15:4
A natural reaction to this is that “we will lose money!”. If the people had kept the Law then this would not happen, for “there need be no poor people among you”, so actually no one would need a loan! The system was geared towards achieving that goal. When we go down the debt route we eventually end up in a mess. “He will richly bless you”. God’s goal is to bless people (this is in no way an endorsement of the “prosperity gospel”. Later we will read that there would always be poor among them. Is this a contradiction? No, for the people never kept the Law fully. The system is sometimes used as an argument for cancelling all debts today. There is something in this, but other aspects of the Law would also need to be included, and people are not quite so keen to do that!
15:5
Yet another reminder that all this is dependent upon Israel fully obeying the Lord. Note the word “fully”. The required standard is perfection. In looking at the Old Testament and the Law we always need to bear in mind that God was fully aware that man was a slave to sin and could never measure up to the required standard by his own efforts.
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