The LORD will open the heavens, the storehouse of his bounty, to send rain on your land in season and to bless all the work of your hands. You will lend to many nations but will borrow from none. Deuteronomy 28:12
“Regardless of how it seems today, debt is not the norm in any economy and should not be the norm for God’s people. We live in a debt-ridden society that is now virtually dependent on a constant expansion of credit to keep the economy going. That is a symptom of a society no longer willing to follow God’s principles. We see this disobedience in many areas, so why should we assume it is any different in the area of money? Yet Christians who would never think of actively participating in a lifestyle of sinful behavior naively follow the world’s path in the area of credit.
Listen to the promise God made His people: “If you fully obey the Lord your God and carefully follow all His commands I give you today, the Lord you God will set you high above all the nations on earth…The Lord will open the heavens, the storehouse of His bounty, to send rain on your land in season and to bless all the work of your hands. You will lend to many nations but will borrow from none” (Deuteronomy 28: 1, 12, emphasis added).”
Larry Burkett (1939-2003) in Debt-Free Living: Eliminating Debt in a New Economy, Revised and Updated (Chicago: Moody Publishers, 2010) 151.
Don’t read today’s Old Testament text prescriptively as a way to manipulate God for material abundance as the so-called “prosperity gospel” people read it. Read it as descriptively setting forth God’s design for His people. His design calls for obedience and results in freedom. While most people agree that debt leads to slavery, most don’t see it as disobedience. They instead fall back on the “debt is the norm” mentality.
Burkett rightly notes that debt is not and should not be understood as the norm. Most of the people of the world have no access to debt, so it is certainly not the norm globally. Where it comes into view as disobedience is that, in most cases, we usurp God’s role as Provider and seek to supply our own needs through debt. We exhibit discontentment with God’s timing and take matters into our own hands.
Pervasive debt is a symptom of many things. It’s easy to get, so it can reveal laziness. It also shows a shift from trusting God to supply in His time. God’s design for us is far better than anything we can muster with debt (or hoarding). In the days to come we will explore ways to get rid of financial debt, but for now, avoid it whenever possible as it both enslaves and limits Christian generosity.