At the end of every seven years thou shalt make a release.
At the end of every seven years a release was to be made, meaning the complete remission and cancellation of debts. This was the Lord's release of debts owed by fellow Israelites, so a creditor must not demand repayment from a neighbor or brother, including a brother who cannot pay a debt. The command was joined to the promise to bless in the land on condition of obedience to the commandments. In that same seventh year the land also rested and produced spontaneously for the needy. Together with the return of land to its original owner in the fiftieth year, the Jubilee, this release secured each family's inheritance and kept families from losing it, guarding against extremes of wealth and poverty or want.
The release belongs with many regular obligations that directed property and income toward God's service and the poor, in a system distinguished by the sanctification of property that kept God's claims paramount in almost every article. Those obligations were the tithe, sin-offerings, thank-offerings, ransom for the firstborn son, firstfruits of flocks and harvest, leaving corners of fields and droppings for the destitute, letting the land yield spontaneously for the needy in the seventh year, sacrificial offerings, trespass-offerings, hospitalities, gifts to the poor, assessments on property, and special freewill offerings for the tabernacle in the wilderness and the temple at Jerusalem. Conscientious givers returned about one-third of all income for religious interests and for the poor, required of all in proportion to the amount possessed, which proves that the tithe was not the standard of contributions. The verse calls for release and compassionate treatment in dealings with others, requiring mercy and tenderness rather than insisting on a financial right in a way that wrongs another. It lays imperative claims on Christians with property to give their proportion and more, calling for an awakening in beneficence and for settling God's claims before account is rendered in the last day.
At the end of every seven years a release was to be made, meaning the complete remission and cancellation of debts. This was the Lord's release of debts owed by fellow Israelites, so a creditor must not demand repayment from a neighbor or brother, including a brother who cannot pay a debt. The command was joined to the promise to bless in the land on condition of obedience to the commandments. In that same seventh year the land also rested and produced spontaneously for the needy. Together with the return of land to its original owner in the fiftieth year, the Jubilee, this release secured each family's inheritance and kept families from losing it, guarding against extremes of wealth and poverty or want.
The release belongs with many regular obligations that directed property and income toward God's service and the poor, in a system distinguished by the sanctification of property that kept God's claims paramount in almost every article. Those obligations were the tithe, sin-offerings, thank-offerings, ransom for the firstborn son, firstfruits of flocks and harvest, leaving corners of fields and droppings for the destitute, letting the land yield spontaneously for the needy in the seventh year, sacrificial offerings, trespass-offerings, hospitalities, gifts to the poor, assessments on property, and special freewill offerings for the tabernacle in the wilderness and the temple at Jerusalem. Conscientious givers returned about one-third of all income for religious interests and for the poor, required of all in proportion to the amount possessed, which proves that the tithe was not the standard of contributions. The verse calls for release and compassionate treatment in dealings with others, requiring mercy and tenderness rather than insisting on a financial right in a way that wrongs another. It lays imperative claims on Christians with property to give their proportion and more, calling for an awakening in beneficence and for settling God's claims before account is rendered in the last day.