Deuteronomy 15:7-11 Bible Study | Episode 900

March 21, 2025

Hope Alive: Applying God’s Word to Your Daily Life

Deuteronomy 15:7-11  Bible Study | Episode #900

I am Chad Harrison, and I am the teaching pastor of Lake Community Church and had been serving as a pastor for 25 years. I'm also a practicing attorney. This podcast is designed to help you study God's word and find God's will for your life. The purpose of studying scripture is that you might know the character of Jesus Christ, and that you might see the world from the Father's perspective. That you gain wisdom that changes your life. I pray in the name of Jesus right now that God would open His word to you and allow you to see Him and to know Him. To know His will, that you might glorify Him and that you might walk in faith and power each day, especially today. In Jesus name.

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Transcript

This is Chad Harrison and you're listening to Hope Applying God's word to your daily life. Hi, this is Chad Harrison and I am the teaching pastor of Lake Community Church and have been serving as a pastor for 25 years. I'm also a practicing attorney. This podcast is designed to help you study God's word and find God's will for your life. I pray in the name of Jesus right now that God would open up.

His word to you and allow you.

To see him and to know him and to know his will, that you might glorify him and that you might walk in faith and power each and every day, especially today in Jesus name.

Well, good morning. Welcome to Lake Community Church's morning Bible study. We are In Deuteronomy, chapter 15. Deuteronomy, chapter 15, starting verse seven. And there's a principle that's in here that's very. Well, it's just super important as far as the Christian life, as far as dealing with other human beings and people in need. And I think that as you read it, you realize that God has a strong, firm hand on understanding what goes on in the human nature and human society. In human history, historically speaking, the world population has been in poverty at a rate of 95 to 99%. Most of world history, almost exclusively people, have been poor throughout the generations. Throughout the millennia, no matter what empire, no matter what state you might be in, the world has been full of poor people from feudal societies, from slavery, from famine and disease, from all kinds of things. The world has been poor. Now, in the last couple of hundred years, due to a system of economic growth and a system of government that is based off of Christianity, based off of a true understanding of the Christian teachings of the New Testament and the teachings of the Bible. We have brought our societies to a place where it's not 99% of our societies aren't poor. In the last, well, two to 300 years, through the Industrial Revolution and some of the other revolutions, we've gotten to the place where we can live and have what is called a middle class or a group of people that are not abjectly poor, that have resources, that put those resources to work, are able to use their minds and able to use their skills to advance themselves and their families into the future. And so we live in a day and age where we do not walk around and see people who are just absolutely poor by the large portion of the population. By any standard, we are a wealthy country. But if you go around the world, you still have large, large pockets anywhere that is not a western country or a industrialized country. You still have a huge population of poor. And when I say huge, I'm saying, you know, 50, 60, 70% of the population is abjectly poor. Meaning they have almost nothing. They have no, no assurance of resources for food, clothing or shelter on any day that they wake up. And so they are abjectly poor. There are, they are poor people. And so understanding that even in those cultures they are a lot wealthier than we have been in the past. But the principle that is spoken about here is still in place. And in fact, it has not gone away and it has not gone away in our society either. There has been no society and no culture created where poverty has been eradicated. The Great society of the 1950s and 60s, well, it's 1960s actually. The Great Society of the 1960s has not produced a society with no poverty that doesn't exist anywhere and has never existed anywhere. And so they're always going to be those who are poor. They may be poor because of a lack of certain abilities. They may be poor because of upbringing and how they live their lives. They may be poor because they're just wholly unable to do the things that might cause them to move into a place where they would have some stability as far as their resources and their finances. They may be poor for a lot of reasons, but they always are, they always exist. And Jesus says that. He says, the poor you will have with you always. That understanding comes from this passage. It comes from an understanding of this passage and it's important that we understand it. He says, if they're among you poor, a poor man of your brethren, meaning someone that is close to you, someone that is in your family, that is poor within any of the gates of your land, which is the Lord your God is giving you, meaning anybody that's your neighbor. He says, you shall not harden your heart nor shut your hand from your poor brother. Meaning you don't close them off totally. You don't keep them from ever having any, any chances at resources. Now you say, well, there, there are poor people in the world who, who are not doing anything to help themselves get out of poverty. They, they, they, their life is such that they're never going to, to be self sustaining. And that is true. And, and there's no doubt about that. And to, to do things as far as giving to them in such a way that is going to keep them being poor. It would be negative. It would be, it would be enabling their poverty. But that being said, that doesn't Mean that if they have those problems, they have those issues, that you totally cut them off from any help. You can't help them all. You can't sustain them and sustain yourself. Some people can, but you can't sustain a lot of people and yourself. If those, that group of people, none of them are doing anything to make their life sustainable, make their life, well, a life that can be at some point in time, lived autonomously, lived alone. So that's a hard thing to do. That's a hard thing for, for a church to do. That's hard thing for a person to do. You know that we have the sayings and all the, all the truths. You know the saying that, you know, teach, give a man a fish, he'll eat for a day. Teach a man to fish, he'll, he'll eat for, for a lifetime. Those sayings are true. They're absolutely true. But the hard part is how do I teach certain people how to fish? Because certain people, maybe because of their upbringing, maybe because their inabilities, maybe because of their situation in life where they're at as far as what they've endured and what they've gone through, because maybe even psychologically they're just not in a place where they're going to become self sustaining. How do we deal with those? Well, the way we deal with them is we do not. First of all, we don't shut them off, we don't just act like they don't exist. And that's what this passage says. He says, but you shall open verse 8, you shall open your hand wide to him and willingly unt him sufficient for his need, whatever his needs. Now this is talking about the passage before where they had a seven year period where you could give somebody a loan and then at the end of the seven years you had to forgive the debt, no matter what they paid back, no matter what they'd given you. And so this is kind of a difficult situation. If you're giving a loan to somebody that you know they're never going to, they're not going to pay back in the next year and you're going to, you're going to be in a situation where you're going to lose the money because of the loan. And that goes back to my first Bible study at the first of the week. In my explanation of it. Sometimes when you give to someone, when you're giving to help someone, you can't do it in the form of a loan because that's going to cause division between you and them. Benevolence, helping Someone. And this passage is not really dealing with benevolence. It's dealing with that passage that deals with giving out loans. Benevolence is something that we give to somebody without expecting anything in return. And benevolence can become debilitating for a poor person. Also. They can become dependent on you. And we don't want benevolence to be dependent on, make people dependent on us. We want benevolence to help them forward in their life so that they can get to a place where they're, where they're sustaining themselves. Now in certain cultures, in certain places, that's very difficult because it's hard to find a way to be life sustaining. That's not true in the society we live in. That's not true in the culture we live in today. It may be difficult and it may be really difficult for some people, especially young parents who have little children. That may be super, super hard for them, for them to become life sustaining. For them to become someone who is or is not able to take care of their physical needs and the physical needs of their family. That's a legitimate concern. But we're talking about in the New Testament says if a man does not work, he does not eat. And so we're talking about people who are capable of working and capable of getting themselves in a right position, an ability to eventually work their way to a place where they can become sustaining for themselves and the rest of their family. How do we do that? Well, we help them in targeted ways. We help them, we give to them, not loan to them. We give to them in a way that's going to lead them to a place where they're going to actually. Well, they're going to actually be able to grow to a place of self sustenance. Now if we lived in a society where that was the case, well then it'd be very hard and very difficult to do that. But we do live in a society where it's possible. Now I'm not saying it's not difficult because for a lot of people it is really, really difficult. Okay? You deal with a young mother who has two children and the father's left them and she comes from a difficult family backgr or maybe even family background where the people in her family are sick and elderly and they need help. And so you run into people like that all the time who really do need a hand up. They need somebody to help them along so that they can get to a place of self sustenance. We should be giving to them. We should Be helping them, we should be engaging them. You run into a young man or a man who is trying to find, figure out how to take care of his family, take care of people in his, in his, in his life at home, and doesn't really have the skills it takes to get to a place where they could actually make some life sustaining income. What do we do with them? We help them get to that place. We, we, we help them get to that place. How do we do that? Well, we might help sustain them for a little bit, but the main thing we do is we get them in a place where they're qu. Quickly moving toward a sustaining situation. Now for those who can't, those who are sick, those who are elderly, those who are poor, those who are children, you know, the widow and the orphan, what do we do? We have to take care of them. And that has to be pure, benevolent sometimes. The Bible says true religion is to take care of the widow and the orphan. What does that mean? Well, God's saying if you're really going to do this the right way, you're going to have to take care of people who there's no possible way to take care of themselves. And that's what he says about opening hand. Verse 9 says, Beware lest there be wicked thoughts in your heart, saying the seventh year, the year of release is at hand. And your eye be evil against your poor brother, and you give him nothing. And he cry out to the Lord against you and it become a sin among you. What he's saying is in this whole process of giving out loans, you can't cut off the loans right at the end of the seventh year. And that be the worst year of people's lives because nobody's loaning out any money. You go, well, we're not in the business of loaning money. Well, that's true, and that's not what we're talking about today. But there's a great principle here and we should grab that principle and take hold of it. What is it? Well, beware that we don't have wicked thoughts in our hearts toward these people. Beware that we not be judgmental. Beware that we begin to look at their lives and in a way that is going to lead to us giving them grace. Jesus forbid us to judge others. He didn't forbid us to make making good judgments. He said, for in the manner in which you judge, you will also. In the manner in which you judge, you will also be judged. What is he saying? Well, what he's saying is that you need to make sure you check the reason for your judgment. If the reason for my judgment is for condemnation, then I am heaping condemnation on myself. If my reason for judgment is for their best interest and I am trying to help them have life and have a good life, well, then making a judgment about how to do that, well, that would be appropriate, and not only it would be appropriate to bring about a blessing to you also. And so when we, when we are thinking about these people, we've got to think about, think strategically. And we need to help strategically. Like I said, there are some people that we're just mandated to help, the widow and the orphan, but there are other people who we are mandated to help. And our help needs to be very pointed and very strategic in helping them actually become more and better than what they are. You shall surely give to him, verse 10. And your heart should not be grieved when you give to him, because for this thing, the Lord your God will bless you and all your works and all to which you put your hand. What he's saying is, is that there is a blessing that comes with charity and the giving and a giving heart. And I will say this, as we approach the end of this Bible study, there is a blessing that comes from that, and there is a blessing that comes from God for someone who is willing to open their hand and give to those who are in need. There is a great blessing that comes from that. And the main blessing is that God keeps filling your hand so that you can fulfill the needs of others. Verse 11 says, for the poor will never cease from the land. Therefore I command you, saying you shall open your hand wide to your brother, to your poor, and to your needy in your land. What he's saying is the poor are going to be with you always. Now we, as a church, we try to make sure that we are giving church and that we're a part and actively not only give, but participate in the helping of those in need. And we are strategic about that. We don't just give out money. We're not just opening up the church and handing out cash, but we're very strategic and we want to help others, those who can't help themselves ever. We want to, sure enough, help them, those who can but need help up. We want to definitely be in a position to put them in a good place so that they can have those things and so that they can become greater and actually become those who give rather than those who need to be given to. And so as we're thinking about this, this is sometimes very very difficult. But as we're thinking about this, we need to have the heart of Christ and keep the heart of what God is teaching us here in Deuteronomy chapter 15. And that is, is that there's going to be poor always. There's always. They're always going to be there. And that we have to keep our hearts open to them so that we might be a resource to them, so that we might be the kingdom in this world.

As you go today, I pray that the Lord will bless you and keep.

You, that he'll make his face to.

Shine upon you, and that he will give you hope and peace today in Jesus name.