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Deuteronomy 15:8-10 (JDV)

don’t dread the seventh

Deuteronomy 15:8 Instead, you are to open your hand to him and freely loan him enough for whatever need he has.

Deuteronomy 15:9 Be careful or else there will be this wicked thought in your heart, and this is what you say: ‘The seventh year, the year of canceling debts, is near,’ and you are stingy toward your poor brother and give him nothing. He will cry out to Yahveh against you, and you will be guilty of a mistake.¹

Deuteronomy 15:10 Give to him, and don’t have a stingy heart when you give, and because of this Yahveh your God will empower you in all your work and in everything you do.

don’t dread the seventh

Both the weekly Sabbath and the seventh year for canceling debts were blessings from God designed for human freedom and rest. It would be an evil thing to look upon either of those gifts with foreboding. But that is what a stingy heart does. It only sees personal loss, not the gain of another. It fails to trust that God knew what he was doing when he brought that poor person to your door.

God hates stingy hearts. He is predisposed to judge the Scrooges of this world. He tends to hit them where they will hurt the most – their wallets. Be generous. Don’t dread the year of debt forgiveness.

Lord, build in us a desire to set our brothers and sisters free from the slavery of debt.