Deut 15.1-23 gives us Choice # 4, “What are we going to do with our money?” This is a chapter on Biblical Giving. Every seven years brought a remission or forgiveness of debts to your neighbor. You could not refuse a loan to him on this basis either in v 9. The bottom line is money is not supposed to be the most important thing, the welfare of your brother is. He may have been “sold to you” to pay off a debt, but he was to be treated with kindness and after six years, not sent away empty handed, so that he can start a new life. If that person does not want to leave the household because he loves his master, the owner took an awl and pierced his ear through to the doorpost, and he (or she) will remain in that house. All of this is seen as charity, doing the right thing, and loving your neighbor. People were not to withhold their charity because of the Shemittah. This was called being “stingy” or having an “evil eye” (ein ra). A “good eye’ is “ein tov” and that means “generous.” Yehovah hears the cry of those mistreated. Giving has more to do with the heart than with money. For instance, if you intended to give five dollars in an offering, and you gave a twenty dollar bill because there was no change, God sees you giving five dollars. We are not to give because we “have to” or help the poor in contempt, but give generously as Gad has prospered us, and according to your means (1 Cor 16.2).
v 1…”At the end of every seven years (in the seventh year-Jer 34.14) you shall grant a remission of debts (the land was not to be sown and the remission of all loans).
v.2…And this is the manner of remission, I every creditor shall release what he has loaned to his neighbor, he shall not exact it (press him for payment) of his neighbor and his brother, because the Lord’s remission has been proclaimed.
v 3…From a foreigner (nokri not a “ger”; a nokri only comes to Canaan to do business, he is not under any obligation to to surrender produce every seventh year, etc) you may exact it (demand payment), but your hand shall release whatever of yours is with your brother (payment shall not be claimed).
v 4…However, there shall be no poor among you (this is the ideal if v 5 was done, but it was never realized), since the Lord will surely bless you in the land which the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance to possess,
v 5…if only you listen obediently (be a doer) to the voice of the Lord your God, to observe carefully all this commandment which I am commanding you today.
v 6…For the Lord your God shall bless you as he has promised you, and you will lend to many nations (this was unlikely to become actual, like v 4), but you will not borrow, and you will rule over many nations (like with David and Solomon), but they will not rule over you (as long as they obeyed the Torah).
v 7…If there is a poor man with you, one of your brothers in any of your towns in your land which the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not harden his heart, nor close your hand from your poor brother (the poor in your own city are to be helped first),
v 8…but you shall freely open your hand to him, and shall generously lend him sufficient for his need (his present ones) in whatever he lacks.
v 9…Beware, lest there is a base thought in your heart, saying, “The seventh year (shemittah), the year of remission is near, and your eye is hostile (an evil eye/stingy-Prov 23.6; Matt 6.22-23) toward your poor brother, and you give him nothing; then he may cry to the Lord against you, and it shall be a sin in you.
v 10…You shall generously give to him, and your heart shall not be grieved (at parting with the money) when you give to him, because for this thing the Lord your God will bless you in all your work and in all your undertakings.
v 11…For the poor will never cease to be in the land (this was the reality; there is no contradiction with v 4 here because if the people had been obedient to the Torah, they would have been blessed and there would have been no poor-Matt 26.11), therefore I command you, saying, ‘You shall freely open your hand to your brother, to your needy and poor in your land.’
v 12…If your kinsman, a Hebrew man or woman, is sold to you (by a court because he could not repay what he had stolen, etc), then he shall serve you six years (as he was bound to do; a bondservant), but in the seventh year you shall set him free.
v 13…And when you set him free you shall not send him away empty-handed.
v 14…You shall furnish him liberally (for present and future needs to start over) from your flock and from your threshing floor and from your wine vat; you shall give to him as the Lord Your God has blessed you.
v 15…And you shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God redeemed you, therefore I command you this day.
v 16…And it shall come about if he says to you, ‘I will not go out (quit serving the master),’ because he loves you and your household since he fares well with you (this should be the case with us and the Lord),
v 17…then you shall take an awl and pierce it through his ear into the door (of the court who served as witnesses-Targum Jonathan; Exo 21.6), and he shall be your servant forever (until the yovel-Targum Jonathan). And also you shall do likewise to your maidservant (v 12-14; provide for her, too, if she were to go out; scholars are mixed as to whether you bored her ear if she chose to stay).
v 18…It shall not seem hard to you when you set him free (do not prohibit his liberty) for he has given you six years with double the service of a hired man (which was three years-Isa 16.14) so the Lord your God will bless you in whatever you do.
v 19…You shall consecrate to the Lord your God all the first-born (Exo 13.2) males that are born of your herd and of your flock, you shall not work with the first-born of your herd, nor shear the first-born of your flock.
v 20…You and your household shall eat it (if this is male first-born, only the priests can eat it; if this refers to a common Israelite, then it is either a female firstling or second firstling, which the people voluntarily gave and were not to eat in their houses) every year before the Lord your God in the place which the Lord chooses (in Jerusalem).
v 21…But if it has any defect, such as lameness or blindness, or any serious defect (blemish) you shall not sacrifice it to the Lord your God.
v 22…You shall eat it within your gates (homes), the unclean (out of place ritually) and the clean (in place ritually) alike may eat it, as a gazelle or a deer.
v 23…Only you shall not eat its blood; you are to pour it out on the ground like water.”
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