January 15, 2025

Passage Read: Deuteronomy 24-27
Meditation Verses: 24:6,10-13

Thought

There is a lot about pledges for loans here, even mentioning in a few more verses not to take a widow's cloak as pledge. The one who makes the loan is allowed to have pledges, but the lender here is to think more of the person than the pledge. You don't take something needed to earn income as a pledge, you don't go into someone's home to take their pledge, and you don't keep a poor man's cloak overnight if that's all he has to keep warm. The person is more valuable then the pledge or the money, and he deserves to be treated with dignity and honor and compassion.

Application

We have made everything so impersonal and industrial, such that so much compassion is lost. We've also made loans so prevalent and used for so many things, not just for those desperate to make ends meet. If we're going to borrow for luxuries, there is still a need to treat people with dignity, but there is not a corresponding need for compassion. Neither are these rules meant to make it easy for the borrower to take advantage of the lender. Both deserve dignity and consideration. These rules do not apply to luxuries, but necessities, and both the lender and the borrower need to understand what are truly necessities. If I borrow for things I don't need to live, then the lender deserves his pledge and can keep it until I pay off the loan. But if I fail to pay it off in a timely manner or it becomes clear that I won't be able to pay it off, the lender has the right to keep my pledge in lieu of my payment, though it would be better for him to sell it, pay off the debt and repay to me what remains as reimbursement for the payments I did make.