Deuteronomy 24:6 (KJV)
[6]No man shall take the nether or the upper millstone to pledge: for he taketh a man’s life to pledge.
Jesus Christ summarized all the Law and the prophets on two commandments. He said this is response to the question the Pharisees asked Him.
Matthew 22:36
[36]Master, which is the great commandment in the law?
Observe Jesus’ response.
Matthew 22:37-40
[37]Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
[38]This is the first and great commandment.
[39]And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
[40]On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.
Loving God would be believing the Gospel.
1 John 3:23-24
[23]And this is his commandment, That we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as he gave us commandment.
[24]And he that keepeth his commandments dwelleth in him, and he in him. And hereby we know that he abideth in us, by the Spirit which he hath given us.
The antecedent text says that God is pleased with the man who does this:
1 John 3:22
[22]And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight.
Jesus describes this a new commandment.
John 13:34-35
[34]A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.
Men were to see the Christ they profess and serve in this New commandment.
[35]By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.
“Disciples” here translates the Greek word “mathētēs”(μαθητής) which refers to a pupil; one who gives himself wholly to another to be taught by another. A disciple is one that could be EASILY identified by a third-party as someone who has learned well by the hand of another. So Jesus is saying, “let men see the you really learnt of and from Me.”
Jesus is our model example of walking in love. This is all over the Scriptures. Loving your neighbor/brother is called GREATER LOVE
John 15:12-13
[12]This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you.
[13] GREATER LOVE hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.
He calls those who have believed in Him His friends, that is; His associates! They do his bidding.
John 15:14,17
[14]Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you.
[17]These things I command you, that ye love one another.
John in his Epistles describes our love for God in how we love our brethren.
1 John 4:20-21
[20]If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?
[21]And this commandment have we from him, That he who loveth God love his brother also.
We do this because He first loved us.
1 John 4:19
[19]We love him, because he first loved us.
The word “him” in this text is not found in the original manuscript. A better rendering would be, “We love, because He first loved us.” This is so because CONTEXUALLY he was discussing human relationship. Paul said the same thing in his letter in the book of Ephesians.
Ephesians 5:1-2
[1]Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children;
[2]And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for as a sweetsmelling savour.
The word “followers” in verse one translates the Greek word “mimētēs” (μιμητής). It is the root word of the English term “mimic”. So he is saying walking in love is “mimicking” God. The word means to imitate another. These however, is not by self effort as the same text calls those who have been instructed to imitate God “dear children.” This means they already have the ability to imitate God by birth because He is their Father.
In Paul’s first letter to Thessalonians, he said something similar:
1 Thessalonians 4:1,9
[1]Furthermore then we beseech you, brethren, and exhort you by the Lord Jesus, that as ye have received of us how ye ought to walk and to please God, so ye would abound more and more.
[9]But as touching brotherly love ye need not that I write unto you: for ye yourselves are taught of God to love one another.
Having seen that loving God is believing the Gospel and walking in love with our neighbors/brethren, let us go back to Matthew 22.
Jesus was asked a question.
Matthew 22:36
[36]Master, which is the great commandment in the law?
The antecedent text shows us their intent. It was to “tempt the master.”
The word “tempting” is from the Greek word “peirazō”(πειράζωIt). It means to test objectively by thorough scrutiny. This was the intent of the Pharisee who questioned Jesus. Jesus, responding to their interrogation, said:
Matthew 22:37-39
[37]Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
[38]This is the first and great commandment.
[39]And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself
He calls it the bedrock of all the law and the prophets.
Matthew 22:40
[40]On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.
This is what one ought to look out for as touching instructions in all the law and the prophets. This is coming from the our Lord and savior. It should not be downplayed. Having seen all this, we will use Jesus’ hermeneutic of the law to interpret the Law of the millstone in Deuteronomy 24:6.
Deuteronomy 24:6
[6]No man shall take the nether or the upper millstone to pledge: for he taketh a man’s life to pledge.
The propriety of the law was founded on the custom of the grinding corn every morning for daily consumption. The nether is the lower part of a hand mill, used for grinding corn, while the millstone is the upper. If either of the stones, therefore, which composed the handmill was wanting, a person would be deprived of his necessary DAILY provision and would likely starve. When a pledge is taken for a loan such a pledge must never be a man’s mill or the detachable upper millstone. To take either would be to take away the man’s ability to prepare his food. By taking this, the creditor would be taking the man’s very life.
Observe how the Good News Translation puts the text:
Deuteronomy 24:6
[6]When you lend someone something, you are not to take as security his millstones used for grinding his grain.
This would take away the family’s means of preparing food to stay alive. The context of the text was walking in love. The law is about debt cancellation for another. The succedent text explains this even further.
Deuteronomy 24:10-13
[10]When thou dost lend thy brother any thing, thou shalt not go into his house to fetch his pledge.
[11]Thou shalt stand abroad, and the man to whom thou dost lend shall bring out the pledge abroad unto thee.
[12]And if the man be poor, thou shalt not sleep with his pledge:
[13]In any case thou shalt deliver him the pledge again when the sun goeth down, that he may sleep in his own raiment, and bless thee: and it shall be righteousness unto thee before the LORD thy God.
This was a law given as regards human relationship. They were to consider another who is in debt and let go. Back to verse 6:
Deuteronomy 24:6
[6]No man shall take the nether or the upper millstone to pledge: for he taketh a man’s life to pledge.
The use of grinding is two fold: first, the separation of the husk and less nutritious portion from the richer interior substance of the corn; and secondly, the trituration and pulverising, which reduces the grain to flour and thus presents it fully prepared for the sustentation of man. Both these essential services are done by the mill. In ancient times each family had its own mill, and the flour for daily use was ground each day. The mill was composed of two circular flat stones; one the upper, the other the lower. In the upper one there was a hole, in which a wooden handle was fixed, by which it was made to go round. The persons grinding sat to their work, and frequently when women did it, there would be two, and one passed the handle round to the other, and so the work went on. Even the process needed two persons to work together to get a desired result. This teaches team work which is possible in an atmosphere of tolerance and love. This is what the law of the millstone was to teach.
(N.B. All Scripture quotations were taken from the KJV Translation of the Holy Bible)
© Josh Banks Ministries. 2020.
