All Land Belongs to The Lord
February 16, 2021
Commentary
If you obey my laws and teachings, you will live safely in the land and enjoy its abundant crops (vv. 18-19). Don’t worry about what you will eat during the seventh year when you are forbidden to plant or harvest (v. 20). I will see to it that you harvest enough in the sixth year to last for three years (v. 21). In the eighth year you will live on what you harvested in the sixth year, but in the ninth year you will eat what you harvest in the eighth year (v.22). No land may be permanently bought or sold. It all belongs to me: it isn’t your land, and you only live there for a little while (v. 23). When property is sold, the original owner must be given the first chance to buy it (v. 24). If any Israelites are forced to sell the closest relative must buy it back (v. 25). Later, if you buy it, you must pay the present owner any lose for the next Year of Celebration (vv. 26-27).
But if you don’t have the money to pay the present owner a fair price, you will have to wait until the Year of Celebration, when the property will once again become yours (v. 28). If you sell a house in a walled city, you have only one year in which to buy it back (v. 29). If you don’t buy it back before that year is up, it becomes the permanent property of the one who bought it, and it will not be returned to you in the Year of Celebration (v. 30). But a house out in a village may be bought back at any time just like a field. And it must be returned to its original owner in the Year of Celebration (v. 31). If any Levites own houses inside a walled city, they will always have the right to buy them back (v. 32). And any houses that they do not buy back will be returned to them in the Year of Celebration, because these homes are their permanent property among the people of Israel (v. 33). No pastureland owned by the Levi tribe can ever be sold (v. 34).
Application
I need to take God at His Word and trust Him when others may think that what I’m doing is foolish.
Leviticus 25:18– 34 (NET)
18 You must obey my statutes and my regulations; you must be sure to keep them so that you may live securely in the land.
19 “‘The land will give its fruit and you may eat until you are satisfied, and you may live securely in the land. 20 If you say, “What will we eat in the seventh year if we do not sow and gather our produce?” 21 I will command my blessing for you in the sixth year so that it may yield the produce for three years, 22 and you may sow the eighth year and eat from that sixth year’s produce —old produce. Until you bring in the ninth year’s produce, you may eat old produce. 23 The land must not be sold without reclaim because the land belongs to me, for you are foreign residents, temporary settlers, with me. 24 In all your landed property you must provide for the right of redemption of the land.
25 “‘If your brother becomes impoverished and sells some of his property, his near redeemer is to come to you and redeem what his brother sold. 26 If a man has no redeemer, but he prospers and gains enough for its redemption, 27 he is to calculate the value of the years it was sold, refund the balance to the man to whom he had sold it, and return to his property. 28 If he has not prospered enough to refund a balance to him, then what he sold will belong to the one who bought it until the Jubilee year, but it must revert in the Jubilee and the original owner may return to his property.
29 “‘If a man sells a residential house in a walled city, its right of redemption must extend until one full year from its sale; its right of redemption must extend to a full calendar year. 30 If it is not redeemed before the full calendar year is ended, the house in the walled city will belong without reclaim to the one who bought it throughout his generations; it will not revert in the Jubilee. 31 The houses of villages, however, which have no wall surrounding them must be considered as the field of the land; they will have the right of redemption and must revert in the Jubilee. 32 As for the cities of the Levites, the houses in the cities which they possess, the Levites must have a perpetual right of redemption. 33 Whatever someone among the Levites might redeem—the sale of a house which is his property in a city—must revert in the Jubilee, because the houses of the cities of the Levites are their property in the midst of the Israelites. 34 Moreover, the open field areas of their cities must not be sold, because that is their perpetual possession.
Illustration: Sabbatical Journeys With Trapeze Artsists
Henri Nouwen wrote a book called Sabbatical Journeys, in which he wrote about friends who were trapeze artists. They told Nouwen that there is a special relationship between the flyer and the catcher on the trapeze. This relationship is governed by important rules, such as “The flyer is the one who lets go, and the catcher is the one who catches.” As the flyer swings on the trapeze high above the crowd, the moment comes when he must let go. He flings his body out in mid-air. His job is to wait for the strong hands of the catcher to take hold of him at just the right moment. They told Nouwen, “The flyer must never try to catch the catcher.” The flyer’s job is to wait in absolute trust. The catcher will catch him, but he must wait. Waiting is a time when God is working behind the scenes, and the focus of His work is on us. (Paul Wallace – Sermon Central)