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I 100% agree that we are to give to charity and be merciful with the poor. God's Word commands this, and in the Old Testament it even gave certain guidelines, like the one you listed.

HOWEVER, and follow me real close on this one, because it is the absolute critical distinction, there were no civil penalties for failure to do any of the things you listed. There were no civil penalties attached for failure to bring the levitical tithe, or for failing to leave the corners of one's fields for the poor, or for any of those other measures of compassion that God commanded.

Let me repeat that, because it is an important distinction. God never authorizes the state to punish people for not being charitable. He does command indivduals to be charitable, but you will not find a single instance where He authorizes the government to punish people for failure to give to chairity.

God commands individuals to do lots of things. The key here is what does He authorize GOVERNMENT to use force to do?

There are PLENTY of laws in the Old Testament in which God ordained civil penalty for failure to comply with the law. In NO CASE do ANY of the chairity laws come with attached civil penalties. These were commands from God to individuals, not to the GOVERNMENT.

All sorts of pernicious evil follows by putting the state in charge of what God has ordained as an individual, family, and church matter. Such evil is copiously documented in "The Tragedy of American Compassion".

I agree that God wants a king who is the type that will rescue the children of the needy. I do not agree that He wants it done under complusion with other people's money.

I respect your willingness to use the scripture as your guide. I hope that you will follow them to the philosophy of government that they support.

"He does command indivduals to be charitable, but you will not find a single instance where He authorizes the government to punish people for failure to give to chairity. "

It's clear that when he is referring to these kings, he is talking about their capacity as government, not as individuals.

When Israel demanded a King, and God warned them what they were in for, he told them the King would collect 10% in taxes.

It's true that we are commanded as individuals to be generous to the poor too. But government is also "a minister unto God" and should not turn a blind eye to problems in the society. In fact to do so, will cause God to change the government.

In other words, if we got the government out of the helping business. And then we failed as individuals to take care of the poor, I feel certain that God would take the responsibility of government away from us.

The fact remains that in the colonial states, the reason the states got involved in "poor law" cases was because certain localities were not living up to their responsibilities and dumping their poor and disabled on other towns. I'm pretty sure that the same problem existed at the state level, too. Which is one reason why the Fed is involved and uses matching fund schemes to insure the states provide the care.