Day 186 – Debt

Proverbs 22:7 The rich rules over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the lender.

• God’s names:
• YAHWEH/JEHOVAH – Self-existent, Eternal
• Adonay – God’s proper name
• Elohiym – Supreme God
• Yeshuwa/Iesous – Jesus

• God’s character:
• Provider

If you own anything, chances are you have a loan against it. Mortgages and cars top the list of things for which people get loans. College tuition is another loan people pay back for a good portion of their lives. Then there is credit card debt. People apply for every credit card they can and use it without thinking until they are paying the monthly service fee more than they are paying for the purchase they made. The only one who gets rich in all this is the lender. They literally hold the purse strings. If you are too poor to own a home, car, or credit card, you’re one of the lucky ones because no one holds your purse strings but you. However, you also feel the sting of being poor.

Solomon was the wisest person who lived in his time. He was also the wealthiest. When YAHWEH asked him what He could do for him, Solomon only asked for wisdom. YAHWEH also gave him wealth and honor.

1 Kings 3:9 “Therefore, give to Your servant an understanding heart to judge Your people, that I may discern between good and evil. For who can judge these great people of Yours?” 10 The speech pleased Adonay, that Solomon had asked this thing. 11 Then Elohiym said to him: “Because you have asked this thing, and have not asked long life for yourself, nor have asked riches for yourself, nor have asked the life of your enemies, but have asked for yourself understanding to discern justice, 12 behold, I have done according to your words; see, I have given you a wise and understanding heart, so that there has not been anyone like you before you, nor shall any like you arise after you. 13 And I have also given you what you have not asked: both riches and honor, so that there will not be anyone like you among the kings all your days.

Solomon saw what riches did to people — how they treated poor people and lorded over their lives. He saw how poor people lived in bondage to wealthy people. He knew what YAHWEH put in place for the poor among His people.

Deuteronomy 14:28 “At the end of every third year you will bring out the tithe of your produce of that year and store it up within your gates. 29 And the Levite, because he has no portion nor inheritance with you, and the stranger and the fatherless and the widow who are within your gates, may come and eat and be satisfied, that YAHWEH your Elohiym may bless you in all the work of your hand which you do.

YAHWEH set aside a year of tithing for His people. In that year the poor people of the land received the tithe set aside by the people for three years. The portion they received was enough to help them live.

Yeshuwa told His disciples that the poor they would always have with them.

Matthew 26:6 And when Iesous was in Bethany at the house of Simon the leper, 7 a woman came to Him having an alabaster flask of very costly fragrant oil, and she poured it on His head as He sat at the table. 8 But when His disciples saw it, they were indignant, saying, “Why this waste? 9 For this fragrant oil might have been sold for much and given to the poor.” 10 But when Iesous was aware of it, He said to them, “Why do you trouble the woman? For she has done a good work for Me. 11 For you have the poor with you always, but Me you do not have always. 12 For in pouring this fragrant oil on My body, she did it for My burial. 13 Assuredly, I say to you, wherever this gospel is preached in the whole world, what this woman has done will also be told as a memorial to her.”

It was not because the disciple who said that about the oil, but about the evil in the heart of the disciple who thought more about the cost than what the woman did for Iesous. He thought to elevate himself by thinking about the poor. Iesous saw through his speech, just as He sees through everything you do for the poor.

For many Christians their acts of charity are for their benefit more than they are for helping the poor. They make the people they ‘help’ beholden to them.

YAHWEH told His people they were not to charge their own people usury.

Leviticus 25:35 ‘If one of your brethren becomes poor, and falls into poverty among you, then you will help him, like a stranger or a sojourner, that he may live with you. 36 Take no usury or interest from him; but fear your Elohiym, that your brother may live with you. 37 You will not lend him your money for usury, nor lend him your food at a profit. 38 I am YAHWEH your Elohiym, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, to give you the land of Canaan and to be your Elohiym.

Solomon saw the poor of the land and obeyed what Elohiym commanded in the law, helped them instead of making them slaves to his help.

When you see people in need, you are to help them. You might ask yourself, “What constitutes need? What makes a person truly poor?” A poor person is not someone who stands on street corners with signs begging for money. They’re poor because they refuse to work. The best way to help them is force them to help themselves. Poor people are those who cannot work, cannot support themselves. They are dependent on others for everything they need. Those are the poor people Yeshuwa tells you to help. Poor people are those who lose everything they have in a natural disaster. Giving whatever you can to help them rebuild their lives is giving to the poor. Those same people will do whatever they can to help rebuild their lives. People set up relief funds for people who suffered from natural disasters. Those are the places you give your help, not to those who can take care of themselves, but refuse to lift a hand for their own support.

Yeshuwa said, “You will always have poor people among you.” Those are the people you are to help. Not so you can collect from them with exorbitant fees, but to give them what they need out of the generosity of your heart. Yeshuwa will bless you when you do.

Don’t let debt rule your life. The only debt you are to have is the debt to love one another.

Romans 13:7 Render therefore to all their due: taxes to whom taxes are due, customs to whom customs, fear to whom fear, honor to whom honor. 8 Owe no one anything except to love one another, for he who loves another has fulfilled the law. 9 For the commandments, “You shall not commit adultery,” “You shall not murder,” “You shall not steal,” “You shall not bear false witness,” “You shall not covet,” and if there is any other commandment, are all summed up in this saying, namely, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” 10 Love does no harm to a neighbor; therefore, love is the fulfillment of the law. (NKJV)

You will always have debt. Don’t allow it to become your lord and master. When you do, you become the servant to those who give you a loan. Your only debt is to love everyone because Yeshuwa loves you with the same unconditional love.

As a Christian, you are a servant to Yeshuwa. He took your debt and paid for it with His blood on the cross. Your debt is paid in full. Now, go out and help those who can’t help themselves and consider it a debt paid in full.

Let’s pray: Father, help me to help those in need, not for what I can gain, but for what I can give without expecting anything in return. In Jesus’ name, I pray. Amen.

Copyright © 24 July 2026 by Valerie Routhieaux