As we move through life, choosing what to say Yes and No to will either free or enslave us.
While the last half of Deuteronomy 23 seems to include diverse subjects, we may link them by seeing them as a discussion of right and wrong obligations or relationships. The section begins: “You shall not give back to his master the slave who has escaped from his master to you” (v 15). This would appear to refer to a Gentile from a neighboring country, not an Israelite serving off a debt to a fellow countryman. He was then free to settle down, becoming a worshipper of the true God (v 16). We would consider such an asylum seeker today. Then the unseemly topic of the use of female and male prostitutes is discussed, where the practice is soundly forbidden (vv 17-18). This was very common in pagan religions, where such sinful behavior was excused as being pleasing to their fertility goddesses. How far the human heart can fall when people turn from the true God to serve man-made religions! The subject then turns to a different kind of bondage—the financial kind. How many today are enslaved by debt. As Solomon wrote, “The rich rules over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the lender” (Prov 22:7). Thus the Lord said the children of Israel must not “charge interest to your brother—interest on money or food or anything that is lent out at interest” (Deut 23:19). One reason was the generous way in which the Lord was providing for them: “that the Lord your God may bless you in all to which you set your hand in the land which you are entering to possess” (v 20). However, they were allowed to charge interest on loans to Gentiles. The chapter ends with a reminder of the obligation to keep promises (vv 21-23) and not to take advantage of a neighbor’s generosity (vv 24-25). These are all good lessons, even for us today!