After Pentecost Devotional - Day 09

“No land may be permanently bought or sold. It all belongs to me—it isn’t your land, and you only live there for a little while.” Leviticus 25:23

We often think of Leviticus as a list of prohibitions. We expect to find laws about sacrifices, morality, and the condemnation of people who do not measure up. What we actually find in the book might and probably should surprise us, as least a little. Beyond regulations in regard to purity laws and the specific responsibilities of priests and Levites, we also find laws regarding economics that would shake the foundations of Western societies, if not the entire world.

One of these principles seems so far-fetched to our economic theories and structures we normally simply gloss over it as irrelevant. “No land may be permanently bought or sold.” The principle underlying that rule is that the land belongs to Yahweh, not to mere mortals. It is steeped in a nomadic tradition that hearkens back to Abraham. At the same time, it was a law at odds with the settled peoples of the Promised Land and Egypt from whence the nation of Israel was coming.

They were to enter the Promised Land with a firm recognition that the land was not theirs. Instead, they were to understand themselves as stewards of God's land, God's bounteous provision for one and all.

The land was to be the source of their wealth, their food, their clothing, and their means of support. It was in working the land that they would have access to the necessities of life and the ability to acquire wealth. The land was central in all of God's provision for this people leaving a life of slavery. They were not, however, to forget that this land was being placed under their care. They were not to forget that it was on loan for their use and for the well-being of all.

The verse quoted above does not find itself in isolation. It follows in the context of God's provision for all. The priests and Levites were not being apportioned land, but the rest of Israel was given the responsibility to care for them out of God's bounty. The tithes and offerings were to be sufficient to care not only for the priests and Levites, but also for the poor, widows, orphans, and foreigners in the land. While these classes of people did not have the access to wealth production, they were to be cared for out of the bounty of God's land.

This was all a matter of learning dependence upon Yahweh and Yahweh's bounty. The land was the basic element for the production of food and wealth. Its use was to follow Yahweh's instructions. Those instructions were focused on a bounteous provision for the good of all. The means of economic productivity was to remain available to all. The fruits of economic activity were to benefit all.

When Leviticus addresses being faithful to Yahweh, in large manner it refers to these principles of economic justice for all. It understands that stewardship is at the heart of all of Yahweh's instructions. Faithfulness begins in large part with economic justice.

Do your attitudes reflect that you are a steward of God's provision for all?

"Lord, help me to better reflect my responsibility for the welfare of others."

—©Copyright 2016, Christopher B. Harbin
http://www.sermonsearch.com/contributors/104427/ 
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