Open the Bible

Colin Smith: God has not promised material prosperity to every Christian. It is a great misapplication of the Old Testament to take what is given distinctly to Israel and to simply land it, whether it be commandments or whether it be promises, on the individual Christian’s life.

Steve Hiller: Welcome to Open the Bible Weekend with Pastor Colin Smith. God has not promised material prosperity to every Christian, but as you look around, you do see that He has blessed many. Even did that back in the Old Testament, and as He did so, He also gave some commands.

Colin Smith: Yeah, that’s exactly right. While we can’t draw straight lines from all of the Old Testament commands to every individual Christian today, nonetheless there are wonderful principles that are laid out that speak to us very powerfully today. We’re going to look at the kind of compassionate society that God called His people to become, in which there were restraints on greed, there was kindness that gave a break to people who were poor.

It’s absolutely marvelous when you see this in the Old Testament law. I think the Old Testament law is often laughed at and lampooned, but actually there is great kindness that reflects the heart of our Father God and there are principles that speak to us very powerfully in an increasingly self-centered and often greedy culture that we live in today. Well, let’s begin to look at that from the book of Deuteronomy. We’re in chapter 15 as we begin a message called “Love Your Neighbor as Yourself.” Here is Pastor Colin.

The Gospels tell us about an occasion when someone asked our Lord Jesus this question: “Of all the commandments,” the man asked, “which is the most important?” You know that Jesus answered in this way. He said, “The most important commandment is this: Love the Lord your God with all of your heart and with all of your soul and with all of your mind and with all of your strength.” Then He said, “And the second one is like it. The second most important commandment is love your neighbor as yourself.”

So our Lord Jesus Christ makes it very clear that everything that God asks of you—all that He calls you to be, all that He calls you to do—is really summed up in this: Love God with all your heart and love your neighbor as yourself. Now, as this is a short series, I want us to move onto fresh ground today. That’s why we’re coming to chapter 15, which is really an application or an exposition of the fourth commandment—that, of course, is the commandment about remembering the Sabbath day and keeping it holy.

What I want us to see here today is that the root of loving God produces the fruit of loving other people. That’s always the way it works. We don’t generate love for others by some kind of latent power within ourselves. Real self-sacrificing love has its root in love for God. The root of love for God produces the fruit of love for others, and we’ll see that increasingly as we move through the book of Deuteronomy.

Now, before we plunge into this, I need to say that it is important to remember that the particular applications of the Ten Commandments that are laid out here are given to the nation of Israel. Back in the 12th century, a Jewish philosopher by the name of Maimonides published a definitive list of laws in the Old Testament, in the Pentateuch, that is. He listed—it’s been generally accepted ever since as an accurate description—that the first five books of the Bible contain 248 commands, 365 prohibitions, a total of 613 laws in the Old Testament. That’s Maimonides’ calculation. You can find it on the internet and read through the various categorizations.

These Old Testament laws relate to worship. They relate to the temple. They relate to sacrifices—how they were to be done. They relate to dietary laws, to vows, to ritual washings, to festivals, and a host of other things. I just need to say that it would be a great mistake to draw a direct line from these Old Testament laws given to Israel to the Christian life today. For example, in chapter 14—that is just before where we are in the scripture now—we have a whole chapter about laws regarding clean and unclean foods.

These laws were given to Israel, but in the New Testament, Christ proclaimed all foods clean—that is Mark chapter 7 and verse 29. This, for example, was a huge issue for the early church. There were people, you see, who said, “Now to be a Christian, you have to believe in Jesus and keep the 613 Old Testament laws as well.” They were called the Judaizers. The Apostle Paul had to deal with this, and he made it very clear that those who said this kind of thing had turned to a different gospel, which he said—Galatians chapter 1—is really no gospel at all.

So I say that just as we come to chapter 15 and in terms of our general understanding of how we apply the book of Deuteronomy, the command, for example, in chapter 15 and verse 1 to cancel all debts every seven years is not a command that God gives to you today. So if someone owes you some money and they repay it to you over a period of, say, ten years, you are not sinning if you receive that. Now, as we take that in, let me add this other point. It’s very important today.

In the same way as it would be a great mistake to draw a direct line from all of the 613 commands, positive and negative, in the Old Testament and just drop them onto the Christian life—which is what the Judaizers tried to do and Paul said you’re turning to another gospel if you do that—in the same way as that would be a huge mistake, it is equally a great mistake to draw a direct line from the promises that are given specifically to Israel and land them, as it were, directly on the Christian today.

For example, in chapter 15, read verses 4 and 5, much beloved by those who are besotted with prosperity teaching. See verses 4 and 5? God will richly bless you if only you fully obey the Lord your God. Now, you see, teachers of a prosperity gospel seize on words like these that were clearly given in the covenant to Israel and just apply them blithely to every Christian. “Obey God and you will be rich,” they say. You’ll hear this all the time on television.

Verse 6: “The Lord your God will bless you as He has promised you and you will lend to many nations and you will borrow from none.” Но this is a promise that is given to Israel. God has not promised material prosperity to every Christian. It is a great misapplication of the Old Testament to take what is given distinctly to Israel and simply land it—whether it be commandments or whether it be promises—on the individual Christian’s life.

So I want us to be clear about this, otherwise we will get into all kinds of confusion and we will end up in great difficulties. We must not take what is distinctive to God’s covenant with Israel as if these commands and promises were given to all people in every circumstance. Now, having said that, the law of God reflects the character of God. And the New Testament makes it clear, speaking about the Old Testament, that all scripture is God-breathed.

All of Deuteronomy, all of the Old Testament—and all of it is useful. That’s why we’re studying Deuteronomy. It’s useful for teaching, it’s useful for rebuking, it’s useful for correcting, and it’s useful for training in righteousness—that’s 2 Timothy chapter 3 and verse 16. All these things in the Old Testament, the Apostle Paul says, were written for us and they’re all there for our benefit. That’s why we don’t simply detach the New Testament and say this is all we need to worry about. We want to hear the Word of God in every part of the scripture.

Steve Hiller: Well, we’re going to continue to look at the book of Deuteronomy coming up in just a moment. You’re listening to Open the Bible Weekend with Pastor Colin Smith and a message called “Love Your Neighbor as Yourself.” It’s part of our series Take Two: The Power of a Fresh Start. If you ever miss a broadcast in the series, come and listen online. Our website is openthebible.org.

There you can stream the program; you can also download an MP3 for free. Again, that’s at openthebible.org. You can also listen through the Open the Bible app, which you’ll find for free at your app store. But whether you listen to this program online, on the radio, or through the app, it’s all made possible because of your generosity. So thank you for giving to and supporting this ministry. If you’d like to give a gift online, you can do that at openthebible.org or call 1-877-OPEN-365. Back to the message; here is Pastor Colin.

Colin Smith: So what I want us to do today is to see how God’s words in Deuteronomy chapter 15 reflect His glorious character and His purpose. How these words teach us and how they train us, and how they rebuke us, and how they correct us. So with that introduction that I think is very important for our understanding of the Old Testament, I want to suggest that God speaks to us here in at least five ways.

I’m only going to give five ways today. They’re not going to grow in the telling, but there may well be more, but I want to give to you these five. Number one: I want us to see here a wonderful glimpse of the abundant provision of God. Look at Deuteronomy chapter 15 and verse 4: “There should be no poor among you, for in the land the Lord your God is giving you, He will richly bless you.”

Now remember, when God’s people came out of the desert, Moses is speaking to them on the verge of the promised land here and they’re about to go in under the leadership of Joshua. When they got into the promised land, each family was given a portion of land. Here are these tent dwellers, kids who all their lives have lived in the desert. They owned nothing. And they become property owners with land and a means of establishing an income.

What God gave to them, they were able to pass on to their children, which is why the word inheritance is used here. If ever there was a land of equal opportunity, this was it. Everyone given a house, everyone given some land, everyone given the opportunity of generating an income. We have called this series Take Two: The Power of a Fresh Start. Boy, God’s people had some fresh start in this land where God had supplied all that was needed to sustain all of His people.

So God says in chapter 15 and verse 4, “There should be no poor among you.” No need for anyone to be poor in the land because everyone is going to be given this wonderful inheritance and the land is abundant with enough to sustain all of God’s people. There should be no poor among you. The reality of life in the land, though—and the reality of life in our world today—is that no one fully obeys the Lord our God.

None of us loves God with all his heart, and we do not love our neighbor as we love ourselves. So, while there is sufficient that has been supplied by God for everybody, the nature of sin in us is such that God gives us laws to put a brake on human greed. And God gave these laws in Deuteronomy in chapter 15 so that the poor would find relief and so that no one would be trapped long-term in crippling debt.

So that brings us to the second way in which this scripture speaks to us. It speaks to us of the abundant provision of God bringing His people into this good land. Secondly, it speaks to us of the kindness of God’s law. Think about the kindness of these laws that we’ve read. At the end of every seven years, verse 7, you must cancel debts. Remember God’s saying there’s no reason why anyone should be in a position of poverty because of the abundance of supply.

But in this fallen world, the reality is that some are going to find themselves in great difficulty and no one is to be trapped there long-term. So says God, I give you this law: At the end of every seven years, you must cancel debts. About 60 years ago, a man by the name of Thomas Cameron wrote a book with a beautiful title. He called it The Kindly Laws of the Old Testament.

And what Thomas Cameron did was he picked up throughout the Old Testament with its over 600 laws and commands there, he picked up just how many of them were an expression of God’s kindness to the weakest and the poorest in society. Read through the scriptures; you see it here and in so many other places. The Old Testament is full of laws that were to help the poor, that were to deliver people from being trapped in situations of grinding poverty in the long term.

And really this Sabbath law—this application of the fourth commandment, the seven-year release in Deuteronomy chapter 15 and verse 1—it is really the flagship that leads the way, as someone has put it, for a whole flotilla of Old Testament laws that all have this in common: they are the kindness of God with regards to those who have least. Look at how it was to work. Verse 2: “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.”

Folks, think with me about the practical effects of God’s kindly law here. Think of how this exercises a restraint on lenders. See, what this is saying is that under this law, there were to be no loans that were for more or longer than seven years. Now, remember, by way of explanation, we’re not talking about mortgages for homes here. The homes were given by God to people, and if a person became poor and they had to sell the home in order to alleviate their poverty, there was another law that you will be aware of, I’m sure, called the Jubilee law.

You can read about that in Leviticus 25, in which once every 50 years, there was a return of property. But this is not dealing with property; it’s not dealing with loans with regards to a mortgage. So put homes to one side, where most people will have to borrow over a longer period of time. Put that to one side and look at the rest of life and what this law has to teach us. Lenders would be restrained from giving loans that were larger than people could reasonably expect to repay within a period of seven years.

So this kindly law of God gives a restraint to lenders. Secondly, it gives a discipline for borrowers. Since loans were canceled at the end of every seven years if they could not be repaid, what that meant was by definition, the repayment of loans would be scheduled over a maximum of 84 months. No loan was repayable over a longer schedule than seven years. And in most cases, of course, the loan would be scheduled for repayment considerably sooner.

If you were in year four of the seven-year circle and you took a loan, it would have to be repaid; the schedule would be for three years. If you were year five in the cycle and you took a loan, you would need to be taking a loan that you could repay within two years. That’s the discipline that clearly this law imposes in relation to borrowers. There is a restraint; there is a discipline here. This law is not saying, “Hey, just borrow as much as you want and then every seven years just write it off.”

That’s not what it’s saying. This is a law for the relief of the poor, for someone who might have taken out a loan that they could reasonably, honestly expect to repay within the seven-year period, and then a father has died or some other calamity has come and with the best will in the world, they have not been able to do this. The situation has totally changed. And God says, well, rather than them be caught in a trap that will grind on throughout their life, there is to be a year of release and it is to be a blessing in the whole land.

So here’s the principle: God allows His people to borrow money, but He does not want His people living on credit. You have a schedule, you repay it within a limited period of time, and God says here’s a seven-year frame—that’s a very good way for thinking about it. And so the principle, I think here, is very simple: You can borrow if you need to, but borrow as little as you can and repay as fast as you can.

And don’t borrow more than you can reasonably expect to repay in a short period of time. This is wisdom from God that comes from the Old Testament law that is transferable across cultures and across time. Plan to repay whatever you borrow. Don’t borrow what you cannot repay, for the New Testament also says, “Let no debt remain outstanding.” So these are wonderful kind laws. They give restraint to lenders, and they give discipline to borrowers.

Thirdly—and I’m just intrigued to think about this, especially in relation to our time and our culture today—can you imagine the good that this would do in our court system? The canceling of all debts every seven years? Luther describes this as a beautiful and fair law, and he says he longs that rulers of the world would imitate it. He says they would have fewer questions—by which he means cases—fewer cases and commotions, for people would know that suits, disputes, debts, dealings, agreements, judgments, seals, and letters would all be removed at one time, canceled in the seventh year, and would not be postponed and continued forever into endless litigation.

That’s Luther’s comment. Well, of course, the various statutes of limitation that we have in our legal system go back to these Old Testament laws, and thank God for it. But can you imagine, not simply the statutes of limitation that are on a kind of rolling cycle, but can you imagine the impact of everybody drawing a line at the same time? And all claims against you being canceled and you at the same time canceling all claims against everyone else? The kindly laws of the Old Testament. By the way, here’s just a footnote that I think we can rightly take away from this teaching: For every grievance, there is a time to let go.

Steve Hiller: Well, that is just one practical footnote. We’re going to continue our message, “Love Your Neighbor as Yourself,” on the next program, so I hope you make it a point to tune in. If you ever miss a program, come and listen online. Our website is openthebible.org. You can stream the program or you can download an MP3 for free. Again, that’s at openthebible.org.

Well, as you give a gift of any amount this month, you’re going to receive a copy of Pastor Brad Wetherell’s book called Saved to Sin No More. And Colin, who is this book for?

Colin Smith: Well, it’s really for every Christian who wants to make progress in his or her battle against sin, and that’s surely got to be everyone who knows and loves the Lord Jesus Christ. You know, I think one of the greatest struggles that we have is just discouragement, and the doctrine of union with Christ is the most encouraging truth that I know in all of the Bible. Faith unites us to the Lord Jesus Christ so that His presence is in us through the Holy Spirit.

And when Christ is in us, there’s something of the power and the peace and the joy of the Lord Jesus that’s actually in us too. And when that’s the case, it makes what would have been impossible for us on our own possible because His power and His presence is with us. So getting hold of what it means to actually have Christ in us and for us to be in Him—that’s union with Christ—is going to be the most encouraging thing for moving forward in the battle against stubborn sins that often defeat us.

Steve Hiller: Well, we’d love to send you a copy of this book. Again, it’s called Saved to Sin No More, and it’s our thank you for your financial support this month. You can give a gift online at openthebible.org or when you call 1-877-673-6365. That might be easier to remember as 1-877-OPEN-365. Or again, our website is openthebible.org. For Pastor Colin Smith, I’m Steve Hiller. Thanks for listening, and I hope you’ll join us next time. Open the Bible Weekend is a listener-supported production of Open the Bible.

Colin Smith: At Open the Bible, we’re grateful for like-minded organizations committed to sharing the gospel around the world. And to that end, I’d like to commend the work of Global Fingerprints. You know, in the book of James, God calls us to help orphans in their distress. That’s a clear command, but it’s not always clear how we should obey it. And this is where Global Fingerprints comes in.

Through Global Fingerprints, you can sponsor a vulnerable child to help meet their physical needs and ensure they hear the gospel of Jesus Christ. I want to commend Global Fingerprints to you. They’re focused on equipping the local church to care for children and where there is no church, they help to plant one. If you’d like to help a vulnerable child, you can find more information on Global Fingerprints at our website, openthebible.org/gf. That’s openthebible.org/gf.