Open Thine Hand Wide

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. DEUTERONOMY 15:11

The dissertation on true virtue asks what goodness is. A much plainer piece of Edwards asks what it costs. The sermon printed as Christian Charity takes its text from the fifteenth chapter of Deuteronomy, where Israel is commanded not to harden the heart or shut the hand against a poor brother, and it draws a doctrine with no escape clause in it: that it is “the absolute and indispensable duty of the people of God, to give bountifully and willingly for supplying the wants of the needy.” The rest of the sermon argues for that sentence and then dismantles every excuse his congregation might offer. It is one of the most searching things he preached.

As much a duty as prayer

Edwards noticed that the text insists. The command is repeated, it is strengthened, and it is guarded against the very thoughts a reluctant heart would have, such as the year of release being near and the loan never coming back. He concluded that giving to the poor is not a pleasant extra for the unusually generous. It is our bounden duty, he said, “as much a duty as it is to pray, or to attend public worship, or any thing else whatever.” He noted, too, that the text requires the hand to be opened wide. To give something is not enough. The rule is to give what is sufficient for the need, and to give it without grudging.

He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God? MICAH 6:8

This cuts against the instinct of serious churches to rank worship above mercy, as if prayer were religion and generosity merely ethics. Edwards would have none of it. Scripture calls mercy one of the weightier matters of the law, and the apostle John makes it a test of whether the love of God is in a man at all.

But whoso hath this world’s good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him? 1 JOHN 3:17

Stewards, not owners

The heart of his argument is a doctrine of property. “Your goods are only lent to you of God,” he told his congregation, to be used in the ways He directs. We are not our own, for we are bought with a price, and if we are not our own, neither is anything we hold. A steward who hoards his master’s goods while the household goes short is not being prudent. He is embezzling. And God has made the needy His own receivers.

He that hath pity upon the poor lendeth unto the LORD; and that which he hath given will he pay him again. PROVERBS 19:17

Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me. MATTHEW 25:40

Then he went deeper, to the gospel itself. Every Christian lives on unearned kindness. What would have become of us, he asked, if Christ had been as sparing of His blood as we are of our money, or as ready to excuse Himself from dying as we are to excuse ourselves from giving? “How unsuitable is it for us, who live only by kindness, to be unkind!” That is the whole of Christian ethics in a sentence, and it is why generosity is not optional for people who have been forgiven.

For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich. 2 CORINTHIANS 8:9

The excuses answered

The longest part of the sermon takes the objections one by one, and it reads as if Edwards had overheard his congregation on the way home. He is not in real extremity; he can live. Edwards answered that brothers do not wait for broken bones before they help, since we are pilgrims and strangers on a journey together, and a brother who meets difficulty on the road is helped with the load, not only rescued from the ditch. He is a disagreeable man and ungrateful. Edwards pointed to the Samaritan, who helped his enemy, and to the Father, who sends rain on the just and the unjust.

But love ye your enemies, and do good, and lend, hoping for nothing again; and your reward shall be great, and ye shall be the children of the Highest: for he is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil. LUKE 6:35

I do not know his circumstances; he may be feigning. That, said Edwards, is Nabal’s objection, and he reminded them how Scripture judged Nabal. It is right to inquire where we can, and yet “it is better to give to several that are not objects of charity, than to send away empty one that is.” He has not asked. Then find out, since to make a neighbour beg is itself unkind. He brought it on himself. Then forgive him as Christ forgave you, and if he persists in his folly, remember his children. The town provides for the poor. Edwards answered that the law catches only the most desperate, and that anyone who thinks there is no one in need beyond its reach must be deliberately looking away.

His sharpest insight is about perception more than money. The uncharitable, he said, hide their eyes. A generous heart is quick-sighted to the needs of others and never at a loss for someone to help, while a grudging one honestly cannot see any deserving case.

He that giveth unto the poor shall not lack: but he that hideth his eyes shall have many a curse. PROVERBS 28:27

Where to read him with care

Two cautions belong here. The first is that Edwards pressed the promises of reward hard, arguing that generosity is the way to be blessed in outward affairs as well as eternal ones. He qualified this honestly, saying that the promise has no timetable and that God may be sparing us from worse losses we never see, but a reader who takes the argument by itself can slide towards giving as an investment. Scripture’s promises are real, and so are the believers who gave freely and died poor. Give because Christ gave, and leave the return to God.

Cast thy bread upon the waters: for thou shalt find it after many days. ECCLESIASTES 11:1

The second has been said already in this book and must be said again. This sermon on the wide-open hand was preached by a man whose household included people he owned. The argument condemns him more severely than it condemns most of his hearers. That does not weaken it. It is one more proof of what he himself taught, that the plainest duty can be preached with conviction and still be missed at the point where it costs the preacher most.

FOR REFLECTION AND ACTION

1. Put giving on the same footing as prayer this month. Decide a regular, sacrificial amount and treat it as settled, not discretionary.

2. Ask whose need you have not seen because you have not looked. Find out one neighbour’s circumstances before they have to ask.

3. Review the excuses you have used most often. Set each beside Edwards’s answer and see which of them survive.

4. Help one person you find disagreeable or ungrateful, quietly, and expect nothing back.

5. Examine whether you give as an investment or as a debtor to grace. Adjust your motive, not only your amount.

6. Look at your possessions this week as goods lent to you, and ask the Owner what He wants done with them.

A PRAYER

Lord Jesus, You were rich and became poor for my sake, and everything I have is lent to me by You.

I have closed my hand and called it prudence. I have hidden my eyes and then said I could find no one in need. Forgive me.

Open my eyes to see the needy near me, and open my hand wide. Let me give without grudging, and without keeping an account of the return.

I live only by Your kindness. Do not let me be unkind. Amen.