So much interest and money stuff...
Added 2024-04-09 00:12:25 +0000 UTC...and it's important. This week we're finishing up that overview of Old Testament money, lending, debt, interest and Jubilee stuff, and we're on to the business about how Nehemiah's going to fix the problem.
Comments
I've been traveling in Alabama (for No Dumb Questions stuff) for a bit here but wanted to reply to this comment now that I'm home. I really appreciate what you said, and your transparency about it, because I think it's a very difficult thing that's become understandably politicized and strange to talk about. The truth is that kind of debt can become life draining and life defining to a great degree. The winds of change will blow, and they will eventually blow in your favor, and that debt will become a thing of the past for you, but I very deeply understand the weight of it in the mean time. If a person's never felt that weight, it might be hard to understand why Nehemiah's so mad, but if for the vast majority of us who have felt it, Nehemiah's anger is a little cathartic. Thanks for being here and for supporting the thing.
Matt Whitman
2024-04-17 23:32:34 +0000 UTCI also want to say thank you so much for sharing your loan experiences! My husband and I are also in the middle of some fairly predatory student loans experiences ourselves and it's so brutal. We both graduated 10+ years ago and we only recently passed the owing the same amount we originally borrowed mark with a few of them. It helps to know we're not alone because sometimes it really feels that way. This episode and all the talk of Nehemiah being furious about the lending practices hits completely differently as an adult in that situation.
Casey Blighton
2024-04-10 23:41:20 +0000 UTCAll this talk about loans and interest during the time of Nehemiah reminded me of a book I read on the ANE a little while ago. If I recall correctly, the Assyrians had such ridiculous interest rates (30%+ per year) that several times during their history the government had to enact an economic/land ownership reset due to so many people being in bondage. It reminded me of the Year of Jubilee and how God was putting laws/policies in place to reduce such abuses.
Ryan Grunwald
2024-04-09 16:17:50 +0000 UTC
