The Widows and Fatherless

One of the themes that we see in the Law of Moses is the importance of caring for those who have lost husbands and fathers. It's surprising to me how often it is mentioned.  The Lord commanded the Israelites saying, "Ye shall not afflict any widow, or fatherless child" (Exodus 22:22).  In a similar tone He said, "Cursed be he that perverteth the judgment of the stranger, fatherless, and widow" (Deuteronomy 27:19).  In almost identical language He likewise said, "Thou shalt not pervert the judgment of the stranger, nor of the fatherless; nor take a widow’s raiment to pledge" (Deuteronomy 24:17).  The command to not add affliction or injury to the widows and fatherless is clear.  He also invited the Israelites to take care of these groups less able to care for themselves: "And the stranger, and the fatherless, and the widow, which are within thy gates, shall come, and shall eat and be satisfied; that the Lord thy God may bless thee in all the work of thine hand which thou doest" (Deuteronomy 14:29).  He said about the same thing in a later chapter: "When thou hast made an end of tithing all the tithes of thine increase the third year, which is the year of tithing, and hast given it unto the Levite, the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, that they may eat within thy gates, and be filled; Then thou shalt say before the Lord thy God, I have brought away the hallowed things out of mine house, and also have given them unto the Levite, and unto the stranger, to the fatherless, and to the widow, according to all thy commandments which thou hast commanded me: I have not transgressed thy commandments, neither have I forgotten them" (Deuteronomy 26:12-13).  The Israelites were particularly responsible to help out the widows and orphans.  Jehovah also highlighted to them how He does that: "[The Lord] doth execute the judgment of the fatherless and widow, and loveth the stranger, in giving him food and raiment" (Deuteronomy 10:18).  We are to be like Him in loving and caring for these two groups who are often most in need.

               Many other scriptures likewise confirm the importance of this command.  Isaiah implored us, "Learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow" (Isaiah 1:17).  In Zechariah we are told, "And oppress not the widow, nor the fatherless, the stranger, nor the poor; and let none of you imagine evil against his brother in your heart" (Zechariah 7:10).  The write of Psalms invited us, "Defend the poor and fatherless: do justice to the afflicted and needy" (Psalms 82:3).  James taught us about true religion in terms of how we care for widows and orphans: "Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world" (James 1:27).  The measuring rod for our religious devotion isn't how well we know the doctrine but rather how we care for these groups in need.  Moroni in the Book of Mormon looked to our day and challenged us with these words, "Yea, why do ye build up your secret abominations to get gain, and cause that widows should mourn before the Lord, and also orphans to mourn before the Lord, and also the blood of their fathers and their husbands to cry unto the Lord from the ground, for vengeance upon your heads?" (Mormon 8:40)  The Lord sees when orphans and widows suffer because of our wickedness and violence.  He reaffirmed His commitment to care for these two groups in the Doctrine and Covenants.  There is a whole section about caring for the widows and fatherless in the Church, with the takeaway in the final verse: "And the storehouse shall be kept by the consecrations of the church; and widows and orphans shall be provided for, as also the poor" (D&C 83:6).  Joseph Smith wrote about these groups, whose numbers increased after the massacres in Missouri, when he called upon the Saints to publish the wrongs done against them by the mobs: "Therefore it is an imperative duty that we owe, not only to our own wives and children, but to the widows and fatherless, whose husbands and fathers have been murdered under its iron hand" (D&C 123:9).  And then in the revelation to Brigham Young as the Saints made their way west, the Lord confirmed His commitment to the widows and fatherless: "Let each company bear an equal proportion, according to the dividend of their property, in taking the poor, the widows, the fatherless, and the families of those who have gone into the army, that the cries of the widow and the fatherless come not up into the ears of the Lord against this people" (D&C 136:8).  Clearly the way that we help and care for and serve those who have lost husbands and parents is of utmost importance to the Lord.  God is described this way in the Psalms, "He relieveth the fatherless and widow"--surely that's how we should seek to live as well (Psalm 146:9).