"A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in his holy dwelling. " PSLAMS 68:5 describes the loving nature of the Father heart of God perfectly. And for those who are sons and daughters of that same Father, being those who are not only "led" BY the Spirit, but those who also "live" AND "walk" IN the Spirit, being at the same time, those who in both "word" and "deed" are found to be in "the image and likeness" of their Father, it is of these that JAMES 1:27 speaks when he says, “Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.”

 

     The question that immediately comes to mind is why does God specifically single out "orphans" and "widows"? What is the deliberate relevance, besides obviously being representative of those who are in need? And more to the point, why does He emphasise only "widows", whilst making absolutely no reference to "widowers" at the same time at all? Orphans, by definition, would include both genders. So why only the female gender of "widow"? By singling out women, does this mean that the plight of men who have lost their lifetime partner, and who haven't remarried, does not matter in the pursuit and accomplishment of love? The answer to all of the above is because, in His wisdom, EVERYTHING in "the natural" (that which is seen) is intended for instruction regarding the operation of the  "spiritual" (being that which is unseen), and as such, is a forerunner for understanding all that which is behind the veil of what can be seen.

 

     Everything that we see in the physical points to a depiction of the operation of the principles of kingdom physics, which are all, ultimately, the laws of operation that aggregate and accumulate into the comprehensive expression and accomplishment of LOVE. Orphans and widows pertain to two categories of the human spirit, and specifically to those categories of sheep who persist without a Shephard. Firstly, in kingdom terms, the orphan is that person who has no spiritual parent. God is not their Father. They have been born of water only, but not yet of the Spirit. JOHN 3:3-7, “Jesus answered and said to him, 'Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.' Nicodemus said to Him, 'How can a man be born when he is old? He cannot enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born, can he?' Jesus answered, 'Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, 'You must be born again." These are those orphans who God commissions us in MATTHEW 22:39 (as those who do have a Father and are no longer orphans) to love as ourselves by visiting them and feeding and clothing them. This is why God the Father says, "In the same way, I tell you that there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous ones who do not need to repent." - LUKE 15:7.

 

     On the other hand, in the spiritual, "widows" are both those men and women who are no longer orphans, being those men and women who have been adopted, but who have at some point, as with what happens in the natural, have tragically lost their spiritual husband, namely Christ. "For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, "Abba! Father!" ROMANS 8:15. We are all called to first adoption (rightly related) and then second to be the bride (female gender) of Christ (to relate rightly). This is why there is no reference to "widowerer". For in the spiritual, there IS no widower, for our husband will never leave us nor forsake us, and neither will He ever die. So this answers why God doesn't mention widowers, for He is using the natural to point to an object lesson in the spiritual. 

 

     As imitators of Christ, being those who prove the good and acceptable and perfect will of God, in imitating Christ by loving our neighbours as ourselves, we are called in PSALM 82:3 to visit orphans and widows, and to defend (intercede) on behalf of widows and the fatherless."Now the tax collectors and sinners were all gathering around to hear Jesus. But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.” Then Jesus told them this parable: “Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders6 and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbours together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.’  I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent." - LUKE 15:1-7. Our Father is a Father who "executes justice for the orphan and the widow, and shows His love for the alien by giving him food and clothing." DEUTERONOMY 10:18. The food is the spiritual food that is "the bread of life". The clothing is the glory that covered Adam before he realised he was naked, which is to restore the weak and fatherless to the prelapsarian innocence and communion of Eden before the Fall. This is the same joy that the father feels in the parable of the return of the prodigal son, and is why he celebrates immediately with a feast on behalf of the som that has returned. The prodigal son is representative of the widow who having left her home and has now returning to the marriage table with her Husband, Christ Jesus. It is a joyful occasion fitting for celebration.

 

     And in just the same way we provide for our own in the natural as the "bread" winner, in the spiritual, we are to be "bread winners" too, and are called to feed the masses as with the parable of the five loaves and the two fish. And for those of us who do this, not only will we never be accused of being worse than an infidel, "if anyone does not provide for his own, and especially his own household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever." 1 TIMOTHY 5:8, God the Father says this. "The King will reply, "I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me." - MATTHEW 25:40.

 

"Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honour and glory for ever and ever. Amen." - 1 TIMOTHY 1:17

 

God's richest blessings, Wayne Biehn