You can see the depth of care the Lord holds for the poor. Throughout the Scriptures you'll find references and commands to look after the poor, the fatherless, the widow: those who cannot take care of themselves. In the Sabbath year, all debtors are released from their debt, and God specifically forbade the Israelites to refuse those in need for fear of not recooping their loans if the Sabbatical year was approaching. Instead, He commands them to open their hands wide to those in need, to show them love and concern. This theme carries through the Old and New Testaments, both. I remember a college classmate of mine commenting in her blog that she felt the most radical thing about the Proverbs 31 woman was not that she seemed to be able to "do it all", but that she looked after the poor. What do you think: are we really fulfilling the command of God if we merely give to the church and to charities to look after the poor for us? Does God expect something more from us than just monetary support?
One other observation: did you notice the verse about the Israelites being lenders to many nations, but that they would never borrow so that no one could rule over them? I found that statement very interesting, in view of Jewish history through the medieval period, and perhaps beyond. Jews were the ones in many European countries, most notably England, who acted as moneylenders because usury was banned by the Church. This allowed many Jews to gain a notable amount of wealth, as they followed the Old Testament command to avoid being indebted, and therefore bound, to anyone. Of course, enmity between the Jews and Christians would be not wholly caused but encouraged by the fact that Jews were getting rich off of their Christian neighbors. It caused the Jewish people a fair amount of persecution, one instance their expulsion from England in 1290. I simply found it interesting that in view of this passage in ch. 15, the later applications and almost prophetic nature of the statement to their history.
Tomorrow's Reading: Deuteronomy 15:12-17:7
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