“Do not take advantage of the widow or the fatherless.” ( Exodus 22:22)
If you want to know how to get God’s attention, take care of the orphans! He also includes this as a condition for His blessings.
He makes it clear that no society should tolerate abuse or unfair treatment of an orphan. God takes the business of looking after orphans so seriously that He includes several scriptures of warning about dealing with the orphan and the widow. “At the end of every three years, bring all the tithes of that year’s produce and store it in your towns, so that the Levites (who have no allotment or inheritance of their own) and the foreigners, the fatherless and the widows who live in your towns may come and eat and be satisfied, and so that the LORD your God may bless you in all the work of your hands.” ( Deuteronomy 14:28-29) THERE ARE WARNINGS AND BLESSINGS IN THE BIBLE ABOUT CARING FOR THE ORPHANS “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.” ( James 1:27 NIV) GOD ALWAYS INTENDED FOR HIS PEOPLE TO PROVIDE FOR THE ORPHANĮven in the Old Testament, God gave clear instructions that the orphans and widows were to be taken care of by His people. There is something that every one of us can do to support orphans in the world. “The LORD watches over the foreigner and sustains the fatherless and the widow, but he frustrates the ways of the wicked.” ( Psalm 146:9) WE CAN’T CALL OURSELVES CHRISTIANS AND NOT CARE ABOUT ORPHANS There is little doubt that all of us can, and should, do something to help those who are fatherless and in need of parental love and support. He sends us into the world as an extension of His care and love for the orphan. We are His hands and His feet–we represent Jesus in the world (2 Corinthians 5:20). “A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in his holy dwelling.” ( Psalm 68:5) GOD USES US TO CARE FOR THE ORPHAN A society is only as strong as its weakest and most vulnerable, so making the case that orphans deserve our attention and care is easy to do. God seems to have a special fondness for orphans and widows simply because they are the most vulnerable among us. The Bible tells us to love one another as He loves us, ( John 13:34-35) and that includes everyone. Psalm 68:5 GOD CARES ABOUT ORPHANS – A LOT!īecause God cares about orphans, it makes sense that we should too. A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in his holy dwelling. As you do, pray and ask God to show you how He wants to use you to care for these vulnerable and needy children. I encourage you to explore and do more research on your own.
The following are just a few of the verses on what the Bible says about orphans.
In many cases, children become orphans or, as we say, “part of the system” even though they may have one or more parent very much alive.įirst, let’s take a look at what God has to say about orphans and what He expects of those who say they follow and love Him when it comes to caring for the fatherless and abandoned. We often forget that the orphan crisis is worldwide, extending from countries where children are left parentless due to war, disease, and genocide, to our own cities and counties where children are removed from their homes due to drug use, abuse, neglect, or incarceration of the parent(s).