Forgive the Debt of Others as We Were Also Debtors to Christ (Deuteronomy 15:1-23)
We will share the grace of God today with Deutormonny 15. Deuteronomy is the content God is repeating to the Israelites before they go into the land of Canaan for the second time through Moses. The Bible tells us that God created all of creation with His word. And the Bible also tells us that after he created everything he isn’t just standing still but moving everything according to his will. People who don’t know the word of God aren’t aligned with the way God is moving the entire universe. God is working with His word even now. And the true answer is when you find God’s word within every incident, problem and situation in your life. People who don’t believe in God will try to live their life with their own will, plan and strength. That’s why they don’t need God’s word. However, the children of God who believe in Jesus Christ must absolutely follow God’s word. Even the future must be with God’s word, and you must restore your past with the word of God to overcome the past. And it’s very important for you to find and hold onto today in the word of God as well.
Then today, we’ll be talking about all of Deuteronomy 15, and what is this word saying? Last week, God gave us the word regarding the tithe. Why did God emphasize the tithe to ging one tenth in the Old Testament. The owner of all material goods is God. And the material goods are moving according to God’s word. So if you restore God’s word well, you will restore the material possessions as well. Because the Bible has told us that God is moving the material goods with His word. Last week, God gave us the word that he’s fulfilled all the laws and feasts on the cross. Then do we still have the need to give the tithe? The new testament does not specifically mention the tithe, but the ideologies of God are still continuing the same way, that’s why we’re giving it to God with joy in our hearts.
In today’s word, if there’s a person who owes debt to someone else, what must they do? If someone is not able to pay off their debt, they must sell their family members as a servant to the person they owe the debt too, in the Israelite community, there is not an identity of someone being a servant or master, they are simply taking on the role, as a result of the debt they owe. However, it says in Dt. 15:1, “At the end of every seven years you must cancel debts.” In order to understand the seven years, you must understand the Sabbath, which is the worship we give to God every seven days.
Even now, the Sabbath has changed from Saturday to Sunday, the day Jesus has resurrected. So the true owner, master of the Sabbath is Jesus Christ. That’s when we worship God. And on that day, it is no longer my time. It is the day where Christ becomes my master. Honestly speaking, every single day isn’t my day, Jesus Christ is the master of my every day. But if we have designated the Sabbath day as that day, then every seven years is the sabbath year. Once we reach the seventh year, people who have debts will have them canceled. This might be something that’s hard to understand in today’s capitalistic nature. If you are too influenced by the ideologies of capitalism or communism, it might be too difficult to understand God’s word. That’s why we need to look at God’s word.
And the laws in Dt. 15:2, “This is how it is to be done: Every creditor shall cancel the loan he has made to his fellow Israelite. He will not require payment from his fellow Israelite or brother, because the LORD’s time for canceling debts has been proclaimed.” The reason God is doing this is because God does not make His own people owe a debt. Even if you do end up owing a debt just because of the way that life goes, in the seventh year, you’ll have it canceled out. We cancel out the debts of our brothers and sisters, in other words, the children of God.
What must we do for unbelievers? That is in Deut. 15:3, “You may require payment from a foreigner, but you must cancel any debt from your fellow Israelites.” In Deut. 15:4-5, “If only you fully obey the LORD your God and are careful to follow all these commands I’m giving you today, there will be no poor people among you, and God will bless you richly.” God blesses according to His Word, So, within our relationship of borrowing material goods and loading and purchasing material goods, if on the seventh year, you cancel all debts, then God will truly bless you, and He says there will be no poor people among you.
If you look at the word, “poor” in this context, it means there’s a problem here. We may be temporarily poor, but if we are constantly living in poverty, honestly speaking, something is not aligned with God. Something is misaligned. God desires to use His children and to give material possessions to use for His will, but if you’re in poverty, that means there’s something that’s not aligned between you and God, or there is a problem with the people you’re with. That’s what it means.
Poverty is not a sin. Apostle Paul said he was content in poverty. But the principle of God’s Word is making sure there are no poor people among you, and God is saying, “I will give you the blessing of material possessions,” and that is how we follow God’s Word.
In Deut. 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.” This means that God will bless you so that you will never have to borrow from any other nations or be at a loss to them. But think about the opposite situation, if you’re always needing to beg, that has a lot of meaning contained within it. It means there’s something about your sense regarding financial matters that isn’t standing up properly. Yes, it is possible that a person may need to borrow money at some point in their life; however, this state means there’s something about your life that is fundamentally not aligned with God.
However, the person who lends money will be blessed by God. Later in Deut. 15:6, “You will rule over many nations but none will rule over you.” But actually the Israelite people were ruled over by many nations. That means there were not many people who lived according to God’s Word, that’s what it means. Even beyond this Word, there is the word that God gave us of the Year of Jubilee, which happened in the 50th year after the 49th year, which is seven times seven, and that is where the Israelites return all land and inheritance and the servants and they didn’t follow that word either. This means they think material possessions belong to them, and the Bible never mentioned that they kept the Year of Jubilee.
Following the principle of God’s Word, this is why they were ruled over by other nations. Why were they ruled over? They were ruled over because they were not aligned with God’s Word. There are times when we are ruled over and enslaved by money as well. Because of material possessions, we are sometimes enslaved by people. That essentially means your entire life is slavery. You have to choose one of the two: you should serve God, or you can serve material possessions. That’s how much money and material possessions rule over our lives, almost to the point where it’s almost everything.
The place where this Word really applies is in the superpower nations. They have these kinds of policies where they take taxes from wealthier people and give them to the less wealthy people. At least because it was founded as a Christian nation, they kind of set their policies aligned with God’s Word like this. Even if they are unbelievers, if they’re aligned with God’s Word like this, then they are blessed.
Those kinds of families will never fail in a material way. I realize that they teach these kinds of financial senses to their children, so if someone is wealthy, they did not become like that for no reason. It’s because they help the people around them to not be poor. Then those people are able to maintain their finances through many generations.
If you look at those very long standing conglomerates and companies, they are influencing society. For example, they take the large amount of money that they make, and they either give it back to their customers, or they put it into serving the communities and as long as they are serving God’s Word like this, God’s Word is unchanged. But there are some countries that try to steal from others. Or there are some people who run their business just to steal from others. But there are other people who run their business so they can pay back the people who’ve helped them. Even though those two people may be running the same business, God will work upon those who work according to God’s Word. Our future generations must be able to set their financial view as well as their worldview from the Word of God; otherwise, you’re going to move according to the way you learned from your parents and the world.
In Deut. 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 tightfisted against them,” meaning, “Don’t be stingy.” Deut. 15:8 says, “Rather, be open handed and freely lend them whatever they need.” Then in the New Testament, they are still following the same principle of God’s Word, but there’s a slight difference. There are some people who take this Word of God and they use it in a way to shamelessly ask for money from others. There are some people who very brashly go up to churches and say, “You’re supposed to use your money to help the less fortunate.” There’s a part in the New Testament that says, “Those who do not work should starve,” and just like this week’s pulpit message, you should pay back every last penny that you owe someone else. These are the words Jesus said in the New Testament.
The reason is because there are people who twist the Word of God and use it in an evil way saying, “You’re a Christian, you’re supposed to give me money,” and they use it in an evil way like the Pharisees. They misuse the Word of God to fill their own benefits. However, it is best for the ones who give money to follow the principle of God’s Word. Especially in America, among the churches filled with immigrants, there are a lot of times when people lose money because they’re deceived or tricked out of it. So, inside of the same church, they’re constantly trying to deceive and con one another. There are situations when people ask for money by using or manipulating God’s Word.
There’s a verse in the Bible that says, “If you lend money, then just assume you won’t get it back,” and I agreed with those words when I went into an immigrant church. There was complete disorder; I heard so much news about this person owed this person money, and that person owed that person money, and they stopped coming to church because they wanted to stop looking at this person. Either way, this person will be poor and there’s not a single person who will gain more wealth. I listened to the names of the people who used to do that in the past, and not a single one of them can make any money because that’s just their viewpoint on money.
Helping the poor is one of God’s commandments and that is His principle. America is doing a lot for poor people through taxes. In very underdeveloped nations where the government is too weak to give this kind of influence, the churches do more. Either way, I say and the Bible says, “If you lend someone money, just assume you will not be getting it back.” In this situation where they’re able to work but they’re not working and they’re just trying to get continuous handouts, help them to work. In Biblical times, if they couldn’t find work, they would starve to death.
The principle of God’s Word, either way, is that if someone is weak or lacking in material things, then help them. But because there are so many situations where someone would lend someone else money and get tested when they don’t get their money back, just give enough money where you won’t be so afflicted. My friend is a dentist in Korea, and he came to our church once. He has been working for a few decades and now he wants to stop. He asked me to look into how he can emigrate to America. He was giving his claim saying, “Then I will take all the money I’ve made, and then I can serve your church and do missions because I don’t have to work anymore.”
I told him this, “If you and I have money staked in our relationship, then our relationship is over. I’ve seen so many strange things happen because of money here, that if anything, our relationship will go from neutral to negative, not positive, so if you’ve received something from God, then just be led accordingly, isn’t that right?” I’m not a specialist in that; God’s Word is not so ambiguous. If he wants to come and serve the church, he can do that, we don’t have to stake some sort of condition for this. I said, “If you received a calling from God to do missions, then go boldly; you shouldn’t have to make this request as an exchange.”
There’s another pastor I used to study with, and he got his master’s and doctorate degrees here, and he went back to Korea to teach and now he wants to go back to America and he asked me if there’s any teaching available. Not only do I not know of any teaching positions, but I cannot do anything like that. I’m getting all of these requests but if I had an ulterior motive, then that’s when relationships become complicated. If I’m in a position where I can help them, then I can help them without any conditions. But if I have some kind of ulterior motive, and there’s a lot of ulterior motives in America, because most people emigrated to this nation with the false motive already, then this relationship will go south.
So in those areas, if you’re able to help them, then you should help them without any strings attached, and if you cannot help them, then boldly say you cannot. Because God does not give us answers in those kinds of methods, he gives us very accurate and certain answers. The reason I’m giving this message from the Old Testament is because, especially with immigrant life, it is very different from living in Korea. Even though we’re living in America, it is not purely American; this is actually a very unique community that is comprised of many different, smaller nations. There’s also a church in Russia that is also listening to these messages, and they are the same way, there’s a group of Koreans living in Russia, being unable to assimilate. Though they may be Russian, or though we may be American, it’s actually just a group of minorities who are living with their own culture. Among the future generations, if there are gifted individuals, they may work for Russian or American culture. But because of this, if these cultures go into the churches and the churches are not raised up in the Word of God, then it becomes a marketplace.
If you borrow money, you should give it back. Until the individual that gave you the money says it’s okay, you must give it back. Don’t you think you would discipline your own children the same way? Would you educate your children to go and borrow money from people? Would you tell them to not pay back what you borrowed? That’s how you make them poor. There are some times when we face difficulties and have to rely on others, but you should pay them back and you should pray to be able to do that because God is someone who works according to His Word.
If there are people in the church who’ve built up a lot of wealth by their hard work but they are discriminating that wealth, that’s not right, either. What would the church be doing by gathering all of that offering? If the church is shaking because they’re not able to pay the pastor enough, then that’s not even a church. All the members of the church are living fine. That means something is not aligned with God’s word and there’s some kind of problem. But if you live according to God’s Word, then finances are in God’s hands.
But that doesn’t mean that the pastor can force you to live according to God’s Word. However, if the church is alive in God’s Word, they wouldn’t treat the pastor like that. You must educate your children like this, too. For unbelievers, you should lend to them, but you shouldn’t borrow from them. You should teach them, “If you’re making money, it is to save and to help other people, and the Master or Owner of money is God.”
Deut. 15:9, “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.” Don’t do that. It says you will be found guilty of sin, but this doesn’t make sense to a capitalistic nation, because they say, “I made this money so it’s mine, if you’re not able to make money then you’re like that” But before we start debating the letter of the text, we should really think in our hearts, “Why am I making money?” That’s what’s important. Your thoughts must be aligned with God, then what happens? Then you will not be ruled over by anyone else, and God will bless you because material possessions are in God’s hands.
Deut. 15:10, “Give generously to them 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.” This means it’s not accomplished with your hard work. It means that God blesses you according to the principle of and stream of God’s Word. So it means you shouldn’t have such a stingy heart where you’re saving for yourself and not giving to others.
Especially for people who grew up in a culture of poverty, they’re very good about saving and penny-pinching, but they’re not very good about giving to others. But there are some very foolish rich people who have a lot of money but they still don’t give to others. That’s not aligned with God. I would like it if we understood it like that. Material possessions are used for people to help people. Missions and evangelism are helping people. Then, because God is moving everything, God will appear in everything.
Then there are some people who say, “I get the same amount of money as others,” but that’s not the same. There are some people who say, “I make the same money that I made before,” but that’s not the case. Your income may stay the same but you’ll be losing less money which means you’ll be at a less of a loss, but we never think about the expenses and that’s connected to your children as well, so it doesn’t end with just you. If the curse of poverty keeps getting relayed, it means there’s a problem with the parents. If the church is in poverty, it means there is some problem with their Word because God works in abundance in material possessions in saving peoples lives.
Deut. 15:11, “There will always be poor people in the land. Therefore I command you to be openhanded toward your brothers and toward the poor and needy in your land.” This is the content God is giving them about the Sabbath year to clear all debts. Yes, it says in Gal. 4:10 that there is no need for us to keep all the laws and feasts because Jesus Christ finished everything on the cross. So there’s no longer a need for us to follow the Sabbath year and the Year of Jubilee because Jesus finished it.
That is true, because the debt spoken of here is the debt of our sin which Jesus Christ finished on the cross, but that doesn’t mean the ideology here just disappears. If anything, it is no longer just restricted to the seventh year, but we can do this every year and every month. In the Old Testament, if they talked about the tithe, which is one tenth, then in the New Testament, we should be talking about ten tenths. Because yes, Jesus Christ finished all the traditions and laws and the feasts of the Old Testament, but the principle of God’s Word is continuing today. Then after these verses, it talks about servants, and that’s what happens when there’s so much debt that a family member needs to be sold off as a servant. For those people, on the Sabbath year, you should release them.
In Deut. 15:13-14, “And when you release him, do not send him away empty handed. Supply him liberally from your flock, your threshing floor and your winepress. GIve to him as the LORD your God has blessed you.” Give to him as the LORD your God has blessed you. What does that mean? It means the reason you’re in the state you are right now is because the Lord has blessed you. So, in the seventh year, as you release your servants, give them these things.
What if you’re not able to do that? God is the One Who gives blessings. That’s what it means. Why does this sound so hard for us, then? It’s because we did not grow up following God’s Word, but instead, we grew up being influenced by individualism, capitalism, and democracy, so these words don’t make sense to us. That is why we must be healed of the influences and ideologies of the world. We must restore God’s Word because even right now, God is holding onto creation with His Word. That means within God’s Word, we restore all of creation, all the work, all of everything.
Deut. 15:15, it says, “Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and the LORD your God redeemed you.” “You were also a slave in Egypt, and I redeemed you from that.” Being redeemed means that Jesus Christ paid the price and has bought you from them. “That is why I’m giving you this command today to do this, for the servants you bought, on the year of the Sabbath.” In the New Testament, there’s a parable about a person who got his 10,000 denarii debt forgiven, which is more money than anyone can make in a lifetime, but he is holding onto someone who owes him 100 denarii, which is only one year’s wages, and that’s the parable.
It’s the same thing. You were freed and saved from slavery in Egypt by God’s sacrifice, but why are you not able to forgive and set free the servants who owe you money? The New Testament talks about this in terms of money. You are also a debtor, even when other people owe you money. You had a debt you could never pay off for your entire life when Jesus Chcirst solved it on the cross,but should you be treating someone like this, when someone owes you a debt? That’s what it says in the New Testament. There are some times in our lives when we have no choice but to ask for help. Anybody knows that, so help them, but there are a lot of people who aren’t like that, and that’s why the Word seems to talk about both sides.
There are some people who walk by churches and pound on the doors, “Give me money!” But why? They say, “How can a church be like this?” What of it? This person heard of this from somewhere and I tell them, “the church doesn’t exist for people like you. Go and work. Go and labor. Labor, make money, and eat from that.” Do you understand what I’m trying to say? They’re using it, they’re misusing the Word of God. If you give them a handout, will they continue to live with that? No. But if this person really has no other choice, then of course help them. When I go on missions, I don’t just help recklessly because I’ve seen a lot of situations where actually helping someone is hurting them. I’ve seen a lot of evil things spread because people do missions with money and not the Word of God, so I help them as much as I can. But after that, they must receive the answer themselves. If this person does not pray at all and they’re entirely relying on handouts from other people, then helping them would be hurting them because they must receive their answer from God.
The reason why the churches in Korea were able to rise up so quickly was because America gave them ways to become independent. In the beginning, the American churches did not help the Korean churches. Yes of course, they helped them in the beginning, but later they said, “You guys need to rise up on your own,” and that’s right. That’s how God gives answers to the church. But if they are always looking for handouts through the American churches, that’s how it dies. So even if you’re helping someone else, you need to be wise about it to be actually saving this person.
It says later on in that chapter that, “If this servant wants to stay with your family, punch something into their ear,” like an ear piercing. There’s a lot of people who wear earrings nowadays, but it’s actually a symbol of servitude. So today, the Word talked a lot about debt and servitude, but in reality, it’s talking about Jesus Christ Who freed us from slavery to Satan and paid our debt of sin on the cross, because everything in the Old Testament is talking about Jesus Christ. The meaning and ideology of this Word is continuing to flow through Jesus Christ even now. So now, there’s no need to talk about the seventh year or the 49th year. These ideologies continue to flow every day, every week, every month, every year.
For you and your children, God wants you to help others, if anything; He does not want you to remain powerless and in need of help. In order for that to happen, I believe you must hold onto the stream and the principle of this Word. That is how you will be healed and restored. When we look at ourselves from the lens of the Word of God and there’s a gap, then our prayer topic is what closes the gap.
Prayer
“God, allow me and my material possessions to be used to raise, save and help other people.” In the same way, please use us for the Temple Construction so that our future generations may do the work of world evangelism. Let us pray together.
If this message just ends with you, it may be good for you, but it will doom your future generations. It’s important to allow this same word to flow into your future generations. That is why we focus all of our focus on raising the remnants, the future generations, because if the Word doesn’t go into them, then that mission ends, and then all missions end. Raising up and saving the remnants is the mission of all missions.
Let us pray at this time for the remnants, especially for the remnants of all ethnicities because the principle of God’s Word must flow exactly in the same way into the future generations. Let us pray.
We are doing the evangelism camps at the law school as well as the middle school and high school. I was listening to the forum yesterday, and Deaconess Lee Haeryon who is doing an evangelism camp in the Pico school, and there needs to be a system there. So I’d like it if we set something up like that for once or twice a month on Saturday. I don’t know if the students there or the audience will be elementary, middle or high school, but according to that, in the church, let us create an evangelism camp for them. Please be in prayer for that, and for people whose hearts are being led in that direction, just be led. Let us pray for the camps.
Finally, let us pray for our missions fields. The reason why we give missions offering as a church so we can go to these places, give them the gospel, raise up the disciples of the Kingdom of God, fill their needs, and this is according to the principle of God’s Word, so let us pray for our missions fields, especially the Utah mission field we will be going to in October.
We need to pray for Remnant University. Starting from next Monday, there will be a lecture every day from 1pm-5pm for four hours every day from Monday through Friday. That one class will end with that intensive training for that one week. For the Karen students, it would be best if you can adjust your work schedules so you can come in person on those days. If you really have no other choice, come when you can, and for the rest of the hours or so, go and listen to them online.
It would be great if the members of the church could come on those days as well, because most students are attending school online because of the pandemic, but if a pastor is coming from Korea, if they’re looking at nobody, no matter how filled they are with the Holy Spirit, it’s very disheartening for them, so it’s great if you guys receive that training s well. Please be led in that way.
Starting from October 31 to November 4, I will be giving the lecture, and it will be held in this church the same way. There are future schedules for classes as well, but I don’t know about those yet. Let us pray for RU. Because we have RU here, the remnants are coming to receive training. How is RU functioning or running? It is through our prayers and our offering. The students are able to move with scholarships. So, the local churches and the parachurch are not going separately; they are going together. Let us pray together for RU.
Benediction
Now may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the unending love of God, and the indwelling, working, guidance, and communion of the Holy Spirit, be upon all the people of God, the people of all nations, and the remnants, who desire to hold onto and to see the fulfillment of God’s Word, be with us from now until forevermore always, amen.