Seriously – the Bible warns about high interest rates and subprime loans?  How can that be?  There weren’t any Wall Street banks or investment companies.  If Wall Street even existed, it would maybe have been the path along the Wailing Wall along the west side of the temple.  

Even without “Big Banks” and “Big Business”, people were plenty capable of taking advantage of each other, even back in the time of the book of Exodus.  Surprised?

The headline, Defaults on subprime auto loans are soaring, is what got me thinking about this.  However, it’s something that wasn’t in the article that made mu decision on whether or not to actually write something.

More about that later.  See if you can figure out what’s missing.

Interest Rates

The first occurrence of the word “interest” in the Bible comes in Exodus.

Ex 22:25 “If you lend money to one of my people among you who is needy, do not be like a moneylender; charge him no interest. 26 If you take your neighbor’s cloak as a pledge, return it to him by sunset, 27 because his cloak is the only covering he has for his body. What else will he sleep in? When he cries out to me, I will hear, for I am compassionate.

It comes after the Ten Commandments, in a section the NIV titles Social Responsibilities.  Maybe it’s tempting to think that it’s not actually part of the Ten Commandments, so it’s not that big of a deal if we ignore it.  There’s a problem with that line of thought.

Idols

Ex 20:4 “You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. 5 You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, 6 but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.”

When money becomes our idol (or one of our idols), then it is a problem.  It’s a violation of the passage above.  Just on case you don’t recognize it, it is one of the Ten Commandments.  When the love of money brings us to the point of charging “unreasonable” interest rates – that is a problem.

OK – there’s more than one of the Ten Commandments at risk when we get into high interest rates and subprime loans.

Stealing

Ex 20:15 “You shall not steal.”

Ouch!  Stealing?  Is that going a bit too far?  All we’re talking about is earning a living, right?  Let’s see what “stealing” is about.

The Prohibition of Theft (Ex 20:15; Dt 5:19). The eighth commandment establishes a principle within the covenant community concerning possessions and property; a person had a right to certain things, which could not be violated by a fellow citizen for his or her personal advantage. But while the commandment is concerned with property, its most fundamental concern is human liberty. The worst form of theft is “manstealing” (somewhat equivalent to modern kidnaping); that is, taking a person (presumably by force) and selling him or her into slavery. The crime and the related law are stated more fully in Deuteronomy 24:7. The commandment is thus not only concerned with the preservation of private property, but is more fundamentally concerned with the preservation of human liberty, freedom from such things as slavery and exile. It prohibits a person from manipulating or exploiting the lives of others for personal gain. Just as the sixth commandment prohibits murder, so the eighth prohibits what might be called “social murder,” that is, the cutting off of a man or woman from a life of freedom within the community of God’s people.  ¹⁾Elwell, W. A., & Beitzel, B. J. (1988). Ten Commandments, The. In Baker encyclopedia of the Bible (Vol. 2, p. 2044). Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House.

So – for those who like to hide behind the letter of the law, you can say you’re not stealing.

But, what about the spirit of the law?  To learn something about the spirit of the law, let’s turn to Jesus.

The Calling of Matthew

Mt 9:9 As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector’s booth. “Follow me,” he told him, and Matthew got up and followed him.

Mt 9:10 While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and “sinners” came and ate with him and his disciples. 11 When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and ‘sinners’?”

Mt 9:12 On hearing this, Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. 13 But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

So, if you’re hiding behind the letter of the law and saying there’s nothing in this commandment about unreasonable interest rates, Jesus is saying you’ve got it wrong.  Even if you’re thinking something along the lines of I’ll make up for it in some way – Jesus is saying you’ve got it wrong.  Mercy is better.  Not even charging the unreasonable interest rates is better.

Oh – by the way – for those of you who realize this passage in Matthew was a quote of something else – very good.  For those that don’t, it comes from Hosea.

Hos 6:6 For I desire mercy, not sacrifice,
and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings.

Since Hosea is an Old Testament book, we should “update” this.  In New Testament terms, it would be something like “I desire mercy, not an ongoing need to request forgiveness”.  Or, as Paul so eloquently put it:

Ro 6:1 What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? 2 By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?

Just in case someone still thinks all of this is no big deal, let me remind (or is it inform?) you how Hosea starts off.

Hos 1:2 When the LORD began to speak through Hosea, the LORD said to him, “Go, take to yourself an adulterous wife and children of unfaithfulness, because the land is guilty of the vilest adultery in departing from the LORD.” 3 So he married Gomer daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son.

Yes – Israel – God’s people – was so bad that God has His prophet marry an adulterous wife to show the people just how unfaithful they were to God.  Do you really want to have that example apply to you?

OK – how about one more of the Ten Commandments?

Coveting

Ex 20:17 “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his manservant or maidservant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.”

You may say you don’t covet someone’s house, and certainly not their ox or donkey.  No?  What happens when someone default’s on a mortgage for which they can’t afford the interest – like with an interest only mortgage?  Answer – they lose the house.  What happens when they can’t afford the car that came via a subprime loan with a high interest rate?  You say the loan terms were justified by their bad credit, of course.  Regardless – they lose it.  It’s not a donkey or an ox. It’s a car.  Is the difference really worth arguing over?

And many will say that they, as individuals, don’t get the house, or the car.  But the company does.  And while some will try to hide behind the claim that it’s just business – it’s just the big banks – it’s the corporations – are there not people running all those things and setting up the rules for them?

Have I made my point yet?

What does the article say?

So – let’s see what the article from Bloomberg had to say.

In the years after the financial crisis, buyout firms poured billions into auto finance, angling for the big profits that come with offering high-interest loans to buyers with the weakest credit. At rates of 11 percent or more, there was plenty to be made as sales boomed. But now, with new car demand waning, they’ve found the intense competition — and the lax underwriting standards it fostered — are taking a toll on profits.

After all the money the “corporations” made and all the money / housing former homeowners lost in the last financial crisis – there needs to be a way to make more money.  This time, it’s high interest loans for cars.  And again the targets for these loans are people who can be charged high interest rates.  Oh yeah – subprime loans to the people who are least likely to be able to pay off the loan.

The article continues.

Delinquencies on subprime loans made by non-bank lenders are soaring toward crisis levels. Fresh investment has dried up and some of the big banks, long seen as potential suitors, have pulled back from the auto lending business. To top it off, state regulators are circling the industry, asking whether it preyed on borrowers and put them in cars they couldn’t afford.

As expected, loans are going delinquent.  The “corporations” are pulling back.  The “government” is looking into the “corporations”.  But what happens?  The government brings in money from fining the corporations.  But the corporations are still OK, because they’ve already made a ton of money, and now they are also starting to own cars.  True – the market for these cars is low.  For now.  Fear not – I’m sure the corporations will be just fine.  The government will make sure of that.

But again, I have to ask – are not the government and the corporations made up of people?  And are not these people subject to everything I laid out at the top of the article?  This is not just “corporations” doing bad things.  And it’s not just the “government” allowing these things to happen.  It’s people.  People taking advantage of other people.

There’s more.

The apparent turnabout represents a sobering shift in what has been a booming market. Since the turn of the decade, buyout firms, hedge funds and other private investors have staked at least $3 billion on non-bank auto lenders, according to Colonnade. Among PE firms, everyone from Blackstone and KKR & Co. to Lee Equity Partners, Altamont Capital and CIVC Partners waded in.

Many targeted smaller finance companies that often catered to the least creditworthy borrowers with nowhere else to turn. Overall, subprime car loans — those extended to people with credit scores of 620 or lower — have increased 72 percent since 2011. Last year, about 20 percent of all new car loans went to subprime borrowers.

Good business?  Or taking advantage of people?  And remember – it is people taking advantage of people.

And then there’s this.

“We’re concerned about the company’s ability to earn a satisfactory return,” S&P said in August.

I have a strong desire to use a four letter word here.

Do you know what I want to ask?
Do you know what’s missing in all of this?

Who is concerned about the people who are targeted by the people running these companies?

Who is concerned about the government not doing much of anything other than making money off the fines they collect from these people who are running these businesses that are merely following the rules set by the people in the government who apparently fail – again and again – to protect the very people they are supposed to be watching out for.

The problem

We already saw the first instance of the word interest in the Bible.  Let’s see some more.

Lev 25:35 “ ‘If one of your countrymen becomes poor and is unable to support himself among you, help him as you would an alien or a temporary resident, so he can continue to live among you. 36 Do not take interest of any kind from him, but fear your God, so that your countryman may continue to live among you. 37 You must not lend him money at interest or sell him food at a profit. 38 I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt to give you the land of Canaan and to be your God.”

Notice where it says, so he can continue to live among you.  Now, think back to Just as the sixth commandment prohibits murder, so the eighth prohibits what might be called “social murder,” that is, the cutting off of a man or woman from a life of freedom within the community of God’s people. 

So, social murder involves taking someone’s home, so they have no place to live.  Social murder involves taking someone’s car, so they cannot get to work, cannot earn a living, and therefore will also lose their home.  Either of these scenario’s means a person, a couple, or even an entire family with kids is now homeless.  Can one get any more removed from the community?

In case you’re thinking these are bad examples, let me give you a real life scenario.  Someone I met and spoke with, through our church providing temporary living space for homeless families with children, ended up homeless because the husband’s plumbing tools were stolen.  It wasn’t even a house or a car.  It was tools.  He worked as a day laborer.  No tools = no job.  No job = even worse than subprime.  They didn’t even have the money to get new tools.  The family lost their home.  The parents and the kids ended up on the street.  It’s real.  True – it’s a different “beginning” to their downfall.  However, if anything, it shows how even “small” things can end up in disaster.

How does this happen?  Because but fear your God, so that your countryman may continue to live among you, is something that too many of us just don’t do.

Proverbs talks about God’s redistribution of wealth plan.

Pr 28:8 He who increases his wealth by exorbitant interest
amasses it for another, who will be kind to the poor.

It doesn’t seem like this happens any more.  The ultra-rich today donate to causes that have their names, because they fell bad, and other reasons.  See Why do rich people give their money away?   But being kind to the poor because that’s what God wants us to do?  It’s out of style.

The thing is, we humans can only subvert God’s wishes for as long as He allows us to get away with it.  At some point, God will step in.  Further, at the end of our lives, we will have something to answer for.

The Sheep and the Goats

Mt 25:31 “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory. 32 All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33 He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.

Mt 25:34 “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 35 For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36 I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’

Mt 25:37 “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38 When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39 When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’

Mt 25:40 “The King will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.’

Mt 25:41 “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 42 For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43 I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’

Mt 25:44 “They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’

Mt 25:45 “He will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’

Mt 25:46 “Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”

Which do you think you would come out as?  Sheep?  or Goat?  BTW – it’s “goat”, not “G.O.A.T.”.  It’s not “Greatest Of All Time”.  It’s more like the one’s who don’t care.

One last example – this one both a statement about Israel in Old Testament times, and about us today.

Jerusalem’s Sins

Eze 22:1 The word of the LORD came to me: 2 “Son of man, will you judge her? Will you judge this city of bloodshed? Then confront her with all her detestable practices 3 and say: ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says: O city that brings on herself doom by shedding blood in her midst and defiles herself by making idols, 4 you have become guilty because of the blood you have shed and have become defiled by the idols you have made. You have brought your days to a close, and the end of your years has come. Therefore I will make you an object of scorn to the nations and a laughingstock to all the countries. 5 Those who are near and those who are far away will mock you, O infamous city, full of turmoil.

Eze 22:6 “ ‘See how each of the princes of Israel who are in you uses his power to shed blood. 7 In you they have treated father and mother with contempt; in you they have oppressed the alien and mistreated the fatherless and the widow. 8 You have despised my holy things and desecrated my Sabbaths. 9 In you are slanderous men bent on shedding blood; in you are those who eat at the mountain shrines and commit lewd acts. 10 In you are those who dishonor their fathers’ bed; in you are those who violate women during their period, when they are ceremonially unclean. 11 In you one man commits a detestable offense with his neighbor’s wife, another shamefully defiles his daughter-in-law, and another violates his sister, his own father’s daughter. 12 In you men accept bribes to shed blood; you take usury and excessive interest and make unjust gain from your neighbors by extortion. And you have forgotten me, declares the Sovereign LORD.

Eze 22:13 “ ‘I will surely strike my hands together at the unjust gain you have made and at the blood you have shed in your midst. 14 Will your courage endure or your hands be strong in the day I deal with you? I the LORD have spoken, and I will do it. 15 I will disperse you among the nations and scatter you through the countries; and I will put an end to your uncleanness. 16 When you have been defiled in the eyes of the nations, you will know that I am the LORD.’ ”

Yes – it says “Jerusalem’s Sins”.  Remember though, this is also a prophecy.  About us.  And it’s not good.

12 In you men accept bribes to shed blood; you take usury and excessive interest and make unjust gain from your neighbors by extortion. And you have forgotten me, declares the Sovereign LORD.

And remember what I said earlier about God stepping in at some point.  Trust me, the “striking my hands together” in the verse below isn’t God clapping – giving applause for our great behavior.

Eze 22:13 “ ‘I will surely strike my hands together at the unjust gain you have made and at the blood you have shed in your midst. 14 Will your courage endure or your hands be strong in the day I deal with you? I the LORD have spoken, and I will do it.

What’s missing?

Do you have it figured out?  
Do you know what’s missing?

Here’s one final clue.  It’s about the Ten Commandments.  Yes – the rules again.

However, before we go there, let’s remove any question about whether or not this applies to us today.

The Fulfillment of the Law

Mt 5:17 “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. 18 I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished. 19 Anyone who breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. 20 For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.”

And so, with that settled, let’s get to the last clue.

The Context of the Commandments.

The commandments are inseparable from the covenant. The making of a covenant between God and Israel at Sinai was the formation of a particular relationship. God made certain commitments to Israel and in return imposed certain obligations upon Israel. Although Israel’s obligations are expressed in detail in a mass of precise legal material, they are given their most precise and succinct expression in the Ten Commandments. The commandments set down the most fundamental principles of all Hebrew law, and the detailed laws contained in the Pentateuch are for the most part applications of the principles to particular situations. Thus, the role of the Ten Commandments in ancient Israel was to give direction to a relationship. They were not to be obeyed simply for the sake of obedience, as though obedience accumulated some kind of credit. Rather, they were to be obeyed in order to discover that life in which the fullness and richness of a relationship with God.

The commandments in ancient Israel were not an ethical code or compilation of advice on the fundamentals of morality. The covenant was between God and a nation; the commandments were directed toward the life of that nation and its citizens. Consequently, the initial role of the commandments was similar to that of criminal law in a modern state. Israel was a theocracy, a state whose king was God (Dt 33:5). The commandments provided guidance to the citizens of that state. In addition, to break a commandment was to commit a crime against the state and the ruler of that state, God. Thus the penalties were severe, for the breaking of the commandments threatened the covenant relationship and the continued existence of the state. This state context is important for understanding the commandments in their initial form.  ²⁾Elwell, W. A., & Beitzel, B. J. (1988). Ten Commandments, The. In Baker encyclopedia of the Bible (Vol. 2, p. 2042). Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House.

Some of what goes on with things like these predatory housing and car loans – the unreasonable interest rates – the subprime loans – the targeting of people who can least afford to take on the loans – it’s awful.  People’s lives are destroyed.  

As the article says – there are concerns about whether or not the companies can stay in business.  If they don’t, the people at the top lose their big incomes.  If they don’t stay in business, the shareholders lose money.  When they go out of business, the top employees will find jobs someplace else – probably doing something very similar, to the very same people.

But who asks about the people who’s lives are destroyed?

Well, for one, God does.  

If you’ve learned one thing from this article, hopefully it’s at least that it’s important to consider the way we treat people.  God’s people.  He created me.  And you.  And everyone else on the planet.  So, when we sin against any person, it’s a sin against God as well.  When we take advantage of someone, we’ve taken advantage of someone God created, and therefore are (trying to) take advantage of Him as well.  And while we may succeed in taking advantage of many people in this life – we will fail in the end.  No one takes advantage of God.  

Wisdom from “The Teacher”

I’m not going to explain the passage below.  I’ll just say that if you involved in the kind of stuff we looked at above, and you think this justifies what you do – or tells you that you’re doing the right thing – or anything even remotely like that – you’ve got it wrong.

The passage is from Ecclesiastes.  It’s by Qoheleth.  The Teacher.  Solomon.  The book is full of wisdom.  And sarcasm.  It’s important to know which is which.  But I’m not going to tell you.  You need to find that out for yourself.  I suspect that, if you’re a victim – you’ll get this.  If you’re a person who victimizes others, either you won’t get it, or you’ll want to change to a new profession.

So – here it is.

Riches Are Meaningless

Ecc 5:8 If you see the poor oppressed in a district, and justice and rights denied, do not be surprised at such things; for one official is eyed by a higher one, and over them both are others higher still. 9 The increase from the land is taken by all; the king himself profits from the fields.

Ecc 5:10 Whoever loves money never has money enough;
whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with his income.
This too is meaningless.

Ecc 5:11 As goods increase,
so do those who consume them.
And what benefit are they to the owner
except to feast his eyes on them?

Ecc 5:12 The sleep of a laborer is sweet,
whether he eats little or much,
but the abundance of a rich man
permits him no sleep.

Ecc 5:13 I have seen a grievous evil under the sun:
wealth hoarded to the harm of its owner,

Ecc 5:14 or wealth lost through some misfortune,
so that when he has a son
there is nothing left for him.

Ecc 5:15 Naked a man comes from his mother’s womb,
and as he comes, so he departs.
He takes nothing from his labor
that he can carry in his hand.

Ecc 5:16 This too is a grievous evil:
As a man comes, so he departs,
and what does he gain,
since he toils for the wind?

Ecc 5:17 All his days he eats in darkness,
with great frustration, affliction and anger.

Ecc 5:18 Then I realized that it is good and proper for a man to eat and drink, and to find satisfaction in his toilsome labor under the sun during the few days of life God has given him—for this is his lot. 19 Moreover, when God gives any man wealth and possessions, and enables him to enjoy them, to accept his lot and be happy in his work—this is a gift of God. 20 He seldom reflects on the days of his life, because God keeps him occupied with gladness of heart.

Conclusion

Jn 3:16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. 19 This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. 20 Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. 21 But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God.”

This paragraph is for you.  Whoever you are – it’s for you.  

Unless you don’t want it.

You’re reaction to things like what’s in this article are part of deciding whether or not you want it.  Not just the words, “I want it”.  It’s what’s in your heart.  Evidence of it can be seen in your life.

More precisely, for this article, will your love of money – the things you do to get it, for instance essentially stealing from others (including God) – will your love of money mean your answer is “thanks, but no thanks”?

Jesus didn’t die to save a corporation.  
He died to save us.  Rich and poor.  Employed or not.  Everyone.

That company taking advantage of people isn’t going to save anyone.  If anything, it will lead people to condemning themselves, because of the things done in the name of that company, as it we can remove ourselves from responsibility.

Say yes to His offer of salvation – not just in words, but in the way you live.

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