Leviticus
Chapter 25
I want us to divide this Chapter into three divisions:
1. Rest and Restrictions for their Property verses 1-7
2. Restoration and Regulations of their Possessions verses 8-46
3. Redemption and Requirements for their People verses 47-55
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Rest and Restrictions for their Property
Verses 1-7 will launch us into this Chapter. These verses deal with land use and the Divine expectation of mankind being good stewards of God's nature that surrounds us and that we are a part of. Creation is an amazing spectacle to behold! Genesis 2:4-15 Nehemiah 9:6 Job 26:7 Psalms 19:1 33:6-8 102:25 Acts 14:15 Ephesians 3:9 Colossians 1:16 Hebrews 1:2 11:3 Our Lord created this land for us to live in and on. Naturally, He expects us to respect it, care for it and to tend it well. Just as the seventh day was the Sabbath day now we discover that the seventh year is to be the Sabbatical year. In the Year of Sabbath the land was to have rest in itself. Primarily this showed two principle things. Number one it gave the land a chance to revive and improve itself in regard to nutrients and richness. As old timers would say, "It kept the land in heart." Many farmers continue to rotate their fields for the same benefit. Secondly, it was a lesson in respect to the next generations. No generation should be so selfish that they deplete resources for their own indulgencies. Genesis 8:21,22 God did not give the land to just a single generation but He intended it for all generations. So, we should try to keep it as we found it so that our children and their children will have a good land to enjoy and to live from. Although some environmentalist may go to extremes they do have a good point. God expects us to be kind and good to our animals that He has entrusted us with, it is just good humanity. He expects us to respect His nature in all ways, including our guardianship and stewardship of the planet itself. Excessive pollution and deletion or the depletion of our natural resources is a violation of the Sacred trust of our Divinely given dominion over this earth. Do some go to extremes in this matter? Of course they do. However, it is no different than various extremist in many areas of life. A common sense, balanced approach is always the wisest philosophy. God is the Creator and He is a compassionate Generator of all His life-forms. Any farmer, for example, who lives his or her life tending to animals will tell you how God-conscious they seem to be. Yet when it comes time for slaughter they are definitely not as soul-aware as us humans. They definitely have a drive for the preservation of their life, this is Divinely instilled within their minds, basically for survival. However, to think that a cow, for instance, has the same notion of life as humans is quite naive. I have a simple personal example that might help me explain what I mean. I once was in a slaughter house where some acquaintances worked packing meat. I am a passionate life-long animal lover myself. When I used to hunt it always grieved me to harvest an animal. I always respected and honored it yet I knew it was there for my family to have something to eat. So, when I stood in the packing house that day and watched a cow being slaughtered it honestly saddened my heart. I watched as they killed her, bled her, skinned her out and butchered her up. The thing that bothered me more was the next participant who was standing to the side in a cattle shoot at the little gate. This poor cow, I thought, was being traumatized as it was being forced to watch the display of horror for which it was next in line! I went over to the cow standing patiently to be slaughtered NEXT! If it had any awareness or comprehension of what was taking place it would have been like I would have been, looking for and making a way of escape!! Especially when it weighed more than enough to create a new door in the side of the wooden wall and get gone. However, as I studied my friends facial expressions and looked deep within her eyes as I rubbed her head, it became obvious that all she was interested in was another bite of the sweet feed that was in a bucket hanging just to the side of her head. As she enjoyed chomping her tasty treat I became very conscious of the fact that she was totally oblivious to what was happening right before her eyes and that the very same thing was about to happen to her! The last sign of blood was washed from the floor as the last of the quartered carcass was laid on the cutters table and the butcher was ready for his next "victim." I really studied the cow at this time. She calmly stepped to the center of the room as if she was going to the welcome cover of a big shade tree on a hot summer afternoon and the stun gun was placed to her forehead and she dropped to the floor. They aren't referred to as dumb brutes for nothing. The slaughter house I was in certainly operate humanly. Yes, it is true that our animal friends are not conscious of life as we are. They do not think or feel as humans for they are not human. However, we have a responsibility to them and to our mutual Creator to treat them with respect and never be guilty of cruelty or brutality.
We must remember that strong stress was placed upon the Sabbath which was the most ancient of Divine institutions. The main function of the Sabbath was keeping the people's attention upon God, their worship of Him and their obedience to Him. Every seventh day they were to observe personal rest which allowed them to reflect upon God's creation from which He rested on the seventh day. Genesis 2:1-3 Exodus 20:8 34:21 Psalms 46:10 Isaiah 58:13,14 It was a weekly reminder of God's creative power and eternal authority of which we must be respectful. In conjunction with this there is also the awareness of His tender care for us in that He desires us to be rested, refreshed and renewed in order to better pace ourselves in our life long service of Him. The Divine design was, doubtless, to get the human creature to focus upon The Holy Creator. Rest deals with cessation. Matthew 11:29 Our souls can be refreshed! This does not imply a stoppage of activity but a harmonious working of both our faculties and affections because it is in God, and in God alone, that we can find true satisfaction and growth within our whole person. It is the basic shifting to a lower gear in order to reflect, refresh and renew ourselves in our God. It involves a redirecting of our energy from our labor to our Lord and a renewing of our strength by recognizing past achievements were by God and the future is dependent upon God. Now, God continues His efforts in the addition of the Sabbatical Year. It began in September, the seventh month of their ecclesiastical year, immediately following harvest. We get a glimpse of nature's life cycle with the close of the in-gathering and the immediate seed sowing-time. However, coming in view now is a break from the natural process. Here is a spiritual obedience to the leadership of Jehovah which becomes an act of faith and trust in Him. The Sabbath Day pointed to God's Creation of all that is and His resulting rest. Now, the Sabbatical Year is progressing to the area of trusting the knowledge of God to provide what is best for us even if it appears to be contrary to typical, normal and natural thought.
At the time of sowing, which led to the eventual harvest, God says do NOT sow seed in the land but allow it to rest every seventh year just as you do every seventh day. Seven is God's number of completeness. Colossians 2:10 4:12 The God who had the power to save us certainly has the power sanctify us. He delivered us from this world and He most certainly can direct us through this world. If we accepted His deliverance then we should accept His direction as well! It is plain here that His ways are quite different from ours. Isaiah 55:8-11 The Divine command was that they absolutely sow no seed at the time for planting. Further instructions were that in the spring they were not to dress their vineyards either. An undressed vine was called a nazir, the same Hebrew word as for a Nasserite, or more properly, a Naririte, whose hair remained uncut or undressed. Obviously, this gave them no expectation of neither harvest nor vintage. It provided a transition of trust! This transition is essential if we are to solely depend upon God. One who had taken the Nazirite vow had separated themselves from certain things and consecrated themselves unto God. Genesis 49:26 Numbers 6:2 - 8 Deuteronomy 33:16 As a serious student of Scriptural Spirituality we must separate ourselves from this Godless world and dedicate ourselves unto God's work. Worldliness is tremendously unfavorable to sanctification! It is easy for the flesh to trust in the natural. It is antagonistic for and to the flesh to trust in God. At the same time, it is joyous to the Holy Spirit to trust in God and yet extremely grievous to The Spirit to experience His host trusting in the flesh or leaning toward this present world and it's godless system. Galatians 5:16 -25 Ephesians 4:30 I Thessalonians 5:19 A key reference verse here would be Romans 8:14 Following the lead of our Lord we take our own intellect out of the proposition of trusting Him. In the Sabbatical Year all implements of farming were left in the barn and the land was allowed to grow of itself freely. The volunteer produce was only eaten hand to mouth by the owners. All reserves were not to be made preserves but were to be left for the poor, the servants, the strangers and the livestock. Therefore, they had no work to do in it or about it and, as a result, could claim nor expect no personal benefit from it. Here is a clear prophetic picture of our trust in the grace and goodness of our God. He will supply and provide. He knows what is best for every one and every thing in His care, if we will trust and obey. Christ is our Sabbath. He is our Sabbatical Year and He is our Jubilee!! He labored six hours on the Cross. He arose the morning of the first day, Sunday, to give us eternal rest in the redemption He provided for us! He ever lives to be Lord of His complete Kingdom thusly, He leads His Sheep. We follow His leadership and Lordship! He is the Lord of the harvest! Seven is God's number of completeness. 7 sevens were numbered equaling 49. Christ did not destroy the Law but He fulfilled it! Matthew 5:17 Interestingly, the next year, following 7 sabbatical years, or 49 years, was JUBILEE! On Sunday morning, the day following the seventh day, CHRIST AROSE!! This is, also, what Pentecost, 50, is all about. Pentecost was 50 days after Passover. Jesus arose to save us and now He ever lives to empower us for service! Christ is our Passover! I Corinthians 5:7 He is our Jubilee! Numbers 36:4 In I Corinthians 16:2 we discover that the Church in the New Testament was gathering for worship on Sunday, the first day of the week, our Lord's Day! Sunday, the first day of the week, is the great and high day of celebration in our Lord's resurrection from death and of our eternal life in Him! On the day after the seven sevens, it was Jubilee! Slaves were free, debts were cancelled and property was restored! It was and is all about King Jesus! He is our Justifier, our Joy and our Jubilee!! Matthew 16:9 John 20:19 Acts 20:7 Revelation 1:10,11 We do not labor under the law; we live for the Lord!! We are the redeemed people of God on this earth who God has delivered from our sins and He constantly delivers us from ourselves! May He forever be the focus of our faith! Let us never reverence the old law but always reverence our Lord!
God is the Landlord and we are His tenants. Exodus 19:5 Psalms 24:1 50:10 Romans 14:8 We are being taught here by the Holy Spirit that God Almighty is eternal and He is ultimate authority. He has laid out the stipulations, containing both limitations and provisions, of His covenant within which He has conveyed and granted to us many exceeding great and precious promises and assurances. Our God merely wants us to be assured of this one most important fact. Dependency upon our Deliverer is the very essence of deliverance. We are not proprietors of God's glory, we are dependent upon God's grace! In this way God was able to draw them away from the hustle and bustle of stressful existence to the glory and grace of spiritual existence. At the same time they were learning to trust totally upon God. They were also learning to be giving and caring of others. The servants, strangers and even animals were benefiting from their trust and generosity. The earth was bringing from and of itself God's great store of gifts as a result of their willingness not to store up everything for themselves. Jesus taught that we are not to live by bread alone but by every word from God! Matthew 4:4 That was His rebuke of the god of this world. Every seven years God taught His people how it would have been like in the garden of Eden freely eating of the trees. Matthew 11:27-30 There will come a grand future Eden out there when we enter into the literal and eternal rest of Paradise. We shall all share the secure supply of our Savior forever! This certainly was in the mind of the early Church of Acts 2:44. Ephesians 1:3 Yes, we all, as God's people, share the Spiritual supply of our Savior every day, every year and throughout forever! Thank God on that Sunday morning long ago, the eternal day dawned!! The day of grace, goodness and glory that will last forever in and through our Lord Jesus Christ!! He supplies and provides all that we will ever need.
Restorations and Regulations of their Possessions
Verses 8-46 Please read carefully this section of verses. This, as in all topics of Scripture, has been debated since the beginning as to exactly WHEN the actual year of Jubilee was. Was it the 49th year itself or the following year which would have been the 50th? Your answer depends on how technically or strictly you wish to be in interpretation. Technical or strict? Truthful or Spiritual? I certainly choose the latter, don't you? The trumpet was blown after the 49th year at the beginning of the fiftieth. The truth is quite simple not complex. Isaiah 35:8 Atonement was ending and celebration was beginning. Atonement involved suffering for sin. Death was required for life. Substitutionary Redemption is in view here. This was a prophetic sign of Christ bringing the fallen creature back to at one-ment with the Holy Creator! He is our Passover and yes He was active on Pentecost (50) enduing His disciples with power from on high! Upon settling the issue of their sin the people, all throughout the land, heard the sounds of the Jubilee Trumpet. Each trumpet would have it's own particular sound. I Corinthians 14:8 The Jubilee was announced to all throughout the country so none was with excuse of being ignorant. Basically, we see here that their litigation was settled so then their liberty could be secured! Seven sevens were numbered. Seven Sabbaths = 7X7 or the confirmation of completeness which was to be celebrated every fifty years. Two primary things pop into view here for me. The Lord owns everything! Psalms 24:1 Yes, people could sell and even lose their land BUT, every fifty years it was returned to the original family that God had allotted it to. Note verse 13. This certainly kept public focus on God!! Now let's look at verse 14. God wanted the people to be respectful and good to one another! God does not look favorably, at all, on oppression. We are not to wrong or maltreat each other. Jesus was indeed "fulfilling the law" when He told us to love one another!! Divine directives are always intended to remind us that God is truly "The Lord our God!" He includes mandated regulations with His merciful restorations! He does so with our best interests at His heart.