Be A Good Samaritan
Nuggets of Fire Proof Investments
Nugget 20
Leviticus 19:18, “Do not take vengeance or hold any grudge against any of your people, but instead love your neighbor as yourself. I am Yahuwah.”
Leviticus 19:34, “The sojourning foreigner who lives with you must be to you like the native-born Israelite who lives among you, and you must love him as yourself, because you were foreigners in the land of Egypt. I am Yahuwah your Divine One.”
Deuteronomy 10:18-19, “He executes justice for the fatherless and widow, and he shows love for the sojourning foreigner by giving him food and clothing. 19Therefore, love the sojourning foreigner; for you were foreigners in the land of Egypt.”
Matthew 22:39, “And a second commandment is like it, ‘Divinely selflessly love your neighbor as yourself.’”
Proverbs 19:17, “Whoever is kind to the poor lends to Yahuwah, and he will repay him for what he has done.”
In Luke 10:25-37, we read the parable of the Good Samaritan. Verses 35-37 end the parable with, “35The next day, he took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper and said, ‘Take care of him and whatever extra you spend, when I return, I will repay you.’ 36Which of these three, do you think, was a neighbor to him who fell among the robbers?” 37The teacher said, “The one who showed mercy to him.” Yeshuwah said to him, “Go and do the same.””
I have been wrestling with theses Scriptures for the last 3 months. We’ve had a family emergency that has strapped our finances, no, demolished our finances and put us in debt. I’ve scoured the Set-apart Scriptures to see if there is ever a limit to my obligations when taking care of sick, poor, and needy humans. I really wanted to know what the written word has to say on this matter. I know we are to love our neighbor as ourselves. That is so easy to read and even easy to preach and teach, but I’m finding it almost impossible to live out in the real world. Is my heart too attached to our finances? Do I have too tight a grip on our cash outflow? Ouch, that is always a possibility. Father, forgive me for wanting to hold onto even a tiny amount of our finances, especially if someone else needs help.
There does not seem to be any clear commandment on going into debt to care for people you love. After all, how can you give more than you own to someone in need? America makes using credit way to easy and seemingly painless. Credit card debt is a trap that many have fallen into and continue to fall into, to this day. Many people go for the quick fix to try to solve what looks like a physical or medical or mental problem, but the real problem is spiritual, and that needs to be solved first.
But in reading and studying the parable of the Good Samaritan, Yeshuwah wants us to understand that taking care of poor and needy people is lending to Yahuwah. Yeshuwah hinted that he will pay us back when he returns. Yeshuwah always raised the bar of Torah to an ever higher level of commitment and understanding. But look closely at Luke 10:35. Yeshuwah did not tell the innkeeper to go to his bank and borrow money to care for the needy beat up man. He simply asked the innkeeper to use some of the innkeeper’s own money if it was necessary for the care of the half-dead traveler. The Good Samaritan was asking the innkeeper to trust him, the Good Samaritan, that he would pay the innkeeper back for any extra expense that he incurred in caring for the beat up traveler. The innkeeper could have refused. You can refuse to spend your own money to help people. But why would a believer not want to get involved in ministering to the downtrodden poor people of our world? I don’t think we can even begin to imagine the interest that Yahuwah pays to those who lend to him through giving to the poor. If the innkeeper had refused, the Good Samaritan would have just given him 4-5 more silver coins for the care of that poor beat up soul.
I believe the moral of the story is to let our Good Samaritan help us take care of needy people, and learn to trust him more and more with our finances. We can never outgive our Master Yeshuwah. He promises to pay us back when he returns to earth. Your giving to poor, homeless, needy, widows, and orphans is earning you an eternal home with interest, or Return On Inheritance, in His Kingdom. Yahuwah will owe no man anything, he will pay us back with interest if necessary!
Job 41:11, “Who has first given anything to me (Yahuwah), in order that I should repay him? Whatever is under the whole sky is mine.”
1 Chronicles 29:14, “But who am I, and who are my people, that we should be able to offer so willingly these things? Indeed, all things come from you (Yahuwah), and we have simply given back to you what is yours.”
Romans 11:34-36, ““For who has known the mind of Yahuwah? Or who has become his advisor? 35Or who has first given anything to Yahuwah, so it will be paid back to him?”36For from him, and through him, and to him, are all things. To him be the glory forever. Amein.”
Leviticus 25:35-37, “If your fellow countryman becomes poor, so that he can no longer provide for himself, then you must help him as you would help a sojourning foreigner or resident alien living among you. 36Do not charge him interest or try to profit from him in any way, but honor your Divine One, so that your brother may keep living with you. 37You must not give him a loan of money and charge interest nor sell him your food to earn a profit.”
2 Corinthians 8:12, “For if you are eager to do this deed, it is a good and acceptable thing. It must be based on what a person has, not on what he does not have.”
Romans 13:8-10, “Owe no one anything except to love one another. For he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the Torah. 9For, “You will not commit adultery, you will not murder, you will not steal, you will not give false testimony, you will not covet,” and if there is any other commandment also, it is summed up in this sentence: “You will love your neighbor as yourself.”10Love does not harm one’s neighbor. Therefore, divine selfless love is the fulfillment of the Torah.”
Move forward and be a good samaritan!
Comments