Leviticus 25

The focus in chapters 25 and 26 is on Israel in their land. In fact, the word “land’’ is used thirty-nine times in these two chapters. The Lord’s statement in verse 2 (“When you enter the land I am going to give you,’’ niv) must have been a great encouragement to Moses, especially after Israel failed to claim their inheritance at Kadesh-Barnea and had to wander in the wilderness (Num. 13—14).

If the Israelites were to possess and enjoy their land, they had to recognize and respect some basic facts, the first of which was that God owned the land (Lev. 25:2, 23, 38) and had every right to dispose of it as He saw fit. God also owned the people of Israel (v. 55), because He had redeemed them from Egyptian bondage. Because they belonged to Him, all the Jews were to treat one another as brothers and sisters (vv. 25, 35–38) and not take advantage of one another when it came to personal debts or property claims. The Jews were expected to toil in their fields, but it was God who gave the increase (v. 21) and supplied them with sunshine, rain, and harvests. In other words, the people of Israel had God as their “land Lord’’ and had to live by faith in His Word. This meant obeying His commandments and trusting His promises.

Another important fact emerges from this chapter: God was in control of the calendar. God not only gave His people their land and their food, but He also gave them special “times’’ to observe so that the land would not be ravaged and spoiled. God is concerned about ecology and the way we treat His creation. Like the ancient Jews, we today are but stewards of God’s gifts; we must be careful not to abuse or waste them.

Had Israel obeyed these principles, their economic system would have functioned smoothly, the land would have provided all they needed, and everybody would have been cared for adequately. However, they didn’t obey the Lord. The result was that the rich got richer, the poor got poorer, and the land was ruined.

When we studied Leviticus 23, we noted that the Jewish calendar was based on a series of sevens. There were seven annual feasts, three of them in the seventh month, and the seventh day of the week was the Sabbath, a day of rest. Now we learn that the seventh year was to be a year of rest for the land, the people, and their animals.

During the Sabbath Year, the people were not to work the fields or have organized harvests, but were to take from the fields the food they needed as it grew of itself. The people, including the poor and the aliens, could gather from the fields and be God’s “guests’’ (Ex. 23:10–12).

Not only did the land rest, but also the people and the farm animals rested. The men certainly took care of the routine tasks that keep buildings from falling down, but they were not to engage in the normal activities of an agricultural society, like plowing, sowing, and harvesting. This prohibition also included the servants and the animals, all of whom were given a year of rest from their normal duties.

Deuteronomy 15:1–11 informs us that personal debts were also remitted during the Sabbath Year and that indentured servants were set free. The word “release’’ in Deuteronomy 15: means “to let loose, to drop.’’ It involves the canceling of debts and the freeing of slaves. As the people shared with the poor and with their liberated servants, they were to be generous and openhanded. Three motives were to govern what the people did: appreciation for God’s blessings (Lev. 25:4, 6, 10, 14), appreciation for God’s deliverance of the nation from Egypt (v. 15), and simple obedience to the command of God (v. 5). What God commanded was for the good of all the people, and nobody had the right to disobey Him. During the siege of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar, King Zedekiah proclaimed a release for the slaves, but he later rescinded it (Jer. 34:8ff.).

The Sabbath Year was also the occasion for a “Bible conference’’ when the priests read and explained the book of Deuteronomy to all the people (Deut. 31:9–13). This was done during the annual Feast of Tabernacles, which would usher in the new year. It would take a great deal of faith for the people to trust God for their daily food, and “faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God’’ (Rom. 10: nkjv). During that special year, the nation learned the meaning of “give us this day our daily bread.’’ God promised to protect them and provide for them throughout the year, if only they would trust and obey (Lev. 25:18–22).

We have no biblical evidence that the Jews ever celebrated the Sabbath Year, in fact, the Bible indicates that they didn’t: “To fulfil the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed her sabbaths: for as long as she lay desolate she kept sabbath, to fulfil threescore and ten years’’ (2 Chron. 36:21). God sent Israel into Babylonian exile for seventy years in order to give the land the rest it needed (Jer. 25:8–11; 29:10). This suggests that for nearly 500 years, the Jews had disobeyed God’s law concerning the Sabbath Year.

It’s a basic principle of life that whatever we rob from God, we can never keep and enjoy ourselves. In my pastoral ministry, I’ve met people who robbed God of tithes and offerings, only to end up paying extra money for medical bills or car repairs. I recall one church member bringing his family budget book to my office, just to show me how God had begun to bless him when he stopped robbing the Lord. His figures showed that every dollar he took from God had to be spent on some emergency need, and he never got to use that money himself.

By disobeying the law of the Sabbath Year, the Jews robbed themselves not only of spiritual blessings but also of the strength of the land and of their servants and farm animals. By working the same land, year after year, they got their harvests, but they lost the renewal that comes from allowing the land to lie fallow and the workers to rest. They also lost the blessings that come from sharing with the needy, and they robbed God of the glory He would have received as the other nations saw how much He blessed His people. It was a costly mistake on their part, and they paid for it dearly.

The word “jubilee’’ is used five times in verses 8–17 and literally means “to sound the trumpet.’’ (The Hebrew word is yobel, which means “a ram’s horn.’’) For the people of Israel, each new year opened with the blowing of the trumpets on the first day of the seventh month, and ten days later, the people celebrated the day of Atonement by fasting, repenting, and offering the required sacrifices. But every fiftieth year, at the close of the celebration of the day of Atonement, the horns were blown again to announce that the Year of Jubilee had begun.

It would require a great deal of faith for the people to celebrate this special year, because the previous year—the forty-ninth—would have been a Sabbath year when the fields, vineyards, and orchards would not have been cultivated. The Jews had to trust God to provide for them for the forty-ninth and fiftieth years, and also during the fifty-first year while they waited for the harvest. God certainly wouldn’t fail them, but their faith might fail. In fact, there’s no evidence in Scripture that the nation of Israel ever celebrated the Year of Jubilee.

What elements were involved in the Year of Jubilee?

Repentance (v. 9). It’s significant that the Year of Jubilee started with the day of Atonement, a day when the Jews were commanded to “afflict themselves’’ and repent of their sins (16:29–34). They were not to enter the Year of Jubilee without the Lord first cleansing and forgiving them. If their hearts weren’t right with God, they could never release their slaves or return the land to its original owners. Our relationship with God determines how we treat other people.

Release (vv. 10, 13). “Proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof’’ is inscribed on the Liberty Bell, which hangs in Independence Hall in Philadelphia. At the start of the Year of Jubilee, the people were commanded to release their indentured servants so that they might return to their own lands and families. A Hebrew servant was to serve for only six years and then be set free (Ex. 21:2). How could the Jews celebrate this special year if some of their people were in bondage and separated from their loved ones and their land?

Rest (vv. 11–12). During the Year of Jubilee, the people were forbidden to carry on their normal agricultural pursuits but had to live on whatever the land produced. This gave both them and the land an extra year of rest, since the previous year would have been a Sabbath Year. They had to rely on the Lord to keep His promises and supply sufficient food for almost three years, since they wouldn’t be able to work the land until the fifty-first year; and even then, they’d have to wait for the harvest.

Restoration (vv. 13–17). Any property that was sold since the last Year of Jubilee would revert to its original owner, for the Lord wanted His land to remain with the tribes, clans, and families to which it had been allotted. For parents to care for their families, they had to have land to cultivate, and the private ownership of property gave stability to the economy. The Lord owned the land and only loaned it to His people. He wanted them to have a sense of proprietorship and responsibility in caring for His property. People usually take care of what they themselves own.

Whenever a piece of land was sold, the proximity of the next Year of Jubilee determined the price, for this determined how much produce the new owner could get from the soil. Since the buyer knew full well that the land would eventually revert back to the original owner, he certainly wasn’t going to pay more for the land than what he would be able to get out of it. “The land shall not be sold forever’’ was God’s law (Lev. 25:23).

These laws made it impossible for ruthless wealthy real estate speculators to accumulate vast land holdings and thus upset the economy. Even the poorest Israelite family received its land back, and by working the land, they could gain enough wealth to meet their needs and perhaps the needs of others. The Year of Jubilee provided a new beginning for the released slaves and the landowners, and this kept poverty and inequality to a minimum. The people were not to oppress one another (v. 17), but remember that the land was God’s and they were only His tenants (vv. 23–24).

The prophet Isaiah saw in the Year of Jubilee a picture of the promised messianic kingdom when the Lord would release His people and restore them to their land and bless them abundantly (Isa. 61:1–3). Jesus used this Isaiah passage as the text for the sermon He preached in the synagogue in Nazareth (Luke 4:16–30), and He applied it to the “acceptable year of the Lord’’ that He was inaugurating by His death and resurrection. Jesus stopped His reading at “the acceptable year of the Lord’’ (“the year of the Lord’s favor,’’ niv) and didn’t read the part about “the day of vengeance of our God.’’ In Isaiah 6:2, this present “acceptable year’’ of God’s grace is separated from the future “day of judgment’’ by a comma! God’s wonderful “day of salvation’’ (2 Cor. 6:2) has lasted as long as it has because God is longsuffering and wants sinners to come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9, 15).

Like the announcement of the Year of Jubilee, the gospel is good news to the poor, because their debts have been paid and are completely forgiven (Luke 7:36–50). All they need do is receive the Savior and rejoice in a new beginning. Just as the debtors and slaves were set free to enjoy Jubilee, so sinners are set free when they trust the Lord to save them. Salvation through faith in Jesus Christ is a “Jubilee’’ experience, for it restores broken families and lost blessings and brings “times of refreshing’’ from the Lord (Acts 3:19–21).

If a poor Jew had to sell himself or his property in order to stay alive, he didn’t have to wait until the Year of Jubilee to regain either his property or his freedom. At any time, a kinsman who was willing and able to pay the price could redeem him or his land.

The redemption of land (vv. 25–28). If the former owner of the land was too poor to redeem his land, then a near kinsman could do it for him. But if the former owner somehow acquired the necessary wealth, he could redeem it for himself. The price would depend, of course, on the number of years (harvests) until the Year of Jubilee. If the man had neither a willing kinsman nor the necessary wealth, he would have to wait until the Year of Jubilee to regain his property.

The redemption of houses (vv. 29–34). A house in a walled city would be much more valuable than one in the open land because it afforded protection from invaders. The former owner had only one year in which to redeem the house. After that, it belonged to the new owner and wouldn’t even revert to the original owner in the Year of Jubilee. After all, nobody would want to purchase an expensive house, move his family in, and then wonder how long he’d be living there!

Houses in unwalled villages could be redeemed at any time and would revert to the original owner at the Year of Jubilee. If a Levite sold his house in one of the forty-eight Levitical cities (Num. 35; Josh. 21), he could redeem it at any time. If he didn’t redeem it, the house would revert to him or his family at the Year of Jubilee. The Levites were given no tribal land allotment because the Lord was their inheritance (Josh. 13:14, 33; 14:3–4; 18:7), but they were given pasture lands adjacent to their cities (Num. 35:1–5). These lands could not be sold. (However, see Acts 4:34–37.)

The redemption of the poor (vv. 35–55). Moses deals with three possible scenarios.

A bankrupt brother in debt (vv. 35–38) could expect his “brother’’ Jews to assist him with an interestfree loan, for the Jews were to treat one another compassionately, like members of the same family. The Jews were allowed to charge interest to Gentiles (Deut. 23:19–20). Since any debt incurred would be remitted during the Year of Jubilee, assisting others was truly an act of faith. However, the Lord had been so good to Israel in redeeming the nation from Egypt, allowing them to spoil the Egyptians, and giving Israel the land of Canaan, that no Jew should want to exploit his fellow Jew. “Freely ye have received, freely give’’ (Matt. 10:8). The early church was quick to pick up this principle and put it into practice in helping widows and other needy believers (Acts 2:44–47; 4:34—5:1; 6:1–7; see Deut. 10:18; 24:17).

A poor brother who became the slave of a Jew (vv. 39–46) could be expected to be treated like a hired worker and not a slave. His master was to treat him and his family with kindness, for the Jews were once slaves in Egypt, and the Lord graciously delivered them. How could a Jew enslave a brother whom the Lord had set free? A Jewish slave was to serve only six years and go free at the Sabbath Year (Ex. 21:2), but if the Year of Jubilee came first, he was a free man.

The Jews were allowed to own slaves from the Gentile nations around them or the aliens living in their land (Lev. 25:44–46), but a Jew could never enslave a fellow Jew. Slaves were considered the property of the owner and could be made a part of the family inheritance. In other words, Gentile slaves had no hope of being set free, unless they could secure the purchase price, or the master decided to set them free.

During the Civil War era, some Americans used passages like these to prove that it was biblical and right for people to own and sell slaves. But it must be noted that God’s laws didn’t establish slavery; they regulated it and actually made it more humane. Slavery was an institution that had existed for centuries before Moses gave the law, and the law of Moses forbade the Jews to enslave one another. God had to eliminate slavery in Israel before He could deal with it in the Gentile nations. Had the Jews treated one another as the law required, Israel would have been a testimony to the Gentile nations of the grace and kindness of the Lord. Instead, Israel failed to obey and eventually became slaves themselves, as recorded in the book of Judges.

Even in the New Testament, you find neither Jesus nor Paul openly attacking slavery, although historians tell us there were probably 60 million slaves in the Roman Empire in that day. But Jesus and Paul brought the message of salvation to individuals, and it would be through saved individuals that the institution of slavery would finally be abolished. Christians are the salt of the earth and the light of the world (Matt. 5:13–16), and they make their influence felt through example and persuasion. As Alexander Maclaren wrote, “[The gospel message] meddles directly with no political or social arrangements, but lays down principles which will profoundly affect these, and leaves them to soak into the general mind.’’

If the early church had launched a militant crusade against slavery, it would have identified Christianity as a political movement, and this would have hindered the spreading of the gospel in the Roman world. Since there were no democracies or popular elections in those days, the church had no vehicle for overthrowing slavery. When you consider how difficult it’s been for the contemporary civil rights movement even to influence the Christian church, how much more difficult it would have been to wage such a war in the days of Caesar!

For reasons that are known only to Him, the Lord chooses to change people and society gradually, through the ministry of the Holy Spirit and the proclamation of the truth of the Word of God. While the principles of God’s will are the same from age to age, we have no authority to apply to society today the laws that regulated Israel during the dispensation of the Mosaic law.

A Jew enslaved by a Gentile (vv. 47–55) could be redeemed by a near kinsman who was willing and wealthy enough to do it. It’s interesting to note that a Gentile “resident alien’’ in the land of Israel had to obey the law of Moses, even though he wasn’t a member of the Jewish covenant community. If the Jew was able to raise the purchase price, he could buy his freedom, and the price would be calculated according to the Year of Jubilee. The Gentile master was required to treat the Jewish slave as a hired servant and not treat him harshly. If not redeemed, the slave and his family would be released at the Year of Jubilee.

The classic example of the law of the kinsmanredeemer is recorded in the book of Ruth, where Boaz redeemed both Ruth and her inheritance and then married her. The Lord Jesus Christ took upon Himself sinless human flesh and became our “near kinsman’’ (Heb. 2:5–18), so that He might give Himself as the redemption price and set us free. Only He was qualified to do what had to be done, and He was willing to do it. Not only did He redeem us, but also He gave us a share in and made us a part of His inheritance!

It’s unfortunate that the Jewish people didn’t obey the laws given in this chapter, for their selfishness and greed brought ruin to the land and their economic system. The prophets rebuked the rich for exploiting the poor and stealing their houses, lands, and even their children (Isa. 3:14–15; 10:1–3; Amos 2:6–7; 5:11). The local courts ignored God’s decrees; the judges, enriched by bribes, passed down decisions that favored the wealthy and crushed the poor. But God heard the cries of the poor and one day brought terrible judgment to the people of Israel.

God is concerned about how we use the resources He’s given us and how we treat one another in the marketplace. Both ecology and economy are His concern, and He eventually judges those who exploit others and treat them in ways that are less than humane (Amos 1—2). The church of Jesus Christ has thrived under many kinds of political and economic systems and isn’t dependent on any of them, but the church must always champion the rights of the poor and the oppressed and use every spiritual weapon to defeat the oppressors.

“A decent provision for the poor is the true test of civilization,’’ said British writer Samuel Johnson.

“You hear, O Lord, the desire of the afflicted; you encourage them, and you listen to their cry, defending the fatherless and the oppressed, in order that man, who is of the earth, may terrify no more’’ (Ps. 10:17–18 niv).