I am of the mindset that the Bible, God's word, is always correct and the imaginations and inventions of men are always wrong when they contradict God's word! There are many examples I could give of such contradictions but I will try to stick with one for today that is a major American problem. Our country has been toying with socialism for many years and as we have seen since liberals have owned the Senate and the White House, socialism is creeping into every aspect of our lives. And it seems the majority of Americans now want "Big Brother" or "Uncle Sam" to take care of their every need.
But I would like to use a Biblical example to show how charity and hard work can compliment one another so that the poor can be provided for, yet, they get to earn their way at the same time. It comes from the Old Testament practice of leaving a certain amount of grain in the corners of the field so that the poor could come and, through the hard work of gathering the grain, provide for themselves. For instance,
"And when ye reap the harvest of your land, thou shalt not make clean riddance of the corners of thy field when thou reapest, neither shalt thou gather any gleaning of thy harvest: thou shalt leave them unto the poor, and to the stranger: I am the LORD your God." (Leviticus 23:22). In the Book of Ruth we find Ruth going to the field of Boaz and gathering grain that was left after the reapers. This was the practice of those days and it worked well! The Bible says, "So she gleaned in the field until even, and beat out that she had gleaned: and it was about an ephah of barley." (Ruth 2:17). The Bible does not repremand Boaz for being wealthy. In fact, it is Boaz' wealth that brough employment to his workers and charity to the poor! What do we have here? Well, we have charitable action by the owner of the field and we have hard work by those who are in need! This is NOT a governmental social program; it is, to me, the same principle as a business owner who provides a job. All the land owner was required to do, not by government mandate, but by moral rule, was to leave standing grain in the corners of the field. They were not told how greedy and immoral they might be by acquiring wealth. They were not told exactly how much to leave for the poor, just to be sure to leave some! God was not taxing the wealthy field owners too much or too little; He was simply saying that to provide for the poor is the right and just thing to do! In the New Testament the Apostle Paul admonished "For even when we were with you, this we commanded you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat." (2 Thessalonians 3:10) Yet today's liberals would try to humiliate Boaz and they would attempt to take, at the very least, a large portion of his field, because, in their minds, he is just too wealthy! Now we know how charitable and kind Boaz really was but you can never satisfy a liberal! And Paul, if he were here today would say the same thing he wrote 2000 years ago.
The Socialist Liberals of today have no such balanced program. Their idea is that nobody should have any more than anyone else, which, if this were put into practice would mean there would be no corners of the field from which to glean because there would be no field planted. There would be no field planted because there would be no field owners. There would be no field owners because the system would take away all that would be produced in the field and give it away to non-producers who simply wait on the socialist liberal to bring their ephah to them. This is what will result if the Obama Administration and his liberal cohorts have their way!
By the way, those poor who went into the fields and gathered their grain were not told how to cook it! They were not told who THEY could be charitable towards. They EARNED their epha! But let's suppose the Obama Administration owned the field. Not only would the private "land owner" not exist because the government would own the land, but the government would also try to mandate how much could be gleaned but they would also mandate how it must be stored, how it should be baked, and how much should be taxed! If this is what the American people want then go ahead and elect Mr. Obama again!
P.S. I encourage you to read the Book of Ruth.
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