I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Deuteronomy 24-26.

    Today’s passage is another one where it is a listing of miscellaneous commands, many of which are restatements of commands given previously. These commands contain a thread which goes through many of them in one way or another. One should not use one’s economic power to oppress those less fortunate. When we make loans we should not take as security for those loans the tools the other person needs to make a living, nor should we take things which the person needs to live. There is even a command against entering someone’s house to obtain the object they are giving as security against the loan. All of these commands are related to not using your stronger economic position to gain additional advantage over those less fortunate than yourself.
    Finally, there is the instruction regarding tithes. There are two aspects of the tithe instructions I want to mention. One aspect of our tithing is to acknowledge that God gave us the things we have. The tithe is but a returning to God what He gave us in the first place. Another aspect is to use our good fortune to help those who have been less fortunate by sharing with them. There is more to helping the unfortunate than just sharing from our wealth. We are also to manage our business so as to leave options for those less fortunate to gather the resources to care for themselves.