Leviticus 25:23–24

Leviticus 25 introduces a fresh subject. The earlier chapters dealt mainly with matters that especially concerned the priests, and God spoke them "out of the tabernacle" (chapter 1:1). This chapter concerns right government in Israel once they had come into the land, so God spoke it "in Mount Sinai." Here the basic fact they had to remember comes in verse 23 — "the land is Mine." So Israel had to handle the land, once they had it, in the way the earlier verses set out.

The Land — "My Land," whatever its state or divisions. It is Jehovah's Land, and if the people fail in every way, it falls into His hands. He only entrusted it to Israel. The Gentiles have no right except through Israel's sin, and no right at all against the Lord.

One thing is very plain. The land was God's, so those to whom He gave it could only let it go on lease. They sold it until the jubilee came, and the value of the lease dropped as the jubilee drew near. So each inheritance could never pass for good out of the family that first had it. In this way grasping men could not pile up land. More important still, Israel had a constant reminder that all they held, they held from the Lord, and that they depended on Him.

Happy, highly privileged tenants! What an honour to hold directly under Jehovah! No rent! No taxes! No burdens!… "The land shall not be sold in perpetuity, for the land is mine." What does this mean, except that Canaan belongs specially to Jehovah, and that He will hold it through the tribes of Israel? True, "the earth is the Lord's," but that is quite another thing.

Israel themselves had known "the heart of a stranger" by bitter experience, and God declared Himself to them as One who "loves the sojourner, giving him food and clothing." He urges them, "Love the sojourner, therefore, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt" (Deuteronomy 10:18-19). More than that, He taught them to count themselves strangers even in their own land, and so to prove to themselves that love of His toward strangers… The Israelite, even if born in the land, could still say that he lived there as God's guest, in weakness and dependence.

The land of Israel was God's, and they were His guests — "strangers and sojourners with Me," He says.

Ahab's proposal to Naboth meant far more than it looks at first. It would have given away this God-fearing Israelite's inheritance for good. An Israelite who feared God could not accept such terms. When he sold his land, he sold only its harvests, since the jubilee would give his possession back to him… The Israelite who feared God would keep the inheritance of his fathers because they had received it from the Lord. But there was a reason even more decisive than that. In reality the land, the ground itself, did not belong to the people, but to the Lord.

The Lord of Israel kept in His own hand the means of restoring all things. He acted as Lord of the soil, and said the Land was His… And so with this earth, of which the land of Israel was the sample. Man may take it into his own hand for a time, and by greed or idleness disturb God's order in it. But a day is coming — the promised and expected jubilee, the time of the restoring of all things. Then the earth will come back to God.

Solomon had no right to give away the least part of the land, for it did not belong to him: it belongs to God. Can we today give away any part of the inheritance God has given to believers "in heavenly places"? Primarily the inheritance belongs to the Lord Jesus, who graciously shares it with us (Ephesians 1:9-11). We have no liberty to give up any part of it.

Here is a matter that concerned right government in Israel, once they had come into the land, and so God spoke it "in Mount Sinai." Verse 23 states the basic fact they had to remember — "the land is mine." So Israel had to handle the land, once they held it, in the way the earlier verses laid down.

Israel themselves had known "the heart of a stranger" by bitter experience. God declared Himself to them as One who "loves the sojourner, giving him food and clothing." The word to them is, "Love the sojourner, therefore, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt." More than that, they were taught to keep counting themselves strangers, even in their own land, and so to prove to themselves that love of His towards strangers.

When he sold his land, he sold only its harvests. His possession would return to him in the year of jubilee, so the price depended on how many years the buyer would harvest its produce. The seller even had the right to redeem his land at any time. He refunded the buyer the amount above the value of the crops for the years that had passed since the sale.

If poverty made him sell part of his possession — and that is the only ground stated here for parting with his family estate — he kept the right of redemption before the Jubilee arrived, and so did his relatives. If a relative came forward to carry it out, this law gave him the power to do it. If he had no relative, the liberty to redeem it stayed with him, though that depended on what he could afford. The inheritance was to be prized, and no one should have thought lightly of it, for it was God's provision for His people. Naboth had not fallen into poverty, and he refused to sell his vineyard even at the king's personal request: "The LORD forbid that I should give you the inheritance of my fathers."

If no relative proved able or willing to redeem the inheritance, it returned to the heir in the Jubilee. So the Lord of Israel kept in His own hand the means of restoring all things. He acted as Lord of the soil, and said the land was His.

If an Israelite or his possession had been sold, his kinsman had both the duty and the right to ransom him and it. Now Jesus has shown Himself our kinsman in both ways. The Son of God became the Son of man, and so showed His kinsman nature. He died to buy us and our inheritance by blood, and so showed His kinsman love.

The Lord will vindicate His rights in that day… The men of Israel had been strangers and sojourners with Him. But from then on He will hide His face from them no more. They were responsible to grant the right of redemption in all the land they held. He keeps that right for the fit moment, and will proclaim it in triumph to their everlasting joy.