Deuteronomy 15:1-23


Hope is a powerful and wonderful blessing from God.  I believe that one of the reasons that God established the year of jubilee, where debts were forgiven and where slaves were set free, was so that His children would not lose hope.  Difficult things can happen in our lives and we can experience situations where we must take drastic measures to survive.  Those who found themselves in these situations would have to borrow from their neighbor or even come to the point of selling himself as a slave in order to survive.  A person’s debt could accumulate to the point where they lost hope.  However, God does not what His children to be without hope, so every seven years all debts were to be forgiven and all slaves were to be set free.  This also provides a picture of our forgiveness in Christ in that we all have a hopeless amount of debt that we would never be able to pay.  However, because of the sacrifice of Christ our debt has been canceled and we can have eternal hope through faith in Christ.

GOD WANTS US TO BE FORGIVNG: Forgiveness is man’s greatest need, so it is also the greatest blessing that is available to us through Christ.  There s no greater relief to our hearts than the knowledge that we are forgiven of our sin because of our faith in Christ.  If we have truly experienced this forgiveness; it should be the most natural thing for us to be forgiving of others.  The forgiven must always be forgiving.  I think this is a principle that God was preparing His people to understand through the law of jubilee.  He wanted His children to experience the blessing of forgiveness as well as teach them to be forgiving.  We must always remember Christ’s forgiveness in our lives as it will fill our hearts with gratitude and hope as well as open our hearts to forgiven those who sin against us.

GOD WANTS US TO BE GENEROUS: Generosity should be the natural outflow of the blessings of God.  The Lord had promised great prosperity to the children of Israel.  Their land would be productive and they would be able to accumulate great wealth if they served and obeyed the Lord faithfully.  However, there would be some who, because of their own sin or simply difficult circumstances, would need the help of others.  The year of jubilee was never to be used as an excuse not to loan money to a brother who was in need.  Rather, the one who was blessed by God was encouraged to give money to the one in need even though he was not likely to be repaid.  God blesses us so that we can be a blessing to others.  As we are faithful to be a blessing He is faithful to multiply His blessings.  Generosity is a key to unlocking a life full of joy in giving and experiencing a life under the blessing of God.

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