“You shall not see your brother's ox or his sheep going astray and ignore them. You shall take them back to your brother. 2 And if he does not live near you and you do not know who he is, you shall bring it home to your house, and it shall stay with you until your brother seeks it. Then you shall restore it to him. 3 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. 4 You shall not see your brother's donkey or his ox fallen down by the way and ignore them. You shall help him to lift them up again. (Deuteronomy 22)
We live in a world where often your loss is viewed as my gain - that if someone loses something, it is there free to be claimed for one's own. In that day, there were not nearly as many people around - especially out in a field. So, if it was not obvious who something belonged to it was to be taken to one's own home for safe keeping - not to be presumed to become one's own possession. Today, there is often a place it can be taken - the store service department, principal's office, or other "official" site. This passage has in a sense a corollary: if someone is broken down by the road, stop and help them. Not only do you have the reward of knowing you are doing the right thing: you can actually receive a benefit for doing so. The last time I saw someone whose car would not start and stopped to help, I found that my battery cable was in bad shape, and I too could soon find myself in the same situation. Don't let someone else's loss become you gain; help them be restored.
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