Why is usury a sin?

Definition of usury

1: the lending of money with an interest charge for its use especially : the lending of money at exorbitant interest rates 2: an unconscionable or exorbitant rate or amount of interest specifically : interest in excess of a legal rate charged to a borrower for the use of money

(source: Merriam Webster)

It is estimated that the average American who decides to go to the university will have a debt of +40k dollars by the time he/she finishes his/her studies. The freshly graduated person, still in his/her twenties will start a career with a negative balance. The high debt is even the case for majors which do not necessarily have promising salaries and while previous generations could count on a steady income with your own property, two cars and the possibility to provide for a family after college, this is far from the current reality. To make matters worse, it is estimated that in the United States, over 60% of the population live paycheck to paycheck.

In my many years working in a big bank, it always puzzled me how the company could make so much money out of nothing. Banks are simply a service provider and produce nothing tangible, still they are absurdly wealthy. An unpaid credit card statement in Brazil (or in many other countries with outrageous interest rates) can in less than one year grow to impossible-to-pay levels.

In his book ‘The five stages of collapse’, Dmitry Orlov theorizes on how collapse progresses, starting with the financial collapse, followed by the commercial, political, social and culminating with the cultural collapse. I will not go into detail of all the stages presented, but the financial collapse deserves a few more words. His reasoning is that whenever a society allows loans with usury, collapse is only a matter of time. The logic makes sense: for economies with high interest rates to be sustainable, the expectation of growth must be unlimited, which is impossible in the long run. The loan with interest rate is betting on geometric progression growth that will never be able to pay itself. The author rightly reminds of the sin of usury described in the Bible and also forbidden in other religions and this is no coincidence.

A creditor who uses his possessions to make more money out of nothing is exploiting his brethren and will eventually be lazy and produce nothing. The debtor, on the other hand, suffers the pressure of the debt and is unable to have flexibility. His/her decisions become attached to his debt and peace is gone from his/her soul.

The Bible shows that it is possible to become a servant to your creditor if you are not able to pay your debt (but one will only be a slave for six years max, the seventh year is the year of forgiveness), however the debt should never have interest rate (at least not between the Israelites). The idea is simple: one should be motivated to loan money only from people of trust and lend to people you will keep in your relationship. If you wish to make money out of savings, it is acceptable to lend money to someone outside of your ‘circle of trust’ with a price on the ‘risk’ the creditor is taking.

“You shall not charge interest on loans to your brother, interest on money, interest on food, interest on anything that is lent for interest. You may charge a foreigner interest, but you may not charge your brother interest, that Yahuah your Elohim may bless you in all that you undertake in the land that you are entering to take possession of it.’’ (Deuteronomy 23:19-20)

Now fast forward two thousand years and we have the abomination of the current banking system... Your business is not going well? Get another loan, what’s another rope on a neck full of them? Your college debt is not leaving any money to change your car? Get a mortgage on your house! Your credit card bill is too high? Make a deal with the bank and break it into twelve installments! The solution provided by a materialistic society will always seem to be ‘get more credit’.

We were born to be free

The western societies are quickly drowning in the quicksand of credit and sleepless nights can be the least of your problems. Imagine you are in a desperate debt situation and you lose your job. All of a sudden, you have no savings, your house has two mortgages so you will lose it as well, you did not see the need to have some extra food and just bought what you needed for the next few days at the local store, so your family will have nothing to eat very soon and social services might take your kids from you because you can’t even afford the minimum. When you think all is lost, a ‘savior’ (not our Savior) comes and tells you the following: ‘all your debts can be erased, if you do this, this and that’ (the this, this and that is probably something that you would not accept normally, or something that seems like ‘no big deal’). Well, why not, right?

WRONG! That is when you the bench is kicked below your feet on the gallows pole, my friend.

There is no easy way out of debt, if something apparently harmless is being asked in exchange for your debt, you are basically accepting to become a slave, or selling your soul.

You can only spend what you have

Sadly the educational system in most countries fail to teach useful knowledge, for education is not meant to train us to be free, but to be compliant. Why teach us personal finance, or how to grow food when you can teach to sit still for hours, obey the bell and authority? Now, for most of us education already did its damage, so all we can do is try to ‘reprogram’ our brain and make sure the next generations can be immune to the same traps.

The only way out of debt is to spend less than you make. It’s really all there is. You should also think about additional sources of income. Are you good at building things? Can you sell cakes or bread to your neighbors? How about selling what you don’t use anymore?

It’s absolutely crucial to get out of any debt! Renegotiate your debt to an installment that you can pay and reduce your fixed cost to a minimum. That means living with less. For many this is unthinkable, but if you think about all the small conveniences and ‘treats’ you give yourself and count how much all that means by the end of the year, you will be surprised at the number.

What do you need to live? A roof, food (quality food, not industrialized garbage) and pay the maintenance bills. Can you save on electricity? Can you change to a cheaper car? Cheaper rent? Those are some difficult decisions that you may need to make in order to put your house in order while you can. Don’t wait until you feel like you have no choice but to bow down to any ‘savior’.

What can we learn from the German mindset?

The American culture of materialism (I mean here the whole American continent) such as ‘shop till you drop’, Black Friday and Apple store queues is not what we see in northern European countries. Specially in Germany, there is not a big tendency of getting indebted. Credit cards have low limits, few banks accept offering you an overdraft limit and interest rates are (still) rather low compared to many other countries. The average German citizen will only make a loan for a house or a car. This is of course a generalization, but Germany is a very disciplined country that has suffered greatly because of inflation and recession, so they have a natural aversion to going into debt. We definitely can learn a lot with their overall simple way of life and how to spend less than your income.

Spiritual implication: You can't serve two masters

“No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve Yahuah and mammon.” (Matthew 6:24)

Mammon is another word for money and we do see a lot of people enslaved by the pursuit of mammon and even by the promises of riches. How many people were killed, how many relationships were destroyed, how many people were deceived, all because of money?

'But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction.' (1Timothy 6:9)

When we accept a debt we can’t pay, we are accepting to be a slave of mammon and putting our happiness into external things and not into our spiritual connection with Yahuah. To be our Creator’s servant is the closest we will ever be from freedom. A servant of Yah is happy with what Yahuah gives him/her, so if you need to go into debt to make a purchase, can you say that what you are purchasing really belongs to you? Was it Yahuah’s will to give you that? Just think about it next time that credit card devil whispers in your ear.

The rich rules over the poor,

and the borrower is the slave of the lender. (Proverbs 22:7)