Deuteronomy, chapter 15, comments: thou shalt open thine hand wide to thy brother, to thy poor, and to thy needy, in thy land.

 

Deuteronomy 15:1 ¶  At the end of every seven years thou shalt make a release. 2  And this is the manner of the release: Every creditor 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  Save 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 thought 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.

 

A poor debtor who was unable to pay his debt would be released from it in the seventh year. It was important that the Israelite have mercy on his poorer brethren. Verse 4 suggests the possibility of their being such abundance that poverty will become non-existent although verse 11 straightens that notion out as there will always be someone who is poor. One argument against socialism I read in an 1800s British novel by Anthony Trollope entitled The Way We Live Now was that if every person was suddenly given one coat tomorrow there would be those with no coats and those with two coats. It is just the way human beings are. Nevertheless, let’s just read over the promises in this passage that God would give to an obedient Hebrew nation. They are pretty remarkable. Contrast that with the command to look out for their poorer brethren. There is no condemnation for being poor here. Read passage again aloud.

 

Deuteronomy 15:12 ¶  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.

 

We can almost see a faint trace of Jacob’s labor in this passage. He came to Laban, worked for a  long time and then left a wealthy man. The way servant is used some contexts we understand it to mean a slave although hired servant is clearly someone who is willfully employed.

 

Jeremiah 2:14  Is Israel a servant? is he a homeborn slave? why is he spoiled?

 

As remarkably strange as it sounds a Hebrew servant might choose to stay in his position as a slave to their master. If so there was allowance for that. God tells the Israelite not to begrudge the servant who decides to leave because they have served their master well. He has been of more value than two hired servants.

 

There is an interesting historical parallel here regarding American history. After the American War Between the States commonly called the American Civil War, the losing side began to publish and control a certain narrative that became useful in reconciliation between the sections of the country that had been at war. It insisted by virtue of a handful of slave narratives that were contrived by ex-Confederates and Confederate sympathizers that slavery was benign and peaceful and that loyal slaves were the backbone of the South. Books were written about it that included the happy, submissive slave. But the truth is that thousands upon thousands of slaves escaped their plantations and fled to the Union lines to freedom. The notion here that a Hebrew slave would choose to stay with his master implies a beneficial situation. But, the overwhelming majority of slave narratives from the Old American South, plus the diaries of slaveowner’s wives, and even some slaveowners themselves show a cruelty, a hard bondage, with families sold apart from each other, rape of young girls, slaves bred like animals by masters and their sons, and hideous cruelties enacted on slaves that makes a mockery of any comparison of a racial slave bound for life with no rights with a Hebrew owning a Hebrew for a period of time.

 

Deuteronomy 15:19 ¶  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.

 

Here again in verse 23 it is forbidden to drink blood as it states in Leviticus 3:17. This is commanded before the Law in Genesis 9:4. It is commanded in the age of Grace after the Resurrection in Acts 15:20.