Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 1695
Delivered at the Thursday Evening Lecture
“For in You the fatherless finds mercy.” Hosea 14:3.
THE Lord God of Israel, the one only living and true God, has this for a special mark of His Character, that in Him the fatherless finds mercy. “A Father of the fatherless, and a Judge of the widows, is God in His holy habitation.” False gods of the heathen are usually notable for their supposed power or cunning, or even for their wickedness, falsehood, lustfulness and cruelty. But our God, who made the heavens, is the Thrice Holy One. He is the Holy God and He is also full of love. Indeed, it is not only His name and His character, but His very Nature, for “God is Love.” Among the acts which exhibit His love is this—that He executes righteousness and judgment for all that are oppressed and, especially takes under His wings the defenseless ones—such as the widow and the fatherless.
This is very notable if you look into the subject in connection with Holy Scripture. We see this soon after the giving of the Law. We have the Law in the 20th chapter of Exodus—and in the 22nd chapter of the same book, close upon the heels of the Law—you have God’s Word concerning the fatherless. Listen to Jehovah’s words—they are strong and forceful—there is a thunder about their sound. “You shall not afflict any widow, or fatherless child. If you afflict them in anywise, and they cry at all unto Me, I will surely hear their cry; and My wrath shall wax hot, and I will kill you with the sword; and your wives shall be widows, and your children fatherless.” These are the words of that Jehovah who spoke the Ten Commandments on Sinai! See how very near to the heart of our God lies the cause of the widow and the fatherless.
The Lord gave the Law a second time in the book of Deuteronomy. If you turn to the 10th chapter of that book, at the 17th verse, you will find such a statute as this—“For the Lord your God is God of gods, and Lord of lords, a great God, a mighty, and a terrible, which regards not persons, nor takes reward: He does execute the judgment of the fatherless and widow, and loves the stranger, in giving him food and raiment.” Those are two strong and striking proofs of the fact that the cause of the fatherless lies near to the heart of God! Laws were made on their behalf and among the rest was the institution of tithes. I have read some amazing statements upon the Divine right of tithes. It seems to be established in the minds of some that if God gave the tithes to Levi, He must, therefore, have given them to Episcopalian ministers—an inference which I fail to see! I should just as soon draw the inference that He had given them to Baptist ministers! Certainly it would be no more illogical! The idea of our being priests, or Levites, in order to get compulsory tithes, would be too abhorrent to be entertained for a moment! But while I have often seen the Divine right of tithes stated and argued, I have never heard it urged that the tithes should go to those for whom God set them apart under the legal dispensation!
Now, if you will turn to Scripture, you will find that the tithe of all the produce of the land was to be given to the Levite, to the stranger, to the widow and to the fatherless—and whenever tithes come to be properly distributed, if there is any Divine right in it at all—it will most certainly be given to the widow and the fatherless! We should agree to its being given, in part, to the Levite when he turns up, but as we do not know who the Levite is, at present, we may keep his portion in abeyance till he appears! But the widow and the fatherless are still here among us! The poor shall never cease out of the land—and as the institution of the tithe was as much for them as it was for the tribe of Levi, let them have their share!
The tribe of Levi had certain rights because, while the other tribes had, each one, a portion, that tribe had no inheritance and, therefore, took out its share in having a part of the tithe and certain cities to dwell in. Read Deuteronomy 14:29—“And the Levite, (because he has no part nor inheritance with you), and the stranger, and the fatherless, and the widow, which are within your gates, shall come, and shall eat and be satisfied; that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hand which you do.” I do not know that Episcopalian clergymen have given up their earthly inheri-
tances any more than Non-Conformist ministers. And I cannot, therefore, see that they have the Levite’s claim—but I see clearly the right of the widow and the fatherless—and I pray that the day may come when they will get their share of what is undoubtedly theirs, if it is anybody’s at all!
Another ordinance was made about the widow and the fatherless—that when the people gathered in the harvest, if they omitted a sheaf of corn, they were never to go back for it, but were to leave it for the widow and the fatherless. “When you cut down your harvest in your field, and have forgotten a sheaf in the field, you shall not go again to fetch it: it shall be for the stranger, for the fatherless, and for the widow: that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hands.” In gathering in the corn, the field was not raked, but all that fell was left to the widow and the fatherless. It was expressly commanded that when they gathered the grapes they were never to gather a second time, but were to leave the bunches to be ripened for the widow and the fatherless. “When you beat your olive tree, you shall not go over the boughs again: it shall be for the stranger, for the fatherless, and for the widow.”