Day 71 · Deuteronomy 15:7–11 · Berean Standard Bible
Open your hand
It is possible to notice someone’s need and immediately start calculating reasons to turn away. This reading slows that reaction. A poor neighbor is still a neighbor, and the law challenges a closed hand as well as a hard heart. Its ancient lending arrangements are not a ready-made financial plan for every situation today. They invite us to examine whether our practical choices make help available or quietly make it impossible.
Deuteronomy 15:7–11
7 If there is a poor man among your brothers within any of the gates in the land that the LORD your God is giving you, then you are not to harden your heart or shut your hand from your poor brother.
8 Instead, you are to open your hand to him and freely loan him whatever he needs.
9 Be careful not to harbor this wicked thought in your heart: “The seventh year, the year of release, is near,” so that you look upon your poor brother begrudgingly and give him nothing. He will cry out to the LORD against you, and you will be guilty of sin.
10 Give generously to him, and do not let your heart be grieved when you do so. And because of this the LORD your God will bless you in all your work and in everything to which you put your hand.
11 For there will never cease to be poor in the land; that is why I am commanding you to open wide your hand to your brother and to the poor and needy in your land.