An overview for Sunday School teachers and Bible study leaders, of Lifeway’s “Explore the Bible” lesson of Exodus 22:21-27, and Leviticus 19:9-10, with the title of “Protection” for Sunday, January 19, 2025. A video version of this overview is available on YouTube at:

SAMPLE INTRODUCTION:
Pearl Buck was the daughter of missionaries to China, and she spent much of her life there. She grew up to write a novel, The Good Earth, for which she won the Pulitzer Prize in 1932. Pearl Buck wrote: “The test of a civilization is the way that it cares for its helpless members.”

You might consider posting this quote to open your lesson (or you could use it later on, but I think it would serve well as an introduction) and ask your group:
??? What do you think about this quote? Do you think it might be true, and why???

After your group’s discussion, then you can say something like:
This morning in our passages from Exodus and Leviticus, we see how God commands His people to care for the needy and vulnerable among us.

CONTEXT
The people of Israel are on their way out of Egypt to the Promised Land, and they have stopped at Mt. Sinai to receive the Ten Commandments from the Lord. These commandments are the centerpiece of God’s directions for His people (as we saw last time, not only as a moral standard, but also to show us that we fall short of them and need a Savior!). But they are not the ONLY commands God gave His people. He continued to speak to Moses there, giving him more precepts He wanted His people to observe. Today we are going to look at some more of the commandments God gave His people, specifically both Exodus 22:21-27, and Leviticus 19:9-10 today, and see what God commands His people there about caring for the vulnerable around us.

OUTLINE

I. The Vulnerable (Exodus 22:21-27)
II. The Example (Leviticus 19:9-10)
III. The Motivation (Exodus 22:21, 24, 27b)

TEXT

I. THE VULNERABLE
Exodus 22:21-27
21 “You shall not wrong a stranger or oppress him, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt. 22 You shall not afflict any widow or orphan. 23 If you afflict him at all, and if he does cry out to Me, I will surely hear his cry; 24 and My anger will be kindled, and I will kill you with the sword, and your wives shall become widows and your children fatherless.
25 “If you lend money to My people, to the poor among you, you are not to act as a creditor to him; you shall not charge him interest. 26 If you ever take your neighbor’s cloak as a pledge, you are to return it to him before the sun sets, 27 for that is his only covering; it is his cloak for his body. What else shall he sleep in? And it shall come about that when he cries out to Me, I will hear him, for I am gracious.”

What I’m planning to do, is to have everyone open their Bibles, and let’s read these seven verses. And then have everyone call out:
??? What vulnerable groups do you see in these verses???
(— :21 “a stranger”
— :22 “any widow”
— :22b “or orphan”
— :25 “the poor among you”
— (And we might add :26 “your neighbor” — we’ll talk about that some more in a minute.)

So let’s look at these 4 vulnerable groups that God specifically names here:

A. “A stranger.” (:21)
The Hebrew word “ger” here means “sojourner, stranger, foreigner, alien.” It comes from the word “gur,” to be a “sojourner” or to move around and live somewhere temporarily.

A few weeks ago I read a biography of Genghis Khan, the Mongolian conqueror. The Mongols were a nomadic people, and they lived in portable tents, which, interestingly enough in light of this context, were called “gers”! (You might want to show a picture of Mongolian “ger,” like this one:)

It doesn’t take a genus to surmise that these Asian words are likely related. “Ger” in Hebrew is a foreigner, like one who is living in a temporary tent, like the Mongolian “ger”!

This gives us a good picture of who this is talking about: this referred to people in the land of Israel who were NOT of the nation of Israel.

Further helping us in understanding what this word means is found in the second part of :21, where God tells them: “For YOU were strangers in the land of Egypt.” So Israel was an example of what a “stranger”/“ger” is: someone who has gone to a foreign land because of economic need: the famine in the land.

God tells us there that He cares about how we treat people like that! He says here in :21, “You shall not wrong a stranger or oppress him, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.”

This is talking about the way you & I TREAT PEOPLE who are here around us. There is a tendency among fallen mankind, to mock or abuse or mistreat foreigners in the land. God says My people are not to be that way. You do NOT wrong them; you do NOT oppress them. You treat them with compassion, the way that YOU wanted to be treated when you were in Egypt (we’ll talk about that some more in our last point).

B. “Any widow” (:22a)
God says “you shall not afflict any widow.”

??? You might ask your group: WHY do you think God would give this command about not afflicting a widow? Why would people be tempted to afflict widows??? 
(Of course the answer is, they don’t have a husband to look out for them. There’s no one to stand up for them. So unscrupulous people will try to take advantage of them, because they think they can get away with it.

A year or so ago, I called my mother, who was living in Tulsa at the time, and she told me that she had gotten a call from a young person, who said to her, “Grandma?” And she said, “Yes?” And they said “Grandma, I’m in trouble and need some money.” These people were trying to scam her! Well, my mom was too sharp by far to fall for that — she told them, “SHAME on you, for trying to cheat a senior adult woman!” But many elderly people do fall for these things.

Here’s a statistic you can use: FBI.gov reports that in 2023, reported scams involving senior adults totaled 3.4 BILLION dollars! (And that is just those that were REPORTED! How many did not bother to report them, because they were too afraid, or embarrassed?!) Senior adults are scammed out of countless billions every year by unscrupulous people who try to take advantage of vulnerable senior adults.

God says here, do not afflict widows. (Interesting too that He says “ANY widow” — not just ones close to you; not any at all!)
God demonstrates here His care for widows. And it goes beyond just “not afflicting” them; in other scriptures He teaches us to positively CARE for them:
— Deuteronomy 14:28-29 teach that every 3rd year Israel was to spend some of their tithe feeding widows.
— Job 24:21 talks about how the wicked man “does no GOOD for the widow”
— Isaiah 1:17 says “plead for the widow”
— In Acts 6 the deacon ministry began specifically to care for the widows who needed daily food.
— I Timothy 5:3 says the church is to “honor widows who are widows indeed” — the word “honor” is referring to financial support.
— And James 1:27 says “Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their distress …”

So repeatedly God teaches that He cares for the widow, and He wants US to as well.

Our times are little different than in Bible days. The deacon ministry fed widows; the church gave them financial support. Our society is a bit different today: we have Social Security, and “Meals of Wheels,” etc. But you might ask your group:
??? What are ways that we could positively show care for widows in OUR situation today???
(Some suggestions might include calling to check on them regularly, visiting homes or nursing homes, meeting practical needs like mowing lawns or home repairs.
And maybe your class should talk about you should DO something specific for widows/seniors this week/month, really applying what God teaches here — let’s be “doers of the word, not merely hearers”!)

C. “Or orphan” (:22b)
Again, orphans are easily taken advantage of, because they have no parents watching out for them. This is another vulnerable group. In fact, we see a special pairing of “orphans and widows” throughout God’s word:
— Here in Exodus 22:22 “you shall not afflict any widow or orphan”
— Deuteronomy 10:18 “He executes justice for the orphan and the widow” (And TEN more times in Deuteronomy!
— Job 22:9 and 24:3
— Psalm 94:6 “They slay the widow and the stranger And murder the orphans.”
— Isaiah 1:17 “Defend the orphan, Plead for the widow.” (Also 9:17 & 10:2)
— Jeremiah 7:6 “do not oppress the alien, the orphan, or the widow …”. (And 22:3 & 49:11)
— In the Minor Prophets: Zechariah 7:10 “do not oppress the widow or the orphan” and Malachi 3:5, where God judges those who oppress “the widow and the orphan.”
— And of course James 1:17 in the New Testament

So these two groups are special to God. He mentions them together, over and over in His word — TWENTY SIX times, by my count!

3.2 million children in the United States are considered orphans.
17 million children worldwide are “double orphans,” having lost both parents.
Orphans in many part of the world are subject to be taken into slavery, prostitution, harsh factory work, and abused in every way.
According to Adoption.org, there are 437,000 children in the U.S. foster care system on any given day.

Charles Dickens probably did more to bring the plight of orphans to the public than anyone else in history. In many of his books he included heart-rending descriptions of what was happening to orphans in England, including in his famous Oliver Twist, where he wrote of Oliver that:
“… he was badged and ticketed, and fell into his place at once—a parish child—the orphan of a workhouse—the humble, half-starved drudge—to be cuffed and buffeted through the world, despised by all, and pitied by none.”
Many English were moved by Dickens to minister to orphans. As God’s people, we should too, for He cares for them.

In the past couple of years, Cheryl & I have become more aware of this, as one of our sons married a young lady who had once been in the foster care system. We were shocked to hear that she was literally given a trash bag to carry her clothes and few belongings from foster home to foster home — and that this was standard operating procedure! She is now part of a ministry in her church, providing help to children and families in foster care.

— Like our daughter-in-law, some of us might consider ministering to children and families in the foster care system here in the States.
— We can support children’s homes and ministries
— We can personally adopt — I don’t know a single more sacrificial, Christlike action than personally taking in an orphan child as one’s own.

But God repeatedly emphasizes in His word that He cares about orphans, which means that as His people, we should too:

D. “The poor among you” (:25)
Verse 25 mentions “the poor among you,” the word means “humble, afflicted, lowly, poor.” It specifically says: “If you lend money to My people, to the poor among you, you are not to act as a creditor to him; you shall not charge him interest.”
In other words, we are not to take advantage of them because they are poor: don’t charge them interest, God says.

Unfortunately, people DO take advantage of the poor: often charging unconscionable interest rates for loans.
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (U.S. Government agency) says a typical “payday loan” often charges $15 per $100 borrowed, for two weeks. It says that equates to an APR of 400%! This is the kind of thing God is talking about here.

But we have to know, it doesn’t ONLY apply to that. God is communicating here, in ALL of these examples, that He CARES for the needy and helpless among us, whoever they are — as we see in the next point:

E. “your neighbor” (:26)
When I read this wording I thought, Oh, this foreshadows what Jesus teaches in the New Testament doesn’t it?
In Luke 10:27 Jesus taught that we are to love our neighbor as ourselves. But then He is asked by the Jewish teacher, “And who is my neighbor.” And it specifically says he was “seeking to justify himself.” In other words, he was looking for a “loophole,” a reason that he didn’t need to help some of the people that he came across.
But was in that context that Jesus taught the story of the Good Samaritan, who came across the man who had beaten and robbed on the Jericho Road. Unlike the two Jewish religionists, the Good Samaritan helped the man. And Jesus asked, “Which of these three proved to BE A NEIGHBOR to the man,” and of course the answer was the Samaritan.
The lesson Jesus gave was that we are not to try to look for “loopholes” in “who is my neighbor” that excuse us from responsibility. We aren’t be legalistic and say, “Let’s see; they’re not a sojourner, or widow, or orphan, or poor — so I don’t need to help them.” NO! The Lord wants us to BE a neighbor — help the person; meet the need — if God brings them across our path, then we are to be a neighbor to them. God cares; and we should too.

??? DISCUSSION/APPLICATION QUESTIONS???
??? You might ask your group: can you think of OTHERS who might be needy/vulnerable in our society TODAY to whom we may need to minister? These “4 categories” are just examples; they’re not exhaustive. What are some others???
(Some others might include:
— The disabled/chronically ill
— Senior adults (not only widows)
— Children are often a vulnerable group. Many are being abused, don’t have basic needs, are being taken advantage of by the LGBT movement for their agenda, and so on.
— The unborn child! This month of January many churches observe “Sanctity of Human Life” Sunday — some do it this Sunday. This lesson very much ties in with that. The unborn child is not one of “the 4” here, but it certainly applies.
You/your group can think of many others.)

II. THE EXAMPLE (Leviticus 19:9-10)
9 “Now when you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap to the very corners of your field, nor shall you gather the gleanings of your harvest. 10 Nor shall you glean your vineyard, nor shall you gather the fallen fruit of your vineyard; you shall leave them for the needy and for the stranger. I am the Lord your God.”

We jump over to Leviticus here, where God gives us an EXAMPLE of how His people were to care for the vulnerable. He said, when you harvest your crops, don’t gather all of it. Leave some of it there, for the needy and stranger, so that they can gather it and have something to eat.

There is a famous example of this in the Bible, isn’t there: in the Book of Ruth, where both Ruth and her mother-in-law are widowed, and they come back to the land of Israel to live. In Ruth 2, Ruth goes to glean among the grain in the field of Boaz, who let her stay there, and instructed his workers not to bother her, but allow her to glean some of the grain.
This is just what God is commanding here in Leviticus 19. Leave some of your produce for the needy and the stranger. So this is an example of what He was talking about.

So how do we apply this today? Very few of us today are farmers, who can apply this literally, but the principle applies to all of us: Be CONSIDERATE of the poor and needy around you. Think about their needs. Don’t be “stingy” with the blessings God has given you. Be considerate and generous instead.
Proverbs 22:9 says: “He who is generous will be blessed, For he gives some of his food to the poor.”

DISCUSSION/APPLICATION QUESTION:
You might put your minds to this as a class and ask:
??? What might be an example of how we can be considerate of the poor TODAY, like God commanded here with the gleaning???

It may be that even this week, God will bring some person across our path, to whom we are to be considerate, and not harsh or stingy — for He cares for them, as well as us.

III. THE MOTIVATION (Exodus 22:21, 24, :27b)
WHY should we do all this? We see several hints in these verses of the motivation that should guide us:

A) One of our motivations should be sympathy/empathy:
“For YOU were strangers in Egypt.” (22:21)
God tells Israel that they are to treat the vulnerable strangers in their land, with compassion, because that is the way that THEY wanted to be treated when they were in Egypt. Remember that story: after Joseph died, and a new Pharaoh arose, he persecuted Israel, he put them to forced labor, he began killing their children. He made them slaves. And Israel cried out for help. God says, REMEMBER THAT! Remember how you wanted to be treated with equity and compassion — and treat these people that way.

Now, most of us today have probably never been aliens in a foreign land. (Some of us HAVE been strangers in a foreign country. A couple of years ago, I was on a mission trip to Bulgaria, and our flight home had been cancelled due to snow, but I was trying to get back for Sunday, so I took a bus across Bulgaria and Turkey to get to the airport. I could speak NONE of the language. We stopped at the border, and I didn’t know what they needed or wanted. It was very intimidating. At one point they took me aside to a little outbuilding and told me my papers weren’t quite right, and I needed to pay them 20 pounds. I feel like I know what that was, but I was glad it wasn’t that much, and that I was able to go on. But it was a very anxious, intimidating time. That gave me just a glimpse of what it is to be foreigner in another land. So I’ll want to treat foreigners here with compassion, and not take advantage of them.

That’s what God is saying here. Don’t mistreat people who are staying temporarily in our country. Have compassion on them; exercise Jesus’ Golden Rule here, and treat them the way that you would want to be treated, if YOU were a stranger in a foreign land.

And some of us can remember being in dire circumstances before: just after I had graduated from seminary and we had our first baby, but hadn’t been called to a church yet, we were a needy little family. So I need to remember that feeling; that situation, as I consider those in need. God says here that all of us need to do that. You’ve been in a tough spot before; so you remember that and be considerate to those in need.

B) Fear of God!
:23 “If you afflict him at all, and if he does cry out to Me, I will surely hear his cry; 24 and My anger will be kindled, and I will kill you with the sword, and your wives shall become widows and your children fatherless.”

So if pure sympathy is not enough of a motivator, perhaps the fear of GOD will be! God says if you afflict strangers, widows, or orphans, and they cry out to Me, I will judge YOU — and YOUR wives will become widows, and YOUR children fatherless. In other words, God will bring upon YOU the harm you were doing to them. We need to beware of taking advantage of other people; God is Judge. Remember the famous verse in Galatians 6:7, “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap.” If you take advantage of the vulnerable, YOU will become vulnerable. God will see to it. So if for no other reason, you should take care of the poor for your own well-being!

C) But perhaps the best motivation is found at the end of :27, where God says “For I am gracious.”
God is gracious. To be gracious means to treat somebody better than they “deserve” to be treated. Do all these people “deserve” the help or concern that we might give them? Maybe, maybe not. But here’s the thing: GOD IS GRACIOUS. And aren’t we thankful for it! God has not treated US the way we deserve. He was gracious to us, even in our sin, and treated us better than we deserve, and forgave us in Christ. Let us not forget that as we deal with others.
God has been gracious to US, so our best motivation as we deal with others, is that we should show them the grace that WE OURSELVES have received from God.

A WARNING:
Now let me share just a little “caveat” here at the end, because we always need to keep things in a Biblical balance. God DOES command us to take care of the poor and others in need. But unfortunately some denominations and religious groups have distorted that into what is called the “Social Gospel,” in which the entire focus of their religion is helping the poor/needy ONLY. They have substituted social/material help for the genuine gospel of salvation by grace through faith in Christ.

When I was at my first church in the 1980s I remember cutting an article out of the Daily Oklahoman, in which they interviewed a man from a church who was ministering to AIDS patients. He said, “We aren’t trying to convert anyone; we’re just ministering to their needs.” We SHOULD minister to people’s needs; but as Jesus showed us in Matthew 9 with the paralytic, the GREATEST need anyone has, is for the forgiveness of sins we find in HIM. So a “social gospel” that leaves out the true Gospel of salvation in Christ is misplaced and heretical.

Yet the truth is, many of these “heretical” groups outdo us as evangelical Christians in caring for people. Let’s hold staunchly to the gospel — but let us also balance that with a genuine, Biblical concern for the vulnerable and needy among us — because it IS a command from God, as His word today teaches us.

“ … any religion which professes to be concerned about the souls of men and is not concerned about the social and economic conditions that scar the soul, is a spiritually moribund religion only waiting for the day to be buried.” (Martin Luther King, 1958)

So let’s be committed to keep a Biblical balance: by meeting needs in people’s lives as we share the Gospel of Jesus, which meets the greatest need anyone has.

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