(remember, these are unedited/draft show notes, not a transcript — listening is always better…and if you listen AND follow along below, you’ll see why)
Focus Question:
What’s “slave to the lender” mean?
Intro:
Today’s focus question is prompted by something we’ll read in Proverbs today, and asking the question “What does it mean when it says ‘a borrower is slave to the lender’?” is probably obvious on one level. But it sent me on a treasure hunt, and I’ll share with you the results of that little hunt in our Bottom Line segment today.
New Testament segment:
As we turn out attention to the NT, it brings up another little factoid that could itself be a focus question…what’s the number 3/ 12 mean?
Chapter 12 is crucial for understanding John’s view of the sequence of history. The number three and a half was associated by Christians and Jews with times of evil and judgment (see Luke 4:25). John variously referred to the three and a half years as either “42 months” (11:2; 13:5) or “1,260 days” (11:3; 12:6) or “a time, times and half a time” (12:14). For John it was the period of time when the powers of evil will do their oppressive works. But during this time, God will protect His people (12:6, 14) while they both bear witness to their faith (11:3) and simultaneously suffer at the hands of these evil powers (11:2, 7; 12:13–17; 13:5–7).(1)
Passage: Revelation 12
Translation: CSB (Christian Standard Bible)
Verses: 18
Words: ~410
Old Testament segment:
Today continues the oracles against Egypt.
Passage: Ezekiel 30
Translation: CSB (Christian Standard Bible)
Verses: 26
Words: ~759
Wisdom segment:
Passage: Proverbs 21:13-22:9
Translation: CSB (Christian Standard Bible)
Verses: 28
Words: ~445
The bottom line:
7 The rich rule over the poor,
and the borrower is a slave to the lender. (Pr 22:7, CSB)
Remember two things before we get to our focus question. One, some things are descriptive rather than prescriptive — it’s not saying the rich should rule, but I’d say that given that they have more influence (descriptively), it’s also why a God who is for human flourishing often call them out. Being rich isn’t wrong. And the heart of the matter is the matter of the heart for all people, even the poor.
Second, what’s probably obvious is that being in debt puts you in a place of obligation. I think it’s consistent with Romans 13:8 when Paul says not to owe money — it puts you in a place of having yesterday committed to what today is going to look like and you have less flexibility to serve God and people. We don’t know what tomorrow looks like, so it’s unwise.
But here’s your factoid for the day…that word slave I looked up in the Greek. Pop quiz — and how many times does it occur in the OT? 551!
Here’s the thing. It very frequently is translated to something other than slave, and the vast majority of the time it doesn’t mean “slave” like we think about from United States history. Get this from the Dictionary of Biblical Languages with Semantic Domains:
6269 I. עֶבֶד (ʿě·ḇěḏ): n.masc.; ≡ Str 5650; TWOT 1553a—1. LN 87.76–87.86 slave, bond servant, i.e., one who is owned by another for service until sold to another, or worked his way out of slavery (Ge 39:17); also part of a compound name, Ebed-Melech, see 6283; 2. LN 35.19–35.30 servant, i.e., one who helps in the service to another, but not necessarily a possession of another (Ge 18:3); 3. LN 37.48–37.95 officer, official, i.e., one who has authority in government, yet referred as servant of the king (1Sa 18:5); 4. LN 53.53–53.64 worshiper, formally, servant, i.e., one who serves God as an act. of service to God (Isa 56:6)(2)
This adds a new flavor to Paul exhorting us that we’re either slave to sin or slave to Christ, right?
Anyway, being “slave" to the person to whom you owe money is a function of servanthood, not them “owning” you literally, right? But we might figuratively surmise that. And it adds a bit of flavor to what we read in James:
13 Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will travel to such and such a city and spend a year there and do business and make a profit.” 14 Yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring—what your life will be! For you are like vapor that appears for a little while, then vanishes.
15 Instead, you should say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” 16 But as it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. 17 So it is sin to know the good and yet not do it. Jas 4:13–17, CSB
ForTheHope is a daily audio Bible + apologetics podcast and blog. We’ve got a passion for just keepin’ it real, having conversations like normal people, and living out the love of Jesus better every single day.
Roger Courville, CSP is a globally-recognized expert in digitally-extended communication and connection, an award-winning speaker, award-winning author, and a passionately bad guitarist. Follow him on Twitter -- @RogerCourville and @JoinForTheHope – or his blog: www.forthehope.org.
Sources and resources:
(1) David S. Dockery, ed., Holman Bible Handbook (Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers, 1992), 800.
(2) James Swanson, Dictionary of Biblical Languages with Semantic Domains : Hebrew (Old Testament) (Oak Harbor: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 1997).