I'm sorry for missing Bible study on Thursday. My little dog spent Wednesday night at the emergency hospital and then I had to leave home by 6:20am on Thursday to pick her up there before they closed and transfer her to my regular vet. She was able to come home yesterday evening.
We are still in the midst of the section of Deuteronomy called "Miscellaneous Laws".
"When you make a loan of any kind to your neighbor, do not go into their house to get what is offered to you as a pledge. Stay outside and let the neighbor to whom you are making the loan bring the pledge out to you." (Deuteronomy 24:10-11) We might refer to this pledge as collateral. Or we could compare this transaction to the types of transactions that take place in pawn shops. If the person who takes the loan fails to pay back the loan, the person to whom he owes the money retains the item he was holding as a pledge.
When a person hands over an item in pledge, the person who is making the loan to him is to stand respectfully outside waiting for the pledge to be brought out to him. He doesn't have the right to barge into someone's residence to seize the pledge. I assume another reason he can't go into the house is so he can't change his mind about what he's agreed to accept as a pledge. For instance, suppose he is of a greedy nature and sees something in the house that's worth more than the amount of money he's lending. He might then insist on taking this item instead, in hopes the person will default on the loan and he will get to keep the item. The two parties to this deal are to make the deal outside of the house and that will help prevent the person in need from being cheated.
The person requesting the loan may be so poor that anything he uses as a pledge is one of his basic necessities, like a cloak. "If the neighbor is poor, do not go to sleep with their pledge in your possession. Return their cloak by sunset so that your neighbor may sleep in it. Then they will thank you, and it will be regarded as a righteous act in the sight of the Lord your God." (Deuteronomy 24:12-13) The person needing the loan may hand his cloak to the lender but the lender cannot hold it until the loan is paid back. He must give it back before sunset. Some scholars think the cloak is given back while the transaction is being agreed upon and that the lender does not even leave with it. The handing of the cloak back and forth is symbolic, if that's the case, like in modern times when two people might shake hands in agreement over a transaction.
"Do not take advantage of a hired worker who is poor and needy, whether that worker is a fellow Israelite or a foreigner residing in one of your towns. Pay them their wages each day before sunset, because they are poor and are counting on it. Otherwise they may cry to the Lord against you, and you will be guilty of sin." (Deuteronomy 24:14-15) Let's say a man goes out to hire extra workers to help him bring in his harvest. I picture him going into the city to a place where men in need of work as day laborers gather each morning in hopes of being hired on. He is to pay, every evening, the men he hires. The reason they are standing by the street hoping for work is because they are poor. They have no farms or businesses of their own. They have no regular jobs at this time. For whatever reason, they are currently living a hand-to-mouth existence and they need to be paid every evening so they can buy food to eat. If he withholds their pay they will cry out to the Lord for help and He will hear them. David praised the name of the Lord who hears the cry of the needy, saying, "Who is like You, Lord? You rescue the poor from those too strong for them, the poor and needy from those who rob them." (Psalm 35:10) And, "I know that the Lord secures justice for the poor and upholds the cause of the needy." (Psalm 140:12)
Tomorrow we will look at the remainder of Chapter 24.
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