This topic was begun in “Money (1) – Anciently, Shekel Metal”, and continued in “Money (2) – Biblical Honest Weights, Usury”. This Part 3 is the conclusion. Most of the material presented in (1) and (2) won’t be repeated here in (3).
Part 2 ended with a discussion from scripture about usury or interest. ‘Interest’ is where the lender demands from the borrower a return greater than the amount borrowed (distinct from a service fee).
In the Lord’s theocracy of ancient Israel, loans to Israelites at interest were forbidden. The Hebrew root term for interest or usury is nawshák, Strongs h5391. It means ‘to bite’! De.23:19 “You shall not charge interest [h5391] to your countrymen; on silver [h3701], food, or anything lent upon interest.” Charging any interest to one’s brother was wrong…not just inflated interest. Ellicott Commentary Ezk.18:8 “In Scripture usury does not mean excessive interest, as often in modern legislation, but any interest at all.” Gill Exposition De.23:19 “This takes in all sorts of usury.” On food or grain too.
But God allowed Israel to charge interest to foreigners. De.23:20 “To a foreigner [h5237 nokrée] you may charge interest [h5391], but to your countrymen you shall not charge interest [h5391]; that the Lord may bless you.” JFB Commentary “The case was different with foreigners, who, engaged in trade and commerce, borrowed to enlarge their capital, and might reasonably be expected to pay interest on their loans.” Or, as an economic sanction. Interest existed in ancient Near East countries. (see Part 2.)
The Lord gave (monetary) principles & guidelines for His people to obey. De.28 describes blessings for obedience, and curses for disobedience. De.28:1 “If you will diligently obey the Lord, being careful to do all His commandments….” Then v.2-14 lists many blessings. v.12 “The Lord will bless all the work of your hand; you shall lend to many nations, but you will not borrow.” A measure of prosperity and the ability to lend are among the blessings for obedience. We reap what we sow (Ga.6:7).
Then De.28:15-68 describes curses for disobedience. De.28:15 “But if you will not obey the Lord, to do all His commandments….” v.43-44 “The alien among you shall rise above you higher and higher. He shall lend to you but you shall not lend to him.” In this sense, borrowing is a curse for disobedience. It too reflects sowing & reaping, cause & effect. God is just and fair.
The Lord gave injunctions to His people about debt, and for loans made among countrymen/brothers. Guidelines about debt are seen in De.15. Ideally, ancient Israel would obey the Lord; He would bless them. And then, v.4-6 “There shall be no poor among you.” Loans were a provision so that others wouldn’t lack. God graciously made allowances for the poor and those who needed a loan in Israel.
Ancient Israel was an agricultural nation. Yet the Lord said that in every 7th year the land wasn’t to be sown or reaped. Le.25:3-5 it would have a sabbath rest (and then produce more). So there was no crop to sell from each 7th year. De.15:1-3 “At the end of every 7 years you shall make a release. If you’ve made a loan, don’t collect payment on the debt, because the time for suspending payments on debts has been proclaimed. Of the foreigner you may demand repayment.” Crops weren’t harvested. Repayment from Israelite countrymen was suspended for that year; lengthening the term of the loan by one year. It was a suspension, not a cancellation, of debt.
JFB Commentary De.15:2 “Not an absolute discharge of the debt, but passing over that year without exacting payment. The relief was temporary and peculiar to that year during which there was a total suspension of agricultural labor.” Matthew Poole Commentary “The word does not signify a total dismission or acquitting, but an intermission for a time, as Ex.23:11.” Thereby the borrower too was able to better enjoy the land sabbath year.
De.15:7-10 lend even when the 7th year of the land cycle is near, when no repayment would be made. v.10 LXX “You shall lend [g1155, Greek] him according to his need; you shall not grudge in your heart as you give to him, because on this account the Lord shall bless you.” A loan made in the 5th or 6th year of the cycle was an act of faith that God will bless the lender (though the repayment of the 7th year will be delayed)! They were to loan willingly.
The well-to-do will have less need for a loan, and may lend to others. Ps.112:5 “It is well with the man who is gracious and lends.” Also ref Pr.19:17 & Ps.37:25-26, the righteous lends (g1155). Assuredly the borrower is expected to repay. But Ps.37:21, “The wicked man borrows but doesn’t repay.”
Collateral from the borrower was held as a pledge that he’d repay the loan. His collateral was to be returned upon repayment. ref Ex.22:26, De.24:6, 10-12, 17, Jb.24:3, Ezk.18:7-8, 33:15. The debtor’s collateral property signified his intent to repay. Some property wasn’t to be used as term collateral.
Mt.5:42 Jesus said, “Give to him who asks of you, and don’t turn away from him who wants to borrow [g1155] from you”. Don’t begrudge him who asks. Lk.6:34 “If you lend [g1155] to those from whom you expect to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend [g1155] to sinners, to receive back the same.” Loans to brethren were to be without receipt of interest/usury; gentiles charged usury. Gill Exposition Lk.6:34 “The same again, as from their brethren the Jews; or usury, as from the Gentiles.”
Mt.6:12 “Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.” Here debts are figurative for sins (cf. Lk.11:4). Barnes Notes Mt.6:12 “Our sins have a resemblance to debts.” Gill Exposition “To be understood not so much of pecuniary debtors.” Yet can we expect God to forgive our ‘debt’ of sins, while we charge interest on a loan to brethren?! (see Part 2.)
Unpaid debt could result in slavery or imprisonment. 2Ki.4:1-7 the widow wanted Elisha to somehow help her pay her deceased husband’s creditors, else her two children would face servitude (ref Le.25:39-41). Wikipedia: Debt Bondage “Currently, debt bondage is the most common method of enslavement.” (It occurs primarily in parts of Asia and Africa, for various reasons.)
Debt is metaphorically a form of slavery. Mortgage debt with interest can be bondage for a family for years (cf. Ne.5:1-13). Wiha Powell Debt – The New Form of Slavery “Whether it is the national debt, mortgages, student loans, credit cards, auto loans…America has become a society of debt and the people are drowning in it.” Credit card debt enslaves Americans. (Ideally, pay off credit card bills in full each month to avoid interest charges.) Our $20 trillion national debt is more than our economic output!
The USA is by far the world’s biggest debtor nation (summing all private and public debt it owes to nonresidents)! The Largest Creditor Nation Controls the World (3/3/2016) “In the 1980s the United States crossed over from being a creditor nation to a debtor nation, and is currently the largest debtor nation in the world in aggregate and on a continuing yearly basis.”
Most of the developed Western world is insolvent. The USA, UK, Western Europe, etc. are essentially bankrupt. National debt is staggering! Government (govt) debt has reached the point where they must borrow money just to pay the interest on money they’d previously borrowed! From deficit spending.
Also, more than $250 trillion is owed from unregulated derivative contracts ‘bets’ of banks (with govt too)…that is, gambling done by big banking on anticipated market fluctuations. It’s a huge bubble!
Our money system is problematic. The Biblical standard is commodity money. The “shekel of the sanctuary” was a weight of silver (h3701 kéhsef, Hebrew). The Lord commanded His people to have just weights & measures, e.g. Pr.16:11, Ezk.45:9-12. (see Part 2.)
The USA Constitution Article 1 “Congress shall have the power to coin money and regulate the value thereof.” The Coinage Act of 1792 created the silver dollar as the monetary unit, legal tender. It was = 371 grains of silver. Silver was considered the money of the people, gold the money of the rich. Silver and gold is commodity money. (Commodity money and fiat money were discussed in Part 1.)
George Washington wrote in a 1787 letter, “Paper money has had the effect in your state that it will ever have, to ruin commerce, oppress the honest, and open the door to every species of fraud and injustice. If ever again our nation stumbles upon unfunded paper, it shall surely be like death to our body politic. This country will crash.” An ominous warning!
Later in 1873, the USA went on a gold standard. Silver was mostly de-monetized worldwide. Gold became hoarded. This later led to the paper money system.
In 1913, Congress abdicated its power to a private corporation of bankers, the Federal Reserve (FRB). The Fed creates money out of nothing, and lends it to the govt at interest. The Federal Reserve Board (seven members) is appointed by the President, not elected.
The Lord said to ancient Israel in Is.1:22, “Your silver has become dross”. Wikipedia: Coinage Act of 1792 “Various acts have subsequently been passed affecting the amount and type of metal in U.S. coins, so that today there is no legal definition of the term ‘dollar’ to be found in U.S. statute.”
In 1971, the USA went off the gold standard (the system by which the value of currency was defined). Dollars are no longer tied to gold or silver certificates (representative money). Paper FRB notes are solely redeemable in other paper FRB notes, actually only worth the paper they’re printed on.
Interest and debt is now the basis of the world’s economic system. Big banking cartels control the world via debt money. Bob Livingston Money Is For Control (11/01/2017) “Money now equals debt, and debt equals control”. The apostle Paul wrote in 1Ti.6:10, “The love of money is a root of evils”. Money of itself isn’t evil; but the love of money and the wrong use of money is a cause of evils.
The IRS (Section 438) will actually impute ‘unstated interest’ to a real estate loan…making it illegal not to charge interest! It’s the opposite of Christ’s commands for His people ancient Israel.
In contrast, Islamic banks buy property and sell it for a higher price on installments…but without usury/interest. It seems that they are closer to the Lord’s word of scripture on this matter.
I’m reluctant to quote Osama Bin Laden (he shows a racial bias). But he wrote in Letter To America (2002): “You are the nation that permits usury, which has been forbidden by all the religions. Yet you build your economy and investments on usury. As a result of this…the Jews have taken control of your economy…your media…and now control all aspects of your life, making you their servants….”
Islamic rogue nations not doing usury (or derivatives) are holdouts from world bank organizations, and are taken down (by the USA military)…Iraq, Libya, Syria, Iran, Afghanistan. (N Korea and Cuba also are holdouts.) Again, God forbad usury among ancient Israelites…ref De.23:19, Ps.15:5, Ne.5:7.
When the USA talks about promoting democracy worldwide, what’s usually meant is promoting capitalism with usury to benefit the elite! The few wealthy oligarchs exercise a measure of control over the media and many of the politicians who are candidates. This oligarchy isn’t really democracy. Voting choices and the system are suspect.
World currency status is a CONfidence game. Any nation’s paper money has value only as long as people think it has value! Investopedia: Is Fiat Money More Prone to Inflation Than Commodity Money? “The value of money is based largely on public faith in the issuer. Commodity money’s value is based on the material it was manufactured with, such as gold or silver. Fiat money, therefore, does not have intrinsic value, while commodity money does. Changes in public confidence in a govt issuing fiat money may be enough to make the fiat currency worthless. Commodity money, however, retains value based on the metal or other material content it has. Fiat money is at risk of inflation and deflation because its value is not intrinsic.” Silver & gold is commodity money, having other uses (see Part 1).
Bob Livingston The Dollar is Having its Worst Year in History (9/20/2017) “A standard by which paper money was redeemable is by gold and silver, which have always had universal value to people all over the world. When the currency must be redeemable by tangible, equivalent value the people themselves control their money, the economy, and the government. Both the Constitution and the Bill of Rights were meant to ensure America operated this way forever. Yet, that ceased to happen. In 1913 the Federal Reserve was created; in 1933, gold was confiscated; and in 1971 the U.S. dumped the solution to the problems of paper money, the gold standard. At that moment, all our dollars became intrinsically worthless and only as strong as the confidence the people themselves had in them. And it is confidence alone that is holding the system together. The implications are scary…and you’re starting to see the effects right now. It is merely the confidence of the people…that gives any value to the dollar whatsoever.” A sobering assessment of irredeemable fiat paper money.
Kevin Kerr Fiat Currency Failure “A study you might find intriguing was done on 775 fiat currencies by DollarDaze.org. It determined that: ‘There is no historical precedence for a fiat currency that has succeeded in holding its value.’ The study showed that 20% failed through hyperinflation, 21% were destroyed by war, 12% destroyed by independence, 24% were monetarily reformed, and 23% are still in circulation and approaching one of the other outcomes. Not a pretty picture at all.” Sad to say.
John R Wilsdon Why Paper Money Not Backed by Gold and Silver Breeds Less Confidence “Gold is the only metal central banks accept as payments of debts between government central banks. Gold has a pedigree no other metal has. So lacking some sort of backing of gold or silver, fiat currency raises issues of trust….fiat currencies (no metallic backing) have ended up hyper-inflated in the past.”
Inflation is an insidious form of theft. So is deficit spending (govt spending in excess of revenue). Thomas Massie “Deficit spending is theft. It’s just that most of the victims aren’t born yet.”
Over the decades it is becoming evident that the Kéynesian system of basing economies upon debt has grave shortcomings. The nations are in debt to billionaire big bankers (and owners of multinational corporations). We need a ‘Debt Jubilee’ (cf. Lk.4:18-19, Le.25:35-37)!
Fiat money has a history of failure. Joel Bauman What Does the Bible Say About Gold and Silver? “In the Bible, gold and silver are synonymous with money. Every Biblical passage that refers to ‘money’ is a unit of weight in gold, silver, or another metal. Silver was used for day-to-day purchases.”
Doug Newman Honest Money, the Bible and the Constitution “Biblical money isn’t fiat money that can be created at will. Biblical money is always tied to a specifically defined weight of precious metal.”
The framers of our Constitution understood the principle, and made the silver dollar the monetary unit. Again, God had made the silver “shekel of the sanctuary” holy place the standard in His theocracy.
In this world, no monetary system has been perfect. There have been problems with bimetallism. Even commodity money may risk “large price fluctuations based on changing commodity prices.” (Investopedia).
Today there is a movement to remonetize silver. Perhaps the day will come when silver or gold is the monetary unit worldwide?
Hag.2:8 “The silver is Mine, and the gold is Mine,’ declares the Lord of hosts.” The Bible mentions silver and gold nearly 700 times! Barnes Notes “Silver and gold… which in utmost bounty He created, and in His most just government administers.”
The world’s present money system isn’t Biblical, and its effects are a huge economic problem. Yet Paul wrote in Php.4:19, “My God shall provide all your need, according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus”. For both the rich and the poor. 2Co.9:8 “God is able to make all grace abound to you, that always having all sufficiency in everything, you may have an abundance for every good deed.”
Over and above the flaws of our money system, the Lord pours out His bounty to fulfill our every need. Thank You, Lord!
Bible Topic Exposition 