I have some grandparents and uncles who did pretty well for themselves in small scale real estate development while I was growing up. One of the stories I remember is that my Grandpa Jake bought a small house by paying the unpaid taxes on it. He forked over $10. Then he and Grandma fixed the place up, eventually sold it, and used the profit to buy another place.

From time to time our family would gather at one of Grandpa’s properties and help with demolition,  laying a floor or painting the walls. It’s called “flipping a house” now, but Grandpa and Grandma called it “buying a place and fixing it up.”

I sometimes wondered what became of the owner who couldn’t pay $10 in property taxes. Were they that poor, or did they just not care about the place anymore? It seemed like there might be a sad story behind that sale.

Redeeming Property

God never wanted any of his people to become so destitute that they ended up without a home to call their own. The nation of Israel wasn’t in the Promised Land yet, but when they got there, the tribes would be assigned territories, and inside the territories, clans and families would be given land of their own. It was theirs in perpetuity as far as God was concerned.

If someone had to sell the use of their property to raise money, they had the right to buy it back as soon as possible. If they couldn’t afford it, the nearest relative was asked to do it for them. If no relative was able to redeem the property, the original owner could still buy it back later, when they could afford it.

Here’s how it worked: Say a man needed to raise 50 shekels. He could get that money from someone who wanted to use his property. The buyer then planted crops or pastured animals, and waited for the value of the loan to come back to him in profits from the land.

The price of the property was always based on how much use a buyer could get from it before it was returned at Jubilee. Because the land never fully changed owners, the “sale” of it was actually more of a lease arrangement. At Jubilee, the deal ended and the property went back to the hands of the original owner.

God Provides, People Divide

Here is a remarkable command from God:

“If any of your fellow Israelites become poor and are unable to support themselves among you, help them as you would a foreigner and stranger, so they can continue to live among you. Do not take interest or any profit from them, but fear God, so that they may continue to live among you.” Leviticus 25:35-36

God had been so generous to Israel that he expected them to be generous with their poor neighbors and with needy strangers who came to live among them. They were to lend money without charging interest. They were to do whatever was required to help those people continue to live in Israel.

When people close their heart against the poor, it’s not usually because they don’t have something to share. Sometimes it’s because they fear their resources will run out. They don’t want to be made poor by “enriching” a stranger so they hoard what they have. Or perhaps the person in a position to give thinks the poor person isn’t worthy. They are critical of them or resent them. They may not want some groups of people to live where they live.

God didn’t accept these attitudes. He told Israel to be generous and make sure that no one, native born or foreigner, suffered from perpetual poverty. God planned to provide for everyone in Israel, but while he was a great provider, he relied upon the Israelites to be fair dividers of the wealth.

Enslaved People

There have always been people who were so poor that they had to sell their ability to work in exchange for food and shelter. An Israelite who ended up in that situation in ancient Israel was to be treated like a hired person, not a slave. They worked only until the Year of Jubilee then they were released to go back to the home of their ancestors and start over.

Israel was allowed to own slaves purchased from the nations around them, or from among the foreigners living in Israel. But slavery was not based on race in the Bible. It was usually the result of misfortune and poverty, or being captured in a war. As an alternative to death from starvation or dying by the hand of a conqueror, slavery at least allowed a person to live and be provided for.

People who obey God’s laws improve every human institution. Slavery was terrible because it took away a person’s freedom, but if the slave owner was a godly person, there was a chance life could be reasonable for the slave. And there was always the possibility that the slave could be set free.

In the New Testament the Apostle Paul gave these instructions to slaves and their masters in Christ:

^“Slaves, obey your earthly masters with respect and fear, and with sincerity of heart, just as you would obey Christ. Obey them not only to win their favor when their eye is on you, but as slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from your heart. Serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not people, because you know that the Lord will reward each one for whatever good they do, whether they are slave or free. And masters, treat your slaves in the same way. Do not threaten them, since you know that he who is both their Master and yours is in heaven, and there is no favoritism with him.” Ephesians 6:5-9

The early church didn’t promote slavery, but it encouraged everyone, slave or free to remember that they belonged to Christ above all.

Blessings and Curses

Leviticus 26:1-46 contains lists of blessings for those who obey God’s Law, and curses for those who don’t. Lists like this were often found at the end of agreements and decrees made by ancient kings. The ruler called upon the gods to bless anyone who kept the decrees or curse anyone who violated them. They believed there were gods who sent rain or withheld it, gods who blessed animals or destroyed them, gods who protected the nation against its enemies or helped its enemies defeat it.

God is the author of the lists we read in Leviticus 26. He made the covenant with Israel and it was he who would send blessings or curses. It’s important to know that these blessings and curses were prophetic and actually came true in the course of Israel’s long history in the Old Testament. When we read the prophets later this year, we will see them lamenting over the curses in Leviticus 26:14-39 which have come to pass in Israel.

Repentance and Return

But God always provided a way for his people to repent and return to him after they sinned.

Leviticus 26:40-46 prophesied that when Israel was in exile in the future, they would confess their sins and the sins of their ancestors, and God would renew the covenant with them. In Daniel chapter 9, Daniel does confess the sins of Israel and shortly after that the people return to the Promised Land from the places where they were exiled for seventy years.

Speaking of those seventy years, God had wanted the land of Canaan to have sabbatical rests every seven years after Israel settled there. It appears that Israel neglected to give the land those respites from plowing, planting and harvest, so instead God gave Canaan seventy sabbatical years in a row.

The End of Leviticus

“These are the decrees, the laws and the regulations that the Lord established at Mount Sinai between himself and the Israelites through Moses.” Leviticus 26:46

We have now read all of Leviticus except for chapter 27, which we will read tomorrow. Have you ever read Leviticus this carefully before?

What has this book taught you about what God wants most from his people? Try writing a sentence that sums up a key idea from Leviticus. It will help you keep the purpose of this important in mind.