Gold for the heart - Leviticus 25-27

Leviticus 25

1 And LORD spoke to Moses in mount Sinai saying, 2 Speak to the children of Israel and say to them, When you come into the land that I give you, then the land is to rest a sabbath to the LORD. 3 Six years you are to sow your field, and six years you will prune your vineyard and gather in its fruit; 4 But the seventh year will be a sabbath of rest to the land, a sabbath for the LORD: you are not to sow your field or prune your vineyard. 5 You are not to reap what grows by itself from your harvest or gather the grapes from your undressed vine: for it is a year of rest to the land. 6 And the sabbath of the land will be food for you; for you, for your servant, for your maid, for your hired servant, for your foreigner that stays with you, 7 for your cattle, and for the animals that are in your land, all its increase will be for food.

God gives the land rest.
God’s laws, statutes, and ordinances are the best way that things can be done in the light of all the facts and in the light of our eternal future.

Matthew 11:28-30 Come to me, all you that labor and are heavily loaded down, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and you will find rest to your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

8 And you are to count seven sabbaths of years to you, seven times seven years; the days of seven sabbaths of years will be 49 years. 9 Then will you cause the trumpet of the jubilee to sound on the tenth day of the seventh month, in the day of atonement you are to sound the trumpet throughout all your land.

God returns each person to his or her original inheritance

10 And you are to set apart the fiftieth year and proclaim liberty throughout all the land to all its inhabitants: it will be a jubilee to you; and you will return every man to his possession, and you will return every man to his family. 11 That fiftieth year will be a jubilee to you: you will not sow or reap what grows by itself in it, or gather the grapes from your undressed vine. 12 For it is the jubilee; it will be holy to you: you will eat its increase out of the field. 13 In the year of this jubilee you will return every man to his possession.

When God gave Israel the promised land, He gave everyone their own large amount of property.
No corporate moguls could swallow up all the property.
It was returned to the family God appointed to it.
It is their inheritance forever.

Ephesians 1:11 In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who works all things after the counsel of his own will:

Revelation 21:7 He that overcomes will inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he will be my son.

14 If you sell some of it to your neighbor, or buy some from your neighbor's hand, you are not to oppress one another: 15 You are to buy from your neighbor according to the number of years after the jubilee, and he will sell to you according to the number of years of the fruits: 16 According to the multitude of years you will increase its price, and according to the fewness of years you will diminish its price: for he sells to you according to the number of the years of the fruits. 17 You will not oppress one another; but you will fear your God: for I am the LORD your God.

Those who rule with the Lord (Revelation 3:21) need to know His policies.
He is the Lord. He made and controls all things.
He deserves our reverence, respect and obedience.
Oppression in this passage is overcharging for goods and services.
Overcharging does not produce financial security because God gives each man to reap what they each sow (Galatians 6:7).
Because of this, overcharging causes the one overcharging to be overcharged—producing inflation.

18 For this reason you will do my statutes, and keep my judgments, and do them; and you will live in the land in safety. 19 And the land will yield her fruit, and you will eat your fill, and live in it in safety. 20 And if you will say, What will we eat the seventh year? Behold, we will not sow, or gather in our increase: 21 Then I will command my blessing on you in the sixth year, and it will bring forth fruit for three years. 22 And you will sow the eighth year, and eat yet of old fruit until the ninth year; you will eat from the old until her fruits come in.

Obeying God keeps us safe. He provides what is needed for obedience.

The land is His forever

23 The land is not to be sold forever: for the land is mine; for you are strangers and foreigners with me. 24 And in all the land of your possession you will grant a redemption for the land. 25 If your brother becomes so poor that he has sold away some of his possession, and if any of his relatives come to redeem it, then he will redeem what his brother sold. 26 And if the man has no one to redeem it, and himself is able to redeem it; 27 Then let him count the years from its sale, and restore the overage to the man to whom he sold it so that he may return to his possession. 28 But if he is not able to restore it to him, then what is sold will remain in the hand of him that bought it until the year of jubilee: and in the jubilee it will go out, and he will return to his possession.

God provided a way that they could buy back their land.
God purchased us back to Himself from sin and evil.
He set us free by paying the price.

Psalm 24:1-2 The earth is the LORD's, and the fulness of it; the world, and those that dwell in it. 2 For he has founded it on the seas, and established it on the floods.

1Peter 1:18 you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver and gold, from your empty way of life received by tradition from your fathers; 19 But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot

29 And if a man sells a house in a walled city, then he may redeem it within a whole year after it is sold; within a full year may he redeem it. 30 And if it is not redeemed within the space of a full year, then the house that is in the walled city will be established forever to him that bought it throughout his generations: it will not go out in the jubilee. 31 But the houses of the villages that have no wall around them will be counted as the fields of the country: they may be redeemed, and they will go out in the jubilee.

Redeeming means to buy back.
We were sold under sin by Adam at the fall.

Galatians 4:4-5 But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, 5 To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.

Isaiah 44:24 The Lord your Redeemer says this, and he that formed you from the womb, I am the LORD that makes all things; that stretches out the heavens alone; that spreads abroad the earth by myself.

32 However, the Levites may redeem the cities of the Levites and the houses of the cities of their possession at any time. 33 And if a man purchases from the Levites, then the house that was sold, and the city of his possession, will go out in the year of jubilee: for the houses of the cities of the Levites are their possession among the children of Israel. 34 But the field of the suburbs of their cities may not be sold; for it is their perpetual possession. 35 And if your brother becomes poor, and his hand fails with you; then you will relieve/strengthen him: yes, though he is a foreigner, or a visitor so that he may live with you. 36 Charge him no interest, or increase: but revere your God; that your brother may live with you. 37 You will not give him your money charging interest, or lend him your food for increase.

God explained how to help a brother—give or loan to him what is needed and don’t charge interest.
He taught us to reverence Him by listening and obeying Him.

38 I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt to give you the land of Canaan, andto be your God.39 And if your brother that dwells by you becomes poor and is sold to you, you are not to force him to serve as a slave: 40 But he is to be like an employee and as a visitor with you, and will serve you until the year of jubilee: 41 then he will depart from you, both he and his children with him, and will return to his own family; and he will return to the possession of his fathers. 42 For they are my servants that I brought out of the land of Egypt: they are not to be sold as slaves. 43 You will not rule over him with rigor; but will revere your God.

Socialism and welfare bypasses God’s design to humble man’s heart.
The eternal purpose of God is not fulfilled by redistribution of wealth.
Today, people who fall on hard times often end up homeless and on the streets.
Under God’s plan, these people would be treated very well.
They would enjoy the abundance of God’s people and they would have a day to rest each week.
They would come to know the great and wonderful God.
This mandate from God was to the eternal good of the foreigners.
They heard the saving truth of the one true God and could become Israelites as well as eternal children of God.

2Thessalonians 3:10 For even when we were with you, this we commanded you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat.

44 As for your male and female slaves that you will have, they are to be from the heathen that are around you; you may buy male and female slaves from them.

The ‘heathen’ are nations that turn their backs on God, their Maker.
When people fall on hard times, they are being tested or they are not walking uprightly before God, that is, walking by faith.
To provide for the physical need while ignoring the spiritual requirements robs of divine blessing in this life and in eternity.

Psalm 84:11 For the LORD God is a sun and shield: the LORD will give grace and glory: no good thing will he withhold from those that walk uprightly.

45 Moreover of the children of the foreigners that stay among you, from them you may buy, and from their families that are with you, who bear young in your land: they will be your possession. 46 And you will take them as an inheritance for your children after you, to inherit them for a possession; they will be your slaves forever: but over your brothers the children of Israel, you are not to rule over one another with severity. 47 And if a foreigner living among you gets rich, and your brother that dwells by him grows poor and sells himself to the stranger or foreigner by you, or to the descendants of the foreigners family: 48 After he is sold he may be redeemed again; one of his brothers may redeem him: 49 Either his uncle, or his uncle's son, may redeem him, or anyone that is near relative to him of his family may redeem him; or if he is able, he may redeem himself. 50 And he will calculate with him that bought him from the year that he was sold to him to the year of jubilee: the price of his sale will be according to the number of years, it will be according to the time of a hired servant with him. 51 If many years remain, he will give the price of his redemption according to them out of the money that he was bought for. 52 And if just a few years remain to the year of jubilee, then he will count with him, and according to his years he will give him the price of his redemption. 53 He will be with him as a yearly hired servant: and the other will not rule with severity over him in your sight. 54 And if he is not redeemed in these years, then he will go out in the year of jubilee, both he and his children with him. 55 For the children of Israel are servants to me; they are my servants whom I brought out of the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God.

God’s ways bring His blessings for all.
In this evil world full of poverty and affliction, these are wonderful rules that God gave man to live by.
If they were followed, life would be good for everyone.
Anything that leaves out God is from the devil. Socialism and communism are godless copycat false fronts to enslave people to the devil. Their failure is obvious to all. They can only function on lies, greed, envy, class warfare, hatred and murder.

Psalm 144:15...yes, happy is the people, who’s God is the LORD.

Leviticus 26

The Lord our God Blesses Mightily

1 Do not make yourselves idols or set up carved images, sacred pillars, or shaped stones to be bowed down to in your land. I, the LORD, am your God. 2 You are to keep my Sabbaths, and reverence my sanctuary: I am the LORD. 3 If you walk in my statutes, and keep my commandments, and do them; 4 Then I will give you rain in due season, the land will yield her increase, and the trees of the field will yield their fruit. 5 And your threshing will last until the vintage, and the vintage will last until sowing time: and you will eat your food until you are full, and dwell in your land safely.

The word ‘idol’ is made from the word that means ‘nothing.’

Psalm 96:5 For all the gods of the nations are idols: but the LORD made the heavens.

Jeremiah 10:10 the LORD is the true God, he is the living God, and an everlasting king: at his wrath the earth will tremble, the nations will not be able to abide his indignation.

6 And I will give peace in the land. You will lie down, and none will make you afraid: and I will rid evil beasts out of the land, and the sword will not go through your land. 7 And you will chase your enemies, and they will fall before you by the sword. 8 Five of you will chase a hundred, and a hundred of you will put ten thousand to flight: your enemies will fall before you by the sword. 9 For I will respect you, make you fruitful, multiply you, and establish my covenant with you. 10 You will eat very old provisions and clear away the old because of the new. 11 I will set my tabernacle among you: and my soul will not detest you. 12 And I will walk among you and will be your God, and you will be my people. 13 I am the LORD your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, that you not be their slaves; and I have broken the bands off your yoke and made you walk upright.

God blesses obedience with abundance, peace, courage, and safety.
The nations are burdened under the heavy yoke of idolatry and evil.
They walk upright when they acknowledge and serve the one who created and sustains them.

14 But if you will not listen to me and will not do all these commandments; 15 If you despise my statutes, if your soul abhors my judgments so that you will not do all my commandments, but you break my covenant: 16 I, in turn, will do this to you; I will appoint over you terror, wasting, the burning fever that will consume the eyes and cause sorrow of heart. You will sow your seed in vain for your enemies will eat it. 17 And I will set my face against you, and you will be killed before your enemies: those that hate you will reign over you; and you will flee when no one pursues you. 18 And if you still do not listen to me after all this then I will punish you seven times more for your sins.

God sends terror, consumption, wasting, burning disease, scarcity, sorrow of heart, and crime on the disobedient.
He disciplines us because He loves us.

Proverbs 3:11-12 My son, do not despise the chastening of the LORD; nor be weary of his correction: 12 For whom the LORD loves he corrects; even as a father the son in whom he delights.

19 And I will break the pride of your power; I will make your heaven like iron, and your earth like brass: 20 Your strength will be spent for nothing: your land will not yield her increase, nor will the trees of the land yield their fruits. 21 And if you continue to walk hostile to me and will not listen to me, I will bring seven times more plagues on you according to your sins. 22 I will send wild beasts among you that will rob you of your children, destroy your livestock, and make you few in number; your highways will be desolate. 23 And if you will not be reformed by me by these things, but still walk hostile to me; 24 Then I will walk hostile to you and strike you seven times more for your offences.

God is not unfair in this.
We do it to ourselves by choosing disobedience.
God is trying to reform us, to set our eyes on Him who is life.

25 And I will bring a sword upon you, that will execute the vengeance of my covenant: and when you are gathered together within your cities, I will send the plague among you; and you will be delivered into the hand of the enemy. 26 When I have broken the supply of your food, ten women will bake your food in one oven and they will deliver your food to you by weight: you will eat and not be satisfied. 27 And after all this, if you still will not listen to me, but walk hostile to me; 28 Then I will walk hostile to you in fury; and I, even I, will chastise you seven times for your offences. 29 You will eat the flesh of your sons and you will eat the flesh of your daughters.

These children’s souls go to be with God (2 Samuel 12:23).
If God does nothing, and lets these parents and these children live, the parents will lead the children straight into hell.

30 And I will destroy your high places, cut down your images, cast your carcasses on the carcasses of your idols, and my soul will detest you. 31 I will make your cities waste, desolate your sanctuaries, and I will not smell the fragrance of your sweet rest. 32 And I will desolate the land: your enemies that dwell in it will be astonished at it. 33 And I will scatter you among the heathen, and will draw out a sword after you: your land will be desolate, and your cities wasted. 34 Then the land will enjoy her sabbaths, as long as it lies desolate while you are in your enemies' land; then the land will rest and enjoy her sabbaths. 35 As long as it lies desolate it will rest; because it did not rest in your sabbaths, when you dwelt upon it.

The ‘heathen’ are nations that have turned their backs on God, their Maker.

36 And I will send faintness into the hearts of those of you that are left alive in the lands of their enemies; the sound of a shaking leaf will chase them; they will flee, like fleeing from a sword, and they will fall when no one chases them. 37 They will fall one on another, like before a sword, when no one pursues: you will have no power to stand before your enemies. 38 You will perish among the heathen and the land of your enemies will eat you up. 39 And those of you that are left will waste away in their perversity in your enemies' lands; they will putrefy in the evil of their fathers.

Notice that after all this they still do not turn back to God and receive His free gift of cleansing and eternal life.

God remembers if they turn back to Him and confess

40 If they will confess their perversity and the wrong of their fathers, their treachery that they covered up against me, and also that they have walked hostile to me; 41 and that I have walked hostile to them, and have brought them into the land of their enemies; then. if their uncircumcised hearts is humbled, and they accept the punishment of their evil: 42 Then I will remember my covenant with Jacob, my covenant with Isaac, and my covenant with Abraham: I will remember; and I will remember the land. 43 The land also will be forsaken by them and will enjoy her sabbaths, while she lies desolate without them: and they will accept of the punishment of their evil: because, even because they despised my judgments, and because their soul detested my statutes.

Psalm 1:1 Blessed is the man that does not walk in the counsel of the ungodly, or stand in the way of sinners, or sit in the seat of the scornful. 2 But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law he meditates day and night. 3 And he will be like a tree planted by the rivers of water that brings forth its fruit in its season; his leaf will not wither; and whatever he does will prosper.

44 And yet for all that, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not cast them away, nor will I detest them, to utterly them, and to break my covenant with them: for I am the LORD their God. 45 But for their sakes I will remember the covenant of their ancestors, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the heathen, that I might be their God: I am the LORD. 46 These are the statutes and judgments and laws that the LORD made between him and the children of Israel in mount Sinai by the hand of Moses.

Joel 2:13 tear your heart, and not your garments, and turn to the LORD your God: for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repents of the evil.

Revelation 3:19-21 As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent. 20 Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hears my voice, and opens the door, I will come in to him, and will feast with him, and he with me. 21 To him that overcomes I will grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne.

Leviticus 27

1 And the LORD spoke to Moses saying, 2 Speak to the children of Israel and say to them, When a man makes a vow to separate himself to God, the persons will be the LORD’S by your evaluation. 3 And your estimation for a male from twenty years old to sixty is to be fifty shekels of silver, by the shekel of the sanctuary. 4 And if it is a female, then your estimation will be thirty shekels. 5 And if it is from five years old to twenty years old, then your estimation will be twenty shekels for the male, and ten shekels for the female. 6 And if it is from a month old to five years old, then your estimation is to be five shekels of silver for the male, and three shekels of silver for the female. 7 And if they are sixty years old and above then your estimation is to be fifteen shekels for the male, and ten shekels for the female. 8 But if he is poorer than your estimation, then he is to present himself before the priest, and the priest will value him; the priest is to value him according to his ability. 9 And if it is of an animal that men bring an offering to the LORD, all that any man gives of such to the LORD is to be holy.

The gold shekel was $5.50 and the silver shekel @ .75 (1966).
God honors the dedication of ourselves and our property to Him.
Hannah dedicated Samuel to the Lord to serve at the temple (1 Samuel 1 +).
If a person wanted to dedicate themselves to the Lord but didn’t want to go serve at the temple, they could go to the priest and give the monetary value of their person and service instead.
What we dedicate to Him becomes holy.

God is unchangeable

10 He is not to alter it or exchange it, a good for a bad, or a bad for a good: and if he wants to exchange one animal for another animal, then it and its exchange will be holy. 11 And if it is any unclean animal, of which they do not offer a sacrifice to the LORD, then he will present the animal before the priest: 12 And the priest will evaluate it, whether it is good or bad: as you, the priest, value it, so it will be. 13 But if he desires to redeem it, then he is to add a fifth part of it to your estimate.

God made us in His image; He doesn’t change

14 And when a man sanctifies his house to be holy to the LORD, then the priest will evaluate it, whether it is good or bad: as the priest will estimate it, so will it stand. 15 And if he that sanctified it will redeem his house, then he is to add the fifth part of the money of your estimation to it, and it will be his. 16 And if a man will set apart to the LORD some part of a field of his possession, then your estimation will be according to its seed: a homer of barley seed is to be valued at fifty shekels of silver. 17 If he sanctifies his field from the year of jubilee, it will stand by your estimation. 18 But if he sanctifies his field after the jubilee, then the priest will calculate the price according to the years that remain until the year of the jubilee, and it is to be subtracted from your estimation. 19 And if he that sanctifies the field wants to redeem it, then he is to add the fifth part of the money of your estimation to it, and it will be assured to him.

God is gracious.
He made provision to purchase back dedicated things.
In Judges 11, Jephthah was a leader of the people.
He didn’t know this provision of God and sacrificed his daughter that he had vowed.
Man bears needless pain and suffering when he doesn’t know God and His laws. When we err he has made provision for forgiveness.

Exodus 34:6 And the LORD passed by before him, and proclaimed, The LORD, The LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth.

20 And if he will not redeem the field, or if he has sold the field to another man, it may not be redeemed anymore. 21 But the field, when it goes out in the jubilee, will be set apart to the LORD as a devoted field; it will belong to the priest's. 22 And if a man sanctifies to the LORD a field which he has bought, which is not of the fields of his possession; 23 Then the priest is to count to him the worth of your estimation until the year of the jubilee: and he will give your estimation in that day as set apart to the LORD. 24 In the year of the jubilee the field will return to him of whom it was bought, to him to whom the possession of the land originally belonged. 25 And all your estimations will be by the shekel of the sanctuary: the shekel is to be twenty gerahs. 26 Only the firstborn of the animals, which are the LORD's firstborn, no man is to set it apart; whether ox or sheep: it is the LORD's.

God made us and sustains us.
All that we love has come from Him.
Therefore He deserves our first and our best.
This is hard for fallen man to see.
We value the things of this life more than the giver of life.
He loves us so much that He gave His firstborn to buy us back to Himself.

Matthew 22:37-38 Jesus said to him, You will love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. 38 This is the first and great commandment.

27 And if it is of an unclean animal, then he will redeem it by your estimation, and will add a fifth part of it to it: or if it is not redeemed, then it will be sold by your estimation. 28 Nevertheless no devoted thing that a man devotes to the LORD of all that he has, both of man and animal, and of the field of his possession, will be sold or redeemed: every devoted thing is already set apart as most holy to the LORD. 29 No person under the ban, who may become doomed to destruction among men, can be redeemed, but will surely be put to death. 30 And all the tithe of the land, whether of the seed of the land, or of the fruit of the tree, is the LORD's: it is holy to the LORD.

This tells us that these rules about vows don’t cancel the former rules God set about
tithing and dedicating things to Him.
These clarify giving what was over and above tithing and dedicated things.

31 And if a man will redeem anything of his tithes, he is to add to it the fifth part of it. 32 And concerning the tithe of the herd, or of the flock, of whatever passes under the rod, the tenth will be set apart to the LORD. 33 He is not to search between good or bad, nor is he to exchange it: and if he changes it at all, then both it and the exchange will be holy; it may not be redeemed. 34 These are the commandments which the LORD commanded Moses for the children of Israel in mount Sinai.

God gave us His high and holy law to show us our sin and therefore our need of Christ our Savior.
Some can keep some of the law some of the time but only Jesus kept all the law all the time.

Romans 3:20 Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.

Romans 7:4 Therefore, my brothers, you also have become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that you should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God.

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SUMMARY: Leviticus 25-27

He returns each person to their original inheritance
The land is His forever

The LORD our God blesses mightily
He remembers and turns from judgment and restores to blessing when we turn back to Him
He is unchangeable