Taking Time to Help...

I have again started reading my chronological Bible. (It took me six years to slowly read through the last time...) I love the sense of history it brings.

I'm still near the beginning, in the book of Exodus... The Israelites, fresh out of slavery in Egypt, are now wandering in the desert and God is giving them rules to live by. As I read some of these 3,500-year-old rules, I am struck by their generosity of spirit:

 “If you come across your enemy’s ox or donkey wandering off, you are to certainly return it to him.  If you see your enemy’s donkey lying helpless under its load, you must not abandon it; rather, you are certainly to return it to him."

In today's terms, it would be a little like saying, if you see someone you know but you really don't like stopped at the side of the road with car problems, rather than passing by with a smug smile,  you should stop and help...  

Taking time to help... a simple kindness.

Other rules worth noting?

Do not spread a false report... 
Do not follow a crowd in doing something wrong...
Do not accept a bribe...
Be kind to strangers living in your midst...


Like all rules followed, they have the power to change the environment in which we live. Three thousand five hundred years old - but still good rules for life today.