Worthy Brief - October 29, 2026

 Worthy Brief - October 29, 2026 

When hearing becomes mercy! 

Matthew 25:34-36, 40 Then the King will say to those on His right hand, 'Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: 35 for I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in; 36 I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me.' 40 And the King will answer and say to them, 'Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.'

In our last devotion, "Ephphatha - Be opened," Yeshua (Jesus) opened a man's ears and loosed his tongue. He opens our ears so that His voice can shape our lives. Today, let's examine the parable of the sheep and the goats and see what a life shaped by that looks like. What we hear from the King is made manifest in the way we treat people.

Yeshua speaks of the Son of Man coming in His glory and sitting upon His throne, with all the nations assembled before Him. He will separate them as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. That imagery is straight from the prophets. In Ezekiel the Lord said "And as for you, O My flock... I will judge between the sheep and the sheep, between the rams and the goats" (Ezekiel 34:17). The Shepherd King knows His flock.

Then the King turns to those on His right hand and says, "Come, you blessed of My Father." He tells them why: "For I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty, and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in; I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me."

What happens next is the most beautiful bit of the story. The righteous are amazed. "Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You? When did we see You thirsty and give You drink?" They had no idea. They weren't keeping a ledger. They weren't doing it in the hope of a reward. They had simply heard the heart of their King so deeply that mercy had become their nature.

That's what an open ear produces. The King's voice goes so deep into the heart that it comes out of the hands without a thought.

Israel had a name for this kind of life: gemilut chasadim (גְּמִילוּת חֲסָדִים), acts of lovingkindness. The sages taught that the world stands on three things: Torah (תּוֹרָה), avodah (עֲבוֹדָה), which means worship, and gemilut chasadim. Kindness wasn’t on the edges of Israel’s faith. It was one of the pillars of faith.

That's precisely what the righteous were doing in this parable. They were walking with their King without even knowing it.

Isaiah had already spoken of this kind of faith: "Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, and that you bring the poor who are cast out to your house; when you see the naked, that you cover him?" (Isaiah 58:7). And the promise that follows is a very significant one: "Then your light shall break forth as the morning, your healing shall spring forth speedily, and your righteousness shall go before you; the glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard" (Isaiah 58:8). Mercy brings light.

Solomon put it even more emphatically: "He that hath pity upon the poor lendeth unto the Lord; and he will surely repay him" (Proverbs 19:17). In the original Hebrew, it's malveh Adonai (מַלְוֵה יְהוָה), i.e., he lends to the Lord. Long before Yeshua said "You have done it unto Me", Proverbs said that showing kindness to the poor is in essence a loan to God Himself.

And then there's Abraham. He's sitting at the door of his tent in the heat of the day when he looks up and sees three men. He goes out to meet them, falls to his knees, washes their feet, and sets before them a meal (Genesis 18:1-8). Abraham becomes the paradigm of the practice of hospitality in the Jewish tradition. It wasn't until later that it was realized that it was the Lord Himself who had come to his tent. The writer of Hebrews is very clear: "Do not forget to entertain strangers for by doing so you may be entertaining angels unawares" (Hebrews 13:2). Abraham's question may well have been the same as the sheep's: "Lord, when did I see You?"

The King calls the hungry, the stranger and the prisoner "the least of these my brethren". In Hebrew "achai" (אַחַי) means "my brothers". He is so identified with the lowly that a meal given to one of them is a meal given to Him.

This is how hearing becomes mercy. The King speaks, our ears open, and His mercy begins to flow through the ordinary. A plate of food, a cup of water, an open door, a warm coat, a visit to the hospital, a letter to someone in prison. To heaven, none of those things are small. Each one is done to Yeshua Himself.

You are indeed among the blessed of the Father, and His heart is in you. Your ears have been opened to His voice, and your hands are now His hands. The King takes every act of kindness you do as though you'd placed it directly into His hands, and your light is breaking out like the morning. So keep listening and keep loving. Feed, welcome, clothe, visit, and encourage. There will come a day when the King will smile and say, "Come, ye blessed of My Father," and you'll find out how many times you've served Him without even realizing it.

George & Baht Rivka 

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