Daily Manna, Year Two · Day 170 · June 19
Open Thine Hand
“For the poor shall never cease out of the land: therefore I command thee, saying, Thou shalt open thine hand wide unto thy brother, to thy poor, and to thy needy, in thy land.”
Moses says the poor will never run out, and he says it seven verses after saying there will be none among you.
Both sentences are in the chapter and neither is a slip. Verse four describes what obedience would produce, and hangs it on a condition: Only if thou carefully hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God. Verse eleven describes what will actually happen in the land, and builds a command on top of it.
The fact arrives with a job attached rather than an excuse. Thou shalt open thine hand wide unto thy brother, to thy poor, and to thy needy, in thy land. The chapter even anticipates the arithmetic you will do in your head as the year of release comes near, and calls it what it is: Beware that there be not a thought in thy wicked heart, saying, The seventh year, the year of release, is at hand; and thine eye be evil against thy poor brother. Jesus quoted this line in a house in Bethany, and the half people leave off is the half that matters: For ye have the poor with you always, and whensoever ye will ye may do them good.
Whensoever ye will. The permanence of the problem was never given to you as a reason to stop; it was given as the reason the opportunity is still there this week, and it comes as an invitation with no quota on it. Your hand is the only part of this under your control, and the word attached to it is wide.
Daily Manna runs on a two-year cycle. The year one reading for day 170 is Beauty for Ashes (Isaiah 61:3).