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CHAPTER 25
1. Then YHWH spoke to Moshe at Mt. Sinai, saying,
It has been a long time since YHWH mentioned the location, though we have been at Mt. Sinai for the whole book. (7:38) It is therefore important that the contents of this chapter in particular be associated with the fact that Moshe was standing there when he heard them. The instructions that follow are not, like some parts of the Torah, a ruling in response to a particular event or rebellion that arose. These were part of YHWH’s original intent regarding His covenant with Israel.
2. "Speak to the descendants of Israel, and tell them, ‘When you arrive in the Land which I am giving to you, then the land shall rest [for] a sabbath unto YHWH.
Israel is a living land that, like its inhabitants, is granted a mandatory time of rest. We must not only possess the Land, but also be the kind of people who can get along with it. His Land is symbolic of His covenant people, and it is meant to provide for us. By eating of it, it literally becomes part of us as its nutrients pass through the food grown there into us. One’s body regenerates every seven years, at the same interval as the Land. We must consume what we want to become in the next seven years. If we do not observe this Sabbath, the Land will not be able to either. By allowing it to rest, we are given rest as well. When we touch the Land, we immediately know it is calling to us. The lands we now live in may have snowier mountains, greener fields, or mightier rivers than it does. We are certainly grateful for a land that has afforded us the freedom to explore who we really are. But it is not our home. It is like Goshen; it has the purpose of bringing His people together to become a family again and preparing us to go to our true home. YHWH says His eyes are on that Land the whole year. (Deut. 11:8ff; cf. 8:6) If we keep our eyes on it as well, we will share His viewpoint. His Land always has something to teach us. It is not like Egypt, where we could count on the Nile to always provide us with irrigation. We cannot always draw water from a river, especially on the terraced farms high up in the mountains. Instead, Israel drinks the water of heaven. We must depend on YHWH to send the rain, and we have a part in determining its fruitfulness through our prayers. The seventh year especially reminds us to ask for His provision. Like Avram, we need to leave behind “our own land” to enter His. But how do we then know which path is His? Yeshua said to enter at the “upright” gate, because the way is narrow. The narrow gate limits what we can bring with us. We must whittle down what we have to fit the gate, not try to redesign the gate in order to take what we want through it. We can take each other through with us—and really very little else.
3. "‘Six years shall you sow your field, and six years shall you prune your vineyard, and gather in what comes from it,
4. "‘But the seventh year shall be YHWH’s sabbath of rest for the land--a sabbath for YHWH. You may neither sow your field nor prune your vineyard.
This practice of a sabbatical year (shmittah in Hebrew) would seem unthinkable in an agrarian society! There was not sufficient industry of other sorts to trade with other nations for adequate food, but this was precisely the intent. One must trust YHWH to indeed provide for three years in one harvest. (v. 21.) For one with no faith, this is a frightening thought indeed. For one who does trust YHWH, what could be more liberating? We should not look on it so much as something one HAS to carry out, but as a privilege one GETS to experience! A whole year of not having to work in the fields means one has time to study YHWH's word to his heart's content and spend more time with one another. What freedom! Why, while the world lives for "the day off", is the command to cease laboring considered legalism and bondage?! What convoluted reasoning! Yet so few practice it even in Israel, though the number is increasing, and they have experienced His abundant provision. Sir Francis Bacon said, “Natural abilities are like natural plants; they need pruning by study.” We need to examine ourselves and cut off whatever inhibits the optimal fruitfulness. But sadly, there are no self-pruning plants. We need other people to correct us. They should never enjoy it, but it must be done. But there comes a time to step back, stop trying, and see if we have really made any progress. If they continue to put forth healthy fruit, we have been doing our job correctly.
5. "‘You shall not reap the aftergrowth from kernels spilled from your harvest that grow on their own, nor shall you make the grapes from your untrimmed vines inaccessible, because it is a year of rest for the land.
Make the grapes...inaccessible: the Hebrew phrase includes the nuance of fencing them off. It also relates to storing them up in any sort of private hoard. This open access is another foretaste of the return to the Garden of Eden. Untrimmed vines: the same word as a Nazirite, who leaves his hair untrimmed during his vow of separation unto YHWH. Interestingly enough, the Nazirite is not to partake of the fruit of the vine—possibly because he himself represents such a vine. After six years of cultivation, vines would produce much better fruit. Part of the rest in the seventh year—or the seventh day--is the satisfaction of having brought enough order already to be able to enjoy the thing itself rather than being distracted by any responsibility we might still have toward it. Now we can relax in the enjoyment it was intended to bring and leave behind the hard labor it took to bring it to that point.
6. "‘The land's sabbath shall be yours for food—for yourselves and for your male or female slaves, and for the one you have hired, and for your guest--[all who are] living among you,
This Land does not consume its inhabitants, as the evil spies would report. Instead, we consume it—it feeds us. It even feeds the stranger who is passing through it. The tradition of inviting the needy to share one’s Sabbath dinner is based on this also. We may pick and eat enough for one meal—a reminder in itself of the direct provision known in the Garden of Eden. We may not store, sell, or even tithe any of it this year. We stop all “business transactions” with the Land, and eat from YHWH’s hand, increasing our intimacy with Him and the Land in a way we cannot know it when we are working it.
7. "‘and for your livestock and the animal living in your land; all its produce shall be for consuming.
Here is an interesting incentive for obeying the command to leave the corners of the fields ungleaned for the needy and the sojourner: in the sabbatical year, EVERYONE is needy! We are all on equally insecure footing, humanly speaking. Experiencing this year will probably make the farmer more generous toward the poor thereafter, for one decides how large he wants to make the corners of his field. Also, what is not gleaned becomes the seed for "what grows on its own", so the more generous one is during the other six years, the more there will be naturally planted for his own security in that year. During the seventh year, the fruit is not taken to market, but is eaten of as needed by the hungry, who nonetheless had to come to where the vine was to benefit from its fruit. The principle of leaving the land fallow is beneficial in other countries, but it is not mandated. But His Land cannot rest until His people are there, because the Kanaanites were defiling it instead of letting it rest. And it can only rest when we rest. We are the ones who can give it its rest. After any six units of struggle and toil, the pattern always has in the seventh a taste of the Kingdom, which some rabbis describe as the seventh millennium. After the struggle, there is payoff in a respite from labor. The six-then-one pattern (6 + 1 + 6 + 1 + 6 + 1) is just like the weekly one He prescribed for our refreshment. The pattern ends with a “one”, a new beginning, and Z’kharyah 14:7 upholds this. He says there is coming “one day” which will be neither day nor night, when we will be unable to tell if it is day or night—just as at creation before YHWH separated the light from the darkness. Yom ekhad (one day) might be even better translated, “day one”. The first usage of this phrase in Scripture is in Gen. 1:5, during the account of creation. We enter into the Land’s rest by continuing what YHWH started at creation. This is the pattern by which YHWH continues to create, and this is how we enter into eternity. “Seven” in Hebrew (sheva) means completeness. But it cannot be a seventh day if the one is alone; it is the other six days that make it the seventh. The Sabbath is the first day of forever, but there is no Sabbath without the work of the other six days. One cannot cease from what one has not been doing. We tend to overlook the six in our focus on the seventh. We tend to look toward the end when we think of living forever—as if it were down the line somewhere. But YHWH does not work in lines like Greek thought does; He works with upward spirals, repeating cycles which nonetheless do ascend. “Eternal life”—the concept of continued existence after death, whether by resurrection or reincarnation—exists in most belief systems, and most people, if given the choice of continuing to exist or ceasing to exist would choose the former! The details remain hidden. But there are certain things we can know about eternal life, because it is about more than just “living forever”. Regardless of exactly what it means to live for eternity, we can live IN eternity—NOW. We do not have to wait until we die to enter into forever. In fact, to wait is to waste the many occasions we have to participate in eternal life during the only day we are guaranteed—today. Part of forever is the six days in which we are still living. Keeping the festivals is how we enter into eternal life. People from all nations will flow to Yerushalayim for them. But first there are six days of toil; without that struggle we will never get there. YHWH does not just have a stopwatch that says “time is up” and the Kingdom must come, even though no one is ready for the Kingdom, and though no one knows how to avoid defiling His Land. Hebraic time includes a transition from one to another, as we see at evening when the new day begins, not all at once, but gradually. There must be a process in motion before the Kingdom can be fully here. We may be in the latter part of the sixth day—if we do our job. If not, Scriptural precedent is that we will have to go through the whole process seven more times.
8. "‘You must also count for yourself seven sabbaths of years--[that is] seven times seven--and the total of the days of the seven sabbaths of years shall forty-nine years for you.
He adds it up for us to make sure we make no mistake in the counting. This event would generally take place at least once in every individual's lifetime. This cycle of seven sevens until physical liberation has its microcosm in the seven weeks of "counting the measure" from the Firstfruits of the Barley Harvest, culminating in Shavuoth (Pentecost), when both the letter of the Torah and the spirit were given, resulting in spiritual liberty. Scientists have found a similar pattern in nature, which they have termed the “maintenance factor” which "resets all the clocks".
9. "‘And you shall cause the shofar of the awakening blast to resound in the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month; on the Day of Coverings shall a ram's horn resound throughout all of your land,
This is the seventh month of the calendar YHWH instituted at the Exodus, but the first month on the creation calendar, because the sabbatical pattern also began at creation. Shofar: the horn of an ibex or wild mountain goat or sheep. Resound: or pass through, based on the same root word as "Hebrew"--one who crosses over. During ordinary years the trumpets are sounded only on the Day of the Awakening Blast, while the Day of Coverings (Yom haKippurim) is quiet and solemn. But this year it is different. People who normally fast are dispatched throughout the Land to make this loud noise, so no one could help but notice.
10. "‘and you shall set the fiftieth year apart and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants; it shall be a yovel to you: every man of you shall return to his ancestral heritage. Yes, each of you shall return to his [own] clan.
Liberty: release, emancipation, "running free", or the "free flowing of myrrh" in Hebrew. One way this was done in Second-Temple times was to declare, “This year is set apart!” The Land was divided by lot among the tribes, but each tribe divided its land out by families. As someone’s crops failed or he changed professions, he might move to another part of the Land. But this year one goes home no matter what, to see the same things his ancestors saw and experience the same things they did. The seventh year would not make much difference if one was not a farmer; it does not say the shoemaker should stop making his shoes. But this year, the butcher, baker, and candlestick maker all go home! They will get to know other members of their tribe who might not have lived in their tribal territory their whole lives. The particular strengths of the tribes return, as all of their energy comes back into one place. We are again required to take responsibility for what we might have once run from; we need to recognize which tree we are the fruit of. The fact that America’s Liberty Bell includes a phrase from this verse may alert us to the fact that not all of Israel is back in place yet. After the ten tribes left the Land, this pattern fell apart, and the Jews had great difficulty maintaining this order. Yom haKippurim is prophetically linked with the Day of Judgment, and what could be a better picture of justice at the commencement of the Kingdom than the restoration of all things to their original positions? We are even told that the day of Yehudah's mourning will be turned into a day of feasting. Yovel: not the blowing of trumpets as an action, but the sound it makes. It is from a term that means “to bring”, but this is the year we do not bring any tithes or firstfruits. It is the year we bring ourselves, body and soul, back to our roots, our priorities back to where they should be. YHWH told Noach that mankind's limit was 120 years; there have been 120 sets of 50 years since creation, so Man's rule should be considered over; YHWH's "Great Sabbath" can begin.
11. "‘It is a yovel, the fiftieth year: it is a year for you. You shall not sow nor reap the aftergrowth from kernels spilled from your harvest that grow on their own, nor shall you make the grapes from your untrimmed vines inaccessible,
The need to trust YHWH doubles, because yet another year in a row is added in which there is no crop planted. One might be able to “fake” his way through one shmittah, but two years in a row? If they are actually trusting in something else, this is when it will really show. But after seven cycles one should have learned to trust Him. Awakening blast (teruah, v. 9) can be translated either "alarm" or "shout of joy". Teruah is the same term used of the Feast of Trumpets, which is associated with the resurrection of the dead. The Messiah's coming will be accompanied by a shout and a trumpet blast (1 Thessalonians 4:16), which will indeed be a cause for alarm to those who are not ready for it, but an unspeakable joy to those who, being ready, "love his appearing". The Day of Coverings is the Day of Judgment if you are on the wrong side of the equation. The yovel is a terror to those who, selfishly, want to hold onto their slaves, but a glorious liberation to those being set free. The Day the slaves go free is the Day we choose whom we will serve; we can never truly serve only self. We are no longer slaves to the Land in order to feed our bellies; instead the Land becomes our servant. Although private property is restored during this year, there is also a sense in which no crops are privately owned during this year; everything belongs to the whole community. This is the perfect balance of justice in which there is total "shalom" --right is done to everyone, wealthy and poor alike. The number 50 is the numeric value of haAdam—the Man—for it is a foreshadowing of our return to our original possession--Eden. It is also the value of damo--“his blood”, for only through the blood of the Second Adam can any of us get all the way back to Eden.
12. "‘because it is a yovel; it will be holy for you. You shall eat its increase from the field.
Aramaic, "eat only the produce directly from the field.” Yeshua’s disciples did this one Sabbath, and while some tried to accuse them of “reaping” just to find some way to trap Yeshua, he clearly did not count it reaping if one ate enough for only one meal from the field at a time.
13. "‘In the yovel year, you shall return every man to his ancestral heritage.
Mal’akhi's final statement that before the Great and Terrible Day of YHWH, (the spirit of) Eliyahu would turn the hearts of the children back to the fathers, and the father back to the children, is strongly reminiscent of this verse. Returning from whatever has taken us away will strengthen the ties to our roots and the bonds to our family, since all one’s neighbors will now again be of one’s own tribe. Being back on the Land allotted to our family also returns us to the particular job YHWH intended for us, since certain areas are only suitable for certain types of crops or pasture.
14. "‘And if you sell anything to your associate, or buy anything from your associate's hand, you must not oppress each other:
Oppress: exploit, overpower, or take advantage of. YHWH establishes standards for what must not go on in His Land. Those who find loopholes to increase their own profit at their brothers’ expense will defile it again.
15. "‘You shall buy from your associate according to the number of years after the yovel; he shall sell to you according to the number of years of produce;
16. "‘You shall increase or lower the price according to whether there are many or few years [left until the next yovel], because he is [really] selling you the number of crops.
Pro-rating is a righteous concept. He can never truly sell the land away, but only its crop potential. So do not ask a higher price than this is worth: if there are only five years left, one may not sell it at a ten-year value. All business relationships concerning the Land are based on when they expire—on how soon we will go back home, when the owner gets it back. This is essentially sharecropping. It is the basis for Navoth's refusal to sell his vineyard to King Akh’av. (1 Kings 21) He must not have trusted the king to honor the yovel laws, and probably with reason. Navoth's name itself means "produce", from a root meaning "sprout [abundantly] into increase."
17. "‘Now you shall not mistreat one another, but shall stand in reverence of your Elohim; I am YHWH your Elohim.
I am: I.e., by acting this way, we become like Him. YHWH takes it personally if we mistreat one another. It also goes both ways: It is okay to get a bargain if the seller is willing, but a buyer who underpays when he could do better is also “ripping off” his neighbor nearly as much as one who steals. It is each one’s responsibility to ensure that he is not wronging his fellow servant of YHWH.
18. "‘So you shall carry out the customs I prescribe, guard my ordinances, and carry them out; then you shall dwell safely in the land,
"Carry out...observe...carry out...": The recipe for true security is not city walls, insurance, retirement plans, or medical benefits, but guarding His Torah. Israel would not have security concerns if everyone came back to our heritage and kept the Torah. The terrorists’ children would play with our children rather than strapping bombs onto themselves. It is not their responsibility to obey the Torah; it is ours. Why do we waste so much time and money seeking things that are already promised if we obey? Because we want to do things our own way instead. Only as we truly become a united community can we dwell in the land securely (lit., boldly, with a carefree heart, in confidence that our neighbor will not wrong us because we will not wrong him). Any other sort of "security" is merely a lure into a life of bondage. But if we do our part, our security is YHWH’s problem, not ours. He can handle His problems much better than we can. His commands are a treasure that we need to fence off so no one—including our own selfish hearts—can take them from us.
19. "‘and the Land will yield her fruit, and you shall eat your fill, and dwell securely on it.
We will not want to look for security elsewhere, for we will have found it there.
20. "‘Now you may ask, "What shall we eat in the seventh year, if indeed we are not going to sow or gather in our produce?"
YHWH anticipates the logical questions. This is not a question of doubt, but of information and request. We need the pressure that pushes us to depend on Him, but this does not mean we are allowed the luxury of worry. It is the cue to ask Him to provide and be confident that He will. (Yaaqov 4:2)
21. "‘Then I will ordain my blessing upon you in the sixth year, and it will bring forth fruit for three years.
The sixth year's crop is greater than ever. This is another test, like the Manna on the sixth day. YHWH places us in situations from which there is no logical way out so that we will give him an open door to show what He can do for those who trust Him enough to obey. We have heard firsthand reports of how He fulfilled this promise in the Land today as people deliberately return to His patterns. As the law of aerodynamics can override the law of gravity without canceling it, when we follow YHWH's order and align with His way of escape, we can have a foretaste of the release from the curse (the sweat of the brow) and freedom from the oppression of the "elemental spirits of the world". (Col. 2:8ff)
22. "‘And in the eighth year you will sow and [keep] eating of the old fruit until the ninth year; you shall [still] eat of the old fruits until the crops come in.
We cannot start eating of the new crop until after Passover. (23:14) Eating of “new fruit” at the wrong time symbolizes doing things our own way rather than the ancient way He established. Our ancestors looked to pagan temples for something new; neither are we permitted to substitute His rules with a new morality that says that what it takes to please YHWH is to avoid smoking, drinking any alcohol, or “cussing”. These add to YHWH’s word, and usually go hand in hand with leaving behind the rules He actually did make. When He brings us His “something new” at the right time, it is much better than anything we could think of.
23. "‘The Land may not be sold permanently, because the land is Mine, and you are My guests and tenants.
It is His, but we get it back—just like land ownership under a king’s rule. A king owns his people, but is expected to be benevolent. He lets us keep and use the Land as long as we follow the rules, or He has every right to evict us, as He did when we were starting to see it as our own to do what we wanted with. We are to take possession of His gifts, but not steal them!
24. "‘And in all the land of your inherited property, you shall grant a [right of] redemption for the land:
25. "‘If your brother has become poor and has sold away some of his property, then the kinsman who is nearest to him who can redeem it should redeem whatever his brother sold.
Sold away: to pay off a debt. Should redeem: in order to keep the Land in the family. We are responsible for one another. This right of redemption set the stage for our kinsman Yeshua buying us back after we’d sold ourselves into the false security of being just one more of the nations of the world.
26. "‘But if the man has no one to redeem it, and his own hand has "grown longer" and he finds enough to redeem it,
Hand has grown longer: i.e., he finds another way to increase his means and pay his debt.
27. "‘then let him calculate the years since its sale, and refund the remaining balance to the buyer, so he can return to his ancestral property.
The value of anything is based on its potential fruitfulness. Chapter 27 gives examples of how different values are placed when one makes a vow of himself. It is all related to how fruitful he expects to be. An Israelite has not only the right, but the obligation, to fill his proper position. To do so we must return from all the acquired baggage that has kept us away from Home so we can reclaim all we have lost. The adage “You can never go home” is simply not true if we obey the Torah. If we walk in His cycles, when the time is right, we will. As the yovel approaches, it becomes more affordable to buy back both one's own land and that of his brothers. As for those hired at the eleventh hour in Yeshua's parable, the task is more within reach, so it must by all means be finished.
28. "‘But if he is not able to restore it to him, then whatever was sold will remain in the hands of the buyer until the yovel year, but in the yovel, it must be released so he can return to his property.
The property will be restored regardless of whether one attempts to redeem it beforehand. This parallels the difference between those who say, "We'll still be saved no matter how we live, because of YHWH's grace", and those who want things to be as right as they can be in the meantime, "buying back" the land of our own hearts as quickly as we possibly can. As soon as there are enough undefiled stones available, YHWH's altar must be built so the rest may be purified as well.
29. "‘Now if a man sells a house for dwelling
within a walled city, he may redeem it until the
end of the year in which it was sold; his right to
redeem it shall last a complete year.
30. "‘But if it is not redeemed by the time a full year is up, then the house in the walled city shall become confirmed permanently as the buyer's dwelling; it shall not be released in the yovel.
The city offers more security in a war, but no crop potential. Those who buy into the city, like Lot, become part of it, choosing to gain their livelihood through trade rather than agriculture, unless this is a second house bought only to have a place to run to in danger, which is all the more reason YHWH does not offer the same right of return, for selling it does not forfeit one’s actual family inheritance. Those who live within a wall are a picture of those who have chosen visible security over living in a tent, out in the open where only YHWH can protect them. We have His promise of protection if we keep His commandments, but these walls are visible, and people tend to prefer that. One cannot force a citizen to back out of the city, but once you sell out of it, you cannot get back in either. Those who taste the power of the world to come--who “put their hand to the plow”--are not permitted to look back. (Lukas 9:62) We have given up our rights to one life in order to partake of another. But we can more easily lose what we try to wall off by putting in place our own security measures instead of YHWH’s commands, which are what give us a right to enter into His City (Rev. 22:14); those who take away from His words will have their part in that Holy City taken away. (Rev. 22:19)
31. "‘But the houses in the villages that have no wall around them will be counted as the fields of land; they may be redeemed, and they must be released in the yovel.
The houses in the city would be more in demand, since they were fewer and the nearest walled city would be the place the villagers would flee for safety if an enemy army was approaching. In the open country, we are open to its attack. But this Israel is a tiny land surrounded by hostility on every side. If you are not willing to trust in YHWH, it is a terrifying place to live. But once we realize that we need miracles to survive there and we cannot defend ourselves, we are free to rest in spite of it all. (Psalm 23:5; Prov. 3:24)
32. "‘Now [as to] the Levites' cities, and the houses of the cities they inherit, for the Levites there shall be never-ending redemption [rights].
These cities are different because they are their only inheritance; the priests do not gain their livelihood from agriculture but exist to teach Israel, and being in population centers helps them do this job more efficiently.
33. "‘So whatever anyone purchases from the Levites [as ransom] shall be released in the yovel--the sale of a house or the city of their possession--because the houses and cities of the Levites are their inheritance among the descendants of Israel.
Could this be the reason David moved his capital from Hevron (a priestly city of refuge) to Yerushalayim after seven years? If the Torah is followed, there should never be a time when a Levite is not provided for, but YHWH was realistic about how Israel might be negligent, and set up safeguards for them. Non-Levites did live in the Levitical cities, which were scattered all throughout the country, and in many cases they would have been the closest walled city to one’s inherited land, as well as a convenient place to do business. One might buy the home of a Levite who prefers to go serve at the sanctuary (Deut. 18:6) rather than staying in one of the outlying Levitical cities.
34. "‘And the fields of open [common] land belonging to their cities may not be sold, because it is their eternal inheritance.
"Common land belonging to...": This sounds contradictory, but the land of the Levites was not to grow food on, because they received that as the tithes of the rest of the nation; it was used to raise animals for corporate Israel’s offerings. It was "common" because flocks wander from place to place, but only those from that particular city would have grazing rights there. Num. 35:4-5 gives the details about this land.
35. "‘Now if your brother becomes poor and his hand has been dislodged with you, you must restore him to strength, so he may live with you [as] a guest or a tenant.
Hand has been dislodged: no longer be able to afford his obligations. Live: or, be revived. He is given respite from normal responsibilities in order to have space to catch up on his debts.
36. "‘You shall not take any interest or bonus from him, but fear your Elohim, so your brother may live with you.
YHWH is concerned that the weak be put in a position to become stronger, as a loan would do. But charging interest would actually make him end up deeper in debt, and thus benefit only the lender. The unknown factor is usually what we fear most. For most violations, a particular penalty is prescribed for the priest to exact, but here and in v. 17 and v. 43 (other examples of taking advantage of someone who \is in no position to negotiate) it only says, “Be afraid!” This way, someone would not be able to say, “I can afford the penalty, so I’m going to go ahead and do what I want.” In these cases YHWH Himself will bring the punishment, and He leaves the severity open-ended so He can do what He knows is just according to the person’s heart intent and extent of the injury done.
37. "‘You shall not give him your money with a "bite", nor shall you lend him your food for interest;
He must still pay—but only “at cost”, with no profit to the lender. He is not to be a freeloader; this is a loan, not a gift. (YHWH does not want His people to be the kind that people expect to be beggars.) But his brothers are also responsible to ensure that he does not need to sell himself to a foreigner to pay his debts.
38. "‘I am YHWH your Elohim, who brought you forth from the land of Egypt, to bestow on you the land of Kanaan, and to be your Elohim.
I.e., “I who was able to distinguish between the firstborn and others in Egypt can also judge and exact punishment for sins committed secretly.” (Rashi)
39. "‘So if your brother [who dwells] with you becomes poor, and sells himself to you, you shall not subject him to the service of a slave,
Poor: LXX, "lowered". Sells himself: This is the type of slavery the Israelites practiced--that someone could pay off his debts through work when he was unable to pay with money or products. The service of a slave: degrading labor, such as making one carry his clothes to the bathhouse or putting on his shoes for him. Do not dominate him in a way that breaks his spirit, or give him unnecessary jobs just to torment him. (Rashi) This is again tied to how we were treated in Egypt—a form of slavery YHWH found especially revolting.
40. "‘but he shall be with you as [if he were] a hired laborer or sojourner, and shall serve with you until the year of yovel;
A Hebrew slave who is bought may only serve six years before being freed. (Ex. 21:2) The yovel appears to interrupt even that cycle. As if a hired laborer: Not that he is to be paid, but he is to be treated as a person with rights, though not as many as one who has no debts.
41. "‘then he shall depart from you--and his children along with him--and return to his own clan, and to the property of his ancestors he must return,
Property of his ancestors: or, status of his fathers (Rashi); i.e., he is not to be degraded for having been a servant in the meantime. But he is not free to go live some other place of his own choosing. An Israelite is free to be who he is, not who he might wish to be.
42. "‘because they are My servants, which I brought forth from the land of Egypt; they shall not be sold the way a slave [is sold].
The reason given is not that it is wrong to own a slave or that all human beings are to be treated with equal dignity (not true, according to v .44), but because the Israelites in particular belong directly to YHWH. We are our brother's keepers as well; if it is in our power and we have the right to redeem, we are not to allow anyone of His to remain enslaved (see vv. 47-49).
43. "‘You shall not subjugate him with cruelty, but shall fear your Elohim.
We might see some larger patterns—a day is as a thousand years, etc.—but these are the longest cycles actually commanded. The pattern is 7x7, then the next year is very significant. The theme of the fiftieth year is emancipation. But liberation was the theme of Passover. Shavuoth, instead, seems to be about the giving of the Torah. But the apparent contradiction is a key to understanding a great truth. Israel was liberated from Pharaoh, but as Yeshua said, if his house was not filled with something positive in its place, someone freed from an evil spirit would end up having seven demons come back, and it would be that much worse than it had ever been. By paralleling Shavuot rather than Passover with freedom here, He was warning us to “stand fast in our freedom and not let ourselves again be subjected to a yoke of slavery”. (Gal. 5:1) Israel as the Northern Kingdom certainly did not understand this, and forsook the Torah that was given at Shavuot. “Speak and act in this way: as those who are about to be judged by means of the Torah which belongs to freedom.” (Yaaqov 2:12, in a context that very much parallels this chapter about how to treat the disadvantaged among Israel.) He then launches right into his well-known passage about faith being evidenced only by works. According to Christians, faith is supposed to be freedom. But just like Moshe here, he says freedom must be expressed in the context of Torah. “You have been called to liberty; only do not [use] liberty as an occasion to the flesh, but through love serve one another.” (Galatians 5:13) That is what freedom is about.
44. "‘Any slave or bondwoman you have must come from the nations that are around you; from them you may purchase slaves or bondwomen.
It is legal in the Torah to own other people as property as long as they are not our fellow Israelites. This does not fit modern sensitivities, but any morals not supported by the Torah are merely men’s opinions. The value of compassionate treatment of all men does stem from a desire to extend YHWH's blessings to others, but to despise as sinful those who practice otherwise is harsher treatment than He calls for. All people are not counted as equal by YHWH if they do not choose to come under His protection. A way has been provided for anyone to become an Israelite, but if they do not make this a priority, they do not receive the benefits that come with it. The rest of Scripture stipulate that in an Israelite household, a slave is not to be mistreated, but considered like one’s children—having no authority but having all his needs met while he serves. Only a fool would destroy a valuable car he owned, and to cripple one’s slave is no different.
45. "‘You may also acquire [slaves] from the foreigners who sojourn among you and from their families whom they have fathered in your land, and they may be your property.
46. "‘And you may retain possession of them for your children after you to inherit as property; they may be your slaves for as long [as you wish], but as for your brothers, the descendants of Israel, you must not subjugate them with cruelty.
This would suggest that those today who want to sue for “reparations” for their ancestors being slaves are actually identifying whose descendants they still belong to in YHWH’s eyes. It also implies that one may subjugate others as harshly as he wishes, but he is still required to allow them a day off on the Sabbath. (Ex. 20:10)
47. "‘And if a sojourner or foreigner with you grows rich, and your brother [who dwells] by him becomes poor, and sells himself to the stranger or sojourner [who is] with you or to the offspring of the sojourner's clan,
48. "‘after he is sold there shall be a [way] for him to be bought back; one of his relatives must redeem him--
The story of Ruth is a vivid example of this, and a foreshadowing of Yeshua, who came to seek out and buy back the lost sheep of the House of Israel, who gave up their right to be part of the covenant, and had to have it bought back by a relative who is in a better position. We must redeem as quickly as possible lest he become assimilated, yet without cheating those to whom the redemption price is owed. (Rashi)
49. "‘either his uncle or a son of his uncle may redeem him, or any who is a kinsman of his flesh from his clan may redeem him, or if his own hand has grown longer, he may redeem himself.
An uncle is the closest of kin in Israelite taxonomy; the word “uncle” is the same as “beloved”. This order of priority is where the concept of the “nearer kinsman” in Ruth 3:12 is based.
50. "‘And he and his purchaser together shall calculate from the year he was sold until the year of the yovel, and the price of his sale must be commensurate with the number of years; it must be [reckoned] for him like the days of a hired man.
Price: literally, "silver".
51. "‘If there are still many years, he shall weigh out the repayment of his redemption-price from the money for which he was bought.
52. "‘If there are only a few years left until the yovel, then he shall calculate together with him, and according to the value of his years he shall refund [from] his redemption-price.
53. "‘As a hired [hand] he shall be with him year by year, and he shall not subjugate him with cruelty in your eyes,
Subjugate him with cruelty: as the Egyptians had done to us. (Ex.) The abused often become the abusers, and YHWH wants to set a limit to that cycle. We may have been “done to” first, but He wants us to be the kind of people who stop the cycle of evil and restore the proper balance.
54. "‘and if he is not redeemed within these years, he must [then] be released in the yovel year--[both] he and his children with him,
55. "‘because the descendants of Israel are servants unto Me; they are My servants, whom I brought forth from the land of Egypt. I am YHWH your Elohim.
The rabbis summarize this by saying, “My contract came first.” Israel is His wife; none of His people may sell themselves off to anyone else permanently. In summary of this chapter, there is a time coming when we must make sure everyone rests or returns home. YHWH’s covenant with Avraham is rooted in a particular Land. Many are able to visit there temporarily, and YHWH says He will use this to cleanse and purify His people. (Y’hezq’el/Ezekiel 22:19) But the covenant is about all of us returning, and before that took place the first time, there was Goshen, where those who had been scattered and made into builders of storage cities were able to learn to be shepherds again. This seems to be a precedent that we need today—a place to build community and train the selfishness out of ourselves, since YHWH’s ultimate intent is not for individuals to go back, but for all of us to go home together.
CHAPTER 26
1. "‘You shall not make worthless illusions or carved images for yourselves, nor raise up [memorial] pillars, nor establish imaginary showpieces of stone in your land to bow down in reverence to, because I am YHWH your Elohim.
We belong to YHWH (25:55), and He does not want us giving our attention to these other things; wasting our energy on them takes honor away from Him. Worthless illusions: Heb., elil. This is one term for an idol, but it is rooted in the word for “not” (al). So this could just as well be translated, “things that are not” or “nothingnesses”. Though they are depicted with these physical representations, they cannot endure because they do not really exist. They are the exact opposite of what is eternal. They are “smoke and mirrors”; they only appear to be real, but have no substance when put to the test. Either they are all in one's mind or they depend on something else for their existence, and therefore cannot truly help their worshippers. They are delusions, and as such, in our day when physical idols are hardly the vogue, they also represent unrealistic ideas that we worship—security, for example, which always eludes us no matter how skillfully we hunt it down. So while we may “make something”, in the end we have really accomplished nothing. Memorial pillars: literally, “stood-up” stones, which are not forbidden in all cases, for Yaaqov, Moshe, and Y'hoshua set some up, and in the Kingdom there will be at least one dedicated to YHWH in Egypt (Yesh./Isa. 19:19). They may have words written on them, but may never be carved into images or be worshipped themselves. YHWH is the only one we may worship. When we make something, we expect to be its owner; the litmus test for whether something we have made is becoming an idol is whether we serve it more than it serves us. Establish: literally, give—i.e., not just do them yourself, but teach others to dream about empty things, which makes their effect all the worse. Imaginary showpieces of stone: In Psalm 73:7 the Hebrew term is used of wishful thinking. So while it can apply to “images” in the literal sense, it has a broader meaning: things we make that give shape to something that we have imagined. Not all imagination (which is related to “image”) is in opposition to YHWH; it has been the basis for many useful inventions. To picture what was going on when we read a story from Scripture can aid understanding. But great fear can also emanate from our imaginations, making us hesitate to do things that would rarely be as difficult as we think. Warriors intimidate those they have no real power to conquer by playing on their imaginations. The root word for these imaginations means “watchtower”. The word for “stone” used here means the kind that can be used for building. A stronghold built in our heads or hearts can become our prison if we surrender to such empty threats. Instead of these “things that accomplish nothing”, what should we spend our energies on? The things that do endure—the unseen realities that do not need to be depicted by an image because they are genuine. Some things that are temporary in themselves have an eternal meaning—a meal eaten in honor of YHWH’s Sabbath, a place to meet in His Name, etc. But what does YHWH say lasts forever? His mercy (giving preference to one another, Ps. 100:5); His faithfulness (trustworthiness, Ps. 100:5); His righteousness (doing the things He says are right for the right reasons in the right season, Ps. 111:3); His righteous judgments (social rulings by which Israel must live, Ps. 119:160); His praise (raving about Him to the point of foolishness, Ps. 111:10); the remembrance of His Name (which in itself means “eternal”, Ps. 135:13); the Word of YHWH (1 Kefa/Peter 1:25); and His kingdom and dominion (Ps. 145:13). Visualizing the eternal things—the Kingdom or Israel in unity, so we can actually take steps to get there--instead of following our natural selfish inclinations, e.g., imagining a lot of money in the bank, is the way to pull down the other strongholds that control our minds. So how do we accomplish this? He immediately gives us the keys:
2. "‘You must guard My sabbaths, and treat My sanctuary with reverence; I am YHWH.'"
Reverence: trepidation that makes us cautious about overstepping His limits. Sabbaths: by extension, all of His festivals. My sanctuary: or “My set-apart place”, which would include not just the Temple but all of Yerushalayim and the Land of Israel as a whole. This is where to begin to build something eternal. The sancuary is not available right now, but we can treat as holy any of the smaller things He has established, and as we prove faithful, He can give us a “raise”. We should not have respect for anything He does not respect, but what He has established, we must recognize. Only on the sabbath, the festivals, and the New Moon was the gate opened so that one could see--and stand in awe of--His Temple. They are all “passageways into eternity”, or “doors to forever”. Through them, we learn what His Body--the real temple--is [to be] like. Through them we enter into what He is doing, for while we could not create as YHWH did in the other six days, we can rest on the Sabbath as He did. Then we will be participating in something that will last forever. I am YHWH: i.e., do this and you will know Me—and that is what Yeshua said defines “eternal life”. (Yochanan 17:3) The more “forever” lives in us, the more we can prepare the world for the New creation that will come “one day”. Today is also a day that we can invest in His Kingdom. The rulings in Torah are eternal answers to questions that continue to arise today. Whether or not you as an individual live forever, you can live in eternity right now. We continue to partake of the fruit of Yeshua’s actions 2,000 years later. Is that in itself not “living forever”? Love your neighbor as yourself now, and the whole world will end up being blessed for generations to come.
TORAH PORTION
B'Har
(Leviticus 25:1 - 26:2)
INTRODUCTION: We begin with the revelation that the weekly Sabbath, and in particular the seven-Sabbath pattern seen during the Counting of the Omer, during which this section is always studied, which culminates in Shavuoth, is a microcosm of something bigger—a series of seven Sabbatical years leading up to the biggest re-setting of all, the Yovel (“jubilee”) year, in which all real estate reverts to the families and tribes to which it was initially distributed by Y’hoshua when the Land was initially conquered. Let’s take some time to ponder this while it is in season. As Yeshua said, “He who is faithful in what is least is faithful also in much.” (Lukas 16:10) He seems to imply that the converse is true, for we reap what we sow, whether to the flesh or to the spirit. (Galatians 6:7-8) If we do not trust YHWH to sustain us if we take the weekly Sabbath off, what makes us think we will be willing to trust Him for a whole year without any physical guarantees?
Of course He knows we naturally have questions about how this will work (Lev. 25:20), and He gives us enough of an answer, though we may not yet know the mechanics by which He will engineer this provision, and most likely it will be by a different means each time, so that we do not begin to trust the mechanism instead of the one engineering it. But whatever the means He uses, when we finally see it taking place, it will fill us with wonder and even greater admiration for what He can do.
The rest of the portion is about how we should translate this pattern into justice for those who need it most, through fair pro-rating and those with more means helping those with less. But it also lays the groundwork for the unimaginably huge debt our Kinsman Redeemer paid off so that we, too, could return to our inheritance.
Now that the understanding that we each belong to one of those tribes is resurfacing in our hearts and minds, the Yovel is cause for great excitement as, during the coming Kingdom, possibly even on the next go-round, we will get our ancestral heritage back to the fullest extent. According to Y’hezq’El (Ezekiel), the tribal boundaries will be different next time around, with every non-Levitical tribe having equal access to the seacoast, but the point is, all of the tribes will once again be included. Whatever our share, it will be far better than the unprofitable things our ancestors inherited after they decided it would be better to be Gentiles (Yirmeyahu 16:19ff). So start by stepping back into the pattern now through the Sabbath (26:2), and you will find yourself ready for its bigger fulfillment when it arrives.
Coming Back Home
“Without dreams of hope and pride
a man will die;
Though his flesh still moves,
his heart sleeps in the grave.
Without land, man never dreams,
‘cause he's not free;
All men need a place to live with dignity.”
--Chuck Mangione in
“The Children of Sanchez”
Indeed, when we have something to call our own, we do have more both perceived and practical confidence. And nothing does that better than home ownership. YHWH knows that, and He respects private property and tells His children to do so as well.
Sometimes He has work for us to do that takes us away from home, and maybe for a very long time. Other times it is a dream of our own that takes us far away. An error in judgment can also lead to a slippery slope from which it is so hard to recover that we end up, whether physically, emotionally, or psychologically, far away from where—and who—we really want to be.
But the yovel (“jubilee”) spoken of in this portion (Leviticus 25:8ff) means that eventually, if the Torah is followed, every Israelite has the hope of coming back—and a place to come back to.
This idea has a very special place in the hearts of the part of Israel that still does not have permanent access to the ancient homeland. We deserved our exile, yes. But now we are beginning to remember the prophets’ promise that, if not in our own lifetime, at least in our children’s or grandchildren’s, we will be able to return to what is ours and to our truest family. (25:10)
There, just as any parent is willing to feed his adult children a reasonable number of free meals just because they are family, every few years YHWH Himself provides us with crops without the “sweat of the brow”. (25:12)
But for that very special place to remain not just a refuge but a true Home, there has to be a certain atmosphere that makes it warm and inviting, so that when we get there, we will want to stay and not feel driven away again, this time not by outside threats but by a bitterness within.
As musician Michael Card put it,
“Home is a comfort, and home is a light—a place to leave the darkness outside.
Home is a peaceful and ever-full feeling, a place where the soul safely hides.
And being at home
should remind you that still
there’s a place that’s prepared just for you…”
So even as we lead up to that time of special release—of going Home—we have to set the tone so that blessed season, too, will be at home when it arrives.
How to do this? The key is in verse 14: Even when we have to forfeit our property in order to survive, in our struggle to get back to normalcy, we are to be about giving one another a hand up, not about making a profit, for that can easily become another form of idolatry (26:1), which is anything that gets in the way of keeping YHWH’s commands--and they are mostly about how we treat one another. (See also 25:35-38)
If we can’t make each other feel at home now, do we think we will instantly change when we reach the shores of the Mediterranean levant? Rather, we will find ourselves “spit out” again by the Land itself, for no household can tolerate those who destroy the “shalom b’bayit"(peace/wholesomeness of the home). If we follow His ways instead, we will have no cause for disputes. (25:18-19)
Even if some of our freedoms still fall victim to the extenuating circumstances of an imperfect world, we can still comfort one another with the reminder that even though we may not BE at home, we still HAVE a home, a base that anchors our souls firmly, and can treat each other with the dignity that YHWH has given to all Israel. The poor in His Land are treated like guests, not belittled. (25:35, 34, 53) No one is to profit from his relative’s falling on hard times. (25:37) Quite on the contrary, we are told to, as quickly as possible, rescue any who end up under the thumb of those with lower standards than these. (25:47-49)
Even if our position in life is due to our own foolish choices, Torah says there is a limit on how long someone can be without a home. (25:13, 28) No matter how bad it gets, it is not forever. No wonder Yeshua’s brother called the Torah “the perfect law of liberty”. (James 1:25)
Study Questions:
1. Why does the Land need a rest? (Leviticus 25:1-4)
2. We don’t harvest the crops during the seventh year; does that mean we are not to eat from them at all? (25:5-7) How do you think this would work out in practice?
3. Where else in Scripture do we see seven sevens and a fiftieth? (25:8-11) Is there a similar purpose in both patterns?
4. What is the reason behind the pro-rating of leases as seen in 25:13-17?
5. What ulterior motives did YHWH even allow to encourage His people to do the right thing? (25:18-19)
6. Is the question in 25:20 a fair one to ask? How does YHWH’s response make you feel? (25:21-22)
7. What is the ultimate reason to treat the land and its renters justly? (25:23, 42, 55) Should this make a difference in how we treat one another?
8. What solution(s) does YHWH give for someone who finds himself in impossible debt? (25:24-35) Does He want us to use the world’s solution to such a crisis? (25:36-37) Why?
9. What parameters does YHWH put on the way someone should be treated if he becomes so desperate that he finds the sale of himself the only way out? (25:41-54)
10. How did YHWH use the kinsman redeemer principle to solve the problem of our spiritual indebtedness to Him?
Companion Passage:
The Sidewalk
for Kids
Scientists are now telling us that even though they may not be able to think or travel like humans and animals can, plants can feel things too. YHWH knew this long before human beings figured it out, and He told Israel to be an example to the world in letting our Land take a rest just like we do. We rest after six days, and the Land needs a rest after six years.
That is a time when we don’t need to plant and weed and water our crops; we let YHWH provide what they need and we need, and we are free to not only take a break, but also eat freely of whatever grows anywhere. During those times none of us owns any of the fields or orchards or vineyards; it’s a reminder that YHWH is the real owner of everything.
Most of the time His Torah shows that He considers property rights very important (and the 7 sets of 7 years lead up to a time when everybody gets back what was his even if he lost it to someone else along the way; YHWH knows the rich take advantage of the poor and the crafty take advantage of people who do not know so much, and He wants to make sure that at least some of the time, everything is fair for everyone). But there have to be reminders of the time in the Garden of Eden, we could eat freely of any tree except one.
Thinking about the fact that YHWH wants to share His world generously with everyone, can you see anything in this Torah portion that might tell us what “tree” we are not supposed to eat from?
What would you do with the extra time you would have available during one of these “Sabbatical” years? What do you think would be a way to invest that free time wisely so that on the next cycle of years things can be better?
The Renewal of B'HAR
“The seventh year shall be YHWH’s sabbath of rest for the land... You may neither sow your field nor prune your vineyard. You shall not reap the aftergrowth from kernels spilled from your harvest that grow on their own, nor shall you make the grapes from your untrimmed vines inaccessible, because it is a year of rest for the land. The land's sabbath shall be yours for food—for yourselves and…[all who are] living among you, for your livestock and the animal living in your land… for consuming.” (Lev. 25:4-7)
It is difficult to find a direct reference in the Renewed Covenant to the shmittah year, unless it be when Yeshua’s disciples were walking through a field and pulled off some kernels of wheat to eat. (Luke 6:1ff) But “come… eat without money and without cost” (Isaiah 55:1) was part of what he made possible:
The shmittah was part of a larger cycle: “Set the fiftieth year apart and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants; … each of you shall return to his ancestral heritage.” (Lev. 25:10)
Again, there may be no direct mention of the Yovel in the Renewed Covenant, but when Yeshua read from Isaiah 61 in the synagogue and said, “Today this scripture is fulfilled” (Luke 4:16ff), he seems to have been announcing the Yovel. But he was restoring more than just land, but also sight to the blind, healing to the broken-hearted, etc.—things that the Yovel could not deliver directly, but what he was going to accomplish could—whether or not it was a year of release. He carried it to a higher level, as usual, in his death and resurrection, which might have been in the following year, though it is hard to be sure.
Kefa, in his explanation of how he and Yochanan had healed a lame man in the Temple, showed that it was because of the victory Yeshua had won in the spirit realm that already the power of the enemy had been broken, though it would not yet be complete until Yeshua returned:
“Elohim, as He…proclaimed since the beginning through the mouth of all the prophets that His anointed One would bear chastisement, has thus fulfilled [it]. …Turn back, so that what you got out of line may be wiped clean… and seasons of refreshment may come on you from before YHWH, and He may send you the One He has established—Yeshua the Messiah, whom the heavens have to receive until the times of restoration of all the things Elohim has spoken of via His holy prophets since antiquity.” (Acts 3:18-21)
At that time all the tribes will be able to return to our inheritance, and this time permanently, unaffected by market vicissitudes or personal tragedy such as once lost us our Land. (Amos 9:13-15) How is that possible if we sold ourselves into the false security of being just one more of the nations?
“If your brother has become poor and has sold away some of his property, then the kinsman who is nearest to him who can redeem it should redeem whatever his brother sold.” (Lev. 25:25)
This right of redemption set the stage for our kinsman Yeshua, from the tribe of Yehudah, to buy back the descendants of the other tribes of Israel: “I came only for the lost sheep of the House of Israel.” (Mat. 15:24) So his followers expected him to redeem Israel--the name that stayed with the Northern Kingdom after the split (Luke 24:21), not realizing the price it would require: “It was not with perishable things (silver or gold) that you were ransomed out of [the] pointless way of life handed down from your ancestors, but with the highly-valuable blood of the Messiah, as of an unblemished and unspotted lamb…” (1 Kefa 1:18-19)
Already we are returning indeed to our Hebraic heritage. But there is more to be redeemed: “We… who have the firstfruits of the Spirit groan within ourselves, awaiting the adoption--the redemption--of our body. For we are saved by hope.” (Romans 8:22-24)
That is cause for jubilation (yovel) indeed!
A Taste of the Fruit
In the 50th year, “You shall not sow nor reap… because it is a yovel; it will be holy for you. You shall eat its increase from the field. In the yovel year, each of you shall return to his ancestral heritage.” (Lev. 25:11-13) While we do not do the hard work of harvest this year, we pick the food one meal at a time directly from the trees or plants. Does that remind you of anything? Seems to me it would be a wonderful reminder of the Garden of Eden, for that would be the ultimate return to our inheritance.
He wants anyone with an inclination to noble integrity to experience a taste of what He took from those who didn’t place much value on preserving the relationship they had with Him. “I will ordain my blessing upon you in the sixth year, and it will bring forth fruit for three years.” (25:21) An amazing prospect. Are we willing to set aside our laws of probability and take Him at His word? Many have proved Him faithful.
Not mistreating our neighbors is an expression of our love and respect for Him who made (and redeemed) them. (25:17) What a wonderful world it would be if we carried even this simple principle alone to its fullest potential.
Humans are meant to be free, even from the out-of-control debt that comes from compounding interest. (25:36-37) They are not to be kept enslaved for undue lengths of time (25:25-28)—wait, unless they are not Israelites? (25:44-46) It doesn’t matter if you treat them harshly or will them to your grandchildren? That kind of takes the wind out of our celebration of the Torah’s beauty, doesn’t it? But the point here is, “[Israelites] are My servants; I bought them…” (25:42) No one else has a right to sell or profit from them. Like the Levites who have special rights that others do not have (25:29-34), He is making distinctions here. Those who side with Him do have perks.
Now, instead of griping about somebody else’s privilege, you do have the option of joining the ranks of His people! Only you are preventing it.
But, to paraphrase Spiderman, with every privilege comes great responsibility. YHWH’s people are held to a much higher standard; Levites even more so. He promises unbelievable blessing for those who walk in the truest truth (26:3-13), but the penalties for leaving that path are every bit as heavy. And if we persist after tasting the bad fruit of getting out of step with reality, “If you will still not listen to Me, then I will punish you seven more for your sins.” (26:18)
And that’s exactly where we are now. We’ve had our seven times 390. (See Ezekiel 4:4-5) 7 times 7 was a pattern for liberation in the previous chapter. (25:8) And this plays into Yeshua’s “70 times 7” about YHWH’s extreme patience with us; that was the number of years He waited for Yehudah to repent before letting the Land have the sabbaths it was due (26:34; Jer. 25:11). It also seems to be how long He waited from Avraham’s day until Y’hoshua’s, when “the iniquity of the Emorites” was at its tipping point. (Gen. 15:16) But His patience does have limits. Did you notice there’s another 7 times here? (26:23-24)
We are at a crossroads that makes my skin crawl: we could have the Kingdom in but a few years. Or we could be back to the outer darkness for seven times the 2,730-years we’ve just completed, for a new sentence of 19,110 more! But as Hebrews 6:9 says, “I am convinced of better things in regard to you”:
“If they admit to their crookedness and the guilt of their ancestors,… if their uncircumcised heart is then brought into subjection, and they accept their punishment … while they are in the land of their enemies, I will not reject them, nor … nullify My covenant with them, because I am [after all] YHWH their Elohim. For their sakes I will bring to remembrance the covenant of their ancestors whom I brought out from the land of Egypt in the sight of the nations.” (26:40-45)
Jeremiah (16:14ff) and all the other prophets say He will bring us back out of this latter exile as well.
This can be on our watch, if we do the right thing.
Laws We
Can’t Help But Love
It’s chapters like this that made emotion well up within David to exclaim, “Oh, how I love your Torah!” (Psalm 119:97) I wonder if this was written with his recollections of living among the Philistines in mind, as a contrast to what YHWH had put in place for Israel. It shows His concern for the smallest practical problems experienced by the children He loves. David continues, "Great shalom have those who love your Torah." (119:165) Shalom is more than just "peace" as we think of it--absence of war or strife. It means total well-being, and this is because it takes the whole environment into account:
Just as a human can do better work when allowed to rest every seven days, the land itself needs a rest every seven years to yield its best. According to Dr. Gerald Schroeder, even the “inanimate” earth appears to have a mind of its own—not as complex as ours, and plants are not as animate as the animals. But as quantum physics studies the building-blocks of the universe, even the simplest cells are proving able to make choices of one kind or another. Withholding this rest even from the plants and soil (Leviticus 25:4) will result in it eventually “gasping for breath” and giving out on us and needing a much longer “convalescence” to get back to what it is meant to be. (See 26:32-35; Jeremiah 25:8-12)
But not only does He give us a short-cut on the trial-and-error of how to make our fields most fruitful. He allays our fears about how we might come short during the years we do not plant or harvest. It comes down to our deciding to do things His way (25:18) despite how unlikely to succeed it seems, and He says He will make the land cooperate--in advance! (Lev. 25:20-22) That’s a law to love! If we keep His commands, He’ll make sure we have enough and will dwell in safety--partly because some of those commands are deterrents severe enough that if enforced once, they will prevent most people from trying to commit that crime again.
Pro-rating is His idea. (25:14-17, 50-52) Twice the reason is given, like bookends: “You shall not wrong one another.” That’s easier when we’re on the receiving end, but do the giving and you will one day be the receiver too. So it’s a law we can all love. So is the fact that YHWH wants His people free. (25:10) No matter how poor we may become and how far afield our efforts to make ends meet must take us, He makes it possible for all of us to come back home to stay. (25:25-28)
A slave who is bought is only to serve six years and then go free, but without any family he has been given by the purchaser. (Ex. 21:2-4) But if someone is so impoverished that he sells himself, both he and his children get to go free—in the fiftieth year. (25:39-41). The One who freed all of Israel from slavery (25:42) has a right to tell us how to treat those whose resources fail: never charge them interest or even make a profit when selling him food. (25:35-38) And treat them like hired hands, not slaves. (25:39-43)
One who chooses to live among Israel but not commit to being a part of it does not have all the same rights of going free (25:45-46), though other laws apply to him equally. (Ex. 12:49; Num. 15:13-16, 29) But Israel is responsible to make sure that if the opposite occurs--if an Israelite is bought by a foreigner who lives among us--that foreigner treats the Israelite slave with the same respect an Israelite would treat his brother, and must release him back to his inheritance in the Yovel (or jubilee, 25:47-54). Why? Because every Israelite belongs specifically to YHWH; no human being may enslave him permanently unless he chooses to remain in that position for other reasons. (Ex. 21:5-6)
But that’s the last resort. It’s better if he can be redeemed long before the Yovel, and that requires a relative (25:47-49)—a picture of the role our kinsman-redeemer played when we’d become so spiritually-impoverished that we could not begin to pay back the debt we owed the One we had wronged, and had to be exiled from our whole homeland. Our brother from Yehudah paid that steep price to buy us back.
Many have experienced that much, but not all of them know what land this redemption will let us return to in the year of YHWH’s favor (Isa. 61:2). They do not know where their home once was, because they do not know who they really are.
The Yovel is a microcosm of that day when He will allow all of scattered Israel to return to our original family’s land (in the large and small sense—the country as a whole and the individual property in it), no matter where we’ve ended up. (Amos 9:15; Ezekiel 20:42; 36:24; 37:12)
This is a law that anyone who grasps this will love.
Giving New Meaning to "Forbidden Fruit"
The shmittah year, when we neither sow nor reap nor keep anyone else (man or beast) from eating what grows naturally (Lev. 25:1-7), reminds us of the Garden of Eden, when we could eat freely of any tree but one. Torah is about getting us back to that Garden. So in this new circumstance, is there one tree we may not eat of?
I think there is--the tree that is “yours”, if it is a year when not yet mature (19:23-25), or if it is a year it is not yours!
It is yours to eat from in the shmittah, but not yours to keep for later, as usual. You may eat of trees on your property or others’ property, but they all belong to everyone this year. If you withhold any for yourself alone, it becomes the tree of selfishness and again opens us to the realm of “the knowledge of good and evil” rather than “life”—the other specifically-named tree that became off-limits once we ate from the one that was supposed to be off-limits, because YHWH did not want this fallen condition preserved. Yeshua spoke of this principle when he said, “Whoever wants to preserve his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it." (Mat. 16:25)
If you think of the fruit as “your own”, you miss sharing in YHWH’s generosity. Like the first forbidden tree, you become too conscious of self, if you think in those terms during that 7th year, which is a picture of the Kingdom, the 7th (Sabbath) millennium. He wants to share His world with everyone. Yes, it is His; we are only stewards, who also get to benefit from it. (25:23, 42, 55) But isn’t that a relief? Isn’t it freedom? If it is not ours, we don’t have to worry about what becomes of it, because that is in His hands. It is His responsibility, not ours. (Mat. 6:25-34)
Will some take advantage of this generosity? Of course. But the result of taking more than they need may be like that of the manna—it might rot more quickly. The fruit that stays on the tree until it is ripe is the best fruit and also stays fresh longer; what is picked too soon and not eaten within the right time frame is wasted.
Another parallel is that certain offerings may not be eaten the next day, or in some cases, after the second day. (22:30) It, too, is starting to go bad like the manna, because we are starting to trust our reserves rather than YHWH’s daily provision—His mercies that are “new every morning” because He is reliable. (Lam. 3:22-23)
The yovel (jubilee) year—the “Grand Shmittah” of 7 times 7, the second year in a row when we do not sow or reap is about returning home after having to leave our land for some reason. (25:8-13)
Redemption (25:24-32, 47-54) is its theme. As after 6 years, an indentured servant must go free (Ex. 21:2ff), now must one sold to a sojourner, for people, like the land, belong to YHWH. “You are not your own; you were bought with a price. Therefore, honor YHWH with your body and your spirit, which are [both] YHWH’s.” (1 Cor. 6:19-20)
Fast forward from Moshe about a thousand years. When YHWH told him the land he was redeeming for his cousin would not be a waste of money, for Yehudah would return to their inheritance, Yirmeyahu (Jeremiah) said, “Oh, Adonai YHWH! I know You have made the heavens and the earth by Your great power and Your outstretched arm, and nothing is beyond Your reach!” But he went on to ask, in essence, “Why are You asking me to buy it now? How is it possible that we will again buy and sell land here if the Babylonians are about to conquer us?”
YHWH answers, “Behold, I am YHWH, the Elohim of all flesh! Is there anything that is out of My reach?”
We, the other part of Israel, are still in that position today—away from our homeland. But virtually every prophet speaks of the day that will change for us as well. As Michael Card so aptly puts it,
“When time reaches fullness,
when I move My hand
I will bring you home—
home to your own place
in a beautiful Land...
from this fearful, fallen place,
I will bring you home.”
But when we get there, He knows we’ll ask, “How will we survive if we don’t plant while we let the land rest…if we leave our food accessible to others…if we don’t collect the seeds that year?” (25:20-22)
He could again counter with “Is there anything that is out of My reach?” And in this case He even tells us how He’ll provide enough.
