Leviticus 23
Leviticus 23:1 says, "The Lord spoke to Moses saying, "Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, 'These are the appointed feasts of the Lord that you shall proclaim as holy convocations. They are my appointed feasts.'"" And with this, what we're going to get into in this section of the Book of Leviticus, specifically here in chapter 23, are the annual feasts or festivals that Israel would celebrate before God as a way to worship the Lord. Most of these feasts or half of these feasts would happen in the springtime, and half of these feasts would happen in the fall season.
Introduction - The Feasts
And it to me is beautiful, because I believe that the passage of time is meant to be a worshipful expression to God. I mean, every year in their rhythms, there would just be the consciousness of God in their lives, sort of keeping track of their age and their families and their development as a people.
And I would imagine that when the Passover occurred, or the Day of Atonement occurred, and then all the various feasts and festivals attached to those two major festivals in the fall and in the spring, I imagine the people of Israel considering, "Have I grown? Have I progressed? What new development has occurred in my life? Last year I was here and I had no children, and now this year, my wife has had a baby and they're at home and I need to pray and intercede for them. I want to be a better and more godly man. Or last year when I was here, I was full and prospering and wealthy, but this year I'm struggling, and I need God to strengthen me, I need His help to sustain me. Last year, when I came, I was thirsty and searching and really panting after God, this year my heart is not desiring the Lord, is out of step with him."
And I think each of these moments would be sort of a checkup for the people of Israel. And of course, they would serve as an opportunity for Israel. Each one of these feasts and festivals an opportunity for Israel to declare, "I'm in covenant with God, I want to grow with God, I want to be devoted to God." Now, of course, for us as we look through these different feasts and festivals, as Christians we don't keep any of these festivals, we don't keep the Passover, or the Day of Pentecost, or Weeks, or the Firstfruits, we don't keep these various festivals, but all of them are imbued with great meaning. And, of course, the full meaning is found in Christ. Jesus is the fulfillment of all of these things, the Atonement, the Passover, and all of that. But there are elements of these feasts and festivals that we find in our own relationship and walk with God as well. So we'll try to think about that as we move through this chapter.
Now, as I mentioned, the festivals or feasts they all occurred in the spring and in the fall. And they'll start here in chapter 23 with the Passover, and then end here in chapter 23 with the Feast of Booths. This is not the only place of course that these festivals are mentioned, and if you've followed with me in the study of Exodus, you know that we already went through a detailed description of the feasts in the Book of Exodus, but this is for the Levitical priesthood to know when the worship should occur and the calendar that they needed to use to respect and worship God with.
So we're going to have the feasts of Passover, Unleavened Bread, Firstfruits or Pentecost. These will occur in the spring, as I mentioned. And then we'll... And all of those were kind of called collectively Passover. So those three feasts all kind of thought of as Passover. Then there's the harvest. That actually is the Day of Pentecost, which would happen 50 days later. And then in the fall, there would be the Feast of Trumpets, and Atonement, and Tabernacles. And so we're going to think about those feasts as we move through this passage.
Some of you might be thinking about the feasts of Purim or Hanukkah. Purim you read about in the Book of Esther, Hanukkah happened after biblical times. And you might be wondering, well, what about those feasts? Well, remember, this is the Book of Leviticus, Moses being its author. So those feasts all occurred later on in Israel's history, and we're extra biblical in nature.
1 The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 2 “Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, These are the appointed feasts of the Lord that you shall proclaim as holy convocations; they are my appointed feasts.
It says there in verse two, there's a phrase there that stands out, it calls it a holy convocation. And that word is repeated many times in this chapter more than any other chapter in Scripture. And what a convocation is, is a calling together of people. Literally, it can mean a call, or a summons, or even a reading. The idea being that the people would gather together, they're called to worship, they're invited to worship. And God is still inviting people to worship, He is still issuing the summons to worship Him collectively with other believers.
One of the, I believe, most grievous things that can happen in the life of a Christian is a neglect for the Body of Christ, and neglect for the public gathering, and neglect for that worship encounter collectively with other believers. And I completely understand reservations that many modern believers have, or a distaste that many modern believers have for many modern expressions of worship. I've not ever been much of a stickler, I believe that the timeless truth of God's Word can be expressed in ways that are current to that time and space. However, there are forms and expressions of worship that feel so loose, so even disrespectful, and so detached from the forms of worship that we might find in the New Testament, that I could understand how a believer might look at a worship experience or gathering in a local community and feel like this is like a cheap knockoff version of a TED talk and a concert kind of put together. That's not inspiring.
I think what we're wanting to do is to come together to approach the Living God. And so, as we sing to Him, as we read His Word, as we pray to Him, as we partake of communion, as someone opens the Book as a representative of God, as if God Himself is through this person who's an imperfect vessel and the perfect instrument of His Word that God is speaking to us and then we are making a decision to respond, as we receive through communion, His grace afresh as baptism occurs, all of these things are meant to shape and form us in beautiful ways. God is still calling His people, He's still summoning us into not just lives of worship, but actual moments where we gather together with other believers to worship the Lord. And so the nation here, Israel, is invited multiple times each year to come and worship there in Jerusalem just as we are invited today to come and worship the Lord.
3 “Six days shall work be done, but on the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest, a holy convocation. You shall do no work. It is a Sabbath to the Lord in all your dwelling places.
Now, in verse three, we have the first of the feasts or the first of the festivals mentioned. And really isn't even one of the festivals, it's the sabbath. So let's read it together. It says in verse three, "Six days shall work be done, but on the seventh day is a sabbath of solemn rest, a holy convocation. You shall do no work. It is a sabbath to the Lord in all your dwelling places."
Now, in a sense, the sabbath is and was foundational to the rest of these festivals, partly because they would treat the festival days similarly to the way they were meant to treat sabbath. There were some carryovers, in other words. So you weren't to work on the sabbath, you weren't to work on these various festivals. They would treat them as an extension of the sabbath itself.
But there's also something about the... Excuse me, the form of these festivals in the religious calendar year that has a tone of sabbath over it, in that the sacred number of sabbath, of course, the seventh day, which of course started on the seventh day of creation. "After six days, on the seventh day," Genesis tells us, "God rested from all of His creating or His work of creation, and sort of set that pattern for His people in the future." But you see that sacredness of the number seven all throughout this chapter, every seventh day is a holy sabbath, we read right here, every seventh year, we'll discover, is a sabbath year of rest for the crop bearing land.
After seven sevens, we're going to read in chapter 25, there's a year called The Year of Jubilee, a time where things reset in a beautiful way, where it's a year of sabbath before God. And then Passover is held at the end of the seventh... Excuse me, at the end of the second season on the evening of the 14th. The Feast of Unleavened Bread is celebrated for the next seven days. The Feast of Pentecost celebrated seven sevens after that, so 49 days or the 50th day after the Passover. And the seventh month of the Jewish calendar was chock-full with many festivals, the Feast of Trumpets, the Day of Atonement, the Feast of Tabernacles, which would be celebrated, the Feast of Tabernacles, for seven days.
So you can see the number seven all throughout this festal calendar, kind of helps you understand maybe why the chapter begins with a reminder about keeping of the sabbath. Now, I've mentioned this before, I don't need to belabor it, but the sabbath is the one commandment of the 10 commandments, the Decalogue, that is not reiterated in the New Testament. You know, when Jesus came, He fulfilled the law of God, He fulfilled the 10 commandments for us, but then He then recommissioned through His own words and also the words of His apostles, nine out of the 10 commandments. They come to us in other forms in the New Testament era. The only one that isn't repeated, as I already said, is the sabbath.
Jesus in the New Testament is presented as our sabbath rest. And He's presented as the Lord of the sabbath, the one who created it for people. Jesus said, in Mark 2:27, "The sabbath was made for man, not man for the sabbath." My opinion is that the sabbath is a wise practice in a believer's life, but that Jesus has through the gospel enabled us to be the ones who choose when that day of sabbath rest occurs. Paul said in Romans 14:5, that some respect one day, others respect another day, others respect all days alike. So, the gospel seems to have given us the freedom to partake of sabbath in the time and space that works for us in our pattern and flow of life.
I mean, ultimately, I believe that Jesus is our sabbath rest, so that even if you're imprisoned or enslaved for the gospel, or something like that you can find rest in your soul and spirit from Jesus, no matter what your experience. I just think that there might be also wisdom in practicing a daily time of... a weekly time of rest, if you are able to do so. As a pastor for me, Sunday, which is a day that many Christians regard as their day of rest, for me, Sunday is one of the most draining days of my week, if not the most draining day of my week. It really isn't a sabbath experience, it's beautiful experience, it's my favorite day of the week in many respects, but it's not a restful experience. I mean, I'm resting in Jesus as I deliver the Word, as I minister to people, but it's a lot of work, it's labor.
So, my family and I, we've always tried to have another day of the week that we regard as sleeping day, pajama day, eat pancakes late in the morning day, watch movies, enjoy each other and just rest day. And I think I've experienced great blessings from that flow of life.
Passover and Unleavened Bread
4 “These are the appointed feasts of the Lord, the holy convocations, which you shall proclaim at the time appointed for them. 5 In the first month [mid-March to mid-April], on the fourteenth day of the month at twilight, is the Lord’s Passover. 6 And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the Feast of Unleavened Bread to the Lord; for seven days you shall eat unleavened bread. 7 On the first day you shall have a holy convocation; you shall not do any ordinary work. 8 But you shall present a food offering to the Lord for seven days. On the seventh day is a holy convocation; you shall not do any ordinary work.”
All right, so he begins with the sabbath, but we should probably pick up the pace. He moves on in verse four and says, "These are the appointed feasts of the Lord, the holy convocations, which you shall proclaim at the time appointed for them. In the first month..." in their calendar year that meant mid March to mid April. "On the 14th day of the month at twilight is the Lord's Passover. And on the 15th day of the same month is the Feast of Unleavened Bread to the Lord. For seven days you shall eat unleavened bread. On the first day you shall have a holy convocation, you shall not do any ordinary work, but you shall present a food offering to the Lord for seven days. On the seventh day is a holy convocation, you shall not do any ordinary work."
Now, here in this first little section, I mean, we just read about the Passover. And a lot of details are missing here about the Passover, the original Passover of course occurring in Exodus 12 and 13. And you could go back there and see the details that were sort of established originally for the people of Israel, knowing that this would be something they partook of and practiced for years to come. But it's combined with the Feast of Unleavened Bread, which we'll read about next. But they're kind of merged together, these twin festivals, the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread.
And, of course, Jesus is our ultimate fulfillment of the Passover, because He, as John the Baptist said, is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. He's the ultimate Passover lamb. Just as the Angel of Death passed over the homes of the Hebrew people who had the blood of the pure and spotless lamb on the doorpost of their homes, on that Passover night, so the Angel of Death, so to speak, passes over all of those who have the blood of Jesus applied to their hearts and lives today.
9 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 10 “Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, When you come into the land that I give you and reap its harvest, you shall bring the sheaf of the firstfruits of your harvest to the priest, 11 and he shall wave the sheaf before the Lord, so that you may be accepted. On the day after the Sabbath the priest shall wave it. 12 And on the day when you wave the sheaf, you shall offer a male lamb a year old without blemish as a burnt offering to the Lord. 13 And the grain offering with it shall be two tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with oil, a food offering to the Lord with a pleasing aroma, and the drink offering with it shall be of wine, a fourth of a hin. 14 And you shall eat neither bread nor grain parched or fresh until this same day, until you have brought the offering of your God: it is a statute forever throughout your generations in all your dwellings.
So Jesus is our great Passover. And the Lord, verse nine, spoke to Moses saying, "Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, 'When you come into the land that I give you and reap its harvest, you shall bring the sheaf of the firstfruits of your harvest to the priest, and he shall wave the sheaf before the Lord so that you may be accepted. On the day after the sabbath, the priest shall wave it.
And on the day when you wave the sheaf, you shall offer a male lamb a year old without blemish as a burnt offering to the Lord. And the grain offering with it shall be two-tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with oil, a food offering to the Lord with a pleasing aroma. And the drink offering with it shall be of wine, a fourth of a hin. And you shall eat neither bread nor grain parched or fresh until the same day until you have brought the offering of your God as a statute forever throughout your generations in all your dwellings.'" So here we have the Feast of Unleavened Bread that they would offer to the Lord, and then also here, the Feast of Harvest.
Now, the idea here is that they were not yet in the land of Canaan, but one day they would be in the land of Canaan. And so these were preparatory feasts, in many ways. As they wandered in the wilderness there were no harvests for them to offer to God, but that day by faith was going to come in their lives. I think there's just many things in our lives we need to receive from the Lord beforehand, and almost by faith, say, "You know, God, you're going to bring me to that place. I might not be feeling like the fruit is happening right now, but you're going to bring me into the Land of Promise.
And I'm not just talking about heaven, I'm talking about God's fullest plan for our lives today. And here the people of Israel they're hearing about concepts that were yet future because they needed to go in and conquer and take territory that God had given to them. I'd encourage you to be confident not in yourself but confident in the Lord that He has territory that He wants you to take inside your heart and spirit. You know, that the fruit of the spirit, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, self-control, these things would be your destiny in Christ. We don't have to tell ourselves that we're destined to be the same as we are today, but we can believe that there is a territory that Christ wants to win in our lives so that fruit might come.
And so here in advance, the people of Israel are hearing about this fruit that is going to come, and what they need to do with it as they offer it to the Lord. They were to give the first of it to God as a way to praise God for their material blessings. It's as if they were saying to God, "God, these things for one aren't really even ours, they belong to you." And I think that's a great perspective of God's people for all time, that we would see ourselves as stewards of what God has given to us, managers of what God has given to us, but that it all actually truly really belongs to God. It's on loan to us, and we are stewarding it for His purposes and glory. And I think this helps us when we think about purchases and financial goals to consider this actually belongs to the Lord, it belongs to God.
But then it also would communicate, "God, we know, not only does this belong to you, and you've entrusted it into our care, but we also confess that we can't get this without you. These crops, all of that, they've come from you, you're the one blessing us and caring for us. It's not our own ingenuity, it's you. And so, we want to be faithful to you so that you will... We'll be where your blessing is, so that we can receive your provision. We want to be under the spout where the blessing comes out, in other words." And so the people of Israel by offering these gifts to God were saying these things to the Lord.
Now, the concept of firstfruits, this Feast of Firstfruits, or sacrifice of firstfruits, is popular in the New Testament as well. If you've read more of the New Testament than the Old Testament, you've read this phrase, firstfruits, a few different times in a few different contexts in the New Testament. In Romans 8, Paul uses the term firstfruits to talk about the firstfruits of the spirit. So, those who are born again, we have the spirit. So this is the first kind of down payment, deposit that God has given to us. We know that heaven is coming, but what's the firstfruits of what we get through the gospel, while the spirit comes to live inside of us? One day we'll get the totality of who God is and the fullness of the Kingdom, but the firstfruits of everything, God gives the spirit.
He also talked about the Jews in Romans 11:16, as the precursors of the Christian church. So, the firstfruits of God's people, the Jewish people, the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and on and on, we could go. Romans 16:5, there were first believers in a city, Paul called them the firstfruits of a particular town. Jesus is known as the firstfruits of the resurrection. He had to be the first to rise from the dead, and then the rest of us will rise also in the future. And so, there are many different instances in the New Testament where this imagery is borrowed.
Weeks/Pentecost
15 “You shall count seven full weeks from the day after the Sabbath, from the day that you brought the sheaf of the wave offering. 16 You shall count fifty days to the day after the seventh Sabbath. Then you shall present a grain offering of new grain to the Lord. 17 You shall bring from your dwelling places two loaves of bread to be waved, made of two tenths of an ephah. They shall be of fine flour, and they shall be baked with leaven, as firstfruits to the Lord. 18 And you shall present with the bread seven lambs a year old without blemish, and one bull from the herd and two rams. They shall be a burnt offering to the Lord, with their grain offering and their drink offerings, a food offering with a pleasing aroma to the Lord. 19 And you shall offer one male goat for a sin offering, and two male lambs a year old as a sacrifice of peace offerings. 20 And the priest shall wave them with the bread of the firstfruits as a wave offering before the Lord, with the two lambs. They shall be holy to the Lord for the priest. 21 And you shall make a proclamation on the same day. You shall hold a holy convocation. You shall not do any ordinary work. It is a statute forever in all your dwelling places throughout your generations. 22 “And when you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap your field right up to its edge, nor shall you gather the gleanings after your harvest. You shall leave them for the poor and for the sojourner: I am the Lord your God.”
But let's move on to the Feast of Pentecost in verse 15. He says, "You shall count seven full weeks from the day after the sabbath, from the day that you brought the sheaf of the wave offering. You shall count 50 days to the day after the seventh sabbath. Then you shall present a grain offering of new grain to the Lord. You shall bring from your dwelling places two loaves of bread to be waved, made of two-tenths of an ephah. They shall be of fine flour, and they shall be baked with leaven, as firstfruits to the Lord. And you shall present with the bread seven lambs a year old without blemish, and one bull from the herd and two lambs.
They shall be a burnt offering to the Lord, with their grain offering and their drink offerings, a food offering with a pleasing aroma to the Lord. And you shall offer one male goat for a sin offering, and two male lambs a year old as a sacrifice of peace offerings. And the priest shall wave them with the bread of the firstfruits as a wave offering before the Lord, with the two lambs. They shall be holy to the Lord for the priest. And you shall make a proclamation on the same day. You shall hold a holy convocation. You shall not do any ordinary work. It is a statute forever in all your dwelling places throughout your generations. And when you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap your field right up to its edge, nor shall you gather the gleanings after your harvest. You shall leave them for the poor and the sojourner: I am the Lord your God."
Okay. So the Feast of Firstfruits or... Excuse me, the Feast of Pentecost, here, or the Feast of Weeks. The reason it's called the Feast of Weeks is because it comes seven weeks after the Feast of Firstfruits. And so, it was a time of Thanksgiving, again, for God's provision. They gave the first to God. But now they come back a couple of months later, almost, to celebrate that God has continued to provide for them. And, of course, this is the day that the church in a sense was born, Jesus ascended 10 days before the Day of Pentecost, and then on the Day of Pentecost, after they prayed for 10 days together, a little group of 120 or so people, the spirit, in Acts 2, was poured out upon them. And this beautiful new thing occurred called the church, they preach the gospel, and that's why I say the church on the Day of Pentecost or the Feast of Weeks was born.
Of course, it always stands out to us as something that's beautiful to see the way that God wanted them to take care of those who were poor. And in the covenant, they're in Israel, he told them again in verse 22, that they should not reap the field right up to the edge, they should leave a little bit there, same with the corners. And they shouldn't go back and glean, so they could only pass through the crop one time, but anything they missed, and the corners and edges needed to just be there for those who were poor in the land to be able to go in later and receive whatever was left. It was a way for them to sustain themselves. And sometimes the poor would include widows, those who were orphaned, this would be a way for them to be able to go out and do a little bit of work and have their needs met and cared for. And this beautiful spirit carries forward, of course, into the New Testament era, both through the ministry of Jesus but also through the ministry of His church and the writings of the apostles.
Trumpets
23 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 24 “Speak to the people of Israel, saying, In the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you shall observe a day of solemn rest, a memorial proclaimed with blast of trumpets, a holy convocation. 25 You shall not do any ordinary work, and you shall present a food offering to the Lord.”
Now, fast forward from there, the mid to late spring into the fall, and look at verse 23, it says, "Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, "Speak to the people of Israel, saying: 'In the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you shall observe a day of solemn rest, a memorial proclaimed with blasts of trumpets, a holy convocation, you shall not do any ordinary work, and you shall present a food offering to the Lord.'"" So after a number of months, the summer months, passing by, the trumpets would blast and the people were called, again, the convocation, they were summoned again to wherever the tabernacle was, which eventually the temple would be built in Jerusalem. But wherever the tabernacle was, that's where the people of Israel were to go to gather and have a holy assembly to worship God. And this is often God's call, He invites us out of our regular routine and brings us into these times of worship.
Now, some say that there are some foreshadowings here of the way that the church is operating today and our expectancy today in that, what do you have with the way these feasts are laid out? The Day of Pentecost occurs then there's a long month's long break in between the feasts, and the next feast is the Trumpet, the Feast of the Trumpets. And so, many have pointed out, well, the church was born on the Day of Pentecost, and what are we waiting for? We're waiting for now, as we're in this church age, the blast of the final trumpet and the return of Christ.
So perhaps those summer months of harvest could be representative of the Church age, which is meant to be an age of harvest. We're meant to be opening up our arms and inviting people to know the Lord. And I just love that spirit, I've never felt myself a highly effective evangelist by any stretch of the imagination, but I've resonated with Paul's exhortation to Timothy, who was a pastor. He told him to do the work of an evangelist. And I've always wanted the church that I pastor to carry that evangelistic heart and spirit. We're not really primarily here to try to preserve the culture or get our views and our way of life to become the societal norm, I mean, we would love that, and as private citizens, we do what we can to promote good and godly practices that would be a blessing to our world and community, but our primary effort, our primary work, is to be a harvest center.
We want to bring people in to know Jesus, because that's how true life change occurs in the first place, but also, this is the point, this is the age that we're in, the church age that we exist in. So perhaps, the Feast of Trumpets depicts that to some degree.
Day of Atonement
26 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 27 “Now on the tenth day of this seventh month is the Day of Atonement. It shall be for you a time of holy convocation, and you shall afflict yourselves and present a food offering to the Lord. 28 And you shall not do any work on that very day, for it is a Day of Atonement, to make atonement for you before the Lord your God. 29 For whoever is not afflicted on that very day shall be cut off from his people. 30 And whoever does any work on that very day, that person I will destroy from among his people. 31 You shall not do any work. It is a statute forever throughout your generations in all your dwelling places. 32 It shall be to you a Sabbath of solemn rest, and you shall afflict yourselves. On the ninth day of the month beginning at evening, from evening to evening shall you keep your Sabbath.”
Now, after the Day of Trumpets was the Day of Atonement, in verse 26, it says, "Then the Lord spoke to Moses saying, "Now, on the 10th day of this seventh month is the Day of Atonement. It shall be for you at a time of holy convocation, and you shall afflict yourselves and present a food offering to the Lord, and you shall not do any work on that very day for it is a Day of Atonement to make atonement for you and before the Lord your God. For whoever is not afflicted on that very day shall be cut off from his people, and whoever does any work on that day, that person I will destroy from among his people. You shall not do any work, it is a statute forever throughout your generations in all your dwelling places. It shall be to you a sabbath of solemn rest, and you shall afflict yourselves. On the ninth day of the month, beginning at evening, from evening to evening, you shall keep your sabbath.""
So, again here the Day of Atonement, we've looked at this in detail earlier in the Book of Leviticus, and then of course, also in the Book of Exodus. This was the monumental day for the people of Israel, the day of great expectation that their sin would be covered, it was very important day for God's ancient people. And of course, for us, as believers, the beauty of it is we never have to wait for the Day of Atonement. Every day of our lives, we get to wake up in Christ knowing that the atonement has already occurred on one hand, but then secondly, we get to find His fresh mercies for us that day.
So, there are things every day that we need forgiveness for, that we need cleansing for, that we need the Lord to work on our hearts about. And so to know that we don't have to wait for some day on the calendar year in the future, and I can't wait for that men's retreat because that's when I'm going to get serious about Jesus, we don't have to do that, we can today. You know, the New Testament quoting the Old Testament says, "Today is the day of salvation." And so for us, the Day of Atonement or the experience of atonement can be an on going reality in the Christian life as much as it's a past tense reality, as well.
Tabernacles
33 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 34 “Speak to the people of Israel, saying, On the fifteenth day of this seventh month and for seven days is the Feast of Booths to the Lord. 35 On the first day shall be a holy convocation; you shall not do any ordinary work. 36 For seven days you shall present food offerings to the Lord. On the eighth day you shall hold a holy convocation and present a food offering to the Lord. It is a solemn assembly; you shall not do any ordinary work. 37 “These are the appointed feasts of the Lord, which you shall proclaim as times of holy convocation, for presenting to the Lord food offerings, burnt offerings and grain offerings, sacrifices and drink offerings, each on its proper day, 38 besides the Lord’s Sabbaths and besides your gifts and besides all your vow offerings and besides all your freewill offerings, which you give to the Lord. 39 “On the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when you have gathered in the produce of the land, you shall celebrate the feast of the Lord seven days. On the first day shall be a solemn rest, and on the eighth day shall be a solemn rest. 40 And you shall take on the first day the fruit of splendid trees, branches of palm trees and boughs of leafy trees and willows of the brook, and you shall rejoice before the Lord your God seven days. 41 You shall celebrate it as a feast to the Lord for seven days in the year. It is a statute forever throughout your generations; you shall celebrate it in the seventh month. 42 You shall dwell in booths for seven days. All native Israelites shall dwell in booths, 43 that your generations may know that I made the people of Israel dwell in booths when I brought them out of the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.”
And verse 33, "The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, "Speak to the people of Israel saying, 'On the 15th day of the seventh month and for seven days, is the Feast of Booths to the Lord. On the first day shall be a holy convocation, you shall not do any ordinary work. For seven days you shall present food offerings to the Lord. On the eighth day, you shall hold a holy convocation and present a food offering to the Lord. It is a solemn assembly, you shall not do any ordinary work.'"" So here we have the Feast of Tabernacles.
"These are the appointed feasts of the Lord which you shall proclaim as times of holy convocation for presenting to the Lord food offerings, burnt offerings, and grain offerings, sacrifices and drink offerings, each on its proper day, besides the Lord's sabbaths and besides your gifts and besides all your vow offerings and besides all your freewill offerings, which you give to the Lord. On the 15th day of the seventh month, when you have gathered in the produce of the land, you shall celebrate the feasts of the Lord seven days.
On the first day, shall be a solemn rest, and on the eighth day, shall be a solemn rest. And you shall take on the first day the fruit of splendid trees, branches of palm trees and boughs of leafy trees and willows of the brook, and you shall rejoice before the Lord your God seven days. You shall celebrate it as a feast to the Lord for seven days in the year. It is a statute forever throughout your generations; you shall celebrate it in the seventh month. You shall dwell in booths for seven days.
44 Thus Moses declared to the people of Israel the appointed feasts of the Lord.
All native Israelites shall dwell in booths, that your generations may know that I made the people of Israel dwell in booths when I brought them out of the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God. Thus Moses declared to the people of Israel the appointed feasts of the Lord."
Now, I especially love and I'm attracted to, drawn to, the Feast of Tabernacles, because what a beautiful experience and a great way to train your children? I mean, there they were building these temporary booths where they would camp for a week as a people or as a family, as a way to remember the temporary dwellings that their ancestors occupied in their wilderness wanderings and God's faithfulness to them in the wilderness. What a beautiful thing to train up your children with? And I've encouraged every person hearing this teaching too, if you are a parent, to be someone who does what you need to do to communicate the truths of God to your children. Along the way in life, that you sit down and share with them about the Lord, that you would be someone who talks to them about God's faithfulness in your life, which is what the Feast of Tabernacles was all about.
But I'd also want to encourage you in the reality of God's provision, God's protection, God's defense, God standing with you even in the wilderness experience. It was there that they saw God in some beautiful ways, the pillar of cloud, the pillar of fire, God's drawing of the water from the rock, and turning the bitter water, fresh, the quail, the manna. There were so many ways that God demonstrated His power, His provision, His involvement in their lives out there in the wilderness. And this Feast of Tabernacles would remind them of those times in their past where God had been so abundantly faithful.
And of course, it wasn't meant to just be a beautiful time of reminiscing, but as they reminisced, they were to have their faith built up for what God was doing today. That's what these stories from God's Word are meant to do in our lives. They're not meant to be sterile words that were beautiful in a past time, but words that build us up for the now. That if this is who God was then, well, he's the same yesterday, today, and forever. So he's still working in ways like these today. He's still faithful, still moving, still working in my life.
So, those are the feasts that the people of Israel would celebrate. And I encourage you, you know, not that we... There's no New Testament command that tells us we need to have an annual worship calendar or anything like that. In fact, I tend to be a little bit of a... I don't know, stickler for just remaining free when it comes to that kind of thing. I don't even have major New Testament indications of Easter celebrations and things like that. Even when Christmas time comes around, I'll begrudgingly share a Christmas message or two sometimes to the chagrin of many.
But the reality is, is that every day we get to celebrate the Lord. There is no real New Testament era church religious calendar that we must keep, we just have to continue to gather together. It's like every week we're to celebrate the life, death, resurrection of Jesus. Every Sunday, in a sense, is Easter Sunday. But on the other hand, you in your life, you have rhythms and routines. And I'd encourage you as you think about your year with the Lord, establish what those rhythms and routines are so that you would have opportunities to on-ramp a stronger walk with God throughout the year. I think that's what these festivals did. I think there's great wisdom in that in our lives. So it might be conferences that you go to, books that you read, groups that you're part of, but different moments where it's, "Okay, I'm going to level up and get refocused upon the Lord afresh."
Leviticus 24
1 The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 2 “Command the people of Israel to bring you pure oil from beaten olives for the lamp, that a light may be kept burning regularly. 3 Outside the veil of the testimony, in the tent of meeting, Aaron shall arrange it from evening to morning before the Lord regularly. It shall be a statute forever throughout your generations. 4 He shall arrange the lamps on the lampstand of pure gold before the Lord regularly.
Now, chapter 24, we have a handful of worship regulations combined with a narrative which we don't get a lot of in the Book of Leviticus, but it kind of reminds us that, "Oh, yeah, there were actual people that were reading this book and responding to it as it was unfolding." So let's read it together. It says, in verse one, "The Lord spoke to Moses saying, "Command the people of Israel to bring you pure oil from beaten olives for the lamp that a light may be kept burning regularly. Outside the veil of Testimony, in the Tent of Meeting, Aaron shall arrange it from evening to morning before the Lord, regularly. It shall be a statute forever throughout your generations. He shall arrange the lamps on the lampstand of pure gold before the Lord regularly.""
So here we have some instructions for the priests concerning the lampstand that was inside the tabernacle. So just a reminder for you, there was the outer court, then there was the tent of meeting, the tabernacle. The tabernacle was comprised of two rooms. The larger room was the Holy place, and then the smallest room that the high priest was only supposed to go in once a year was the Holy of Holies. That had the Ark of the Covenant in it. In the larger room, the Holy place, is where the table of showbread was, the altar of incense, and also this lampstand.
And so the priests needed to go in regularly, is the word that's repeated over and over again, to make sure that there was fresh olive oil, so that the lamp could continue to burn and never go out. This is a beautiful image in a lot of different ways. For one, the lampstand actually became one of the best known images of Judaism, kind of an emblem of Judaism itself. But for us, it helps us remember what we are as God's people. You know, when Jesus came, He said, "I am the light of the world," but He also said, "You are the light of the world." And our light should, as this lampstand was supposed to continually burn, it should be maintained.
And as I'll remind you, when we began this Book of Leviticus, we thought for a moment about how Jesus is the ultimate high priest, and He fulfilled the priesthood. And so, we're to see Jesus here, but also we're to see Jesus in the elements of the tabernacle, and the furniture of the tabernacle, and all of that. But we're also probably supposed to see ourselves a little bit, because the New Testament declares that we are a priesthood before the Lord, a holy priesthood before God. So... Or a royal priesthood even, as Peter says it, before God.
So, what we're meant I think to see in some of these priests are the functions of our own personal walk with the Lord. And as we walk with the Lord, there's an element of maintenance, isn't there? You know, it's not glamorous, but we are meant to keep the fire burning. Ultimately, it's a work that God must do, but we're not to sit back and disengage and just hope that God lights us on fire. No, we're to be regularly daily, like this lampstand in the tabernacle, maintaining our lights, maintaining our witness, maintaining our fire, maintaining the oil, maintaining so that we can burn brightly for the Lord.
I've talked with believers from time to time who when talking about their church, it becomes really clear that they are part of a church that is experiential in their gatherings. So, in the mind of many people who attend a highly experiential church, the idea is, I go to church on the weekend, and the worship is banging, the message is just so inspirational, the spirit is there, I get so charged up, and then I go out and I kind of just like am hanging in there, I'm winding down, I'm petering off. And then just when I'm about to hit overload, Sunday comes again, I go to church, and bang, I get filled back up again. And, of course, any good church is going to have a degree of that kind of impact on our lives, but we're to every single day experience worshiping the Lord, being in His Word, and kind of going through our own personal routine of maintaining the lampstand, so to speak.
5 “You shall take fine flour and bake twelve loaves from it; two tenths of an ephah shall be in each loaf. 6 And you shall set them in two piles, six in a pile, on the table of pure gold before the Lord. 7 And you shall put pure frankincense on each pile, that it may go with the bread as a memorial portion as a food offering to the Lord. 8 Every Sabbath day Aaron shall arrange it before the Lord regularly; it is from the people of Israel as a covenant forever. 9 And it shall be for Aaron and his sons, and they shall eat it in a holy place, since it is for him a most holy portion out of the Lord’s food offerings, a perpetual due.”
And so, I think we've got to be careful to maintain our soul. And I think the way the priests were to tend the lampstand morning and the evening is a huge example of that reality. He says in verse five, "You shall take fine flour and bake 12 loaves from it; two-tenths of an ephah shall be in each loaf. And you shall set them in two piles, six in a pile, on the table of pure gold before the Lord. And you shall put pure frankincense on each pile that it may go with the bread as a memorial portion as a food offering to the Lord. Every sabbath day, Aaron shall arrange it before the Lord regularly; it is from the people of Israel as a covenant forever. And it shall be for Aaron and his sons, and they shall eat it in a holy place, since it is for him a most holy portion out of the Lord's food offerings, a perpetual due."
So, they had instructions about the lampstand, and here now they have some instructions about the bread that they bring in every day and offer to God. It was God's bread, but interestingly enough, God didn't eat it, His priests ate it. And perhaps the priests were representative of God, God accepting the bread, and so they consume it. But perhaps they were also representative of the people. God accepts it, but He wants to partake of that meal with His people. And so, His representative people, the priests, eat the bread before the Lord.
Incident of Blasphemy
10 Now an Israelite woman’s son, whose father was an Egyptian, went out among the people of Israel. And the Israelite woman’s son and a man of Israel fought in the camp, 11 and the Israelite woman’s son blasphemed the Name, and cursed. Then they brought him to Moses. His mother’s name was Shelomith, the daughter of Dibri, of the tribe of Dan. 12 And they put him in custody, till the will of the Lord should be clear to them.
Now, after those directions, there's this, as I said earlier, story. It's about blasphemy, somebody who committed blasphemy. So let's read it together. It says in verse 10, "Now an Israelite woman's son, whose father was an Egyptian, went out among the people of Israel." And the reason that that is mentioned will become clear in a moment, his lineage, that he had an Egyptian dad.
"And the Israelite woman's son and a man of Israel..." so a man who had Jewish parents, both father and mother, "Fought in the camp. And the Israelite woman's son blasphemed the Name and cursed. Then they brought him to Moses. His mother's name was Shelomith, the daughter of Dibri, of the tribe of Dan, and they put him in custody till the will of the Lord should be clear to them."
Now, blaspheming the Name of the Lord was a violation of the Decalogue, of the commandments, and it was worthy of death. But there was a question here, because this man was not a full Israelite, a full member of the covenant community, his father was Egyptian. So they kind of didn't know what do we do with this guy? So they put him in custody until God's will became clear to them at that point.
13 Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 14 “Bring out of the camp the one who cursed, and let all who heard him lay their hands on his head, and let all the congregation stone him. 15 And speak to the people of Israel, saying, Whoever curses his God shall bear his sin. 16 Whoever blasphemes the name of the Lord shall surely be put to death. All the congregation shall stone him. The sojourner as well as the native, when he blasphemes the Name, shall be put to death.
"Then the Lord," verse 13, "Spoke to Moses, saying, "Bring out of the camp the one who cursed, and let all who heard him lay their hands on his head and let all the congregation stone him. And speak to the people of Israel, saying, 'Whoever curses his God shall bear his sin. Whoever blasphemes the name of the Lord shall surely be put to death. All the congregation shall stone him. The sojourner as well as the native, when he blasphemes the Name shall be put to death.""" So, again, severe judgment for this sin.
So, what idea is being communicated here? Well, the idea, of course, must be that the blasphemy of God's name since it required such a severe discipline must have been a severe crime, a severe sin. The thing that we often forget when we read passages like these is that God looked at His people and He saw a covenant community. He didn't just see one person, He saw all people. And blasphemy of God's name, which means to disrespect God's name, to operate with a lack of fear of God or reverence for God, cursing God, blaming God, disrespecting God, that blasphemy was so cancerous and dangerous for the community, that when it occurred, it required a hostile or severe treatment. And so, God commissions Moses, says, "No, this guy he's... qualifies under the commandments for the penalty of death."
Now, as believers we of course want to not blaspheme the name of the Lord, but to honor the name of the Lord. In fact, when Jesus's disciples asked Jesus how to pray, we often miss this, but the first thing that Jesus told them to do is to say, "Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name." That's the first request of the Lord's Prayer, for the hallowing, the revering, the respecting, the fearing of God's name. And if you just think about your church family, or your own family, or your own life, if you think about the universal church on earth as it exists today, I think as you consider some of the problems that have occurred maybe in your life, or your church family, or the universal church, if you consider some of the sins perhaps that have been committed that have slowed the church down and made us less effective, wouldn't those things have gone differently if there had been the fear of the Lord, a reverence for God, a real respect for His holy name?
So that first prayer, the hallowing of God's name, it kind of solves everything. A lot of misbehaving, a lot of being off mission, a lot of sin, it's all dealt with when someone more than anything wants God's name to be hallowed. Says in Proverbs 4:23, that we're to keep our hearts with all vigilance for from it flow the springs of life. Keeping our hearts in that place that is pure before God, where we say, "I fear you, I respect you, I revere you.”
17 “Whoever takes a human life shall surely be put to death. 18 Whoever takes an animal’s life shall make it good, life for life. 19 If anyone injures his neighbor, as he has done it shall be done to him, 20 fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth; whatever injury he has given a person shall be given to him. 21 Whoever kills an animal shall make it good, and whoever kills a person shall be put to death. 22 You shall have the same rule for the sojourner and for the native, for I am the Lord your God.”
Now, verse 17, he says, "Whoever takes a human life shall surely be put to death." He kind of recaps this narrative where the man blasphemed by saying this. And verse 18, continuing, "Whoever takes an animal's life shall make it good, life for life." So animal murder, so to speak, or theft and then killing an animal is treated very differently from taking of human life, because in God's Word, it's very clear human life and animal life are nowhere near the same level, because human life contains the image of God. "If anyone injures his neighbor," verse 19, "As he has done it, it shall be done to him, fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth. Whatever injury he has given a person shall be given to him. Whoever kills an animal shall make it good. And whoever kills a person shall be put to death. You shall have the same rule for the sojourner and for the native, for I am the Lord your God."
And these statements from God, what they provided was, of course, justice on one hand, but also, it wasn't so much that they kept the people of Israel from doing nothing, probably more so they kept the people of Israel from doing too much. You know how it is, I mean, some of these things that he mentioned, if anyone injures his neighbor, fractures, an eye for an eye, tooth for tooth. The idea is that when someone strikes you and your tooth is knocked out, so often the temptation is to personally find revenge and go above and beyond just the taking of a tooth, you want more than that. And so here, this phrase or these words are restrictive in nature. For anyone who would want to do less and bring no justice, it calls them up. But for anyone who would want to do more than what is just, it brings them back down and sort of makes it an even kind of distribution of penalties.
23 So Moses spoke to the people of Israel, and they brought out of the camp the one who had cursed and stoned him with stones. Thus the people of Israel did as the Lord commanded Moses.
"So Moses," verse 23, "Spoke to the people of Israel, and they brought out of the camp, the one who had cursed and stoned him with stones, thus the people of Israel did as the Lord commanded Moses." So this man was made an example of so that the people of Israel would see how important it was to revere the name of the Lord.
Leviticus 25
Now, chapter 25, we have a special year that is mentioned, a sabbatical year, followed by the Year of Jubilee. And so let's mostly read this with a few comments.
Sabbatical Year
1 The Lord spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai, saying, 2 “Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, When you come into the land that I give you, the land shall keep a Sabbath to the Lord. 3 For six years you shall sow your field, and for six years you shall prune your vineyard and gather in its fruits, 4 but in the seventh year there shall be a Sabbath of solemn rest for the land, a Sabbath to the Lord. You shall not sow your field or prune your vineyard. 5 You shall not reap what grows of itself in your harvest, or gather the grapes of your undressed vine. It shall be a year of solemn rest for the land. 6 The Sabbath of the land shall provide food for you, for yourself and for your male and female slaves and for your hired worker and the sojourner who lives with you, 7 and for your cattle and for the wild animals that are in your land: all its yield shall be for food.
The sabbatical year mentioned in verse one through seven, "The Lord spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai saying, "Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, 'When you come into the land that I give you, the land shall keep a sabbath to the Lord. For six years you shall sow your field, and for six years you shall prune your vineyard and gather in its fruits, but in the seventh year, there should be a sabbath of solemn rest for the land, a sabbath to the Lord. You shall not sow your field or prune your vineyard, you shall not reap what grows of itself in your harvest, or gather the grapes of your undressed vine. It shall be a year of solemn rest for the land. The sabbath of the land shall provide food for you, for yourself, and for your male and female slaves, and for your hired worker and the sojourner who lives with you. And for your cattle and for the wild animals that are in your hand: all its yield shall be for food.'""
So, here what God says is something that actually became very significant historically for the people of Israel, and it was that every seven years their land was supposed to take a sabbath itself. So every seven years the land was not to be tilled, plowed, cultivated in any way, and it was just to lie fallow and to rest.
Now, as you can imagine, this would take great faith, wouldn't it? You know, trust that in the sixth year God would provide enough to get you to the eighth year and the harvest that was inside of that year, because you're skipping that seventh year. And eventually, the people of Israel just ignored this commission from God entirely, and they ignored it for 490 years. And so what that means is that there were 70 of these years, these sabbath years for the land that they did not give to the land over those 490 years.
So, the prophet Jeremiah came onto the scene and said, "Hey, you, you haven't let the land rest for 490 years, that means there's 70 sabbath years that the land should have gotten, that it didn't get. You know, every seven years, 490 years divided by seven, 70. So, you are going to be carried into captivity for a period of 70 years. And that's exactly what happened. They were carried into Babylon for 70 years before they were allowed to return. And the land during that time got the rest that the people of Israel would not give to it. So like I said, this became a very important commandment historically for the people of Israel. It just kind of goes back to that sabbath Keeping.
But then on the 50th year, so every seven years you're keeping this command to give the land rest, and, of course, the 49th year, seven times seven, the 49th year would be that land of rest. But then what do you do on the 50th year? You don't start over again.
The Year of Jubilee
8 “You shall count seven weeks of years, seven times seven years, so that the time of the seven weeks of years shall give you forty-nine years. 9 Then you shall sound the loud trumpet on the tenth day of the seventh month. On the Day of Atonement you shall sound the trumpet throughout all your land. 10 And you shall consecrate the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you, when each of you shall return to his property and each of you shall return to his clan. 11 That fiftieth year shall be a jubilee for you; in it you shall neither sow nor reap what grows of itself nor gather the grapes from the undressed vines. 12 For it is a jubilee. It shall be holy to you. You may eat the produce of the field.
Look what it says in verse eight. It says, "You shall count seven weeks of years, seven times seven years, so that the time of the seven weeks of years shall give you 49 years. Then you shall sound the loud trumpet on the 10th day of the seventh month. On the Day of Atonement, you shall sound the trumpet throughout all your land, and you shall consecrate the 50th year and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a Jubilee for you. When each of you shall return to his property and each of you shall return to his clan, that 50th year shall be a Jubilee for you; in it you shall neither sow nor reap what grows of itself nor gather the grapes from the undressed vines. For it is a Jubilee. It shall be holy to you. You may eat the produce of the field."
Even the word Jubilee just kind of communicates this is a time of celebration. There's something fun about this moment. And at the Year of Jubilee, it was a time of everything just kind of going back to the way it was supposed to be. Land going back to its original recipients, and debts being canceled out, and the nation just kind of getting this fresh start together before the Lord. And so what that would mean is that the 49th year was a year of rest for the land, but so was the 50th year. So there would be two full years that they weren't farming their land there in Israel.
13 “In this year of jubilee each of you shall return to his property. 14 And if you make a sale to your neighbor or buy from your neighbor, you shall not wrong one another. 15 You shall pay your neighbor according to the number of years after the jubilee, and he shall sell to you according to the number of years for crops. 16 If the years are many, you shall increase the price, and if the years are few, you shall reduce the price, for it is the number of the crops that he is selling to you. 17 You shall not wrong one another, but you shall fear your God, for I am the Lord your God.
"In this Year of Jubilee," verse 13, "Each of you shall return to his property. And if you make a sale to your neighbor or buy from your neighbor, you shall not wrong one another. You shall pay your neighbor according to the number of years after the Jubilee, and he shall sell to you according to the number of years for crops. If the years are many, you shall increase the price, and if the years are few, you shall reduce the price, for it is the number of the crops that he is selling to you. You shall not wrong one another, but you shall fear your God, for I am the Lord your God."
So, this was kind of a no-brainer. If you were selling a piece of property and the Year of Jubilee was in two years, you could not expect that someone was going to pay for the property the amount that they might pay if there were 38 years to go until the Jubilee. That's why God says, "You're not really paying for the land, you're paying for the number of crops that can be reaped from that land until the Year of Jubilee when it comes back to you into your family.”
18 “Therefore you shall do my statutes and keep my rules and perform them, and then you will dwell in the land securely. 19 The land will yield its fruit, and you will eat your fill and dwell in it securely. 20 And if you say, ‘What shall we eat in the seventh year, if we may not sow or gather in our crop?’ 21 I will command my blessing on you in the sixth year, so that it will produce a crop sufficient for three years. 22 When you sow in the eighth year, you will be eating some of the old crop; you shall eat the old until the ninth year, when its crop arrives.
"Therefore," verse 18, "You shall do my statutes and keep my rules and perform them, and then you will dwell in the land securely. The land will yield its fruit, and you will eat your fill and dwell in it securely. And if you say, 'What shall we eat in the seventh year, if we may not sow or gather in our crop?' I will command my blessing on you in the sixth year, so that it will produce a crop sufficient for three years. When you sow in the eighth year, you will be eating some of the old crop; you shall eat the old until the ninth year, when its crop arrives."
So in the idea of giving the land rest every seventh year, and then the 49th and 50th year, there would be the question, "How are we going to do this? How can God provide for us?" And as I already mentioned, there's a long stretch of time where they didn't trust the Lord, but here God is saying, "Trust me, I'm going to give you enough in the sixth year to get you through the seventh year, or the 49th year, the 50th year, and on into the 51st year," which would have been the ninth year in that seven year range. He's saying, "I'm going to miraculously take care of you. I'm going to prosper you so that you can be obedient to me."
And I think this is so important, and I think could resonate with our hearts today, to trust that when God is asking us to obey Him in different areas of our lives, rather than arguing with Him and saying, "You know, I can't see how this is going to work out for me," instead saying, "God, I trust you."
I think of someone who is needing to trust God with their sexual desires, for instance, and there's God saying, "In your singleness, I don't want you to express those sexual desires, I want you to wait, I want you to be faithful, and wait until you can enter into a covenant with someone of the opposite sex, and in marriage join together with them." And someone might argue and say, "Well, I can't do it, that's archaic, that's so old-school, that doesn't work, it's ineffective. Have you seen the culture that I'm in? The temptation is bombarding me daily. Isn't it unhealthy for me to suppress my sexual desires?"
And God looks at us and says, "I could take care of you. I can provide for you. I'll be there for you. You need to be faithful to me, and I will show and demonstrate my faithfulness to you." And so the people of Israel are great example of that. But again, for many years they did not trust the Lord in this area.
23 “The land shall not be sold in perpetuity, for the land is mine. For you are strangers and sojourners with me. 24 And in all the country you possess, you shall allow a redemption of the land.
25 “If your brother becomes poor and sells part of his property, then his nearest redeemer shall come and redeem what his brother has sold. 26 If a man has no one to redeem it and then himself becomes prosperous and finds sufficient means to redeem it, 27 let him calculate the years since he sold it and pay back the balance to the man to whom he sold it, and then return to his property. 28 But if he does not have sufficient means to recover it, then what he sold shall remain in the hand of the buyer until the year of jubilee. In the jubilee it shall be released, and he shall return to his property.
Verse 23, he said, "The land shall not be sold in perpetuity, for the land is mine." Again, this kind of goes back to the idea that we're just stewards of what God gives to us. "For you are strangers," he said, "And sojourners with me. And in all the country you possess, you shall allow a redemption of the land.
If your brother becomes poor and sells part of his property, then his nearest redeemer shall come and redeem what his brother has sold. If a man has no one to redeem it and then himself becomes prosperous and finds sufficient means to redeem it, let him calculate the years since he sold it and pay back the balance to the man to whom he sold it, and then return to his property. But if he does not have sufficient means to recover it, then what he sold shall remain in the hand of the buyer until the Year of Jubilee. In the Year of Jubilee it shall be released, and he shall return to his property.”
29 “If a man sells a dwelling house in a walled city, he may redeem it within a year of its sale. For a full year he shall have the right of redemption. 30 If it is not redeemed within a full year, then the house in the walled city shall belong in perpetuity to the buyer, throughout his generations; it shall not be released in the jubilee. 31 But the houses of the villages that have no wall around them shall be classified with the fields of the land. They may be redeemed, and they shall be released in the jubilee. 32 As for the cities of the Levites, the Levites may redeem at any time the houses in the cities they possess. 33 And if one of the Levites exercises his right of redemption, then the house that was sold in a city they possess shall be released in the jubilee. For the houses in the cities of the Levites are their possession among the people of Israel. 34 But the fields of pastureland belonging to their cities may not be sold, for that is their possession forever.
So, the original family that owned the land had the right to repurchase the land at any time, but if they couldn't afford to do it, then on the Year of Jubilee, it would be returned to them anyways. "If a man," verse 29, "Sells a dwelling house in a walled city, he may redeem it within a year of its sale." So not in perpetuity. "For a full year he shall have the right of redemption. If it is not redeemed within a full year, then the house in the walled city shall belong in perpetuity to the buyer throughout his generations. It shall not be released in the Jubilee. But the houses of the villages that have no wall around them shall be classified with the fields of the land. They may be redeemed, and they shall be released in the Jubilee.
As for the cities of the Levites, the Levites may redeem at any time the houses in the cities they possess. And if one of the Levites exercises his right of redemption, then the house that was sold in a city they possess shall be released in the Jubilee. For the houses in the cities of the Levites are their possession among the people of Israel. But the fields of pastureland belonging to their cities may not be sold, for that is their possession forever."
So, in an agrarian society, the fields were very important. And so the fields and then houses attached to the fields would be returned in the Year of Jubilee, but inside cities, walled city, if someone had a house and they sold it for a year, they could redeem it, but after that year, the new owner it was in their family name forever, even after the Year of Jubilee, unless it was a Levite's home. The Levite would receive their home inside a walled city again at the Year of Jubilee if they had sold it.
35 “If your brother becomes poor and cannot maintain himself with you, you shall support him as though he were a stranger and a sojourner, and he shall live with you. 36 Take no interest from him or profit, but fear your God, that your brother may live beside you. 37 You shall not lend him your money at interest, nor give him your food for profit. 38 I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt to give you the land of Canaan, and to be your God.
39 “If your brother becomes poor beside you and sells himself to you, you shall not make him serve as a slave: 40 he shall be with you as a hired worker and as a sojourner. He shall serve with you until the year of the jubilee. 41 Then he shall go out from you, he and his children with him, and go back to his own clan and return to the possession of his fathers. 42 For they are my servants, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt; they shall not be sold as slaves. 43 You shall not rule over him ruthlessly but shall fear your God. 44 As for your male and female slaves whom you may have: you may buy male and female slaves from among the nations that are around you. 45 You may also buy from among the strangers who sojourn with you and their clans that are with you, who have been born in your land, and they may be your property. 46 You may bequeath them to your sons after you to inherit as a possession forever. You may make slaves of them, but over your brothers the people of Israel you shall not rule, one over another ruthlessly.
"If your brother becomes poor and cannot maintain himself with you," verse 35, "You shall support him as though he were a stranger and a sojourner, and he shall live with you. Take no interest from him or profit, but fear your God, that your brother may live beside you. You shall not lend him your money at interest, nor give him your food for profit. I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt to give you the land of Canaan, and to be your God. If your brother becomes poor beside you and sells himself to you, you shall not make him serve as a slave: he shall be with you as a hired worker and as a sojourner. He shall serve with you until the year of the Jubilee.
Then he shall go out from you, he and his children with him, and go back to his own clan and return to the possession of his fathers. For they are my servants, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt; they shall not be sold as slaves. You shall not rule over him ruthlessly but shall fear your God. As for your male and female slaves whom you may have: you may buy male and female slaves from among the nations that are around you. You may also buy from among the strangers who sojourn with you and their clans that are with you, who have been born in your land, and they may be your property. You may bequeath them to your sons after you to inherit as a possession forever. You may make slaves of them, but over your brothers the people of Israel you shall not rule, one over another ruthlessly.
47 “If a stranger or sojourner with you becomes rich, and your brother beside him becomes poor and sells himself to the stranger or sojourner with you or to a member of the stranger’s clan, 48 then after he is sold he may be redeemed. One of his brothers may redeem him, 49 or his uncle or his cousin may redeem him, or a close relative from his clan may redeem him. Or if he grows rich he may redeem himself. 50 He shall calculate with his buyer from the year when he sold himself to him until the year of jubilee, and the price of his sale shall vary with the number of years. The time he was with his owner shall be rated as the time of a hired worker. 51 If there are still many years left, he shall pay proportionately for his redemption some of his sale price. 52 If there remain but a few years until the year of jubilee, he shall calculate and pay for his redemption in proportion to his years of service. 53 He shall treat him as a worker hired year by year. He shall not rule ruthlessly over him in your sight. 54 And if he is not redeemed by these means, then he and his children with him shall be released in the year of jubilee.
“If a stranger or sojourner with you becomes rich, and your brother beside him becomes poor and sells himself to the stranger or sojourner with you or to a member of the stranger's clan, then after he is sold he may be redeemed. One of his brothers may redeem him, or his uncle or his cousin may redeem him, or a close relative from his clan may redeem him. Or if he grows rich he may redeem himself. He shall calculate with his buyer from the year when he sold himself to him until the Year of Jubilee, and the price of his sale shall vary with the number of years. The time he was with his owner shall be rated as the time of a hired worker.
If there are still many years left, he shall pay proportionately for his redemption some of his sale price. If there remain but a few years until the Year of Jubilee, he shall calculate and pay for his redemption in proportion to his years of service. He shall treat him as a worker hired year by year. He shall not rule ruthlessly over him in your sight. And if he is not redeemed by these means, then he and his children with him shall be released in the Year of Jubilee."
Now, that's a mouthful there that we just read. And what we basically covered there in that section was the enslavement of foreigners and nationals in Israel at that time. And the national, who, of course, as a Jew was in the covenant community, was treated a little bit differently than a foreigner who, of course, was outside of the covenant community. And we've talked about this in the past in previous studies, both in Exodus and Leviticus, the moral dilemma of the existence of slavery amongst the ancient Israelite people.
But here, what we discover are some limits or controls to slavery as it occurred in that time and space. First of all, there was no racial component to any of this. Non-Israelites were not considered non-persons. That's not the way that it worked. And they were not even considered inferior. And so, in our nation's history, that's the way slavery worked. Our nation had thought of, in the transatlantic slave trade, had thought of slaves as sub-human, as a species. And that was part of the justification of that ownership of human beings, the enslavement of human beings. But there's no racial component to this in the Old Testament era.
Israelites were permitted to not capture, it doesn't say that, but they could buy these servants for themselves from other nations. This would make it very rare because of the difficulty of going to other places and all of that, but also probably meant that many foreign slaves were actually more in line with indentured servitude. They'd gotten into debt, they needed a fresh start, something like that. And so they sell themselves, so to speak, into these opportunities to make money and be provided for for a season of time.
Another thing is that the purchase of a slave, as I said, the slave himself, the person himself was more likely the individual that's in control of the situation. And all throughout the Old Testament there were controls on the way that a master would treat his slave, he could not abuse or treat them brutally. And then, if a foreign slave became a follower of Yahweh, they could then buy themselves out of their slavery just like an Israelite citizen could do if he sold himself as an indentured servant. He could always buy himself out of that slavery, and be released at the Year of Jubilee.
So there were... The future, in other words, was not as bleak and not nearly as bleak for those who were servants or slaves in that Old Testament era, as we might think of it in our own nation's history. Nonetheless, it was a more undeveloped time amongst God's people. And ultimately, it was the gospel that came in and broke down the walls of slavery in the Roman Empire, and I believe ultimately the gospel that broke down slavery in our own nation's existence as well. Powerful men like William Wilberforce, whose conviction because of the gospel drove them to pursue ways and means of eliminating the evil of the slave trade at that time.
And so, here we see the people of Israel though, this incredible Year of Jubilee, servants being set free, land going back to the original homes, debts being paid, and it reminds us of the incredible time of Jubilee that will come when Christ returns. The millennial reign of Jesus will be a thousand years of Jubilee, things as they should be. And of course, heaven itself, a time of great celebration before the Lord.
55 For it is to me that the people of Israel are servants. They are my servants whom I brought out of the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.
So God concludes this chapter on the Year of Jubilee by saying, "For it is to me that the people of Israel are servants. They are my servants whom I brought out of the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God." Why would no one's servitude be permanent? Because God is the master of all. It's only to Him that we should be allegiant forever. God bless you, church. Have a great week.