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Does
society owe us a living?
Does society owe us a living?
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II Thessalonians 3:6-12 says, "Now we
command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye withdraw yourselves
from every brother that walketh DISORDERLY, and not after the tradition which he received
of us. For yourselves know how ye ought to follow us: for we behaved not ourselves
DISORDERLY among you; Neither did we eat any man's bread for nought; but wrought with
labour and travail night and day, that we might not be chargeable to any of you: Not
because we have not power, but to make ourselves an ensample unto you to follow us. For
even when we were with you, this we commanded you, that IF ANY WOULD NOT WORK, NEITHER
SHOULD HE EAT. For we hear that THERE ARE SOME WHICH WALK AMONG YOU DISORDERLY, WORKING
NOT AT ALL, but are busybodies. Now them that are such we command and exhort by our Lord
Jesus Christ, that with quietness they work, and eat their own bread."
You will notice from the above passage, that it stresses that a
Christian is not to walk "disorderly." And one example given of walking
disorderly is a man who will not work. The Bible reveals to us that it is a very serious
sin for a man not to support his family. I Timothy 5:8 says, "But if any provide not
for his own, and specially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is
worse than an infidel." An "infidel" is "one who is not a Christian,
or who opposes Christianity" (Merriam Webster’s Dictionary). An infidel is a
lost person. The Bible says that a Christian man who will not support his family is
denying the very faith that he says that he believes by the way that he is living.
In the Garden of Eden, Adam was told because of his sin, "And unto
Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of
the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the
ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; Thorns also
and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field; In
the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of
it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return" (Genesis
3:17-19). Adam would have to work hard just for something to eat. Eve would have labor and
travail in child-bearing, and Adam would have labor and travail in working to supply the
needs of his family.
Notice
carefully what God did to feed the children of Israel when they were out in the desert
traveling toward the Promised Land. Exodus 16:12-26 says, "And the LORD spake unto
Moses, saying, I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel: speak unto them,
saying, At even ye shall eat flesh, and in the morning ye shall be filled with bread; and
ye shall know that I am the LORD your God. And it came to pass, that at even the quails
came up, and covered the camp: and in the morning the dew lay round about the host. And
when the dew that lay was gone up, behold, upon the face of the wilderness there lay A
SMALL ROUND THING, as small as the hoar frost on the ground. And when the children of
Israel saw it, they said one to another, It is manna: for they wist not what it was. And
Moses said unto them, This is the bread which the LORD hath given you to eat. This is the
thing which the LORD hath commanded, Gather of it every man according to his eating, an
omer for every man, according to the number of your persons; take ye every man for them
which are in his tents. And the children of Israel did so, and gathered, some more, some
less. And when they did mete it with an omer, he that gathered much had nothing over, and
he that gathered little had no lack; they gathered every man according to his eating. And
Moses said, LET NO MAN LEAVE IF IT TILL THE MORNING. Notwithstanding they hearkened not
unto Moses; but some of them left of it until the morning, and it bred worms, and stank:
and Moses was wroth with them. And they gathered it every morning, every man according to
his eating: and WHEN THE SUN WAXED HOT, IT MELTED. And it came to pass, that on the sixth
day they gathered twice as much bread, two omers for one man: and all the rulers of the
congregation came and told Moses. And he said unto them, This is that which the LORD hath
said, To morrow is the rest of the holy sabbath unto the LORD: bake that which ye will
bake to day, and seethe that ye will seethe; and that which remaineth over lay up for you
to be kept until the morning. And they laid it up till the morning, as Moses bade: and it
did not stink, neither was there any worm therein. And Moses said, Eat that to day; for to
day is a sabbath unto the LORD: to day ye shall not find it in the field. Six days ye
shall gather it; but on the seventh day, which is the sabbath, in it there shall be none.
Notice several things about the manna. First, it was small. God did not
drop loaves of bread out of the sky for His people. Neither did He make it automatically
appear on their tables each morning. Instead, God sent a small thing for them to collect
each morning. They had to collect it, and then prepare and bake it themselves. Numbers
11:7,8 says, "And the manna was as coriander seed, and the colour thereof as the
colour of bdellium. And the people went about, and GATHERED IT, and GROUND IT in mills, or
BEAT IT in a mortar, and BAKED IT in pans, and made cakes of it: and the taste of it was
as the taste of fresh oil." The Lord knew that if His people were handed their food
for very long with no labor on their own part, they would never be willing to work again.
They would be lazy and expect to be fed.
God even planned it so that the children of Israel would not
"sleep in" half of the morning before getting out of bed. Notice in the above
passage what happened. "And they gathered it every morning, every man according to
his eating: and WHEN THE SUN WAXED HOT, IT MELTED. If they were lazy and did not get out
of bed, they would find that the manna had melted, and they would go hungry that day. If
they tried to gather too much for one day, so that they would not have to get up and
gather any the next day, they also found that they had a problem! "And Moses said,
LET NO MAN LEAVE IF IT TILL THE MORNING. Notwithstanding they hearkened not unto Moses;
but some of them left of it until the morning, and it bred worms, and stank..."
God wanted His people to get out of bed in the morning before it got
hot outside. He wanted them to get into the routine of working every day, except the
Sabbath day. "And it came to pass, that on the sixth day they gathered twice as much
bread, two omers for one man: and all the rulers of the congregation came and told Moses.
And he said unto them, This is that which the LORD hath said, To morrow is the rest of the
holy sabbath unto the LORD: bake that which ye will bake to day, and seethe that ye will
seethe; and that which remaineth over lay up for you to be kept until the morning. And
they laid it up till the morning, as Moses bade: and it did not stink, neither was there
any worm therein. And Moses said, Eat that to day; for to day is a sabbath unto the LORD:
to day ye shall not find it in the field. Six days ye shall gather it; but on the seventh
day, which is the sabbath, in it there shall be none." God wants His people to work
and not to be lazy, but He also wants them to take time to rest and think upon Him. They
were to do that on the Sabbath Day, and so He allowed them to gather up enough food for
that day on Friday.
But what about the poor today? There is no manna falling from the sky
every night for them to get up and go gather. God also expected them to go out and gather
their own food. Leviticus 19:9,10 says, "And when ye reap the harvest of your land,
thou shalt not wholly reap the corners of thy field, neither shalt thou gather the
gleanings of thy harvest. And thou shalt not glean thy vineyard, neither shalt thou gather
every grape of thy vineyard; thou shalt leave them for the poor and stranger: I am the
LORD your God." The farmers were told not to gather every grape on the vine and every
stalk of grain in the corners of the field, but to leave them for the poor to go out and
gather. The food was there, but the poor had to go get it for themselves. If you have ever
picked apples, blueberries, strawberries. etc., then you know how slow it is to gather
them when someone else has already picked through the trees or vines. It would be hard
work to gather food from the gleanings. God wanted it that way, so that they would be
encouraged to plant food of their own, and be ambitious and work. Our modern day welfare
is a dead-end street that encourages laziness.
What
part is the church to play in this matter today? If a poor widow is in the congregation,
how is she to be cared for today? First, it is the families’ responsibility to care
for her. I Timothy 5:3,4,16 says, "Honour widows that are widows indeed. But if any
widow have children or nephews, let them learn first to show piety at home, and to requite
their parents: for that is good and acceptable before God. If any man or woman that
believeth have widows, let them relieve them, and let not the church be charged; that it
may relieve them that are widows indeed." The church is not to take upon itself the
support of any poor widows unless they are at least 60 years old, have a spotless
reputation, and have no family to care for them. I Timothy 5:9,10 says, "Let not a
widow be taken into the number under threescore years old, having been the wife of one
man, Well reported of for good works; if she have brought up children, if she have lodged
strangers, if she have washed the saints' feet, if she have relieved the afflicted, if she
have diligently followed every good work."
Society does not owe people a living. Throughout the Bible, God expects
the poor to be ambitious and to work for food and their daily needs.
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