Scripture: Deuteronomy 23:19-20
"You
shall not charge interest to your countrymen: interest on money, food, or anything
that may be loaned at interest. "You may charge interest to a foreigner,
but to your countrymen you shall not charge interest, so that the LORD your God
may bless you in all that you undertake in the land which you are about to
enter to possess.
Insights: Yesterday
we left Nehemiah angry at the people.
Why was he angry? It was because
they had violated the Mosaic Law. Let me
clarify something about today’s verses.
They were written to the Israelite nation and these specific laws do not
necessarily relate to us Christ-followers in the same way they did to the
Jewish people. The principles, however,
are very much applicable to our lives and our finances. As a brief review from yesterday, the people
were facing financial crises from high interest rates that lead to
slavery. In today’s verses we are informed
that a Jewish person was not to charge his fellow Jewish neighbor interest, but
that it was okay to charge a non-Jew interest.
Now the next part of this equation is not found in today’s verse, but it
is found in Leviticus twenty-five, the Jews were also not to enslave another
Jew. In Nehemiah’s situation, both of
those mandates were being violated. It
was for this sin against the Law that Nehemiah got so angry. The last part of verse twenty in today’s
verses is part of the clue as to what is at stake for the children of Israel in
the Nehemiah passage for this week. They
were breaking the Law; and because they were breaking the Law, God was not
blessing them. The end of verse twenty
tells us the Lord wanted to bless them when they took possession of the
Promised Land, but obedience was required.
The reason God wanted to bless them was to prove to the other nations
that the children of Israel were different from any other nation. They were God’s children and He wanted to
show off His children to the watching world.
So, God set up rules to live by that would distinguish them from
everyone else and He would bless them because of their distinction. There was to be a very visible difference
between the way they lived their lives and the lost world lived their
lives. This distinction was to point the
nations back to God. They did not live
that way, and God did not bless them, and Nehemiah got angry. Our lives are to look differently because of
our relationship with God.
Questions:
- Does your life show a distinction between you, because
of your relationship with Jesus, and the rest of the lost world?
- Are you following God’s principles as it relates to
your finances?
Prayer: Father, let my
life show a distinction because of being Your child. Guide me to the truths of Your Word and let
It guide me into obedience with You. Amen.
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