Leviticus 25 - Freed Slaves and Resting Land

Well, it's the end of another week as we enter into Tabernacle Talk, and we are in Leviticus 25 today. It seems crazy to think about it, but we only have, after today, two more chapters. So two more days.

So it looks like we will complete this study in the book of Leviticus on Tuesday. And man, what a wonderful, honestly meaningful time that this has been diving into God's Word, consistently going, how does God view us? How does God view His holiness?

What things do we interact with in the world that are different, that have unique meaning because of sin?

Things like as we interact with death or as we interact with even life coming into the world, remembering that all of it, all of creation has been tainted by sin.

And as a result, like we need Jesus, not just to forgive our sins, but we need him to eradicate death. We need him to eradicate disease.

All things that he did in little bits and pieces while he was here on earth and when he comes again, he has promised he's going to take it all back to the way that it ought to have been to begin with. So looking forward to that day.

But as we meet here in Leviticus 25, we're going to look at the Sabbath years and the year of Jubilee. So every seven years, there was a Sabbath year. So just as with every seven days, there was a Sabbath.

God here is going to outline every seven years, there's going to be something special, a Sabbath year. We're going to look at what that entails. And then there's going to be every 50 years, there was supposed to be a year of Jubilee.

And this was a year in which everything resets. It's kind of a new creation.

It's like you just started off again with where God eventually, you know, had the children of Israel with Joshua, that they started off and the land was divvied out to all of the different families.

And there was, you know, no one was in slavery at that time and different things. And every 50 years, so it was right after the seventh Sabbath year. So you'd have seven sevens.

So you have 49 years in total. And then you have the 50th year is the big old reset back to the new kind of creation, new land that God had for Israel.

And we're going to see what all that entailed and some why God says it and what it can tell us even about Jesus and about the future day of Jubilee that we are looking forward to as believers, that time when God makes all things new and the wonder

that comes about as a result of that. Leviticus 25 and verse number one, Yahweh spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai. Speak to the Israelites and tell them, when you enter the land I am giving you, the land will observe a Sabbath to Yahweh.

You may sow your field for six years and you may prune your vineyard and gather its produce for six years. But there will be a Sabbath of complete rest for the land in the seventh year.

A Sabbath to Yahweh, you're not to sow your field or prune your vineyard. You are not to reap what grows by itself from your crop or harvest the grapes of your untended vines. It is to be a year of complete rest for the land.

Whatever the land produces during the Sabbath year can be food for you, for yourself, your male or female slave, the hired worker or alien who resides with you. All of its growth may serve as food for your livestock and the wild animals in your land.

You are to count seven sabbatical years, seven times seven years, so that the time period of the seven sabbatical years amounts to 49. Then you are to sound a trumpet loudly in the seventh month.

On the tenth day of the month, you will sound it throughout your land on the day of atonement. You are to consecrate the fiftieth year and proclaim freedom in the land for all its inhabitants.

It will be your Jubilee when each of you is to return to his property and each of you to his clan. The fiftieth year will be your Jubilee. You're not to sow, reap what grows by itself or harvest its untended vines.

It is to be holy to you because it is the Jubilee. You may only eat its produce directly from the field. So we'll continue reading on here, but I think you get the general gist of it.

In the fiftieth year, you're not doing business with the land. You're to let it sit. And you can eat everything that grows, but you're not supposed to harvest it.

So here, at least as far as I'm reading, we might, as we continue to read through, see something here.

But at least to, as I'm seeing it, in that fiftieth year, in that Jubilee year, you're not even doing like a feast of first fruits because you're not harvesting anything in that year.

So you wouldn't be bringing anything to the temple in that time from the feast of first fruits.

You would still do it for some of the other sacrifices, or if you have a freewill offering or a vow offering, grain offering, burnt offering, those types of things. But you wouldn't have that particular thing happening.

Again, as we continue to go through, we might see some more clarifications made on that, but at least at this reading, that's what I'm seeing. Verse 13, In this year of Jubilee, each of you will return to his property.

If you make a sale to your neighbor or a purchase from him, do not cheat one another. You are to make the purchase from your neighbor based on the number of years since the last Jubilee.

He is to sell to you based on the number of remaining harvest years.

You are to increase its price in proportion to a greater amount of years, and decrease its price in proportion to a lesser amount of years, because what he is selling to you is a number of harvests.

You are not to cheat one another, but fear your God, for I am Yahweh your God. So property would go back to whoever its original owning family was.

So let's say a guy named Reuben, and he got a particular plot of land in the area of Manasseh's tribal allotment from Joshua, right at the very beginning.

And let's say he ends up having to sell it to someone from the tribe of Ephraim, and we'll call him Chad. And so then at the year of Jubilee, Chad has to give back the land to Reuben, because it's not permanently his.

And so God says, how do you determine what the price is? Do you just jack up the price super high? He says, no, no.

If it's going to be another 42 years until the next year of Jubilee, then that's a greater cost, because what you're selling them is a number of harvests, as opposed to if you're selling it to a person right before the year of Jubilee, you can't do a

high price for it. It can only be worth that much because it's only one harvest or only five harvests. Verse number 18. You are to keep my statutes and ordinances and carefully observe them so that you may live securely in the land.

Then the land will yield its fruit so that you can eat, be satisfied and live securely in the land.

If you wonder what will we eat in the seventh year if we don't sow or gather our produce, I will appoint my blessing for you in the sixth year so that it will produce a crop sufficient for three years.

When you sow in the eighth year, you will be eating from the previous harvest. You will be eating this until the ninth year when the harvest, when its harvest comes in. Here God says, okay, people are going to be scared.

Okay, if we do this, like, are we going to have enough to eat? God says, I'm going to give you enough for three years. Don't worry, I'm going to work when you are not working.

And man, it makes me think of the song, tis so sweet to trust in Jesus, just to take him at his word, just to rest upon his promise, just to know, thus saith the Lord, Jesus, Jesus, how I trust him, how I've proved him, o'er and o'er, Jesus, Jesus,

precious Jesus, oh for grace to trust him more. And man, I think if this is true for here, crops and food, how much more true is it for our souls that we can rely on Jesus alone, that we can trust that it's not Jesus and my baptism, Jesus and my

donating money to the church, Jesus and my confessions to a priest, not Jesus and my taking communion, it is Jesus alone. And as the one song says, on Christ the solid rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand. And that's so true.

Verse number 23. The land is not to be permanently sold because it is mine, and you are only aliens and temporary residents on my land. What an incredible thought.

God says, this land does not belong to you, this is mine. And so I am telling you that you do not own any of this. And so all you're doing, if you're selling land, if you're doing any of these things, it is only temporary measures that you're taking.

You're just doing a specific number of harvests until the next year of Jubilee. You do not own the land. Verse 24, you are to allow the redemption of any land you occupy.

If your brother becomes destitute and sells part of his property, his nearest relative may come and redeem what his brother has sold. There is no land that was off limits to be bought back to the family.

You could never say, oh, no, no, no, like I adopted this land now as part of mine, and so I've got like a special crop that I'm not growing on any of my land, and so you cannot buy that back.

God says, no, no, all of it can and has to be able to be redeemed either by the person themselves or by a family member of them.

Verse 26, if a man has no family redeemer, but he prospers and obtains enough to redeem his land, he may calculate the years since its sale, repay the balance to the man he sold it to and return to his property.

But if he cannot obtain enough to repay him, what he sold will remain in the possession of its purchaser until the year of Jubilee. It is to be released at the Jubilee so that he may return to his property.

If a man sells a residence in a walled city, his right of redemption will last until a year has passed after its sale. His right of redemption will last a year.

So here it's not a place that is land with crops and able to be used for growing food and all that. If it's in a walled city, you can buy back your thing for up to a year, but at a year it's ended.

Verse 30, if it's not redeemed by the end of a full year, then the house in the walled city is permanently transferred to its purchaser throughout his generations. It is not to be released on the Jubilee.

But houses and settlements that have no walls around them are to be classified as open fields. The right to redeem such houses stays in effect, and they are to be released at the Jubilee.

Concerning the Levitical cities, the Levites always have the right to redeem houses in the cities they possess.

Whatever property one of the Levites can redeem, household in a city they possess is to be released at the Jubilee because the houses in the Levitical cities are their possessions among the Israelites.

The open pasture land around their cities may not be sold, for it is their permanent possession.

If your brother becomes destitute and cannot sustain himself among you, you are to support him as an alien or temporary resident so that he can continue to live among you.

Here would be something that would happen with Ruth and Naomi when they're living in the land, that they are doing the same types of things that the poor or the resident aliens that they did of gleaning in the fields.

And so this is that being put, this is the law that made them able to do that. He says they absolutely get to do that so that they can continue to live in Israel.

Do not profit or take interest from him, but fear your God and let your brother live among you. You're not to lend him your silver with interest or sell him your food for profit.

I am Yahweh your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt to give you the land of Canaan and to be your God. He says if I can give you the entire land, then you can give this person food or silver at cost.

Without interest, just getting back exactly what you gave to them. Verse 39. If your brother among you becomes destitute and sells himself to you, you must not force him to do slave labor.

Let him stay with you as a hired worker or temporary resident. He may work for you until the year of Jubilee. Then he and his children are to be released from you and he may return to his clan and his ancestral property.

They are not to be sold as slaves because they are my servants that I brought out of the land of Egypt. He says they're not yours to do with whatever you want. He says they are my people.

And so he says I brought them out of the land of Egypt and you can't just treat them however you want. Verse number 43. You are not to rule over them harshly, but fear your God.

Your male and female slaves are to be from the nations around you. You may purchase male and female slaves. You may also purchase them from the aliens residing with you or from their families living among you, those born in your land.

These may become your property. You may leave them to your sons after you to inherit his property. You can make them slaves for life.

But concerning your brothers, the Israelites, you must not rule over one another harshly. So again, in a different day and age, this is something that comes as a shock to us.

We go, oh wow, well that seems really kind of messed up, that there could be these slaves. And again, a couple things at play here. Number one, God's not prescribing you must.

He's saying you can, you may. There is this situation that's set up that's not based on if you're of a particular skin color or something like that. There's an element of care that goes into it that now you are responsible for this person.

And that as is highlighted a couple of times in the book of Exodus, if you mistreat a person, then they can go free. That if you harm them in any way, that they are due restitution because of what you've done.

It's a very, very different system than it was in America where there was absolute depravity taking place. And again, this is not something that God prescribes.

He almost highlights here the importance of the fact that this is not an ideal situation to be in. And so he says, I'm forbidding you from having permanent slaves of your fellow Israelites. He says it's not going to happen.

And it's only after he highlights the fact of this isn't a great institution that he goes, okay, you can do this in these specific scenarios with everything that's already been mentioned in Exodus about how you have to take care, the prohibitions on

mistreatment and some other things. So again, it's God is working within the realm of what they know, but is pushing them towards a betterment.

That's saying there is a better way, which as you look at human history, even over the past about four or five hundred years, Christianity was one of the huge reasons that slavery eventually was abolished in so many places, because for Christians, we

have a whole different way in which we interact with other people, even those that work for us. And you can look at even a lot of Paul's statements.

And there's even some things that would indicate that Paul might have done some, either Paul or his parents might have participated in some servitude things in their past.

And so when Paul speaks to him being a slave of Christ, but then when he talks about the way in which masters are to interact with those serving them, he says, realize that you are a slave. You are a slave to God.

And in essence, however you treat your workers is how God is going to treat you. Or in the letter to Philemon when he sends back Onesimus, who had wronged Philemon and had interacted with Paul, had gotten saved.

And now Paul sends him back to his master Philemon. And he goes, hey, I want you to receive him not as like your servant anymore, but as a brother in Christ. And he says, I want you to realize that he's now a fellow Christian.

And anything that he owes you, anything that he wronged you, anything he stole from you, you put it on my account, because you know that I brought you the gospel, that the fact that you have a relationship with God is due to me.

And so I want you to care now for this person.

That's the mindset that God brings as he continues to go forward, that he's operating here, same exact thing that Jesus mentions with divorce or that is highlighted occasionally with the practice of the first born.

Thank God is continually turning around on its head. And he's like, OK, yeah, Esau was born first, but I've got a special plan for Jacob. Ruben and Simeon, they were born first, but I've got a special plan for Joseph.

There's all of these sons of Jesse, but I'm going to have David, the youngest, be the one that's in charge.

So as all of those are going through, God's saying, OK, I will temporarily, I'm not totally undoing all fabric of society that you have, but I'm going to put heavy guard rails up so that you do not misuse this in the way that the nations around you

are misusing it. How you have servants, how you have slaves or bond servants is one way that this type of word is phrased. How you have that is going to be different than the nations around you. You're not going to behave like everyone else.

You're going to behave like God's people in how you interact with these. If you have any more questions about maybe the Bible and slavery, reach out to me by DM or text or call or comment or something.

There is a book, I can't remember the name of it right off hand, that deals with these kinds of questions. There's also a great online resource.

Gavin Ortlund has a YouTube channel in which he goes through a lot of apologetics questions, one of which is this type of thing. Why was there slavery in the Old Testament?

Obviously different than Americans should tell slavery, but still something that as highlighted here, God says this isn't a great institution. I'm not stamping my approval on this going, yeah, everyone should do this.

So why doesn't God just completely outlaw any sort of practice of someone having someone as a permanent worker for them that basically has to stay? So I would encourage you to look at Gavin Ortlund.

He has a great resource on that, and I think there's a book or two that I'm aware of that would also help with the topic. Verse 47. By the number of years.

It will be set for him like the daily wages of a hired worker. If many years are still left, he must pay his redemption price in proportion to them based on his purchase price.

If only a few years remain until the Year of Jubilee, he will calculate and pay the price of his redemption in proportion to his remaining years. He will stay with him like a man hired year by year.

A resident alien is not to rule over him harshly in your sight. If he is not redeemed in any of these ways, he and his children are to be released at the Year of Jubilee for the Israelites are my servants.

These are my servants that I brought out of the land of Egypt. I am Yahweh, your God. So here the Year of Jubilee, every 50 years, all the property goes back to the original families.

All the slaves are freed and they go, they're able to go back home without having that price of redemption, without having to pay that price on their own.

And, man, I think about the fact that Jesus is our Jubilee, he's the one that makes it so that we can, though we were far away from home, we could not go to God's presence as we wanted to, as we were made to, but God has made it so that we can go to

our ancestral home, that we can go to heaven and be with God. We were slaves, but Jesus has bought us back. He has redeemed us. He is our family redeemer, our kinsman redeemer, so that now we are free.

And what an incredible thought, that Jesus is the good master. He does not treat us harshly. As Psalm, I think it's 103 states, he has not dealt with us in accordance with our sins, our iniquities, but he has dealt graciously with us.

And man, what a great thought. The year of Jubilee is not often mentioned as being observed in Israel's history.

And perhaps if they had done more of that, if they had realized this land is God's, the people in this land belong to God, maybe it would have adjusted their timelines, their histories of what they did, the false gods that they worshiped because they

forgot about God. And it's because they didn't observe these things that God said, hey, I want you to remember whose you are. I want you to remember that I'm going to be the one that takes care of you.

Yeah, you can work for six years, but in the sixth year, I'm going to bless you. And I'm going to bless you not just so that you have enough for the sixth year and the seventh year.

He says, I'm going to bless you enough for three years so that you have enough for the sixth and seventh and eighth up until that ninth year when you're harvesting again. And what an incredible God that we serve, one that cares for us.

We are his and we can rejoice in that today. Do you realize that you are gods, that the way you behave needs to reflect the fact that you are his? Do you realize that you can rest in your life?

You can have times of rest and Sabbath. I'm thankful that every week on a Friday, I don't do anything, anything work related. I spend time with my family.

Maybe we might go grocery shopping. We might go to a park or something like that. We might go visit my in-laws.

But it's a time where I just go, OK, God, I've done what I can for the church, for my sermon. And I'm just going to take this day and set it aside to thank you and to rest and realize that you're working.

I would encourage you, maybe have a day of Sabbath, whether that's Sunday or Saturday or perhaps with your schedule, just whatever day you might happen to have off one where you're not trying to make money or do big things, but you're able to rest

and realize that God can take care of you. And then realize that other people belong to God, and that should affect how you treat them.

Don't treat people as though they are your slave, that you think on a pastoral side of things, the weirdest thing would be if people would treat their pastor like a slave.

I want you to do this this way, and I want you to speak about this, and I want you to have this take place on a platform, and I want you to do this, that other people aren't our puppets, that we ought to have a respect for others because they're made

in the image of God, and that's where they get their worth and their value, and that's not something that we should take lightly. Thanks for tuning in today, and I hope that you have a wonderful weekend serving the Lord, and we'll see you in

Leviticus 26 looking at the covenant blessings and different things that God highlights, and then Tuesday will be our last day in Leviticus. Thank you.