Making a Differencewith Pastor Phil Erickson

Mar 6th, 2024 The Lord Blesses Those Who Bless Others

Today’s Passage – Deuteronomy 15 – 18 (Click on the references to listen to the audio – Click here to view the passage from Blue Letter Bible)

(Second Milers also read –  Galatians 1 – 3; Proverbs 6; Psalm 26 – 30)

Listen to this morning’s Scripture song – Isaiah 51:11

Read the “0306 Evening and Morning” devotion for today, by the late Charles Haddon Spurgeon.

Read a previous post from this passage – “Did You Write Your Bible Today?”

“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.” (Deuteronomy 15:1-8)

In our reading today, God, through Moses, is continuing to prepare the Israelites for life in their new home. They are about ready to cross the Jordan River and possess the Land of Canaan. God promises them that He is going to bless them abundantly and that they would have way more than they needed; so much so, that God commands them to release anybody that owed them money of the debt that they owed every seven years. Every seventh year, all debts would be forgiven. The reason why the creditors could do this was because God was going to see to it that they would make so much in the first six years that the loss they took in the seventh year would not matter. The shrewd and selfish businessman might think that he would only lend out money in the early part of the six years so that he could make the most interest on the debt as possible, but God commanded them to make sure the poor people got the money they needed even if it was close to the seventh year. The fact is that God made sure that His people were very prosperous, though He acknowledged that there would always be a few poor among them. However, in a godless society there is more than just a few poor, there will be many who are poor and few that are prosperous. The blessings that God gave Israel made the whole nation prosperous with few exceptions, which allowed them to be very generous with the relatively small number of poor people who were among them.

“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.” (Deuteronomy 15:11)

“7 For ye have the poor with you always, and whensoever ye will ye may do them good: but me ye have not always.” (Mark 14:7)

How much is enough? When will you have enough that you finally get to the place where you can start giving some of the excess away to others that have a need? I am reminded of the conversation that Esau had with his brother Jacob. Jacob had prepared a valuable gift of livestock for his brother, but Esau said: “I have enough, my brother; keep that thou hast unto thyself” (Genesis 33:9). The problem with most of us is that we think that we will never have enough and that what we have will run out, and that fear keeps us from giving away anything. The truth is, however, that when we realize that God is the source of everything that we have and that God wants us to be generous to others, we can then let go; and when we finally let go, God blesses us with more. I have had this struggle my whole life. I worry about running out, but God keeps giving us more. God just keeps giving to us, but He expects us to keep giving back to Him by giving to the work of the Lord and by giving to people who have need.

Consider the following verses from Proverbs:

“He that oppresseth the poor reproacheth his Maker: but he that honoureth him hath mercy on the poor.” (Proverbs 14:31)

“He that hath pity upon the poor lendeth unto the LORD; and that which he hath given will he pay him again.” (Proverbs 19:17)

“Whoso stoppeth his ears at the cry of the poor, he also shall cry himself, but shall not be heard.” (Proverbs 21:13)

“He that hath a bountiful eye shall be blessed; for he giveth of his bread to the poor.” (Proverbs 22:9)

“He that giveth unto the poor shall not lack: but he that hideth his eyes shall have many a curse.” (Proverbs 28:27)

“The righteous considereth the cause of the poor: but the wicked regardeth not to know it.” (Proverbs 29:7)