“You are not to lend at interest to your brother, no matter whether the loan is of money, food or anything else that can earn interest. To an outsider you may lend at interest, but to your brother you are not to lend at interest, so that Adonai your God will prosper you in everything you set out to do in the land you are entering in order to take possession of it.“-Deuteronomy 23:20-21
As a continuation from yesterday’s post which dealt with the instructions concerning lending money to those in need, today I want to explore the true Biblical perspective on this topic.
First, I think our understanding of just what is merciful lending is particularly skewed in our modern society.
I mean we’ll say things like…
…isn’t it awful that loan companies make huge fortunes lending money at 20% interest or more to usually the most socially disadvantaged in our society?
However, I think we’re equating apples with oranges here folks.
The so-called “poor”, especially in the United States, (and yes I’m intentionally putting the word “poor” in quotes here) are “poor” because of big-time retarded decisions they made with their money and credit.
I’m talking about folks who don’t have any patience to work and save money for a purchase, so they go charge everything up on their credit cards and max out their credit limits.
Or instead of investing in themselves to get an education that would give them the high income skills and knowledge to earn more money, they decide to spend what little cash they have on drugs and alcohol and as a result lose not only their money but the more valuable resource of time which can never be regained once lost.
Scripture certainly doesn’t classify such people as being poor and disadvantaged.
Quite the contrary actually.
Scripture makes it clear that one must bear the consequences of one’s foolish decisions and actions.
Throughout the Bible, you’ll find a ton of instructions and proverbs (even in the NT), that commands that a drunkard or worthless son of parents be executed.
Scripture makes it clear that the lazy and/or foolish are to suffer their own fate as heartbreaking as it is to witness it.
A perfect example are lawless parents who through their own laziness, character flaws or foolish money decisions end up in dire straits in their old age and then expect their kids to bail them out when doing so would put their children themselves in dire financial straits and thus perpetuate the cycle of economic hardship.
So what exactly is God’s definition of poverty?
I would say that if a person fell into poverty through bad health, severe societal or racial discrimination, there not being any work available, the sudden and unexpected death of a family member who was the primary earner, or any other type of condition whereby through no fault of their own, one finds themselves in a situation where thy can no longer feed themselves and their families, this would constitute true poverty from the Lord’s perspective.
Poverty does NOT mean…
…charging your credit card to the max and then having your house repossessed as a result OR…
…living in small rental apartment and whining about being poor because you’re not living in some mansion in Beverly Hills like a Hollywood movie star OR…
…being forced to take a bus to work because you don’t have a car OR…
…complaining about not being able to find a job because you spend four hours every day binge watching YouTube or jerking off to pornography and I could just go on and on.
I honestly believe that given the internet revolution that is now upon us and all the abundant and free resources anyone with access to a computer can freely avail themselves of, there is absolutely no excuse for anyone of any age in our day and age to fall into poverty.
So let’s put things into their proper perspective here.
When the Bible speaks of poverty, it’s literally speaking about not having enough food to eat, a roof over your head, or even a warm coat to wear outside when its freezing cold.
We’re talking about life-threatening situations here folks.
During Bible times, it was the women and children (especially widows and orphans) and the disabled and ill who could quite easily find themselves in life threatening situations because of the way society traditionally operated in those days.
There weren’t any welfare or social support programs.
The Lord expected the better-off to step up and provide the necessary support if needed and this included taking in foreigners who came to Israel to escape slavery from their foreign masters.
The Lord commands that ALL of Israel is to help those folks who through know fault of their own are just barely surviving.
The Lord also lets us know in no uncertain terms that if the proper help and care is not given to them, the poor will cry out to Him because of the lack of mercy shown by His Chosen people and there will be consequences to pay.
To turn a blind eye to the most vulnerable of society is to break the Torah commandments of humanitarianism.
Verses 20-21 are laws dealing with social responsibility and fairness and Messiah had a lot to say about this topic.
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