“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.”
~ Deuteronomy 15:10
Hi James and Ellen,
How do you feel about money? Do you like having money? Do you like the feeling of using the money that you have to help a guy, gal or kid who needs help? Do you like the feeling when a guy, gal or kid helps you with a money gift? What is being poor mean to you? Is being poor to you not having money? Do you think that it is good to give money to a guy, gal or kid who is poor? Do you like to help with a money gift a guy, gal or kid who you think to be poor? Do you think that you are poor? Do you think that your dad and ma are poor? Why do you need money? Why do you need food? Some kind of exchange medium is essential for survival. Coins and bills have become the exchange medium for purchasing items and for paying salaries and debts. Bartering or the reciprocal exchanging of merchandise or service is another way to satisfy costs and services. God passed on through Moses standards to His specially chosen guys and gals on how they were to deal with money and service indebtedness. Deuteronomy 15 notes the criterions that God passed on through Moses to His specially chosen guys and gals on how to handle money and service obligations. God wanted His specially chosen guys and gals to understand that He is okay with one of His specially chosen guys – who has the money, to loan some of the money to another guy. God wanted His specially chosen guys and gals to understand that He did know that there would always be poor guys, gals and kids who would be living in the land that He was leading them to to always have to live as their very own land if . . . God also wanted His specially chosen guys and gals to internalize that He is always looking at the attitude of the guy who has given a money loan to another guy versus giving the guy who has given the money loan power or prestige points for having given money to a guy who needed the loan. Verse 10 says, “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.”
If your dad and ma have the money or if the country that they are living in can afford to do so, God expects your dad and ma to be willing to loan some of their money to another guy and God expects the United States to be willing to loan some of its money to another country. God gave a stipulation through Moses to His specially chosen guys and gals on how to handle money that is owed to another guy or gal. God specifically specified through Moses to His specially chosen guys and gals that every seventh year that all the debts that God’s specially chosen guys and gals have were to be cancelled. God knew that His specially chosen guys and gals would fare well in the land that He was giving them to always have to live in as their very own land if . . . God expected His specially chosen guys and gals to distribute their earned wealth instead of hoarding their accrued wealth. This mandate from God though Moses of debt forgiveness extended to purchased slaves. A bought slave at times might have reason to want to stay as a servant in the home of his master. God was okay with that. God specified at this time through Moses to His specially chosen guys and gals that if a freed slave did want to stay in the home that had bought him from another guy that his master had to drive an awl through one of the guy’s earlobes. Any guy among God’s specially chosen guys and gals at this time who had a hole in one of his earlobes would be recognized as being a freed slave who was totally committed to staying in his former master’s house – to continue to serve his former master. A Christian life parallel can be seen between a freed servant 3400 years ago and God’s specially elected guys, gals and kids today. A bondservant relationship – such as the kind of relationship that a freed slave had with his master, is the kind of servanthood relationship that God expects today from His specially elected guys, gals and kids.
Because an underdeveloped country invariably lacks wealth, an underdeveloped country can be defined as being a poor country. There is a tendency to define how poor a guy or gal is or how poor a country is by all the things that a guy or gal has or that a country has. Guys and gals who live in underdeveloped countries live hand to mouth. Gals your age James can be found on streets in the towns where they live selling merchandize – such as wrist bracelets that they have woven and items such as table runners that their ma’s have made on a loam. The money that the gals make help to buy food for their family. You might say that the kids who are living in rural communities in Bolivia and Guatemala are poor because they have just a handful of toys – if they have any toys at all, because they do not have a computer – let alone a TV, and because their dad does not have a car. There are a lot of kids who are living in rural areas of underdeveloped countries who are living in houses that have dirt floors, roofs made from grass or from palm fronds and boards to sleep on or a hammock to sleep in at night. After being around kids who are living in rural areas in Bolivia and Guatemala, your grandmaa and grandpaa quickly came to realize that these kids did not think of themselves as being poor. Kids who live in rural areas in underdeveloped countries on planet Earth sometimes lack having enough nutritious food to eat, oftentimes lack the opportunity to get a good education and many times do not have lifesaving medical help readily available yet these same kids have rich relationships with other kids. God will no longer bless your wealthy country if your country ever stops trying to help these kids who do not have what you have access to in regards to food, education and health. These ‘poor’ kids at the same time have the kind of deep, meaningful types of relationships with each other that your wealthy country’s kids just do not have.
Deuteronomy 15 (532)