Leviticus 24-25

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Leviticus 24:1-23

“And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, 2 Command the children of Israel, that they bring unto thee pure oil olive beaten for the light, to cause the lamps to burn continually. 3 Without the vail of the testimony, in the tabernacle of the congregation, shall Aaron order it from the evening unto the morning before the LORD continually: it shall be a statute for ever in your generations. 4 He shall order the lamps upon the pure candlestick before the LORD continually. 5 And thou shalt take fine flour, and bake twelve cakes thereof: two tenth deals shall be in one cake. 6 And thou shalt set them in two rows, six on a row, upon the pure table before the LORD. 7 And thou shalt put pure frankincense upon each row, that it may be on the bread for a memorial, even an offering made by fire unto the LORD. 8 Every sabbath he shall set it in order before the LORD continually, being taken from the children of Israel by an everlasting covenant. 9 And it shall be Aaron’s and his sons’; and they shall eat it in the holy place: for it is most holy unto him of the offerings of the LORD made by fire by a perpetual statute. 10 And the son of an Israelitish woman, whose father was an Egyptian, went out among the children of Israel: and this son of an Israelitish woman and a man of Israel strove together in the camp; 11 and the Israelitish woman’s son blasphemed the name of the LORD, and cursed. And they brought him unto Moses: (and his mother’s name was Shelomith, the daughter of Dibri, of the tribe of Dan:) 12 And they put him in ward, that the mind of the LORD might be shewed them. 13 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, 14 Bring forth him that’s hath cursed without the camp; and let all that heard him lay their hands upon his head, and let all the congregation stone him. 15 And thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel, saying, Whosoever curseth his God shall bear his sin. 16 And he that blasphemeth the name of the LORD, he shall surely be put to death, and all the congregation shall certainly stone him: as well the stranger, as he that is born in the land, when he blasphemeth the name of the LORD, shall be put to death. 17 And he that killeth any man shall surely be put to death. 18 And he that killeth a beast shall make it good; beast for beast. 19 And if a man cause a blemish in his neighbour; as he hath done, so shall it be done to him; 20 breach for breach, eye for eye, tooth for tooth: as he hath caused a blemish in a man, so shall it be done to him again. 21 And he that killeth a beast, he shall restore it: and he that killeth a man, he shall be put to death. 22 Ye shall have one manner of law, as well for the stranger, as for one of your own country: for I am the LORD your God. 23 And Moses spake to the children of Israel, that they should bring forth him that had cursed out of the camp, and stone him with stones. And the children of Israel did as the LORD commanded Moses.”

Introduction

[Audio version: https://resources.ccphilly.org/detail.asp?TopicID=&Teaching=WED576]

“Leviticus chapter 24, there are three things that are placed in front of us, the holy oil, the holy bread, and the holy name of God. Then as we come to chapter 25 it is the holy land, and the Sabbaths, both yearly and the year of Jubilee that was to be kept, and how that related to the people, in repentance, in release, in rest, in restoration, all of those things being part of God’s redemptive nature. But as we come into this chapter 24 we have the providing of the holy oil, the preparing of the holy bread, and the protecting of the holy name, those are the things that are put before us here.

The Pure Olive Oil For The Menorah--What That Represents Spiritually

Leviticus 24, verse 1 says “And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, Command the children of Israel, that they bring unto thee pure oil olive beaten for the light, to cause the lamps to burn continually. Without the vail of the testimony, in the tabernacle of the congregation, shall Aaron order it from the evening unto the morning before the LORD continually: it shall be a statute for ever in your generations. He shall order the lamps upon the pure candlestick before the LORD continually.” (verses 1-4) And “candlestick” is a bad translation, there were no candles then, it’s “thou shalt order the lamps upon the pure lampstand before the LORD continually:” So there were three things as you came into the Tabernacle, which was the center of the nation. As you came into the Holy Place, before the Holy of Holies, the lampstand, the seven-branched lampstand was on your left, the table of incense was in front of you, and on the righthand side was the table of showbread with 12 loaves that were placed there. And this is where the priests would minister. Now there was no natural light. When we went through the Tabernacle and you saw the different layers of silk, of skin, badgers skins and so forth, on and on, it would have been pitch black in there in the middle of a sunny day. So the Menorah is what provided light for the priests to see the table of incense, for him to see the loaves that were on the table of showbread, there was no natural light inside of the Tabernacle. And it is a picture, certainly, of the fact that ministry in God’s sanctuary is not something related to natural light, there’s another light that we enjoy. Certainly, oil in its use as anointing oil, is a picture of the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament. Oil in the sense of a lamp giving light is often a picture of God’s Word, also, ‘Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path…the entrance of thy Word giveth light.’ That the Word of God, Peter says ‘is like a light that we do give more and more heed to, until the perfect day come,’ and so forth. We have this picture here, the lamp was a picture also no doubt of the nation of Israel, the lamp was a picture of Jesus Christ in many ways. So certainly there’s a lot of symbolism here. It’s a beautiful picture that the congregation was to bring the oil. The priest was to take care of the lampstand, he was to trim the wicks, he had gold tweezers, the tongs that were to do that, to adjust the wicks. He was to constantly put the oil in, but the congregation of Israel was to bring beaten oil. There was a process where they could derive oil from heating, but the beaten and crushed olives produced the purest oil, and they were to bring pure olive oil. It’s an interesting picture. Charlse Spurgeon said “Great preachers don’t make great congregations,” but he said in fact “great congregations make great preachers.” And you certainly are that, you have been, look, here’s Wednesday night on Halloween, here we are studying the Book of Leviticus. We have over 200 trained chaplains, people going to New Orleans. We had over 40 teams over a full year that went to Ground Zero, you have extended teams going to Zambia, the ministry, there’s always 500 to 600 volunteers that it takes to run Sunday school, you are that. You know, Charlse Spurgeon would have 500 people on their knees in the basement of the church at every service. The sanctuary sat 6,000, he had two services Sunday morning and a service Sunday night, and it was almost always full, that’s 18,000 people on a Sunday, adults in church. And at each service there were 500 people on their knees in the basement praying. He would take down visitors and say “This is our church heater.” But he said “Great congregations make great preachers,” it was the congregation that was to bring the oil. You don’t want a dead congregation. Anybody who asks me ‘Is there anything we can do?” and I always say “Pray for me, pray for me.” And I desperately need that and expect that, but also look for you to come here filled with the Spirit, look for you to come with oil, for you to come with Light. And that should make us distinct. What fills this place should not be natural light. And there’s too many churches today trying to fill their digs with natural light, all kinds of loaded for bear on the horizontal and lacking the vertical. Something supernatural should be going on. So it’s an interesting picture here. Ah, the congregation was to bring the oil. The priests were to trim the lamp, keep it burning. And it was through the light of that, that the offering of the incense, a picture of prayer, took place in a proper way. It was in regards then to the table of showbread, everything was visible, and it happened in the light, as it were of God’s Word, of God’s Truth and God’s Spirit. We have an interesting picture here of holy oil, and the fact that it was to be provided by the people of Israel. And it was what furnished the light inside of the Tabernacle. [And it’s the Light of God’s Holy Spirit that illuminates our understanding of God’s Word, the Bible.]

The Twelves Loaves Of Showbread

“And thou shalt take fine flour, and bake twelve cakes thereof: two tenth deals shall be in one cake.” (verse 5) but it doesn’t, your translation if it’s an NIV might say a tenth of an ephah, but it doesn’t tell us a tenth of what, the Hebrew doesn’t give it to us. If it was a tenth of an ephah the loaves would be so big you couldn’t fit twelve of them on a table, so, it just tells us the tenth part, and it’s not specific here. “And thou shalt set them in two rows, six on a row, upon the pure table before the LORD. And thou shalt put pure frankincense upon each row, that it may be on the bread for a memorial, even an offering made by fire unto the LORD.” (verses 6-7) So the picture seemed to be, as the priest came in on his right side, there was the table of showbread, and it seems to give a picture of six loaves stacked ontop of each other, 12 loaves, and a little burner set ontop of each top loaf with frankincense. As the Sabbath came, the loaves were changed. And then the priests that officiated were allowed to eat in the Holy Place, they were allowed to eat the bread, and we don’t know what we call Showbread was like. In our house lots of times if it’s week old it’s producing, it’s verdant, got stuff growing. [Comment: this bread was unleavened, which essentially has a very long shelf life. Not sure, but I bet it was quite hard, like hardtack.] They would eat the week-old bread and put fresh bread there, they would take a small portion of it and the frankincense and offer it on the altar, but then it was eaten of the priests. “Every sabbath,” verse 8, “he shall set it in order before the LORD continually, being taken from the children of Israel by an everlasting covenant. And it shall be Aaron’s and his sons’; and they shall eat it in the holy place: for it is most holy unto him of the offerings of the LORD made by fire by a perpetual statute.” (verses 8-9) notice, the children of Israel brought the fine flour. So these loaves there, certainly one of the things those loaves did was remind the priests of the other tribes. They had the stones in their breastplate, the high priest, it reminded him of the 12 tribes [of which Judah was only one of those 12], and the 12 loaves, because they were isolated, they were disengaged in some ways from common life, even the Cities of Refuge that were set aside for the priests disengaged them in some way. But the priests would always remember, in the stones in his breastplate, and in those twelve loaves being changed all the time, ‘LORD, these are your people, they’re redeemed, they’re holy, they’re in this environment, where there is no natural light, they’re in this place of prayer.’ And no doubt it was always on the heart of the priest then to pray for the nation, pray for the tribes. It meant no doubt a great deal to them, and then they partook every Sabbath of those loaves, and it was a reminder that the life they enjoyed, the priests, they had no inheritance in the land, but their sustenance came from the offerings of the people in the tribes of Israel. [Comment: And the survival of the priesthood was somewhat dependent on how well they continually taught the Word of God to the people of the various 12 tribes, because the tithes and offerings of the people were dependent on the spiritual health of those within those 12 tribes of Israel, not just Judah, but all 12. And at this time, the Word of God consisted of Genesis through Deuteronomy, and maybe also the Book of Job.] [Also bread in the Bible, the Bread of Life is the Word of God, the Bible, Jesus Christ in print.]

Protection For The Holy Name Of God

Verse 10 now, we come to God’s name being protected. Holy oil, being provided, holy bread being prepared, and his holy name being protected. “And the son of an Israelitish woman, whose father was an Egyptian, went out among the children of Israel: and this son of an Israelitish woman and a man of Israel strove together in the camp; and the Israelitish woman’s son blasphemed the name of the LORD, and cursed. And they brought him unto Moses: (and his mother’s name was Shelomith, the daughter of Dibri, of the tribe of Dan:)” (verses 10-11) Now you’ll see in your Bible “of the LORD” is in italics, which means it’s inserted to try to make it clear, the Hebrew just said that he blasphemed “the name” it says capital L, capital O, capital R, capital D in italics, so they understood it to be the name of Jehovah, whatever that name was. We say Ja, Ho, VaH, because consonants were YHVH, Y, Ya, Ho, VaH, Jehovah, is where we get Jehovah from, but nobody really knew what YHVH was, how do you pronounce it anyway? So God’s name was holy, if I get a letter from a friend in Israel today, it’s very interesting, they always write G-D, they still don’t even write God. When the scribes copy the Old Testament, they would come to the name of the LORD, they’d lay down their quill, they’d go wash their hands, come back, write “the LORD,” lay down their quill, go back and wash their hands again, and come back and continue to write. So, the name, so revered in Israel. And it says here that he blasphemed “the name.” “And they brought him unto Moses: (and his mother’s name was Shelomith, the daughter of Dibri, of the tribe of Dan:)” (verse 11b) Now we don’t hear the father’s name. They’re bringing him to Moses, no doubt if he had a Hebrew mother and father, he’d have just been stoned straight out, they’d have taken care of him. But there’s a question, he has an Egyptian father and a Hebrew mother, there’s trouble there right away. Timothy had a Greek father and a Hebrew mother and grandmother, and because they taught him the Scripture from the time he was a youth, which is able to make you wise unto salvation, he ends up to be a remarkable young godly man, and Paul says before he passes off the scene ‘I have no one but Timothy to entrust the churches to.’ So this young man is without excuse, he’s gonna say ‘Hey, I came from a dysfunctional home, my dad was an Egyptian, my mom was a believer, I listened to my dad talk all the time, I lost my temper.’ There’s no excuses here we’re going to find out. Timothy came from that environment. Jesus somewhere, Joseph died before Jesus was an adult, of course Joseph was his stepfather, God was his Father, but he was raised in a home for at least a number of years with a single mom, and looked after at least six younger siblings that we know of. And it says that we can enter into the fellowship of his suffering, that he knows, he feels. So this is an interesting picture. What do we do, we got a young man with an Egyptian father, a Hebrew mother, he got in a fight with another Israelite man, and he cursed, loosing his temper, whatever, he cursed “the name,” it says. “And they put him in ward, that the mind of the LORD might be shewed them.” (verse 12) So they put him aside that they might seek the LORD on this. Moses is wise enough to say ‘We’re not sure what to do here, I’m not sure I have specific instruction here, let’s seek the LORD, let’s figure out what his will is on this.’ This is one of four times that Moses will seek the will of the LORD, that he seeks the will of the LORD in regards to several men that were defiled by a dead body on the Passover in the Book of Numbers, and God says to him there, ‘Let them celebrate it a month late, they can still celebrate it, but it won’t be with the rest of the tribes, they can celebrate it on their own.’ Ah, Moses will seek the LORD in regards to another man that breaks the Sabbath, and then God will give direction there. And the daughters of Zeholaphad, there were no males in the family, and they came to Moses and said ‘Moses, it’s not fair, the firstborn male always inherits the property, inherits the land, there are no men in our family. Does that mean we should lose our father’s inheritance?’ And Moses goes and seeks the LORD there, and they end up inheriting the land. So we have God’s Word, and it gives us everything we need in regards to life and godliness. But again, if you come to me and say ‘Pastor Joe, I think the Lord’s telling me to move to Texas, what do you think?’ I don’t know, there’s nothing in the Bible that says ‘Don’t move to Texas.’ I mean, that’s one of those things, if you come to me and say ‘Should I be gambling away the family money?’ you know, I can go in Scripture with you, and it doesn’t matter what my opinion is, it matters what the opinion of Scripture is. But we also have the freedom and the latitude to be led of God, and to be led of the Spirit, there’s nowhere in the Scripture that says you can’t move to Texas, or ‘Pastor Joe, we’re thinking about getting a cat, should we get one of those ugly bald ones or a Persian cat that’s real hairy?’ I don’t know [laughter] they’re all the same, that’s up to you, pray, you know. We know there’s cats in heaven because there’s harps, besides that I don’t what to tell ya. So this is one of those times when Moses doesn’t just make a decision, he seeks the LORD, ‘What shall we do in this situation?’ Just wisdom. “And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, Bring forth him that’s hath cursed without the camp; and let all that heard him” all that can lay claim to this charge, “lay their hands upon his head, and let all the congregation stone him.” (verses 13-14) Now it’s because the name of God was blasphemed. God takes that very seriously. He’s going to go on and say ‘eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth, life for a life,’ he’s going to recite a principle related to this. Well why when the name of the LORD is blasphemed is it a death sentence? Because in a nation, and amongst a people, when the One True Living God is blasphemed, it is murder, because the generation growing up will have no regard, no respect, will never turn from their sins and turn to the True and Living God to be forgiven, and they will be lost forever, and God takes it very seriously when Martin Scorsese makes a film ‘The Last Temptation of Christ’ and portrays Jesus as having an affair with Mary Magdelene. God takes it very seriously when a blasphemous movie comes out and mocks the name of God. We are sowing to the wind, we will reap the whirlwind, unless there is a revival. God is also gracious. But that will depend on you and it will depend on me, and how broken our hearts are before him, as we look around at the nation that we live in, as we look at our children and our grandchildren. How serious are we about the time that remains? Are we on our knees praying out to God saying ‘Lord, grant one more Revival before you come, one more awakening.’ Because to me, the other side of all of that nonsense out there, is you hope there’s a young generation, where there’s people that are saying ‘I heard truth, I heard somebody that wasn’t messing around, they weren’t pulling any strings, they weren’t trying to be slick and savvy, they hit me right between the eyes with both barrels, and they told me that Jesus loved me, and it blew my mind.’ We hope that we can see that one more time. But blasphemy, cursing “the name,” it was a death sentence. They take him, it says, and they stone him. Verse 15, “And thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel, saying, Whosoever curseth his God shall bear his sin. And he that blasphemeth the name of the LORD, he shall surely be put to death, and all the congregation shall certainly stone him: as well the stranger, as he that is born in the land, when he blasphemeth the name of the LORD, shall be put to death.” (verses 15-16) So it says even the foreigners that live among you have to be witness to this and understand what’s taking place. Because they’re going into the Land. In chapters 25 and 26, “the Land” is going to be a phrase that’s used 29 times, God’s talking to them about the fact that he’s going to bring into “the Land.” And when he brings them into “the Land,” there are going to be Canaanites and Hittites, Zamzumins and Rephaim and all of this, the Canaanites that are to be driven out, to be removed from the land. And those who may be Moabites that come in, they were allowed in the 10^th generation to become a part of Israel, those who would join themselves to Israel, become proselytes, become part of Israel, they needed to know that “the name” was holy, that God was the center of the nation. The land was his, and the people were his. [Comment: And God, Yahweh, was the actual King over Israel, so, just as in England or any other monarchy, cursing the king, speaking against the king was treason, punishable by death, as we know from English history. With Yahweh-God as King over the nation of Israel, treason carried the same penalty. Why should it not?] And for the benefit of every generation, there was to be a reverence. The wisest man that ever lived, Solomon, tells us in Ecclesiastes chapter 8, verse 11, that when a sentence is not executed speedily in a land against that which is wrong, that crime overtakes the nation, that crime overtakes the nation. Verse 17 says this, “And he that killeth any man shall surely be put to death.” And look, you can never prove statistically that capital punishment eliminates crime. That’s not the point. The point is in regard for life, that life is sacred. If in the hearts and minds of people what’s established is the fact that life is sacred, then you hope to see a crime rate that is dropping. If it’s not going to be ‘OK we’re going to scare people into not killing somebody,’ because anyone in this room could loose their temper, in the heat the moment, and do something that you regret for the rest of your life. But this is God’s land we’re talking about, God’s people, God’s Law, and he’s saying ‘Life is sacred,’ “he that killeth any man shall surely be put to death.” And he’s going to elaborate on that. There was premeditated manslaughter, there was involuntary manslaughter, which there was no death sentence for that. We’re going to see those things, they were all established in Scripture. “And he that killeth a beast shall make it good; beast for beast. And if a man cause a blemish in his neighbour; as he hath done, so shall it be done to him;” (verses 18-19) there were just balances. One time we had one of our guys here, in fact he’s out in Portland now, was just talking to him yesterday, used to work at one of the hospitals in one of the trauma units. He came in and he said “This woman came in, and she had an ax stuck in her forehead, a hand ax,” and he said, “We worked on her and worked on her, and couldn’t get it out,” and Frank said “It must have hit a knot,” but they got it out, she was fine. But here it says “blemish for blemish” what do you do? You just got to whack somebody back? “breach for breach, eye for eye, tooth for tooth: as he hath caused a blemish in a man, so shall it be done to him again.” (verse 20) it doesn’t say “eyes for an eye,” ok, it says eye for an eye, it doesn’t say “teeth for a tooth,” somebody wants to knock out all their teeth for a tooth, tooth for tooth, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, “as he hath caused a blemish in a man, so shall it be done to him again.” Look, there’s two things here, it ensures justice, but it prohibits revenge. It’s a tooth for a tooth, not a whole mouthful of teeth for one tooth. Jesus will tell us to turn the other cheek, he’ll tell us to turn the other cheek. It’s not both eyes for an eye, it’s an eye for an eye. This is not the law of revenge, it is a law of justice. [And these sentences were carried out by the justices, not by the one that was hurt--no vengeance.] “And he that killeth a beast, he shall restore it: and he that killeth a man, he shall be put to death. Ye shall have one manner of law, as well for the stranger, as for one of your own country: for I am the LORD your God. And Moses spake to the children of Israel, that they should bring forth him that had cursed out of the camp, and stone him with stones. And the children of Israel did as the LORD commanded Moses.” (verses 21-24)

Leviticus 25:1-55

“And the LORD spake unto Moses in mount Sinai, saying, 2 Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye come into the land which I give you, then shall the land keep a sabbath unto the LORD. 3 Six years shalt thou sow thy field, and six years thou shalt prune thy vineyard, and gather in the fruit thereof; 4 but in the seventh year shall be a sabbath of rest unto the land, a sabbath for the LORD: thou shalt neither sow thy field, nor prune thy vineyard. 5 That which groweth of its own accord of thy harvest thou shalt not reap, neither gather the grapes of thy vine undressed: for it is a year of rest unto the land. 6 And the sabbath of the land shall be meat for you; for thee, and for thy servant, and for thy maid, and for thy hired servant, and for thy stranger that sojourneth with thee, 7 and for thy cattle, and for the beast that are in thy land, shall all the increase thereof be meat. 8 And thou shalt number seven sabbaths of years unto thee, seven times seven years; and the space of the seven sabbaths of years shall be unto thee forty and nine years. 9 Then shalt thou cause the trumpet of the jubile to sound on the tenth day of the seventh month, in the day of atonement shall ye make the trumpet sound throughout all your land. 10 And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof: it shall be a jubile unto you; and ye shall return every man unto his possession, and ye shall return every man unto his family. 11 A jubile shall that fiftieth year be unto you: ye shall not sow, neither reap that which groweth of itself in it, nor gather the grapes in it of thy vine undressed. 12 For it is the jubile; it shall be holy unto you: ye shall eat the increase thereof out of the field. 13 In the year of this jubile ye shall return every man unto his possession. 14 And if thou sell ought unto thy neighbour, or buyest ought of thy neighbour’s hand, ye shall not oppress one another: 15 according to the number of years after the jubile thou shalt buy of thy neighbour, and according unto the number of years of the fruits he shall sell unto thee: 16 according to the multitude of years thou shalt increase the price thereof, and according to the fewness of years thou shalt diminish the price of it: for according to the number of the years of the fruits doth he sell unto thee. 17 Ye shall not therefore oppress one another; but thou shalt fear thy God: for I am the LORD your God. 18 Wherefore ye shall do my statutes, and keep my judgments, and do them; and ye shall dwell in the land in safety. 19 And the land shall yield her fruit, and ye shall eat your fill, and dwell therein in safety. 20 And if ye shall say, What shall we eat the seventh year? behold, we shall not sow, nor gather in our increase: 21 then I will command my blessing upon you in the sixth year, and it shall bring forth fruit for three years. 22 And ye shall sow the eighth year, and eat yet of the old fruit until the ninth year; until her fruits come in ye shall eat of the old store. 23 The land shall not be sold for ever: for the land is mine; for ye are strangers and sojourners with me. 24 And in all the land of your possession ye shall grant a redemption for the land. 25 If thy brother be waxen poor, and hath sold away some of his possession, and if any of his kin come to redeem it, then shall he redeem that which his brother sold. 26 And if the man have none to redeem it, and himself be able to redeem it; 27 then let him count the years of the sale thereof, and restore the overplus unto the man to whom he sold it; that he may return unto his possession. 28 But if he be not able to restore it to him, then that which is sold shall remain in the hand of him that hath bought it until the year of jubile: and in the jubile it shall go out, and he shall return unto his possession. 29 And if a man sell a dwelling 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 be not redeemed within the space of a full year, then the house that is in the walled city shall be established for ever to him that bought it throughout his generations: it shall not go out in the jubile. 31 But the houses of the villages which have no wall round about them shall be counted as the fields of the country: they may be redeemed, and they shall go out in the jubile. 32 Notwithstanding the cities of the Levites, and the houses of the cities of their possession, may the Levites redeem at any time. 33 And if a man purchase of the Levites, then the house that was sold, and the city of his possession, shall go out in the year of jubile: 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 thy brother be waxen poor, and fallen in decay with thee; then thou shalt relieve him: ye, though he be a stranger, or a sojourner; that he may live with thee. 36 Take thou no usury of him, or increase: but fear thy God; that thy brother may live with thee. 37 Thou shalt not give him thy money upon usury, nor lend him thy victuals for increase. 38 I am the LORD your God, which brought you forth out of the land of Egypt, to give you the land of Canaan, and to be your God. 39 And if thy brother that dwelleth by thee waxen poor, and be sold unto thee; thou shalt not compel him to serve as a bondservant: 40 but as an hired servant, and as a sojourner, he shall be with thee, and shall serve thee unto the year of jubile: 41 and then shall he depart from thee, both he and his children with him, and shall return unto his own family, and unto the possession of his fathers shall he return. 42 For they are my servants, which I brought forth out of the land of Egypt: they shall not be sold as bondmen. 43 Thou shalt not rule over him with rigour; but shalt fear thy God. 44 Both thy bondmen, and thy bondmaids, which thou shalt have, shall be of the heathen that are round about you; of them shall ye buy bondmen and bondmaids. 45 Moreover of the children of the strangers that do sojourn among you, of them shall ye buy, and of their families that are with you, which they begat in your land: and they shall be your possession. 46 And ye shall take them as an inheritance for your children after you, to inherit them for a possession; they shall be your bondmen for ever: but over your brethren the children of Israel ye shall not rule over one another with rigour. 47 And if a sojourner or stranger wax rich by thee, and thy brother that dwelleth by him wax poor, and sell himself unto the stranger or sojourner by thee, or to the stock of the stranger’s family: 48 After that he is sold he may be redeemed again; one of his brethren may redeem him: 49 either his uncle, or his uncle’s son, may redeem him, or any that is nigh of kin unto him of his family may redeem him; or if he be able, he may redeem himself. 50 And he shall reckon with him that bought him from the year that he was sold to him unto the year of jubile: and the price of his sale shall be according unto number of years, according to the time of an hired servant shall it be with him. 51 If there be yet many years behind, according unto them he shall give again the price of his redemption out of the money that he was bought for. 52 And if there remain but few years unto the year jubile, then he shall count with him, and according unto his years shall he give him again the price of his redemption. 53 And as a yearly hired servant shall he be with him: and the other shall not rule with rigour over him in thy sight. 54 And if he be not redeemed in these years, then he shall go out in the year of jubile, both he, and his children with him. 55 For unto me the children of Israel are servants; they are my servants whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God.”

The Seventh-Year Land Sabbath

“And the LORD spake unto Moses in mount Sinai, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye come into the land which I give you, then shall the land keep a sabbath unto the LORD.” (verses 1-2) The LORD doesn’t say ‘if you come into the Land that I’m trying to give you,’ he says “When you come into the land,” and I imagine, along the 38 years after they leave Sinai, they’re there for about two years, and a 38-year wilderness wandering, and turning away as Kedesh Barnea and so forth, that this must have been an encouragement to Moses, to remember that God said ‘When I bring you in, these are the things that will be important, these are the things I want you to take care of.’ God’s Word is sure, isn’t it. “When ye come into the land which I give you, then” at that point, “shall the land keep a sabbath unto the LORD.” Now verses 2 down to 7 are going to talk to us about the Sabbath of the Land, that they were to sow their fields for six years, and every 7^th year they were to let the land go fallow. That God would bless them enough in the 6^th year to meet their needs until the planting of the 8^th year came in. But they were to let the land go fallow. Now of course, the way human beings are, we find all kinds of problems, for almost 500 years Israel didn’t keep this law. They planted their fields every year, never let it get a break. When God finally took them to Babylon, he said through Jeremiah ‘The land’s gonna rest for 70 years, you owe me 70 years, you owe me 490 years of Sabbaths that you didn’t pay me, now the land’s gonna rest for 70 years.’ Rotating the land itself is just healthy for us, to let it rest, occasionally. Of course today, in Israel, there’s loopholes where the farmer will farm his land for 6 years and rent it out to a Muslim or to an Arab on the 7^th year, to a Bedouin and then they get the rent money for it, and the Bedouin farms the land, and the Jewish farmers feel like ‘Well I’ve obeyed God, because I only worked it 6 years,’ and everybody looks for loopholes. This is God’s ordinance, as he looks at his land. He’s going to say to them ‘The land is mine, the children of Israel are mine, I redeemed them.’ And he says ‘When you come into the land, I’m the landlord, the land’s really never yours, I’m dividing it out between your tribes, you’re just kind of paying a lease. The land is mine.’ “Six years shalt thou sow thy field, and six years thou shalt prune thy vineyard, and gather in the fruit thereof; but in the seventh year shall be a sabbath of rest unto the land, a sabbath for the LORD: thou shalt neither sow thy field, nor prune thy vineyard.” (verses 3-4) Now it would be nice in one sense, every 6 years to have a year off. Now I’m sure the wife’s got their ‘Honey-do’ list that year, ‘Honey, now that you’re not sowing the field and pruning the trees, Honey, couldn’t you do this, and could you finish the kitchen?’ So I’m sure, it doesn’t say work stopped, there was plenty to do around the farm, and plenty to take care of. But in regards to sowing the field and overseeing the field, the land rested. So verse 5 says “That which groweth of its own accord of thy harvest thou shalt not reap, neither gather the grapes of thy vine undressed: for it is a year of rest unto the land. And the sabbath of the land shall be meat for you; for thee, and for thy servant, and for thy maid, and for thy hired servant, and for thy stranger that sojourneth with thee, and for thy cattle, and for the beast that are in thy land, shall all the increase thereof be meat.” (verses 5-7) So what is produced in the year that you let it go, will be for the stranger and so forth, we’re going to see as we read into this.” Deuteronomy chapter 15:1-11 ads to this command given to Israel about the 7^th year land Sabbath, it adds a forgiveness of all debts, just like in the year of Jubilee. Deuteronomy 15:1-11, “At the end of every seven years you shall grant a release of debts. And this is the form of the release: every creditor who has lent anything to his neighbour shall release it; he shall not require it of his neighbour or his brother, because it is called the LORD’s release. Of a foreigner you may require it; but you shall give up your claim to what is owed by your brother, except when there may be no poor among you; for the LORD will greatly bless you in the land which the LORD your God is giving you to possess as an inheritance--only if you carefully obey the voice of the LORD your God, to observe with care all these commandments which I command you today. For the LORD your God will bless you just as he promised you; you shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow; you shall reign over many nations, but they shall not reign over you. If there is among you a poor man of your brethren, within any of the gates in your land which the LORD your God is giving you, you shall not harden your heart nor shut your hand from your poor brother, but you shall open your hand wide to him and willingly lend him sufficient for his need, whatever he needs. Beware lest there be a wicked thought in your heart, saying, ‘The seventh year, the year of release, is at hand,’ and your eye be evil against your poor brother and you give him nothing, and he cry out to the LORD against you, and it become sin among you. You shall surely give to him, and your heart should not be grieved when you give to him, because for this thing the LORD your God will bless you in all your works and in all to which you put your hand. For the poor will never cease from the land; therefore I command you, saying, ‘You shall open your hand wide to your brother, to your poor and your needy, in your land.” Coupled to the redemption of land sold every 50 years (Leviticus 25:8-28), these laws would lead to an even distribution of wealth. Of course, as brought out in Proverbs, laziness would lead to poverty, a person had to work to produce wealth. As Preston Sprinkle said in his book EXILES, “Social justice. Concern for the poor. Economic checks on the rich. Redistribution of wealth. Forgiveness of debt. These aren’t liberal or Marxist or “woke” ideals. They’re straight out of the Bible.” (p.40, par.2)

The Jubilee Year--An Amazing Year Of Land-Return & Debt Release

“And thou shalt number seven sabbaths of years unto thee, seven times seven years; and the space of the seven sabbaths of years shall be unto thee forty and nine years. Then shalt thou cause the trumpet of the jubile to sound on the tenth day of the seventh month, in the day of atonement shall ye make the trumpet sound throughout all your land.” (verses 8-9) So now we move onto the year of Jubilee. Every 7^th year you let the land rest, but every 7 times 7, 49 years, then on the 50^th year was the year of Jubilee, and we’re going to read about all of the things that go along with the year of Jubilee. It will be mentioned five times in the next several verses. Jubilee is from the Hebrew word Ram-u-bell, they would blow the ram’s horn, the shofar, the curly, the ram’s horn. You guys seen that? You with me? Shofar, show good? [laughter] OK, the, this is Leviticus, I have to keep you moving here, get a little circulation. The year of Jubilee would begin on the 10^th day of the 7^th month, that Day of Atonement. So it’s very interesting, on this year of Jubilee all debts were forgiven, all credit cards were cleared, all mortgages were finished. Now I know what you’re thinking ‘Man, I’d run my credit card up in the 49^th year,’ because he knows you’re going to say that. But it’s going to talk about that there is a repentance attached to it, it begins on the Day of Atonement, when the nation’s heart needs to be right before the LORD, there is a release of lands, and of servants that had come, they’re given their freedom again [just like the bondservants that are freed at the end of every 6^th year, at the Day of Atonement at the end of the 6^th year of their service, whenever it started]. There is rest for that year, there is restoration. And the interesting thing is of course, as we go through it, there are pictures. It certainly looks forward to the Kingdom Age, the Millennium when Christ comes, it certainly looks forward to that, beginning as it were on the Day of Atonement, when Christ returns [the Holy Day that actually pictures Christ’s return is the Feast of Trumpets, occurring 10 days before the Day of Atonement. Pastor Joe is a little confused on his Holy Day symbolism], and all debts are finished, and there’s rest and release, and redemption, and restoration. It certainly looks forward to that. But there’s also Jubilee, the idea of release, of celebration. You know, sometimes that never happens in our lives, unless we’re willing to really forgive a debt. Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who have trespassed against us. There are some other interesting pictures here, and I don’t want to belabor it, because I’m not saying that it’s easy, and I’m preaching to myself and not to you. Because it’s hard for me when my feelings are hurt, if I’ve really been wronged, it’s very hard for me to forgive the way that Jesus does. But he instructs me to do that. And of course as we do that, there’s less agida, you’re not going to get ulcers, it’s good for us to be able to do that, but it isn’t easy. But there’s also a picture of some of those things in here, I think as we look at it. So, we come to this 9^th verse, “Then shalt thou cause the trumpet of the jubile to sound on the tenth day of the seventh month, in the day of atonement shall ye make the trumpet sound throughout all your land.” (verse 9) What was that like? You know, most people lived at least long enough to experience one of these. Maybe if you were born the year after the year of Jubilee, you think ‘Man, I gotta live 49 years to get out of debt.’ But most, I imagine, Israelites at one point or another in their life experienced this. It kept there from being land-barons that would have taken all the land, and the wealth going to a few people. [Comment: The poor of mankind, in his various societies, has always struggled to achieve true land reform. The inheritances being dolled out in God’s original plan for Israel, and the land returning to it’s rightful inherited owner if he had to sell it to pay off a debt, that land returned to him or his family on the day of Jubilee. The Constitution of Israel contained in God’s Old Testament Law put a powerful Cap on capitalism, a safety check to protect the poor and stop the massive accumulation of land by the rich. Land was and is and has always been a way to wealth, and God’s system guaranteed every individual the ability to acquire a degree of wealth. Giant agribusinesses are not God’s way, they won’t exist in God’s Millennial Kingdom. For a good article explaining God’s system here, see https://www.unityinchrist.com/IsraelAPeculiarPeople--ALightToTheGentiles.html.] In the world we live in today, people look at the world, they look at war, they look at starvation, and they say ‘If God’s a God of love, how come there’s all these people starving?’ Let me tell you something, there’s enough wealth in this world, with 6 billion people walking on this ball of dirt, for everybody to be a billionaire over ten times over. The problem isn’t God, the problem is man can’t govern himself and he’s greedy. Truth is, if we stopped the flow of illegal drugs in the United States from South America, the banks couldn’t pay the interest on the loans that they owe us. Human beings are corrupt. This is not our home, this is earth, this is not heaven [Jesus is returning to make earth heaven, and ultimately the New Jerusalem will come down and reside here forever and forever (cf. Revelation 21:1-23)], we’re passing through. And the real end-game is to take as many people with us as possible, going to glory. The real end-game is not—I think we should vote, I think we should exercise the freedoms that God has granted to us, and I love this nation, I think it’s the best Babylon going, it’s the best thing to happen on this ball of dirt. [Do you really believe Christians should vote? Did those believers under the apostles Peter and Paul vote? See https://unityinchrist.com/topical%20studies/America-ModernRomans6.htm] The truth is, the problem is not with God, the problem’s with man, his injustices and inhumanity to his fellowman. And God cares about that deeply, and this year of Jubilee kept [put a Cap on Capitalism]. You know, people swarmed into New Orleans to buy up cheap land, at the cost of homeowners who lost everything, it was injustice, it was wrong. [That was just recently, right after hurricane Katrina.] This set of laws of God kept land and homes within families, it kept debt cut off every 50 years [and also every 7 years, don’t forget Deuteronomy 15:1-11, just quoted above]. It kept injustice from ruling the land, where all of the wealth fell into the hands of a few people. There’s probably about 12 families on the planet that control most of the wealth in the world that we live in today. And they’re not content with that, they want power too, so they’re pulling all the shots and orchestrating things behind the scenes. But I’m free, this is not my home. “And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof: it shall be a jubile unto you; and ye shall return every man unto his possession, and ye shall return every man unto his family.” (verse 10) Does that have a nice ring to it? “Proclaim liberty throughout all the land, unto all the inhabitants thereof” It’s on the Liberty Bell, you know that, don’t you? See, the people who don’t know that are people from Philadelphia. People come from all around the country who go see Independence Hall and they want to see the Liberty Bell, and if they’re your relatives, they say ‘What is that thing again, when was the last time you were down there?’ ‘I don’t go down there, what does it say again?’ We don’t know that because we live here, but the rest of the world knows about this, so it’s worth it for you to know too. This is what they put on the Liberty Bell, this particular portion of the verse, “Proclaim liberty throughout all the land, unto all the inhabitants thereof” what a great and profound idea. “it shall be a jubile unto you; and ye shall return every man unto his possession, and ye shall return every man unto his family. A jubile shall that fiftieth year be unto you: ye shall not sow, neither reap that which groweth of itself in it, nor gather the grapes in it of thy vine undressed. For it is the jubile; it shall be holy unto you: ye shall eat the increase thereof out of the field. In the year of this jubile ye shall return every man unto his possession.” (verses 10b-13) Because sometimes they might sell their land to pay a debt to another farmer, but that other farmer never really owned it, because you didn’t own it, and in the year of Jubilee it had to return to your family again. “And if thou sell ought unto thy neighbour, or buyest ought of thy neighbour’s hand, ye shall not oppress one another: according to the number of years after the jubile thou shalt buy of thy neighbour, and according unto the number of years of the fruits he shall sell unto thee: according to the multitude of years thou shalt increase the price thereof, and according to the fewness of years thou shalt diminish the price of it: for according to the number of the years of the fruits doth he sell unto thee.” (verses 14-16) What he’s saying there is, if your neighbour is going to sell, lease his land to you to get out of hock, or is going to sell it to you to get him out of debt, and there’s only 2 years before the Jubilee, then the land’s only worth what 2 years would produce. If your neighbour’s going to give it to you and there’s 30 years left till the year of Jubilee, then the land is worth more. So God’s dealing with us, because he knows how we think. And it’s interesting, what he’s saying is the closer that we get to the year of Jubilee, the less the material things are worth. And how we should realize that in our hearts, the closer we get to the sound of the Trumpet, to the year of Jubilee, when all debts are forgiven, the less the material is worth, the less value it has. And it should in our hearts. As we’re really looking around, and the Middle East is cooking, it is percolating [he said this in 2007, now in 2024, the Middle East is exploding in war, the Israeli-Hamas war, and the Russo-Ukrainian war on Europe’s eastern border is giving Europeans the strong incentive to unite into a superpower, which fits end-time Bible prophecy (see https://unityinchrist.com/prophecies/2ndcoming_4.htm)]. The economy is unstable [more so now], and everybody out there is crazy, if you haven’t noticed [look at what’s going on in politics now]. Bread crumbs cost more than bread, something’s wrong with that [look at inflation now, he wasn’t seeing anything back then compared to now in 2024]. We drive on parkways and park on driveways, we’re all confused. But for you and I, as we see that day approaching, we should have an attitude that this really is less valuable to us in regards to and in light of eternity, in light of that day that will come when all debts will be forgiven. There’s a picture of it here.

“And If Ye Shall Say, What Shall We Eat The Seventh Year?”

“Ye shall not therefore oppress one another; but thou shalt fear thy God: for I am the LORD your God. Wherefore ye shall do my statutes, and keep my judgments, and do them; and ye shall dwell in the land in safety.” that’s what he wants, that’s why he gives us his Statutes and his Laws, “And the land shall yield her fruit, and ye shall eat your fill, and dwell therein in safety.” (verses 17-19) You’re going to eat your fill and dwell there in safety. So now he knows, they’re going to ask the question, he’s going to answer it in the next three verses. “And if ye shall say, What shall we eat the seventh year? behold, we shall not sow, nor gather in our increase: then I will command my blessing upon you in the sixth year, and it shall bring forth fruit for three years. And ye shall sow the eighth year, and eat yet of the old fruit until the ninth year; until her fruits come in ye shall eat of the old store.” (verses 20-22) He’s saying ‘Don’t talk to me about the natural realm, I created it, I know how it works. You’re afraid if you give, if you yield, you give what I ask for, you’re not going to have enough? When did that ever take place?’ He said ‘If you’re obedient to me, what I will do is in the 6^th year, I’ll command a blessing on the land, it’s my land, I’m in charge of rain, I’m in charge of sunshine, I’m in charge of nutrients in the soil, I’m in charge of it all. If you’re going to be obedient to me in the 6^th year, I’ll triple your yield. So in the 7^th year you can let your land go fallow, you’ll still be eating from the 6^th year, in the 8^th year when you’re planting again, and the harvest won’t come till the end of the 8^th year as you head towards the 9^th year, you’ll still be eating of the old store. But you’ll have enough to last you until that harvest comes in in the 8^th year, you’ll have enough in the 6^th year to carry you through. I will command the blessing if you will yield to me. If you will yield to me the things I ask you for, I will command the blessing and you will never have need, I will not ask you for something and then leave you undone, I will never be your debtor,’ is what God is saying. ‘I know how this world works, I set it up, I set it up.’ So every 6^th year, and they didn’t do it. In fact, we don’t really have them celebrating the year of Jubilee. But they also didn’t celebrate the 7^th year. They would have got to see a miracle every 6 years. They’d have got to see every 6 years if they’d have been obedient, their crops triple, with no logical reason, just in faith, God’s hand, every 6^th year. I’m amazed with that. Everybody who grew up on a farm is amazed with that.

Massive Protection Against Capitalistic Accumulation Of Land By The Wealthy

“The land shall not be sold for ever: for the land is mine; for ye are strangers and sojourners with me.” you’re just passing through, you just got here and you ain’t staying long, “And in all the land of your possession ye shall grant a redemption for the land. If thy brother be waxen poor, and hath sold away some of his possession, and if any of his kin come to redeem it, then shall he redeem that which his brother sold.” (verses 23-25) Now from verse 25 really to verse 55 we’re going to hear about the rules related to the goalel or the kinsman-redeemer, and different facets of a family member being able to work redemption, he just says ‘you shall grant a redemption for the land.’ So if a brother in Israel is poor and he has to give up part of his possession, part of his land, then any of his kin, any of his family can come and redeem it. “then shall he redeem that which his brother sold. And if the man have none to redeem it, and himself be able to redeem it; then let him count the years of the sale thereof, and restore the overplus unto the man to whom he sold it; that he may return unto his possession.” (verses 25b-27) This is what it says, it says if you sell a portion of your inherited land to someone because you’ve got in a situation where you’re in financial trouble, you’re poor, and then you are able in another way to regain that, you have the right to redeem your land back, it belongs to you. But you have to pay that individual the profit the land would have brought him, because he spent, he gave you a fair price for the land, knowing he would have it say for 30 years. So then you have to give him that value to get your land back again, so that you’re not oppressing him. Verse 28 says “But if he be not able to restore it to him, then that which is sold shall remain in the hand of him that hath bought it until the year of jubile: and in the jubile it shall go out, and he shall return unto his possession.” Verse 29 is kind of interesting, “And if a man sell a dwelling 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. And if it be not redeemed within the space of a full year, then the house that is in the walled city shall be established for ever to him that bought it throughout his generations: it shall not go out in the jubile.” (verses 29-30) Isn’t that interesting? If you buy a house in the city, this is not just encouraging people to live in the country, it’s not what this is about. A walled city was a safe haven. If you bought a home in a walled city, it wasn’t necessarily relative to an inheritance your tribe had in the land or your family, it wasn’t in an agricultural or pastoral site, it was a home that someone had built in a city, and it was usually expensive. So if you bought that house from someone because they were in financial trouble, within a year they had the right to buy it back from you. But beyond that, if they didn’t buy it back the first year, then it belonged to you and your family, and even in the year of Jubilee it didn’t have to come back to him, because it wasn’t an issue of land. And the LORD didn’t want you moving in with your family, and you know, the guy can’t buy it back in the first year, you’re settled in, you have kids there, your kids grow up there, it becomes your home, and the guy comes walking in one day and says ‘Oh, I want my house back.’ No, God didn’t want that to happen, because he’s gracious and understands how we feel. So within the first year a home in a city could be redeemed by the person who gave it up, after that it belonged to the family that bought it, and it did not go back to the original owner in the year of Jubilee, it was paid for. But verse 31, in contradiction, “But the houses of the villages which have no wall round about them shall be counted as the fields of the country: they may be redeemed, and they shall go out in the jubile. Notwithstanding the cities of the Levites, and the houses of the cities of their possession, may the Levites redeem at any time.” (verses 31-32) The Levites, it was all they had, because they didn’t have possession in the land, so if need be they could get their home back inside a city anytime. “And if a man purchase of the Levites, then the house that was sold, and the city of his possession, shall go out in the year of jubile: for the houses of the cities of the Levites are their possession among the children of Israel. But the field of the suburbs of their cities may not be sold; for it is their perpetual possession.” (verses 33-34)

Laws Against Charging Interest On Loans To The Poor & The Resident Foreigner

“And if thy brother be waxen poor, and fallen in decay with thee; then thou shalt relieve him: ye, though he be a stranger, or a sojourner; that he may live with thee. Take thou no usury of him, or increase: but fear thy God; that thy brother may live with thee.” (verses 35-36) So if another Israelite comes from another part of the land, they’re not allowed to take interest of him, or increase. Because they were all slaves and servants in Egypt, and God redeemed them. So it says if it’s another Israelite, you’re not allowed to take interest from him. God’s going to tell them in Deuteronomy chapter 23, verses 19 onward, that Gentiles, they were allowed to take interest from Gentiles, and they took advantage of that in many ways. But they weren’t allowed to take interest from another Israelite. “Thou shalt not give him thy money upon usury, nor lend him thy victuals for increase. I am the LORD your God, which brought you forth out of the land of Egypt, to give you the land of Canaan, and to be your God. And if thy brother that dwelleth by thee waxen poor, and be sold unto thee; thou shalt not compel him to serve as a bondservant: but as an hired servant, and as a sojourner, he shall be with thee, and shall serve thee unto the year of jubile: and then shall he depart from thee, both he and his children with him, and shall return unto his own family, and unto the possession of his fathers shall he return.” (verses 37-41) Now Exodus 21 gives us a distinct picture, it says that if you are financially destroyed, you are allowed to go to another Israelite and offer yourself to him for six years, to be his servant, to pay off the debt. In the 7^th year you would go free. But it says if you are in your master’s house and you marry a woman there that is one of your master’s servants, and you have children, in the 7^th year you’re allowed to go free, but the wife and the children were not, because they were his. But it says if you are in your master’s house, and you love your master, and you’ve gained a wife there and gained children, and you say ‘I will not go free from my master,’ that he took you to the door of his house and he took an aul, and he gouged a hole in your ear, and he gave you a ring to wear in your ear, it was a symbol of the fact that you belonged to your master. Jesus would say in Psalm 40, ‘Thou hast opened mine ear.’ I don’t know about you, but that’s my story. I was a slave, drugs, pleasure, the world, money, violence, teeth for tooth, eyes for eye, and I came to the Lord in debt and he let me serve. And in his house, and in his service I gained a wife. If it wasn’t for Jesus our marriage would never have lasted, 29, going on 30 years, because I’m so selfish. But I’ve had 30 great years of marriage, Kathy’s had two or three, but I’ve had 30 [laughter]. And I’ve had four children, that I could never been the father I should have been without Christ. And I have no desire to go out free, because I’ve found the right Master. And the true pursuit of all life is to find the right Master. Drugs is a cruel master, pleasure is a cruel master, money, great servant, cruel master, alcohol, cruel master. All the things I thought were freedom in my life were cruel masters, and Jesus set me free, and told me that I was worth something to him, and through his Word, his Spirit, taught me to be a man and a husband and a father, and I have no desire to be free, my freedom is under my Master. So every 7^th year you had to set your Jewish [no, Israelite, this applies to all 12 tribes, plus the 13^th tribe, the Levites] servant free, then he was released in the year of Jubilee [probably this applies to the servant who had his ear pierced with an awl, wearing the gold earring, so his family wouldn’t remain in permanent servant status due to his own choice]. We’ll see if we can finish this chapter, ready, we’ll get a run at this, verse 42, “For they are my servants, which I brought forth out of the land of Egypt: they shall not be sold as bondmen. Thou shalt not rule over him with rigour; but shalt fear thy God. Both thy bondmen, and thy bondmaids, which thou shalt have, shall be of the heathen that are round about you; of them shall ye buy bondmen and bondmaids. Moreover of the children of the strangers that do sojourn among you, of them shall ye buy, and of their families that are with you, which they begat in your land: and they shall be your possession. And ye shall take them as an inheritance for your children after you, to inherit them for a possession; they shall be your bondmen for ever: but over your brethren the children of Israel ye shall not rule over one another with rigour.” (verses 42-46) Now God is not endorsing slavery, he is ruling it, he is setting something right here. Because if you were a Hittite, if you were a Moabite, and you came to the children of Israel to give yourself [voluntarily] and not as a servant, the Israelite would be set free every 7^th year, or every year of Jubilee, but the foreigner who worshipped a pagan god could not. But if they became proselytes, if they joined themselves religiously to the nation of Israel, we’ll find out later, then in the year of Jubilee, they were in fact set free [or maybe after 7 years, it’s ambiguous]. Because until you come to the right God, you’re a slave whether you like it or not. There are a lot of free people out there killing themselves, with all kinds of things. They’re not in prison, but they’re incarcerated [I think of poor Matthew Perry], they’re in bondage. Verse 47 says, now this is talking about a foreigner who comes into the land of Israel, who settled there and becomes wealthy “And if a sojourner or stranger wax rich by thee, and thy brother that dwelleth by him wax poor, and sell himself unto the stranger or sojourner by thee, or to the stock of the stranger’s family:” So if a foreigner comes in and becomes wealthy and an Israelite man sells himself to the foreigner to pay a debt, he’s impoverished. And you have to understand, in this culture back then, people lived in caves, people lived in hovels. You might have gotten yourself in a situation where you’re completely poor, and it was much better to be a servant in someone’s house and have a roof over your head, and food to eat, than to be in the situation you’d be in with nothing, out in the open. So it says if this Israelite man would sell himself to a foreigner who is wealthy in the land, “After that he is sold he may be redeemed again; one of his brethren may redeem him: either his uncle, or his uncle’s son, may redeem him, or any that is nigh of kin unto him of his family may redeem him; or if he be able, he may redeem himself. And he shall reckon with him that bought him from the year that he was sold to him unto the year of jubile: and the price of his sale shall be according unto number of years, according to the time of an hired servant shall it be with him.” (verse 48-50) Because if he came and said ‘Look, I got this $200,000 debt to pay off,’ and he said ‘OK, you work for me for 30 years, that debt will be paid off,’ knowing that he was a foreigner who was hiring an Israelite, and when the year of Jubilee came, he was still under the jurisdiction and had to set the man free. So the man, if he was going to work for him for 30 years had a certain value. But it says if one of your relatives comes and redeems you and buys you out of your debt, they have to pay the price back to the man that he paid, they can’t rip him off. “And he shall reckon with him that bought him from the year that he was sold to him unto the year of jubile: and the price of his sale shall be according unto number of years, according to the time of an hired servant shall it be with him. If there be yet many years behind, according unto them he shall give again the price of his redemption out of the money that he was bought for. And if there remain but few years unto the year jubile, then he shall count with him, and according unto his years shall he give him again the price of his redemption. And as a yearly hired servant shall he be with him: and the other shall not rule with rigour over him in thy sight.” so he’s there, he’s not to be ruled with rigour, there’s to be kindness. “And if he be not redeemed in these years, then he shall go out in the year of jubile, both he, and his children with him. For unto me the children of Israel are servants; they are my servants whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God.” (verses 50-55) God says everyone is a servant. He paid the price for their freedom from Egypt. Because the cost of redeeming a servant was relative to the time left that he would have to serve. Imagine the price that had to be paid for us, because our debt was eternal. And we were going to have to suffer through eternity, and God paid the ultimate price in the blood of his Son. He who knew no sin became sin, so that you and I might be the very righteousness of God, you know, the great picture of redemption and Jubilee, the price that’s unimaginable to me, I have two sons. To watch one of them go through what Christ went through for me, and the whole time to have the power to stop it, because I’m sovereign, I’m almighty, omnipotent, and to let that go forward anyway and to hear him screaming ‘Dad, why have you forsaken me?’ and to restrain myself for you, what love, behold what manner of love the Father has given unto us that we should be called the children of God. Herein is the love of God manifest, not that we loved him, but that he first loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins, the place where wrath was satisfied, unimaginable the price that was paid for our redemption. It says, in the ages to come, we’re still going to be learning of his mercy and his grace towards us in Christ Jesus, in the ages to come. I don’t get any sense anywhere in the Book of Revelation that they get tired of looking up and falling on their faces. It’s not ‘Can’t we sing another song, can’t we just sing that five times instead of 25 times,’ you know, the cherubim, ‘Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty, that was and is,’ they never get tired, because every time they look up, he’s infinite, they see something they’ve never seen. Our inheritance, incorruptible, undefiled, it never gets old, never wears out. And when we are there, and there’s no years there, there’s no time, but just for the sake of communication, when we’ve been there a billion years, the song says when we’ve been there 10,000 years, and we look up, we will be as amazed as we were the first second that we saw him…[transcript of a connective expository sermon on Leviticus 24:1-23 and Leviticus 25:1-55, given by Pastor Joe Focht, Calvary Chapel of Philadelphia, 13500 Philmont Avenue, Philadelphia, PA, 19116]