June 10: Deuteronomy 15
Follow the money
We should take Deuteronomy 15:4 at face value. If the people of God were to follow God’s laws, there would be no poor people in the land. This may seem quaint to many Christians who have come to rely on the state for solving all such social ills, but there it is.
In part this was accomplished through the “Year of Jubilee” (verse 1). Whenever a man became poor, he would become a debt-slave to one who lent him money in order to live - but for no more than six years. The slave-work meant that he retained his dignity. But in the seventh year, all such debtors would be released, no matter how long or by how much they were in debt.
Thus the wealthy were not to become stingy as the seventh year approached and withhold help. They were to treat it as a gift, not an investment, even if they thought they might be taken advantage of. What matters most is obedient love to God and man. He should not treat his wealth as a thing of ultimate importance. In other words, he should not love his money. That love should only be reserved for God and neighbor. Then he would fulfill the entire law, and poverty would be eradicated, at least among God’s people.
The importance of following God’s law in each generation cannot be overstated, for every generation will have poor people (verse 11). That’s because, even if Israel followed this law, they would be receiving foreigners (see verse 3) who converted to Yahweh-worship . . . and also because of the sinfulness of the human heart.
From what I read in the rest of the Bible, the year of Jubilee was rarely if ever observed. So by the time of Christ, the place for the nations in the temple is taken up by the moneychangers, and Jesus readily agrees that the poor will always be with us (Matthew 26:11). Something must change. The human heart must be transformed in order to obey God’s law. We must be born again in order to love God and neighbor.
And the woman who anoints Jesus shows us the way. The disciples are indignant that her lavish gift could have been given to the poor (i.e., Judas’ pocket) (Matthew 26:8-9). But her love rests not on her wealth but on her Savior. She is what Israel was always to be.