11 For there will never cease to be poor in the land. Therefore I command you, ‘You shall open wide your hand to your brother, to the needy and to the poor, in your land.’
8 For the poor you always have with you, but you do not always have me.”
In Deuteronomy 15:1–23 we have the Sabbath year, where there are some debts that are forgiven to the people of God. And God here encourages His people to be a merciful people who give unto the poor and give with what He calls an open hand. And He reminds them that within our hearts we have the tendency to give grudgingly if we don't think we are going to get something in return. But God encourages us to give with an open hand.
It is interesting that as you look at the text, Deuteronomy 15:7 says,
Nathan EshelmanIf among you, one of your brothers should become poor…And then there is the encouragement to help and to show mercy in the midst of those that are poor. Then after that encouragement of,If this happens, I want you to give, [it says],I want you to be open handed in your giving. Now, if you have an open hand when you give and [it is full] with silver bullion, what can you get from [that] hand? Whatever you want! Because [that] hand is open, so you can take from the open hand. And God says that as we look at the poor (and it is in the context here of the covenant community within the church), as we look around and we say,There are needs here, and there are needs here and there are needs here, what should our response be? God says,If you find the poor in your midst, you give with an open hand.And then He says, Oh and by the way, the poor will always be there.”1
4 But there will be no poor among you; for the LORD will bless you in the land that the LORD your God is giving you for an inheritance to possess