Deuteronomy 16:9-22: a reflection

9You shall count for yourselves seven weeks. From the time you begin to put the sickle to the standing grain you shall begin to count seven weeks. 10You shall keep the feast of weeks to the LORD your God with a tribute of a free will offering of your hand, which you shall give according to how the LORD your God blesses you. 11You shall rejoice before the LORD your God: you, your son, your daughter, your male servant, your female servant, the Levite who is within your gates, the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow who are among you, in the place which the LORD your God shall choose to cause his name to dwell there. 12You shall remember that you were a slave in Egypt. You shall observe and do these statutes. 13You shall keep the feast of booths seven days, after you have gathered in from your threshing floor and from your wine press. 14You shall rejoice in your feast, you, your son, your daughter, your male servant, your female servant, the Levite, the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow who are within your gates. 15You shall keep a feast to the LORD your God seven days in the place which the LORD chooses, because the LORD your God will bless you in all your increase and in all the work of your hands, and you shall be altogether joyful. 16Three times in a year all of your males shall appear before the LORD your God in the place which he chooses: in the feast of unleavened bread, in the feast of weeks, and in the feast of booths. They shall not appear before the LORD empty. 17Every man shall give as he is able, according to the LORD your God’s blessing which he has given you. 18You shall make judges and officers in all your gates, which the LORD your God gives you, according to your tribes; and they shall judge the people with righteous judgment. 19You shall not pervert justice. You shall not show partiality. You shall not take a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and perverts the words of the righteous. 20You shall follow that which is altogether just, that you may live and inherit the land which the LORD your God gives you. 21You shall not plant for yourselves an Asherah of any kind of tree beside the LORD your God’s altar, which you shall make for yourselves. 22Neither shall you set yourself up a sacred stone which the LORD your God hates.

When God gave his people their yearly feasts, celebrations of his goodness and provision, he was careful about who was included in the joy. You shall rejoice, the instruction goes, you, your son and daughter, your male and female servant, the Levite, the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow who are among you. The list is deliberate: the celebration was not for the household alone, but was to gather in the servant, the outsider, the orphan, and the widow, everyone, including the most vulnerable and easily overlooked.

Notice who is specifically named. God does not simply say, celebrate; he names the servant, the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow, the very people most likely to be left out of a celebration, and insists they be included in the joy. The feast was not to be an exclusive gathering of the comfortable, with the vulnerable outside; it was to draw them in, so that the servant and the widow and the stranger rejoiced along with everyone else. God's joy was meant to be shared, especially with those on the margins.

That is a beautiful picture of the heart of God, and a challenge to how we celebrate and enjoy his blessings. God's joy is not meant to be hoarded by the comfortable while the vulnerable are left outside; it is meant to be shared, deliberately extended to the servant, the stranger, the orphan, the widow, those most easily overlooked. When you celebrate and enjoy God's good gifts, do not do it in a closed circle of the comfortable. Draw in the overlooked and the vulnerable; share the joy. God's blessings are meant to overflow to those on the margins, not to be kept within the circle of those who already have much.

Lord, when you gave your people feasts, you deliberately included the servant, the foreigner, the orphan, and the widow in the joy, the very ones most easily left out. Give me a heart like yours. When I celebrate and enjoy your blessings, keep me from doing it in a closed circle of the comfortable while the vulnerable stay outside. Help me draw in the overlooked, share the joy, and let your blessings overflow to those on the margins. Make my celebrations, like yours, ones that include everyone.