Holy to the Lord

August 4, 2023 / kdmiller55 / Leave a comment

²⁶“But a firstborn of animals, which as a firstborn belongs to the Lord, no man may dedicate; whether ox or sheep, it is the Lord’s. ²⁷And if it is an unclean animal, then he shall buy it back at the valuation, and add a fifth to it; or, if it is not redeemed, it shall be sold at the valuation.

²⁸“But no devoted thing that a man devotes to the Lord, of anything that he has, whether man or beast, or of his inherited field, shall be sold or redeemed; every devoted thing is most holy to the Lord. ²⁹No one devoted, who is to be devoted for destruction from mankind, shall be ransomed; he shall surely be put to death.

³⁰“Every tithe of the land, whether of the seed of the land or of the fruit of the trees, is the Lord’s; it is holy to the Lord. ³¹If a man wishes to redeem some of his tithe, he shall add a fifth to it. ³²And every tithe of herds and flocks, every tenth animal of all that pass under the herdsman’s staff, shall be holy to the Lord. ³³One shall not differentiate between good or bad, neither shall he make a substitute for it; and if he does substitute for it, then both it and the substitute shall be holy; it shall not be redeemed.”

³⁴These are the commandments that the Lord commanded Moses for the people of Israel on Mount Sinai. – Leviticus 27:26-34 ESV

These last nine verses almost appear to be an afterthought, as if Moses ran out of steam or couldn’t come up with a better ending. But with this closing, he records God’s final words concerning the need for His chosen people to behave with integrity. Throughout the book, Yahweh’s expectations that the Israelites live up to His holy standards have been clearly and repeatedly articulated. He has left little to the imagination and nothing up to their discretion. When it came to maintaining their relationship with Him, there were rules to be followed that were intended to govern virtually every area of life.

But God knew that those whom He had set apart to be His royal priesthood and a holy nation would find it difficult to walk according to His ways. They would be constantly tempted to reject His authority and question His faithfulness. In fact, they had already proven their propensity for apostasy with their worship of the golden calf. And the omniscient Yahweh knew that His children remained just as obstinate and stiff-necked as ever, even after having received all His laws contained in the Decalogue and the Book of the Covenant. While they had eagerly vowed to keep all His commands, God knew that they would fail to follow through on their commitment.

That seems to be why God ends this book with an entire chapter on the need for His people to maintain their vows and avoid any hint of hypocrisy. When it came to fulfilling their vows, cutting corners or seeking loopholes was strictly forbidden. They were not to seek workarounds or ingenious ways to game the system.

Yet, God knew that was exactly what His people would tend to do. The prophet Jeremiah provides Yahweh’s less-than-flattering assessment of the human heart.

“The human heart is the most deceitful of all things,
    and desperately wicked.
    Who really knows how bad it is?
But I, the Lord, search all hearts
    and examine secret motives.
I give all people their due rewards,
    according to what their actions deserve.” – Jeremiah 17:9-10 NLT

That’s why God ends this book with a series of warnings involving “secret motives.” The first involves attempting to give something to God that already belonged to Him. According to the Mosaic Law, all firstborn children and animals belonged to the Lord.

“Consecrate to me all the firstborn. Whatever is the first to open the womb among the people of Israel, both of man and of beast, is mine.” – Exodus 13:2 ESV

Yet, a clever Israelite might come up with the idea to rededicate a firstborn as a fulfillment of a vow or pledge. This would have been a cost-saving measure, giving to God what was already rightfully His. But this would have been nothing less than an attempt to cheat God. In a sense, anyone who tried to do this was trying to scam God, using His own property to pay off their vow. It would be like stealing flowers from someone’s garden and then giving them back as a gift.

God also makes it clear that those firstborn animals were unredeemable. In other words, they could not be purchased back. They were the permanent possession of the Almighty and considered wholly consecrated to Him. But unclean animals could be redeemed as the valuation price and the 20 percent tax were paid in full.

The next area of emphasis involved those things that had been devoted to God. The Hebrew word (ḥērem) refers to a “devoted thing, proscribed thing, banned thing, cursed thing.”

“The basic idea of the Hebrew word is that the person or thing was devoted to God; it could either be sanctified for use in his service or utterly destroyed. But it was banned from possession or use by humans.…So if anything had been devoted to the Lord b some such means, it could not then be vowed as a gift to him. The devoted thing could not be sold by a priest and could not be redeemed by the owner.” – Allen P. Ross, Holiness to the Lord: A Guide to the Exposition of the Book of Leviticus

God makes it perfectly clear.

“However, anything specially set apart for the Lord—whether a person, an animal, or family property—must never be sold or bought back. Anything devoted in this way has been set apart as holy, and it belongs to the Lord.” – Leviticus 27:28 NLT

Once something was devoted to God, there was no going back. You could not renege on the commitment. This stipulation involved not only people and animals dedicated to God, but also individuals and entire communities that had been devoted to destruction.

“The word ‘devoted’ in the text is the same word used for ‘putting something or someone under the ban.’ This was true of cities, person, and things committed to total destruction because they were an offense to the Lord.” – Kenneth A. Matthews, Exodus: Holy God, Holy People

Once again, God is setting up boundaries that were intended to keep the Israelites from making unwise and unholy decisions. If something or someone belonged to God, whether as a gift or as that which had been devoted to destruction, there was no going back. According to the law, “If an ox gores a man or woman to death, the ox must be stoned, and its flesh may not be eaten” (Exodus 21:28 NLT). The owner was not allowed to dedicate that condemned ox as a gift to God and the animal was unredeemable. In essence, it belonged to God, and because God had ordered its destruction, that was the only option available.

The final section involves the giving of a tithe. God had ordered His people to give a tenth of all their produce and flocks as an offering to Him. This was used to care for the needs of the Levites, who received no inheritance of land in Canaan.

“You must set aside a tithe of your crops—one-tenth of all the crops you harvest each year. Bring this tithe to the designated place of worship—the place the Lord your God chooses for his name to be honored—and eat it there in his presence. This applies to your tithes of grain, new wine, olive oil, and the firstborn males of your flocks and herds. Doing this will teach you always to fear the Lord your God.” – Deuteronomy 14:22-23 NLT

But God knew that the Israelites would find this command to be onerous and difficult to keep. So, He reminds them that this tithe belonged to Him and was to be treated as holy.

“Every tithe of the land, whether of the seed of the land or of the fruit of the trees, is the Lord‘s; it is holy to the Lord.” – Leviticus 27:30 ESV

They were forbidden from holding it back. To do so would have been like robbing God. And centuries later, the prophet Malachi recorded Yahweh’s stinging indictment of His people.

“I am the Lord, and I do not change. That is why you descendants of Jacob are not already destroyed. Ever since the days of your ancestors, you have scorned my decrees and failed to obey them. Now return to me, and I will return to you,” says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.

“But you ask, ‘How can we return when we have never gone away?’

“Should people cheat God? Yet you have cheated me!

“But you ask, ‘What do you mean? When did we ever cheat you?’

“You have cheated me of the tithes and offerings due to me. You are under a curse, for your whole nation has been cheating me.” – Malachi 3:6-9 NLT

Knowing their predisposition, God provided His people with a concession. While all animals that had been dedicated to God were unredeemable, a portion of the produce that had been tithed could be redeemed. God allowed His people to redeem back a portion of the grain they had dedicated to Him so that they might feed their flocks or their families. He was gracious and kind in this respect, but all animals that had been dedicated to Him remained His and were to be considered holy.

The book of Leviticus ends with the simple statement: “These are the commandments that the Lord commanded Moses for the people of Israel on Mount Sinai” (Leviticus 27:34 ESV). As they stood at the base of Mount Sinai, the people were in possession of the Decalogue and the Book of the Covenant. They had the Tabernacle standing in their midst, which assured them of God’s constant presence among them. They had been given the sacrificial system as a means of receiving forgiveness and atonement for their sins. And God had renewed His covenant promise to lead them to the land of Canaan where they would receive their inheritance. They were Yahweh’s chosen people and they could expect to receive great blessings from Him, but those blessings would be directly tied to their obedience to His commands. He would continue to lead them, provide for them, and reside among them as long as they remained faithful to Him. The road to Canaan lay before them and the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob was committed to going with them. But He expected His people to trust and obey – in all things. They were considered holy to the Lord but their lives needed to reflect that reality. Holiness is not a label; it is a way of life.

New Living Translation (NLT) Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

A People of Their Word

August 3, 2023August 3, 2023 / kdmiller55 / Leave a comment

⁹“If the vow is an animal that may be offered as an offering to the Lord, all of it that he gives to the Lord is holy. ¹⁰He shall not exchange it or make a substitute for it, good for bad, or bad for good; and if he does in fact substitute one animal for another, then both it and the substitute shall be holy. ¹¹And if it is any unclean animal that may not be offered as an offering to the Lord, then he shall stand the animal before the priest, ¹²and the priest shall value it as either good or bad; as the priest values it, so it shall be. ¹³But if he wishes to redeem it, he shall add a fifth to the valuation.

¹⁴“When a man dedicates his house as a holy gift to the Lord, the priest shall value it as either good or bad; as the priest values it, so it shall stand. ¹⁵And if the donor wishes to redeem his house, he shall add a fifth to the valuation price, and it shall be his.

¹⁶“If a man dedicates to the Lord part of the land that is his possession, then the valuation shall be in proportion to its seed. A homer of barley seed shall be valued at fifty shekels of silver. ¹⁷If he dedicates his field from the year of jubilee, the valuation shall stand, ¹⁸but if he dedicates his field after the jubilee, then the priest shall calculate the price according to the years that remain until the year of jubilee, and a deduction shall be made from the valuation. ¹⁹And if he who dedicates the field wishes to redeem it, then he shall add a fifth to its valuation price, and it shall remain his. ²⁰But if he does not wish to redeem the field, or if he has sold the field to another man, it shall not be redeemed anymore. ²¹But the field, when it is released in the jubilee, shall be a holy gift to the Lord, like a field that has been devoted. The priest shall be in possession of it. ²²If he dedicates to the Lord a field that he has bought, which is not a part of his possession, ²³then the priest shall calculate the amount of the valuation for it up to the year of jubilee, and the man shall give the valuation on that day as a holy gift to the Lord. ²⁴In the year of jubilee the field shall return to him from whom it was bought, to whom the land belongs as a possession. ²⁵Every valuation shall be according to the shekel of the sanctuary: twenty gerahs shall make a shekel.” – Leviticus 27:9-25 ESV

God now turns His attention to vows involving animals, houses, and land. In this section, the emphasis is on the proper protocol for dedicating gifts to God. These voluntary votive offerings were to be taken seriously and faithfully fulfilled. To renege on a vow made to God was unacceptable and worthy of judgment. If an Israelite vowed to dedicate one of his animals to the Lord, he was legally bound to fulfill his commitment. Failure or refusal to do so would result in serious consequences.

God takes time to differentiate between the two types of animals that may be used as vows. The first involved any “animal that may be offered as an offering to the Lord” (Leviticus 27:9 ESV). This is a reference to a “clean” animal, one which would be acceptable as a sacrifice in the Tabernacle. Once that animal was dedicated to God, it became holy or set apart for His use. If the one who gave the votive offering changed his mind, He could not substitute that gift with an animal of lesser quality and, most certainly, he could not attempt to redeem it with an “unclean” animal. God strictly forbade any attempts to substitute an animal that had been dedicated to Him. If someone tried to do so, they would lose both animals.

“He shall not exchange it or make a substitute for it, good for bad, or bad for good; and if he does in fact substitute one animal for another, then both it and the substitute shall be holy.” – Leviticus 27:10 ESV

Both animals would become the property of God. When the first animal was vowed, it immediately became holy to the Lord. If the giver attempted to take it back and replace it with another animal of greater or lesser quality, he would end up forfeiting both animals as a penalty for going back on his vow.

But if someone offered an unclean animal as a votive offering, it was redeemable because it was not acceptable as a sacrifice. These animals would become the property of the priests and could be sold or used for other purposes, therefore they were redeemable. If the giver decided he wanted the animal back, the priest would determine its value and add an additional 20 percent surcharge as the redemption price.

This same calculation was used to determine the redemption price of a home. If someone made a vow to God pledging to give Him their house in return for some act of divine deliverance, there were expected to keep their word. But God did allow the giver a way of retaining their home through a similar process of redemption. The giver was allowed to change their mind, but the decision would not be without cost.

“If the person who dedicated the house wants to buy it back, he must pay the value set by the priest, plus 20 percent. Then the house will again be his.” – Leviticus 27:15 NLT

It seems that God made this provision because of the importance of the home in the Hebrew culture. It would be rash for a man to make a vow that would involve the loss of his family’s source of shelter. So, God provided a way for that individual to keep his commitment without penalizing his entire family in the process. He could redeem his home but at a high price. This penalty was probably intended to serve as a form of deterrent, keeping any Israelite from making a vow he was not willing to keep.

The next form of votive offerings involved the dedication of property. This section gets far more complicated because of a number of factors. First, there was the issue of rightful ownership. If someone dedicated a portion of their property to God, it must be determined whether they had legal rights to that land. Secondly, consideration must be made for the Year of Jubilee. Every fiftieth year the land was to return to the possession of its original owner. This divine decree had to be factored in when determining the redemption value of any property dedicated to God.

Once again, God made provision for the redemption of any land that was dedicated as a votive offering to Him.

“If the person who dedicated the field wants to buy it back, he must pay the value set by the priest, plus 20 percent. Then the field will again be legally his.” – Leviticus 27:19 NLT

In order to make their determination of the land’s value, the priests would have to take into account the years left until the Year of Jubilee. Once they came to a fair valuation, the giver could redeem the property by paying the price along with a 20 percent surcharge. But if the giver did not redeem the land, it became the property of the priests, who were free to sell the land to someone else. During the year of Jubilee that property would no longer revert back to the original landowner but to the priests.

“When the field is released in the Year of Jubilee, it will be holy, a field specially set apart for the Lord. It will become the property of the priests.” – Leviticus 27:21 NLT

If someone purchased a piece of land that was not part of his family’s inheritance, and that person decided to pledge it as a votive offering to God, the priests were to “assess its value based on the number of years left until the next Year of Jubilee” (Leviticus 27:23 NLT). When the Year of Jubilee arrived, the landowner was obligated to “give the assessed value of the land as a sacred donation to the Lord” (Leviticus 27:23 NLT). But the land would no longer be his. It reverted back to its original owner. This regulation was intended to keep someone from dedicating land that he knew would no longer be his in the Year of Jubilee. If someone bought a piece of land with just two years remaining until the Year of Jubilee, he might be tempted to use it as a votive offering, knowing that he was going to forfeit his rights to the land anyway. That’s why God placed a price on the land. When the Jubilee year arrived, the giver was obligated to pay the redemption price even though the land was no longer his. God would not allow any kind of deceit or underhandedness when it came to making vows. His people were to keep their commitment at all costs.

“Making and faithfully keeping one’s vows was a sign of a person’s spiritual condition. Vows were considered holy gifts to the Lord that were to be given out of a holy motivation and for a holy purpose.” – Kenneth A. Matthews, Leviticus: Holy God, Holy People

Let Your Yes Be Yes

August 2, 2023 / kdmiller55 / Leave a comment

¹The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ²“Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, If anyone makes a special vow to the Lord involving the valuation of persons, ³then the valuation of a male from twenty years old up to sixty years old shall be fifty shekels of silver, according to the shekel of the sanctuary. ⁴If the person is a female, the valuation shall be thirty shekels. ⁵If the person is from five years old up to twenty years old, the valuation shall be for a male twenty shekels, and for a female ten shekels. ⁶If the person is from a month old up to five years old, the valuation shall be for a male five shekels of silver, and for a female the valuation shall be three shekels of silver. ⁷And if the person is sixty years old or over, then the valuation for a male shall be fifteen shekels, and for a female ten shekels. ⁸And if someone is too poor to pay the valuation, then he shall be made to stand before the priest, and the priest shall value him; the priest shall value him according to what the vower can afford.” – Leviticus 27:1-8 ESV

As has been made clear from the rest of the book of Leviticus, God places a high priority on keeping one’s commitments. He is a God who keeps His word, and who never fails to follow through on all His promises.

God is not a man, so he does not lie. He is not human, so he does not change his mind. Has he ever spoken and failed to act? Has he ever promised and not carried it through? – Numbers 23:29 NLT

In making His covenant with the people of Israel, God clearly communicated the non-negotiable requirements that came with their preferred status as His chosen nation. In the first 26 chapters of this book, Moses records all the laws, statutes, and holy days that the Israelites were required to keep, then he closes with these words:

These are the statutes and rules and laws that the Lord made between himself and the people of Israel through Moses on Mount Sinai. – Leviticus 26:46 ESV

In the very next verse of the closing chapter, Moses records yet one more divine communication that addresses the topic of vows. Some scholars believe chapter 27 was a later addition to the book because it doesn’t seem to fit the prevailing narrative of the preceding chapters. It appears to veer off-topic, dealing with voluntary vows when the rest of the book has been focused on the mandatory laws ordained by God. Yet, upon closer examination, these closing verses provide an appropriate ending to the book.

From the day the people of Israel arrived at Sinai and began receiving God’s divine decrees from the mountaintop, they had repeatedly expressed their intentions to obey His commands.

“…if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words that you shall speak to the people of Israel.”

So Moses came and called the elders of the people and set before them all these words that the Lord had commanded him. All the people answered together and said, “All that the Lord has spoken we will do.” – Exodus 19:5-8 ESV

Moses came and told the people all the words of the Lord and all the rules. And all the people answered with one voice and said, “All the words that the Lord has spoken we will do.” – Exodus 24:3 ESV

Then he took the Book of the Covenant and read it in the hearing of the people. And they said, “All that the Lord has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient.” – Exodus 24:7 ESV

“Go near and hear all that the Lord our God will say, and speak to us all that the Lord our God will speak to you, and we will hear and do it.” – Deuteronomy 5:27 ESV

The people of Israel had vowed to keep the commands of God. They had verbally declared their commitment to do all that God had said and to remain obedient to His revealed will. But it is interesting to note how God responded to their overwhelming vow of faithfulness.

“I have heard the words of this people, which they have spoken to you. They are right in all that they have spoken. Oh that they had such a heart as this always, to fear me and to keep all my commandments, that it might go well with them and with their descendants forever!” – Deuteronomy 5:28-29 ESV

God knew His people would have a difficult time keeping their commitments. He doesn’t question their sincerity, but He has serious doubts about their ability to keep their word. God understood that their hearts were in the right place, but He also knew that their hearts had been infected by sin. They fully intended to do the right thing but lacked the inner capacity to carry out their commitment. Yet, rather than simplify His laws or dumb down His requirements, God went on to stress their need for unwavering obedience.

“You shall be careful therefore to do as the Lord your God has commanded you. You shall not turn aside to the right hand or to the left. You shall walk in all the way that the Lord your God has commanded you, that you may live, and that it may go well with you, and that you may live long in the land that you shall possess.” – Deuteronomy 5:32-33 ESV

It is important to remember that while the law was given to regulate the behavior of God’s people, it was also designed to expose their sinfulness. The apostle Paul points out this fact in several of his letters.

Why, then, was the law given? It was given alongside the promise to show people their sins. – Galatians 3:19 NLT

…it was the law that showed me my sin. I would never have known that coveting is wrong if the law had not said, “You must not covet.” – Romans 7:7 NLT

Paul understood that the law was holy, righteous, and good. It revealed God’s holy expectations for His chosen people. But sin took advantage of the law, using those divine decrees as a tool to condemn and defeat God’s people.

Sin took advantage of those commands and deceived me; it used the commands to kill me. – Romans 7:11 NLT

God knew that His people could not live up to His commands. That’s why He provided them with the sacrificial system as a means of receiving forgiveness and atonement for sin. He had made provision for their hard hearts and sin-prone dispositions. And even when it came to the making of vows, God provided a gracious means by which they could keep their word even when their hearts weren’t in it.

The topic of vows was important to God because it involved the keeping of one’s commitments. He had provided Moses with clear instructions regarding the making and keeping of vows.

“When you make a vow to the Lord your God, be prompt in fulfilling whatever you promised him. For the Lord your God demands that you promptly fulfill all your vows, or you will be guilty of sin. However, it is not a sin to refrain from making a vow. But once you have voluntarily made a vow, be careful to fulfill your promise to the Lord your God.” – Deuteronomy 23:21-23 NLT

A vow was a voluntary oath, a verbal commitment or promise to do or not do something. In many cases, the one making the vow would invoke the name of God as a witness or guarantee. It would be something like the phrase we hear so often today: “I swear to God…” But God warned His people about swearing oaths of any kind, either to Him or to others. These verbal commitments were to be taken seriously and the name of God was to be treated with reverence at all times.

In the opening verses of Leviticus 27, God addresses the issue of vows made specially to Him. These would have involved promises to be kept should God fulfill a request. The book of Judges gives an example of just such a vow.

Jephthah made a vow to the Lord. He said, “If you give me victory over the Ammonites, I will give to the Lord whatever comes out of my house to meet me when I return in triumph. I will sacrifice it as a burnt offering.” – Judges 11:30-31 NLT

When God provided Jephthah with the victory he requested, the exuberant warrior returned home to find his young daughter coming out of the door of his house to greet him.

When Jephthah returned home to Mizpah, his daughter came out to meet him, playing on a tambourine and dancing for joy. She was his one and only child; he had no other sons or daughters. When he saw her, he tore his clothes in anguish. – Judges 11:34-35 NLT

Vows were not to be treated lightly or flippantly. It was a dangerous thing to attempt to bargain with God. But God, in His mercy and grace, provided His people with a way to fulfill their commitments when their hearts were no longer in it. In verses 1-7, God focuses His attention on those cases in which an individual vowed to dedicate someone to the Lord in return for divine intervention. The book of 1 Samuel contains a record of this type of vow. It involves a barren woman named Hannah. Unable to bear her husband a child, Hannah took her problem to the Lord.

Hannah was in deep anguish, crying bitterly as she prayed to the Lord. And she made this vow: “O Lord of Heaven’s Armies, if you will look upon my sorrow and answer my prayer and give me a son, then I will give him back to you. He will be yours for his entire lifetime…” – 1 Samuel 1:10-11 NLT

God graciously fulfilled her request and gave her a son, whom she named Samuel. And when the day came for her to fulfill her vow, Hannah did as she had promised to do. When Samuel had been weaned, she brought him to the Tabernacle and presented him to the priest, saying, “I asked the Lord to give me this boy, and he has granted my request. Now I am giving him to the Lord, and he will belong to the Lord his whole life” (1 Samuel 1:27 NLT).

But God had provided an option. Had Hannah had second thoughts about dedicating her only son to the Lord, she could have purchased his freedom. According to Leviticus 27, Hannah could have given the priest 5 shekels of silver and returned home with her child. But it should not be overlooked that this exchange rate was very high. The average income of a common laborer in biblical times was about one shekel per month. So, this payment would have required five months’ wages.

And God outlined the various valuations based on the age and gender of the person whose life had been vowed. Extrabiblical texts reveal that these amounts reflected the going rate for slaves in those days. These purchase prices were high in order to discourage the making of rash vows. In His sermon on the mount, Jesus addressed the topic of vows, stating, “You have also heard that our ancestors were told, ‘You must not break your vows; you must carry out the vows you make to the Lord.’ But I say, do not make any vows!” (Matthew 4:33-34 NLT).

He discouraged the making of vows altogether, encouraging His listeners to simply do what they promise to do.

“Just say a simple, ‘Yes, I will,’ or ‘No, I won’t.’ Anything beyond this is from the evil one.” – Matthew 5:37 NLT

Vows were dangerous. They could result in divine judgment. And even when God provided a gracious way of fulfilling a vow you had no intention of keeping, it came with a high price. God values truth. His word is truth. He does not lie and He expects His children to follow His example. But He also knows that they are incapable of living up to His holy standards. So, He graciously provides them with ways to fulfill their commitments even when they lack the heart to do so.

Yet For All That…

August 1, 2023August 1, 2023 / kdmiller55 / Leave a comment

⁴⁰“But if they confess their iniquity and the iniquity of their fathers in their treachery that they committed against me, and also in walking contrary to me, ⁴¹so that I walked contrary to them and brought them into the land of their enemies—if then their uncircumcised heart is humbled and they make amends for their iniquity, ⁴²then I will remember my covenant with Jacob, and I will remember my covenant with Isaac and my covenant with Abraham, and I will remember the land. ⁴³But the land shall be abandoned by them and enjoy its Sabbaths while it lies desolate without them, and they shall make amends for their iniquity, because they spurned my rules and their soul abhorred my statutes. ⁴⁴Yet for all that, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not spurn them, neither will I abhor them so as to destroy them utterly and break my covenant with them, for I am the Lord their God. ⁴⁵But I will for their sake remember the covenant with their forefathers, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the nations, that I might be their God: I am the Lord.”

⁴⁶These are the statutes and rules and laws that the Lord made between himself and the people of Israel through Moses on Mount Sinai. – Leviticus 26:40-46 ESV

The final judgment the people of Israel will face for breaking their covenant commitment with God will be their defeat by a foreign power and their expulsion from the land. It was during their captivity in Egypt that they had become a nation, and God had led them out of Egypt and was in the process of leading them to their promised land. Yet, at their temporary camp at the base of Mount Sinai, God was warning them about their need to remain faithful and keep the covenant He had made with them. If they failed to do so, they would end up the way they began – as captives in a foreign land. God would keep His promise to give them the land of Canaan as their inheritance, but they would be required to walk in His statutes and observe all His commandments (Leviticus 26:3). As long as they were faithful, Yahweh would continue to dwell among them and provide for and protect them.

Yet, God made it perfectly clear that their future would be filled with pain and suffering if they chose to disobey Him. He had set them apart as His own, but they were going to have to live up to that preferred status. Their behavior would need to come in line with the expectations of Yahweh. All the blessings and benefits that came with being God’s treasured possession came with conditions. There was a commitment and a cost to being God’s “kingdom of priests and a holy nation” (Exodus 19:6 ESV).

One of the greatest points of difference between Israel and all the other nations on earth was to be their behavior. God’s commandments provided His people with a blueprint for living as His set-apart people. The Decalogue and the Book of the Covenant contained all the rules and requirements that would regulate their lives and separate them from the rest of fallen humanity. The Israelites were no different than any other people group on the planet. They were just as sin-prone and wired to pursue self-reliance. Yet, God had set them apart to live in communion with Him. But to do so, they would need to live in compliance with His holy and righteous laws. If they did, they would reflect His nature and honor His name among the pagan nations of the world.

But as this chapter has shown, if they failed to keep His commands, their actions would be seen as an act of rebellion and a personal affront to the character of God. Rather than honoring God through their obedience, they would bring shame to His name by treating His laws with contempt. And God swore to bring judgment upon His covenant people if they persisted in violating their covenant commitment.

“…if you break my covenant by rejecting my decrees, treating my regulations with contempt, and refusing to obey my commands, I will punish you…” – Leviticus 26:15-16 NLT

But as harsh as God’s punishments would be, His grace would never fail, and His covenant commitment would remain firm. Despite their future rebellion, God would not abandon or forsake them. There was one last condition that would dictate the fate of God’s people. Verse 40 opens with two simple words: “But if….” They begin a conditional statement that outlines what God will do in response to an action on the part of His exiled people.

This section fast-forwards to the future when God’s people are living in adverse conditions in a foreign land because of their refusal to keep His commands. It is a time of great suffering and sorrow.

“You will die among the foreign nations and be devoured in the land of your enemies. Those of you who survive will waste away in your enemies’ lands because of their sins and the sins of their ancestors.” – Leviticus 26:38-39 NLT

Yet despite those desperate conditions, God provides His people with a glimmer of hope. If they will only confess their sins and humble themselves before Him, He will remember the covenant He made with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. It is not as if God will somehow forget what He promised to the patriarchs and need to be reminded. It is that He will hear their confession, see their humility, and renew His commitment to do all that He had promised to do. Their time in exile will function as a temporary delay in God’s covenant commitment. His blessings will be put on hold but He will remain firmly committed to keeping His covenant promises.

What is interesting to note is God’s promise to remember the land. During their time in exile, the land will go fallow and unattended. With no one to occupy them, many of the cities and villages will become virtual ghost towns. Fields will go unplowed and cultivated. Vineyards will return to their wild and untended states. But this imagery is in keeping with God’s commands concerning the Sabbath Year. When the people finally occupied the land of Canaan, they were commanded to set apart every seventh year as a time to allow the land to rest.

“For six years you shall sow your field, and for six years you shall prune your vineyard and gather in its fruits, but in the seventh year there shall be a Sabbath of solemn rest for the land, a Sabbath to the Lord. You shall not sow your field or prune your vineyard. You shall not reap what grows of itself in your harvest, or gather the grapes of your undressed vine. It shall be a year of solemn rest for the land.” – Leviticus 25:3-5 ESV

This law was just as binding as any other, but it seems that the Israelites failed to honor this command during their time in the land of Canaan. And God later warned the Israelites that their disobedience to all His commands would result in their expulsion from the land.

“Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts: Because you have not obeyed my words, behold, I will send for all the tribes of the north, declares the Lord, and for Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, my servant, and I will bring them against this land and its inhabitants, and against all these surrounding nations. I will devote them to destruction, and make them a horror, a hissing, and an everlasting desolation. Moreover, I will banish from them the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the grinding of the millstones and the light of the lamp. This whole land shall become a ruin and a waste, and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years.” – Jeremiah 25:8-11 ESV

This future judgment is in perfect alignment with the warning God issued in Leviticus 26:33. He had predicted their failure to obey and had warned of the ramifications. And in the book of 2 Chronicles, we have recorded the fulfillment of these prophecies.

He took into exile in Babylon those who had escaped from the sword, and they became servants to him and to his sons until the establishment of the kingdom of Persia, to fulfill the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed its Sabbaths. All the days that it lay desolate it kept Sabbath, to fulfill seventy years. – 2 Chronicles 36:20-21 ESV

For more than 490 years, the Israelites failed to keep God’s commands concerning the Sabbath Year. They refused to allow the land to rest, choosing instead to treat that year just like any other year, plowing, cultivating, and harvesting as they always did. Ignoring God’s command, they decided to do what they deemed best, greedily gathering as much produce as they could and, in doing so, revealing their unwillingness to view God as their ultimate source of provision.

So, God decrees that the land will rest for 70 years and “enjoy its Sabbaths while it lies desolate without them, and they shall make amends for their iniquity, because they spurned my rules and their soul abhorred my statutes” (Leviticus 26:43 ESV). The land will rest while they suffer unrest. God’s land will be restored while God’s people endure hardship.

But when they finally come to an end of themselves and bow in humility before God, confessing their sins and crying out for deliverance, God promises to restore them as well.

“But despite all this, I will not utterly reject or despise them while they are in exile in the land of their enemies. I will not cancel my covenant with them by wiping them out, for I am the Lord their God. For their sakes I will remember my ancient covenant with their ancestors, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt in the sight of all the nations, that I might be their God. I am the Lord.” – Leviticus 26:44-45 NLT

Seven decades of suffering will be followed by forgiveness, restoration, and renewal. Despite their serial unfaithfulness, God will redeem His people from captivity yet again and return them to the land of Canaan. It was a God-ordained famine that led Jacob and his family to seek refuge in Egypt, and it was there that God transformed them into a mighty nation, causing Pharaoh to enslave them in an attempt to control them. But God heard their cries and delivered them from their suffering. He eventually led them to the land of Canaan, just as He had promised Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. But as Leviticus 26 predicts, God’s people would eventually suffer a spiritual famine, failing to nourish themselves on the blessings of God and choosing instead to feast on the tempting but malnourished delights of the world. And their decision to reject the food of God as revealed in the law of God would result in the judgment of God. But their actions would never negate the promises of God.

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.” – Matthew 5:6 ESV

And Now, the Bad News

July 31, 2023August 1, 2023 / kdmiller55 / Leave a comment

¹⁴“But if you will not listen to me and will not do all these commandments, ¹⁵if you spurn my statutes, and if your soul abhors my rules, so that you will not do all my commandments, but break my covenant, ¹⁶then I will do this to you: I will visit you with panic, with wasting disease and fever that consume the eyes and make the heart ache. And you shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it. ¹⁷I will set my face against you, and you shall be struck down before your enemies. Those who hate you shall rule over you, and you shall flee when none pursues you. ¹⁸And if in spite of this you will not listen to me, then I will discipline you again sevenfold for your sins, ¹⁹and I will break the pride of your power, and I will make your heavens like iron and your earth like bronze. ²⁰And your strength shall be spent in vain, for your land shall not yield its increase, and the trees of the land shall not yield their fruit.

²¹“Then if you walk contrary to me and will not listen to me, I will continue striking you, sevenfold for your sins. ²²And I will let loose the wild beasts against you, which shall bereave you of your children and destroy your livestock and make you few in number, so that your roads shall be deserted.

²³“And if by this discipline you are not turned to me but walk contrary to me, ²⁴then I also will walk contrary to you, and I myself will strike you sevenfold for your sins. ²⁵And I will bring a sword upon you, that shall execute vengeance for the covenant. And if you gather within your cities, I will send pestilence among you, and you shall be delivered into the hand of the enemy. ²⁶When I break your supply of bread, ten women shall bake your bread in a single oven and shall dole out your bread again by weight, and you shall eat and not be satisfied.

²⁷“But if in spite of this you will not listen to me, but walk contrary to me, ²⁸then I will walk contrary to you in fury, and I myself will discipline you sevenfold for your sins. ²⁹You shall eat the flesh of your sons, and you shall eat the flesh of your daughters. ³⁰And I will destroy your high places and cut down your incense altars and cast your dead bodies upon the dead bodies of your idols, and my soul will abhor you. ³¹And I will lay your cities waste and will make your sanctuaries desolate, and I will not smell your pleasing aromas. ³²And I myself will devastate the land, so that your enemies who settle in it shall be appalled at it. ³³And I will scatter you among the nations, and I will unsheathe the sword after you, and your land shall be a desolation, and your cities shall be a waste.

³⁴“Then the land shall enjoy its Sabbaths as long as it lies desolate, while you are in your enemies’ land; then the land shall rest, and enjoy its Sabbaths. ³⁵As long as it lies desolate it shall have rest, the rest that it did not have on your Sabbaths when you were dwelling in it. ³⁶And as for those of you who are left, I will send faintness into their hearts in the lands of their enemies. The sound of a driven leaf shall put them to flight, and they shall flee as one flees from the sword, and they shall fall when none pursues. ³⁷They shall stumble over one another, as if to escape a sword, though none pursues. And you shall have no power to stand before your enemies. ³⁸And you shall perish among the nations, and the land of your enemies shall eat you up. ³⁹And those of you who are left shall rot away in your enemies’ lands because of their iniquity, and also because of the iniquities of their fathers they shall rot away like them.” – Leviticus 26:14-39 ESV

After having listed the manifold blessings that accompany obedience, God now addresses the less attractive topic of divine discipline for disobedience. In these verses, God provides a five-stage outline of how things will turn out for His people should they refuse to remain faithful to Him, and the list of potential judgments is grim and intended to deter them from considering disobedience as a course of action. God wanted them to understand the gravity of the situation. He had set them apart as His chosen people and made a binding covenant with them.

“Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.” – Exodus 19:5-6 ESV

This agreement between God and His people sometimes referred to as the Mosaic Covenant, was conditional in nature. In other words, it was binding and required the full compliance of both parties. Through their obedience to His covenant conditions, the Israelites would be guaranteed their status as God’s chosen people and assured of ongoing presence, power, and provision.

“If you walk in my statutes and observe my commandments and do them, then…I will make my dwelling among you, and my soul shall not abhor you. And I will walk among you and will be your God, and you shall be my people.” – Leviticus 26:3, 11-12 ESV

But the people needed to know that there was a potential downside to this covenant that they had so eagerly ratified (Exodus 19:8). Failure to keep all the conditions of the covenant came with serious consequences, and the list of judgments God describes in these verses goes from bad to worse. It will begin with divine attacks on their bodies in the form of “wasting diseases” and assaults by their enemies that will leave them defeated and demoralized. Other nations will plunder their crops and treat the Israelites as little more than slaves. The land that God had given the Israelites as their inheritance would no longer provide for their needs. Instead, it would fall into the hands of their enemies, leaving God’s people defeated and destitute.

Continued rebellion will result in drought and famine, “making the skies as unyielding as iron and the earth as hard as bronze” (Leviticus 26:19 NLT). Rain will be withheld and crops will cease to grow. The fruitfulness of the land of promise will become a distant and fading memory. And yet God forewarns His people that this judgment will not produce repentance and obedience. Despite all that they suffer, they will continue to spurn His calls to obey, forcing Yahweh to punish them “seven times over” (Leviticus 26:18 NLT) for their sins. God vows to break their proud spirit and bring them to their knees. Yet, God predicts that His people will prove to be stubborn and unwilling to give up their rebellious ways. That will usher in the next phase of their punishment.

“I will send wild animals that will rob you of your children and destroy your livestock. Your numbers will dwindle, and your roads will be deserted.” – Leviticus 26:22 NLT

The creation itself will turn against God’s people. Not only will they face the threat of enemy attacks, but wild animals will rise up against them. Their lawlessness will result in chaos. No one will be safe. The first judgments primarily affected the fruit of their fields, but this punishment will target the fruit of the womb: Their children.

To grasp the full effect of this judgment, one must understand that God has always called His people to “be fruitful and multiply.” It was the command given to Adam and Eve and passed down to Noah and his sons. And while the Israelites had been slaves in Egypt, God had miraculously multiplied their number. But now, God was warning them that because of disobedience, they could expect to see their number diminish. As King Solomon would later record, children were to be seen as a gift from God.

Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord,
the fruit of the womb a reward. – Psalm 127:3 ESV

But the Israelites needed to understand that their fruitfulness as a nation was directly tied to their faithfulness. At this point, it’s important to note what God said when He prepared to create man.

“Let us make human beings in our image, to be like us. They will reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, the livestock, all the wild animals on the earth, and the small animals that scurry along the ground.” – Genesis 1:26 NLT

And God gave the first man and women a mandate:

“Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth and govern it. Reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, and all the animals that scurry along the ground.” – Genesis 1:28 NLT

Now, in the case of His chosen people, God was warning that their fruitfulness and dominion over creation would come to an end should they choose to disobey His commands.

But God was far from done because He knew that His people would find it difficult to repent and return to Him. So, He outlines the next phase of His divine judgment. In response to their ongoing disobedience, God will get personally involved.

“I myself will be hostile toward you. I will personally strike you with calamity seven times over for your sins.” – Leviticus 26:24 NLT

God vows to deal with their rebellion on an intimate level, sending armies against them to mete out His divine judgment. If the people attempt to escape God’s wrath, they’ll only find themselves facing the devastation of a plague they can’t outrun. God’s judgment will be inescapable and unavoidable. God vows to inflict on the people of Israel what had been reserved for the nation of Egypt. This time, the plagues would be directed at God’s people, not their enemies. And God adds insult to injury by promising to destroy Israel’s food supply. No more protection. No more provision.

As the people of Israel heard Moses impart these dire warnings, they must have been dumbstruck and appalled at the severity of God’s words. But the worst was yet to come. In a foreshadowing of Israel’s less-than-stellar future, God predicts their stubbornness and obstinacy in the face of overwhelming judgment, and matter-of-factly states, “I will give full vent to my hostility” (Leviticus 26:28 NLT). And what He describes next is difficult to read and even harder to comprehend. Focusing His attention on the sin of idolatry, God promises to pour out His judgment with unfathomable and unrelenting fury. He describes Israelite cities filled with the destroyed altars of their false gods and the corpses of those who once worshiped them. Those left alive will have been taken captive by their enemies. But before their cities fell, the people of God would have resorted to cannibalism just to survive.

In the midst of their suffering and pain, the apostate people of Israel will attempt to call on God for rescue, but their efforts will prove too little, too late. He will not listen to their cries or accept their sacrifices for forgiveness and atonement. They will be forcibly removed from the land and returned to their former status as exiles and slaves. And God drops the final bombshell in His escalating prediction of future judgment.

God was serious. His call to obedience was not a suggestion but a command. His blessings were real and fully realizable, but they would require obedience. And if His people chose to break their covenant commitment, they needed to understand that the consequences were equally real and worse than anything they could ever imagine.

It Pays to Obey

July 30, 2023 / kdmiller55 / Leave a comment

¹“You shall not make idols for yourselves or erect an image or pillar, and you shall not set up a figured stone in your land to bow down to it, for I am the Lord your God. ²You shall keep my Sabbaths and reverence my sanctuary: I am the Lord.

³“If you walk in my statutes and observe my commandments and do them, ⁴then I will give you your rains in their season, and the land shall yield its increase, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit. ⁵Your threshing shall last to the time of the grape harvest, and the grape harvest shall last to the time for sowing. And you shall eat your bread to the full and dwell in your land securely. ⁶I will give peace in the land, and you shall lie down, and none shall make you afraid. And I will remove harmful beasts from the land, and the sword shall not go through your land. ⁷You shall chase your enemies, and they shall fall before you by the sword. ⁸Five of you shall chase a hundred, and a hundred of you shall chase ten thousand, and your enemies shall fall before you by the sword. ⁹I will turn to you and make you fruitful and multiply you and will confirm my covenant with you. ¹⁰You shall eat old store long kept, and you shall clear out the old to make way for the new. ¹¹I will make my dwelling among you, and my soul shall not abhor you. ¹²And I will walk among you and will be your God, and you shall be my people. ¹³I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, that you should not be their slaves. And I have broken the bars of your yoke and made you walk erect.” – Leviticus 26:1-13 ESV

After all that God has said and done since their arrival at Sinai, the Israelites are now given the conditions surrounding their covenant relationship with Yahweh. They have received His Decalogue and Book of the Covenant and agreed to keep all the laws and regulations contained within them. Moses delivered to them all of God’s instructions concerning the sacrificial system and the Levitical priesthood. Moses also provided them with God’s detailed plans for the construction of the Tabernacle which was to serve as Yahweh’s earthly dwelling place. God had provided them with instructions concerning all the holy days and feasts that were to celebrate each year throughout their generations. And all along the way, it seems that the people quietly agreed to do all that God had commanded them. They showed no signs of disagreement and displayed no hint of disobedience. But God knew that it wouldn’t be long before His people found His laws and regulations to be a burden rather than a blessing. When they arrived in the land of Canaan, they would see other nations that were not required to live up to God’s exacting standards. The Canaanites would be free to do as they pleased, unhampered by God’s restrictive legal code.

But all throughout the book of Leviticus, God had called His people to live in obedience to His will. He would not let them forget that He had saved them and had great plans for them, but their submission and obedience were non-negotiable requirements if they wanted to experience the full extent of His blessings.

“I am the Lord your God. Consecrate yourselves therefore, and be holy, for I am holy. You shall not defile yourselves with any swarming thing that crawls on the ground. For I am the Lord who brought you up out of the land of Egypt to be your God. You shall therefore be holy, for I am holy.” – Leviticus 11:44-45 ESV

“You shall follow my rules and keep my statutes and walk in them. I am the Lord your God. You shall therefore keep my statutes and my rules; if a person does them, he shall live by them: I am the Lord.” – Leviticus 18:4-5 ESV

“So keep my charge never to practice any of these abominable customs that were practiced before you, and never to make yourselves unclean by them: I am the Lord your God.” – Leviticus 18:30 ESV

“I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt. And you shall observe all my statutes and all my rules, and do them: I am the Lord.” – Leviticus 19:36-37 ESV

“They shall therefore keep my charge, lest they bear sin for it and die thereby when they profane it: I am the Lord who sanctifies them.” – Leviticus 22:9 ESV

“They shall not profane the holy things of the people of Israel, which they contribute to the Lord, and so cause them to bear iniquity and guilt, by eating their holy things: for I am the Lord who sanctifies them.” – Leviticus 22:15-16 ESV

“So you shall keep my commandments and do them: I am the Lord. And you shall not profane my holy name, that I may be sanctified among the people of Israel. I am the Lord who sanctifies you, who brought you out of the land of Egypt to be your God: I am the Lord.” – Leviticus 22:31-33 ESV

God had made His expectations perfectly clear. Obedience was an obligation, not an option. But their adherence to His commands was not to be viewed as a burden. He wanted them to understand that their faithful commitment to the covenant He had made with them was designed to be a blessing, and in chapter 26 He outlines all the amazing benefits they can expect to receive as a result of their obedience to His commands.

And God opens up the chapter with a reminder of the two most fundamental and foundational laws He had given them.

“You shall not make idols for yourselves or erect an image or pillar, and you shall not set up a figured stone in your land to bow down to it, for I am the Lord your God.” – Leviticus 26:1 ESV

According to the Decalogue, the Israelites were forbidden from worshiping any other deity but Yahweh. They were not to follow the polytheistic ways of the Canaanites, willfully worshiping a host of assorted deities of their own making. Yahweh was the only true God and they were to revere and honor Him alone. And because He had set apart the Sabbath as a day of rest and a sign of their reliance upon Him, they were to honor it at all times. This applied to the Tabernacle as well. God had ordered its construction so that it might serve as His earthly dwelling place and guarantee His presence among them. They were to treat His sanctuary as holy and give it the honor it deserved as the house of Yahweh.

What the Israelites needed to understand was the truly unique nature of their relationship with Yahweh. He had chosen them to be His treasured possession. He had singled them out among all the nations of the earth to become His chosen people. And His laws were designed to regulate their lives and distinguish them from every other people group on the planet. By obeying His commands they would demonstrate their distinctiveness and prove their status as “a kingdom of priests and a holy nation” (Exodus 19:6 ESV).

But their status as God’s treasured possession came with a condition: Obedience.

“…if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, [then] you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine.” – Exodus 19: 5 ESV

This is a conditional statement. To continue to enjoy their one-of-a-kind status as His chosen people, they would have to remain fully committed to and in compliance with His covenant commands. The covenant was conditional. But the good news was that obedience was well worth it. If they chose to keep their covenant commitments, God would pour out His blessings upon them – abundantly and in every area of their lives.

God was going to bless their land with rain and produce an abundance of crops – well beyond anything they could have imagined. They would experience prosperity in the form of fruitfulness in their fields and vineyards. God promised to extend their growing seasons so that they were able to harvest long after their neighbor’s fields had gone barrren. This was a promise of divine intervention and sovereign provision.

But not only did God promise them fruitful fields and full stomachs, but He also guaranteed their safety in the land.

“I will give you peace in the land, and you will be able to sleep with no cause for fear. I will rid the land of wild animals and keep your enemies out of your land. In fact, you will chase down your enemies and slaughter them with your swords.” – Leviticus 26:6-7 NLT

God would provide for them and protect them. He would feed them and defend them. And along with fruitful fields, they would experience the blessing of fruitful wombs.

“I will look favorably upon you, making you fertile and multiplying your people. And I will fulfill my covenant with you.” – Leviticus 26:9 NLT

God would see to it that the land was filled to overflowing with His chosen people. Their number would increase exponentially but never outstrip the ability of the land to provide because God would supernaturally and sovereignly supply all their needs.

But the greatest blessing they stood to gain from a life of obedience was the ongoing presence of Yahweh. He promised to remain with them and to live among them – as long as they remained faithful to Him.

“I will live among you, and I will not despise you. I will walk among you; I will be your God, and you will be my people.” – Leviticus 26:11 NLT

God guaranteed His ongoing provision, protection, and presence but it was conditioned upon their obedience. He would not tolerate unfaithfulness or turn a blind eye to idolatry. He would not and could not dwell among those who refused to honor Him and treated Him with disdain. His presence was the key to His provision and protection, and His ongoing presence was directly tied to their obedience. They stood to gain greatly if they would simply remain faithful to their covenant commitments. And lest they forget, God reminded them once again of all that He had done for them.

“I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt so you would no longer be their slaves. I broke the yoke of slavery from your neck so you can walk with your heads held high.” – Leviticus 26:13 NLT

Obedience was not to be viewed as a burden. It was not a “yoke” of oppression like they had experienced in Egypt. God was not their slave master, but their liberator. He had released them from bondage so that they might walk in freedom. No longer weighed down by the unjust laws placed upon them by Pharaoh, the Israelites were free to walk in the light of God’s glorious presence and in keeping with His life-transformative laws. And as long as they did, they would be blessed.

If You Won’t, God Will

July 29, 2023 / kdmiller55 / Leave a comment

⁴⁷“If a stranger or sojourner with you becomes rich, and your brother beside him becomes poor and sells himself to the stranger or sojourner with you or to a member of the stranger’s clan, ⁴⁸then after he is sold he may be redeemed. One of his brothers may redeem him, ⁴⁹or his uncle or his cousin may redeem him, or a close relative from his clan may redeem him. Or if he grows rich he may redeem himself. ⁵⁰He shall calculate with his buyer from the year when he sold himself to him until the year of jubilee, and the price of his sale shall vary with the number of years. The time he was with his owner shall be rated as the time of a hired worker. ⁵¹If there are still many years left, he shall pay proportionately for his redemption some of his sale price. ⁵²If there remain but a few years until the year of jubilee, he shall calculate and pay for his redemption in proportion to his years of service. ⁵³He shall treat him as a worker hired year by year. He shall not rule ruthlessly over him in your sight. ⁵⁴And if he is not redeemed by these means, then he and his children with him shall be released in the year of jubilee. ⁵⁵For it is to me that the people of Israel are servants. They are my servants whom I brought out of the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.” – Leviticus 25:47-55 ESV

God provides one final example of an Israelite who has hit upon hard times and has been forced to seek recourse by selling himself to a “stranger or sojourner” living among them. This is a reference to a non-Israelite or foreigner. What God describes here would have been considered a travesty because it revealed that this destitute Israelite had no other options. No one within the community of faith had come to his aid (verse 35). There wasn’t even a fellow Israelite willing to make this man his indentured servant. Desperate to alleviate his own debt and care for his family, the man was forced to sell himself to someone outside the family of God.

“This would be on the face of it an embarrassment and the opposite of what God had in mind for his people. Foreigners in God’s economy were not to rule over the covenant people. Foreigners were welcomed and well treated by the Hebrews, but they were to be under the social orbit of the native Israelites. Israelites were permitted to purchase slaves who were foreigners but never fellow covenant members.” – Kenneth A. Matthews, Leviticus: Holy People, Holy God

In the Book of the Covenant, God had given His commands concerning the treatment of strangers and sojourners living among the Israelites.

When a foreigner resides with you in your land, you must not oppress him. You must treat the foreigner living among you as native-born and love him as yourself, for you were foreigners in the land of Egypt. I am the LORD your God. – Leviticus 20:33-34 BSB

But while foreigners were welcome to live among the Israelites, these “strangers” were never considered part of the covenant community. Many of them may have been proselytes to the Hebrew religion or what became known as “God-fearers,” but they were never allowed to share in the inheritance of the land of Canaan. These “God-fearing” pagans were Gentiles who had chosen to attach themselves to Yahweh and His people but had not fully converted to Judaism. Many of them may have been Egyptians who chose to accompany the Israelites when they were delivered by God (Exodus 12:38).

These God-fearing foreigners were allowed to dwell among the Israelites, but they were never to possess any of the lands that had been given by God as an inheritance to His covenant people. But if a foreigner had somehow been able to accrue enough wealth to purchase an Israelite as his slave, he might well end up with rights to that man’s property. This would have been unacceptable to God. So, to protect His people and the land He had given them, God made special provisions for this kind of situation.

“If any of your fellow Israelites fall into poverty and are forced to sell themselves to such a foreigner or to a member of his family, they still retain the right to be bought back, even after they have been purchased. They may be bought back by a brother, an uncle, or a cousin. In fact, anyone from the extended family may buy them back.” – Leviticus 25:47-49 NLT

Even in this worst-case scenario, God gave His people a second chance to do the right thing. If one of their own became so desperate that they sold themselves to a foreigner, the rest of the Israelite community was expected to step in and rectify the situation. Not only was the land considered sacred, but it also belonged to Yahweh (Leviticus 25:23). The people had no right to sell it in order to profit from it. And they were to do everything in their power to see that the land remained occupied by God’s chosen people. Foreigners were welcome but they were not allowed to possess what rightfully belonged to God. And to ensure that the land of God and the people of God remained His possessions, God provided the Year of Jubilee as a final form of restitution and redemption.

“Set this year apart as holy, a time to proclaim freedom throughout the land for all who live there. It will be a jubilee year for you, when each of you may return to the land that belonged to your ancestors and return to your own clan.” – Leviticus 25:10 NLT

When the Year of Jubilee arrived, any lands that had been leased or mortgaged were returned to their original owners, and all slaves and bonded laborers were provided with their freedom. If the people did not redeem their own, God would do it.

But God did not want His people to treat the Year of Jubilee like some kind of divine lottery system. They were not to wait around until the 50th year, living as slaves to one another or outsiders. Each individual was expected to do whatever was necessary to settle his debts and seek freedom. Redemption was the focus. They were not to bide their time and settle for a life of slavery while waiting for the redemption of God. No, they were to do everything in their power to seek redemption.

“…they still retain the right to be bought back, even after they have been purchased. They may be bought back by a brother, an uncle, or a cousin. In fact, anyone from the extended family may buy them back. They may also redeem themselves if they have prospered.” – Leviticus 25:48-49 NLT

During the 49 years that led up to the Year of Jubilee, the Israelites were to be pursuing their own redemption and that of their neighbors. There were no shortcuts and workarounds. To settle their debts, they were required to calculate the value of their services based on the time remaining until the Year of Jubilee.

“If many years still remain until the jubilee, they will repay the proper proportion of what they received when they sold themselves. If only a few years remain until the Year of Jubilee, they will repay a small amount for their redemption.” – Leviticus 25:51-52 NLT

Restoration and redemption came with a price. They had to pay back what they owed. And anyone who had purchased the debt of an Israelite was to treat their “servant” with dignity and respect. The debtor, despite his dire circumstances, remained a child of God and deserved to be treated that way. No foreigner was allowed to mistreat an Israelite. No Israelite was permitted to denigrate a brother by taking advantage of his impoverished condition and abusing him like a slave. The people of God were never to forget their former condition as slaves in Egypt.

“Always remember that you were slaves in Egypt and that the Lord your God redeemed you from your slavery. That is why I have given you this command.” – Deuteronomy 24:18 NLT

And God reminded His people that each of them belonged to Him. The rich and the poor, the social elite, and the common peasant were all considered God’s possessions.

“For the people of Israel belong to me. They are my servants, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt. I am the Lord your God.” – Leviticus 25:55 NLT

The land belonged to God and so did the people, and that is why God expected the Israelites to treat both with equal honor and dignity. The land was not theirs to sell, profit from, abuse, or neglect. God had given them the land to provide for their needs and to serve as their permanent homeland. But God had also chosen the entire nation of Israel as His treasured possession (Deuteronomy 14:2). Each of them, from the greatest to the least, was considered holy in the eyes of God.

“…you are a holy people, who belong to the Lord your God. Of all the people on earth, the Lord your God has chosen you to be his own special treasure.” – Deuteronomy 7:6 NLT

There was to be no hierarchy or caste system within the people of God. The rich were not to lord it over the poor. The destitute were not to be treated as second-class citizens. And God provided His people with plenty of examples of how He expected this to unfold in daily life.

“If your neighbor is poor and gives you his cloak as security for a loan, do not keep the cloak overnight. Return the cloak to its owner by sunset so he can stay warm through the night and bless you, and the Lord your God will count you as righteous.” – Deuteronomy 24:12-13 NLT

“Never take advantage of poor and destitute laborers, whether they are fellow Israelites or foreigners living in your towns.” – Deuteronomy 24:14 NLT

“True justice must be given to foreigners living among you and to orphans, and you must never accept a widow’s garment as security for her debt.” – Deuteronomy 24:17 NLT

“When you are harvesting your crops and forget to bring in a bundle of grain from your field, don’t go back to get it. Leave it for the foreigners, orphans, and widows. Then the Lord your God will bless you in all you do.” – Deuteronomy 24:19 NLT

The land and the people belonged to God. They were His possessions and were to be treated as holy. And when His people inevitably failed to honor that which belonged to God, He would see to it that redemption was achieved. The Year of Jubilee was designed to remedy the sins of man and restore that which belonged to God to its rightful place as His possession.

Guidelines for Living in a Fallen World

July 28, 2023 / kdmiller55 / Leave a comment

³⁵“If your brother becomes poor and cannot maintain himself with you, you shall support him as though he were a stranger and a sojourner, and he shall live with you. ³⁶Take no interest from him or profit, but fear your God, that your brother may live beside you. ³⁷You shall not lend him your money at interest, nor give him your food for profit. ³⁸I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt to give you the land of Canaan, and to be your God.

³⁹“If your brother becomes poor beside you and sells himself to you, you shall not make him serve as a slave: ⁴⁰he shall be with you as a hired worker and as a sojourner. He shall serve with you until the year of the jubilee. ⁴¹Then he shall go out from you, he and his children with him, and go back to his own clan and return to the possession of his fathers. ⁴²For they are my servants, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt; they shall not be sold as slaves. ⁴³You shall not rule over him ruthlessly but shall fear your God. ⁴⁴As for your male and female slaves whom you may have: you may buy male and female slaves from among the nations that are around you. ⁴⁵You may also buy from among the strangers who sojourn with you and their clans that are with you, who have been born in your land, and they may be your property. ⁴⁶You may bequeath them to your sons after you to inherit as a possession forever. You may make slaves of them, but over your brothers the people of Israel you shall not rule, one over another ruthlessly.” – Leviticus 25:35-46 ESV

In this section, God deals with the issue of poverty among the people of Israel. It was an inevitable and unavoidable reality that some within the Israelite community would end up impoverished and in need of assistance. God has already addressed the future scenario of someone having to sell their land to pay off debts. Now, He deals with how the community was to respond to the less fortunate among them. The poor were to be treated fairly and with compassion.

“If one of your fellow Israelites falls into poverty and cannot support himself, support him as you would a foreigner or a temporary resident and allow him to live with you.” – Leviticus 25:35 NLT

The Hebrew word that is translated as “brother” in the ESV is (‘āḥ), which can refer to a brother of the same parents, a half-brother, a member of the same clan or tribe, or, more broadly, a fellow Israelite. Since God’s focus throughout this chapter has been on the national celebration of the Year of Jubilee, it would seem that He is dealing with the much broader level of the Israelite community and not just a familial relationship. The same terminology is used in the book of Deuteronomy where God prohibits the Israelites from charging of interest to a “brother.”

““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 the Lord your God may bless you in all that you undertake in the land that you are entering to take possession of it.” – Deuteronomy 23:19-20 ESV

It makes more sense to view this from the much broader perspective of the brotherhood that existed between all Israelites. As the chosen people of God, they were to care for their own. God expected His people to show mercy and extend grace to one another. The poor were never to be treated as second-class citizens or to be taken advantage of because of their unfortunate circumstances. Instead, the Israelites were to provide them with assistance which include food and shelter, as well as interest-free loans. God commanded that they treat these individuals like family.

“…show your fear of God by letting him live with you as your relative.” – Leviticus 25:36 NLT

God reminds His people that there was a time when they were poor and enslaved, but He had shown them mercy and graciously provided for all their needs.

“I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt to give you the land of Canaan and to be your God.” – Leviticus 25:38 NLT

When they were living as nothing more than slaves in Egypt, God treated them like family and provided them with freedom, food, and the promise of a land to call their own. He welcomed them with open arms and guaranteed them a part of His inheritance. Now, He was asking the Israelites to do the same with one another.

When the Israelites arrived in the land of Canaan, they would each receive their portion of the inheritance. But despite the graciousness and goodness of God, some would still end up in poverty. Human nature and sin would combine to create less-than-ideal outcomes that left some among the people of God destitute and desperate. Financial ruin would drive some to take drastic measures, such as selling themselves as servants to their wealthier Israelite neighbors. But God had already made provision for such circumstances in His diving of the Book of the Covenant.

“If you buy a Hebrew slave, he may serve for no more than six years. Set him free in the seventh year, and he will owe you nothing for his freedom. If he was single when he became your slave, he shall leave single. But if he was married before he became a slave, then his wife must be freed with him.” – Exodus 21:2-3 NLT

And God would later reiterate this command and provide further conditions concerning the release of these indentured servants.

“If a fellow Hebrew sells himself or herself to be your servant and serves you for six years, in the seventh year you must set that servant free.

“When you release a male servant, do not send him away empty-handed. Give him a generous farewell gift from your flock, your threshing floor, and your winepress. Share with him some of the bounty with which the Lord your God has blessed you. Remember that you were once slaves in the land of Egypt and the Lord your God redeemed you! That is why I am giving you this command.” – Deuteronomy 15:12-15 NLT

The Israelites were never to exploit the less fortunate among them. They were to recognize that the rich and the poor were all equal in the eyes of God. He showed no partiality but treated all His children fairly and justly, and expected them to do the same.

“For the Lord your God is the God of gods and Lord of lords. He is the great God, the mighty and awesome God, who shows no partiality and cannot be bribed. He ensures that orphans and widows receive justice. He shows love to the foreigners living among you and gives them food and clothing. So you, too, must show love to foreigners, for you yourselves were once foreigners in the land of Egypt.” – Deuteronomy 10:17-19 NLT

God wanted the Israelites to remember that He considered each of them His servants and, as such, they were not to enslave one another. Pharaoh had attempted to enslave God’s people and suffered deadly consequences for his actions, and the people of Israel were not to avoid repeating his mistake. An indentured servant was never to be treated as a slave, and they could not be sold like property. While an individual was paying off his debt in the employment of a fellow Israelite, he was to be treated fairly and justly. And when the sabbatical year came, he was to be set free and provided with a generous gift to assist him in rebuilding his life within the community.

But in verses 44-46, God deals with the highly uncomfortable and unpopular topic of slavery. And, in this case, He is not talking about Israelites paying off their debts as indentured servants; He is dealing with foreign slaves.

“However, you may purchase male and female slaves from among the nations around you. You may also purchase the children of temporary residents who live among you, including those who have been born in your land. You may treat them as your property, passing them on to your children as a permanent inheritance. You may treat them as slaves, but you must never treat your fellow Israelites this way.” – Leviticus 25:44-46 NLT

Passages like this one are difficult to reconcile and explain. They seem to fly in the face of our more modern and enlightened sensibilities. They appear to paint God in a negative light, portraying Him as supportive of the institution of slavery. But is God actually sanctioning the enslavement of human beings or is He attempting to regulate what had become a ubiquitous and inevitable part of the fallen world?

“Because men and women are sinners and live in a fallen world, such things as divorce, and we can add for our purposes, slavery, occur. It is sadly a part of the human experience, and the Bible sets out to first regulate treatment of slaves and the to set the grounds for slavery’s elimination. The Bible makes is clear that slaves were not mere chattel but had God-given protections and certain rights (e.g., Exodus 21:7-11). For example, a runaway slave from a foreign country was not to be returned to his master (Deuteronomy 23:15, 16). The motivation for gentler treatment of slaves was theological: The Israelites had once been slaves in Egypt whom God had delivered. The cruelty that they experienced in Egypt was not tolerated in Israel.” – Kenneth A. Matthew, Leviticus: Holy God, Holy People

Over the centuries, many have expressed disappointment and even disdain for the Bible’s lack of an outright ban on the institution of slavery. After all, in His declaration of the Decalogue, God clearly outlawed murder. But consider the fact that He did not prohibit war. In fact, God would later sanction and even participate in the battles between His people and the nations of the earth. God also declared the marriage union to be indissoluble and binding (Genesis 2:24; Matthew 9:5-6). Yet, despite God’s hatred for divorce (Malachi 2:16), He made concessions for it because He knew that, because of sin, it was inevitable (Deuteronomy 24:1-4). God, who never changes, did not alter His view on divorce but made provisions for its inevitable presence among His people. Because of their sinful natures, they would follow the ways of the world and choose to disobey His commands regarding everything from divorce, murder, sexual immorality, and slavery. And when these egregious activities showed up among His people, God provided guidelines for dealing with them. He did not eradicate all sin among His people but provided them with wise and righteous laws to regulate how they were to live in a fallen world filled with all kinds of ungodly temptations.

Fast forward to the New Testament and the apostle Paul provides a new perspective on the issue of slavery based on the death and resurrection of Jesus. With Jesus’ sacrificial death on the cross, He leveled the playing field, making salvation available to any and all, regardless of their ethnicity, gender, or social standing.

There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. – Galatians 3:28 ESV

Paul did not call for the elimination of all slavery. It was an accepted part of the social fabric of his day. But Paul was not an advocate of the institution of slavery. Instead, he was a proponent of the gospel of Jesus Christ, which was accessible to all people from every walk of life.

It is interesting to note that God had allowed His own people to live as slaves for centuries before He released them from their captivity. And even after their miraculous deliverance from the evils of slavery, the Israelites would find it tempting to enslave others. Their release did not naturally create a revulsion for the institution of slavery. Just as they were predisposed to lying, cheating, sexual immorality, and idolatry, they would be drawn to the allure of slavery as a form of power and control. God knew His people would follow the ways of the world, so He provided them with stringent guidelines that were intended to separate them from all the other nations.

The Right of Ownership

July 27, 2023 / kdmiller55 / Leave a comment

²³“The land shall not be sold in perpetuity, for the land is mine. For you are strangers and sojourners with me. ²⁴And in all the country you possess, you shall allow a redemption of the land.

²⁵“If your brother becomes poor and sells part of his property, then his nearest redeemer shall come and redeem what his brother has sold. ²⁶If a man has no one to redeem it and then himself becomes prosperous and finds sufficient means to redeem it, ²⁷let him calculate the years since he sold it and pay back the balance to the man to whom he sold it, and then return to his property. ²⁸But if he does not have sufficient means to recover it, then what he sold shall remain in the hand of the buyer until the year of jubilee. In the jubilee it shall be released, and he shall return to his property.

²⁹“If a man sells a dwelling house in a walled city, he may redeem it within a year of its sale. For a full year he shall have the right of redemption. ³⁰If it is not redeemed within a full year, then the house in the walled city shall belong in perpetuity to the buyer, throughout his generations; it shall not be released in the jubilee. ³¹But the houses of the villages that have no wall around them shall be classified with the fields of the land. They may be redeemed, and they shall be released in the jubilee. ³²As for the cities of the Levites, the Levites may redeem at any time the houses in the cities they possess. ³³And if one of the Levites exercises his right of redemption, then the house that was sold in a city they possess shall be released in the jubilee. For the houses in the cities of the Levites are their possession among the people of Israel. ³⁴But the fields of pastureland belonging to their cities may not be sold, for that is their possession forever.” – Leviticus 25:23-34 ESV

As God continues to expand His regulations concerning the Year of Jubilee, He addresses the issue of land ownership. Keep in mind that this information reached the ears of the Israelites long before they ever entered the land of Canaan or took actual possession of it. They were still encamped at the base of Mount Sinai and had a long journey ahead of them. Currently living in tents, they could only speculate about the full impact these regulations would have on their lives. For four centuries, the Israelites had been living on land that belonged to the Egyptians. While they had prospered during their time in Egypt and grown in number, they never owned any property. In fact, during much of their time in Egypt, they had been forced to serve as slaves.

Now, as they stood in their temporary tent city, they must have been excited and a bit confused as they listened to the words of God delivered to them by Moses. The thought of owning their own property would have been music to their ears. But God’s discussions about the Year of Jubilee when property rights reverted back to the original owner must have been difficult to comprehend. But God attempts to assuage all their confusion by informing them that “the land is mine” (Leviticus 25:23 ESV). He wanted them to know that their inheritance of the land of Canaan was going to be less about ownership than about stewardship. The whole concept of an inheritance conveys the idea that God was graciously giving His chosen people the right to live in and care for the land that was rightfully His to give. It was His possession. That meant it did not belong to the Canaanites either. They were little more than squatters, having claimed the land as their own without ever consulting the One to whom it belonged.

Yet God was going to remedy the situation by evicting the illegal tenants and replacing them with His chosen people. But when the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob arrived in the land and took up residence in its cities, villages, and towns, they were to understand that the land remained God’s possession.

“The land belongs to God! The people of God did not own the land – or anything else for that matter. They were given the use of the land by God’s goodness and mercy. And so on the basis of this, no land could be sold forever (ṣmṯṯ in25:23 means “beyond reclaim’). With the sale of property they had to grant its redemption. This means that sellers always had the right to buy the property back whenever they were able to do so.” – Allen P. Ross, Holiness to the Lord: A Guide to the Exposition of the Book of Leviticus

While God remained the rightful owner of all the land in Canaan, He was going to allow the Israelites to treat the land as their own. During the 49 years the preceded each of the Jubilee years, the Israelites were able to transfer the rights to their allotted land. But He reminded them that they were “strangers and sojourners” (Leviticus 25:23 ESV). In other words, each of them was to understand that they were literal guests of the One to whom the land belonged.

God knew that the people would end up using the land for their own benefit. Some would attempt to profit from the sale of the land given to them by God. Others would prove to be poor stewards of their God-given resources and end up in poverty, and forced to sell their land to pay off debt. So, God wanted them to understand that, in His eyes, the land never really changed ownership because it all belonged to Him. That’s why God told them, “in all the country you possess, you shall allow a redemption of the land” (Leviticus 25:24 ESV). The New Living Translation puts it this way: “With every purchase of land you must grant the seller the right to buy it back.”

God knew His people well. He understood that life was going to happen and that the Israelites would make poor decisions. Greed would prompt some to sell that which God had given them to steward. Consumerism and coveteousness would cause others to live beyond their means, resulting in debt and poverty. The psalmist reminds us that God gave the land to the people of Israel so that He might bless and enrich them.

Faithfulness springs up from the ground,
and righteousness looks down from the sky.
Yes, the Lord will give what is good,
and our land will yield its increase. – Psalm 85:11-12 ESV

Yet, the Israelites would end up treating the land as a commodity. Later in the book of Leviticus, God will assure His people that the land of Canaan will more than provide for all their needs.

“I will send you the seasonal rains. The land will then yield its crops, and the trees of the field will produce their fruit. Your threshing season will overlap with the grape harvest, and your grape harvest will overlap with the season of planting grain. You will eat your fill and live securely in your own land.” – Leviticus 26:4-5 NLT

The land wasn’t just a gift to be sold and bartered at will. It was God’s means of providing for the needs of His people. But God didn’t want His people to treat that gift with contempt by using it for dishonorable or purely selfish purposes. If a man found himself in a position where he was forced to liquidate his property to pay off debt, God provided a way for him to redeem what he had lost.

“If one of your fellow Israelites falls into poverty and is forced to sell some family land, then a close relative should buy it back for him. If there is no close relative to buy the land, but the person who sold it gets enough money to buy it back, he then has the right to redeem it from the one who bought it.” – Leviticus 25:25-27 NLT

If this plan failed, God provided the Year of Jubilee as a way of redeeming the land and restoring it back to the one who had lost it. The one interesting exemption to all of this involved a house that lay in a walled city. Because the house did not include farmable land, it could only be redeemed within the first year after its sale. After that, it was a permanent possession of the new owner. The real focus of this passage is on arable land that was suitable for farming and capable of producing crops. The farmland of Canaan was intended to meet the needs of the people. It was to be considered communal land, with the edges of the fields reserved for the poor and needy of the community (Leviticus 23:22). When an Israelite sold his land, he was potentially jeopardizing the well-being of the entire community. God had intended the land to provide for the needs of all, not just its designated landowner.

In the case of the tribe of Levi, they were given their own exemption concerning houses owned in walled cities. As part of their designation as God’s priestly caste, they received the possession of homes located within cities belonging to the other tribes. In other words, they were given no land as their inheritance.

“Remember that the Levitical priests—that is, the whole of the tribe of Levi—will receive no allotment of land among the other tribes in Israel.…They will have no land of their own among the Israelites.” – Deuteronomy 18:1, 2 NLT

In time, God would command the Israelites to set aside 48 cities within their allotted lands to serve as housing for the Levites.

“Command the people of Israel to give to the Levites from their property certain towns to live in, along with the surrounding pasturelands. These towns will be for the Levites to live in, and the surrounding lands will provide pasture for their cattle, flocks, and other livestock.” – Numbers 35:2-3 NLT

And God provided the Levites with an exemption for these homes within walled cities. Unlike all the rest of the Israelites, the Levites would be given the right to repurchase any home they had sold – at any time.

“The Levites always have the right to buy back a house they have sold within the towns allotted to them. And any property that is sold by the Levites—all houses within the Levitical towns—must be returned in the Year of Jubilee. After all, the houses in the towns reserved for the Levites are the only property they own in all Israel.” – Leviticus 25:32-33 NLT

God would care for the needs of His priests. He would ensure that they had a place to live and access to the farmland that surrounded these cities. God had given them no inheritance in the land, but He had provided for all their needs, even designating an area around each of the 48 cities to serve as pastureland for their flocks and farmland to raise crops.

“The pastureland assigned to the Levites around these towns will extend 1,500 feet from the town walls in every direction.” – Numbers 35:4 NLT

The land was to be God’s gift to His people – ALL of His people. It was to be viewed as a source of provision, not a means of profit. It was to be treated with dignity and honor because it actually belonged to God. The people of Israel were never to forget that they were guests in this land. They had been graciously invited to share in the bounty and blessings of God’s possession and were never to forget that the land belonged to God, not them.

The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it.
The world and all its people belong to him. – Psalm 24:1 NLT

The Year of Jubilee

July 26, 2023 / kdmiller55 / Leave a comment

⁸“You shall count seven weeks of years, seven times seven years, so that the time of the seven weeks of years shall give you forty-nine years. ⁹Then you shall sound the loud trumpet on the tenth day of the seventh month. On the Day of Atonement you shall sound the trumpet throughout all your land. ¹⁰And you shall consecrate the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you, when each of you shall return to his property and each of you shall return to his clan. ¹¹That fiftieth year shall be a jubilee for you; in it you shall neither sow nor reap what grows of itself nor gather the grapes from the undressed vines. ¹²For it is a jubilee. It shall be holy to you. You may eat the produce of the field.

¹³“In this year of jubilee each of you shall return to his property. ¹⁴And if you make a sale to your neighbor or buy from your neighbor, you shall not wrong one another. ¹⁵You shall pay your neighbor according to the number of years after the jubilee, and he shall sell to you according to the number of years for crops. ¹⁶If the years are many, you shall increase the price, and if the years are few, you shall reduce the price, for it is the number of the crops that he is selling to you. ¹⁷You shall not wrong one another, but you shall fear your God, for I am the Lord your God.

¹⁸“Therefore you shall do my statutes and keep my rules and perform them, and then you will dwell in the land securely. ¹⁹The land will yield its fruit, and you will eat your fill and dwell in it securely. ²⁰And if you say, ‘What shall we eat in the seventh year, if we may not sow or gather in our crop?’ ²¹I will command my blessing on you in the sixth year, so that it will produce a crop sufficient for three years. ²²When you sow in the eighth year, you will be eating some of the old crop; you shall eat the old until the ninth year, when its crop arrives.” – Leviticus 25:8-22 ESV

Beginning in verse 9 and ending in verse 55, God begins to unpack yet another national religious observance that He is adding to Israel’s calendar. But this regularly occurring event would only take place every 50 years. The Jubilee Year would occur after seven “weeks” of years which equates to 49 years. The 50th year was supposed to be another sabbatical year, but one that had a greater level of significance.

The Hebrew term for “Jubilee“ is (tᵊrûʿâ) and it can mean “joy, shouting, loud noise, rejoicing.” God’s instructions were that on the tenth day of the seventh month in the 50th year, the ram’s horn was to be blown to start a year of universal redemption. In other words, the Year of Jubilee was to begin on the Day of Atonement (Leviticus 23:26-32). This year was special because it was marked by rest but also by new beginnings that featured a year-long emphasis on release and renewal.

Like any other sabbatical year (every seventh year), the Year of Jubilee featured a divine prohibition against labor. For the entire year, the people of Israel were to rest from all their work in the fields and vineyards, allowing the land itself to rest and be restored.

“You shall not sow your field or prune your vineyard. You shall not reap what grows of itself in your harvest, or gather the grapes of your undressed vine. It shall be a year of solemn rest for the land.” – Leviticus 25:4-5 ESV

But God decreed that the 50th year would be a time of community-wide restoration that provided release from indebtedness and freedom from bondage. In a sense, it provided every Israelite citizen with a do-over, an opportunity to start anew in life. Old debts were forgiven. Land that had been lost because of bad decisions or financial setbacks was to be returned to its original owner. Prisoners and captives were to be released. Slaves were to be set free. All labor contracts were to be absolved.

“It provided a general overhaul of economic and social life to restore people and properties to their rightful conditions. It was meant to be a new beginning, a time when all who had failed to maintain their place in society were given a chance to start over and when all who had benefited from such failures released what they had gained.” – Allen P. Ross, Holiness to the Lord: A Guide to the Exposition of the Book of Leviticus

At first glance, this passage seems to carry socialist overtones that seem unfair and even unproductive. Why would God decree that land, rightfully purchased, be returned to its original owner? What reason could God have for releasing prisoners who were rightfully tried and justly condemned? It all seems so disruptive and counterproductive. But God states that it is to be a time to “proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants” (Leviticus 25:10 ESV).

It’s important to consider how much life would transpire in the space of 50 years. During those five decades, people’s fortunes would ebb and flow. Some would experience financial loss and be forced to sell their land in order to pay off debt. Those without property to liquidate would have no choice but to become the indentured servant of their creditor. Some would commit crimes that resulted in their imprisonment. During this 50-year period of time, a lot of life would occur – some good and some bad. So, God ordained a royal reboot to return things to their original condition. It was, in essence, a year-long festival of freedom.

The Year of Jubilee was not designed to look back or commemorate some past event in Israel’s history. If anything, it was a time to look forward and recognize that God was both just and the justifier of all men. In a large community like that of ancient Israel, there would be countless individuals who found themselves on the losing end of life. They would sin and suffer the consequences. Others would make bad decisions and have to endure the ramifications of those poor choices.

There is an old proverb that states, “But for the grace of God go I.” It carries the idea that no one is immune from making mistakes or committing sins that result in judgment. It conveys a sense of humility that acknowledges one’s own sinful nature but also an awareness of the role that God’s grace plays in the life of every man. None of us are above reproach or impervious to failure. On any given day, anyone could find themselves in a place of suffering, loss, or bondage. When we see another human being suffering, we are to refrain from judgment and, instead, we are to recognize the grace of God in our lives. The apostle Paul was fully aware that he was not above reproach or immune from committing iniquity. In fact, he described himself in rather unflattering terms.

For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me. – 1 Corinthians 15:9-10 ESV

Paul understood that his work ethic was not the reason for the radically altered status of his life. It had been the work of God and was based solely on the grace of God. And he would later encourage the believers in Rome to consider the amazing nature of God’s grace that transformed their lives by providing them freedom from sin and release from the debt they owed.

…for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. – Romans 3:23-26 ESV

That is the heart behind the Year of Jubilee. God was not instituting a socialist makeover of Israelite society; He was reminding His people that everything they had belonged to Him. The land was His. The produce in the fields was His. The flocks and herds they cared for belonged to Him. He had graciously shared these divine possessions with His people and now it was time to allow all within the community to enjoy the benefits and blessings of His goodness.

“The relationship of land and people under God is of fundamental importance for understanding the Old Testament and the Jewish people. . . . The Promised Land was a gift from God, not an inalienable right of anyone’s to sell or incorporate as they wished.” – Walter Higgins, Numbers

The people of Israel were supposed to live their lives with the Year of Jubilee in mind. When buying and selling land, they needed to consider the time until the Year of Jubilee when determining the sales price. The proximity of the Year of Jubilee would determine the price of the land because when the 50th year arrived, the land would automatically revert to the seller. Everything was to be negotiated with the Year of Jubilee in mind. And God makes it clear that in the Year of Jubilee, all land was to return to the original owner, which would ensure that the land remained within the tribe to which it was initially given by God. He had divinely ordained the division and distribution of the land and the Year of Jubilee was intended to restore property rights so that each tribe and clan retained their original apportionment.

There was to be no subterfuge or attempts to swindle one another. Everything was to be done fairly, justly, and above board.

“You shall not wrong one another, but you shall fear your God, for I am the Lord your God.” – Leviticus 25:17 ESV

God expected His people to treat one another with dignity and respect. The rich were not to take advantage of the poor. Someone who owned property was not to attempt to unjustly profit from its sale by charging an exorbitant price. If the Year of Jubilee was near, the value of the land was significantly lower and the price should reflect that reality.

God knew His people would struggle with this new statute. It would have sounded as unreasonable and unfair to them as it does to us. It raised all kinds of questions in their minds, such as how they were to survive if they were forced to return land that they had legally and legitimately bought. So, God assured His people that He would meet all their needs. No one would go hungry or homeless.

“The land will yield its fruit, and you will eat your fill and dwell in it securely.” – Leviticus 25:19 ESV

God would provide. That is the major theme conveyed by this new statute. By obeying God’s commands, the people would enjoy the providence and provision of God. Every sixth year, God would bless the people with twice as much harvest, ensuring that they had plenty of grain for the sabbatical year. And the same would be true for the 50th year. God would take care of His people. Even with the somewhat disruptive nature of the Year of Jubilee, the people would discover that God could and would take care of every one of His children. By following His commands, they would learn that He alone was their provider. The land was simply a tool He used to accomplish His will. The one who had to relinquish his land would find that his needs were fully met by God. The one who had been forced to sell his land would discover the joy of having his fortunes restored by a gracious and forgiving God. Everyone in Israel would discover the goodness and greatness of their God as they celebrated the Year of Jubilee – the year of restoration and renewal.

Devotionary

The Bible Made Accessible and Applicable

Leviticus