Reflections on Deuteronomy 15

Deuteronomy 15 (Contemporary English Version)

1. Every seven years you must announce, "The LORD says loans do not need to be paid back." Then if you have loaned money to another Israelite, you can no longer ask for payment.
   
2. (SEE 15:1)
   
3. This law applies only to loans you have made to other Israelites. Foreigners will still have to pay back what you have loaned them.
   
4. No one in Israel should ever be poor. The LORD your God is giving you this land, and he has promised to make you very successful, if you obey his laws and teachings that I'm giving you today. You will lend money to many nations, but you won't have to borrow. You will rule many nations, but they won't rule you.
   
5. (SEE 15:4)
   
6. (SEE 15:4)
   
7. After the LORD your God gives land to each of you, there may be poor Israelites in the town where you live. If there are, then don't be mean and selfish with your money.
   
8. Instead, be kind and lend them what they need.
   
9. Be careful! Don't say to yourself, "Soon it will be the seventh year, and then I won't be able to get my money back." It would be horrible for you to think that way and to be so selfish that you refuse to help the poor. They are your relatives, and if you don't help them, they may ask the LORD to decide whether you have done wrong. And he will say that you are guilty.
   
10. You should be happy to give the poor what they need, because then the LORD will make you successful in everything you do.
    
11. There will always be some Israelites who are poor and needy. That's why I am commanding you to be generous with them.
    
12. If any of you buy Israelites as slaves, you must set them free after six years.
    
13. And don't just tell them they are free to leave--
    
14. give them sheep and goats and a good supply of grain and wine. The more the LORD has given you, the more you should give them.
    
15. I am commanding you to obey the LORD as a reminder that you were slaves in Egypt before he set you free.
    
16. But one of your slaves may say, "I love you and your family, and I would be better off staying with you, so please don't make me leave."
    
17. Take the slave to the door of your house and push a sharp metal rod through one earlobe and into the door. Such slaves will belong to you for life, whether they are men or women.
    
18. Don't complain when you have to set a slave free. After all, you got six years of service at half the cost of hiring someone to do the work.
    
19. If the first-born animal of a cow or sheep or goat is a male, it must be given to the LORD. Don't put first-born cattle to work or cut wool from first-born sheep.
    
20. Instead, each year you must take the first-born of these animals to the place where the LORD your God chooses to be worshiped. You and your family will sacrifice them to the LORD and then eat them as part of a sacred meal.
    
21. But if the animal is lame or blind or has something else wrong with it, you must not sacrifice it to the LORD your God.
    
22. You can butcher it where you live, and eat it just like the meat of a deer or gazelle that you kill while hunting. Even those people who are unclean and unfit for worship can have some.
    
23. But you must never eat the blood of an animal--let it drain out on the ground.
    

    ---

    True worshipers of God take on His nature as their own. That is the outcome of "loving the Lord your God" and obeying His commands. Those who worship other gods actually worship objects of their own creation so in this case the god takes on their nature. It is this becoming like God (not as God) that is behind the teaching of this chapter. God was generous with Israel and had freed her from slavery, so she too was to be generous and to remember her deliverance from slavery by periodically freeing those who were their slaves.
    
    Though no limit was placed on a person's generosity, minimum practices were established. The first of these practices was the canceling of debt among fellow Israelites. Anyone who was a creditor was to cancel all debts owed him every seventh year. Our immediate thought is that no one would make a loan that extended into the seventh year, but this was prohibited. The seventh year was not to be a consideration when approached for a loan. Loans were to be made normally even as this year approached. The Lord promised those who generously observed this practice that He would "bless you in all your work and in everything you do." (15:10)
    
    Another practice of generosity reflecting the Lord's nature and reminding them of what the Lord had done for them was the release of servants or slaves in their seventh year of service. The Israelites were not to enslave their own people but they did practice indentured servanthood in which a person worked for them without pay to pay a debt they could not otherwise pay. At first reading these instructions for releasing servants in the seventh year might seem to coincide with the release of debt every seven years. Instead, this required the release of a servant in the seventh year of service placing a seven year limit on the amount of time a person was required to work off their debt. In releasing a servant they were to remember that "you were a slave in the land of Egypt and the LORD your God redeemed you; that is why I am giving you this command today." (15:15) Reflecting the nature of their God.
    
    If a servant chose to remain a servant this was allowed. When a servant was released, though, they were not to be released empty-handed. After seven years of service they would have little that was their own. To release them empty-handed would set them up for a quick return to servanthood. Thus the master was to "Give generously to him from your flock, your threshing floor, and your winepress." (15:14) Should he be tempted to be stingy in what he gave, the master should keep in mind that he would have paid much more had he hired workers during this time.
    
    A final instruction was the giving of the first-born male of all their livestock to the Lord. This was an expression of gratitude for what the Lord did for them and also a reflection of His nature.