In one sense, we're going through our own Year of Jubilee Rest.

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, 10^th day) they were to sound a ram’s horn throughout the land.

They would consecrate the 50^th 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 10^th day of the 7^th month).

Also, we note that the 50^th 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.

God’s Employment Standards Act: Part 1 -- Exodus 21:1-4

“Now these are the ordinances which you are to set before them.  If you buy a Hebrew slave, he shall serve for six years; but on the seventh he shall go out as a free man without payment.  If he comes alone, he shall go out alone; if he is the husband of a wife, then his wife shall go out with him.  If his master gives him a wife, and she bears him sons or daughters, the wife and her children shall belong to her master, and he shall go out alone.”
 

The Ten Commandments have been shared with the people and now God continues with some other ordinances that Moses is to pass on to the Children of Israel.  Generally speaking an ordinance is a type of law, but in today’s application of the word, it usually refers to laws passed or enacted by municipal bodies as compared to national ones.  In God’s economy, Chuck Smith suggests that these ordinances are really “judgments for the appointed judges” to use in adjudicating matters that arise among the Israelites.  David Guzik says these are the laws “that establish precedent for the legal system of Israel”.  Matthew Henry suggested that these laws in Exodus chapter 21 relate to, and expound on, the fifth and sixth commandments.  He states they “are of great use for the explanation of the moral law, and the rules of natural justice.”

The first area covered is the legal relationships between slaves and masters.  In those days most of the labor that took place was indeed performed by slaves.  Today, that kind of exchange of work for some form of compensation (be it housing or food) has evolved to the modern relationship of employee and employer (work for pay and other benefits).  Nevertheless, it is important for us to note some of the principles that God had established in how work was to be undertaken.

To begin with, we should note that God, to our knowledge, did not establish the master-slave arrangement.  [Any more than He established polygamy.]  This arrangement was a man-conceived means of getting work done.  There may even have been some good intentions involved such as providing shelter and food and care for individuals in exchange for the work they did.  But as in most things that man construes to do on his own without taking God into consideration, his natural instincts of greed and taking advantage of others, especially those that are weaker, eventually come to the surface and bring about undesirable characteristics of the practice.  This was the case for much of the slavery that was in place, over time.  So much so, that it became unbearable for true followers of Christ to condone it in any way and it eventually was outlawed in the Western world.  But for our purposes, back in the days of Moses, God had to place some parameters around the conditions under which slaves were used and treated.

Two things we need to remember.  First, all Israelites were born as free men and women.  Second, as David Guzik points out, God brought these particular Israelites “out of slavery” – something they were to forget.  And so with that background, it is interesting to note that the very first area that ordinances dealt with was that of slavery.

It is also important to note how people became slaves in the Israelite society at the time.  Guzik suggests there were four basic ways a Hebrew might become a slave to another Hebrew as taken from later Scripture:

1.     In extreme poverty, they might sell their liberty (Leviticus 25:39).

2.     A father might sell his children into servitude (Exodus 21:7).

3.     In the case of bankruptcy, a man might become servant to his creditors (2 Kings 4:1).

4.     If a thief (or other criminal) had nothing with which to pay proper restitution (Exodus 22:3-4).

The first thing we note is that God never intended for any slave to be the property of any master forever.  A bought slave was only bought to work for six years and then the slave would be released as a free person and no payment would exchange hands.  Each of the above-mentioned four ways a person could become a slave would be subject to this principle.  No one owns another person for life.  We are God’s creations and only He can redeem us forever.  It is also of interest to note that God chose six as the number of years for which a slave was to serve.  This is in keeping with the pattern of His instruction to us to work six days and then rest.

And at the end of the six years, when the slave is let go, he only goes with what and with whom he came.  There is much to consider or ask ourselves here.  First, were female slaves ever bought on their own, or perhaps with their husband?  (We will see later that the answer to this question is yes, certainly for single female slaves.)  Second, if a young man was bought as single unmarried person, and then married during his six years of slavery, what are the implications for that marriage after that?  (That question is indeed answered below.)  And third, what happens to the children if they were born prior to a married person becoming a slave, or after he married during his term of service?  (This question too is left unanswered to this point in the Scriptures.)

The third part of this short passage does shed some more light on what happens when a slave marries during his six-year term of service as a slave.  If a slave marries during his term, and has children, then both the wife and children do not become free with him at the end of his term of service, for the wife and the children “belong to the master”.  What is not clear here is whether a slave can marry during his term via any other means other than “if his master gives him a wife”?  Can he find his own wife, as unlikely as that may be?  And if so, can that wife and any children that follow leave with him at the end of the six months?  We do not know but would suggest the answer is no.  It does seem rather a harsh ordinance to say that the wife and children that were joined to the man during his term of slavery could not leave with him.  On the other hand, if we follow this principle, we may have an answer to our question about what happens to the children born to a slave during his term of service but who had a wife when he became a slave?  Would they not belong “to him”?  Or because they were born “in the service of his master” would the children still belong to the master at the time of separation?  These are difficult questions for which there is no answer to this point in the Scriptures.

It is clear here that the slave had no rights at all to possess anything or to acquire anything while he was a slave – perhaps even his own children from a wife he brought to his term of slavery.  So, is there a way out to save one’s new wife and/or children?  The answer is yes and we will address it next.

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[Are you looking for a speaker at your church, your club, school, or organization? Ken is available to preach, teach, challenge, and/or motivate. Please contact us.]

Thanks for dropping by. Sign up to receive free updates. We bring you relevant information from all sorts of sources. Subscribe for free to this blog or follow us by clicking on the appropriate link in the right side bar. And please share this blog with your friends. Ken Godevenos, Church and Management Consultant, Accord Consulting.  And while you’re here, why not check out some more of our recent blogs shown in the right hand column.  Ken.

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It would be great if you would share your thoughts or questions on this blog in the comments section below or on social media.

No Seven Day Operations (Part One) -- Exodus 20:10b

“in it (the Sabbath of the Lord your God – from the first part of the verse) you shall not do any work, you or our son or your daughter, your male servant or your female servant or your cattle or your sojourner who stays with you.”
 

As I study this part of Scripture, I ask myself, “Is it any wonder we, as an entire Body of believers, are not being blessed as much as we could be, or that we are not be being the blessing we could be to others when we have tried to do things our way?  We seem to even change what God says about His commandments so that they can be interpreted to allow what we want the meaning to be.”

My intention here is to first look carefully at what the text says about work in relation to keeping the Sabbath, then to raise some difficult questions as to how the text may be applied in our modern lives and their implications.  So, bear with me.

You may well tell me that I am living in the Old Testament (or as a friend of mine says, the Old Covenant) and that I need to get under the New Covenant implying that Jesus said we are no longer under the “law given to the Isralites and later on tablets to Moses”.  But then these same people are not brave enough to state out rightly that they no longer believe in the keeping of the Ten Commandments.  The fact is that you cannot have it both ways.  Either we are intended to keep the Ten Commandments or we are not.  I believe these laws are unique to the believer in God.  While it is true we cannot, in our sinful nature, keep all the laws all the time, we have been given ten laws that we could keep if we wanted to.  We have been given ten laws that, unless we are ready to throw them out the window, we have to focus on keeping.

And if that is the case, then this fourth law that we are to observe says “no work” on the Sabbath.  And just so we do not try to pass our work on to others, God goes on to say no work for your family.  It specifically mentions our sons and daughters.  Our spouses are covered in the “you” part.  And our extended family is covered in the “son or daughter” part.  So no, you cannot use your niece or nephew to do your work for you.

God goes on to say, your servants (read employees today) cannot do any work on the Sabbath.  Some may ask, “Why did God mention male and female servants separately?”  That is a good question and I do not claim to have the definitive answer.  I can only take an educated guess based on a study of some other themes in scripture.  There is no doubt that the culture of the day, including that of the Israelites, was that somehow there was an inequality between the genders.  That was not God’s intention for the two sexes.  The roles He gave each one of them when He created them were somehow misinterpreted and the man became the superior one in his own mind and acted accordingly.  Throughout Scripture, and later as we move into the New Testament, Jesus, made great strides in correcting that perception that man had about his helpmate.  And here in Exodus 20:10, God is pointing out that this commandment of His applies equally to one’s servants (and thus by inference to all members of the family) be they male or female.  It was the Israelites’ job to facilitate that keeping of the Sabbath for all their workers.

The text goes on to say that your cattle are not to do any work either on the Sabbath.  Now we have two ways to interpret that for modern day living for the majority of us.  We can either claim that God mentioned ‘cattle’ because He really considers animals to be very special and certainly places them above inanimate objects, or we can assume He refers to them as representative of what the majority of Israelites used to help them with their primary means of making a living and providing for their families.  The first would make my daughter-in-law, an avid animal lover, very happy.  The second would appeal more to my way of thinking.  Perhaps a third and preferred alternative would be to believe that He had both reasons in mind.  Again we do not know for sure, but let us go with this interpretation.  God says ‘no work’ is to be done by anyone or anything for your enterprise on the Sabbath.  Farming stops.  Manufacturing stops.  Billable hours stop.  That’s what the commandment calls for.

But surely there is an exception for certain types of services?  We will look at that later, but at this point, the direction is pretty clear.   In fact, God goes on to say, that if you have anyone staying with you at your house for a period of time (that is what a sojourner is), they cannot do any work for you or themselves either.

Do we get the idea?  No work period on our Sabbath.  That is what God asks.  Yes, He asked it of the Israelites in the desert.  But He gave it to them in the Ten Commandments and thus He asks it of anyone who believes they should honor and keep these ten laws.  No work period on the Sabbath.

Next we look at some real crucial “but what about” or “but what if” questions as we try to get a ‘faithful’ handle on what God would have us do or not do on the Sabbath.  Our only hope is that “Scripture answers Scripture” when it comes to that, for as far as this text goes, the message is clear.

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[Are you looking for a speaker at your church, your club, school, or organization? Ken is available to preach, teach, challenge, and/or motivate. Please contact us.]

Thanks for dropping by. Sign up to receive free updates. We bring you relevant information from all sorts of sources. Subscribe for free to this blog or follow us by clicking on the appropriate link in the right side bar. And please share this blog with your friends. Ken Godevenos, Church and Management Consultant, Accord Consulting.  And while you’re here, why not check out some more of our recent blogs shown in the right hand column.  Ken.

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It would be great if you would share your thoughts or questions on this blog in the comments section below or on social media.

Some Rules Are Insane

I do not very often write a blog to vent on otherwise minor inconveniences.  But something happened today that got me thinking.  Mind you, I am not complaining about the inconvenience.  In fact, I am thankful for it.  It gave me a chance to realize how rule-oriented we have become.  Let me set the picture for you.

It is winter in Toronto where I live.  There is snow on the ground and also slush where the traffic is heavy.  Today it was cold, although not as cold as it has been.  I was trying to catch a bus.  When I saw it coming, I ran.  It passed me momentarily but I knew I was only yards from the bus stop where the bus had to stop at a red light.   I am indeed a genuine senior citizen.  (Thought I would throw that in.)

When I got to the front door of the bus which by the way was only half full (or half empty depending on your perspective and mood), there was still a while to go before the driver could move on when his light turned green.  I could see the seconds remaining (about 15) on the sign flashing the warnings.  The bus was right up to the bus stop and in the appropriate lane.  I could easily see, through the bus side windows, the driver watch me come up to the door as the front part of the bus had no passengers.

I knocked on the door with my ticket in hand.  He said, "Sorry, this is an express.  It does not stop here."

I didn't swear.  I didn't get angry.  I just thought -- how insane?  how ridiculous?  The bus was empty.  It was stopped.  I would not be delaying it at all.  I had my ticket.  It was cold and snowing.  I was a senior citizen.  Do you think that a rationale organization would give their drivers some leeway in this situation?  Well, they don't.  I believe there are very few rational organizations these days.

But here's the interesting thing.  It's not about this bus driver or even this city transportation company.  No, it's about what has become of us as a culture.  It seems that as employers we want people to leave their brains at home when it comes to customer service.   It seems as individual employees we are prepared to do just that.

What on earth has gone wrong?   I do not believe in evolution.  But if I did, I would argue strongly that not only have we not evolved, but in fact, we are 'de-evolving', and fast.

Have you had similar 'insane' experiences?  If so, let us know.  So we can all cry, or laugh, together.

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[Are you looking for a speaker at your church, your club, school, or organization? Ken is available to preach, teach, challenge, and/or motivate. Please contact us.]

Thanks for dropping by. Sign up to receive free updates. We bring you relevant information from all sorts of sources. Subscribe for free to this blog or follow us by clicking on the appropriate link in the right side bar. And please share this blog with your friends. Ken Godevenos, Church and Management Consultant, Accord Consulting.  And while you’re here, why not check out some more of our recent blogs shown in the right hand column.  Ken.

________________________________________________________________________

It would be great if you would share your thoughts or questions on this blog in the comments section below or on social media.