Q: The Bible says, “On loans to a foreigner you may charge interest, but on loans to another Israelite you may not charge interest, so that the Lord your God may bless you in all your undertakings in the land that you are about to enter and possess” (Deuteronomy 23:20). This passage confuses me. It appears as if something that is a sin in relation to a fellow tribesman is acceptable in relation to a foreigner. Does the Bible really encourage unfair treatment of foreigners? Can the word of God be teaching something like this?
A: When reading such places in the Bible, one needs to remember that the moral stances of the Old Testament were by no means intended for all mankind, but only for one people, chosen to fulfill a specific task under specific historical conditions. They were therefore based on the actual spiritual level, moral characteristics, and intellectual capabilities of that people, as of the time in question.
For example, Christ expressly speaks of the commandment stipulating the terms of divorce (and thus implicitly allowing it), “Because of your hardness of heart he [Moses] wrote this commandment for you (Mark 10:5). The Old Testament legislator does not encourage divorce, but since such a practice already exists and it cannot yet be eradicated, proceeds from the need to somehow limit the evil and protect the rights of the abandoned woman.
Many passages in the Old Testament that confuse the modern reader are nothing other than a charitable condescending act aimed to edify their contemporaries and the crude mores of the age. Since people were unable to perceive the fullness of God’s commandment, the law calls on them to at least reduce evil as much as possible. In case with divorce, it meant not just driving one’s wife out of the house or even encroaching on her life, but abiding the law, which secured certain rights for her. The commandment on usury does not encourage it at all. On the contrary, it orders Jews to refrain from this evil, at least in relation to their fellow believers and fellow tribesmen.
This is a very imperfect approximation of what God expects of man, but it is nonetheless a step forward. The entire Old Testament was a gradual preparation, a long and difficult road to forming the faith and morals of the Jewish people, leading them to the moment when God was fully and completely revealed to them in Jesus Christ. In the preaching and deeds of the Lord Jesus, as well as in the ministry of the Church that He created, God’s plan is revealed in all its fullness, showing the imperfection of many Old Testament norms.
All of us, including those who have not yet come to faith, grew up in a culture shaped by two millennia of evangelization. Some fragments of the Old Testament seem morally insufficient to us today because we are looking at them through the prism of the New Testament, which was given to all peoples and for all times.
Translated by The Catalogue of Good Deeds
Source: https://foma.ru/biblija-pooshhrjaet-nespravedlivoe-otnoshenie-k-inostrancam-otvechaem-na-vopros-ob-odnoj-strannoj-zapovedi.html
