Jews are very careful in their law how they treat. non-Jewish people who live in their land. They've always been that way. to some degree, as long as they didn't stir up trouble. And Moses, as I understand this verse, is saying to them, well, you know, you treat.
Sojourners, people who aren't used pretty well because of the law.
Well don't forget you gotta do that to your brother and sister too, then they fall on hard times. The New Testament version is, you know, you who are spiritual, restore such a one. This is Cross Reference Radio with our pastor and teacher, Rick Gaston. Rick is the pastor of Calvary Chapel, Mechanicsville. Pastor Rick is currently teaching through the book of Leviticus.
Please stay with us after today's message to hear more information about cross-reference radio. specifically how you can get a free copy of this teaching. Leviticus chapter 25 is where Pastor Rick will be teaching from today on this edition of Cross-Reference Radio. God seems to have forsaken you. It's in our best interest in those times to continue to trust him.
As a faithful Creator, Peter said. a Hall of Heroes who had natural grounds to charge God with forsaking them. instead of charging him, decided or chose to trust and to learn. Nonetheless, Just think of Joseph. Joseph suffered because he was obedient.
He wasn't punished by God. Job, of course, no comment necessary. Just mention the name Job, and everybody gets it. David, anointed but yet suffering. This s Saul had to be.
pounding him to kill him. Even though he was innocent. His own father-in-law. Jeremiah, look how much he suffered bringing the truth to the people that should have gobbled it up. Hosea.
A heartbroken prophet. Unrequited love. Habakkuk. Ends his prophecy with, everything can fail. I'm going to trust you.
Habakkuk chapter 3, verse 17. I think it was seventeen and eighteen. Of course, Peter, Paul, Stephen, James. Antipas. Trust in God.
went out Moderate. Executed. It is always in our best interest to trust God even when we feel forsaken. And that is what God's message is to man. The Bible's message is to man.
It's not all about you. It's about me. But I pay up. and I'll make it worth while. I'll give you a heaven so fantastic Words can't describe it.
won't even try. The best I could do for you is tell you what's not in heaven, some of the things that aren't in heaven. If the Bible were written in our time, traffic would have been one of them. There'd be no traffic in heaven. You get your own highway.
Could you imagine your own interstate? I wouldn't get lonely. Not only that. Anyway. There shall be no more death, nor sorrow.
Nor tears. What is not in heaven?
Well, verse 23: The land shall not be sold permanently, for the land is mine, for you are strangers and sojourners with me.
Now, everything he's saying. Verse 22 is the kingpin that holds all of this together. Here God reminds them he owns creation. Psalm twenty four verse one. The earth is Yahweh's.
in all its fullness and the world and those who dwell therein. In Psalm 50, God talks about through the psalmist. Don't live your life against me and then come to me and think I hear your prayers. I'm not interested. And we see a lot of this.
We see a lot of people thinking that God listens to them.
Well, they don't care anything about His Son. Crucifixion means nothing to them. They probably don't even own a Bible. Many cases, and even if not blasphemers, full-out blasphemers nonetheless.
Well Even the people of Israel are only tenants of their land. He owns it all. Therefore ownership of property was temporary, not permanent. And it's being exercised in the year of Jubilee. They've got to.
Sort of proving that this is God's land and we have to give it back to whom He is.
sort of leased it to. These law laws made it pretty much impossible. for real estate investors to accumulate Vast amounts of wealth. It you know, you just you had to turn the land over eventually. That would help stabilize the economy, actually.
You could not You could not take this system and apply it to another system. You couldn't apply it to our economy or some other it just you it has it can only work in a theocracy. where God is controlling the people. And we have details left out, of course. You see, you cannot mimic this.
But it, so you just can't criticize it. You have to understand by faith, we understand. as the scripture Clearly says in Hebrews 11. By faith we understand. And the rest of the verse is just as beautiful.
But that alone. that part of the verse alone. is substantial. Coming back to this, even the poorest Israelite family received back their land. If they went bankrupt and they're going to have to give the land to somebody else to pay off their debt and then they're going to have to go indenture themselves as slaves, if they lived this long or if they fell on the cycle and it was practiced, they would be delivered back to their land debt-free.
The only thing a man really had a right to In Israel, was his labor. That which was the result from his own labor, and even that was subject to tithe and tax.
So Don't cling too tightly to the things of this world is also an Old Testament teaching.
Now we come to possessions, verse 24, and in all the land of your possession you shall grant redemption of the land. If one of your brethren becomes poor and has sold some of his possession, And if his Redeeming relative comes to redeem it, then he may redeem what his brother sold. Verse 26, or if the man has no one to redeem it. but he himself becomes able to redeem it. Then let him count the years since the sail is sailed, and restore the remainder to the man to whom he sold it?
that it may return to his possession.
So God is saying it's fair to everyone. It's fair to the man who got in debt and sold his land, he has a chance to buy it back, whether it's a Redeemer, a Goel, in the like Boaz in the story of Ruth. Or or if he just, you know, s comes al along, maybe stumbles across a bag of gold, fell off an armor truck. And of course. He'd have to read the label and report that.
Anyway. There goes my fantasy. Anyhow, to come back to this, if if he could get free, he would be, but. He it was a It was a clean deal.
So if a Jew went into slavery because he could not pay his debts, then his family member could pay it or he himself could pay it.
Well, that brings us to the New Testament. A verse that sums up all of this is in Mark 10, verse 45. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve. and to give his life a ransom for many. He's paying a debt.
that he did not owe. a debt that we couldn't pay. As the Redeemer here in this section, the Goel, a family member who could pay the debt for the other family member. who could not pay him back, So that, of course, is a type of Christ woven into this. Jewish law.
In verse 28, but if he is not able to have it restored to him, then what was sold shall remain in the hand of him who bought it until the year of Jubilee and in the Jubilee It shall be released. And he shall return his possessions.
So if he sold himself, and five years before the Jubilee comes along, You could only enslave another Jew for six years. According to Exodus twenty one, And then you had to let them go anyway.
So they had these checks and balances built in. to their system. But if If you were five years into it, but the Jubilee fell. On your Fifth year, you can you go free. Go back to your land.
You're knowing anything. You go back and work it and try to make a living. Verse 28, but if he is not able to have it restored to himself, Then What was sold shall remain in the hand of him who bought it until The Jubilee year of Jubilee, and in the Jubilee it shall be released, and he shall return his. To his possession.
Now, if I read a verse twice, understand I've read these verses several times today and yesterday. And actually, Monday, too. And so I don't know when I read it last. Anyway. Now we come to houses.
In verse twenty nine. Or structural possessions. If a man sells a house in a walled city, Then he may redeem it within a whole year after it is sold within a full year. He may redeem it.
Now remember, you're going to be tested on these things next week.
Well Fortunately, we're not under the law. But he continues, verse 30, but not this law at least. Verse 30, but if It is not redeemed within the space of a full year, then the house in the walled city. shall belong permanently to him who bought it. Throughout his generations it shall not be released in the Jubilee.
However, the houses of villages, which have no wall around them, Shall be counted as the field of the country. They may be redeemed and they shall be released in the Jubilee.
So now here's the rules for different properties, urban properties versus whether wall cities are urban properties versus the agricultural lands and villages.
So a city property When it changed hands. The Klan members at the Jubilee had it one year to make their claim. And if they did not make the claim, then whoever had that house, whoever leased it. or rented it, however you want to say it, he got to keep it. You got to claim it now.
You've got a year to claim it. If you don't, then it's gone. And likely because it was a developed property. And an investment, a a larger investment versus the the village area where there were You know Houses likely not as built up as you would find in a walled city. And it was part of the land.
If you were in a village or out in the country then Whether they claimed it in a year or not, it was theirs. You didn't get to keep it. I hope I'm not confusing you on that. And if I am, feel free to read verses 29 to 31, because it. Uh Just what it says is what it means.
all of this taking place under the Jubilee. You know, you're kind of amazed at how many Christians that want to live in the Old Testament don't know the Old Testament. It's like, you know, you... You're not getting the point. God is reaching forward.
through Gentile worlds where these things will not function well. And We may come to that. Verse 32: Nevertheless, the cities of the Levites and the houses in the cities of their possession, the Levites may redeem it any time. And if a man purchases a house from The Levite Levites then The house that was sold in the city of his possession shall be released In the Jubilee The houses and the cities of the Levites are their possession among the children of Israel.
Well, the Levites, of course, are the clergy. They assisted the priests, and collectively they were clergy. They were the spiritual leaders of the land. And this, we'll get this again in. Numbers and Joshua 21.
But their lands are protected. And you know, by the time David comes along, they're working in shifts, you know, in divisions of the Levites and the priests. But when they weren't on duty, They were back at their land. and they would work their land, and they live off of their land. There's no It's very difficult.
to be lazy. in that society. Verse 34, but the field of the common land of their cities may not be sold, for it is their perpetual possession.
Well, the tribal lands that everyone benefited from. The realtors could not gobble them up and put a development in there with houses two feet from each other. Woe unto those who dwell house to house and field to field, till there is no space to dwell alone, says Isaiah the prophet. And I say, Amen. Why can't you give at least an acre to everybody?
At least. a buffer for that loud music. Before you do a night mission on his sound system, you could low-crawl for a little bit. All right, never mind. Verse 35.
If one of your brethren you know, I'm sorry, just People who play their music loud. I mean ridiculously loud. It should do jail time. They just, that's the way it should be. If it's going into your neighbor's house and shaking his furniture, Yeah.
You should I'm I'm I mean What's the Papyon? Devil's Island?
Something far away in the Pacific I'm talking about. All right.
Well with grace, you know, you just be kind to them. Verse 35. If one of your brethren becomes poor. and falls into poverty among you, then you shall help him like a stranger or a sojourner, that he may live with you. Oh, great.
Yeah. What are you talking about? Hehehehe You know, their laws, the Jews are very careful in their law how they treat. non-Jewish people who live in their land. They've always been that way.
to some degree, as long as they didn't stir up trouble. And Moses, as I understand this verse, is saying to them, well, you know, you treat.
Sojourners, people who aren't used pretty well because of the law.
Well, don't forget you can do that to your brother and sister, too, when they fall on hard times. The New Testament version is, you know, you who are spiritual, restore such a one. So, when a family member again fell on hard times, they were not to be disgraced or shunned. They had a habit of smashing up their car. You take them in, you just don't ever give them the keys to your car.
You still stay a step ahead. Uh but uh anyway. You could not mistreat or abuse them, and you could do what you could do to help them out. That's the teaching here. Then you factor in in laws.
Is you could get real sticky, and the only way you're going to get through these things is live on an island where nobody wants. Yeah. Do you know how we get People to go home in church on a Sunday. Because they like the fellowship a long time, and we're fine with that. But you know, around approaching five o'clock, we're ready to go home.
We just turned the AC off. I don't see why you can't see the humor in these things.
So, if you want to help people, you've got to construct sinister ways to make them want to get help somewhere else. It's just all of a sudden, I became a big farmer. And, you know, They hated the stench of the pigs so much they went to live with my other brother.
Alright, no more fun with this. I just You can't do that. God would bust you. And that's why it's funny. Because you know, putting this effort into sinister plans to escape being loving.
doesn't work.
So you might as well just be loving. and take it regardless of who it is. Anyway, verse thirty six. Verse thirty-six. Take no usury.
Or interest from him, but fear your God, that your brother may live with you. Take that out of my Bible right now. You shall not lend him your money for usury, nor lend him your food for profit.
So you the Jews could loan money. for profit, but not when the person was on hard times, and that's the idea. This system works best when you feared God. I genuinely feared that God would. would trouble you if you abused The poor or his word.
The widows and the poor and the orphans, they hold a special place, it seems, from Scripture in the heart of God. And so we have to be careful. how we treat those. who are disadvantaged, and not those who are necessarily in the same They're not necessarily the same if they're self-inflicted. because they are the the fool of the proverbs.
But all of that still requires Prayer and grace.
Well, the basics for life were to be given. not exploited. We we have this today. People who gouge milk when a storm comes through, you know, try to all of a sudden milk is $9 a gallon. God doesn't like that.
Verse 38, I am Yahweh your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt. to give you the land of Canaan, to be your God.
Well, they're still in the wilderness at this time.
So by faith, they were Sure, they were going to possess the land. and implement these commandments. Verse thirty nine And if one of your brethren who dwells by you becomes poor and sells himself to you, you shall not compel him to serve as a slave.
So reread that. If one of your brethren who dwells By you becomes poor and sells himself to you, you shall not compel him to serve as a slave.
So he will serve as a servant. But he's not the same as a slave, and these laws will make these distinctions.
So, just overview these principles of slavery. God did not establish slavery. He regulated it. nor does he endorse it. If the Jubilee came before the seventh year of slavery, then the slaves were set free.
Gentile slaves. They were permanent. In fact, you could inherit. If your armies went out and they Took over a Gentile town and they brought back slaves, say the Philistines that were in the land, and they conquered them and they took slaves back. They became an inheritance.
You could pass them to the next generation. And too much time to really get into why. It actually fit the times they live in. We cannot judge them by our standards today. Masters could free a slave if they so wanted to, and a Jewish slave could purchase their freedom.
Even a Gentile slave if uh If it worked out between the two, they didn't have to, but they could free them also. But here's a fact. Throughout human history, Many slaves were better off as slaves than they were living as free people.
Well no ways the case. But You know, we tend to go right to our Civil War days, and that's not the whole story on slavery. And I'm not endorsing it, but it is a fact. Otherwise, there'd be no such thing as a bondservant. And a bondservant in the scripture is someone who is a slave, and their time of release comes, and they say, I don't want to go free.
I want to stay here. And they take them to the bonds. Post to the house, and he took an awl and pierced the ear. And that was a bondservant. The bondservant said, I'm better off.
As a servant in this house, than I am a free man outside of this house. It was his choice. And that's the difference between indentured slavery and enslavement. Our military is a system of indentured slavery. Verse 40, As a hired servant, a sojourner, he shall be with you and shall serve you until the year of Jubilee.
And then he shall depart from you. Verse 20, 41, he and his children with him. and shall return to his family, he shall return to the possession of his fathers, verse 42, for they are my servants. Who might brought out of the land of Egypt, They shall not be sold as slaves.
So this is regarding the Jews. They're not to be forcefully enslaved. as commented on, verse 43, you shall not rule over him with rigor. But you shall Fear your God. And so you they were more employees.
than enslaved people. Verse forty four. And what we're learning is God owns the land, he owns the people too. as Ezekiel 18, 4 tells us. Verse 44.
And as for your male and female servants, whom you may have From the nations that are around you, from them you may buy male and female slaves. Moreover, you may buy the children of the strangers who dwell among you. and their families who are with you. Which they beget in your land, and they shall become your property. Verse 46, and you may take them as an inheritance for your children after you to inherit them as a possession.
And they shall be your permanent slaves. But regarding your brethren, the children of Israel, you shall not rule over them. Over one another with rigor. And so there's the great distinction is made. And again, God regulating slavery, a lot of those people.
would be happy Happy error in some of those Jewish homes. Verse forty seven now. If a sojourner or a stranger Close to you becomes rich. and one of your brethren who dwells by him becomes poor and sells himself to the rich to the stranger or sojourner close to you or to a member of the stranger's family. After he is sold.
After he is sold, he may be redeemed again. one of his brothers may redeem him.
Now we'll skip verses 49 and 50.
So this section deals with an alien who takes an Israelite slave.
So you're not a Jew, you're living in Israel, you're under their law. And a Jewish person is indebted to you, you take him in to pay off his debt as a servant.
Well, you have to treat him. the same way as if you were a citizen and the just kept things Honest and a benefit to the person who couldn't pay his debt.
Well, verse 51 through 53. are repeating the same things. With the cost, as far as the cost of buying someone out of slavery. and its effect into Jubilee year. when set free.
The calculations, which we don't have the formulas, the market values, but the calculations are to be fair. And verses 51 through 53 get into that. As an overview. Verse 54 now. And if he is not redeemed in these years, he shall be released in the year of Jubilee, he and his children with him.
And that's the Reset year, verse 55. For the children of Israel are servants to me, they are my servants. whom I brought out of the land of Egypt, I am Yahweh your God.
So, Israel was not to be occupied with serving any other God. Of course, we know that. Covered the sabbatical and jubilee, the rest and the reset. The question you end up with. is in this picture as a Christian, what stands out to me?
Well, then I gotta trust God for my provision. According to his word and everything else he says in his word, I gotta trust him. What if we had some of these rules today? I think we'd be better off. That's not going to happen.
Thanks for tuning in to today's edition of Cross Reference Radio. Pastor Rick Gaston is currently going through the book of Leviticus. We're glad you joined us. We trust that you're gaining some valuable insights into God's Word as we go through this Old Testament book. Cross-reference radio comes to you from Calvary Chapel, Mechanicsville, in Virginia.
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