Leviticus 25:23 - Meaning and Application

Here is a law about the real estate of the Israelites in Canaan, and how it could be transferred. No land was to be sold forever out of the family that received it when the land was divided. The reason is given clearly: “The land is mine, and you are strangers and sojourners with me” (Leviticus 25:23). Since God had a special claim on that land, he used this rule to remind them of it. People who have given themselves to God, and with themselves all they have, must accept that their possessions are especially under his rule.

Because they were only strangers and temporary residents with him in that land, and because his tabernacle was among them, to give away their part of the land was almost like cutting themselves off from fellowship with God. That land was a sign of his presence with them. That is why Naboth would rather face a king’s anger than give up his fathers’ inheritance (1 Kings 21:3).

If a man was forced by poverty to sell his land to support his family, he could still buy it back before the year of jubilee if he later became able to do so (Leviticus 25:24, Leviticus 25:26, Leviticus 25:27). The price was to be worked out by counting the years that had passed since the sale and the years left until jubilee. If the man himself could not redeem it, his nearest relative could do it for him (Leviticus 25:25). The Hebrew word for this relative means “redeemer,” and it was used for the person who had the right to buy back a family’s lost property (Numbers 5:8; Ruth 3:9).

This pointed to Christ, who took our human nature so he could be our kinsman, bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh. He is the only relative able to do this work, so the right of redemption belongs to him. As for all our other helpers, “their shoe must be plucked off” (Ruth 4:6, Ruth 4:7), because they cannot redeem us. Christ can redeem, and he has redeemed the inheritance we had lost and sold away by sin. He has set it again on those who become joined to him by faith. “We know that this Redeemer lives” (Job 19:25). Some also take this duty of the kinsman as a lesson in brotherly love among Christians, leading them to restore those who have fallen, with a gentle spirit.

If the land was not redeemed before the year of jubilee, it was to return by law to the one who had sold it or mortgaged it. “In the jubilee it shall go out” (Leviticus 25:28). This is a picture of God’s free grace toward us in Christ. By that grace, and not by any payment or merit of our own, we are brought back into God’s favor and given hope of paradise, from which our first parents, and we in them, were driven out by disobedience.

A difference was also made between houses in walled cities and lands in the countryside, or houses in villages. Houses in walled cities were more the result of human work and industry, while land in the country was a direct gift of God’s bounty. So if a man sold a house in a city, he could redeem it anytime within a year after the sale. After that, it was fixed to the buyer forever and would not return, even in the year of jubilee (Leviticus 25:29, Leviticus 25:30). This rule encouraged strangers and converts to settle among them. They could not buy land in Canaan for themselves and their heirs, but they could buy houses in walled cities, which suited people who lived by trade. Country houses, however, were handled like land.

A special exception was made for the Levites, the tribe set apart for tabernacle service. Their houses in the cities could be redeemed at any time, and if not redeemed, they would return in jubilee (Leviticus 25:32, Leviticus 25:33). Since the Levites had no property except their cities and their surrounding land, God showed that they were under his special care. It was also important for the public good that they not be impoverished or pushed out of their inheritance. Their fields around the cities (Numbers 35:4, Numbers 35:5) were not to be sold at all, because they belonged not to one Levite alone, but to the city of the Levites as a whole. The tribe could not give them away without harming itself, so if such a field was sold, the sale was void (Leviticus 25:34). Even the Egyptians took care to protect the land of their priests (Genesis 47:22). There is even more reason for Christian governments to give special protection to the support of the gospel ministry.

The next law is for helping the poor and dealing kindly with poor debtors. This is of more general and lasting duty than the rules about land. If your brother becomes poor, you must help him (Leviticus 25:35). This means not only your brother by nation, as a Jew, but your brother by nature, as a fellow human being, since the verse goes on to include a stranger or sojourner. All people should be treated as brothers, because we all have one Father (Malachi 2:10). Even if a man is poor, he is still your brother, and you must love and recognize him as such. Poverty does not end the bond between people. Though a son of Abraham, he may become poor and fall into hardship. Poverty and loss are heavy burdens, and they are very common, as Jesus said, “The poor you always have with you.”

Our duty is plain: “You shall relieve him.” We should help the poor by sympathy, by pitying them; by service, by doing what we can for them; and by giving, according to their need and our ability. Poor debtors must also not be treated harshly. If your brother becomes poor and needs to borrow money from you to support his family, you must not charge him interest, whether the loan is in money or in food (Leviticus 25:36, Leviticus 25:37). This rule still stands in its purpose, though it was never meant to forbid fair lending for trade, land purchases, or other improvements, where the lender may rightly share in the gain.

The law is meant to protect the poor, and for them it is often as much a kindness to lend freely as to give. Several reasons are given against greed and exploitation. God himself protects the poor: “Fear your God,” who will judge every wrong done to them. You may not fear them, but you must fear him. You should help the poor so that they may live beside you, and in some way may also be useful to you. The rich can no more do without the labor of the poor than the poor can do without the money of the rich. The same reason used in the Ten Commandments is repeated here: “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt” (Leviticus 25:38). Those who have received mercy should show mercy. If God has been kind to us, we should not be harsh with our brothers.