Deuteronomy 15:1-23
1 At the end of every seven years thou shalt make a release.
2 And this is the manner of the release: Every creditora that lendeth ought unto his neighbour shall release it; he shall not exact it of his neighbour, or of his brother; because it is called the LORD'S release.
3 Of a foreigner thou mayest exact it again: but that which is thine with thy brother thine hand shall release;
4 Saveb when there shall be no poor among you; for the LORD shall greatly bless thee in the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee for an inheritance to possess it:
5 Only if thou carefully hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to observe to do all these commandments which I command thee this day.
6 For the LORD thy God blesseth thee, as he promised thee: and thou shalt lend unto many nations, but thou shalt not borrow; and thou shalt reign over many nations, but they shall not reign over thee.
7 If there be among you a poor man of one of thy brethren within any of thy gates in thy land which the LORD thy God giveth thee, thou shalt not harden thine heart, nor shut thine hand from thy poor brother:
8 But thou shalt open thine hand wide unto him, and shalt surely lend him sufficient for his need, in that which he wanteth.
9 Beware that there be not a thoughtc in thy wicked heart, saying, The seventh year, the year of release, is at hand; and thine eye be evil against thy poor brother, and thou givest him nought; and he cry unto the LORD against thee, and it be sin unto thee.
10 Thou shalt surely give him, and thine heart shall not be grieved when thou givest unto him: because that for this thing the LORD thy God shall bless thee in all thy works, and in all that thou puttest thine hand unto.
11 For the poor shall never cease out of the land: therefore I command thee, saying, Thou shalt open thine hand wide unto thy brother, to thy poor, and to thy needy, in thy land.
12 And if thy brother, an Hebrew man, or an Hebrew woman, be sold unto thee, and serve thee six years; then in the seventh year thou shalt let him go free from thee.
13 And when thou sendest him out free from thee, thou shalt not let him go away empty:
14 Thou shalt furnish him liberally out of thy flock, and out of thy floor, and out of thy winepress: of that wherewith the LORD thy God hath blessed thee thou shalt give unto him.
15 And thou shalt remember that thou wast a bondman in the land of Egypt, and the LORD thy God redeemed thee: therefore I command thee this thing to day.
16 And it shall be, if he say unto thee, I will not go away from thee; because he loveth thee and thine house, because he is well with thee;
17 Then thou shalt take an aul, and thrust it through his ear unto the door, and he shall be thy servant for ever. And also unto thy maidservant thou shalt do likewise.
18 It shall not seem hard unto thee, when thou sendest him away free from thee; for he hath been worth a double hired servant to thee, in serving thee six years: and the LORD thy God shall bless thee in all that thou doest.
19 All the firstling males that come of thy herd and of thy flock thou shalt sanctify unto the LORD thy God: thou shalt do no work with the firstling of thy bullock, nor shear the firstling of thy sheep.
20 Thou shalt eat it before the LORD thy God year by year in the place which the LORD shall choose, thou and thy household.
21 And if there be any blemish therein, as if it be lame, or blind, or have any ill blemish, thou shalt not sacrifice it unto the LORD thy God.
22 Thou shalt eat it within thy gates: the unclean and the clean person shall eat it alike, as the roebuck, and as the hart.
23 Only thou shalt not eat the blood thereof; thou shalt pour it upon the ground as water.
Chapter fifteen,
At the end of every seven years you're to make a release (Deuteronomy 15:1).
All of the debts were to be forgiven in the seventh year. Now, you're not to demand it again after the seventh year; you're not to ask for it again except for a foreigner or a stranger. Then you can demand it from them. But of the children of Israel it had to be totally forgiven.
Now, also if it were, say, the sixth year, the seventh year was coming up very soon and some guy says, "Oh, I'd like to borrow some money" you shouldn't think in your mind, "Oh, this is the sixth year, I don't want to loan it to him because it will be forgiven in eight months, you know." He said don't figure that way. If he's poor, go ahead and give it to him. Now God is very interested in the welfare of the poor and that we be interested in the welfare of the poor. And here is protecting the poor. And if a poor man comes to you and he's wanting help you're not to think "Oh, this is close to the seventh year. I don't want to give it". That's wrong thinking God says. Go ahead and loan it to him anyhow and then forgive it.
Now in Proverbs we read, "He who lendeth unto the poor lendeth unto the LORD" (Proverbs 19:17), and I think that's a good thing to remember. Rather than exacting the debts from the poor, just say, "Well, I loaned to the Lord and the Lord will repay". Now I like loaning money to God. I think he pays fantastic interest. "And he who lendeth unto the poor lendeth unto the LORD" because God takes the cause of the poor. God takes up the cause of the poor every time and God is very interested in the poor of the land because they're gonna always be with us. In verse eleven, "The poor shall never cease out". You're always gonna have poor people. Jesus said, "The poor you have with you always"(Matthew 26:11). He was quoting here from Deuteronomy. There'll always be poor, and thus, we should always have a heart and a concern for the poor.
Now if you bought a slave who was a Hebrew, man or woman, then they were to serve you for six years but in the seventh year you had to set them free.
And you shall not send them out empty: But give them liberally from your flock, and from your store, from your winepress... : because you're to remember that you were a slave once in Egypt (Deuteronomy 15:13-15),
Now, if you have a slave and the seventh year came up and it's time for him to be set free and he comes to you and says, "Hey, I like it here. You're a good boss. I've got good security and I just enjoy working for you and I don't want to be free. I want to remain your slave". Then you were to take him and you were to take an awl and you were drive it through his ear and you were to pin his ear to the doorpost of your house. And that signified a bondslave by choice. They'd usually then put the gold ring in the ear so that the gold ring in the earlobe was a sign that a man was a slave by choice. He had made his own free choice to be a slave for life. And that was the sign of it; the golden ring in the ear, "I am a slave by choice for life". Once you had made that decision then you would never be set free but you had that choice, you could make it. If you loved your master, you wanted to serve him you'd say, "Well, I don't want to leave. I love serving you, working for you" and so the little ritual of piercing your ear with the awl, pinning it to the post and thus the slave for life.
Now, this is the kind of bondslave that we have become of Jesus Christ. Paul a duloy, an apostle, a bondslave of Jesus Christ. But it's by choice. "Lord, I love serving you. I want to serve you. I don't want to do anything but serve you. I wanna serve you for life." A bondslave of Jesus Christ, what a neat thing it is to be a bondslave of the Lord, serve Him for life by choice. He didn't force me. It was my choice. I chose to serve him for life. And so there is a beautiful parallel as you read it there from the sixteenth chapter or sixteenth verse, twenty-fifth verse of the bondslave servant by choice, servant for life, the perpetual service.
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