“I Owe, I Owe So Off to Work I Go...”

(Proverbs 22:7 KJV)  The rich ruleth over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the lender.




I always liked that saying when I saw it on bumper stickers.

We live in a time and culture that condemns slavery but that attitude is merely a gloss.  Slavery has been a fact of life in every culture I am aware of.  Only in modern times has it been condemned and that condemnation is more an aversion to the word than the relationship.

You see, slavery is still alive and well.  I don’t mean the “peculiar institution,” although it is on the rise again in Africa.  I mean the condition defined in the Constitution as “involuntary servitude.”  There are many types and levels of “involuntary servitude.” 

How many of us fear an IRS audit, even if we have done nothing wrong?  How many worry about a police car that follows them for a distance?  How many of the government regulations that we live under did you have a say in?  Much bondage we can do nothing to avoid.

The advice here is to avoid the bondage that comes from debt.  The money lenders no longer sell our children or throw us into jail until our debts are paid, but they do put limitations on what we can do and how we can do it.  How many are not free to follow God’s leading because they must stay at a well paying but pointless job to pay the debts they have run up?

So?  Get out of debt.  Millions do it.  For most it is within reach.  Serve the Holy One not the collection agency.