Who Nurtures And Cares For Orphans?
When Yeshua taught Israel to pray he said,
“Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” (Mat 6:9-10)
[Note: This is a continuation from Widows and Orphans – Part 1.]
Do we really want Yehovah’s kingdom to manifest itself on earth as it is in heaven? I fear for most who pray this way; because all it seems to be is lip service.
He [Yeshua] answered and said unto them, Well hath Isaiah prophesied of you hypocrites, as it is written, “This people honors Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me. Howbeit in vain do they worship Me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.” For laying aside the commandment of Elohim, ye hold the tradition of men, as the washing of pots and cups: and many other such like things ye do. And he said unto them, full well ye reject the commandment of Elohim, that ye may keep your own tradition. (Mar 7:6-9)
Where is a “Family Court” in Torah? Where are the judges and commissioners who tear apart a man’s family and make his children orphans in Torah? Where are the departments of “Family Services” and “Child Protection” in Torah? Oh – the very names of these hypocritical man-made entities are such an abomination before Yehovah. The very thing that makes a widow a widow and an orphan an orphan is the loss of a husband or a father. We, those who call ourselves Yehovah’s people, allow women to divorce their husbands and steal his children; and in our rebellion, have made orphans out of a huge percentage of the children in America.
In Yehovah’s kingdom it is family that takes care of family and the husband/father is always the head of his family. This man, is THE place of safety for his woman (many call her his wife) and children. In Torah a woman NEVER divorces her man; but a man can, and does, put away his woman if he finds uncleanness in her.
“When a man takes a woman and marries her, and it happens that she finds no favor in his eyes because he has found some uncleanness in her, and he writes her a certificate of divorce, puts it in her hand, and sends her out of his house, … (Deu 24:1)
When she leaves, she does not leave with his children! This fact alone (being separated from her children) would keep a woman under her husband’s authority and his protection for her.
All this may seem like a bit of a rant, but what better way is there to help orphans, than to prevent them from becoming orphans in the first place? The Creator will repay those who make children fatherless! Divorce may seem like the easy way out but there will be consequences! We either learn to live in accordance with Yehovah’s created purpose for a man and his woman or the curses of Yehovah will find us.
But there are some men who just perish and for the remainder of this article I will give some examples of who cares for the fatherless who are left.
Lot, Milcah and Sarai were the first orphans I found. It was after Abram and, his older brother Haran, went into Nimrod’s fiery furnace that Haran died. He left three children. Is there an age limit for an orphan? Sarai was 40 years old and her brother and sister were even older than she when Abram took her for himself.
And Haran died before his father Terah in his native land, in Ur of the Chaldeans. Then Abram and Nahor took women: the name of Abram’s woman was Sarai, and the name of Nahor’s woman, Milcah, the daughter of Haran the father of Milcah and the father of Iscah. (Gen 11:28-29)
I know this “Milcah, the daughter of Haran the father of Milcah and the father of Iscah” is ridiculously confusing. Yasher makes this more clear.
Yasher 9:1 And Haran, the son of Terah, Abram’s oldest brother, took a woman in those days.
2 Haran was thirty-nine years old when he took her; and Haran’s woman conceived and bare a son, and he called his name Lot.
3 And she conceived again and bare a daughter, and she called her name Milca; and she again conceived and bare a daughter, and she called her name Sarai.
After Abram escaped the furnace.
Yasher 12:42 And Abram returned on that day and went to his father’s house, he and the men that followed him, and Abram served Yehovah his Elohim all the days of his life, and he walked in His ways and followed His law.
43 And from that day forward Abram inclined the hearts of the sons of men to serve Yehovah.
44 And at that time Nahor and Abram took unto themselves women, the daughters of their brother Haran; Nahor’s woman was Milca and the name of Abram’s woman was Sarai.
Abram lived with Shem and Eber for 39 years so I might have expected Abram to take a woman from their daughters; but keep in mind that Yehovah expects near of kin, not just anyone in Israel to take care of both widows and orphans. In Torah, as far as marriage is concerned, we can get too close. Marrying a niece like Abram did, or an aunt as Moses’ dad (Amram) did may have been more acceptable when those that followed Yehovah were few in number. But that is not the case any longer.
You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father’s sister; she is near of kin to your father. (Lev 18:12)
However, taking a cousin as your woman as we will now see is OK.
The Daughters of Zelophehad were also adult and uncovered orphans.
Then came the daughters of Zelophehad … saying: “Our father died in the wilderness; but he was not in the company of those who gathered together against Yehovah, in company with Korah, but he died in his own sin; and he had no sons. (Num 27:1-3)
Yehovah decided that the daughters could keep their father’s land, but it was understood by all that they would marry; a woman does not own land and if she does not marry, who would inherit the land?
And Yehovah spoke to Moses, saying: “The daughters of Zelophehad speak what is right; you shall surely give them a possession of inheritance among their father’s brothers, and cause the inheritance of their father to pass to them. (Num 27:6-7)
But there was a problem if they married someone outside their tribe. I think for Yehovah this was not a problem because He expected them to become women to those who were near of kin. Unfortunately, they like us did not understand this near of kin concept at that time either.
And they (the elders) said: “Yehovah commanded my lord Moses to give the land as an inheritance by lot to Israel’s seed, and my lord was commanded by Yehovah to give the inheritance of our brother Zelophehad to his daughters. Now if they are married to any of the sons of the other tribes of Israel’s seed, then their inheritance will be taken from the inheritance of our fathers, and it will be added to the inheritance of the tribe into which they marry; so it will be taken from the lot of our inheritance. (Num 36:2-3)
Here was Yehovah’s answer.
This is what Yehovah commands concerning the daughters of Zelophehad, saying, ‘Let them marry whom they think best, but they may marry only within the family of their father’s tribe.’ (Num 36:6)
And this was the solution to both the long-term ownership of the land and the needed covering for these orphans. They all married near of kin and the land remained contiguous to their father’s family.
Just as Yehovah commanded Moses, so did the daughters of Zelophehad; for Mahlah, Tirzah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Noah, the daughters of Zelophehad, were married to the sons of their father’s brothers. (Num 36:10-11)
This is righteousness. The sons who married the daughters then had additional property to pass on to their sons.
Hadassah (Ester) was also an orphan. After her father and mother died she was taken in by her cousin, Mordecai. Her near of kin.
And Mordecai had brought up Hadassah, that is, Esther, his uncle’s daughter, for she had neither father nor mother. The young woman was lovely and beautiful. When her father and mother died, Mordecai took her as his own daughter. (Est 2:7)
Kin Care For Orphans
The principle that I see in Torah is this. A man has a duty in Yehovah’s kingdom to care for his near of kin orphans and, as we will see in part 3, his near of kin widows. Orphans are not a group, they are people who are permanently taken care of, one at a time.
Father, let your will be done on earth, as it is in heaven!