Deuteronomy 10:12-22 –
12 “And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, 13 and to keep the commandments and statutes of the Lord, which I am commanding you today for your good? 14 Behold, to the Lord your God belong heaven and the heaven of heavens, the earth with all that is in it. 15 Yet the Lord set his heart in love on your fathers and chose their offspring after them, you above all peoples, as you are this day. 16 Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no longer stubborn. 17 For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who is not partial and takes no bribe. 18 He executes justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the sojourner, giving him food and clothing. 19 Love the sojourner, therefore, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt. 20 You shall fear the Lord your God. You shall serve him and hold fast to him, and by his name you shall swear. 21 He is your praise. He is your God, who has done for you these great and terrifying things that your eyes have seen. 22 Your fathers went down to Egypt seventy persons, and now the Lord your God has made you as numerous as the stars of heaven.
Introduction
This morning is a specific Sunday here at Grace Church. We highlight it as “Orphan Sunday” along with other churches connected with a Christian organization as an opportunity to highlight worldwide to care for vulnerable children through foster care, adoption, global orphan care, and wrap-around family support. Thankful for the time in Berea this morning to hear from Options for Women, Together For Good, and a video highlight from an opportunity in Ethiopia to engage this topic. The theme verse each year for this Sunday is James 1:27 – “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.” I would encourage you to listen to the sermon from last year that Jon Michalski preached on that passage.
My hope this morning is to avoid the pitfalls of a “themed” Sunday: while Scripture clearly calls us to care for orphans and widows (James 1:27), defining those correctly and being careful not to narrow the focus on the church’s broad mission of proclaiming the gospel, making disciples, worshiping God, and serving others, or turn that mission into a social cause rather than one of many gospel-actions for God’s people. Our actions matter, both as individuals and as a church, in defending the dignity of the children and families we serve, especially within our own church family and our communities of Wyoming, Forest Lake, North Branch, and Scandia. Every Sunday, whatever the topic or passage, should deepen our long-term faithfulness to Christ, encourage wise and compassionate care for family preservation wherever possible, and point us toward a more faithful expression of the gospel of grace that glorifies Christ in our own backyards, across Minnesota, and to the ends of the earth.
I think it is important to ask: What is the mission of the church, and what does it produce? To keep it simple, the mission of the Church is to proclaim the gospel and make disciples – producing those who continue to go and proclaim the gospel and make more disciples. In Matthew 28:18-20, Jesus says, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
A disciple is a learner who reflects the teacher: someone who learns about Jesus and increasingly lives like Him, in a relationship with Him. Ephesians 2 shows how this happens. We were dead in our sins, but God, rich in mercy, made us alive in Christ by grace through faith, not by our works, and created us in Christ for the good works He prepared for us. Through Jesus, God brings people from every background into one family, built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit. The Great Commission, then, is making disciples who are transformed by grace, as we grow together in Christ, and help others follow Him.
In Luke 6:27-36, Jesus calls His disciples to a radical love that goes beyond what the world expects: loving our enemies, doing good to those who hate us, blessing those who curse us, and giving generously without demanding anything back. He grounds this in the golden rule and points out that loving only those who love us is no different from what sinners do. Instead, His followers are to love and give expecting nothing in return, trusting that their reward will be great, because God Himself is kind to the ungrateful and the evil. As Jesus sums it up, “Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful.” That gives us a foundational and radical principle of acting with mercy first and loving without expectation of return, and it invites us to consider what this looks like in our individual lives and in the church corporately.
Aim: Encourage each of us to pray, think, and act on ways we can reflect the LORD’s heart. Simply put, encourage us as children of the Father to imitate our Father.
Our passage this morning in Deuteronomy 10 gives us a picture of what our Father’s heart looks like. Deuteronomy 10 is not a free-floating list of virtues. In chapters 9–10, Moses reminds Israel of its rebellion, especially the golden calf, and of the Lord’s mercy in renewing the covenant after Israel had broken faith. The commands in verses 12–22 come after grace has been displayed. Israel is not being told to earn its place among God’s people; it is being called to live in a way that fits the God who has graciously claimed and preserved them for His glory.
That pattern matters for us too. Grace precedes obedience, and the character of the Redeemer shapes the life of the redeemed. The order of the gospel is essential, friends, in that we are loved by grace before we learn to love like our Father. We do not earn God’s love and salvation through our compassion; we care for others because, through Christ, we have received a love we could never earn. As Jesus says, “Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful” (Luke 6:36). Just as we do not to earn God’s love and grace, neither should others have to earn ours. Our love for the vulnerable is not a way to gain God’s favor or the world’s approval, but the joyful overflow of the grace we have already received. We have this treasure and want to share it with others, not just in the words of the gospel, but in actions stirred by our new heart by grace.
Know the Father (Deuteronomy 10:12-16)
“And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, 13 and to keep the commandments and statutes of the Lord, which I am commanding you today for your good? 14 Behold, to the Lord your God belong heaven and the heaven of heavens, the earth with all that is in it. 15 Yet the Lord set his heart in love on your fathers and chose their offspring after them, you above all peoples, as you are this day. 16 Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no longer stubborn.”
Moses begins with God. Before he tells Israel what they should do, he reminds them who God is. They are to fear Him; walk in His ways; love Him; serve Him; obey Him
Notice the movement in verse 12: fear the LORD, walk in His ways, love Him, serve Him with all your heart and soul, and keep His commands. These are not boxes to check and move on to other things. The LORD has made these things so that they might know the path to life. These are the same commands from the beginning, prior to the Fall. Adam was to have reverent awe, affection to the Lord, allegiance to Him alone, worship Him always, and obey His good commands. Israel is being reminded after being saved from Egypt, we are being reminded being saved from the greater slavery in sin. Biblical fear is not a servile terror that makes us run from God, cower from Him; it is a humble recognition of His holiness and authority that draws us into wholehearted trust and obedience. The command to love God shows that covenant faithfulness is not mere external compliance – vs 16 says there is a heart work, an inner work, that is just as important. God calls for the whole person. Verse 13 adds that His commands are “for your good.” That little phrase guards us from imagining obedience as God begrudgingly restricting our joy. The Lord’s commands are the wise path of life with the God who made us. Pastorally, I want to put this before you warmly. God is not honored by reluctant, joyless compliance alone, but by hearts that increasingly see Him as our greatest good and find gladness in trusting His ways. We do not obey to purchase His love; we obey because His goodness is trustworthy and life with Him is better than life turned inward on ourselves. Therefore, the Christian life begins not with “What should I do?”, but with “Who is God in Christ?” For the Christian, the One True God is not merely our Creator King and Redeemer, which is amazing. He is also our Father.
God is Our Father By Creation
Ephesians 3:14–15: “I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named.”
God is Father to all as He is the Creator and Sustainer of all. We are all made in the image of God because He is the Father to all. God is the Father of all humanity as our Creator, the One from whom every family receives life and identity (Eph. 3:14-15).
God is therefore the source and pattern of fatherhood on earth. Human fatherhood isn’t an invention of culture, it comes from God. That means earthly fatherhood carries a sacred responsibility. Fathers are called to reflect something of the character of the Father from whom all fatherhood derives. But we must make an important distinction. God alone is the source and perfect pattern of fatherhood; earthly fathers are not the standard by which God is judged. They are accountable to Him and can find redemption and hope in Jesus. Scripture is remarkably honest about fathers who fail. A couple examples: Eli did not restrain his sons (1 Samuel 2–3) and Jacob’s favoritism helped fuel rivalry among his sons (Genesis 25–37). These stories are not models to imitate. They remind us that human fatherhood can be distorted by passivity, favoritism, foolishness, sin, and harm.
Friends, I’m going to address God as Father throughout this sermon. So, if your earthly father was absent, cruel, unpredictable, or unsafe, Scripture does not ask you to pretend otherwise or to project his character onto God. God does not become a worse Father because your father failed, nor does He become good only if your father was good. The unchanging character of God is the measure by which every earthly father is evaluated. This truth does not make wounds disappear, and it does not require minimizing abuse or excusing wrongdoing. It gives us a truer and safer reference point: look at the Father revealed in Scripture and in Jesus Christ.
One last note about God as Father to all. This is common grace. We have all forsaken God prior to our faith in Christ. Apart from Christ, we remain alienated from God, dead in our sins, and “children of wrath” (Eph. 2:1-3). The Father’s saving love is therefore not merely a universal reality of creation, but extends a new, redeeming relationship freely given to all who trust in his Son. This leads me to the additional way God is a Father to us.
God is Our Father By Redemption
The gospel takes this even further than just creation. We don’t merely exist as Christians because God created us. In our rebellion, God sent His Son to be born in the flesh and take our place on the cross taking on the whole wrath of God, though sinless. We are prodigals. Through faith in Christ then we receive forgiveness and are transferred from the domain of darkness into the kingdom of His Beloved Son. In Christ, though prodigals, we are welcomed back into the grace and love of God the FatherThrough Christ, we are adopted into God’s family. Romans 8:15: “You have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, ‘Abba! Father!’” 1 John 3: “See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are.” Ephesians 1:5: “He predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ…”
This is one of the great wonders of the gospel: God doesn’t merely forgive sinners. He brings sinners home through His Son. The holy God becomes our Father. We are welcomed into His family. We are given access to Him. We can approach Him in prayer. We receive His fatherly care. We belong to Him. No longer children of wrath, we are not children of righteousness.
To illustrate this point of the gospel, we use our earthly action of adoption, even though is falls short of the astounding reality of the work of God. Adoption into God’s family is astonishing. In creation, God is the source of every human life and the pattern of fatherhood. In redemption, He does something more specific and intimate for those united to Christ: He brings sinners, in fact people who hate Him, into His household as adopted sons and daughters. Romans 8 connects adoption with the Spirit who enables us to cry, “Abba! Father!”, it carries the feeling of mature, respectful trust of an adult child speaking to a deeply trusted parent along with our inheritance alongside Christ (Romans 8:15–17). Ephesians 1:4–5 roots adoption in God’s gracious purpose, accomplished through Jesus Christ. This means we do not merely receive a changed legal standing while remaining strangers to God. We are welcomed into a relationship of access, belonging, discipline, care, and inheritance. While we are under God’s authority; through Christ, those who believe are welcomed into His family.
See the Father’s Heart (Deuteronomy 10:17-18)
“For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who is not partial and takes no bribe. 18 He executes justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the sojourner, giving him food and clothing.”
Moses now tells us what this Father is like. God is majestic. God is sovereign. God is powerful. God is completely above us. God is the only God. There is no other god. Any other is an imitation and cannot be entertained.
But look at what this great God does: “He executes justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the sojourner, giving him food and clothing.” This is the Father’s heart. God’s greatness does not make Him distant from vulnerable people. His greatness is displayed in His care for them. He sees the fatherless. He protects widows. He loves the sojourner. He provides food and clothing. Psalm 68:5 calls Him: “Father of the fatherless and protector of widows…”
This isn’t simply something God occasionally does. This reveals who God is.
Especially the name that Moses uses for God throughout this book and at the beginning of this passage in vs 12 – LORD. This is the “I AM” God, YHWH – the personal, imminent God who is, was, and is to come. The description in verse 17 is deliberately expansive: the LORD is “God of gods and Lord of lords,” great, mighty, and awesome. Verse 18 then shows what His greatness looks like in action. He shows no partiality and takes no bribe; He executes justice for the fatherless and widow and loves the sojourner, giving food and clothing. The contrast matters: human power often protects itself or favors those who can repay it, but the sovereign God cannot be bought and does not overlook those with little social leverage.
“Executes justice” means more than feeling pity. God acts to uphold the vulnerable and to address their situation rightly. His love for the sojourner is concrete: food and clothing. He cannot and is no coerced or manipulated to show justice. He cannot be brided to provide for His creation. Compassion from the Lord in Scripture is tender-hearted, but it is not sentimental. He is love and His love acts. It moves toward practical provision, protection, and just treatment. The church should therefore ask not only whether we feel concern, but whether our choices, resources, relationships, and shared life truly help people who are easily overlooked in the long term.
The word “sojourner” refers to a resident outsider, someone living among Israel without the same kinship security or inherited place in the land. Such people could be exposed to exploitation. The fatherless and widow likewise often lacked the ordinary household protection and economic security that others could rely on. Moses names these groups here is Deuteronomy because God sees people whose vulnerability can make them invisible to the powerful. The passage is not saying these are the only people who matter; it is showing us where God’s impartial justice becomes especially visible. God has called His people to be the means by which He provides to those on the fringe. Also notice the balance in verse 17: God is impartial, yet He is not indifferent. Impartiality does not mean treating every circumstance as though everyone has equal power or equal need. God refuses favoritism and therefore gives particular attention to those most likely to be neglected. His people must learn the same kind of justice: not favoritism, not contempt, and not a vague claim to love everyone when that love for God and others never reaches anyone in need.
God’s Fatherhood is Personal
God’s fatherhood isn’t cold, abstract, or merely theological. God cares for His children personally. He is ever-present. This is why it is so helpful to read the whole Bible. He is always faithful through the whole OT, though Isreal has forgotten their God, He is always near and works all things for their eternal good and His utmost glory.
In the NT, our God doesn’t change. He is still faithful towards His people. Jesus teaches us that our Father knows what we need in Matthew 6 and is closes his discourse about our basic needs say, “Your heavenly Father knows that you need them all.”
Jesus teaches us to pray to our Father. Matthew 6:9: “Our Father in heaven…”
Our Father hears our prayers. Our Father provides. Our Father disciplines. Our Father welcomes repentant children home. The God who is infinitely high is also intimately near. The Father who rules the universe cares about His children. Psalm 100:3-5 – “Know that the Lord, he is God! It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture. 4 Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise! Give thanks to him; bless his name! 5 For the Lord is good; his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations.”
We have a Good Father and He is caring for you. Often and regularly, this should be seen through the His people.
Reflect the Father (Deuteronomy 10:19-22)
Then comes the command: “Love the sojourner, therefore, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt. 20 You shall fear the Lord your God. You shall serve him and hold fast to him, and by his name you shall swear. 21 He is your praise. He is your God, who has done for you these great and terrifying things that your eyes have seen. 22 Your fathers went down to Egypt seventy persons, and now the Lord your God has made you as numerous as the stars of heaven.”
That word “therefore” is crucial. A wise pastor once said, “There’s a reason the therefore is there for.” It tells us because of who God is and what He has accomplished for us, we should respond to Him and to those around us.
The “therefore” in verse 19 reaches back to the whole identity of God just described, but Moses also gives a specific reason: “you were sojourners in the land of Egypt.” Israel is to remember its own history of vulnerability. They know what it means to be outsiders in a land not their own, and they know the Lord who heard, delivered, and sustained them. Memory of received mercy is meant to become mercy extended to others. God’s people must not become the kind of people who forget how dependent they have always been on grace. Start each morning and end each day, “Lord, give me eyes to see your kindness today and rejoice with a grateful heart.” I have seen the most compassionate people are those who have come from hard circumstances or a place of being the outcast.
This is not simply “be nice because people need help.” It is covenant-shaped imitation: because the Lord is just, loving, and generous, His people are to embody His character. The command does not ask Israel to invent compassion from scratch; it asks them to mirror the compassion they have encountered in God.
God is this way with His actions. Therefore, His people should be this way. This is the biblical logic of imitation. Ephesians 5:1: “Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children.”
We treasure the Father, and therefore we begin to treasure what He treasures. This does not mean every act of mercy feels easy or emotionally rewarding in the moment. Faithful love can be costly, tiring, and sorrowful. But even there, we can trust that God Himself is our reward and that no act of love offered in faith is wasted.
Our compassion and actions toward others is also connected with our worship. Look at verse 20-21, “You shall fear the Lord your God. You shall serve him and hold fast to him, and by his name you shall swear. 21 He is your praise. He is your God, who has done for you these great and terrifying things that your eyes have seen.” Our allegiance to God stirs worship of Him and worship with our lives for Him.
Before I close, I want to share a brief word of encouragement to the fathers: Ephesians 3 teaches that all fatherhood takes its name from God, so our calling is sacred, and it is a call to faithfulness rather than perfection: to lead with loving authority, stay present, provide, protect, repent when we fail, and nurture our children to treasure Jesus (Ephesians 6:4; Deuteronomy 6:4-9). By God’s help, may we not leave our children fatherless through absence or neglect, for God is the Father of the fatherless, and He calls us to take responsibility for the flourishing of those entrusted to us.
And that brings us to our final question, my favorite question…but this morning with a twist.
Now What?
Look to Jesus, my brothers and sisters. As I sit with many of you, as we interact in our DG, as I look at my own family…my prayer is simple: I want you to treasure Jesus and then live to make much of Him. This morning, don’t pigeonhole compassion or decide in advance what it must look like in your life or, more likely, decide what it looks like in someone else’s life. Deuteronomy 10 gives us categories of people God calls His people to care for, not a prescribed program or a ministry we must start as individuals or as a church. There is real truth in the simple idea of ‘being the Church’ – live your life rooted in the Word, resting in Jesus, empowered by the Spirit to “Go and make disciples”, working out what that means daily.
In this passage, we see God’s concern for the fatherless, the widow, and the sojourner. The rest of Scripture gives us even more examples. Jesus speaks of feeding the hungry, giving drink to the thirsty, welcoming the stranger, clothing the naked, and visiting the sick and imprisoned. James 1:27 identifies caring for orphans and widows as part of pure religion before “God the Father.”
So don’t hear this sermon and immediately think, “I guess I better adopt.” Maybe God will lead you to adopt. Maybe He will lead you to foster. But don’t assume that reflecting the Father’s heart must look the same for everyone or that we all must have the same passion for one niche of the Christian life.
Instead, consider your own life. Consider your family. Consider the people God has placed around you. Consider how your love for the gospel might take shape in the ordinary places where He has called you to live. Maybe it’s a widow who needs companionship. A single mother who needs help. An elderly neighbor who is isolated. A child who needs a mentor. A family who needs a meal. Someone who needs transportation. A struggling family who needs financial help. A prisoner who needs someone to remember them. An immigrant or stranger who needs someone to welcome them. A lonely person who needs someone to sit with them. Much of these things require little extra resource. A warm smile, a dining room chair, an extra plate can be the means of grace to help someone see Jesus.
Deuteronomy gives us direction, not a one-size-fits-all program. Wise care asks what would truly serve a person or family, listens before assuming, protects dignity, and recognizes that sometimes the best help strengthens a family’s ability to remain safely together. Adoption and foster care may be beautiful callings for some; support for birth families, foster families, children, widows, newcomers, and isolated neighbors may be the fitting work for others.
So my pastoral encouragement is for each of us to consider: “When you look at your Heavenly Father and see His heart, how does He want you to reflect that heart to the people He has placed around you?”
We are loved by the Father through Christ. We are being shaped into the likeness of Christ. Now, by the grace of God, let’s live as His children and reflect our Father’s heart to the world around us.