“You shall not hate your brother in your heart"..."you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord."
Leviticus 19:17-18 ESV
This is the second most important commandment, but it was completely ignored by the Pharisees...they totally twisted the Law. They carried out tithing and giving sacrifices for sin, but it was never the Lord's intent for them to give sacrifice without repenting of their sin in their heart. They neglected "the weightier matters if the Law," as Jesus put it. Sacrifice for sin was never God's intent when He made the world - it was obedience and following His voice. We can see this when He gave Adam instruction not to sin by eating from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. His intent was for Adam to obey. This is evident throughout all the Old Testament scriptures that the Pharisees had, but they did not see it, because their hearts were hardened toward God.
The prophets tell them to correct their mistake, not by giving more sacrifices, but by heartfelt repentance: “Yet even now,” declares the Lord, “return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; and rend your hearts and not your garments.”
Joel 2:12-13 ESV
The Pharisees thought the Law could save them, and that God would have to pardon them by their own strength. They thought that God would forgive their sin no matter if they repented from the heart or not, as long as they gave the sacrifices properly. These sacrifices were atonement for sin, and God said for them to give these animal sacrifices to cleanse themselves from sin. But it is God who does the cleansing, not the sacrifice.
One of Jehovah's statutes in the law is this: "At the end of three years, even the same year, you shall bring forth all the tithe of your increase, and you shall lay it up within your gates. And the Levite, because he has no portion nor inheritance with you, and the alien, and the fatherless, and the widow who are within your gates shall come and shall eat and be satisfied; so that Jehovah your God may bless you in all the work of your hand which you do."
Leviticus 14:28-29
Are we taking care of the alien?
When I was a kid, there was a saying that we would say when someone got offended at us. I think we saw it on TV. It was, "Well, pardooooon me!" It was a sarcastic saying that we heard people say when someone got real mad at them. It was an untrue statement. The person wasn't really asking for forgiveness. In the same way, the Pharisees aren't really asking for forgiveness when they neglect mercy for the poor and the alien in favor of sacrificial offering.
Tithing cannot make us holy and will never make us right with God. Repentance is what's called for, and obeying His voice. And He says, "I desire mercy, not sacrifice." (Hosea 6:6)
Mercy for the poor, the innocent, the little lambs. Mercy for the stranger and the foreigner. Mercy for His people.
You can give mercy by giving funds that protect the stranger and the poor. It is a way of providing for the people on the border, who are innocent, in the same way that Jehovah asked the people of God to take their tithe and give it to the poor and the stranger.
Information on their work at the border is below:
https://www.catholiccharitiesusa.org/story/helping-at-the-border/
To donate, click the link below. The Sisters of Mercy will be glad that you did.
https://www.catholiccharitiesusa.org/ways-to-give/
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