Those who lightly esteem, strike or abuse their parents bring curses upon their lives, which include untimely death (Deut. 27:16; Ex. 21:16 & 17). Your parents are the source of your life. If you want long life, then respect, honour and take care of your parents.
Those who wilfully cheat people of what belongs to them (Deut 27:17).
Those who take advantage of the blind – both physically and spiritually – and lead them astray. (Deut 27:18.)
Those who oppress strangers, widows and the fatherless (Deut 27:19; Ex 22:22-24)
This issue of widows and the fatherless is a very serious thing in the sight of the Lord. He does not take it lightly.
When Jezebel and Ahab planned and murdered Naboth the Jezreelite and took his father’s inheritance from him, God sent Elijah to prophesy to Ahab and his notorious wife about their death. God avenged Naboth’s death. (I Kings 21)
Maltreatment of widows and the fatherless is so rampant in many parts of the world today. In Nigeria, for instance, it is very pronounced because of certain customs.
Some customs hold it that the woman is a stranger in the husband’s family. But she is not told this until her husband’s death. As soon as the husband dies, her husband’s relatives rush for the husband’s properties. Nobody takes her into consideration. Nobody cares to know how her husband got all the wealth. Her contribution to the man’s wealth is not acknowledged or considered. In fact, in many cases, she is left with nothing to take care of herself and the children left to her by her late husband. These people, who are now running after the dead man’s properties, never knew how he got them. Only the wife can tell the story.
Many widows have suffered the above mentioned maltreatment. Their rights were denied them, and in their bitterness, they cried unto the Lord who hears and intervenes in their affairs.
A particular widow was ejected from her husband’s estate. Everything she had laboured to acquire with her husband was taken from her by the mother and the brother-inlaw. She wept to the Lord as she roamed the streets squatting with friends. God intervened, and in 5 years, almost all those who were involved in confiscating her husband’s properties, died mysteriously.
The rate of death in that family attracted the attention of the village chief who sent for her to come and collect the remaining properties of her husband. The other members of her husband’s family, who were alive, promised to repay all they took from her.
That is the extent things can go when widows are maltreated. There are men and women today who are under different torments as a result of what they did to a widow.
In my next write-up I will be discussing on Reasons For Curses part 3
Shalom!
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