Deuteronomy 15

I love the seven year cycle of debt forgiveness we find in the Old Testament. But before you get too excited, remember, that the lending practices took into consideration this cycle. So for example, if you were only months away from a seventh year, no one would lend you beyond what you could pay back in the time remaining. This practice protected people from over-leveraging themselves because no lender would risk having to absorb debt.

Also, note the apparent contradiction between verses 4 and 11. But when we come to such moments, we need to remember Biblical contradiction always means a lack of understanding on our part and never an incompleteness in the text. Verse 11 speaks to the reality that there will always be poor cycling into financial crisis and verse 4 is speaking to how that the poverty population should not perpetually be the same people. The systems God put into place were intended to empower people to cycle through poverty, back into prosperity.

Pastor Fred