All throughout Scripture, God reveals His heart for the fatherless to experience love and care from His people. Once, we were spiritual orphans, and now, through Jesus, “the Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.” Romans 8:16 Praise the Lord!
May these ancient words bring you joy and life as you draw near to the Father-heart of God.
Exodus 22:22: Do not take advantage of the widow or the fatherless.
Deuteronomy 10:18: He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the foreigner residing among you, giving them food and clothing.
Deuteronomy 14:28-29: At the end of every three years, bring all the tithes of that year’s produce and store it in your towns, so that the Levites (who have no allotment or inheritance of their own) and the foreigners, the fatherless and the widows who live in your towns may come and eat and be satisfied, and so that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hands.
Deuteronomy 24:17: Do not deprive the foreigner or the fatherless of justice or take the cloak of the widow as a pledge.
Deuteronomy 24:19-21: When you are harvesting in your field and you overlook a sheaf, do not go back to get it. Leave it for the foreigner, the fatherless and the widow, so that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hands.
Deuteronomy 24:20: When you beat the olives from your trees, do not go over the branches a second time. Leave what remains for the foreigner, the fatherless and the widow.
Deuteronomy 24:21: When you harvest the grapes in your vineyard, do not go over the vines again. Leave what remains for the foreigner, the fatherless and the widow.
Deuteronomy 26:12: When you have finished setting aside a tenth of all your produce in the third year, the year of the tithe, you shall give it to the Levite, the foreigner, the fatherless and the widow, so that they may eat in your towns and be satisfied.
Deuteronomy 26:13: Then say to the Lord your God: “I have removed from my house the sacred portion and have given it to the Levite, the foreigner, the fatherless and the widow, according to all you commanded. I have not turned aside from your commands, nor have I forgotten any of them.
Deuteronomy 27:19; “Cursed is anyone who withholds justice from the foreigner, the fatherless or the widow.” Then all the people shall say, “Amen!”
Psalm 10:14: But you, God, see the trouble of the afflicted; you consider their grief and take it in hand. The victims commit themselves to you; you are the helper of the fatherless.
Psalm 10:17-18: You, Lord, hear the desire of the afflicted; you encourage them, and you listen to their cry, defending the fatherless and the oppressed, so that mere earthly mortals will never again strike terror.
Psalm 68:5: A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in his holy dwelling.
Psalm 82:3: Defend the weak and the fatherless; uphold the cause of the poor and the oppressed.
Psalm 146:9: The Lord watches over the foreigner and sustains the fatherless and the widow, but he frustrates the ways of the wicked.
Proverbs 23:10: Do not move an ancient boundary stone or encroach on the fields of the fatherless, for their Defender is strong; he will take up their case against you.
Isaiah 1:17: Learn to do right; seek justice. Defend the oppressed. Take up the cause of the fatherless; plead the case of the widow.
Hosea 14:3: “…for in You, the fatherless find compassion.”
Zechariah 7:4: Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the foreigner or the poor. Do not plot evil against each other.
Luke 18:16: But Jesus called the children to him and said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.”
John 4:18: I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.
James 1:27: Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.