Deuteronomy 15:1-11

The Place of Beneficence

Deu 15:1-11

God is putting lines of mercy amid all the black print of the law. It would seem as if wherever God could find a place at which he might utter some word of pity or compassion he filled up that place with an utterance of his solicitude for the welfare of man. Loving words always look beautiful; perhaps they look most beautiful when surrounded by contrastive words of stern righteousness, of unyielding law, of severe prohibition. Flowers look lovely everywhere, but what must be the loveliness of a flower to the wanderer in a desert? So these Gospel words are full of charm wherever we find them, but they have double charmfulness being found in connection with institutions, instructions, precepts, and commandments marked by the severest righteousness. In the midst of time God graciously puts a year of release. Time needs to be jewelled; time is an appalling monotony. What can be so dull as the days that have no business, no pleasure, no special engagement for faculties which have been prepared for specific work? How dull the time is then, without a sparkle of dew, without a glint of superior light, without a note of supernal music! But God will mark off special periods; the very boundaries shall be gold; the very limits shall glitter with diamonds. How many beautiful days (as we have already seen) has God set in the commonplace of life: the restful Sabbath, the hilarious festival, the time of family joy. Memory will supply many such dates and engagements which fill the heart with highest gladness. The poor man must have his year of release the debtor, the slave, the servant, the disappointed heart. The rich have many friends they can turn the whole week into a gala-day; but the poorest and weakest of mankind must have a year set amid the succession of the days to which they can look with religious expectation. It is something to know the limit of one's endurance. When no date of liberation is fixed, the heart aches because of the burdensome monotony; but when a time is appointed a specified line laid down courage rises: the spirit says, Now I must be brave; every day brings the year of release nearer; I must fire my courage and heroically try again. We know what this is in various departments of life. How often have men sighed, expressing the thought, which they could scarcely put into words sufficiently delicate, that if but a limit could be assigned say a year hence, or seven years, or ten they could grapple with a given quantity: they could face a specific and measurable difficulty; but to look upon the everlasting when that everlasting is one of darkness and trial cows the spirit, subdues and humiliates the soul.

We must have the element of hopefulness in life: without hope we die. To-morrow will be a day of ransom and liberty if not to-morrow by the clock, yet to-morrow in feeling: already the dawn is upon our hearts, already we hear noises of a distant approach: presently a great gladness will descend upon the soul. The child will be better in a day or two; when the weather warms (the doctor assures us), the life will be stronger. When arrangements now in progress are consummated and they will be consummated presently the whole house will be lighted up with real joy and thankfulness. So the spirit speaks to itself; so the heart sings songs in the night-time; so we live by hope and faith the higher Self, the grander Reason. Nor is this pitiful dreaming on our part. There is something in man that will hope. Blessed be God for the singing angel; when we quench his song, we quench ourselves. There is a pressure, as of prophecy within us, so that in our degree we are all foretellers: we have each a gleaming vision on which the soul's bright answering eyes are fixed; we know that right will conquer, that light will chase away the shadows, that truth will be enthroned, and that earth shall yet be beautiful with her Maker's blessing. This is the larger hope, the Christian expectation, the evangelical prophecy. We have but to multiply what is in ourselves, instinctively and educationally, to find in the expansion of that great power all that is brightest in prophecy, all that is gladdest in Christian forecast. What applies to the individual life applies to the associated life which is denominated the Church.

We find in this year of release what we all need namely, the principle of new chances, new opportunities, fresh beginnings. To-morrow said the debtor or the slave is the day of release, and the next day I shall begin again: I shall have another chance in life; the burden will be taken away, the darkness will be dispersed, and life shall be young again. Every man ought to have more chances than one, even in our own life. God has filled the sphere of life with opportunities. The expired week is dead and gone, and Christ's own resurrection day comes with the Gospel of hope, the Gospel of a new beginning, the Gospel of a larger opportunity; and the year dies and buries itself, and the new year comes with silver trumpets, with proclamations from heaven, and Life says, when it is not utterly lost, I will begin again: I will no longer blot the book of life: I will write with a steady and careful hand. But where moral questions are concerned a process must be indicated which is indispensable. Institutional arrangements can be changed at given dates, but moral releases can only be accomplished by moral processes. The man who is in prison must take the right steps to get out of it. What are those right steps? repentance, contrition, confession open, frank, straightforward, self-renouncing confession; then the man must be allowed to begin again; God will, in his providence, work out for such a man another opportunity; concealment there must be none, prevarication none, self-defence none. Where the case lies between the soul and God the higher morality still there must be an interview at the Cross a mysterious communion under the blood that flows from the wounded Christ. "If we confess our sins, God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." With regard to this higher order of release we may say, "Now is the accepted time; now is the day of salvation;" the year of jubilee has come; the year of release is shining upon us; whosoever will let him rise a man. It is well, notwithstanding, to accustom the mind to all the lower revelations of release, forgiveness, new opportunity, that so, step by step, we may ascend the ladder the head of which is in heaven.

All this being done on the part of the creditor and the owner, what happens on the side of God? The answer to that inquiry is:

"The Lord shall greatly bless thee in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee for an inheritance to possess it" ( Deu 15:4 ).

"Beware that there be not a thought in thy wicked heart, saying, The seventh year, the year of release, is at hand; and thine eye be evil against thy poor brother, and thou givest him nought." ( Deu 15:9 )

The book which contains this caution by so much vindicates its own inspiration. A book which so knows human nature, understands its every pulse and thought, is a book which was written by more than human wisdom. In incidental instances of this kind we see into the real quality of the book. It is comparatively easy to make broad laws and to give general directions without following them into their issues and all their involutions of consequence and relation; but here is a book which searches the heart, tries the reins, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the dividing asunder of the joints and marrow: an awful book of judgment. "Beware that there be not a thought in thy wicked heart, saying, The seventh year, the year of release, is at hand" so I will slacken my endeavours; I will begin the next period of seven years lavishly; then I will show my true nature; but seeing this obligation is just running off and will exhaust itself in a week or two, I will withhold, and stand still, and wait for the new time. God denounces such reasoning as selfish, vicious, hostile to the spirit of the law. We are to work up to the last moment: to-morrow is the time of release, yet this very eventide is to be marked by the richest generosity, the tenderest regard for human rights, and the seventh year is to end with a benediction. Beware that there is not a thought in thy wicked heart, not a speech upon thy tongue, not a broad, open confession of indifference and carelessness; but a thought in thy wicked heart speechless, formless, a little spectre on the man's horizon, beware! God searches the heart: "all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do:" "As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he;" though both his hands be full, if the spirit of grudging is in his heart, his oblation is a worthless gift.

A marvellous expression occurs in the eleventh verse: "The poor shall never cease out of the land." That is a remark which is not understood. Poverty is not an accident; there is a moral mystery connected with poverty which has never yet been found out. The sick-chamber makes the house; the infirm member of the family rules its tenderest thinking. Poverty has a great function to work out in the social scheme; but whilst we admit this we must not take the permanence of poverty as an argument for neglect: it is an argument for solicitude, it is an appeal to benevolence, it is an opportunity to soften the heart and cultivate the highest graces of the soul. It is perfectly true that the bulk of poor people may have brought their poverty upon themselves; but who are we that we should make rough speeches about them? What have we brought upon ourselves? If we are more respectable than others, it is still the respectability of thieves and liars and selfish plotters. We, who are apparently more industrious and virtuous and regardful, are not made of different clay, and are not animated by a different blood. It is perfectly true that a thousand people may have brought today's poverty upon themselves, and they will have to suffer for it; but beyond all these accidents or incidents there is the solemn fact, that poverty is a permanent quantity, for moral reasons which appeal to the higher instincts of the social commonwealth. We have that we may give; we are strong that we may support the weak; we are wise that we may teach the ignorant. "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus." No man has the slightest occasion or reason for reproaching any other man, except in relation to the immediate circumstance. If the assize were on a larger scale and we were all involved in the scrutiny, the issue would be this: "There is none righteous, no, not one." It seems ruthless to dash the painted cup of personal respectability out of the hand of any Pharisee; but the Pharisee, with all his praying and fasting and criticism, is a bad and all but unpardonable man; his prayers aggravate his perfidy; because he is a Pharisee it will be difficult for him to be saved.

Very handsomely had the poor man to leave on the day of liberation. The Hebrew man and the Hebrew woman were to leave under happy circumstances:

"Thou shalt not let him go away empty: thou shalt furnish him liberally out of thy flock, and out of thy floor, and out of thy winepress: of that wherewith the Lord thy God hath blessed thee thou shalt give unto him" ( Deu 15:13-14 ).

It was God's before it was yours; it is only yours in the sense of stewardship. When the poor slave leaves, he is to leave with both hands full, and with a gracious burden upon his bended back, and with a blessing in his thankful heart. Law may be obeyed perfunctorily, arbitrarily, grudgingly; or law can be carried out with all the beauty of blossoming fruitfulness, and all the joy of music. Whatever we do we must do handsomely, graciously, not with ungratefulness and begrudging, for work so done is not done, and the blessing is neither with him that stays, nor with him that goes. After this inquiry we may well ask, Where, then, is the superiority of Christianity over Judaism? Perhaps there is no institutional superiority. I know of no finer laws than are to be found in the Mosaic economy: they are laws of righteousness, and laws of mercy a wonderful line of grace running through all the severest legislation. Judaism was, as to all these blessings, local and limited: the stranger was not always involved in the spirit of grace: certain blessings or benefactions were limited to the Israelites; Christianity asserts its superiority by viewing the world as one, the human family as one, God having made of one blood all nations of men; Christianity recognises neither Jew nor Greek, neither Barbarian nor Scythian, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision, neither bond nor free; its spirit is universal; its love seeks out that which was lost that it might be saved: "This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners;" "The Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost." There is nothing local, nothing limited: wherever there is a sinner there is an offered Saviour; wherever there is abounding sin there is superabounding grace.

Selected Note

"There shall be no poor among you; for the Lord shall greatly bless thee in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee for an inheritance to possess it " ( Deu 15:4 ). The design of the jubilee is that those of the people of God who, through poverty or other adverse circumstances, had forfeited their personal liberty or property to their fellow-brethren, should have their debts forgiven by their co-religionists every half-century, on the great day of atonement, and be restored to their families and inheritance as freely and fully as God on that very day forgave the debts of his people and restored them to perfect fellowship with himself, so that the whole community, having forgiven each other and being forgiven by God, might return to the original order which had been disturbed in the lapse of time, and being freed from the bondage of one another might unreservedly be the servants of him who is their Redeemer. The aim of the jubilee, therefore, is to preserve unimpaired the essential character of the theocracy, to the end that there be no poor among the people of God ( Deu 15:4 ). Hence God, who redeemed Israel from the bondage of Egypt to be his peculiar people, and allotted to them the promised land, will not suffer any one to usurp his title as Lord over those whom he owns as his own. It is the idea of grace for all the suffering children of man, bringing freedom to the captive and rest to the weary as well as to the earth, which made the year of jubilee the symbol of the Messianic year of grace ( Isa 61:2 ), when all the conflicts in the universe shall be restored to their original harmony, and when not only we, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, but the whole creation, which groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now, shall be restored into the glorious liberty of the sons of God (comp. Isaiah 61:1-3 ; Luke 4:21 ; Romans 8:18-23 ; Heb 4:9 ).

The importance of this institution will be apparent if it is considered what moral and social advantages would accrue to the community from the sacred observance of it. (1) It would prevent the accumulation of land on the part of a few to the detriment of the community at large. (2) It would render it impossible for any one to be born to absolute poverty, since every one had his hereditary land. (3) It would preclude those inequalities which are produced by extremes of riches and poverty, and which make one man domineer over another. (4) It would utterly do away with slavery. (5) It would afford a fresh opportunity to those who were reduced by adverse circumstances to begin again their career of industry, in the patrimony which they had temporarily forfeited. (6) It would periodically rectify the disorders which crept into the state in the course of time, preclude the division of the people into nobles and plebeians, and preserve the theocracy inviolate.

Prayer

Almighty God, we need great words to cheer us. Our life is dark and dreary. Where can those great words be found but in thine own book They were made for our sin; they are shaped by our sorrow; they are attuned to our grief. We know that this is thy word because it meets our sad necessity. This is no light of man's enkindling, for such light car struggle but feebly with the heavy darkness. This is the light of the Lord, for it fills the whole sky, and all night flees away, in terror and in shame from its infinite brightness. We know thy word by the inward witness. A stranger will not we follow, we know his voice to be strange. It has not in it the love-tone which lifts it up to the level of thy speech. We turn away from it, for it would lead us into solitude and danger and death. Let thy voice fill the heart Let thy music sing in all the chambers of our life and make the life-house glad. We rejoice that the heavens do stoop to the earth, and that God holds converse with man. This is the work of Christ and none other. This is the incoming of the Son of man unto our life bringing with him morning and liberty, pardon and growth in grace. Even so, Lord Jesus, come quickly! Take up thine abode in our heart; turn our tears into precious jewels. Make music of our sighing! When our heart is ill at ease quiet us with thine own peace. Undertake for us altogether, cleansing away our sin, redeeming us from all captivity, sanctifying us by the continual ministry of grace, and ennobling us by daily inspiration. We are very frail: let our feebleness become a cry unto the clement heavens. We are poor let our poverty be its own prayer. We are sinful exceedingly not wholly with the hand, but oftentimes wholly with the heart. Let our sense of sin be a cry for mercy and for pardon. Let this hour be a memorable one in our history. May men see angels to-night. May the worldly spirit be liberated from its bondage and have entrance into the upper places, where the light is cloudless and where the music is clear. Let backsliders return with heavy hearts but eager feet, and let the door of thy grace be found already open to every prodigal who would come home again. Strengthen every heart that has made a good vow. Thou knowest how difficult it is to live up to the sacred hope. How prone we are to the earth, how beset we are by temptation, how old associations gather around us and form themselves into a body of attack. Thou knowest us altogether. Sustain us, therefore, in the great fight, and, at the last, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, may we be able to speak of a well-fought field, and of a crown of glory laid up for us. Give us great thoughts, noble aspirations, pure and heroic impulses; and, in all things, make us like thy Son Jesus Christ, brightness of thy glory, and express image of thy person. Amen.