God has special concern for widows and makes it clear in His Word.
None of us can truly imagine how we might feel when we lose our spouse until we go through the devastation of losing the person who has been the most important to us in our lives.
When I contemplate that day, it is something that I cannot see beyond, and never hope to, but for those who do, it must seem a scene of complete devastation.
Yesterday, I saw a story of someone wanting to return a lost deer to it’s home, only to find that there had been a forest fire and it’s home was gone, void of life and completely devastated, what home did it have to go back to?
I wonder if this is a feeling that can be compared to the loss of a partner?
Complete devastation and wondering how to restart our life from ground zero and completely alone.
It must be a bewildering prospect.
But God has promised to be with us and walk with us in whatever stage of life we find ourselves in, leaning on our beloved, even as we come up through the desert.
Is it possible for us to discover that there is a way back, even through the desert and for new life to start again?
A father of the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in His holy habitation.
God sets the solitary in families.
The Lord Yehovah (Messiah Pre-Incarnate) watches over the strangers; He relieves the fatherless and widow; But the way of the wicked He turns upside down.
He administers justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the stranger, giving him food and clothing.
Proverbs 15.25 says that;
The Lord will destroy the house of the proud, but He will establish the boundary of the widow.
God cares about justice for widows, He establishes and maintains their territory and ensures that they are not exploited.
In Deuteronomy 24.19-21 we see provision being made in practical ways for the strangers, the fatherless and the widows, in terms of the harvest of the wheat, olives and grapes:
“When you reap your harvest in your field, and forget a sheaf in the field, you shall not go back to get it; it shall be for the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hands.
20 When you beat your olive trees, you shall not go over the boughs again; it shall be for the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow. 21 When you gather the grapes of your vineyard, you shall not glean it afterward; it shall be for the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow.
Ruth, Naomi & Boaz
We see a similar thing when Boaz allows Ruth to glean the field in the book of Ruth, making provision for both Ruth, a stranger and a widow from Moab and her mother Naomi, herself a widow also.
Elijah & The Widow of Zarepath
In 1 Kings 17, the prophet Elijah meets a widow during a famine, who is about to die, along with her only son.
God uses the widow, to feed Elijah and herself with her last scoop of flour and her oil and flour did not run out until the famine ended.
On returning to her village the prophet discovers that her son has died and that she has experienced a double loss, it must have seemed as if she had lost everything.
Elijah brings her son back to life and gives him back to her.
In the New Testament we see Jesus return the widow of Nain’s son to her in Luke 11.7-16.
Just as he approaches the city, He passes a body being carried out, a widow’s son.
Moved by compassion He comforts the woman, raises her son from the dead and returns Him to her, alive.
Their small family is restored and God is glorified.
27 Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.
Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the alien or the poor.
Let none of you plan evil in his heart against his brother.’
In 1 Timothy 5.1.16 Paul sets out a definitive approach on how widows in the church should conduct themselves and be treated:
3 Honor widows who are really widows. 4 But if any widow has children or grandchildren, let them first learn to show piety at home and to repay their parents; for this is good and acceptable before God. 5 Now she who is really a widow, and left alone, trusts in God and continues in supplications and prayers night and day. 6 But she who lives in pleasure is dead while she lives.
9 Do not let a widow under sixty years old be taken into the number, and not unless she has been the wife of one man, 10 well reported for good works: if she has brought up children, if she has lodged strangers, if she has washed the saints’ feet, if she has relieved the afflicted, if she has diligently followed every good work.11 But refuse the younger widows; for when they have begun to grow wanton against Christ, they desire to marry, 12 having condemnation because they have cast off their first faith. 13 And besides they learn to be idle, wandering about from house to house, and not only idle but also gossips and busybodies, saying things which they ought not. 14 Therefore I desire that the younger widows marry, bear children, manage the house, give no opportunity to the adversary to speak reproachfully. 15 For some have already turned aside after Satan. 16 If any believing man or woman has widows, let them relieve them, and do not let the church be burdened, that it may relieve those who are really widows.
Paul emphasizes that widows who are really widows are to be honoured and cared for.
We should care for each other, as God cares for us.