"At the end of every seven
years you shall make a release…. Every creditor who lends anything unto his
neighbor.. .shall not exact it of his neighbor, or of his brother; because it
is called the Lord’s release" (Deut. 15:1,2).

The increasing wealth of the
people of God as dwelling in the land and gathering in its fruits is
beautifully brought out in this chapter. There is a continually increasing
yield for God and for His people. From the first year there is a tithe for
service and for assembly enjoyment. From the third year there is a tithe for
the benefit of the Levite, the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow.

There is ability to give
expression to what God is in grace to those who have need. Then "at the
end of seven years you shall make a release." All this is a blessed
picture of the formation of the divine nature in God’s people. The saints are
viewed as continuing to be nourished in the good of the land and as increasing
in spiritual wealth. God’s sons are becoming more like Him—more imbued with the
spirit of grace. They are getting freed from the spirit of demand. If I am
requiring and demanding from my brethren, even if what I require is due to me,
I have not lived long in the land. I have not been there "seven
years." I have not learned much of God’s ways of acting.

I may know that I have a
righteous claim on my brother for something that is due to me which has not
been rendered. In such a case I am in the position of a creditor. We may be in
that position sometimes, though I fear we are more often in the position of
debtors to our brethren. There are parts of Scripture that apply very
distinctly to debtors and to what is due on their part, and we must have full
regard to those scriptures. But this is not a chapter for debtors but
for wealthy persons, sons of God, heirs of all God’s wealth. It is a chapter
for creditors.

"Every creditor shall relax
his hand from the loan which he has lent unto his neighbor; he shall not demand
it of his neighbor, or of his brother; for a release to Jehovah has been
proclaimed (verse 2 JND). This indicates such maturity in the divine nature
that God’s people can act even as He has acted Himself. What an exalted
privilege is that! To sing truly, "Oh what a debt we owe" would
enable us to take up the creditor’s privilege in the year of
"release."

There are times when our brethren
come under obligation to us. A creditor is one who has a righteous claim on his
neighbor or his brother for something. It is well to consider whether we have
righteous claims that remain unsatisfied. Let us turn over our ledgers and see
if we have any entries standing against brother or sisters. Yes! Brother So and
So did not treat me with the respect that was due to me; he did not show me
Christian consideration or courtesy! And another brother took full advantage of
my kindness, but expressed no gratitude; he made no return for all the good I
have done to him! And a sister spoke unkindly of me; she even said what was not
true! And another promised to do a certain thing, but he never did it! All such
things as these put us in the place of creditors. Such debts as these go on
piling up year after year, and the creditors get soured by thinking so long
about the debts that have never been paid! God does not like to see His sons
maintaining demands on one another, so He steps in to confer a great privilege
on all creditors. The creditor here is the one who gains, for he shines in the
glory of correspondence with God. How could you enjoy your sabbatical year if
you were thinking all the time of undischarged debts due to you from your
brethren? Many local difficulties are the result of old standing accounts.
There is a rankling sourness in the heart on account of things said and done
years ago, and it is destructive of family affections and spiritual prosperity.
These things show that we have not been "seven years" in the land; we
have not yet acquired sufficient wealth to "make a release." If we
keep up personal grievances against our brethren we are missing the creditor’s
privilege in the year of release.

How often people say, "But I
want righteousness." They forget that righteousness now consists in acting
towards others in the same way that God has acted towards us (Matt. 18:21-35).
Certain things are due on the debtor’s part, and God’s work in him would lead
to the acknowledgment of this. But, as we have said before, this particular
scripture is not occupied with the debtor, or the relief that he gets; it is
the setting forth of the creditor’ s privilege, and of the gain which accrues
to him as he takes it up. It is not even spoken of here as a release to the
debtor; it is "a release to Jehovah." The creditor has an opportunity
of showing how he appreciates Jehovah’s gracious favor, and of reflecting it in
his conduct towards his poor brother. It is poverty in our brother that has
brought him into the place of a debtor. If he had been spiritually wealthy he
would never have incurred the debt; he would have undoubtedly discharged all
his righteous obligations. But his poverty may furnish me with an
opportunity to act as a wealthy son of God and to make a release.

Making "a release to
Jehovah" is not writing it off as a bad debt. It is really transferring
the undischarged debts to God’s account, who will certainly see that the
creditor loses nothing by reflecting His character and ways. There is no
question of the justice of the creditor’s claim, but he is wealthy enough
through divine favor to relax his hand and not demand it. He knows that God
will give him such wealth that he will be far better off by freeing his brother
from all demand than he would have been by insisting on having all that was
due. "For the Lord shall greatly bless you in the land which the Lord your
God gives you for an inheritance to possess it, only if you carefully
hearken unto the voice of the Lord your God, to observe to do all these
commandments which I command you this day" (Deut. 15:4,5). With an
attitude like this you will never yourself be a debtor; you will never be a
poor man in Israel. I have often seen people who insist on their rights and
demand what is due to them, but I have noticed that they are invariably poor in
spiritual wealth. When the spirit of demand has been in my own heart I have
found it spiritually impoverishing. The spirit of "release" comes out
in such scriptures as the following:"Forbearing one another and forgiving
one another, if any man have a quarrel against any:even as Christ forgave you,
so also do you" (Col. 3:13). "And be kind one to another,
tender-hearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake has
forgiven you" (Eph. 4:32). The Lord taught His disciples to pray,
"And forgive us our sins, for we also forgive every one who is indebted to
us" (Luke 11:4). It assumes that those who thus pray have observed the
year of release; the Lord would have us to enjoy the privilege of doing so. On
the other hand, the consequences of not making a release are very serious.
"For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also
forgive you; but if you forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your
Father forgive your trespasses" (Matt. 6:14,15).

The children of Israel went into captivity because they had apparently ceased to observe the sabbatical year about
the time of David. They had to go into captivity for 70 years to make up for 70
sabbatical years that had not been kept (2 Chron. 36:21). Governmentally, we
may lose all spiritual freedom and enjoyment if we do not "make a
release." If I find my heart indisposed to do it, I have to recognize that
I am small in the divine nature; it is 7 who am not acting as a son of God; I
am the debtor rather than my poor brother; I must judge myself rather
than him. The effect of making a release is that in my spirit I am in the
liberty of grace and love towards my debtor.

Then there is to be gracious
consideration for "a poor man" and "thy poor brother"
(verses 7-11). The word "bountifully" occurs three times in these
five verses (in JND; "open your hand wide" in KJV). This is a
perpetual obligation, "for the poor shall never cease out of the
land." God will see to it that there will always be opportunity for His
bountifulness to be expressed through His children.

I am not referring altogether to
temporal needs, though surely such a scripture has a definite bearing on them.
But I am thinking for the moment of those who are spiritually poor. How
many there are who never seem to know spiritual prosperity; they never acquire
resources of their own; they never contribute anything; they seem always to
need to be supported and kept up by the spiritual wealth of others! Well, they
furnish a fine opportunity for bountifulness on the part of those who are
spiritually richer than they are. I knew a brother who felt keenly how poor
spiritually the saints were among whom he lived and served. They never seemed
to get on, or to be capable of taking in spiritual thoughts. He got
discouraged, and asked the Lord to move him to some place where there would be
more interest and appreciation. He told me that the Lord seemed to say to him,
"Do you want to care for my saints?" And he answered, "Yes,
Lord, I do." "Well, there they are; go on caring for and feeding
them!" And he went on doing so until the Lord called him home.

There is a tendency with us to
look for some kind of return, and to shut up our hand if we see no prospect of
getting it. But as wealthy sons, it is our privilege to support, and to supply
the lack of, the spiritually poor without considering whether there will be any
return or not. The Lord’s own words were, "Do good and lend, hoping for
nothing again, and your reward shall be great, and you shall be the children of
the Highest" (Luke 6:35). If I am only prepared to dispense my spiritual
wealth on condition that i should be appreciated or honored or respected, it is
"a thing of Belial" in my heart. Paul was a wealthy son, and he said,
"I will very gladly spend and be spent for you, though the more abundantly
I love you, the less I be loved" (2 Cor. 12:15). He had drunk deeply into
the spirit of the scripture we are now considering. We like to be with those
who understand us and who can reciprocate our thoughts and feelings, but this
must not be allowed to diminish our bountiful-ness to those who have need. They
are to be valued and ministered to because of what they are to God.