OPEN HEART, OPEN HANDS
Play Audio
If you prefer listening to today’s Bible guide reading, play this audio file.
If the audio bar is not appearing, click here to play the audio.
Opening Prayer
Lord Jesus, thank you. Your sacrifices for my sake are greater than I can measure; your love for me knows no bounds. Help me that my day will be overflowing with thanksgiving and praise for you.
Read DEUTERONOMY 15:1–18
For additional translations of the passage, use this link to Bible Gateway.
The Year for Canceling Debts
15 At the end of every seven years you must cancel debts. 2 This is how it is to be done: Every creditor shall cancel any loan they have made to a fellow Israelite. They shall not require payment from anyone among their own people, because the Lord’s time for canceling debts has been proclaimed. 3 You may require payment from a foreigner, but you must cancel any debt your fellow Israelite owes you. 4 However, there need be no poor people among you, for in the land the Lord your God is giving you to possess as your inheritance, he will richly bless you, 5 if only you fully obey the Lord your God and are careful to follow all these commands I am giving you today. 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. You will rule over many nations but none will rule over you.
7 If anyone is poor among your fellow Israelites in any of the towns of the land the Lord your God is giving you, do not be hardhearted or tightfisted toward them. 8 Rather, be openhanded and freely lend them whatever they need. 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 toward the needy among your fellow Israelites and give them nothing. They may then appeal to the Lord against you, and you will be found guilty of sin. 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. 11 There will always be poor people in the land. Therefore I command you to be openhanded toward your fellow Israelites who are poor and needy in your land.
Freeing Servants
12 If any of your people—Hebrew men or women—sell themselves to you and serve you six years, in the seventh year you must let them go free. 13 And when you release them, do not send them away empty-handed. 14 Supply them liberally from your flock, your threshing floor and your winepress. Give to them as the Lord your God has blessed you. 15 Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and the Lord your God redeemed you. That is why I give you this command today.
16 But if your servant says to you, “I do not want to leave you,” because he loves you and your family and is well off with you, 17 then take an awl and push it through his earlobe into the door, and he will become your servant for life. Do the same for your female servant.
18 Do not consider it a hardship to set your servant free, because their service to you these six years has been worth twice as much as that of a hired hand. And the Lord your God will bless you in everything you do.
New International Version (NIV)Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Reflect
What is your ‘go to’ response when someone in need is before you? ‘Blindness’? One of countless excuses? Grace and mercy?
Two issues are dealt with briefly in this reading: canceling debts and freeing servants. Both are to be done in a spirit of generosity and the words ‘the Lord your God will bless you’ (vv. 4, 6, 10, 18) are carried over from chapter 14 like a refrain.1 The foreigner may be treated differently (v. 3),2 but this is not a permanent arrangement; it is just that intra-Israelite arrangements are like dealings within a family—your debtor is your brother. Ponder the apparent contradiction revealed in verses 4, 7 and 11. There shouldn’t really be any poor, indebted people in the land flowing with milk and honey. If the behavior described here had been fully embedded, Israel would have been a wonderful, egalitarian society, but Moses is well aware of the people’s history and so there will continue to be poor people in need of the generous release outlined here. Taking advantage of loopholes is a wicked sin. Review your own generosity and recollect the story of the widow in the temple, putting in ‘all she had to live on’.3 Remember Jesus’ own words on the poor, reflecting verse 11.4
A servant is to be set free in the same spirit. God tells Israel: Remember your history! You were once slaves in Egypt, so consider all that God provided for you! You are to provide bountifully for the servant who left. How valuable his/her service has been. You are doubly blessed if your servant freely decides to stay with you! One can feel in these texts the generosity of the law as it dealt with these two difficult issues.
Jews have often been pictured in literature as rich, mean, and stingy—but this is libelous. This chapter pictures a society in which people act righteously, with magnanimity.
Apply
Where are places in your church or community where more of your generosity is needed?
Closing prayer
Gracious God, I pray for generosity, to give with a free and generous spirit, especially toward those who are indebted to me in some way.
1 Deut 14:29 2 cf. Deut 14:21 3 Mark 12:44 4 Mark 14:7
Book and Author Intros
Extras
Click here to sign up to receive the EXTRAs via email each quarter.
© 2025 Scripture Union U.S.A. All rights reserved. Reproduction of the whole or any part of the contents without written permission is prohibited.
Encounter with God is published in the USA under license from Scripture Union England and Wales, Trinity House, Opal Court, Opal Drive, Fox Milne, Milton Keynes, MK15 0DF.