Matthew 25, tells a parable of judgment, where the condition for deliverance from judgment is care for the poor and needy. Paul tells the Galatians about the Jerusalem council and offers this takeaway from the discussion: “All they asked was that we should continue to remember the poor, the very thing I had been eager to do all along.” Our organization draws its name from James's letter, where he condenses religious activity to “look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.”

Project 1.27 has focused on one of those groups in the quartet of the vulnerable, the fatherless. What does it look like to take up the cause of the orphan, or to offer justice to the poor? We believe that it looks like every child being in a nurturing, well-supported family. Eventually, God moved me away from the keyboard and into the foster care community, where we encountered Jesus in the person of the kids in our care and the families struggling with brokenness, poverty, and addiction. 
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 If you are interested in learning more about how your church can engage with this community in the quartet of the vulnerable, one of our engagement managers would love to sit down and talk about the resources that are available for your church and family. You can contact us here.
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By Mark Gomez, Church Engagement Manager