Yesterday we saw that providing opportunities for work is one of the best ways to help those who are in need. Today, we see the equal importance of family support, in a passage that will be applied directly in the Book of Ruth.

But as with yesterday’s passage, we shouldn’t assume that we must implement all the details of this part of the civil law. After all, this passage describes an agricultural society, where land was the main source of wealth. It also assumes a legal system in which land is passed down from father to son, so it stays in the same family and in the same tribe. A man who died without a son thus not only had no one to care for his widow or for any of his unmarried daughters. His land would be lost to his family for all generations to come.

Today, women are more able to work and support themselves, and prosperity is no longer tied so closely to inheritance of real estate. So what is the general principle of this law that we can apply to our modern society? At the very least, we can say this: charity begins at home. Family members should look out for one another, and try to help each other through tough times, even if it causes us some inconvenience or even personal financial hardship.

And we find the same principle explicitly stated in the New Testament, with Paul telling Timothy, “But if anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever (I Timothy 5:8 ESV).

So instead of assuming that someone else or some government agency or charitable organization will care for those who are closest to us, what can we do to help them today?

Deuteronomy 25:5-10 (ESV)

5 “If brothers dwell together, and one of them dies and has no son, the wife of the dead man shall not be married outside the family to a stranger. Her husband’s brother shall go in to her and take her as his wife and perform the duty of a husband’s brother to her.
6 And the first son whom she bears shall succeed to the name of his dead brother, that his name may not be blotted out of Israel.
7 And if the man does not wish to take his brother’s wife, then his brother’s wife shall go up to the gate to the elders and say, ‘My husband’s brother refuses to perpetuate his brother’s name in Israel; he will not perform the duty of a husband’s brother to me.’
8 Then the elders of his city shall call him and speak to him, and if he persists, saying, ‘I do not wish to take her,’
9 then his brother’s wife shall go up to him in the presence of the elders and pull his sandal off his foot and spit in his face. And she shall answer and say, ‘So shall it be done to the man who does not build up his brother’s house.’
10 And the name of his house shall be called in Israel, ‘The house of him who had his sandal pulled off.’