Don’t Ignore the Lost
“You shall not see your brother’s ox or his sheep going astray and ignore them. You shall take them back to your brother. . . And you shall do the same with his donkey or with his garment, or with any lost thing of your brother’s, which he loses and you find; you may not ignore it” (Deuteronomy 22:1-3).
Let us look to find what is lost.
We are familiar with the concept of the lost and found. When we lose a jacket, piece of jewelry, sunglasses, or some other article, it is often placed in a common spot where people may go look for their lost item. We don’t ignore lost items because when we lose something, we want it returned to us. Does it surprise you that this concept goes all the way back to the Mosaic Law? If an Israelite saw someone’s livestock roaming free, he was to take charge of it and return it. If it wasn’t convenient to return it, he was supposed to store it until the owner came looking for it. What God specifically prohibited was ignoring the problem. They were obliged to do something about the lost.
There is a spiritual lesson in this. Today, God has many people that are lost. Jesus said that he came to seek and to save that which was lost (Luke 19:10). He did not ignore the problem of lost people. What do we do about it? Are we paying attention to the lost around us? Or are we ignoring the problem. God doesn’t want us to ignore the lost. Let’s resolve to do something about it and bring back to God that which is lost to Him.