Deuteronomy 15, verses 1-6 opens our next chapter of this COME AS A CHILD BIBLE STUDY with some pretty amazing words. Were you aware that God has an established plan for managing debts?
Only God could think of and/or design such a process as the one we will speak about here.
How would you like to have all of your debts cancelled every seven years?
DO YOU WANT TO BE DEBT FREE?
You could if you lived in the days of ancient Israel.
The coolest part of all is that no man came up with the process; it was actually God’s idea.
I suppose God has seen the suffering of the poor and the struggle of those who are constantly financially over their heads and in debt longer than anyone. He came up with a system to relieve this problem and to reset things so that the innocent who had fallen upon hard times could enjoy relief and freedom again. It is explained in this Chapter 15 of Deuteronomy.
RELIEF FOR THE POOR
Unbelievable?
Here are the scriptures:
Deuteronomy 15:1-6: At the end of every seven years you must cancel debts. 2 This is how it is to be done: Every creditor shall cancel any loan they have made to a fellow Israelite. They shall not require payment from anyone among their own people, because the Lord’s time for canceling debts has been proclaimed. 3 You may require payment from a foreigner, but you must cancel any debt your fellow Israelite owes you. 4 However, there need be no poor people among you, for in the land the Lord your God is giving you to possess as your inheritance, he will richly bless you, 5 if only you fully obey the Lord your God and are careful to follow all these commands, I am giving you today. 6 For the Lord your God will bless you as he has promised, and you will lend to many nations but will borrow from none. You will rule over many nations but none will rule over you.
I can’t help but think of the current social justice movement that is reeving up to provide relief for the poor.
Why?
God has already provided a much better way.
The system for debt relief has been in place for years; but we have ignored it completely. There are a few sects of Israel left that still practice these ways of living; but it is rare to find such financial processes in force in the current cultures.
HOW DOES THIS WORK REGARDING DEBTS?
First of all; you had to be an Israelite; not a foreigner. You had to be living in The Promised Land. Some called this “The Lord’s Release.”
Others have called it “The Year of Remission.” Most native Israelites called it “Hashem’s Shemittah.”
We’ve written about Shemittah before. Here are the links for review: https://theinseasonlifestyle.com/shemitah-and-isaiah-61-come-as-a-child-lesson-232/; https://theinseasonlifestyle.com/shemitah-the-annual-sabbath/.
In the original arrangement God was setting up the nation of Israel as a model for the world to imitate.
They would show the rest of the nations God’s perfect ways.
When God made the financial rules regarding Shemittah; He had just given every family in Israel their own plot of land to live on. These people that Moses was reviewing the new rules with were the heritage of Israel.
All lands are God’s lands.
This land was God’s to give.
He gave it to Israel and everything was plotted out and mapped for details. Each tribe had a portion of the land given to each of their households.
ISRAEL STARTED OUT WITH NO DEBTS
Israel started out with each family owning their own land. No one had to take out a mortgage; it was a gift. No one had to go into debt in order to become a land-owning citizen of Israel.
Once they arrived in the land though, there COULD be later times of financial difficulties. God was advising the people on the proper and good ways to handle this when the occasion arose.
Israel was very privileged to have God as their own personal financial manager and broker. Today we might call that “Israel privilege.” (Forgive me – I could not resist that silly little play on words that tend to sound a lot like “white-privilege;” a term that is so often misused in this culture.)
Anyway – if the people who started out debt free followed the ways of God in tending to their land and their family and their household; God would see that they never had to go into debt for any longer than seven years.
A SEVEN YEAR PLAN FOR DEBTS
At the end of every seven years (known as a Sabbatical Year) all debts would be reset back to zero for everyone.
If you owed one million dollars; you didn’t owe that anymore.
If you only owed ten dollars; you didn’t owe that anymore.
On year seven all loans were to be zeroed out in the books, all across the land.
How very strange this sounds to our current way of life Over the last few years Marxist/socialism has prevailed more and more and we have fallen victims to progressive taxation where the governing powers have been steadily taking possessions of personal gain.
For example; if you make home improvements to your home and thereby you have increased its value; you would then owe more property taxes. Profits are hard to come by with these types of rules. People pile up debts trying to get by on low margins of profit.
ISRAEL WAS TO BE GOD’S PATTERN FOR ALL NATIONS WITH DEBTS
This wasn’t the way God originally set things up to work in the Land of Promise.
That land (the Promised Land) has now become the pattern for the way that God intends for all of his people to be living life.
When I say “all” I mean everyone who has God’s Holy Spirit residing inside their heart.
Israel will always lead the way for God’s people to follow; but now God’s people are scattered across all of the nations and these too must know God’s will for financial arrangements.
The governments of this earth have basically overlooked God’s ways though and have kept lining their own pockets with the prosperity of their people.
This is especially true of Marxism. Marxists hate God. They want Him out of their way.
Socialism allows nothing for people wanting to follow the ways and customs of God. It is a very humanistic way of life and it believes, worships and follows the ways of mankind; excluding the ways of God. It thrives on the greed and self-worship of the very elite.
Every now and then even humanistic thinkers do good. Pagan kings often cancelled the debts of their servants to allow them respite from cruel and hard-times. Their motives and methods were different though.
GOD’S METHODS ARE ABOUT SABBATH
The system that God gave goes much further than mere temporary relief from debt.
It is all about Sabbath rest for God’s lands and God’s true people.
If the rules of the Annual Sabbaths (Shimittah) were carefully and diligently followed; the whole economy of the community that follows them would be reordered around the need for periodic cancellation of debt.
From God’s point of view, debt is as much the creditor’s responsibility as the debtors. Loans were not to be unfair to the debtor. They were to be made to help; not to trap and imprison people. God’s economics seems to be all about accountability for both parties; the debtor and the person lending the money.
Loans among brethren were to be based upon need; not profit for the creditor.
The Oral laws forbid a creditor to charge interest when a loan was made based on need rather than profit. This was strictly upheld. If anyone decided to go around this rule and charge interest to their family or their neighbor, their word was no longer considered acceptable in legal matters for the community.
NO DEBTS LASTED LONGER THAN SEVEN YEARS
It seems that God thought seven years was enough time for any loan to last.
Can you imagine this system being put into place in today’s world?
Interest for nations deep in debt would be immediately dropped from their loans. Imagine how much faster the debt could be settled if that were so. All nations would be treated the same; so even though one nation would be forgiving the debts of another nation; their loans would ALSO be forgiven; so everyone would benefit.
With God’s system of release nothing occurs in isolation. Debt cancellation is not just an economic transaction, nor simply a spiritual matter. If you can’t see this just join in with me as we repeat the Lord’s prayer together.
Hear those words; “forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.”
WHAT DID JESUS DO?
Jesus takes God’s release a step further, making relief of debt become a daily characteristic of the people of God, as He ushers in “good news for the poor,” “release for the captives,” and “freedom for the oppressed.” We realize this every time we repeat The Lord’s Prayer.
We can now begin to see the concepts are not simply Old Testament ways for ancient people to survive in ancient times.
These concepts WOULD work for any nation desiring to follow God’s ways.
An even more layered version of the concepts of release carries over in the disciple’s ministry with Jesus.
WHAT WOULD THE DISCIPLES DO?
If you have ever read the parable of the unrighteous steward found in Luke 16:1-13, you would have noted that although it seemed the steward was cheating his master, the master was living according to Jubilee standards and taking the Year of Release into consideration when he finally approved of his steward’s actions.
This system originally belonged to Israel; but as we have noted so many times before; God was setting a pattern with Israel, making them the model nation for all other nations to follow.
WHAT IF?
What would happen today if the debts of all nations were forgiven?
It all started right there on the banks of the Jordan River with the people of God listening carefully to Moses as he said his last words to them and encouraged them to always keep God’s ways.
Oh that it were today; we too would have the chance to live in a debt-free land of Promise.
Dare we take up the words of Moses and cross over the troubled rivers of our own nation?