Leviticus 25

In verse 23, the Lord introduces a second principle which follows necessarily from His ownership of the land: He says to the Israelites, “. . . you are but aliens and my tenants. Just as you relate to the aliens and tenant farmers who work your land, so you must relate to me; I am the landowner.”⁹³

The Lord has provided the whole earth for the benefit of human beings, and in return He expects us to manage it for Him. First He chose the Israelites to manage a small portion of the earth, the land of Canaan. And likewise He has chosen Christians today to be co-stewards with Him over those parts of the earth where He has placed them.

Long ago the psalmist wrote of the Lord’s ownership of the world and everything in it, including us: The earth is the LORD’s and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it (Psalm 24:1). Let us never be tempted to think that we “own” anything—including ourselves. We are but servants, tenants, stewards of the Lord’s possessions. Even we ourselves are His possessions. You are not your own; you were bought at a price (1 Corinthians 6:19–20).

The Lord says in verse 24, “. . .you must provide for the redemption of the land.” This simply means that original owners of land must have the right to repurchase their land, even before the Year of Jubilee. The remainder of the chapter provides details about the ways in which this could be done.

25–28 The first way to redeem land was to have the original owner’s nearest relative redeem it for him (verse 25). A famous example of this is described in the book of Ruth (see Ruth 4:1–12 and comment). According to verse 25, the nearest relative of the original owner was obligated to redeem the land for him; such a person was called a kinsman-redeemer (Ruth 2:20; 3:9).

The second way to redeem land was for the original owner to buy it back himself, if he had the money⁹⁴ (verses 26–27).

The third way in which the land could be redeemed was simply to wait for the Year of Jubilee; then the land would automatically be restored to the original owner (verse 28).

29–34 Houses within walled cities were exempt from the redemption and jubilee laws because there was no agricultural land involved in the transaction. If an Israelite sold a city house, he could buy it back within one year, but after that it would remain the property of the buyer. A Levite, however, could buy back his house at any time, because the house was the Levite’s only property.⁹⁵

35–38 If an Israelite became poor, other Israelites were required to help him by loaning him money without interest and selling him food at no profit (verse 37). This law about profit applied only to helping the poor; reasonable profit was acceptable in normal transactions.

However, according to Deuteronomy 23:19–20, no fellow Israelite was ever to be charged interest on a loan. But it was all right to charge a foreigner interest; presumably a foreigner would be seeking some financial gain from borrowing money, and therefore it was right for the lender to share in that gain.

39–46 If an Israelite became hopelessly poor, he could sell himself as an indentured servant; he was then to be released in the jubilee year.⁹⁶ But under no circumstances was an Israelite to be treated like a slave. God was the “owner” of the Israelites because He had redeemed them from bondage in Egypt, and no other human being could own them.⁹⁷

47–55 These verses deal with a poor Israelite who has sold himself as a servant to a wealthy alien or temporary resident. In such cases the alien or temporary resident had to abide by the same laws that governed Israelites who bought servants (see verses 39–43). Just as a near relative was expected to redeem land that was sold, even more was a relative expected to redeem a family member who had sold himself (verse 48).

It is not known to what extent the Israelites put these land and redemption laws into effect after they settled in the land of Canaan. According to Leviticus 26:33–35, the Israelites did not observe the sabbath years for much of their time in Canaan. And later on in Israel’s history, the prophets denounced the Israelites for accumulating greater and greater wealth at the expense of their poorer brethren—just the circumstance that these laws were designed to prevent. Once again we must state that it was not the law itself that was wrong or inadequate; the law was God’s good gift to His chosen people. But the people failed to heed God’s law, and they eventually lost the covenant blessings He had desired to shower upon them.