So the relationship which God intends for mankind is the close relationship best pictured by marriage. In Jeremiah 31:32, God refers to himself as the husband of Israel and we know that believers are considered the bride of the Messiah. You may be a citizen with full civil rights. You may have enough in your bank account so you don’t worry month to month. Yes, you may have a husband and a father. Perhaps in calling us to protect the vulnerable, God is calling us to see ourselves as he sees us.
But perhaps there is another aspect to this which we are overlooking. To love God is to love and protect the vulnerable. The foreigner is outside the culture and, at those times, outside the full protection of the law and usually without full civil rights. The poor are at the mercy of fortune and the more fortunate. The widow has no husband to fight for her. Why? Why such concern for these people in particular? God is a God of justice and if he is concerned with justice then he must act on behalf of those who are vulnerable. He warns again and again that, not only will he protect them, but anyone who harms them will face his anger. God speaks over and over again of his concern for the widow, the orphan, the poor and the foreigner. Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the foreigner or the poor, and do not plot evil in your hearts against one another.
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