Deuteronomy 15:1 – 6 “At the end of every seven years you must cancel debts. This is the manner of remission: Every creditor shall cancel what he has loaned to his neighbor. He is not to collect anything from his neighbor or brother, because the LORD’s time of release has been proclaimed. You may collect something from a foreigner, but you must forgive whatever your brother owes you.
There will be no poor among you, however, because the LORD will surely bless you in the land that the LORD your God is giving you to possess as an inheritance, if only you obey the LORD your God and are careful to follow all these commandments I am giving you today. When the LORD your God blesses you as He has promised, you will lend to many nations but borrow from none; you will rule over many nations but be ruled by none.”
As soon as someone invented money, money lending came into existence. Historians believe that Hammurabi, the ruler of Babylon during the 18th century B.C.E., actually invented one of the first lending systems. (https://www.koho.ca/learn/history-of-lending/) During the famine that drove Jacob and his sons to Egypt, Joseph gave grain to the Egyptians in exchange for their land. Certainly, by the time the Israelites left Egypt, they were practicing money lending, and there were probably some wealthy money lenders in the group that Moses was leading. But now God was ordering the Israelites to forgive debts owed by other Israelites every seven years. This meant that for six years they could extract interest, but in the seventh year, those debts had to be forgiven. Notice that the rules were different for foreigners; there was no cancellation of debts for foreigners.
Bible scholars continue to argue as to whether this was a total cancellation of debt or merely a forgiveness of the interest on a debt during the seventh year. Why did God order the Israelites to forgive debts to one another every seven years? God ordered that there be a total suspension of agricultural labor every seven years, making it difficult for someone to make payments on a loan that year. The principle was one of trusting God; the Israelites were to trust that if they treated their fellow tribesmen compassionately, God would bless them and make up for any losses incurred during that seventh year.
Here God was making incredible promises. If the Israelites would just obey God and follow all His commandments, they would become bankers to the world, lending to others but not borrowing from anyone. Holding the purse strings, the Israelites would actually rule over those debtor nations.
APPLICATION: The amazing thing about God’s promises is that they continue to work. For centuries, Jewish bankers have helped influence the course of history in various European nations as well as in America. Even in Israel today, the banking industry is a vibrant industry.
What do these verses mean for those of us who are not Jewish? We need to be careful about lending to others and then about the fashion in which we demand repayment. We also need to remember the times when others have had to help us. In Matthew 18:23 Jesus told a story of a man who owed a ruler 10,000 talents. Since one talent would represent 20 years of daily wages, this amount would equal 20 years x 10,000, or 200,000 years’ wages for a workman. When the ruler forgave this mind – boggling debt, that man then went out and threw another man in prison over a debt of 100 days’ wages. Jesus was making the point that when we confess our sins to God, God will graciously forgive us. But if we do not forgive our brothers and sisters when they offend us, we are as wicked as the man who was forgiven the enormous debt, only to hold his debtor liable for a far smaller amount.
When we are compassionate to others, God can be compassionate to us. There may be times when we must literally forgive a monetary debt someone else owes us. But if we refuse to forgive others when they offend us or if we are not willing to be generous when necessary, we are putting ourselves in a dangerous position. Jesus told his disciples that the measure they gave out would be the measure they received. Luke 6:38 tells us, “Give, and it will be given to you. They will pour into your lap a good measure—pressed down, shaken together, and running over [with no space left for more]. For with the standard of measurement you use [when you do good to others], it will be measured to you in return.”
PRAYER: Father God, thank You for loving us and for caring for us. Lord, help us to be compassionate to those around us, realizing that You have already given us so much. In the mighty and precious Name of King Jesus. Amen.
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