What does the Bible say about orphans?

There is much to be said about orphans in the Bible. Sometimes symbolic language is used to explain the relationship between God and people. Other times literal instructions are given for God’s people and the care of orphans. In simple terms, the Bible speaks of spiritual orphans and real orphans. This post will delve into both interpretations. 

As you go through this post, consider the following question:

What does God want to teach me today about His heart towards orphans?

Spiritual Orphans in the Bible – a symbol for the relationship between God and people

Let’s dive right in and see what the Bible says about being adopted into God’s family. 

In chapter 14 of John’s Gospel, Jesus is telling his disciples about the Holy Spirit when he says something interesting. He promises that they won’t be orphaned! Let’s see what he said:

John 14:16-21

And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever— the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them.

The concept of a person’s relationship with God as Father can be difficult to wrap our minds around. Let’s discover some more Bible verses that speak about this spirit of adoption. It is a beautiful that runs throughout the story of the Bible because it displays God’s character. 

John 1:12-13

Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.

Romans 8:14-17

 For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.” The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.

Philippians 3:20-21

But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.

These Scriptures give us a good idea of what the New Testament has to say about this topic, but was it a new idea or has it been around since the beginning? Well… 

Exodus, the second book of the Old Testament, shows us the first time when believers were called family members. God’s love is so apparent in this imagery. In this text, God is speaking to Moses about the Israelites who were held captive by the Pharoah in Egypt. Instead of a spirit of slavery, God speaks of a spirit of sonship!

Exodus 4:22-23

Then say to Pharaoh, ‘This is what the Lord says: Israel is my firstborn son, and I told you, “Let my son go, so he may worship me.”

This statement of God becomes even more impactful when we remember that Moses was adopted – and by who else than the Pharaoh’s family? (Exodus 2) This means that Moses is walking up to his adoptive family when he approaches the Pharoah. Read the verse above again with this new information in mind. Isn’t it amazing?In this verse, God says that Moses and the Israelites are His.

Other great examples from the ancient Biblical times of the Lord of Hosts acting as a Father can be found in the Psalms and the book of Hosea. 

Psalm 2:7

He said to me, “You are my son; today I have become your father.” 

Hosea 14:3

We will never again say ‘Our gods’ to what our own hands have made, for in you the fatherless find compassion.

The Psalmist describes how God acts as both a heavenly father and defender who acts from his holy habitation.

Psalm 68:5-6

A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in his holy dwelling. God sets the lonely in families, he leads out the prisoners with singing; but the rebellious live in a sun-scorched land.

Psalm 10:12;14;17-18

Arise, Lord! Lift up your hand, O God. Do not forget the helpless. But you, God, see the trouble of the afflicted; you consider their grief and take it in hand.The victims commit themselves to you; you are the helper of the fatherless. You, Lord, hear the desire of the afflicted; you encourage them, and you listen to their cry, defending the fatherless and the oppressed, so that mere earthly mortals will never again strike terror.

However beautiful this imagery is where God is the Father and we are his children adopted into his family – We are mistaken if we think that all the Scriptures about orphans in the Bible are purely metaphorical. That is just not true! Let’s consider some other Bible verses that speak about the literal caring for orphans in the Bible. 

God cares about justice for orphans

God is slow to anger, but he does get angry. He is not oblivious to suffering. This is clear from the very beginning when Cain murders Abel and God asks him: “What have you done? Listen… The blood of your brother cries out to me from the Earth!” (Genesis 4:10). The point is there are things that make God angry. It is a righteous anger, born out of compassion, with justice as the goal.

Proverbs 6:16-19

There are six things the Lord hates, seven that are detestable to him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked schemes, feet that are quick to rush into evil, a false witness who pours out lies and a person who stirs up conflict in the community.

Malachi 3:5

“So I will come to put you on trial. I will be quick to testify against sorcerers, adulterers and perjurers, against those who defraud laborers of their wages, who oppress the widows and the fatherless, and deprive the foreigners among you of justice, but do not fear me,” says the Lord Almighty.

Really caring for orphans in the Bible – an important theme of God’s heart

The Old Testament is full of Scriptures that mention how the people of God should live. One of the things that come up most often is that someone who loves God should be a protector of widows and offer a safe space for orphans. The love of God extends to include the physical needs of vulnerable children and the widow’s cause. 

God is not only concerned with spiritual matters! This is one of the biggest problems facing Christianity in the world today: The idea that there is a divide between that which is holy and that which is normal or secular. But giving special care to vulnerable populations and the resident aliens (foreigners) among you are massive themes in the Bible.

In the first chapter of Isaiah’s prophecy, God tells his people to correct the oppression they see around them in the world. When right living is described by Isaiah, it immediately includes caring for orphans and widows. Let’s see what God said:

Isaiah 1:16-17 and 23

Wash and make yourselves clean. Take your evil deeds out of my sight; stop doing wrong. Learn to do right; seek justice.Defend the oppressed. Take up the cause of the fatherless; plead the case of the widow. Your rulers are rebels, partners with thieves;they all love bribes and chase after gifts. They do not defend the cause of the fatherless; the widow’s case does not come before them.

This same idea is found again and again in the first Old Testament books that was like a how-to manual from God to his people. 

Exodus 22:22-27

Do not take advantage of the widow or the fatherless. If you do and they cry out to me, I will certainly hear their cry. My anger will be aroused, and I will kill you with the sword; your wives will become widows and your children fatherless. If you lend money to one of my people among you who is needy, do not treat it like a business deal; charge no interest. If you take your neighbor’s cloak as a pledge, return it by sunset, because that cloak is the only covering your neighbor has. What else can they sleep in? When they cry out to me, I will hear, for I am compassionate.

Deuteronomy 10:17-19

For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality and accepts no bribes. He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the foreigner residing among you, giving them food and clothing. And you are to love those who are foreigners, for you yourselves were foreigners in Egypt.

However, this idea of caring for the orphans did not end in the Old Testament. Jesus loved children! He welcomed them when he was teaching and he said the Kingdom of Heaven belongs to them (Matthew 19:14). He even had them participate in his miracles, like the little boy with the fishes and loaves that were multiplied to feed thousands (John 6:8).

The New Testament book of James describes undefiled religion as loving little children who are helpless and caring for orphans. 

James 1:26-27

Those who consider themselves religious and yet do not keep a tight rein on their tongues deceive themselves, and their religion is worthless. Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

Consider the following heartbreaking description of those with physical needs in the world, including orphans, widows, and the poor. This is an excerpt from the Bible book of Job which is written in a poetic style:

Job 24:2-11

There are those who move boundary stones; they pasture flocks they have stolen. They drive away the orphan’s donkey and take the widow’s ox in pledge. They thrust the needy from the path and force all the poor of the land into hiding. Like wild donkeys in the desert, the poor go about their labor of foraging food; the wasteland provides food for their children. They gather fodder in the fields and glean in the vineyards of the wicked. Lacking clothes, they spend the night naked; they have nothing to cover themselves in the cold. They are drenched by mountain rains and hug the rocks for lack of shelter. The fatherless child is snatched from the breast; the infant of the poor is seized for a debt. Lacking clothes, they go about naked; they carry the sheaves, but still go hungry. They crush olives among the terraces; they tread the winepresses, yet suffer thirst.

Generosity Towards Orphans in the Bible

God did not tell his people to only bear with orphans and not make their lives miserable. He is not a passive God! No – there were actual actions that were expected of God’s people and how they had to care and support vulnerable children. Orphans in the Bible are the recepients of God’s gifts.

Deuteronomy 14:28-29

At the end of every three years, bring all the tithes of that year’s produce and store it in your towns, so that the Levites (who have no allotment or inheritance of their own) and the foreigners, the fatherless and the widows who live in your towns may come and eat and be satisfied, and so that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hands.

Deuteronomy 24:19-21

When you are harvesting in your field and you overlook a sheaf, do not go back to get it. Leave it for the foreigner, the fatherless and the widow, so that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hands. When you beat the olives from your trees, do not go over the branches a second time. Leave what remains for the foreigner, the fatherless and the widow. When you harvest the grapes in your vineyard, do not go over the vines again. Leave what remains for the foreigner, the fatherless and the widow.

This second Scripture is beautiful because it is embodied so well by Boaz in the book of Ruth. Ruth is a foreigner in a new land and even though she is a Moabite widow, Boaz allows her to walk behind the workers harvesting his land so that she can pick up the leftovers. He even tells his workers to leave some pieces for her to find. That is the kind of generosity that God expected from his people. 

Who were orphans in Bible?

In the second chapter of the book of Esther, we read the following verse:

“Mordecai had a cousin named Hadassah, whom he had brought up because she had neither father nor mother. This young woman, who was also known as Esther, had a lovely figure and was beautiful. Mordecai had taken her as his own daughter when her father and mother died.”

This is the same Esther who became the queen and saved God’s people when evil men planned to murder them all. Isn’t that amazing?

Reflection

It is clear that God has always held orphans and the fatherless close to his heart. There is no limit to the Father’s love and compassion for those who are suffering and vulnerable in this world. In the Old Testament, he commanded his people to care for the orphans and he never took back those words. Caring for the orphans of the world is a wonderful sign of God’s people that traces all the way back to these Scriptures we just discovered about orphans in the Bible.

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Resources:

• Some of the Scriptures on orphans in the Bible were obtained from Faithonview.com 

• All Bible verses are given in the New Internation Version (NIV) Translation and were copied from Biblegateway.com 

*Originally written for GodsVerse.org