There should be no poor among you
“However, there should be no poor among you, for in the land the Lord your God is giving you to possess as your inheritance, he will richly bless you.”
Deuteronomy 15:4
“For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire men to work in his vineyard.”
Matthew 20:1
“Money is the root of all evil!” “Filthy lucre!” Common enough ideas in the mind of many Christians today. “If you love God you will despise material gain” is a prevalent undercurrent in Christianity. “If I truly love God, I will probably be poor” is, perhaps, not taught, but it is surely thought. The split thinking that creates a false divide between the spiritual and material is as glaringly obvious in this domain as any other. God’s promises to Israel as they left slavery in Egypt were not confined to blessings of an unseen nature. He promised He would bless them in every area of life including their crops, livestock, and business. He encouraged that if they would obey His teachings, they would not have poverty in their land. God fulfilled His promise. In little more than 300 years, Israel moved from having abject poverty in the wilderness to being one of the wealthiest nations in its day.
For most of the first two millennia of church growth, economic change and development followed the spread of the gospel. In Norway, Hans Nielsen Hauge, an early evangelist, worked his way from one desperately poor village to another. As he planted churches he also taught biblical business practices and helped new converts start businesses. Not only were souls won in Scandinavia and the rest of western Europe, but the gospel fed an economic revolution. Moses taught that Israel was to have no poor and the early church began to deal with poverty in its earliest agendas. Moses taught that work was part of our service to God and Paul reaffirmed this in the New Testament by teaching that believers who did not work did not eat.1
This is a far cry from the fruit the gospel has produced over the last two centuries. Africa probably provides us with our most stark reality. In his book, Hope For Africa – And What The Christian Can Do, Dr. George Kinoti, a university professor in Kenya, lays out the following crucial observations: One out of every three Africans does not get enough to eat. By 1987, 55 to 60 percent of rural Africans were living below the poverty line and the rate of impoverishment is accelerating. Two thirds of the poorest 40 nations in the world are African, as are eight of the poorest ten nations. “Experts tell us that Christianity is growing faster in Africa than on any other continent. At the same time, the people are rapidly becoming poorer and the moral and social fabric of society are disintegrating fast. Christianity is clearly not making a significant difference to African nations.”2
It is not uncommon today to find believers who think of money more in terms of magic than in terms of biblical principles. “If I give this amount, I will get this amount back! God will drop provision from the sky. I am believing for a miracle in my finances.”
Please! Understand me here. I am not against tithing. I believe God can and does perform financial miracles, and I believe God honors and blesses the generous heart. However, this thinking, when separated from scripture’s overarching principles of finance, is not “biblical” thinking, it is mysticism. Let’s look at a key economic passage from Moses’ teaching in Deuteronomy:
Deuteronomy 15:1-10
1 At the end of every seven years you must cancel debts.
2 This is how it is to be done: Every creditor shall cancel the loan he has made to his fellow Israelite. He shall not require payment from his fellow Israelite or brother, because the LORD’s time for canceling debts has been proclaimed.
3 You may require payment from a foreigner, but you must cancel any debt your brother owes you.
4 However, there should be no poor among you, for in the land the LORD your God is giving you to possess as your inheritance, he will richly bless you,
5 if only you fully obey the LORD your God and are careful to follow all these commands I am giving you today.
6 For the LORD your God will bless you as he has promised, and you will lend to many nations but will borrow from none. You will rule over many nations but none will rule over you.
7 If there is a poor man among your brothers in any of the towns of the land that the LORD your God is giving you, do not be hard-hearted or tight-fisted towards your poor brother.
8 Rather be open-handed and freely lend him whatever he needs.
9 Be careful not to harbor this wicked thought: “The seventh year, the year for canceling debts, is near,” so that you do not show ill will towards your needy brother and give him nothing. He may then appeal to the LORD against you, and you will be found guilty of sin.
10 Give generously to him and do so without a grudging heart; then because of this the LORD your God will bless you in all your work and in everything you put your hand to.
God makes it clear throughout scripture that it is His desire to bless all nations.3 When we ask, “How does God want to bless them?”, we find the answer in how He blessed Israel. Economic blessing was a clear part of God’s design for Israel from the moment they left Egypt. In Deuteronomy 15 we see that while they are still in the wilderness, He is beginning to prepare them for economic development and their responsibility for both the individual and the nation.
Debt Is To Be Limited
15 :1 At the end of every seven years you must cancel debts.
2 This is how it is to be done: Every creditor shall cancel the loan he has made to his fellow Israelite. He shall not require payment from his fellow Israelite or brother, because the LORD’s time for canceling debts has been proclaimed.
3 You may require payment from a foreigner, but you must cancel any debt your brother owes you.
When I speak in various countries I often ask how many in my audience have heard the teaching that Christians should never borrow. No matter what region of the world I am in, a few have been exposed to this message. The text that is often used for this teaching is, “Let no debt remain outstanding.”4 Basic rules of Bible study, however, tell us we must interpret scripture with scripture. We cannot make any single text mean something that makes nonsense out of other scriptural injunctions since there are many scriptures giving instructions for how to lend, how to borrow, and guidelines for repayment. Romans 13:8 does not literally mean “do not borrow.” It means do not default on your loan, make your payments on time, and keep your contracted agreement.
In verses one through three Moses is giving instruction for a system of debt repayment in Israel. It is unlikely that any nation is going to use the application of a seven-year national cycle again; but remember our task is to extract the principle from the purpose this application would accomplish. The principle here is that debt is to be limited. Israelites were not allowed to encumber people with debt in perpetuity. The system in Israel was universal. All of Israel’s private debt was forgiven in the same year. If you borrowed in the first year of the cycle you had seven years to repay. If you borrowed in the third year you had four years to repay and so forth. When the lender and the borrower entered into an agreement, they had to come up with a repayment plan that fit within the time.
My own country, the United States, has some of the best and worst examples of obeying this principle. Until this Century when it came to buying homes, America has a wonderful system. The interest rate is required by law to be one of the lowest rates for any loan, and the mortgage repayment plan must be for fifteen or thirty years. This system has made the United States one of the largest private home-owning populations in the world. On the other hand, America’s credit card system is more or less out of control. When you graduate from college, and often now even from high school, you get two, three or even more unsolicited credit cards in the mail. Each card gives you instant access to $1000 to $5000 dollars of credit. Many young people and many not so young people use these cards without ever looking at the fine print where it says the interest rate may be 19 to 26 percent or higher. I have seen interest rates as high as 36 percent. If you follow the seductive plan and pay only the “small minimum payment” required you will pay back the original amount thirty or forty times. You begin to pay interest upon interest. At one time this would have been called “loan-sharking” and would have been illegal. Today it is the norm for credit card payments in many countries. The problem of America’s personal credit card debt is of major concern and undermines the stability of the nation’s economy.
It would seem from the broad look at finances in the first five books of the Bible, that loaning was essential to enabling people to get out of their poverty. The lending focus was on small business loans. The purpose of these loans was to get people out of need and able to provide for themselves. The goal was economic enablement. For generations Jews have continued to practice many of these principles, the result being that no matter where you go in the world, no matter how poor the country, if Jews are there, they are making money. That does not mean that there are never poor Jews or that all Jews are wealthy, but they get established quickly and provide for themselves. Having an understanding of the purpose of lending, one Jewish family migrates and gets established. They send for the next family and loan them money to get started. That money is either repaid or is then loaned for the next family to come and get established. Lending, as Moses taught it, was about helping people get on their feet financially and becoming a productive part of the community. Lending was primarily a part of community responsibility and, secondly, a way of making money.
I have been told about a Christian banker who, studying these scriptures, was challenged that in America the banking system is loaning to the wrong people or perhaps it is better to say it is not loaning to the right people. U.S.A. banking institutions tend to loan to the wealthy or those who already have debt. But these same institutions will rarely accept a loan for the immigrant, women, the unemployed, or the poor who have a plan for starting a business but have no capital, but also no debt. This man began a private bank that only loaned to people who had a good idea for becoming a productive part of the community and only needed the money to get started. The bank has been enormously successful and has never had a defaulted loan. This is biblical economics.
Let’s take another look at verse three. “You may require payment from a foreigner, but you must cancel any debt your brother owes you.” At first glance one could think that God does not care about foreigners as much as He cares about Israel. This is not true. Again, the apparent meaning here cannot be the accurate meaning because it makes nonsense out of many other scriptures. It is clear from Genesis to Revelation that God wants to bless all nations. This theme is so overwhelming that it cannot be contested. Then why didn’t God require debt forgiveness for foreigners? The most probable interpretation of this variance is that the Jews were required to take the eighth year as a sabbatical year. They could not work nor could they work their animals or land. Therefore, they could not make payments. The non-Jews however were not required to obey this Jewish law. They could continue to work and they could make payments. In fact this was probably a “wind fall” year for the non-Jewish immigrants helping to enable them economically.
No Poor Among You
15:4 However, there should be no poor among you, for in the land the LORD your God is giving you to possess as your inheritance, he will richly bless you,
5 if only you fully obey the LORD your God and are careful to follow all these commands I am giving you today.
Verse four lays out a second principle we can glean from this passage. Israel was to have a national commitment to the elimination of poverty. Financial blessing came with financial responsibility within the nation. No teachings in scripture give a limit to personal or national wealth. There is teaching that wealth should not be your life obsession, that you should not put your trust in wealth, that wealth can draw your heart away from equally important things if you are not careful. However, scripture also applauds financial initiative and the role of wealth in the blessing of the community. The Bible emphasizes that the economic system of the community is to be one that is constantly addressing the elimination of poverty. For anyone to be poor and destitute in Israel was a shame on the whole community.
As I write this book (in 2005), America is experiencing one of the greatest financial booms in its history. Millionaires and billionaires are being created at a monumental rate. However the test of financial stability for a nation is not only the wealth being generated, but also activity at the bottom of the economic scale. Are the poor increasing or decreasing? The U.S.A. has more billionaires and, at the same time, an increasing number of people who live under the poverty line. The problem is not wealth, per se; the problem is irresponsible making of wealth. The economics of the Bible is not communist in promoting that all must be divided up equally. However, neither does it approve the flagrant disregard of the poor and the disenfranchised. Apparently, scripture promotes the idea that a growing and stable economic environment will be fostered, in part, by the enabling of those on the bottom of the economic ladder to move up, making their contribution to the quality of life in the nation.
It seems that scripture emphasizes the responsibility of the business community in relationship to the poor more than in any other domain. Farmers were to set aside the edges of their fields so that the poor could work the gleanings. Managers were encouraged to make work for the less fortunate in the community. Government is rarely mentioned in relationship to its responsibility to the poor. The church is given responsibility for the destitute. This very important distinction needs to be looked at here.
Aid Vs. Development
For centuries, Christians and humanitarians alike have promoted the obligation of nations that have to help nations that have not. Not a bad idea, in the main, and one that has a great deal of biblical support. Much of the application of this idea, at the local community level or the national level, takes the form of aid, vis-à-vis give-away programs, the idea being that if those who have will just give some of what they have to those who have not the poverty problem will be solved. On the surface this appears logical. In practice it is devastating and counter-productive. It actually produces poverty. The basic thinking is not biblical.
For the poor, the Bible emphasizes opportunity versus aid. Aid is reserved for those who have absolutely no way of providing for themselves and will die without assistance. Israel is certainly in this kind of circumstance in the wilderness – and God provides for the Israelites. However, it’s interesting that the day they stepped into the promised land the aid stopped. The day they had the feasibility to provide for themselves, God withdrew the manna. They had no more money the day the manna stopped than they did the day before, but now they had opportunity to provide for themselves. God did not want to create a dependent people, but a people who drew on the gifts, talents, and resources He had given to see them provide for themselves. Enablement is a major theme in biblical economics.
In everything that God does with Israel, He is working not only on their external circumstances, but also on their internal view of themselves and of God. He wants them to become self-reliant, not dependent. He wants them to see what they are able to do, to create, and to build. He is working to develop their economy, as well as their self-image and their character. The essence of discipleship is developing the inner man and, whether He is developing government or economics, God is working on the development of people, how they view themselves, and how they think.
This leads us to the next principle.
No National Debt
15:6 For the LORD your God will bless you as he has promised, and you will lend to many nations but will borrow from none. You will rule over many nations but none will rule over you.
Israel was told not to borrow. As a nation they were to have a policy of no national debt! In order to understand God’s reasoning here, we have to ask what a no-borrowing policy would produce in a community. First, they would have to learn to live within their means. Their wants would have to be balanced with their needs. Secondly, they would have to look into themselves as a people and learn what they were capable of doing, making, and discovering. In other words, they would be pushed towards self-reliance and away from dependence as a community.
In 20th Century India, Indira Gandhi fostered a national program called “Buy India.” The basic idea was to put a moratorium on imports forcing India as a nation to learn to produce the things that they wanted. If India wanted cars, washing machines, video cassette recorders, televisions, and the like, then India was going to have to learn to produce them. The first cars, VCRs, etc. did not work very well. But, they continued to improve. India slowly decreased the build up of trade imbalance, increased employment, and developed a great sense of national pride in their ability to produce and provide for themselves. They moved farther away from dependence towards self-reliance. God gifted all peoples and nations, and part of His objective in discipleship is to see those gifts shine.
Wicked Economics
15:7 If there is a poor man among your brothers in any of the towns of the land that the LORD your God is giving you, do not be hardhearted or tight-fisted towards your poor brother.
8 Rather be open-handed and freely lend him whatever he needs.
9 Be careful not to harbor this wicked thought: “The seventh year, the year for canceling debts, is near,” so that you do not show ill will towards your needy brother and give him nothing. He may then appeal to the LORD against you, and you will be found guilty of sin.
10 Give generously to him and do so without a grudging heart; then because of this the LORD your God will bless you in all your work and in everything you put your hand to.
Again we see that God remembers that man is fallen and will not necessarily do what is right, not even His beloved Israelites. Remember, when this was written they were still in the wilderness having just spent 400 years as slaves. God knows the human heart and He warned them that if He was going to bless them financially, they had to think about more than themselves. He wanted to bless them, but that blessing comes with a responsibility to the greater good of the community.
Notice in verse eight the operative word needs. Some Christians today think we have an obligation to give whatever anyone asks. This is not a biblical mind-set. In fact, it works against biblical principles because it can produce laziness and dependence. Notice also the important word lend. Lending is not the same as giving a handout. This is help to get started or offset a crisis. It implies a relationship of accountability, enough involvement in the lendee’s life to assess the need, and the ability to pay back.
A Few Practical Examples
A Swiss friend told me a wonderful story of community responsibility right from the pages of Calvin and Zeigler reformation, past and present. Her father was a vineyard keeper, as were most in their tiny village. The village had one collectively-owned vineyard. When a villager fell on bad times, he would be given this vineyard for one or two years until he could get back on his feet. The family in need worked the vineyard and kept the produce from that season. When they had reestablished themselves, the community would pass the vineyard on to the next needy family. Generosity and community responsibility – it is all there in biblical economics.
While I was teaching in a missions school in Denmark, a Danish worker told of what she and other Danish missionaries had done with the Tibetan tribe with which they work. This particular nomadic tribe had lost high numbers of yaks due to several extremely harsh winters. Because the yak is the centerpiece of their survival, the tribe was in danger of starvation. The Danish missionaries knew that they would be able to raise money in the West to help the tribe and did so. They bought yaks and gave them to the most desperate families. The eager worker’s question to me was, “How did we do in applying biblical economics?” My response was that they had half a revelation. And half a revelation is better than no revelation at all!
The team had seen that bringing the salvation message alone was not enough. They had to be involved in other areas of the Tibetan tribe’s desperate needs. They saw a financial need and sought to address it. The problem was with their solution. I asked the worker, “What would happen to the tribe if they had another series of harsh winters?” She responded that they would be in trouble again. Exactly! The solution had not solved the problem. In fact, the solution had made the tribe more dependent because, now, when they were in similar trouble they would go to Danish missionaries for help. She responded in class with an outburst of, “Help! What can we do?” Part of the problem is the we in the sentence. God, in His great heart to see a people developed, wants more emphasis on them. First of all, the tribe needed to be involved in the decision-making. The goal of biblical economics is to move towards independence and self-reliance. With blessing, God always gives responsibility and it must be one of the goals of the solution. The tribe might decide to take the yaks and after they have two calves, give one yak back – simple loan repayment allowing the missionaries to then loan the yak to another needy family. The tribe may have wanted to set up its own system whereby it took responsibility and agreed to pass a second yak calf on to the family in greatest need. This increases self-reliance and responsibility for the blessing. It also begins the multiplication process of the original gift. The tribe may decide to take the new yaks, sell every other newborn, and set up a “disaster relief fund” for future bad winters. Now self-reliance, responsibility, and long range planning are being built into the tribe’s thinking. This is biblical economic discipleship!
A Swedish friend told me another wonderful story. While on business in a major African city, this businessman was awakened in the middle of the night. He could not get back to sleep and felt that God was urging him to go for a walk. As soon as he stepped out onto the street, little boys selling candy surrounded him. They slept on the street in hope of a chance night sale. These children were destitute; every penny counted. The businessman struck up a conversation with the boys and with one in particular named David. He asked them how they lived and unraveled a tale of poverty, near starvation, homelessness, and slavery by any other name. The boys’ owner gave them candy and sent them out into the street to sell it. They received 15 percent of their sales. This income barely kept them from starving.
My friend found that the value of their box of candy was approximately fifteen American dollars. He told the boys that he was a Christian and a follower of Jesus and that Jesus cared about their condition and wanted to help them. He asked David whether he could live better if he sold his own candy and could keep the profits. The boy responded that he would have more than enough. My Swedish friend made a proposal to the boy: he would give him fifteen dollars to buy his own candy. When David started making extra money he agreed to save. When he had fifty dollars he would help the next boy buy his own candy and that boy would then do the same and so forth. The eager positive response was clear. He gave David the fifteen dollars and left.
Some months later a letter arrived in Sweden with the news from David that all the boys now owned their own candy. All the boys my Swedish friend had met that night had enough to eat and places to stay. All the boys were now Christians, going to church and were now helping other children get off the street. This is biblical economics: generosity, self-reliance, independence, responsibility, and multiplication all in one.
Summary
We are just skimming the surface of what the Bible has to say on these subjects. Remember, the purpose of this volume is to get us started thinking and studying the Bible in new ways. We will have to do a great deal of homework before we are ready to articulate a biblical view of economics from the whole of scripture.
The economic principles in Deuteronomy 15:1-10 we looked at:
- Limit personal debt.
- Eliminate poverty.
- Avoid national debt.
- Address legitimate needs of the poor.
The Hebrew mind could not grasp a concept of blessing without a tangible, as well as intangible, manifestation. The goodness of God was tied, in part, to having enough food, clothing, and shelter. The word “shalom” itself contained the concept of material blessing. Most of the earth’s population today is desperate for this gospel.
STUDY HELP:
Themes to consider when studying and coloring economics in the bible: Ethics and principles of finance, loans, agriculture, the worker, labor, the manager, inheritance, wages.
The domain of economics reveals: Jehovah Jireh, God our Provider
The primary attribute of God revealed in economics: Goodness
God governs this domain through: The laws of agriculture
The color I used: Green
WORKING VOCATIONAL MISSIONS STATEMENT:
To develop an economy where needed goods and services are provided for the community along with gainful employment at a fair market price and wage. Great issues include: honest gain, enablement of the poor, integrity of the work force, stewardship of resources and community conscience.
NOTE TO ALL BELIEVERS:
We all deal with finances and material blessing, or the need of it. This is not a travesty; this is not a terrible diversion from more important things; this is God’s plan for revealing Himself as Jehovah Jireh, the Lord of Goodness. So many want God’s material blessing without understanding God’s financial principles. God does want to bless us, but He wants to bless us in every area of our lives, not just provide us with material things. He wants us to be a blessing not just to be blessed. He wants to bless us in ways that make us more like Himself.
Do you know and live by God’s financial principles? Can’t answer that question? Don’t beat yourself up; you have much company in the body of Christ globally. Do you want to know God’s thinking about finance? Why not begin by reading His word with this theme in mind? I guarantee that God is ready and willing to disciple you in this area. You have to give Him the opportunity by being in His Word. You are a part of God’s strategy for discipling your community and nation. Will you step up to the call?
A NOTE TO THE BUSINESS PROFESSIONAL:
If you are a banker, a business person, a laborer, a manager, a store owner, a stock broker or a ditch digger who provides goods and services for your community or nation in any way, you are part of God’s plan to reveal Jehovah Jireh, God our Provider. The Bible has as much to say about finance and its purpose in blessing a people as any other subject in scripture including salvation. Most view business today as a means to make money and nothing more. In scripture, business is a means to make money and a great deal more. In scripture, it is about provision, about quality of life, about demonstrations of goodness and blessing. The Bible speaks about the worship of work and the Creator of work, about skill and craftsmanship and the work being worthy of the maker. The creature reveals the Creator in the quality of his work just as the Creator has revealed Himself in the quality of His work. Community responsibility and creative solutions reveal the goodness of God to every level of our society. You have a call of God on your life. Like Joseph you are part of God’s revelation of His ability to provide all that is needed in abundance. You are part of His plan to reveal the quality of the workman. What would happen if every Christian in the world showed up for work on time? Performed at their absolute best? Set their sights on blessing the community and company rather than blessing themselves? What would happen if every Christian who owned a business asked, “What does our community really need and how can we provide that and make a profit?” rather than “Where can we make the most money?” Before we can begin to dream, we must know what God wants us to dream. In order to know that, we must understand what He has already taught us in His Word. Does something stir in your heart as you read this? Are you one called of God to begin saturating yourself with the mind of Christ and then to apply it in your life and work? You are part of God’s strategy for discipling your nation.
1. 2 Thessalonians 3:10
2. “Hope for Africa” Ibid. page 12
3. Genesis 12:3; 18:18; 22:18; 26:4; 28:14
4. Romans 13:8