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My son, if you have put up security for your neighbour,
have given your pledge for a stranger,
if you are snared in the words of your mouth,
caught in the words of your mouth,
then do this, my son, and save yourself,
for you have come into the hand of your neighbour:
go, hasten, and plead urgently with your neighbour.
Give your eyes no sleep
and your eyelids no slumber;
save yourself like a gazelle from the hand of the hunter,
like a bird from the hand of the fowler.

Putting up security

A lot of my clients at work are in the Financial Services sector; banks, building societies, insurance, stock market traders…and when they talk about ‘security’ what they generally mean is ‘a security’; something that is worth something (like shares, or a house, or a pound of tin). And this passage is talking exactly about that. If you’ve ‘put up security for your neighbour’ then you’ve given them something that’s worth something in exchange for their money. Now I know that this doesn’t immediately jump out of the text, but have a read of it and you’ll see. Having ‘given your pledge’ just means that you’ve promised to repay them in order to regain your security. It seems that society all those thousands of years ago is as obsessed with debt as we are in the 21Century.

The consequences

The Bible doesn’t look fondly on debt. Proverbs 22:7 tells us that ‘the borrower is the slave of the lender,’ and the same imagery is used here. You’re ‘snared’ and ‘caught’. Debt grabs hold of you and pulls you under the feet of those whose money you’re using. Note that this isn’t borrowing money from a friend, it’s clear this is about ‘a stranger’, like a bank manager or a payday loan. Listen: debt is bad. And if you get into debt and can’t get yourself out immediately, it will be a slave-driver that follows you around for the rest of your life.

Quick, let’s get out of here!

The Bible’s encouragement to us is clear: get out of debt! Go and talk to the lender to see how you can get out of debt quicker; can you over-pay? Can you get a reduced rate by paying it off with a lower-rate loan? Can you increase your monthly payments and stop spending so much on silly things (like my colleague who I saw eating a tiny £2 pot of porridge this morning when he could have made his own for pennies)? If you can’t get out yourself, get help quickly! This isn’t a ‘nice to have,’ the Bible paints a picture of hunters grabbing hold of animals to kill them! Come on – let’s live debt free and experience the sort of freedom Jesus saved us for, then use that extra cash to become cheerful givers!

"Inspiration For You" from Randy Mitchell

Honoring A Father