“Be careful not to harbor this wicked thought: “The seventh year, the year for canceling debts, is near,” so that you do not show ill will toward the needy among your fellow Israelites and give them nothing. They may then appeal to the Lord against you, and you will be found guilty of sin. Give generously to them and do so without a grudging heart; then because of this the Lord your God will bless you in all your work and in everything you put your hand to.There will always be poor people in the land. Therefore I command you to be openhanded toward your fellow Israelites who are poor and needy in your land.”-Deuteronomy 15:9-11
Well, I tell you, the God of Israel doesn’t miss a thing.
In verse 9 of Deuteronomy Chapter 15, the Lord addresses a thought that would probably be on a lender’s mind when he considered lending money to the poor.
The Torah stipulates that every seventh year, the lender had to completely forgive any remaining unpaid debt of the money he had lent out to a Hebrew bond-servant or an indentured servant.
This means that the closer the day was to the end of a 7-year cycle when the lender lent out the money, the higher the chances are he wouldn’t get his money back.
Another important point to keep in mind is that the 7-year cycle was an immoveable period of time set in the Hebrew calendar.
It wasn’t like a car or house loan whereby the start day of the payback cycle would begin on the day you took out the loan.
Therefore, from the lender’s perspective, it was always better to lend money way BEFORE the next year of release came.
For instance, if a lender lent money 6 years before the release year, he had 6 years to demand repayment of the money he had lent.
However, if a lender lent money 2 years before the release year, he only had 2 years to try and collect his debt.
Now what would happen if for example a poor person barely on the brink of survival came to a well-to-do person seeking money to borrow only 6 months before the release year.
The lender knows there is no way a poor peasant is going to be able to pay back the money, so it would have been a very difficult decision for him to make whether he should lend the money out or not.
And unfortunately, in more cases than not, the money was NOT lent out.
As the days drew nearer the start of the year of release for either a 7-year cycle or a 50-year cycle, lenders would simply stop loaning money because they knew they were basically just throwing their cash away because there was no way in hell common peasants would be able to pay the money they had borrowed back.
Well, addressing this specific situation, the Lord steps in and says to the lender, you are not to engage in such wicked thinking.
HASHEM says if a richer person refuses to lend money to a poor person who is crying out to him for help, the Lord says he will judge that person as a sinner.
Furthermore, look at verse 11.
“There will always be poor people in the land. Therefore I command you to be openhanded toward your fellow Israelites who are poor and needy in your land.”
Yeshua also echoed this thought.
“You will always have the poor among you,
but you will not always have me.”
-John 12:8
The Lord tells us to get used to this harsh reality because the poor will unfortunately always be among us.
Now a couple of thoughts before I close.
Understand that this Torah we are studying is a presentation of God’s justice system as things ideally should be on earth as they are in heaven.
The key word in that last sentence is “ideally”.
Unfortunately, because of the fallen state of mankind, it seems practically impossible to carry out these ideals to their fullest.
Another thing.
Even though the Torah says we are to “lend” money to the poor with a cheerful spirit, I have a feeling the Lord’s real intent for us is to really have the attitude that we are “giving” the money to the poor.
Later on, if the circumstances of the people we lent the money to improve to the point where they are able to pay us back, then accepting repayment is fine.
However, in order to avoid the stress and anger of always wondering when we’re going to get our money back, it is probably much better to just in our hearts consider the money we’re lending to a needy person to be a charitable gift, especially if we’re lending it near the release year.
That way if we don’t get it back, we won’t become bitter and if we do get it back, it will be a pleasant surprise.
And let’s also not forget that if we obey this command, the Scripture assures us that…
“the Lord your God will bless you in all your work and in everything you put your hand to.”
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