Leviticus 25:8-55 The Law of the Year of Jubilee
Day 27 of our self-isolation. Some people are actually getting used to this lifestyle. Others are ready to shoot someone. Personally, it gives me a slight (very, very, slight) idea of what it may be like to live the life of a fur hunter in the north, or slighter still – an astronaut taking an isolation trip for the cause. Meanwhile, we press on with our study in Leviticus.
The Passage
This chapter begins by recounting for us how the Israelites had to count off 49 years. Verse 9 says that on the day of Atonement (7th month, 10th day) they were to sound a ram’s horn throughout the land.
They would consecrate the 50th year and each Israelite was to return to his own property, and to their own family. During that year there would be no sowing, reaping, or gathering any new growth. It would be a holy year for them, and they would be fed by the crops of the field (vs. 12).
Verses 13 to 17 describe how land (and crops) shall exchange hands during that time. First, there was to be no short-changing of each other. The prices of the land shall be determined by how many years from the Jubilee, the transaction takes place as what matters is the number of crops one is trading.
Verses 18 to 22 describe how God takes care of their need for food by giving them, in the sixth year, a bumper crop that is three times the usual – one time for the sixth year itself, one for the Jubilee year, and one for the eighth year in which they would be planting again,
Verses 23 to 28 give instruction that no land shall be sold permanently, because it belongs to God, and the Israelites are only aliens and sojourners with Him. If someone is so poor that he sells a piece of land, his kinsman shall buy it back. And if there are no kin members, once the seller recovers, he can buy it back. If that isn’t possible, the buyer keeps it to the next year of Jubilee and then returns to the seller.
Verses 29 to 34 deal with houses as opposed to fields. Houses that are sold within a walled city may be redeemed during the course of one year. After that, it stays with the buyer even after the next year of Jubilee. Houses in villages without walls are considered to be like fields – their redemption period goes on and they do revert to owners in the year of Jubilee. The exception is the houses of Levites in the walled city – they keep their redemption rights and the houses also return to them in the year of Jubilee. Their pasture fields, however, are never to be sold.
Verses 35 to 38 tell the Israelites that they need to take care of those who cannot maintain themselves. They are not to be lent money with interest or given food with the idea of repayment.
Verses 39 to46 describes how those Israelites who are so poor that they sell themselves to another Israelite are to be treated – as hired hands, not as slaves, to serve until the year of Jubilee, at which time he returns to his family and property. God says this is so because they are His servants that He brought out of Egypt, not yours. You are not to boss him with severity, but to treat him as you revere your God. If you want slaves, you may get both male and female ones from the pagan nations that are around you. Aliens among you may be acquired as slaves too and they may be passed on to your children as inheritance.
Verses 47 to 55 covers the situation where an Israelite, a countryman, becomes so poor that he sells himself to an alien or a sojourner. That individual has redemption rights and can be purchased back by his kin. The price of the sale would be determined by the time from the last Jubilee or the time to the next one. The redeemed person would also be required to refund part of the purchase price to his kin. Nevertheless, he is a free man in the year of Jubilee.
Thoughts on the Passage
Wow, that’s a stunner of a chapter. Let’s wade through it. For starters, the year of Jubilee starts not on the first day of the first month, but on the day of Atonement (the 10th day of the 7th month).
Also, we note that the 50th year starts after a “Sabbath year”. So that means every 50 years, there are two years of rest. It’s like a bonus rest after your rest.
In verse 12, we understand that during the Jubilee year there would be food from prior years, or they could eat whatever grew naturally on it during the Jubilee year.
With respect to verse 13, which relates that all land returns to its original owners, Robert Jamieson gives us this gem:
Inheritances, from whatever cause, and how frequently so ever they had been alienated, came back into the hands of the original proprietors. This law of entail, by which the right heir could never be excluded, was a provision of great wisdom for preserving families and tribes perfectly distinct, and their genealogies faithfully recorded, in order that all might have evidence to establish their right to the ancestral property. Hence the tribe and family of Christ were readily discovered at his birth.
No matter what year we are living in, we are to treat our fellowman fairly. That comes out very clearly in God’s instructions with respect to real estate as well as other transactions such as hired hands and servants. There needs to be a set way of arriving at a fair price in all dealings.
Also, some of us are not earning the money we were earning prior to the Coronavirus pandemic. We are resting at home. In a very odd sense, this is our “Jubilee year” period. We need to realize that God has provided and will provide for our needs as He did for the Israelites during their Jubilee year.
I wonder how real estate agents would fit in to the Israelite society with these types of rules in place for returning lands to their original owners each Jubilee year or for how prices of property would be set in between.
What amazes me here in this chapter is how much emphasis God puts on the poor, what happens to them, and what everybody else’s responsibility towards them is. We need, in our own way, to take heed of that and make sure that our relationships with others squares with it.
Of great interest to me is the section on hired hands and slaves. First, what is God saying to those of us today who have employees? I don’t know. Is it possible that it is simply to release them with honor at the end of their service? Maybe we don’t have Jubilee year but each one of them has a year of retirement. We need to know when to let go of them with grace and love and with all they deserve financially.
But also of interest in this section is what is recorded about slaves. The Israelites were not to acquire slaves from among their own countrymen, but only of those who are aliens in the lands or from adjoining pagan nations. So, having owned servants (slaves) verses employee servants was okay as long as they were sourced properly. You can see perhaps where we went astray with our idea of slavery a few hundred years ago.
Interestingly also is the fact that foreign slaves needed not to be returned to their origin in the year of Jubilee. There clearly is a difference between being part of the Family of God and not. The idea here (spiritually for us) is that God, says Matthew Henry, does not make His servants slaves. We have been bought with a price and never to be slaves again.
Allowing alien slaves to be bought is the continuance of the promise God had given to Jacob in Genesis 27:29 where he tells him that other people will serve him (Israel). It points out as Henry suggests, that the benefit of the Jubilee is only for those that are Israelites, or children of Abraham by faith.
Finally, we cannot ignore the theme of redemption throughout this passage. The land is redeemed and hired hands and slaves belonging to God’s family are redeemed. It is clearly a foretelling of the great redemption that Christ made possible for all of us.
It would be great if you would share your thoughts or questions on this blog in the comments section below or on social media.
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