Our text this evening is found in the chapter that we read, Deuteronomy chapter 15. Deuteronomy chapter 15 and verse one, at the end of every seven years, you shall grant a release of debts. Deuteronomy is, as I said in a recent reading, a preaching of the covenant. It is Moses proclaiming God's covenant with Israel. And the covenant has been simply summed up by one writer, quoting scripture as, God's people, in God's presence, in God's place, God has promised, I will be their God and they shall be my people. And being God's people, means behaving in a particular way, not to become God's people, but because of that relationship that already exists that God has graciously brought into existence. And in part, the Book of Deuteronomy expounds the Ten Commandments that God has given. The commandments are repeated, of course, the first occurrence of the commandments is in Exodus chapter 20, but they are then repeated by Moses in Deuteronomy chapter 5 with slight verbal differences. And here we have come to the Sabbath commandment, the fourth commandment. Observe the Sabbath day to keep it holy as the Lord your God commanded you. Six days you shall labor and do all your work. But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work. You, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your ox, nor your donkey, nor any of your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. that your male servant and your female servant may rest as well as you. And remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out from there by a mighty hand, by an outstretched arm. Therefore, the Lord your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day. The Sabbath principle is one of rest. It is one that our Lord expressed as part of his mission when he spoke to his people in Matthew 11, come unto me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. He is the one who gives rest for our souls. And he is the one, therefore, who fulfills the Sabbath. And so we see here in this chapter, first of all, God's Sabbath covenant, the covenant We see, secondly, God's compassion. And we see, thirdly, the consecration of God's people. Covenant, compassion, and consecration. And first we see the covenant. And the covenant here is expressed in terms of the Sabbath principle of the Lord's people, how God's people treat one another because they are in the covenant community. God's covenant with his people creates a community of individuals. Now, of course, in Deuteronomy, in the Old Testament, we see that community primarily in terms of the nation of Israel. There are indeed points, particularly in the prophets, that speak of the remnant, that often the community as a whole, although it's officially the covenant community, there were very few who truly acknowledged the covenant. But here we have something of the ideal spoken of. God's people are a community of individuals. In the world's philosophies, very often you have those philosophies that lose the individual in the community. And on the other hand, you have those that forget the community for the individual. But God's people, God's church, are a community of individuals. Now in the Old Testament, they are individuals primarily who belong to the people of Israel. There are some who are brought in from outside, Mostly they belong to this nation. But God brings individuals into this community, into the church. And we see in this chapter, in this law about the seventh year, the year of release, a concern for the individuals and particularly for the poor, the more vulnerable within that society. Now again, we have to put this in its historical context. Israel was an agrarian society. Most of the Israelites were what we would think of today as subsistence farmers. They were farmers who had a small amount of land and they grew enough to feed their own to have seed over for the next year and a little bit of surplus to trade with, but they were not producing huge amounts. And what that meant was that one year's bad harvest, one year of drought, one year where Raiders came in and took the cattle. Could we know the difference between being all right at the end of the year and not being all right at the end of the year? At which point, what they would have to do is borrow money. This is not talking about business loans. This is talking about individual charitable loans that people would be lending money to their neighbours. Richer farmers would be able to lend money so that their neighbours could buy grain in order to sow the fields and have a harvest the following year. And the ideal was that they'd only be borrowing enough to be able to pay it off the following year with a little bit of surplus if God gave it to them. But it could, of course, happen that the loan would carry on year on year, and they would not be able to pay it off. And if they had a couple of bad years, things would get very, very difficult. And that's where the business about Hebrew men or women being sold into slavery comes from. They'd be sold as servants. This was a way of dealing with debt. But rather than having the debts just rack up and up and up, they'd sell themselves to somebody else to do that work. It was quite normal in the ancient Near East. These things are not things that were unique to Israel in terms of debt and what's been called debt slavery. What was unique was the principle of the Sabbath year, which was that at the end, every seventh year, there would be a release. and all the debts that were owed would be cancelled. But these things would not carry over from one generation to another, they would be cancelled every seven years within the community. At that point, verse three of Afarana, you may require it, but this is something unique and special within the covenant community that says God's covenant has created a community who are to have concern one for another. And that they are not to be suspicious. So you have this statement, verse nine, beware lest there be a wicked thought in your heart saying, the seventh year, the year is released at hand. And you are, be evil against your poor brother and you give him nothing. There's a great realism there that if you have this institution there'll be those who go, well, I'm not going to lend anything if it's coming up to that time because I won't get it back. But that is instead to be a recognition we are members together. The Sabbath was made for man. Jesus says, not man for the Sabbath. It's a vital part of the covenant. This Sabbath in the covenant community exists for the community. It doesn't exist as a duty to be followed. It exists as a delight and a rest. Those who lent money would be, if you wrote these small amounts, they would be those who could afford it within that community. They would be those who are then being called to trust in God. Trust in God and do what's right, as the hymn writer puts it, rather than being controlled by fear and doubt as to what will happen. Say rather, trust in God, he has said this, he has established this. Sadly, we know from the histories that this institution very quickly went out of use among the Israelites. By the time of Jeremiah, it had been neglected for generations. It had been neglected because the people and their leadership did not have the faith in God to follow and to be God's caring covenant community, because we then come to our second point, that of the divine compassion. Compassion. At the root of all this is God's redeeming love. The Apostle John tells us in that ever-memorable statement, God is love. Whoever does not love his brother does not know God, for God is love. But what does it mean to say that God is love? Well, in this is love, not that we love God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins. If we want to know what the love of God looks like, we go to the cross of Jesus Christ. We go to the place where, as Dr. Watts puts it, where Christ, the mighty maker, died for man the creature's sin. that the love of God is seen in that Christ came to die to give his life as a ransom for many. And of course the Lord Jesus Christ is not apart from God, he is indeed Christ the mighty maker. He is in that mystery, the word of God who is one with the Father and the Holy Spirit in that mystery. And we see then the love of God is a redeeming love. It's not a love that leaves us where we are, but a love that refuses to leave us where we are to perish in our sin, and that instead lifts us out, as the psalmist puts it, of the miry pit, lifts us out of the play. He lifted me, as the old song puts it. He lifted me. And therefore, the love of God is not a love that leaves people where they are. And it's certainly not a sentimental feeling. It is a love of action, of salvation, of saving action. In the Old Testament, and particularly here in the books of Moses, that saving action is seen most of all in that deliverance from Egypt. You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt and the Lord your God redeemed you. Therefore, I command you this thing today. You have received the grace of God. Therefore, the divine compassion, God's compassion comes first. God's love that is a realistic love, that is a saving love, that he loved us with an everlasting love. I have loved you, he says, with an everlasting love. Therefore, with loving kindness, I have drawn you. And therefore, the love of God's people is to reflect the love of God. You should remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt. Therefore, care for those who are put in that position. And we might ask, and certainly some have said, well, why was it that any people would be put in that position? Well, the answer is, it's about debt. It was actually a safety net within that society, that community. So the people who lost everything, rather than being drowned in debt, they would spend a period of time working for somebody else in their household, within that community. And yes, there was a great danger, a great temptation, that's why the law is what it is, that people would go, oh, well, this person is less than I am, and so you shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt. You should remember that you are no different from them. You are not better than them, and they are not worse than you. and that compassion of God's people is to be a compassion of heart, hand and eye. We see this here, heart, hand and eye. If there is among you a poor man of your brethren within, any of the gates of your land which the Lord your God has given you, you shall not harden your heart, nor shut your hand from your poor brother. You shall not harden your heart, And the classic man in scripture who hardened his heart was Pharaoh. When Moses came and said to him, thus says the Lord, let my people go, Pharaoh hardened his heart and he would not, even in all the suffering that his refusal brought to his people. All the plagues of Egypt happened because Pharaoh hardened his heart. He didn't care. He didn't care about the Egyptians, let alone the Hebrews. The love of the heart is a love of the open heart. A love that has compassion on people. Secondly, there is the hand. You shall not shut your hand from your poor brother. The shut hand is I will give you nothing. the open hand gives. You shall open your hand wide to him and willingly lend him sufficient of his needs, whatever he needs. And you will notice that he is first of all in the form of a compassionate loan. Now the reason for that is in part that the Hebrew, the poor subsistence farmer who is being given the loan then feels, I'm not being treated as though I'm helpless, I'm being treated as an equal by the richer farmer who is lending to me. Because he's saying, this is a loan that you can pay back. Somebody who is merely a complete dependent, often they feel worse for being so But here we have this point that he is told, if you can, you will pay back. It's only the seventh year is so that people don't drown in debt. People don't go year on year getting worse and worse. And of the eye, beware lest there be a wicked thought in your heart saying, the seventh year, the year of release is at hand and your eye be evil against your poor brother. And again, this isn't a reference to any superstition about evil eyes. It's simply about the attitude. The eye that is evil is an eye that looks and says, well, I'm sure he doesn't really need it. I'm sure he'll just squander it. Or, oh, well, there's just another year, and there'll be a release. And everything will be fine with him. But he won't. But instead, If you give him nothing, he will cry out to the Lord against you and it will become sin among you. You shall surely give to him. And your heart should not be grieved when you give to him, because for this thing the Lord your God will bless you in all your works and all to which you put your hand. This is not a give to get, this is rather a give relying on God. If God has given so that we are able to give to others, then we give as God has given to us, that generosity that follows, love to our brethren. Because this is within the covenant community, helping those who are God's people who are in need first of all, whether at home or abroad. Because, and mentioning the situation abroad in particular, It's very often the case that in cases where there is a natural disaster or a famine, that Christians are overlooked, particularly in Muslim and communist nations, that the Muslims will tend to give to their own and not to the Christians. And they may even use the aid as a way to try and pressure people to convert to Islam. And so Christian aid agencies exist in a very great part because otherwise the Christians would be kicked to the curb. And so when we look at organizations that help suffering Christians elsewhere in the world, obviously when we do give to charity we must do so carefully, making sure that we know who we're giving to. that we trust them, that these agencies exist because of the people who are so often ignored. And it is in compassion that we give first to God's people and then to others. There is an order first to those in the covenant community, then to those outside. As I say, practically speaking, We give to those in the covenant of unity first because they're the ones who are so often overlooked by everybody else. But thirdly, we see the consecration of God's people. In fact, just before that sudden remembrance of how this compassion plays out with the Hebrew debt slave, as it were, that you shall not send him away empty-handed. Because you see, sending these people out empty-handed would have been very simple and very wrong because it would mean that they would just immediately have to sell themselves into that same relationship all over again. That there would be no rest for them but instead they are to be sent out as a valuable servant who has done a good job and now can go back to the land that they were given because of course the inheritance in Israel and they can continue to live as a member of the community But thirdly, we come to the consecration. First of all, the consecration of those who, what is pictured in those who said, I will stay within this household. If it happens that he says to you, I will not go away from you because he loves you and your house since he prospers with you, then he shall take an oar and thrust it through his ear to the door and he shall be your servant forever. Also to your female servant, you shall do likewise. This was a voluntary thing. And of course the pierced ear would have something put in it to indicate this was one whose ear had been pierced. The ear in scripture is the organ of obedience. My ear you have opened. He opens our ears to hear and do his word. And the picture here is that of the consecration of those who are God's servants, whose ears are open. to do his will and to do his word and to abide in the house of the Lord forever. It's not until the New Testament where the full revelation of what it means to be God's people comes, it's not just being God's servants, it's being his children. And we see the fullness of that in the Lord Jesus Christ's words when he says to his disciples, I do not call you servants, I call you friends. Because the servant does not know what his master is doing. That he has deepened that relationship we have. But we see the consecration, secondly, of the firstborn of the animals. The firstborn. And why the consecration of the firstborn? All the firstborn males that come to your herd and your flock, you shall sanctify to the Lord your God. Well, first of all, it's the principle that we remember that all good gifts around us are sent from heaven above. That they were farmers, the fertility of their flocks and herds was a very important part of the whole economy. And they were going into the land of Canaan, where the Canaanites had their false fertility gods, their Baals and Achiras. And the Cainites said, our prosperity comes from our gods. And they sacrificed to their gods and worshipped them in the high places. And so this consecration was a reminder to the Israelites, a practical reminder, whenever one of their animals gave birth for the first time, this is a gift of God, not of anybody else. Now most of us are not in a situation where we are tempted to think that our prosperity comes from false gods. There are of course those among us who do think that, those who are the devotees of other religions like the folk across the road. But we are in a society where many of us are tempted to forget that what we receive comes from God and not just from impersonal processes of economics and agriculture. All these things come from God. That's why we have an annual harvest Thanksgiving. People sometimes suggest, well, isn't it a bit odd in a city where nobody works in agriculture? Well, no, it's very important. because we need to remember all the more that all good gifts around us are sent from heaven above. That all that we have and are comes from him. The Sabbath principle appears here as well because the Sabbath is a consecration of time. It's a consecration of one day in the week saying this day is set apart for rest and to receive from God the blessings that he gives to his people, particularly the blessings that we receive in worshipping together. It's saying to God, our time comes from you. You have given us all of this and so The principle of consecration is a reminder that all we have and are comes from God. But secondly, we see in this God's call to perfection. If there's a defect in it, if it is lame or blind or has any serious defect, you shall not sacrifice it to the Lord your God. And yet there is nothing perfect that we can bring to God, not in ourselves. As Mr. Newton puts it, our best is stained and marred by sin, our all is nothing worth. How then can we come to God at all? Well, here we have the reminder that we need the Great High Priest. We need a Lamb who's without blemish and without spot. And there is only one, and that is the Lord Jesus Christ. That is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. He who has consecrated himself for his people, set himself apart to be the sacrifice, and set himself apart, and is set apart by the Father as our great high priest. He is set apart for his people in our place. He consecrated himself as the Paschal Lamb, Christ our Passover Lamb, has been sacrificed. Therefore, let us keep the feast. And so we may come because there is a perfect sacrifice, a perfect one who has given himself for us, who consecrates all who are united to him and sets them apart as God's covenant community. by his death and sacrifice. Everything that we do flows from the gospel. Everything that we are flows from the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. One of the great tragedies of so much of the history of the church has been people separating what we are and what we do, separating the gospel and the works that the church produces, or rather confusing the two, thinking that the gospel is doing good works. No, the gospel is why we are Christians, and it's the love of God in the gospel that then motivates us to love one another. If God has loved us in this way, then should we not love one another in that same way? Not as a crack the whip, you must do the work thing, but as a natural outflowing of the reality of the love of God in Christ Jesus. A natural outflow of the gospel is that we love one another. By this shall all men know that you are my disciples, Jesus says, if you have love one for another. And if we love one another as Christ has loved us and we are called to do so, The Sabbath was made for man. The Sabbath is a gift of God's love and mercy. It's set apart to remind us of the deliverance of God's people. That's why we have the first day of the week, the day of resurrection, the day that Christ rose from the dead declaring the pardon of sins in him. And it shows that God's covenant with his people stands. And so God's covenant people meet together to worship him and to show practically that covenant, or to reflect that covenant love that God has, that divine compassion. We are consecrated by his love and we stand in him alone, in Christ forevermore.