Moses begins by speaking to Israel about the year for cancelling debts, Deuteronomy 15:1 / Exodus 23:10-13 / Leviticus 25:1-7 / Leviticus 25:8-38. Israel is to work for six years, as they work six days in a week, and the seventh year is to be a year of rest for the land and people.
Every creditor is to cancel any loan they have made to a fellow Israelite, Deuteronomy 15:2 / Deuteronomy 31:10. They shall not require payment from anyone among their own people, because God’s time for cancelling debts has been proclaimed, Deuteronomy 15:2-3.
Israel isn’t permitted to take money from a neighbour that had borrowed during this time, as the one borrowing would have no way of repaying the debt during the year of rest. We must note, however, that this didn’t release the debtor permanently from their debt, they were given a year to recover from their labours and debt.
Barnes, in his commentary, says the following.
‘The foreigner would not be bound by the restriction of the sabbatical year and therefore would have no claim to its special remissions and privileges. He could earn his usual income in the seventh as in other years and therefore is not exonerated from liability to discharge a debt anymore in the one than the others.’
There would be no poor among them, Deuteronomy 15:4, in the sense that provision to work for food would always be made available for the poor, Deuteronomy 15:7 / Deuteronomy 15:11. Laws concerning gleaning and forgiveness of debt made it possible for the poor to always have food if they were willing to work and to borrow from their brethren if they fell under hard times.
If Israel obeys these commands, the Lord promises them that they will be greatly blessed in the land of Canaan, Deuteronomy 15:5-6. If they remained obedient to God, the land would prosper to the point that other nations would come to them for food, Deuteronomy 15:6.
If anyone is poor among the Israelites in any of the towns of the land God is giving them, Israel are not to be hard-hearted or tight-fisted toward them, Deuteronomy 15:7. Rather, Israel are to be openhanded and freely lend them whatever they need, Deuteronomy 15:8.
These poor people would be poor not because of laziness, 2 Thessalonians 3:10-12, but of some circumstance which happened in their life which left them in that state. There will always be the opportunity to help others and we should never become hardened against the poor.
Israel are to be careful not to harbour this wicked thought, the seventh year, the year for cancelling debts, is near, so that they don’t show ill will toward the needy among their fellow Israelites and give them nothing, Deuteronomy 15:9. They may then appeal to God against them, and they will be found guilty of sin, Deuteronomy 15:9.
Clarke, in his commentary, says the following.
‘What a consolation to the poor and the oppressed, that they have a sure friend in God, who will hear their cry and redress their grievances!’
Israel are to give generously to them and do so without a grudging heart and then because of this God will bless them in all their work and in everything they put their hand to, Deuteronomy 15:10. Notice also that the Lord says that ‘there will always be poor people in the land’, Deuteronomy 15:11.
Jesus said these very words concerning the poor, Matthew 26:11 / Mark 14:7. The poor weren’t allowed to go hungry because God has always expressed concern over those who are less fortunate throughout the Scriptures, Galatians 2:10.
In the Old Testament, God forbade the mistreatment of the poor, especially by those who were rich and wealthy, Amos 2:7 / Amos 4:1 / Amos 5:11 / Amos 8:4-6. In the New Testament Jesus was always concerned about the poor, Matthew 19:21 / Luke 19:8 / John 12:5, even the apostles cared for the poor, Acts 2:43 / Romans 15:26-26.
There were times when the Hebrews were unable to repay what was borrowed due to extreme poverty and so, these cases would enable the creditor to adopt the brother or his children, as slaves to repay the debt, Deuteronomy 15:12.
The Sabbatical year would be a year of ‘release’ for those people, Deuteronomy 15:13. Unlike the slavery of the nations around Israel, this was a willing servant who gave themselves for the service of another to repay their debt, Deuteronomy 15:12.
We must note that this wasn’t the kind of slavery other nations were practising or the slavery they experienced in Egypt. The idea here is that a man or a woman could sell themselves to another for labour in order to pay for a debt, Exodus 21:1-6 / Leviticus 25:38-55.
Notice the kindness that was to be displayed by the creditor to his brother that was enslaved to him. When the seventh year rolled around the slave was to be released and the master was to ‘supply them liberally’ with flocks, grain, and wine, Deuteronomy 15:13-15. In other words, as God had blessed the rich, the rich were to pass this blessing on to the poor.
Israel were never to think too highly of themselves as their wealth multiplied, Deuteronomy 8:17. At one point they were all slaves in Egypt, hence, why the Lord reminds them they too were once slaves, Deuteronomy 15:15.
Some slaves may develop such love and dependency upon their masters that they don’t want to leave after six years of service. Those who desire to stay were to go through a ritual prescribed by God. Masters were to take an awl, that is, a pointed tool for making holes, as in wood or leather, and pierce the slave’s ear through and impale him or her, to the door of the house, Deuteronomy 15:16-17 / Exodus 21:6. The same procedure was done for the female servant too, Deuteronomy 15:17.
Some believe that an earring would be inserted into the hole of the ear and the earring would have an inscription of the master’s name on it. The piercing of the ear appears to signify permanent ownership of the slave who voluntarily wants to remain in their master’s house.
If, however, the slave decided to leave, the master was to obey the law of the Sabbatical year and release the slave with the necessities of life. He wasn’t permitted to hold on to the slave even if he loved and depended upon the man or woman, Deuteronomy 15:18.
Moses now repeats the law, which was given at Sinai, concerning the firstborn animals, Deuteronomy 15:19 / Exodus 13:1-12. These firstborn animals were to be sanctified for the Lord, and weren’t to be used for work and neither were they to be sheared, Deuteronomy 15:19.
The offering of the firstborn was to be the best of the livestock and so, they were to eat them in the presence of the Lord, Deuteronomy 15:20. That is, they were to be eaten by those who gave them and they were to be eaten with the priests, and so, this fellowship meal kept the people at the table of the spiritual leaders of Israel.
Those without blemishes, that is, the lame, blind, ill, etc, Deuteronomy 15:21 / Leviticus 22:20, weren’t to be sacrificed to the Lord at the altar of burnt offering and eaten. The Lord deserved only the best, and so, if a firstborn had a blemish, it couldn’t be offered to the Lord, Deuteronomy 15:21.
Those who were blemished had no place at the altar of burnt offering and so, the owner of the blemished firstborn was to sanctify it unto the Lord and eat it within their own town, Deuteronomy 15:22.
Both the ceremonially unclean and the clean may eat it, as if it were gazelle or deer, Deuteronomy 12:22, but Israel mustn’t eat the blood, they must pour it out on the ground like water, Deuteronomy 15:22-23 / Deuteronomy 12:23-24.