Deuteronomy 24:8-15 "Leprosy, Loans, & Oppression"

Text Read

8 “Take care, in a case of leprous disease, to be very careful to do according to all that the Levitical priests shall direct you. As I commanded them, so you shall be careful to do. 9 Remember what the LORD your God did to Miriam on the way as you came out of Egypt.

10 “When you make your neighbor a loan of any sort, you shall not go into his house to collect his pledge. 11 You shall stand outside, and the man to whom you make the loan shall bring the pledge out to you. 12 And if he is a poor man, you shall not sleep in his pledge. 13 You shall restore to him the pledge as the sun sets, that he may sleep in his cloak and bless you. And it shall be righteousness for you before the LORD your God.

14 “You shall not oppress a hired worker who is poor and needy, whether he is one of your brothers or one of the sojourners who are in your land within your towns. 15 You shall give him his wages on the same day, before the sun sets (for he is poor and counts on it), lest he cry against you to the LORD, and you be guilty of sin.

Tex Explained

Verses 8-9: “8 Take care, in a case of leprous disease, to be very careful to do according to all that the Levitical priests shall direct you. As I commanded them, so you shall be careful to do. 9 Remember what the LORD your God did to Miriam on the way as you came out of Egypt.” This Law is broader than the type of medical leprosy that we think of today. It would include the medical leprosy we know of and also any skin disease that would have rendered an Israelite ritually unclean and thus unable to participate in the corporate worship of the people as long as that condition continued. Remember, that which is unclean cannot be in the presence of God. This is one of the few, if only times leprosy laws are brought up in Deuteronomy and would mean this Command is an exhortation to obey Leviticus 13 which contained the more complete details of dealing with leprosy. Notice the repetition: “Take care”; “Be very careful to do”; & “be careful to do” all in one verse. Leprosy would make a person unclean and thus that person cannot be in the presence of God. The person would have to submit themselves to the judgment of the Levites who would judge when the person had become ritually clean. However, what is even more fascinating here is the command to remember found in verse 9. 9 Remember what the LORD your God did to Miriam on the way as you came out of Egypt. So what happened to Miriam? In Numbers 12, Miriam and Aaron speak against Moses, and attempt to usurp the authority that God had given to Moses. God intervenes. Numbers 12:2 And they said, “Has the Lord indeed spoken only through Moses? Has He not spoken through us also?” And the Lord heard it. God then calls Moses, Aaron, & Miriam to come before Him. God comes down in a cloudy pillar and, in essence, scolds both Aaron and Miriam for daring to equate themselves with Moses, and when God leaves, Miriam is left leprous, making her ritually unclean, and she is forced to remain outside the camp and unable to participate in the corporate worship of God for seven days. So verses 8-9 really contains a double purpose: “(1) to prescribe treatment of those who contracted leprosy by placing them under the care of the Levites (cf. Lev 13:1–14) and (2) to warn against usurpation of divinely authorized leadership, particularly by bearing false witness.” (Merrill, E. H. (1994). Deuteronomy (Vol. 4, p. 321). Broadman & Holman Publishers.) In other words, obey the leprosy laws and be careful when speaking against divinely appointed authority, for that is not pleasing to God.

Verses 10-13: 10 “When you make your neighbor a loan of any sort, you shall not go into his house to collect his pledge. 11 You shall stand outside, and the man to whom you make the loan shall bring the pledge out to you. 12 And if he is a poor man, you shall not sleep in his pledge. 13 You shall restore to him the pledge as the sun sets, that he may sleep in his cloak and bless you. And it shall be righteousness for you before the LORD you.” Here we find legislation to protect the humanity of the person who is in debt. Last week we already noticed how certain things were not allowed to be taken in pledge such as the millstones. This Law here upholds the dignity of the one in debt while also honoring the one who has given the loan. Side note: sometimes we like to make the person who gave the loan out to be a villain for wanting to be paid back. Scripture does no such a thing. If a person took a loan from someone, the debtor was responsible to pay it back. However, there were also laws such as Deuteronomy 24:6 “No one shall take a mill or an upper millstone in pledge, for that would be taking a life in pledge.” as well as this one that would protect the debtor from predatory lending practices. The Levitical Law protects against predatory lending as well as deadbeat debtors. Now this Law in particular continues to protect the dignity of the debtor by not allowing the one who gave the loan to go into the debtor’s home and choose whatever he wanted as pledge. The debtor’s home was off-limits to the one giving the loan. This allowed the debtor to maintain his dignity as he brought the pledge out to the loan giver. Remember, the purpose of a loan was to help a fellow Israelite. Verses 12-13 give the illustration of the poor man who is receiving a loan and again we see the protection of life and dignity of lending to someone who is in need. For the poor man, the only thing he may have to offer in pledge is his cloak. That which becomes his blanket at night. Here the loan giver is allowed to hold the cloak during the day, but at night the loan giver must return the cloak so that the debtor may be able to sleep in his cloak. Most likely, this would be a day to day occurrence until the debtor is back on his feet and has paid off his loan. The giving back every night and the taking it back in the morning would be a reminder that the debt needed to be paid, but also showing mercy to the poor man. In this way, both the loan giver and the debtor are afforded respect in regards to the loan that was given. In fact, by giving the man his cloak every night, the loan giver was doing something righteous before the Lord. This ties in with verses 14-15.

Verses 14-15: 14 “You shall not oppress a hired worker who is poor and needy, whether he is one of your brothers or one of the sojourners who are in your land within your towns. 15 You shall give him his wages on the same day, before the sun sets (for he is poor and counts on it), lest he cry against you to the LORD, and you be guilty of sin.” Here we have the command not to oppress the hired worker. As one commentator notes: “Poor men who worked as laborers were to be paid at the end of their day’s work, whether they were Israelites or aliens resident in Israel. The legislation refers specifically to the hire of poor people, whose need was such that to be paid on a weekly (or longer) basis would cause real hardship. The money would be needed each day to feed a family each day; the legislation expresses once again humanitarian concern for those within Israel who would be less fortunate than their fellows.” (Craigie, P. C. (1976). The Book of Deuteronomy (p. 309). Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.) This Law was again given to protect against predatory business practices. The severe need of the wage earner here is stressed and compassion is to override economic calculation. And the second half of verse 15 seems to imply that there will be some who attempt to legally prey upon the poor and perhaps they even get away with it. The recourse of the poor person is to cry out to God and God in Heaven will hear and God in Heaven will be the employers final judge and will count unfairness as sin. Now I mentioned that this tied in with verses 12-13. You see for the poor man who has taken a loan from his employer, the poor man may give the employer his cloak during the day while he works, then at night when he comes to get paid, the employer would give him his wages as well as his cloak for the night. In this way, the loan giver and the debtor can work out an arrangement so that the poor man would be able to work his way out of poverty and the employer would be paid back for what he had loaned the poor man and God is honored by both.

Text Applied:

Verse 8-9:

Only those who are Cleansed may enter God’s presence. Just as those who were with leprosy could not join in the corporate worship of God, in the same way no one who has sin can enter the presence of God. Scripture tells us Romans 3:10–12 “as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.” This means that all of humanity is condemned already John 3:18 “Whoever believes in Him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.” However in that same verse we see that those who have believed in Jesus are not condemned. Why? because they have repented of their sin, they have called on the name of the Lord, and their sins have become white as snow. Isaiah 1:18 ““Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool.” No human is good enough to enter God’s perfect presence. Leprosy put a person outside the camp, outside the people of God. So to, sin puts us outside the presence of God and we cannot enter in. However, Jesus made a way, He took our sin and paid our debt so that if we repent/believe we will be washed of our sins and clothed in the righteousness of Jesus. 1 John 2:2 “He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.” Galatians 3:27 “For as many of you as were baptized/immersed into Christ have put on Christ.” Only those who have been Cleansed/forgiven/clothed in the righteousness of Christ may enter God’s presence.

Be careful speaking against Authority. Be careful when you speak against the authority God has placed over you. When Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses, God chastened them. In the NT we are commanded: Romans 13:1–2 “Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment.” Hebrews 13:17 “Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you.” Ephesians 6:1 “Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.” Now we see the authority God has placed over each of us in Government, in Church, in the Family are all instituted by God and for our good. Is there a time to disobey those who have the rule over you, yes there are times. There are times when a child should disobey their parents, there are times when a Christian should disobey their church leaders, there are times when citizens should disobey their government. However, we better do so humbly & carefully. In the words of the Apostle Peter Acts 5:29 “But Peter and the apostles answered, “We must obey God rather than men.” Be careful when you speak against/disobey the authority God has placed over you, lest you find yourself speaking against/disobeying God Himself. There is much more that could be said on this topic, but let us remember the details matter.

Do not oppress the debtor. If you are one who has given a loan/lent to someone, let compassion rule over your economic calculation. Be gracious in your lending and do not oppress the one who is in debt. In fact, when it comes to a lending dispute within the body of Christ, the Apostle Paul in states that the Church is actually to be the arbiter in that situation. However, Paul’s conclusion in 1 Corinthians 6:7 is that it is better to be defrauded than to take a fellow Christian to court. “To have lawsuits at all with one another is already a defeat for you. Why not rather suffer wrong? Why not rather be defrauded?” Regardless, do not oppress the one who is in debt.

Do not forsake your debts. If you are the one who has taken a loan/is in debt, do not forsake your debts. It doesn’t matter that the person you recieved a loan from is rich, you made a promise to pay back your debt. If your response is “Why should I pay it back in a timely manner, they are rich and don’t need it.” Then you are a liar b/c you promised you would pay it back, and you are jealous of what God has given them. And if you take a loan from a from a Christian and try to play the victim, it is even worse for you, because you are stealing from your brother/sister. If you have taken on debt, you are bound to pay it back. Be careful when you take debt. There are many warnings in scripture about taking on debt such as Proverbs 22:7b “...the borrower is the slave of the lender.”

Be a fair employer. If God has blessed you with the ability to employ others, that blessing comes with a responsibility to be fair to your employees. To pay them on time. Do not yank around those whose life depends upon you being fair. lest he/they cry against you to the LORD, and you be guilty of sin. Deut 24:15c

Conclusion: If you have never repented of your sin, you are still outside the family of God. You are like the leper who is unclean in God’s eyes. However, God has offered you a way to be cleansed. That is in Jesus Christ. If you repent, you will be cleansed/forgiven. It is a free gift offered to all who would believer. If you are a Christian, 1 Corinthians 10:31“So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” In all areas of life, in the way you interact with those in authority, in lending to others, in paying your debts, and in how you employ others, remember to do ALL to the Glory of God. He is the final judge and He knows not only the actions you take but also the reasons you take them.