Leviticus

Take-Aways

In addition to the owners, workers, and animals that are commanded to rest in Ex. 23, Leviticus places special emphasis on the importance of letting the land itself rest. This passage underscores the point that the land is a gift from God. In gratitude and respect for this gift, humanity is expected to follow the ordinances that come with it. What does the command to provide a sabbath for the land say about how God cares about creation? Does refusing to provide rest for creation imply distrust that God will provide for humanity during the land’s sabbath?

Eerdmans Commentary on the Bible

25: 1-7 reaffirm the old practice of the fallow year found in Exod 23: 10-11. A rotating fallow is normal; but here the whole land is to lie fallow at once . . . A complete rest from human exploitation gives the land a year for God, just as the weekly Sabbath devotes a day completely to God. How was it possible for peasants on tight margins to give up cultivation for a year? Fertility could be maintained only if fields were left fallow not just every seven years but every other year. A farmer might divide his holding into two parts, one part lying fallow each year. If he was going to let his whole holding lie fallow in the seventh year, he would cultivate both parts in the sixth year and suffer very little loss of production (Hopkins 1985; 194-201).
25: 5-6, 11-12. They may eat from the land but not harvest it. What is the difference? The point is that the produce is open for anyone to pick; it is not for the landholder to gather it in the normal way (p 112).

Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary on the Bible

The Sabbath of Rest for the Land in the Seventh Year

All labour was to cease in the seventh year, as much as daily labour on the seventh day. These statues tell us to beware of covetousness, for a man’s life consists not in the abundance of his possessions. We are to exercise willing dependence on God’s providence for our support; to consider ourselves the Lord’s tenants or stewards, and to use our possessions accordingly. This year of rest typified the spiritual rest which all believers enter into through Christ. Through Him we are eased of the burden of wordly care and labour, both being sanctified and sweetened to us; and we are enabled and encouraged to live by faith.

Take-Aways

Though the earth was given to humanity for its use, we must ever remember that it does not belong to us. We are not the Creator, and creation is not ours to do with as we please. Rather it is given to us in trust (cf. Lk 16:10-11), with the explicit command that we “provide for the redemption of the land.” Consider the images pervasive on television and the internet of crops withering from drought, wild fires raging, mudslides, and fields subsumed by floods. What does redemption for those lands look like? Rates of natural disasters have quadrupled in the last 20 years as a result of humanity’s insatiable consumption of natural resources. Are we treating the land as if we are but tenants on it? Are we showing proper respect for the true owner of the earth?

The New Interpreters Bible Commentary

The central theology of this section, however, is found in vv. 23-24. The Lord declares that “the land is mine.” Thus the land and the crops belong to the Lord. For this reason the land cannot be sold forever. Jezebel failed to comprehend this fact, which Ahab conveniently forgot to tell her. Naboth could not sell, trade, or substitute his land at any price or inducement (see 1 Kings 21), for the ultimate owner of the land forbade such practices. What is true of Israel, in a larger sense, is true of all lands, for Ps 24:1 teaches that the earth is the Lord’s and all that is within the earth. (p1172)

Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary on the Bible

The Jubilee of the Fiftieth Year, Oppression Forbidden

The word “jubilee” signifies a peculiarly animated sound of the silver trumpets. This sound was to be made on the evening of the great day of atonement; for the proclamation of gospel liberty and salvation results from the sacrifice of the Redeemer. It was provided that the lands should not be sold away from their families. They could only be disposed of, as it were, by leases till the year of jubilee, and then returned to the owner or his heir. This tended to preserve their tribes and families distinct, till the coming of the Messiah. The liberty every man was born to, if sold or forfeited, should return at the year of jubilee. This was typical of redemption by Christ from the slavery of sin and Satan, and of being brought again to the liberty of the children of God. All bargains ought to be made by this rule, “Ye shall not oppress one another,” not take advantage of one another’s ignorance or necessity, “but thou shalt fear thy God.” The fear of God reigning in the heart, would restrain from doing wrong to our neighbour in word or deed. Assurance was given that they should be great gainers, by observing these years of rest. If we are careful to do our duty, we may trust God with our comfort. This was a miracle for an encouragement to all who neither sowed or reaped. This was a miracle for an encouragement to all God’s people, in all ages, to trust him in the way of duty. There is nothing lost by faith and self-denial in obedience. Some asked, What shall we eat the seventh year? Thus many Christians anticipate evils, questioning what they shall do, and fearing to proceed in the way of duty. But we have no right to anticipate evils, so as to distress ourselves about them. To carnal minds we may appear to act absurdly, but the path of duty is ever the path of safety.

Take-Aways

Though often thought of as a long list of dos and don’ts, the book of Leviticus offers many poignant and insightful portrayals of humanity’s intimate connection with the earth. God specifically ties Israel’s faithfulness to its relationship with the land. Refer back to Lev. 25 where Israel is commanded to provide sabbath and redemption for the land. Pairing these two chapters together emphasizes the mutual relationship God intends between humanity and creation. We need not choose between meeting our needs and caring for creation. Rather, showing faithfulness to God by caring for creation ensures that God will provide for us by sending “rains in their season.” God sustains all of creation. When we act in accordance with the mutuality God intended for humanity to have with the land, then both humanity and creation flourish. (A side note, notice also that following God’s statutes is linked to there being “peace in the land.” Consider that it is our dependence on non-renewable energy that has made us reliant on countries in the Middle East, Russia, and Venezuela in order to maintain our lifestyle. For more see the section “Human Sin and Creation.”)

John Calvin – Commentaries on the First Book of Moses Called Genesis

4. Then I will give you rain in due season. He might in one word have promised great abundance of food, but, that His grace may be more illustrious, the instruments are mentioned which He employs for its supply. He might give us bread as He formerly rained down manna from heaven; but in order that the signs of His paternal solicitude may be constantly before us, after the seed is sown, the earth requires rain from heaven; and thus the order of the seasons is so regulated that every day may renew the memory of God’s bounty. For this reason rain is mentioned, and the increase of the fruits of the earth; and the continued succession of thrashing, the vintage, and sowing-time, indicates a very abundant supply of corn and wine. For, if the harvest be small, there will not be much work to occupy the husbandman; and, if the vintage be light, hence also will arise an unsatisfactory period of leisure. But when God declares that from harvest to sowing-time they shall have constant employment, He bids them expect a fruitful year, as immediately follows, “ye shall eat your bread to the full” (Vol. 1).

Eerdmans Commentary on the Bible

This sermon is the rhetorical conclusion to the book driving home its message, especially that of the last eight chapters with their call to holiness. It is concerned with communal obedience and disobedience; the ritual and civil measures in chs. 16 and 20 and the warnings of divine punishment (“cutting off”) throughout protect the community from the effects of individual wrongdoing. The original audience, if this was after the exile, could well find the rhetoric recalling their experience and being reinforced by it.

There is, however, a special tie with ch. 25. The land is Yahweh’s supreme blessing on Israel; ch. 26 offers them its blessings if they are obedient and threatens them with its loss (v. 33) in case of disobedience. It is therefore appropriate to pair it with ch. 25, in which the land is the symbol of Yahweh’s claim on them (C.J.H. Wright 1990: 150). So the loss of the land is an ironic fulfillment of the sabbath year law (vv. 34-35, 43; cf. 25: 2-7). V. 13 also picks up 25:42, 55.

Prefixed, however (vv. 1-2), is a reminder of the most fundamental of all Yahweh’s requirements: to be faithful to him, negatively (v. 1) and positively (v. 2). V. 2 repeats 19:30 word for word; v.1 recalls 19:4 (as well as Exod 20:2-6) but expands it. The “pillars” are free-standing undecorated stones which as late as the seventh century BC had been accepted symbols of Yahweh’s presence. It is perhaps to avoid even the suspicion of idolatry that they are forbidden (cf. Deut 16:22).

As the conclusion to a law code, Leviticus 26 is similar to Deuteronomy 28, which pronounces blessings and curses on Israel for obedience and disobedience. Both of them follow a tradition which is seen throughout the ancient Near East in law codes and treaties. Yahweh’s “covenant” with Israel is therefore a major theme (vv. 9, 15, 25, 42, and 44-45). Heb. berit means “treaty” as well as “covenant,” so that the idea is appropriate to the literary form. But here there are no blessings and curses, but rather statements by God of his personal intentions. And the punishments are not presented as final vengeance, but rather as a graduated series of disciplinary actions intended to make Israel come to its senses (like Amos 4:6-12), which are expected to be eventually successful (v. 40). Yahweh in fact will never abandon Israel, but will “remember his covenant.”

The covenant is seen primarily as Yahweh’s promise (Genesis 17). There are conditions which Israel can break (v. 15, perhaps referring to Exodus 24), but this does not wipe the covenant out. The phrase “vengeance for the covenant” in v. 25 is unique and might better be translated “covenant vengeance” or “treaty vengeance,” referring not so much to the covenant as to treaties in general, with their pronouncement of vengeance on the violator. So in spite of the long series of fearsome warnings, the impression the chapter leaves in the end is of God’s irresistible grace and faithfulness to his people (p 122-123).

Leviticus 26: 14-35

But if you will not obey me, and do not observe all these commandments, if you spurn my statutes, and abhor my ordinances, so that you will not observe all my commandments, and you break my covenant, I in turn will do this to you: I will bring terror on you; consumption and fever that waste the eyes and cause life to pine away. You shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it. I will set my face against you, and you shall be struck down by your enemies; your foes shall rule over you, and you shall flee though no one pursues you. And if in spite of this you will not obey me, I will continue to punish you sevenfold for your sins. I will break your proud glory, and I will make your sky like iron and your earth like copper. Your strength shall be spent to no purpose: your land shall not yield its produce, and the trees of the land shall not yield their fruit. If you continue hostile to me, and will not obey me, I will continue to plague you sevenfold for your sins. I will let loose wild animals against you, and they shall bereave you of your children and destroy your livestock; they shall make you few in number, and your roads shall be deserted. If in spite of these punishments you have not turned back to me, but continue hostile to me, then I too will continue hostile to you: I myself will strike you sevenfold for your sins. I will bring the sword against you, executing vengeance for the covenant; and if you withdraw within your cities, I will send pestilence among you, and you shall be delivered into enemy hands. When I break your staff of bread, ten women shall bake your bread in a single oven, and they shall dole out your bread by weight; and though you eat, you shall not be satisfied. But if, despite this, you disobey me, and continue hostile to me, I will continue hostile to you in fury; I in turn will punish you myself sevenfold for your sins. You shall eat the flesh of your sons, and you shall eat the flesh of your daughters. I will destroy your high places and cut down your incense-altars; I will heap your carcasses on the carcasses of your idols. I will abhor you. I will lay your cities waste, will make your sanctuaries desolate, and I will not smell your pleasing odours. I will devastate the land, so that your enemies who come to settle in it shall be appalled at it. And you I will scatter among the nations, and I will unsheathe the sword against you; your land shall be a desolation, and your cities a waste. Then the land shall enjoy its sabbath years as long as it lies desolate, while you are in the land of your enemies; then the land shall rest, and enjoy its sabbath years. As long as it lies desolate, it shall have the rest it did not have on your sabbaths when you were living on it.

Take-Aways

Reading this passage in light of current events and climate change, it would be easy to believe that these words were written in a contemporary newspaper rather than in a book of the Bible thousands of years old. This chapter must be read in context with the rest of Leviticus in which God lays out a number of statues and ordinances for the people of Israel, including the repeated command to care for the land. These verses can be interpreted a number of different ways – a vengeful God striking a willful people, a grieving God punishing in love, or a loving God, carefully describing the consequences of our actions the way a parent warns a child not to touch a stove because she will be burned. Whatever God’s motives, it is chilling how accurately the consequences described here are being born out today as a result of humanity’s abuse of the land. Leviticus warns of food shortages; climate change is exacerbating an already critical global food crisis by decimating crops through increased droughts and flooding. Leviticus warns of disease; because of climate change, disease bearing insects are thriving in regions where they never before lived spreading dangerous illnesses. It is predicted that a 1 degree Celsius rise in global temperature will lead to spikes in typhoid, malaria, and water borne illnesses. Leviticus warns of war; consider that our current dependence on non-renewable fuels has us borrowing money from China to buy oil from the Middle East where we are currently engaged in war, meaning that the money we pay to fuel our military is going to many of the regimes funding the very people our soldiers are fighting. Furthermore, when the cost of a barrel of crude oil increases $10, the Ayatollah Kahmenei in Iran gets $15 billion more, Putin in Russia gets an extra $36 billion, and Hugo Chavez in Venezuela gets an additional $10 billion. Lastly, note what God promises for the land while humanity is ravaged by hunger, disease, and war – “Then the land shall rest, and enjoy its Sabbath years. As long as it lies desolate, it shall have the rest it did not have on your sabbaths when you were living on it.” Notice that while Leviticus is filled with statutes and ordinances that humanity is to obey, when God describes the consequences for disobedience it is only the neglected land that is mentioned.

For more on Lev. 26, see the Adult Bible Study Sabbath for the Land.

John Calvin – Commentaries on the First Book of Moses Called Genesis

34. then shall the land enjoy her Sabbaths. In order that the observance of the Sabbath should be the more honoured, God in a manner associated the land in it together with man; for whereas the land had rest every seventh year from sowing, and harvest, and al cultivation, He thus desired to stir up men more effectually to a greater reverence for the Sabbath. God now bitterly reproves the Israelites because they not only profane the Sabbath themselves, but do not even allow the land to enjoy its prescribed rest; for this repose of the seventh year did not hiner the land from continually groaning under a heavy burden as long as it nourished such ungodly inhabitants. He says, therefore, that the land was disturbed by ceaseless inquietude, and thus was deprived of its lawful Sabbaths, since it bore on its shoulders, as it were, and not without great distress, such impious despisers of God (Vol 1, p 238).

Eerdmans Commentary on the Bible

This sermon is the rhetorical conclusion to the book driving home its message, especially that of the last eight chapters with their call to holiness. It is concerned with communal obedience and disobedience; the ritual and civil measures in chs. 16 and 20 and the warnings of divine punishment (“cutting off”) throughout protect the community from the effects of individual wrongdoing. The original audience, if this was after the exile, could well find the rhetoric recalling their experience and being reinforced by it.

There is, however, a special tie with ch. 25. The land is Yahweh’s supreme blessing on Israel; ch. 26 offers them its blessings if they are obedient and threatens them with its loss (v. 33) in case of disobedience. It is therefore appropriate to pair it with ch. 25, in which the land is the symbol of Yahweh’s claim on them (C.J.H. Wright 1990: 150). So the loss of the land is an ironic fulfillment of the savvath year law (vv. 34-35, 43; cf. 25: 2-7). V. 13 also picks up 25:42, 55.

Prefixed, however (vv. 1-2), is a reminder of the most fundamental of all Yahweh’s requirements: to be faithful to him, negatively (v. 1) and positively (v. 2). V. 2 repeats 19:30 word for word; v.1 recalls 19:4 (as well as Exod 20:2-6) but expands it. The “pillars” are free-standing undecorated stones which as late as the seventh century BC had been accepted symbols of Yahweh’s presence. It is perhaps to avoid even the suspicion of idolatry that they are forbidden (cf. Deut 16:22).

As the conclusion to a law code, Leviticus 26 is similar to Deuteronomy 28, which pronounces blessings and curses on Israel for obedience and disobedience. Both of them follow a tradition which is seen throughout the ancient Near East in law codes and treaties. Yahweh’s “covenant” with Israel is therefore a major theme (vv. 9, 15, 25 [?], 42, and 44-45). Heb. berit means “treaty” as well as “covenant,” so that the idea is appropriate to the literary form. But here there are no blessings and curses, but rather statements by God of his personal intentions. And the punishments are not presented as final vengeance, but rather as a graduated series of disciplinar “treaty” as well as “covenant,” so that the idea is appropriate to the literary form. But here there are no blessings and curses, but rather statements by God of his personal intentions. And the punishments are not presented as final vengeance, but rather as a graduated series of disciplinary actions intended to make Israel come to its senses (like Amos 4:6-12), which are expected to be eventually successful (v. 40). Yahweh in fact will never abandon Israel, but will “remember his covenant.”

The covenant is seen primarily as Yahweh’s promise (Genesis 17). There are conditions which Israel can break (v. 15, perhaps referring to Exodus 24), but this does not wipe the covenant out. The phrase “vengeance for the covenant” in v. 25 is unique and might better be translated “covenant vengeance” or “treaty vengeance,” referring not so much to the covenant as to treaties in general, with their pronouncement of vengeance on the violator. So in spite of the long series of fearsome warnings, the impression the chapter leaves in the ened is of God’s irresistible grace and faithfulness to his people (p 122-123).

The New Interpreters Bible Commentary

So desolate will the land become that even Israel’s enemies will be appalled. In the meantime, those who survive all of this will be scattered among the nations, and the Diaspora will be on (vv. 31-33). This will be the sixth, and final, curse. While the nation is in exile, the land will enjoy the sabbatical years that Israel failed to observe (v34). Based on the 70 years of Babylonian exile, it appears that the nation went 490 years without observing what Leviticus 25 urges (see Jer 25:11). This would be a period from approximately King Saul’s time (c.1100BCE) until the fall of Jerusalem in 587 BCE. There is no need, however, to work out any exact number of years, for it appears to be a round number dealing with a rather extended period when Israel forgot God (Volume I, p1181).

The significance of singling out the Sabbath and the sactuary may be exactly as Andrew Bonar concluded: “All declension and decay may be said to be begun whenever we see these two ordinances despised–the Sabbath and the Sanctuary. They are the outward fence around the inward love commanded in verse 1” (Volume I, p1183).

Take-Aways

Human holiness matters to God. The entire law code preceding this Leviticus passage values not just individual holiness — communal holiness has priority. God desires a holy people, and God gives land to this people as part of God’s covenant blessing. Today with the advent of technology and the growth of cities, it may be easy to feel removed from the land and not understand its place in covenant relationship. For the Israelite community, to be holy involved care for the covenant, including care for the gift of the land. When the people do not keep the covenant, they cannot fully experience the gift of creation. However, despite human failings, the end is hopeful because God is faithful and continually restores and renews. Does God’s faithfulness inspire us to faithfulness in return?

For more on Leviticus 26, see the Adult Bible Study Sabbath for the Land

Eerdmans Commentary on the Bible

This sermon is the rhetorical conclusion to the book driving home its message, especially that of the last eight chapters with their call to holiness. It is concerned with communal obedience and disobedience; the ritual and civil measures in chs. 16 and 20 and the warnings of divine punishment (“cutting off”) throughout protect the community from the effects of individual wrongdoing. The original audience, if this was after the exile, could well find the rhetoric recalling their experience and being reinforced by it.

There is, however, a special tie with ch. 25. The land is Yahweh’s supreme blessing on Israel; ch. 26 offers them its blessings if they are obedient and threatens them with its loss (v. 33) in case of disobedience. It is therefore appropriate to pair it with ch. 25, in which the land is the symbol of Yahweh’s claim on them (C.J.H. Wright 1990: 150). So the loss of the land is an ironic fulfillment of the savvath year law (vv. 34-35, 43; cf. 25: 2-7). V. 13 also picks up 25:42, 55.

Prefixed, however (vv. 1-2), is a reminder of the most fundamental of all Yahweh’s requirements: to be faithful to him, negatively (v. 1) and positively (v. 2). V. 2 repeats 19:30 word for word; v.1 recalls 19:4 (as well as Exod 20:2-6) but expands it. The “pillars” are free-standing undecorated stones which as late as the seventh century BC had been accepted symbols of Yahweh’s presence. It is perhaps to avoid even the suspicion of idolatry that they are forbidden (cf. Deut 16:22).

As the conclusion to a law code, Leviticus 26 is similar to Deuteronomy 28, which pronounces blessings and curses on Israel for obedience and disobedience. Both of them follow a tradition which is seen throughout the ancient Near East in law codes and treaties. Yahweh’s “covenant” with Israel is therefore a major theme (vv. 9, 15, 25, 42, and 44-45). Heb. berit means “treaty” as well as “covenant,” so that the idea is appropriate to the literary form. But here there are no blessings and curses, but rather statements by God of his personal intentions. And the punishments are not presented as final vengeance, but rather as a graduated series of disciplinar “treaty” as well as “covenant,” so that the idea is appropriate to the literary form. But here there are no blessings and curses, but rather statements by God of his personal intentions. And the punishments are not presented as final vengeance, but rather as a graduated series of disciplinary actions intended to make Israel come to its senses (like Amos 4:6-12), which are expected to be eventually successful (v. 40). Yahweh in fact will never abandon Israel, but will “remember his covenant.”

The covenant is seen primarily as Yahweh’s promise (Genesis 17). There are conditions which Israel can break (v. 15, perhaps referring to Exodus 24), but this does not wipe the covenant out. The phrase “vengeance for the covenant” in v. 25 is unique and might better be translated “covenant vengeance” or “treaty vengeance,” referring not so much to the covenant as to treaties in general, with their pronouncement of vengeance on the violator. So in spite of the long series of fearsome warnings, the impression the chapter leaves in the ened is of God’s irresistible grace and faithfulness to his people (p 122-123).