" And if thou sell ought unto thy neighbor, or buyest ought of thy neighbor's hand, ye shall not oppress (`overreach,' Nero Trans.) one another. According to the number of years after the jubilee thou shalt buy of thy neighbor, and according unto the number of years of the fruits he shall sell unto thee. According to the multitude of years thou shalt increase the price thereof, and according to the fewness of years thou shalt diminish the price of it: for according to the number of years of the fruits doth he sell unto thee. Ye shall not therefore oppress (` overreach ') one another; but thou shalt fear thy God: for I am the LORD your God." Lev. 25:14-17.
In the above Scripture we learn that in all the dealings and trafficking of an Israelite he was to have respect to the year of jubilee, when the hand of God would restore in righteousness what the hand of man had disordered in His people's portion. The only way to conduct his traffic righteously was to have respect to the year of jubilee, measuring the bargain and the value of things according to that. In principle this holds now. For all our commerce in the affairs of this world should be ordered with our eyes resting on the return of the Lord Jesus; and our hearts acquainting themselves with this, that man's world is soon to end, and all present interests to cease.
In Israel, God watched over the worldly dealings of His people in such a. way as to provide for the restoration of everything every fifty years: He then resettled the family estates, and put all in order again. In the church, also, He watches the worldly dealings of His saints; but it is not in order to restore earthly arrangements again, but with respect to the maintaining of spiritual communion with Himself. In all their callings He tells His saints, now, " therein abide with God " (1 Cor. 7:24); and in addressing them, as no longer on the world's platform but, as " risen with Christ," he enjoins, " And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord JESUS, giving thanks to God and the Father by Him " (Col. 3). The soul, amidst all around that is discordant and disordered, is to be preserved for heavenly citizenship, and exercised in relation to a heavenly life, where the flesh and man's world will be gone, and gone forever.
We would do well to bear in mind the solemn warning in Matt. 25:48, 49, showing that when the immediate return of the Lord loses its place in the heart how quickly we settle down to the world's level and the world's ways.
" Godliness with contentment is GREAT GAIN (1 Tim. 6:6).