“If your brother becomes poor and cannot maintain himself with you, you shall support him as though he were a stranger and a sojourner, and he shall live with you” (Leviticus 25:35).
What we have in Leviticus 25:35 is a poor brother who has reached the third stage of four stages of poverty. The first stage is mentioned in Lev. 25:25: the brother has lost property, and yet he still hopes to regain it. The second stage is mentioned in Lev. 25:28: he’s lost the property and he still hopes to regain it, but not until the year of Jubilee when everything is returned.
The third stage is the stage that is mentioned in our text (Lev. 25:35): He has not just lost property, but he has fallen, and is failing to the point that he is no longer able to take care for himself and his family. The Hebrew literally means “your brother’s hand is shaking.” He’s weak, or he has failed, or his hand has decayed, so that he no longer has power to get or keep wealth. Your brother has reached the Beatles’ stage of poverty” “Help, I need somebody, Help! Not just anybody.” And he’s coming to you. You are his rich brother who has a little bit more, at least. What is communicated in Leviticus 25:35 is the complementary opposite of what is communicated in Deuteronomy 8:18: “You shall remember the Lord your God, for it is He who gives you power to get wealth.”
If we are going to help our poor brothers, we need to remember three things:
- The Lord is our God
- Our wealth is not ours
- God’s goal for poor brothers is that they may live with us
The Lord Is Our God
If we have wealth as believers, it is because the Lord has blessed us.
“Know that the Lord, He is God. It is He who has made us and not we ourselves. We are His people and the sheep of His pasture” (Psalm 100:3).
Remember God. We are not self-made men. He is the one who has made us. We’re not better than somebody else because we have more money. Remember the pasture. We are His people and the sheep of His pasture. He owns it. Everything we have is ultimately from Him. If we have wealth, it is because He has blessed us. If someone else near us does not have it, it may be because he wants to test us.
Think of the rich man and Lazarus (Luke 16:19-31). The rich man had Lazarus as a near neighbor. He had an opportunity and he had the ability to help Lazarus, but he didn’t. So we read in Luke 16:25,
“But Abraham said, ‘Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things; but now he is comforted and you are tormented'” (Luke 16:25).
Proverbs 21:13 says: “Whoever shuts his ear to the cry of the poor will also cry himself and not be heard.”
Our Wealth Is Not Ours
If we have wealth as believers, it is not our own. We are not even our own!
“Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore, glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s” (1 Corinthians 6:19-20).
Now, the principle of 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 is applied here to sexual immorality, but the principle itself can be applied in broader ways. He owns us. He owns everything we have. He can tell us what to do with it. And in Lev. 25:35, he does! “You shall help him!”
“Help” is a broad term, a broad word. It means “help him in whatever way he needs help”: financially, with a place to stay, with a job, and so on.
“There may be a deception here,” you might think. But our text says, “you shall support him like a stranger or sojourner.” We think sometimes that we should treat strangers differently. But Deuteronomy 10:17-19 teaches us otherwise:
“He administers justice to the fatherless and the widows and loves the stranger, giving him food and clothing. Therefore, love the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt” (Deut 10:18).
So, we are to provide for our brothers, giving them food and clothing, just the same as we love the stranger.
God’s Goal: That They May Live With Us
It says in the last part of Leviticus 25:35: “that he may live with you” — live among you as an equal, as a friend. It means he can hold his head up high. But it may mean, too, that he actually lives with you! —literally in your house, eating your food, until he gets up on his feet.
I experienced this once. A man invited me into his home when I was in a circumstance where I really needed the help. I was welcomed as a friend. I did some chores at the farm that I was at. He polished my shoes one day. This is giving your brother help where giving your brother help is the opposite of stealing. The Westminster Shorter Catechism (WSC) 74 says:
Q. What is required in the eighth commandment?
A. The eighth commandment requires a lawful procuring and furthering the wealth and outward estate of ourselves and others.
And what are the proof texts of WSC 74? One of them is Leviticus 25:35. It’s the other’s wealth you are furthering.
And what does this help look like? Not like the help of Adoni-bezek, who said “Seventy kings with their thumbs and big toes cut off used to gather scraps under my table” (Judges 1:7). Adoni-bezek fed them and gave to them, but he had cut their own ability out from under them! That’s not what we’re called to do!
Jesus, the Good Shepherd gives us the real example:
“The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly” (John 10:10).
“That he may live among you” — as a brother, as a friend, as an equal, not crawling for scraps under your table, but sitting at the table like a family member.
About the Author
Rev. Arnold Brevick has been pastor at the First Presbyterian Church in North Port, FL since February 1, 2004. Before this, Pastor Brevick had been a pastor at churches in Illinois and Maine. He also worked with the Navigators in Colorado Springs and was a missionary chaplain at Okinawa Christian School in Okinawa, Japan. Arnie graduated from Reformed Theological Seminary with a Master of Theology Degree in 1993. He attained his Master of Divinity Degree from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in 1987. Pastor Brevick became a Christian while a student at Western Illinois University in Macomb, IL where he attained his Bachelor of Arts in 1981.