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.’
Deuteronomy 15 sets out laws for the seventh-year release of debts. This verse states the plain fact behind them: the poor will always be in the land. God makes that fact a reason to give, not a reason to give up.
The Promise That Was Not Kept
Earlier in the same chapter God says there should be no poor among them (verse 4). But that promise depended on Israel's obedience. Verse 11 tells us what happened instead.
Leslie M. GrantGod's blessing in this way, however, would depend on Israel carefully obeying the Lord and observing all His commandments (v.5). So this was a conditional promise. Israel failed to keep the conditions, and poverty was not abolished, so the Lord Jesus told His disciples, "For the poor you always have with you" (John 12:8). This will change only after the Lord's judgment and His establishing Israel in the future blessings of the millennium.
Open Your Hand Wide
The verse asks for wide giving, not measured giving, and it names three groups: your brother, the needy and the poor. One writer finds God's own character behind the command.
C. H. MackintoshHow lovely are those words, "You shall open wide your hand!" They breathe the very air of heaven. An open heart and a wide hand are like God. "God loves a cheerful giver," because that is exactly what He is Himself. "He gives generously to all without reproach." And He would grant us the rare and most exquisite privilege of being imitators of Him. Marvellous grace! ... We are not only saved by grace. We stand in grace, live under the blessed reign of grace, and breathe the very atmosphere of grace. He calls us to be the living expression of grace, not only to our brothers and sisters but to the whole human family.
What the Warnings Expose
The verses just before warn against a hard heart and a shut hand. Those warnings say something about us.
C. H. MackintoshHere the deep springs of the poor selfish heart are uncovered and judged. There is nothing like grace for making plain the hidden roots of evil in human nature. A person must be renewed in the very deepest springs of his moral being before he can carry divine love. Even those whom grace has renewed must watch all the time against the ugly forms of selfishness that our fallen nature dresses itself in. Nothing but grace can keep the heart open wide to every kind of human need.
The Poor Are His Poor
The giver in this chapter is not left to carry the cost alone. God ties His own blessing to the act, and treats the needy as belonging to Him.
J. N. DarbyChapter 15 teaches everyone among the people to treat their poor brothers with generosity and grace. The year of release also secured this care for them, and it applied to debts and to Hebrew slaves. The one who in this way respected Jehovah in His poor was to depend on God. God would bless him for acting according to His commandment, for the poor were His poor.
Because they are His, turning them away is not a private matter. God keeps the account.
Morrish Bible DictionaryThe law made provision for the poor. It declares that the poor would never cease out of the land. If no one relieved them and they cried to the Lord, it would count as a sin against those who should have helped them. On the other hand, we read that "whoever is generous to the poor lends to the LORD, and he will repay him for his deed."
How Jesus Used This Verse
One writer links this verse to the day people objected that Mary was wasting what could have helped the poor. The lasting need of the poor is what left her free to honour the Lord.
C E StuartThe objection sounded fair: Mary was depriving the poor of something that would have helped them. The Lord answered that opportunities to serve the poor were plentiful and would not run out. Opportunities to serve Him in His humiliation would now be very few.
Christians and the Wide Hand
One writer applies this command to believers today.
C. H. MackintoshWe consider it a disgrace to Christians to let a brother or sister seek help from public relief, if they know about it. It is their high privilege to serve their brother's need. "You shall open wide your hand to your brother." This was a command under the law, and surely it should speak to our hearts. If a Jew was told to open his hand wide to the poor, how much more should we?
Summary
- Never ceasing — the promise of verse 4 rested on obedience Israel never gave, so poverty stayed. God states the fact to keep the hand open, not to shut it.
- Open wide — God's own character sets the measure. He gives generously without reproach, and giving is the privilege of imitating Him.
- Open heart — the warnings about a hard heart and a shut hand expose our selfishness. Only grace keeps a heart open to every human need.
- Open account — the poor are His poor. Their unanswered cry counts as sin, and giving to them is a loan to the Lord, which He repays.
- Open opportunity — the Lord used this fact when people criticised Mary. Chances to help the poor never run out, but the moment to honour Him was passing.