“If someone among you is needy, one of your brothers, in any of your towns in your land which Adonai your God is giving you, you are not to harden your heart or shut your hand from giving to your needy brother. No, you must open your hand to him and lend him enough to meet his need and enable him to obtain what he wants.“-Deuteronomy 15:7-8
Today we’re going to talk about how the lending of money operated in the Biblical era.
The first thing you need to know is that from the time of Moses up until the time of King David, among the Israelites, the main purpose for lending money was to help out the poor and needy.
Lending money was NOT a business done for the purpose of earning a profit from interest.
Money (usually in the form of food or seed grain) was to be lent out to help the peasants, widows, orphans and those who were so sickly they were unable to take care of themselves.
This was God’s intention from the beginning.
Only later on did loaning money turn into a full-fledged business.
And of course the Torah demanded that when lending to a fellow Israelite, ZERO INTEREST was to be charged.
So from a true Biblical perspective, lending money was never about making money or investing it.
It was always about the more well to do of Israelite society helping out the less fortunate who in Scripture are usually called “brethren” or “kinsmen”.
Recall the words of Messiah…
“For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat,
I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink,
I was a stranger and you invited me in,
I needed clothes and you clothed me,
I was sick and you looked after me,
I was in prison and you came to visit me.”
Finally Yeshua concludes by saying…
‘Truly I tell you,
whatever you did for one of
the least of these brothers
and sisters of mine,
you did for me.’”
“These brothers and sisters of mine” are ONLY referring to fellow Israelites.
Yeshua is preaching pure Torah here folks.
I know the gentile church has taken these words to mean that we should go out and help the poor everywhere whether Jew or gentile.
That misinterpretation is all fine and dandy BUT…
…that’s NOT the context of these verses.
Yeshua is only referring to his fellow Hebrew kinsmen here.
And it fits in perfectly with the other things Yeshua said such as…
“I was sent only to help God’s lost sheep–
-the people of Israel.”
-Matthew 15:24
Lending money to the disadvantaged was the foundation of the Israelite welfare system.
It wasn’t until a few centuries later that lending money turned into a profit-driven business.
But here’s the thing.
Contrary to the ridiculous stereotype, it was NOT the Hebrews who were the bankers.
The opposite is true actually.
It was usually the Israelites who borrowed from foreign lenders.
The reality is that lenders for profit were looked down on with much disdain.
Bankers were on the same level as the tax payers in Yeshua’s time.
They were as seen as dishonest thieves.
Because of this, it was a rare thing for an Israelite to become a banker no matter how much money he could make by doing so.
Why?
Because he would have become an outcast among his fellowmen.
This didn’t change until Jerusalem was taken over by the Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar in the early 6th century.
Once that happened, Hebrew culture underwent some big-time changes.
And one of those big-time changes was that many of the professions that were once looked down upon became okay to take on including that of becoming a money lender.
That’s right.
Professions that were once forbidden became typical mainstays in the post-Babylonian Jewish society.
By the time Yeshua came on the scene, borrowing and lending money for profit was common BUT…
…unfortunately had radically departed from the Torah’s true intent on the matter.
The activity of lending money had devolved to the point where the poor always got the short end of the stick.
From a businessman’s perspective, this is understandable if all you’re about is raking in as much cash as you can get.
Because think about it.
If you wanna make money, who is it better to lend money to?
Another businessman who you can charge interest and with whom there is a high probability he’ll be able to pay you back
…OR…
…a poor person whom you can’t charge interest and who has little ability to pay you back?
It ain’t hard to guess which route most profit-seeking moneylenders chose to take now, is it?
This is just one area among many where Jewish society had departed from Torah and Yeshua criticized them severely for it.
Yeshua was really a man after God’s own heart and promoting pure Torah.
To conclude, the biggest takeaway I want you to get from this post is that in our day and age the system and purpose that God established for loaning and borrowing money (to help the poor) has been completely turned on its head.
Today, lending money is purely profit-driven.
This was NOT the original Scriptural intent.
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