Seder 146: Deuteronomy 14-16---Sabbath Principles

 Deuteronomy 14:22-16:17 deals with topics related to the Sabbath commandment, things like worship at the annual festivals and observance of sabbatical years.  In discussing these topics, Moses speaks not in terms of making regulations, but in terms of opportunities for the whole community together to rejoice before God, with no one left out.  He places quite a bit of emphasis on helping poor members of the community.  

In Deuteronomy 14:22-27, Moses describes an annual festival tithe that would enable the people to experience regular events analogous to the covenant meal at Horeb 40 years before (Exodus 24:9-11).  Another tithe collected in years 3 and 6 of every 7-year cycle would be used to help the poor (vv 28-29).

Year seven was the sabbatical year, a time of release of debts.  In the seventh year, "every creditor shall release what he has lent to his neighbor" (15:2).  Daniel Block proposes that this may have meant releasing what the debtor had given the lender as collateral rather than cancelling a loan altogether.  That way creditors would be willing to make loans, and debtors would be able to gain economic benefit from the collateral and get on a better financial footing.  

Deuteronomy 15:3 says that this debt release did not apply to loans to foreigners.  It's assumed that such loans would be business loans to people who were not permanent residents, not personal loans for someone who has fallen into debt.  This was not a matter of prejudice against foreigners, which is spoken against elsewhere in the Torah (e.g., Lev 19:33-34).  

Moses holds up an ideal in which the Israelites are obedient to God and poverty is eliminated (vv 4-6).  In the meantime, though, there would be poverty, and people should come to the aid of those who needed it (vv 7-11).  (Certainly Jesus' reference to Deuteronomy 15:11 in Matthew 26:11 was not intended to imply that the poor should be neglected.)

Hebrew slaves should be released with generous gifts, Moses adds (vv 12-15).  It has been observed that this is a principle which God made sure the Egyptians carried out when the Israelites departed from them (Ex 12:36).   

In Deuteronomy 16 Moses describes the three annual pilgrimage festivals---Passover, Pentecost, and Tabernacles---that Israelites would have the opportunity to celebrate.  Daniel Block identifies some key principles in the theology of worship expressed in Deuteronomy 16:1-17:

1. True worship involves an engagement with God and is focused on him. 
2. True worship occurs at God's initiative and must be conducted on his terms.
3. True worship is communal.
4. True worship is driven by gratitude to God for his redemption and daily provision.
5. True worship involves the offering of our resources and ourselves.