Pray the word with David Platt as a resource from Radical.net.

Deuteronomy chapter 15 verse 4, and then verse 11, first verse 4, God says,

but there will be no poor among you. For the Lord will bless you in the land,

that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance to possess. So that's verse 4,

and then Deuteronomy chapter 15 verse 11 says, for there will never cease to be poor in the land.

Therefore I command you, you shall open wide your hand to your brother, to the needy,

and to the poor in your land. So put these verses together, clearly God is telling his people,

especially as they go into the promised land, care for one another, provide for one another,

guard against poverty in one another. There will be no poor among you. God desired for all of his

people to be plentifully supplied for, and you see in God's law all kinds of provisions

to keep people out of poverty, to rescue people from poverty, which is why when you get to

chapter 15 verse 11, God acknowledges that there will be things in the sinful, broken world

that result in poverty, and so God commands his people, you shall open wide your hand to your brother,

to the needy, and to the poor in your land. What a phrase, open wide your hand to the poor,

to those in need. And I think the takeaway as we pray is obvious, isn't it? Sure, things are

very different, then, being a part of God's people going into the promised land, and even the

physical promises of blessing that were associated with the promised land. But clearly we see

all throughout the Bible, Old Testament and New Testament commands to care for the poor,

to open wide our hands, to brothers and sisters in Christ who are in need, and to people around us

who are in need to love our neighbors as ourselves. And so we pray, God, in this sinful, broken world,

where most everybody who's listening to this podcast episode right now, who's praying with me

right now, most all of us have plenty of clean water, have plenty of food today, have clothes,

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