“No one may take a mill or even an upper millstone as collateral for a loan, because that would be taking as collateral the debtor’s very means of sustenance.”-Deuteronomy 24:6
Verse 6 deals with what to do when a Hebrew lends a very poor person some money or food and demands some type of collateral for his loan.
In the example given here, the Lord is making it clear that the lender is NOT to take the upper millstone from the borrower as a guarantee for his loan.
This may not be very apparent at a first casual reading but this law (and the one to follow in verse 7) is all about respect for human life.
Here’s what you should know about grain mills in the ancient Middle East.
They were essential tools for life!
Though primitive, these devices were not only very expensive, they were also quite difficult to make.
A family millstone would be handed down from generation to generation and would literally hold up for hundreds of years before a replacement was needed.
It was comprised of two parts aptly called the “upper millstone” and the “lower millstone”.
The lower millstone was a heavy and flat stone surface upon which the grain was placed.
And the upper and smaller millstone was the piece a person would hold in their hand and use to crush the grain against the lower part.
Here’s the thing.
If the upper millstone was lost or taken away, the grain mill was rendered useless.
It was pretty much an everyday thing for a family in the ancient Middle East to grind meal into flour for their food using their millstones,
So if you took either part of a family’s mill away from them, you were literally denying them a means of sustenance.
You were denying them life and from God’s perspective, that was a big no-no!
Hence, the reason for the law in verse 6.
CONNECTING THIS TEACHING TO THE NEW TESTAMENT
“but whoever causes one of these little ones
who believe in me to stumble,
it would be better for him
to have a heavy millstone
hung around his neck,
and to be drowned in the depth of the sea.”
-Matthew 18:6
“Then a strong angel took up a stone
like a great millstone
and threw it into the sea, saying,
“So will Babylon, the great city,
be thrown down with violence,
and will not be found any longer.”
-Revelation 18:21
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