Luke 21:1-4: Widow’s big little Temple gift reveals major lapse in obeying God

We only know of the poor widow in Luke 21:4, because Yeshua made note of her in a “teachable moment” with His key students. Both Mark and Luke record Yeshua’s testimony of her as an example of a faithful giver. Her faithfulness was not in the amount of her gift in terms of monetary value but in terms of the percentage she gave in proportion to what she had. She did not give just 10 percent or a portion from surplus but everything.

She may have already spent all the rest of her means just to get to Yerushalayim (Jerusalem) in the first place. But if those rich people had truly had a heart for the Torah, she would have come there in comfort, not in desperation and extreme poverty (Deut. 16:9–15; 24:19–20; 26:12–13).

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We only know of the poor widow in Luke 21:4, because Yeshua made note of her in a “teachable moment” with His key students. Both Mark and Luke record Yeshua’s testimony of her as an example of a faithful giver. Her faithfulness was not in the amount of her gift in terms of monetary value but in terms of the percentage she gave in proportion to what she had. She did not give just 10 percent or a portion from surplus but everything.

In the Torah, we read that the community were supposed to use their tithes in part to take care of the widows and orphans so they could attend the Feasts but it appears they were not following Torah in this matter because there is no record of her benefactor.

Giving to God says a lot about the heart of the giver and his trust in the receiver. Deut. 16:10-17 tells us that we are not to appear at the Temple empty-handed, but according to how we have been blessed by God.

God gave Yericho (Jericho) (Josh 6:16-19) into the hands of Israel, but the spoils were to be given to God. The people marched but the city was a gift from God and Israel were to give it back to God. What is our is not really ours, it’s never ours. It all belongs to God. The trumpets blasts and their marching did not take the walls down. That was the act of God that brought the walls down.

Well see this theme recurring: God owns the cattle on a thousand hills, so God doesn’t really need our stuff.

In 1st Chron. 21:8-27, we read about how God wrestled Jerusalem from the Jebusites as the place for His name. It was to be a beacon to the nations. The city had value to God, but not for the reason you might think. He brought a deadly plague on the city because of a terrible mistake David had made. But God also gave David insight on how to make the plague end.

David understood Jerusalem’s value and when he saw the angel stop at the land of Ornan the Jebusite and bought the land that would later house the Temple, refusing to accept the Jebusite owner’s offer to give it to him for free. David ended up paying Ornan the Jebusite 600 shekels of gold by weight for the site. David told Ornan, “I will not take what is yours for the LORD, or offer a burnt offering which costs me nothing.”

Next we’ll look at a heartwarming yet sad account in 2nd Kings 11:21–12:16 about the life of king Yehoash (Jehoash). Yehoash made a call for contributions for repairing the Lord’s house, but nothing was done. It is a blemish on Yehoash’s record that he did not tear down the pagan “high places” but it’s an even more tragic record that the priests hadn’t used the annual half-shekel Temple tax or freewill offerings to maintain God’s house. How did they tolerate doing nothing for 23 years? It’s sad that the hired help were more faithful in their care of God’s house than the priests who had the duty to take care of God’s Temple. Yet the priests still received the offerings God said was due them.

Yeshua said in Luke 24:5–38 that the openness of the purse or wallet reveals the openness of the heart fits with His next discussion about what the coming of the end of the physical temple.

Believers often become obsessed with the eschatological possibilities in Matthew 24 and Luke 21, but Yeshua also prefaced such discussions with passages such as Luke 12:13-40.

What does it mean to be “rich towards God” in Luke 12:21? Isaiah 5:8 might help answer that question: We might be called to leave it all behind, and we can’t become overly attached to our stuff. We don’t want to follow Lot’s wife example. We don’t know when the “thief” is coming. The point is not to worry about when the thief is coming, but when the thief comes, to be ready. We shouldn’t be shaken by losing our stuff, we are called to be good stewards, we are called to help others with what we have but it we lose it all, we are not to be hopeless or drifting.

Speaker: Jeff. Summary: Tammy.