Saturday 2020.12.05
Reading from Deuteronomy Chapter 15
You shall release all debts in the seventh year. In this way, there shall not be a poor person in your midst (15:4).
Then, the Lord will bless you, "then thou shalt lend to many nations, but thou shalt not borrow; and thou shalt rule over many nations, but they shall not rule over thee." (15:5)
Lend to your brother, even if you know he can't pay you back, even if the seventh year, the year of release is around the corner.
"Thou shalt surely open hands to thy poor brother . . . " (15:11)
Deuteronomy 15:1 - 11 LXX
1. Every seven years thou shalt make a release.
2 And this is the ordinance of the release: thou shalt remit every private debt which thy neighbour owes thee, and thou shalt not ask payment of it from thy brother; for it has been called a release to the Lord thy God.
3 Of a stranger thou shalt ask again whatsoever he has of thine, but to thy brother thou shalt remit his debt to thee.
4 For thus there shall not be a poor person in the midst of thee, for the Lord thy God will surely bless thee in the land which the Lord thy God gives thee by inheritance, that thou shouldest inherit it.
5 And if ye shall indeed hearken to the voice of the Lord your God, to keep and do all these commandments, as many as I charge thee this day,
6 (for the Lord thy God has blessed thee in the way of which he spoke to thee,) then thou shalt lend to many nations, but thou shalt not borrow; and thou shalt rule over many nations, but they shall not rule over thee.
7 And if there shall be in the midst of thee a poor man of thy brethren in one of thy cities in the land, which the Lord thy God gives thee, thou shalt not harden thine heart, neither shalt thou by any means close up thine hand from thy brother who is in want.
8 Thou shalt surely open thine hands to him, and shalt lend to him as much as he wants according to his need.
9 Take heed to thyself that there be not a secret thing in thine heart, an iniquity, saying, The seventh year, the year of release, draws nigh; and thine eye shall be evil to thy brother that is in want, and thou shalt not give to him, and he shall cry against thee to the Lord, and there shall be great sin in thee.
10 Thou shalt surely give to him, and thou shalt lend him as much as he wants, according as he is in need; and thou shalt not grudge in thine heart as thou givest to him, because on this account the Lord thy God will bless thee in all thy works, and in all things on which thou shalt lay thine hand.
11 For the poor shall not fail off thy land, therefore I charge thee to do this thing, saying, Thou shalt surely open thine hands to thy poor brother, and to him that is distressed upon thy land.
