Leviticus 25: The book of Leviticus is filled with references to the number seven. The number denotes completeness. Some say it refers to perfection, but that is not always the case. Seven denotes completeness.
Both Leviticus and Revelation refer to the number seven many times. I think there are a number of connections to these two books of Scripture. One cannot expect to understand the Revelation unless you study the laws and rituals revealed in Leviticus. This chapter will explain land redemption which explain a portion of Revelation to us also.
(Lev 25:1 NASB) The LORD then spoke to Moses at Mount Sinai, saying,
(Lev 25:2 NASB) “Speak to the sons of Israel, and say to them, ‘When you come into the land which I shall give you, then the land shall have a sabbath to the LORD.
Lev 25:2: Elohim made a Sabbath rest for His people and He made a Sabbath rest for His land also. The word Sabbath means rest. Every seventh year the land was to rest.
Agricultural science has told us that it is good for the land to rest every seventh year. The Sabbatical year of the land was also to keep man from covetousness and gross materialism. We are not put on earth to get materially rich. We are here to glorify Elohim.
Israel ended up breaking this law of Sabbaths for the land. They went 490 years without honoring the Sabbatical year. Elohim will always get His, though. He had the Israelites taken captive for 70 years to make up the time they stole from the land (2 Chron. 36:21).
(Lev 25:3 NASB) ‘Six years you shall sow your field, and six years you shall prune your vineyard and gather in its crop,
(Lev 25:4 NASB) but during the seventh year the land shall have a sabbath rest, a sabbath to the LORD; you shall not sow your field nor prune your vineyard.
Lev 25:4: Man is to rest every seventh day because that is how we honor Elohim. The land is to honor Elohim by resting every seventh year also. Therefore it must happen.
(Lev 25:5 NASB) ‘Your harvest’s aftergrowth you shall not reap, and your grapes of untrimmed vines you shall not gather; the land shall have a sabbatical year.
(Lev 25:6 NASB) ‘And all of you shall have the sabbath products of the land for food; yourself, and your male and female slaves, and your hired man and your foreign resident, those who live as aliens with you.
(Lev 25:7 NASB) ‘Even your cattle and the animals that are in your land shall have all its crops to eat.
Lev 25:7: How did the people eat during the Sabbatical year? This passage tells us. The land was so fertile that it would produce crop on it’s own during the seventh year. Enough food grew naturally to feed the people, their servants, the strangers, and the livestock. There was plenty to eat, but they were not to harvest it for market and profit.
(Lev 25:8 NASB) ‘You are also to count off seven sabbaths of years for yourself, seven times seven years, so that you have the time of the seven sabbaths of years, namely, forty-nine years.
Lev 25:8: After seven Sabbatical years was the Year of Jubilee. This is another unit of time from Elohim based upon the number seven.
(Lev 25:9 NASB) ‘You shall then sound a ram’s horn abroad on the tenth day of the seventh month; on the day of atonement you shall sound a horn all through your land.
Lev 25:9: There were to be horns blown in different areas on that day to be heard throughout the land. The Day of Atonement on the Jubilee Year are indelibly tied with the release from sin and debt at the same time.
(Lev 25:10 NASB) ‘You shall thus consecrate the fiftieth year and proclaim a release through the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you, and each of you shall return to his own property, and each of you shall return to his family.
Lev 25:10: The Year of Jubilee was consecrated just as a Sabbath Year was consecrated. It was another year of no harvesting or sowing.
The people could mortgage their land, but it was returned to them on the year of Jubilee.
(Lev 25:11 NASB) ‘You shall have the fiftieth year as a jubilee; you shall not sow, nor reap its aftergrowth, nor gather in from its untrimmed vines.
(Lev 25:12 NASB) ‘For it is a jubilee; it shall be holy to you. You shall eat its crops out of the field.
Lev 25:12: The year of the Jubilee followed the Sabbatical year. Elohim promised to provide for them. They were to obey. Elohim was to provide.
(Lev 25:13 NASB) ‘On this year of jubilee each of you shall return to his own property.
(Lev 25:14 NASB) ‘If you make a sale, moreover, to your friend, or buy from your friend’s hand, you shall not wrong one another.
(Lev 25:15 NASB) ‘Corresponding to the number of years after the jubilee, you shall buy from your friend; he is to sell to you according to the number of years of crops.
Lev 25:15: When buying or selling land from their neighbor, they were to be very honest in their dealings. When they bought land, they were buying the produce of the land for the period of time until the year of Jubilee.
(Lev 25:16 NASB) ‘In proportion to the extent of the years you shall increase its price, and in proportion to the fewness of the years, you shall diminish its price; for it is a number of crops he is selling to you.
(Lev 25:17 NASB) ‘So you shall not wrong one another, but you shall fear your God; for I am the LORD your God.
(Lev 25:18 NASB) ‘You shall thus observe My statutes, and keep My judgments, so as to carry them out, that you may live securely on the land.
Lev 25:18: This is a direct command from Elohim. He tells them they are to observe His statues and keep His judgments. This is a reminder to keep all of Torah, but in particular those laws He just mentioned. The Sabbath, the Sabbath Laws of the Land, the Year of Jubilees and they are to have fair business dealings especially in buying and selling land.
This is tantamount to the people. The land is tied to them and His Torah concerning the land must be followed.
(Lev 25:19 NASB) ‘Then the land will yield its produce, so that you can eat your fill and live securely on it.
(Lev 25:20 NASB) ‘But if you say, “What are we going to eat on the seventh year if we do not sow or gather in our crops?”
(Lev 25:21 NASB) then I will so order My blessing for you in the sixth year that it will bring forth the crop for three years.
Lev 25:21: The sixth year crop was to bring forth fruits to last three years, not just two. This allows for excessive harvests before the Sabbath Years. It also allows for the Sabbatical year and the Year of Jubilees when that comes around.
(Lev 25:22 NASB) ‘When you are sowing the eighth year, you can still eat old things from the crop, eating the old until the ninth year when its crop comes in.
(Lev 25:23 NASB) ‘The land, moreover, shall not be sold permanently, for the land is Mine; for you are but aliens and sojourners with Me.
(Lev 25:24 NASB) ‘Thus for every piece of your property, you are to provide for the redemption of the land.
Lev 25:24: The year of the Jubilee prevented anyone from scarfing up all the land in Israel for their own private use. It preserved a balance in Israel. Elohim owns the land and allowed the Israelites to have it continuously. The Israelites were given dominion over that land.
The year of Jubilee is another ordinance of Elohim that gives us a beautiful picture of Messiah. Through Yeshua Messiah all our debts are paid off and we are free. The blood of Messiah cleanses us from the stain of sin that we are unable to remove. Because of this we are to be trumpet blowers throughout the land, proclaiming the graciousness and forgiveness of Elohim and the blessings of following His Torah.
(Lev 25:25 NASB) ‘If a fellow countryman of yours becomes so poor he has to sell part of his property, then his nearest kinsman is to come and buy back what his relative has sold.
Lev 25:25: This chapter of redemption continues by the teaching of the law of the kinsman-redeemer. If an Israelite becomes so poor that he has to sell part of his property, then his nearest kinsman is to buy it back.
(Lev 25:26 NASB) ‘Or in case a man has no kinsman, but so recovers his means as to find sufficient for its redemption,
(Lev 25:27 NASB) then he shall calculate the years since its sale and refund the balance to the man to whom he sold it, and so return to his property.
Lev 25:27: The law of the principle of the kinsman-redeemer was given to enable those that hit hard times shortly after the Year of Jubilee to regain their land they had to mortgage.
Let’s look at the conditions described for the kinsman-redeemer:
1. It applied to a man who had become poor and has sold away his possession for one reason or another.
2. Then a close relative of that man could redeem it for his kin and pay the required price for that which his kin had sold away.
The requirements here involved a man who had lost his possession that was picked up by an outsider. Plus it involved a rich relative who was willing and had the means to redeem that which was lost.
This law is illustrated for us in the book of Ruth. Ruth was a widow who wanted to be redeemed along with property that her mother-in-law had sold. This had to be done by a close relative and she chose Boaz to do that. Boaz wasn’t the closest relative and the closest relative had first rights to the property. Boaz did this properly and gave the closest relative a chance at the property in a very open business deal (Ruth 4:1-15).
This was done in front of the elders as witnesses and according to the Laws of Elohim
This same scene will soon (or has already) take place in heaven (Rev 5:1-2). The sealed book in heaven is Book of Life which is title deed to the land of Israel. It has the names of all those who will inherit the Kingdom. It was sealed up and stored in a safe place until it came time for it to be redeemed. Mankind had become poor and wretched in his sin, lost his inheritance, and required redemption.
How can the property of the land of Israel be redeemed? First of all there had to be a Kinsman-Redeemer available who was willing to pay the price. Yeshua Messiah came to us as an Israelite, our Kinsman. He then made the ultimate sacrifice and died to pay the price for our redemption. Yeshua Messiah is our Kinsman-Redeemer as described in Leviticus 25.
The book in heaven is initially a sad scene. John apparently hadn’t put 2 and 2 together. He wept because no one was worthy to open the seals to the book (Rev. 5:1-5). This will be done in a legal manner and in front of the elders just as in the Book of Ruth (Rev. 5:6-10). It will be a day of great rejoicing in heaven (Rev. 5:11-14). The remainder of the Revelation is the story of Yeshua Messiah and the steps that will be and have been taken for Him to take possession of the land He bought and paid for. The following chapters in Revelation describe the various nations which inhabited the land of Israel since Messiah arrived the first time.
(Lev 25:28 NASB) ‘But if he has not found sufficient means to get it back for himself, then what he has sold shall remain in the hands of its purchaser until the year of jubilee; but at the jubilee it shall revert, that he may return to his property.
(Lev 25:29 NASB) ‘Likewise, if a man sells a dwelling house in a walled city, then his redemption right remains valid until a full year from its sale; his right of redemption lasts a full year.
Lev 25:29: A difference is here made between houses in a city and houses in the country. A house in the city might be redeemed any time in the course of a year; but after that time could not be redeemed, or go out with the Jubilee.
A house in the country can be redeemed at any time; and if not redeemed must revert back to the previous owner with the jubilee. The reason in both cases makes sense.
The house in the city is likely built merely for the purposes of trade or traffic. The house in the country was built on, or attached to, the inheritance which Elohim had divided to the respective families. It was therefore necessary that the same law should apply to the house as to the inheritance. But that did not exist apply with regard to the house in the city, because the cities were now owned land by the people.
(Lev 25:30 NASB) ‘But if it is not bought back for him within the space of a full year, then the house that is in the walled city passes permanently to its purchaser throughout his generations; it does not revert in the jubilee.
(Lev 25:31 NASB) ‘The houses of the villages, however, which have no surrounding wall shall be considered as open fields; they have redemption rights and revert in the jubilee.
Lev 25:31: A house in an unwalled village is considered the same as a house in the country and can be redeemed at any time.
(Lev 25:32 NASB) ‘As for cities of the Levites, the Levites have a permanent right of redemption for the houses of the cities which are their possession.
(Lev 25:33 NASB) ‘What, therefore, belongs to the Levites may be redeemed and a house sale in the city of this possession reverts in the jubilee, for the houses of the cities of the Levites are their possession among the sons of Israel.
(Lev 25:34 NASB) ‘But pasture fields of their cities shall not be sold, for that is their perpetual possession.
Lev 25:34: The laws of property redemption took into consideration depreciation. Also, rules were different for Levites. Levites did not own land. Their houses could be redeemed at any time. The pasture fields outside the cities could not be sold.
(Lev 25:35 NASB) ‘Now in case a countryman of yours becomes poor and his means with regard to you falter, then you are to sustain him, like a stranger or a sojourner, that he may live with you.
(Lev 25:36 NASB) ‘Do not take usurious interest from him, but revere your God, that your countryman may live with you.
(Lev 25:37 NASB) ‘You shall not give him your silver at interest, nor your food for gain.
Lev 25:37: Elohim’s Torah always looks after the poor. The poor had little opportunity and were not to be taken advantage of by His people.
(Lev 25:38 NASB) ‘I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt to give you the land of Canaan and to be your God.
(Lev 25:39 NASB) ‘And if a countryman of yours becomes so poor with regard to you that he sells himself to you, you shall not subject him to a slave’s service.
(Lev 25:40 NASB) ‘He shall be with you as a hired man, as if he were a sojourner; he shall serve with you until the year of jubilee.
Lev 25:40: If an Israelite becomes poor and has to sell himself, he is to be treated differently than a normal slave.
Slavery in that day was the form of punishment for crime or indebtedness. If a man stole money, cattle, sheep, etc. from someone, he was to pay back several times the amount he stole. If he could not pay, he was that man’s slave to work off his debt. If the man did not work hard, he could be physically punished. The penalty for killing a slave is much less than for a free man also.
If a man is an Israelite, he cannot be treated like a slave if he sells himself due to indebtedness.
(Lev 25:41 NASB) ‘He shall then go out from you, he and his sons with him, and shall go back to his family, that he may return to the property of his forefathers.
(Lev 25:42 NASB) ‘For they are My servants whom I brought out from the land of Egypt; they are not to be sold in a slave sale.
(Lev 25:43 NASB) ‘You shall not rule over him with severity, but are to revere your God.
Lev 25:43: A fellow Israelite is to be treated as such. Not as a typical slave who owes others through a crime or through desperation.
(Lev 25:44 NASB) ‘As for your male and female slaves whom you may have– you may acquire male and female slaves from the pagan nations that are around you.
(Lev 25:45 NASB) ‘Then, too, it is out of the sons of the sojourners who live as aliens among you that you may gain acquisition, and out of their families who are with you, whom they will have produced in your land; they also may become your possession.
(Lev 25:46 NASB) ‘You may even bequeath them to your sons after you, to receive as a possession; you can use them as permanent slaves. But in respect to your countrymen, the sons of Israel, you shall not rule with severity over one another.
Lev 25:46: They were not allowed to take fellow Israelites as slaves in the typical sense. They become as hired servants.
(Lev 25:47 NASB) ‘Now if the means of a stranger or of a sojourner with you becomes sufficient, and a countryman of yours becomes so poor with regard to him as to sell himself to a stranger who is sojourning with you, or to the descendants of a stranger’s family,
(Lev 25:48 NASB) then he shall have redemption right after he has been sold. One of his brothers may redeem him,
(Lev 25:49 NASB) or his uncle, or his uncle’s son, may redeem him, or one of his blood relatives from his family may redeem him; or if he prospers, he may redeem himself.
Lev 25:49: If a stranger among the people purchases an Israelite because he has become poor, that Israelite may be redeemed by a relative.
(Lev 25:50 NASB) ‘He then with his purchaser shall calculate from the year when he sold himself to him up to the year of jubilee; and the price of his sale shall correspond to the number of years. It is like the days of a hired man that he shall be with him.
(Lev 25:51 NASB) ‘If there are still many years, he shall refund part of his purchase price in proportion to them for his own redemption;
(Lev 25:52 NASB) and if few years remain until the year of jubilee, he shall so calculate with him. In proportion to his years he is to refund the amount for his redemption.
Lev 25:52: The redemption of an Israelite is similar to the redemption of the land. It is based upon the number of years to the year of Jubilee.
(Lev 25:53 NASB) ‘Like a man hired year by year he shall be with him; he shall not rule over him with severity in your sight.
(Lev 25:54 NASB) ‘Even if he is not redeemed by these means, he shall still go out in the year of jubilee, he and his sons with him.
(Lev 25:55 NASB) ‘For the sons of Israel are My servants; they are My servants whom I brought out from the land of Egypt. I am the LORD your God.
Lev 25:55: The Year of the Jubilee applied to those who had to sell not only their property, but sell themselves into slavery also. They would be set free on the Year of the Jubilee or they could be bought back by a kinsman-redeemer.
Keep in mind that only Israelites are redeemed by their kinsman. There is no redemption for anyone outside of Israel. It is only because we are grafted into Israel that we have a Kinsman-Redeemer. He is rich. But He became poor so that He might shed His blood to redeem us. The concept and law of the kinsman-redeemer is completely made full in our Kinsman-Redeemer, Yeshua Messiah.
Patrick McGuire
Copyright 2014 Patrick McGuire and Beit Yeshua Torah Assembly All rights reserved, no portion of this Lesson may be reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations in articles and reviews. Beit Yeshua Torah Assembly Fort Smith, Arkansas