Schoolmaster to Christ
LEVITICUS CHAPTER 25

Scripture Reading: Leviticus 25 (KJV)

The serious student will discern a link between this and the preceding chapter. In Leviticus 24 we learn that the house of Israel is preserved for the land of Canaan. In this chapter we learn that the land of Canaan is preserved for the house of Israel.

Observe the peculiar way this chapter opens. "And! the Lord spake unto Moses in Mount Sinai." The principal part of the communications contained in the Book of Leviticus is characterized by it emanating "from the tabernacle of the congregation." This is easily accounted for. Those communications have special reference to the service, communion, and worship of the priests, or to the moral condition of the people. Therefore, as we might expect, they are issued from "the tabernacle of the congregation," the center of all that pertained to priestly service. However, here the communication is made from a different location. "The Lord spake unto Moses in Mount Sinai." We know that every expression in Scripture has its own special meaning, and we are justified in expecting something different coming from "Mount Sinai" than from "the tabernacle of the congregation." And so it is. This chapter treats Jehovah's claims as Lord of all the earth. It is not the worship and communion of a priestly house, or the internal ordering of the nation; but the claims of God in government – His right to give a certain portion of the earth to a certain people to hold as tenants under Him. In other words, it is not to Jehovah in "the tabernacle", the place of worship; but Jehovah in "Mount Sinai", the place of government.

"And the Lord spake unto Moses in Mount Sinai, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye come into the land which I give you, then shall the land keep a Sabbath unto the Lord. Six years thou shalt sow thy field, and six years thou shalt prune thy vineyard, and gather in the fruit thereof; but in the seventh year shall be a Sabbath of rest unto the land, a Sabbath for the Lord: thou shalt neither sow thy field, nor prune thy vineyard. That which groweth of its own accord of thy harvest thou shalt not reap, neither gather the grapes of thy vine undressed: for it is a year of rest unto the land. And the Sabbath of the land shall be meat for you; for thee and for thy servant, and for thy maid, and for thy hired servant, and for thy stranger that sojourneth with thee, and for thy cattle, and for the beast that are in thy land, shall all the increase thereof be meat" (vv. 1-7).

Here we have the special feature of the Lord's land. It was to enjoy a sabbatical year; a year there was to evidence the rich profusion with which God would bless those who held the land as tenants under Him. What a happy, high privilege; what an honor; holding land immediately under Jehovah – no rent, no taxes, and no burdens. It might well be said, "Happy is the people that is in such a case; yea, happy is the nation whose God is Jehovah."

We know that Israel failed to take full possession of that wealthy land Jehovah gave them as a present. They took only a part of the land, for a time. Still, it is plain that for His own unsearchable purposes, God was pleased to take special possession of the land of Canaan, and to mark it off from all other lands by calling it His own, distinguishing it by judgments, ordinances, and periodical solemnities. Where, throughout all the earth, do we read of a land enjoying a year of unbroken repose – a year of richest abundance? The rationalist may ask, "How can these things be" The skeptic may doubt if they could be; but faith finds a satisfying answer from the lips of Jehovah: "And if ye shall say, What shall we eat the seventh year? behold, we shall not sow, nor gather in our increase: then I will command my blessing upon you in the sixth year, and it shall bring forth fruit for three years. And ye shall sow the eighth year, and eat yet of old fruit until the ninth year; until her fruits come in ye shall eat of the old store" (vv. 20-22).

Nature might say, "What will we do about sowing?" God’s answer is, "I will command My blessing." God's "blessing" is far better than man's "sowing." He was not going to let them starve in His sabbatic year. While celebrating His year of rest, they were to feed on the fruits of His blessing.

"And thou shalt number seven Sabbaths of years unto thee, seven times seven years; and the space of the seven Sabbaths of years shall be unto thee forty and nine years. Then shalt thou cause the trumpet of the jubilee to sound on the tenth day of the seventh month; in the day of atonement shall ye make the trumpet sound throughout all your land" (vv. 8, 9).

It is interesting to note the various methods in which rest was held up in the Jewish economy. Every seventh day was a sabbatical day; every seventh year was a sabbatical year; and every seven times seven years there was a jubilee. To the vision of faith, each of these typical solemnities held up the blessed prospect of an eternal time when labor and sorrow ceases; when "the sweat of the brow" would no longer be needed to satisfy the cravings of hunger; when the earth would be enriched by the copious showers of divine grace, to be fertilized by the bright beams of the Sun of righteousness, pouring its abundance into the storehouse and winepress of the people of God. What a happy time, for a happy people. How blessed we are to be assured that these things are not pencillings of imagination, or flights of fancy, but the substantial verities of divine revelation, to be enjoyed by faith that is "the substance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen."

Of all the Jewish solemnities, the jubilee seems to have been the most soul stirring and enrapturing. It was connected with the Day of Atonement. It was when the blood of the victim was shed that the emancipating sound of the jubilee trump was heard through the hills and valleys of the land of Canaan. That longed-for note was designed to wake up the nation from the very center of its moral being, to stir the deepest depths of the soul, and to send a shining river of divine and ineffable joy through the length and breadth of the land. "In the day of atonement shall ye make the trumpet sound throughout all your land. Not a corner was to remain unvisited by "the joyful sound." The aspect of the jubilee was as wide as the aspect of the atonement on which the jubilee was based.

"And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof: it shall be a jubilee unto you; and ye shall return every man unto his possession, and ye shall return every man unto his family. A jubilee shall that fiftieth year be unto you: ye shall not sow, neither reap that which groweth of itself in it, nor gather the grapes in it of thy vine undressed. For it is the jubilee; it shall be holy unto you: ye shall eat the increase thereof out of the field. In the year of this jubilee ye shall return every man unto his possession" (vv. 8-13).

All estates and conditions of the people were permitted to feel the hallowed and refreshing influence of this noble institution. The exile returned; the captive was emancipated; the debtor set free; each family opened its bosom to receive once more its long-lost members; each inheritance received back its exiled owner. The sound of the trumpet was the welcome and soul-stirring signal for the captive to escape; for the slave to cast aside the chains of his bondage; for the manslayer to return to his home; for the ruined and poverty-stricken to rise to the possession of their forfeited inheritance. No sooner had the trumpet's thrice-welcome sound fallen on the ear, than the mighty tide of blessing rose majestically, and sent its refreshing undulations into the most remote corners of Jehovah's highly-favored land.

"And if thou sell ought unto thy neighbour, or buyest ought of thy neighbour's hand, ye shall not oppress one another: according to the number of years after the jubilee thou shalt buy of thy neighbour, and according unto the number of years of the fruits he shall sell unto thee. According to the multitude of years thou shalt increase the price thereof, and according to the fewness of years thou shalt diminish the price of it: for according to the number of the years of the fruits doth he sell unto thee. Ye shall not therefore oppress one another; but thou shalt fear thy God: for I am the Lord your God" (vv. 14-17).

The year of jubilee reminded both buyer and seller that the land belonged to Jehovah, and was not to be sold. "The fruits" might be sold, but that was all.

There is no spot in all the earth like unto the land of Canaan. There Jehovah set up His throne and His sanctuary; there His priests stood to minister continually before Him; there the voices of His prophets were heard testifying of present ruin and future restoration and glory; there the Baptist began, continued, and ended his career as the forerunner of the Messiah; there the Blessed One was born of a woman; there He was baptized; there He preached and taught; there He labored and died; from there He ascended in triumph to the right hand of God; there God the Holy Spirit descended on the Day of Pentecost; and from there the overflowing tide of Gospel testimony emanated to the ends of the earth.

We now briefly look at the practical effect of the jubilee – its influence on the transactions between man and man. "And if thou sell ought unto thy neighbour, or buyest ought of thy neighbour's hand, ye shall not oppress one another, according to the number of years after the jubilee thou shalt buy of thy neighbour, and according to the number of years of the fruits he shall sell unto thee."

Pricing was to be regulated by the jubilee. If that glorious event were at hand, the price was low; if far off, the price was high. All human compacts pertaining to land were broken up the moment the trump of jubilee was heard, for the land was Jehovah's; and the jubilee brought everything back to its normal condition.

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