Today I read Deuteronomy 15 where the Lord gives them the law of the seventh year. The law stating that if you have loaned someone something or any money that when the seventh year comes around you forgive the debt and don't try anymore to reclaim the money or the item you have loaned them. The Lord also forbids them from not loaning their neighbor something because the seventh year is coming up.
This of course got me thinking of our society and how life would be if we had this rule. It would be impossible of course under our current economic stations. Housing alone would not allow for only seven years of payments. No one would ever be able to afford to buy a house if you had to pay it off in just seven years. And in our greedy society no one would ever give out a loan on the sixth year knowing that there was no way they were going to get all their money back. It just wouldn't happen.
And yet the Jews made it work. Josephus has plenty of writings that talk about the Jews and the seventh year, the Sabbath year if you will. They were able to have a fully functional society and get along with each other for the more part. Now of course the Jews had their problems just like all peoples do, but from what I have read and studied, the seventh year was not one of them. Just imagine what life would be like in our world if everyone all over the world every seventh year would forgive all debts no matter what. Wouldn't that be something? Until tomorrow.
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