Proverbs 22:7

7 The rich rules over the poor,
And the borrower is servant to the lender.

Proverbs 28:8

8 One who increases his possessions by usury and extortion
Gathers it for him who will pity the poor.

Where were you during the 2007-2008 Financial Crisis? If you were like millions of others in the west during that era, you were simply trying to enjoy life, pay your bills, raise your family…and perhaps upgrade to a larger home. 

A precipitous fall in loan interest rates in the years shortly following the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001 produced an environment that was a boom for homebuyers and institutions that loaned the money for them to do so. 

Interest rates dropped from 8.75% in February of 2000 to reach a low of 3.25% by late 2008. The low cost of funds with the backing of Fannie Mae (Federal National Mortgage Association = FNMA) and Freddie Mac (Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation = FHLMC) allowed banks to extend not only low-cost home mortgages, it also allowed them to relax lending standards more and more.

As profits grew for banks, and new homes boomed for buyers, the lower standards allowed for a vast range of borrowers to own homes or engage in real estate speculation. Banks were incentivized to loan to borrowers who would not normally qualify due to poor credit history, or lack of income. This meant that homes purchased with “stated income” and interest-only variable rate mortgages abounded. 

This led to the phenomena of “subprime lending” with the risky mortgages being “bundled” together and sold on the market to investors, in hopes that the combination with stable, more qualified mortgages would mitigate the risk. 

Owning a home was considered part of the “American Dream” to the point that in 2003, President George W. Bush signed the American Dream Downpayment Initiative to assist first-time homebuyers with obtaining a down payment. Homeownership was considered a strategy to fight racial inequality, and programs such as these specifically targeted poor and lower-income home buyers. 

Then, the 2008 Financial Crises and subsequent “Great Recession,” saw approximately eight million homes foreclosed upon. The falling home values saw $7 trillion in home equity erased, as values fell and empty homes flooded the market. 

Everyone lost. Homeowners who had purchased unwisely or found themselves impacted by job loss were forced into bankruptcy or foreclosure. Banks failed, businesses shut down, government bailouts created unholy alliances, and investors looking for easy retirement or income through real estate found themselves penniless on the precipice of poverty.  

As investigations began to determine the true cause–and effect–of the crisis, predatory financial practices came to light. Among the hardest hit were lower-income families who had heard the siren call to join the fray. As megabanks received bailouts and purchased smaller, failed banks, the poor only got poorer. 

Much of the biblical pursuit of wisdom involves justice. Christ, who is the wisdom of God (I Corinthians 1:24), faced the justice of Adam’s sin, He justified you and me, bringing peace between us and God. Predatory lending, the love of money, and taking advantage of the poor and destitute signify one of the great injustices of this sinful world. Of this and all of these things, Solomon has much to say in the book of Proverbs:

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

Here in chapter 22 Solomon has been giving moral instruction in regards to wealth. The young people of Israel will be called upon not only to make sound financial decisions for themselves, they will also need to be mindful of the weak and impoverished around them.

A natural society, one without godly morals and virtues, would simply encourage a “survival of the fittest” approach to financial practices. The weak are weak because they are just that: weak, unfit, a danger to themselves and the greater community. Their elimination through financial piracy or grift only reveals this weakness and strengthens the community with their removal. 

Does this sound familiar to you? Perhaps you have heard such Machiavellian advice or seen it play out in your life. It is true that there are harsh realities in this fallen place. It is a “dog eat dog” world after all, is it not? 

Solomon is not naive in his advice, but he reminds you that this dark nature is what we, as God’s children, are put here to rise above. Lets look at this passage:

The verse uses words that reveal the harsh reality of life for those who are poor. He begins first by contrasting them with “the rich.” You know by now that the use of this phrase is derogatory, in contrast to “wealthy” or “wealth,” which usually signifies the results of God’s blessings.  

The rich man who loans money is a fixture in the community, even useful. A joke by comedian Robert Orben makes a not-so-subtle point: “Don’t knock the rich. When was the last time you were hired by somebody poor?”

But what happens when the rich man (or a rich institution such as a bank) loans money to a poor person? More specifically, Solomon says, a destitute person who can never pay it back? That person becomes a figurative, if not literal, slave to the lender. He deploys this metaphor for maximum effect.

His advice is similar to that of the character Polonius in Shakespeare’s “Hamlet.” In Act 1, Scene III, Polonius is giving advice to his son Laertes who is departing for school in France. He gives fatherly advice to the young man that is filled with many oft-quoted phrases, such as ‘Give every man thy ear but few thy voice,’ and ‘to thine own self be true.’ Polonius warns his son:

Neither a borrower nor a lender be,
For loan oft loses both itself and friend,
And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry.–Hamlet, Act 1, Scene III

[Check out this scene in the 1990 movie “Hamlet” HERE]

Polonius gives sound advice, but his character is one of the most unsound in the play. He is a scheming, spying manipulator, who meets his end at the point of a sword as Hamlet skewers him while hiding behind a curtain to listen to a conversation. 

This advice may not seem drastic today, given that the western economy is driven by everyday borrowing, but in biblical days, a loan could be a death sentence. Interest rates could range from as low as 20% for borrowing money to as high as 50% for credit to buy grain.

Commentator Bruce Waltke states that, “Such an arrangement keeps borrowers in perpetual debt and strips them of their freedom.” This crippling usury may have been necessary in some cases but abuse of it was expressly condemned by God: 

25 “If you lend money to any of My people who are poor among you, you shall not be like a moneylender to him; you shall not charge him interest.–Exodus 22:25

In essence, such a practice means that you are profiting off your brother:

36 Take no usury or interest from him; but fear your God, that your brother may live with you. 37 You shall not lend him your money for usury, nor lend him your food at a profit.–Leviticus 25:36-37

Usury, sanctioned by Israel’s leaders, met scathing rebuke from God’s prophets too:

8 If he has not exacted usury
Nor taken any increase,
But has withdrawn his hand from iniquity
And executed true judgment between man and man;–Ezekiel 18:8

Solomon records another version of this advice later in the book of Proverbs, specifically targeting the rotten fruit of such arrangements:

8 One who increases his possessions by usury and extortion
Gathers it for him who will pity the poor.–Proverbs 28:8

In the end, God is telling you to consider the true cost of the earthly possessions and ambitions that you pursue when they come at the expense of those who cannot escape the despair that led them to make such an arrangement. There may not be such a thing as “debtors prison” in the modern west, but there are true financial punishments that come from predatory debt: bankruptcy, loss of a job, food, or even a family as life splinters into a million pieces.

“Wait,” you say, “do not the poor bear some responsibility for this? After all, they are the ones wasting the money they borrow to spend on drugs, alcohol, unhealthy foods, or ridiculously ‘lifted’ pickup trucks! And do they not all have smartphones and other luxuries now?” 

The answer is yes. But Jesus shows you that your response to the poor in the world around you is not to be that of resentment or even superiority, but compassion. Never forget that your Savior, who was born in a stable and laid in a manger, who walked this dusty unforgiving earth, came from the azure halls of heaven. He, who was supremely rich, became supremely poor (II Corinthians 8). And more than simply being one who experienced physical poverty, Jesus lived with, and loved, those who were spiritually impoverished as well (Matthew 5:3). 

The humble carpenter’s son, though being very nature God, equal with His Father, nevertheless “made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men” (Philippians 2:7-8a). 

So what does this mean for you and me? I sincerely doubt that you are engaged in any sort of “predatory lending.” Surely, your owning your home, your car, and your Insta-Pot cooker does not make you some sort of financial outlaw, right? Prosperity can be a blessing from God, for indeed there are many passages in scripture that hold it up to be so, as Israel herself experienced: 

12 The Lord will open to you His good treasure, the heavens, to give the rain to your land in its season, and to bless all the work of your hand. You shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow.–Deuteronomy 28:12

The question is, what do you and I who are so blessed, DO with “His good treasure?” How does it affect your heart? 

Greed is one of those “respectable sins” that Christians talk about but never really seem to address. It is not as dramatic as say, adultery or murder. Pastor Tim Keller describes his experience in counseling believers:

I cannot recall anyone ever coming to me and saying, “I spend too much money on myself. I think my greedy lust for money is harming my family, my soul, and people around me.” Greed hides itself from the victim. The money god’s modus operandi includes blindness to your own heart.–Tim Keller, “Counterfeit Gods”

Is greed one of your “respectable sins?”  You may not take advantage of the poor in your city, but do you find yourself desiring “things” and feeling the anxiety caused by concern for money? In doing so, you may be tempted to borrow when it would be unwise––or to live on credit cards and other forms of high-interest debt. 

The love of lifestyle, and the fear of losing it, can be a huge driver of the decisions you make and the focus of your heart. Look at your life––is there someone or something that you are in slavery to? Is there a way that you present yourself to your family, your neighbors, even your church that causes them to be jealous or try to compete? Or is your desire focused on the true wealth found in your Lord and Savior Jesus Christ? If not, you may have a faith built on “something less” than “Jesus’s blood and righteousness…”  

The Monday—Friday DEEPs are written by Mike Slay and this Saturday Deep is written by Matt Richardson. To subscribe to all the DEEPs click here:

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The weekly study guides, which include the Monday–Friday devotionals plus related questions for discussion or meditation, are available for download here:

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Except as indicated, Scripture taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. ESV stands for the English Standard Version. © Copyright 2001 by Crossway. Used by permission. All rights reserved. NIV stands for The Holy Bible, New International Version®. © Copyright 1973 by International Bible Society. Used by permission. All rights reserved. KJV stands for the King James Version.