DEUTERONOMY 15
[Devarim 15 Orthodox Jewish Bible (OJB)]
1 At the end of every 7 years [shevat shanim] thou shalt make a release [shemittah].
Each Israelite had to realize that God had loved him and done great things for him. He had therefore to love the Lord his God in return. But if that was his first and overriding duty, there was a second like unto it, as the harvest laws made plain - to love his neighbour as himself.
Each year, ... taught this same great lesson; the seventh year merely taught it more emphatically to match the stress which it placed upon the idea of redemptive rest.
The coincidence of the Sabbath Year and the Year of Release cannot be proved textually, but in view of their symbolic significance there is clearly no need to do so: it is self-evident...
Law and Grace Ch 11
2 And this is the manner of the release [ shemittah]: Every creditor that lendeth ought unto his neighbour shall release it [cancel the debt]; he shall not exact it of his neighbour, or of his brother; because it is called Yahweh's release [Shemittah].
The arrangement was a salutary check on avarice in the creditor, and afforded him an opportunity to appreciate what a boon was his generosity to the poor man who benefited by it.
God had taken pity on his distress in Egypt, so the nearness of the year of release was not to induce meanness in him, or a disregard of his brother's need. (See v7)
Law and Grace Ch 11
3 Of a foreigner [nokhri] thou mayest exact it again [require a debt to be repaid]: but that which is thine with thy brother thine hand shall release [the claim];
This careful distinction... emphasized the privilege of membership of the Covenant People
Law and Grace Ch 11
'Implicit here again, we note, as a compelling motive, is the memory of God's mercy to them in taking account of their need when defenceless slaves in Egypt. That memory was to lay even greater claims upon them, moreover, for once in seven years they were also to acquiesce cheerfully in the total cancellation of their rights as creditors.
... For what had his bondage in Egypt been but a symbol of his hopeless indebtedness to God, as a sinner? His deliverance had thus in a very real sense been a full and absolute "release" from his debts - God had granted him the total pardon of his sins. The ritual of the Year of Release thus made him consciously realize that he, having himself had his trespasses forgiven, was under the inescapable obligation to forgive in turn those who trespassed against him.
Law and Grace Ch 3
4 Save when there shall be no poor among you; for Yahweh shall greatly bless thee in the land which Yahweh thy Elohim giveth thee for an inheritance to possess it:
4 There shall be no evyon (needy, poor) among you; for Hashem shall greatly bless thee in ha'aretz which Hashem Eloheicha giveth thee for a nachalah to possess it;
5 If only thou carefully give heed unto the voice of Hashem Eloheicha to be shomer to do all these mitzvot which I command thee today.
5 Only if thou carefully hearken unto the voice of Yahweh thy Elohim, to observe to do all these commandments which I command thee this day.
6 For Yahweh thy Elohim 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 [she'arim] in thy land which Yahweh thy Elohim giveth thee, thou shalt not harden thine heart [lev], nor shut thine hand from thy poor brother:
The poor are a standing institution.
"The poor shall never cease out of the land."
They are a means of testing our faithfulness to the will of God. They are also a means of exercising the heavenly organs of sympathy and benevolence. Read Deut. xv., and you have God's mind respecting the poor.
"Open thine hand wide unto him," "Lend him sufficient for his need," "Thou shalt furnish him liberally out of thy flock,"
etc. Israel were warned to beware lest they invented plausible excuses for disobedience. How much need is there for such a warning! How we like to selfishly hold what we have! At the same time the Scriptures call upon us to exercise prudence and commonsense in dealing with the poor. Every application for help is not to be blindly yielded to. It would be an evil to encourage the spendthrift in his extravagance, or the idle man in his laziness, or the professional beggar in his profession, or the reckless fool in his gambling commercial enterprises.
There are poor and poor. It is a matter for discernment as to when to help and when to refrain from helping. If we honestly endeavour to do our duty we shall not go far wrong. Let us remember that to err in this matter on the giving side is better than to err on the not-giving side. Let us exhort one another in our duty towards the poor, but let us not judge and condemn one another. We live in an evil world-our duty can only be done with many short-comings.
If we have a good and honest heart, all will end well.-A. T. J.
The Christadelphian, Feb 1899
8 But thou shalt open thine hand wide unto him, and shalt surely lend him sufficient for his need [machsor], in that which he wanteth.
9 Beware that there be not a thought in thy wicked heart [lev beliyaal], saying, The 7th year, the year of release [shnat hashemittah], is at hand; and thine eye be evil against thy poor brother, and thou givest him nought; and he cry unto Yahweh against thee, and it be sin [chet] unto thee.
The command was attended by a warning. If he proved guilty of Pharaoh's hard-heartedness God would hear his brother's cry as He had heard Israel's in Egypt, and requite his sin as He had requited Pharaoh's. The fact that his debtor was one who had been given release from Egyptian bondage entitled him to generous treatment by his richer brother as well as to all the privileges of "the Lord's release".
Law and Grace Ch 11
10 Thou shalt surely give him, and thine heart shall not be grieved when thou givest unto him: because that for this thing Yahweh thy Elohim 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.
The law...made provision for, and pointed the way to, a beautiful society of mutual, peaceful, self-sacrificing love, if Israel had only ever been able to rise to its glorious sublimity.
It did this by commands whose fullness and depth were limited only by the capacity of the hearer to comprehend and respond.
...A marvellous window into the mind and will of God is opened by the Spirit through Paul when he applies this as an allegory of the Body of Christ. He is speaking to the Corinthian brethren about care for one another, sharing freely with others the blessings God has given us, and ministering to one another's needs. ALL that we have is God's, and is given us, not for our own selfish indulgence, but to be used faithfully in the common good.
In expounding this beautiful principle, he says (2 Cor. 9:6-7)-
"He which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly, and he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully, for God loveth a cheerful giver."
Bro Growcott - The spirit of the law in Christ
The existence of the poor among the children of God is a divine arrangement. Probably its object is to test obedience and develop neighbourly love. The Israelites were commanded not only to open their hand to the poor, but to open it wide (Deut. xv. 11).
With equal emphasis has this requirement been introduced into the law of Christ. The fact that God should have to be so emphatic in regard to such a matter shows how lamentably selfish is man. God, however, will have this defect remedied in His children. He has provided the things needful to remedy it. If "that day" should reveal that we are still imperfect, the fault will be ours - we shall find ourselves without excuse.
God's command concerning the poor has been enhanced by the promise that He will repay all that has been given, and also by the threat that the one who heeds not shall himself surely come to want (Prov. xxi. 13; xxii. 16). The day is fast approaching when both the obedient and the disobedient will realise that God meant exactly what He said (Matt. xxv. 31-46).
Bro AT Jannaway
TC 07 1887
12 And if thy brother, an Hebrew man, or an Hebrew woman, be sold unto thee, and serve thee 6 years; then in the 7th 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:
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14 Thou shalt furnish him liberally out of thy flock, and out of thy floor, and out of thy winepress: of that wherewith Yahweh thy Elohim hath blessed thee thou shalt give unto him
Thou shalt furnish him liberally out of thy flock [tzon], and out of thy [threshing] floor, and out of thy winepress: of that wherewith Yahweh thy Elohim hath blessed thee thou shalt give unto him.
The Law of Christ says that if a man will not work, he shall not eat (2 Thess. 3:10). This is only wisdom and kindness, both to the giver and the receiver.
The Law of Christ and the Law of Moses were to build character in both the donor and the recipient. It is not kindness to give what could and should be earned.
Under Moses' Law, a debtor must work out his debt, if he is able. But six years' service was the divine limit. Then the creditor must release him for a new start in life, and says the Law, "furnish him liberally,"out of flock, threshing-floor and winepress.
"Liberally" means different things to different people; yea, even different things to the same people when considering different things, and whether they happen to be giving or receiving.
The Law strangely, wisely, beautifully left it open to each heart to apply its own measure of liberality. God often leaves us with such decisions, that we may reveal the true measure of our heart and love for Him.
"He that soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly."
Bro Growcott - The spirit of Christ in the law of Moses
15 And thou shalt remember that thou wast a bondman in the land of Egypt [eved in Eretz Mitzrayim], and Yahweh thy Elohim redeemed thee: therefore I command thee this thing to day.
God had redeemed them, everyone, from bondage so they were to confer the same benefit on those of their brethren who were in bondage to them. And in doing so had not God seen to it that they should come out "with great substance", the Egyptians being only too eager to accede to their request to borrow their possessions in the desperate endeavour to hasten their departure on the fateful night of Passover?
So they too were to ensure that their Hebrew bondservants went out liberally supplied with every necessity of life. Symbolically, as it were, they were constantly to be reliving the Exodus.
In keeping with that fact the weak and defenceless were ever to be the objects of the Israelite's solicitude, for he himself had known the perils of their position when a slave in Egypt.
"Thou shalt not pervert the judgment of the stranger, nor of the fatherless; nor take a widow's raiment to pledge: but thou shalt remember that thou wast a bondman in Egypt, and the Lord thy God redeemed thee thence: therefore I command thee to do this thing" (Deut. 24 : 17- I 8).
He had suffered in Egypt not only as a slave but as an alien. Never was he therefore to perpetrate the same wrongs as he had suffered himself against any alien in his own midst.
"If a stranger sojourn with thee in your land, ye shall not vex him. But the stranger that dwelleth with you shall be unto you as one born among you, and thou shalt love him as thyself; for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God" (Lev. 19 : 33-34; cf. Exod. 23 : 9).
One law in particular made pathetic appeal to his own sense of gratitude for the freedom which he enjoyed as a slave liberated from a cruel master:
"Thou shalt not deliver unto his master the servant which is escaped from his master unto thee: he shall dwell with thee, even among you, in that place which he shall choose in one of thy gates, where it liketh him best: thou shalt not oppress him" (Deut. 23: 15-16).
The thoughtful Israelite could not fail to see a didactic purpose in this law. He was to see in the fugitive slave the reflection of himself fleeing from Egypt and to accord to him the same mercy and protection as he himself had been vouchsafed by God. Apart from humanitarian considerations any failure on his part to obey was much more than an act of disobedience: it was also an unwitting confession of spiritual blindness.
There was always a risk that such blindness might lead to the oppression of a fellow Israelite. This was emphatically forbidden.
All Israelites - high and low, rich and poor - were equal in their enjoyment of redemption from Egypt and membership of the Covenant nation. None was to forget it: so none was allowed to make a bondman of another Israelite.
"And if thy brother that dwelleth by thee be waxen poor, and be sold unto thee; thou shalt not compel him to serve as a bondservant: but as an hired servant, and as a sojourner, he shall be with thee and serve thee unto the year of jubile: and then shall he depart from thee, both he and his children with him, and shall return unto his own family, and unto the possession of his fathers shall he return. For they are my servants, which I brought forth out of the land of Egypt; they shall not be sold as bondman. Thou shalt not rule over him with rigour; but shalt fear thy God" (Lev. 25: 39-43).
Such bondmen were always to be foreigners:
"they shall be your bondmen for ever: but over your brethren the children of Israel ye shall not rule one over another with rigour" (verse 46).
A foreigner on the other hand was not allowed to make a bondman of any Israelite who sold himself into his service: "As a yearly hired servant shall he be with him: and the other shall not rule with rigour over him in thy sight" (verse 53).
Any Israelites who could were to regard it as a bounden duty to redeem any such needy brother and thus remove the anomaly presented by a member of the Covenant People serving one of the heathen.
As for any Israelite who esteemed the privileged status of his brother so lightly as to kidnap and sell him for gain, only one punishment was appropriate: "If a man be found stealing any of his brethren of the children of Israel and maketh merchandise of him, or selleth him; then that thief shall die; and thou shalt put evil away from among you" (Deut. 24: 7). Liberty was the God-given right of an Israelite. Even if his brethren failed in their duty by not redeeming him, that right was safeguarded by his automatic release in the usual way (cf. Deut. 15: 12).
"For unto me the children of Israel are servants; they are my servants whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God" (Lev. 25 : 55).
Law and Grace Ch 15
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 6 years: and Yahweh thy Elohim shall bless thee in all that thou doest.
16 And it shall be, if he say unto thee, I will not go away from thee; because he loveth thee and thine bais, because he fares well with thee;
17 Then thou shalt take an awl, and thrust it through his ear unto the delet, and he shall be thy eved olam. And also unto thy maidservant thou shalt do likewise.
18 It shall not seem hard unto thee, when thou sendest him away chafshi (free) from thee; for he hath been worth twice that of a hired eved to thee, in serving thee shesh shanim; and Hashem Eloheicha 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 Yahweh thy Elohim: thou shalt do no work with the firstling of thy bullock, nor shear the firstling of thy sheep.
20 Thou shalt eat it before Yahweh thy Elohim year by year in the place which Yahweh shall choose, thou and thy household.
21 And if there be any blemish [mum] therein, as if it be lame, or blind, or have any ill blemish [serious defect], thou shalt not sacrifice it unto Yahweh thy Elohim.
God demanded perfection of service. And to make it clear what was particularly abhorrent to Him in His People, two blemishes were named expressly-"as if it be lame, or blind". That is lameness of spiritual walk, or blindness to spiritual duty, ill befitted the People of God.
Law and Grace Ch 4