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).