Bible Talks

From: Messages of God's Love: 1951

Narrator: Chris Genthree

Leviticus 24:5-25:53⁵And thou shalt take fine flour, and bake twelve cakes thereof: two tenth deals shall be in one cake. ⁶And thou shalt set them in two rows, six on a row, upon the pure table before the Lord. ⁷And thou shalt put pure frankincense upon each row, that it may be on the bread for a memorial, even an offering made by fire unto the Lord. ⁸Every sabbath he shall set it in order before the Lord continually, being taken from the children of Israel by an everlasting covenant. ⁹And it shall be Aaron's and his sons'; and they shall eat it in the holy place: for it is most holy unto him of the offerings of the Lord made by fire by a perpetual statute. ¹⁰And the son of an Israelitish woman, whose father was an Egyptian, went out among the children of Israel: and this son of the Israelitish woman and a man of Israel strove together in the camp; ¹¹And the Israelitish woman's son blasphemed the name of the Lord, and cursed. And they brought him unto Moses: (and his mother's name was Shelomith, the daughter of Dibri, of the tribe of Dan:) ¹²And they put him in ward, that the mind of the Lord might be showed them. ¹³And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, ¹⁴Bring forth him that hath cursed without the camp; and let all that heard him lay their hands upon his head, and let all the congregation stone him. ¹⁵And thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel, saying, Whosoever curseth his God shall bear his sin. ¹⁶And he that blasphemeth the name of the Lord, he shall surely be put to death, and all the congregation shall certainly stone him: as well the stranger, as he that is born in the land, when he blasphemeth the name of the Lord, shall be put to death. ¹⁷And he that killeth any man shall surely be put to death. ¹⁸And he that killeth a beast shall make it good; beast for beast. ¹⁹And if a man cause a blemish in his neighbor; as he hath done, so shall it be done to him; ²⁰Breach for breach, eye for eye, tooth for tooth: as he hath caused a blemish in a man, so shall it be done to him again. ²¹And he that killeth a beast, he shall restore it: and he that killeth a man, he shall be put to death. ²²Ye shall have one manner of law, as well for the stranger, as for one of your own country: for I am the Lord your God. ²³And Moses spake to the children of Israel, that they should bring forth him that had cursed out of the camp, and stone him with stones. And the children of Israel did as the Lord commanded Moses. ¹And the Lord spake unto Moses in mount Sinai, saying, ²Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye come into the land which I give you, then shall the land keep a sabbath unto the Lord. ³Six years thou shalt sow thy field, and six years thou shalt prune thy vineyard, and gather in the fruit thereof; ⁴But in the seventh year shall be a sabbath of rest unto the land, a sabbath for the Lord: thou shalt neither sow thy field, nor prune thy vineyard. ⁵That which groweth of its own accord of thy harvest thou shalt not reap, neither gather the grapes of thy vine undressed: for it is a year of rest unto the land. ⁶And the sabbath of the land shall be meat for you; for thee, and for thy servant, and for thy maid, and for thy hired servant, and for thy stranger that sojourneth with thee, ⁷And for thy cattle, and for the beast that are in thy land, shall all the increase thereof be meat. ⁸And thou shalt number seven sabbaths of years unto thee, seven times seven years; and the space of the seven sabbaths of years shall be unto thee forty and nine years. ⁹Then shalt thou cause the trumpet of the jubilee to sound on the tenth day of the seventh month, in the day of atonement shall ye make the trumpet sound throughout all your land. ¹⁰And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof: it shall be a jubilee unto you; and ye shall return every man unto his possession, and ye shall return every man unto his family. ¹¹A jubilee shall that fiftieth year be unto you: ye shall not sow, neither reap that which groweth of itself in it, nor gather the grapes in it of thy vine undressed. ¹²For it is the jubilee; it shall be holy unto you: ye shall eat the increase thereof out of the field. ¹³In the year of this jubilee ye shall return every man unto his possession. ¹⁴And if thou sell ought unto thy neighbor, or buyest ought of thy neighbor's hand, ye shall not oppress one another: ¹⁵According 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: ¹⁶According 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 the years of the fruits doth he sell unto thee. ¹⁷Ye shall not therefore oppress one another; but thou shalt fear thy God: for I am the Lord your God. ¹⁸Wherefore ye shall do my statutes, and keep my judgments, and do them; and ye shall dwell in the land in safety. ¹⁹And the land shall yield her fruit, and ye shall eat your fill, and dwell therein in safety. ²⁰And if ye shall say, What shall we eat the seventh year? behold, we shall not sow, nor gather in our increase: ²¹Then I will command my blessing upon you in the sixth year, and it shall bring forth fruit for three years. ²²And ye shall sow the eighth year, and eat yet of old fruit until the ninth year; until her fruits come in ye shall eat of the old store. ²³The land shall not be sold for ever: for the land is mine; for ye are strangers and sojourners with me. ²⁴And in all the land of your possession ye shall grant a redemption for the land. ²⁵If thy brother be waxen poor, and hath sold away some of his possession, and if any of his kin come to redeem it, then shall he redeem that which his brother sold. ²⁶And if the man have none to redeem it, and himself be able to redeem it; ²⁷Then let him count the years of the sale thereof, and restore the overplus unto the man to whom he sold it; that he may return unto his possession. ²⁸But if he be not able to restore it to him, then that which is sold shall remain in the hand of him that hath bought it until the year of jubilee: and in the jubilee it shall go out, and he shall return unto his possession. ²⁹And if a man sell a dwelling house in a walled city, then he may redeem it within a whole year after it is sold; within a full year may he redeem it. ³⁰And if it be not redeemed within the space of a full year, then the house that is in the walled city shall be established for ever to him that bought it throughout his generations: it shall not go out in the jubilee. ³¹But the houses of the villages which have no wall round about them shall be counted as the fields of the country: they may be redeemed, and they shall go out in the jubilee. ³²Notwithstanding the cities of the Levites, and the houses of the cities of their possession, may the Levites redeem at any time. ³³And if a man purchase of the Levites, then the house that was sold, and the city of his possession, shall go out in the year of jubilee: for the houses of the cities of the Levites are their possession among the children of Israel. ³⁴But the field of the suburbs of their cities may not be sold; for it is their perpetual possession. ³⁵And if thy brother be waxen poor, and fallen in decay with thee; then thou shalt relieve him: yea, though he be a stranger, or a sojourner; that he may live with thee. ³⁶Take thou no usury of him, or increase: but fear thy God; that thy brother may live with thee. ³⁷Thou shalt not give him thy money upon usury, nor lend him thy victuals for increase. ³⁸I am the Lord your God, which brought you forth out of the land of Egypt, to give you the land of Canaan, and to be your God. ³⁹And if thy brother that dwelleth by thee be waxen poor, and be sold unto thee; thou shalt not compel him to serve as a bondservant: ⁴⁰But as an hired servant, and as a sojourner, he shall be with thee, and shall serve thee unto the year of jubilee: ⁴¹And then shall he depart from thee, both he and his children with him, and shall return unto his own family, and unto the possession of his fathers shall he return. ⁴²For they are my servants, which I brought forth out of the land of Egypt: they shall not be sold as bondmen. ⁴³Thou shalt not rule over him with rigor; but shalt fear thy God. ⁴⁴Both thy bondmen, and thy bondmaids, which thou shalt have, shall be of the heathen that are round about you; of them shall ye buy bondmen and bondmaids. ⁴⁵Moreover of the children of the strangers that do sojourn among you, of them shall ye buy, and of their families that are with you, which they begat in your land: and they shall be your possession. ⁴⁶And ye shall take them as an inheritance for your children after you, to inherit them for a possession; they shall be your bondmen for ever: but over your brethren the children of Israel, ye shall not rule one over another with rigor. ⁴⁷And if a sojourner or stranger wax rich by thee, and thy brother that dwelleth by him wax poor, and sell himself unto the stranger or sojourner by thee, or to the stock of the stranger's family: ⁴⁸After that he is sold he may be redeemed again; one of his brethren may redeem him: ⁴⁹Either his uncle, or his uncle's son, may redeem him, or any that is nigh of kin unto him of his family may redeem him; or if he be able, he may redeem himself. ⁵⁰And he shall reckon with him that bought him from the year that he was sold to him unto the year of jubilee: and the price of his sale shall be according unto the number of years, according to the time of an hired servant shall it be with him. ⁵¹If there be yet many years behind, according unto them he shall give again the price of his redemption out of the money that he was bought for. ⁵²And if there remain but few years unto the year of jubilee, then he shall count with him, and according unto his years shall he give him again the price of his redemption. ⁵³And as a yearly hired servant shall he be with him: and the other shall not rule with rigor over him in thy sight. (Leviticus 24:5‑25:53)

In addition to the continual care of the lamps, the priest was also to set the twelve loaves of showhread on the table before the Lord each sabbath. These loaves were to have pure franncense put upon them. This shows us typically how the Lord Jesus, the Great High Priest, maintains His people Israel before God now, even though they cannot be owned of God ouardly. How precious to think of them (each of the twelve tribes) though so scattered now, yet seen in the loaves as fragrant through the sweet frankincense which was sprinkled upon them by the priest. What precious grace! These loaves were most holy, for only in holiness can the Lord identify Hielf with Israel in the administration of earthly government in a coming day. Israel will then be willing in the beauty of holiness (Psalm 110:3³Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power, in the beauties of holiness from the womb of the morning: thou hast the dew of thy youth. (Psalm 110:3)), but meanwhile they are maintained thus before God through the priestly work of Christ.

In this coming day of Israel’s glory there will he, however, those who will not share in the blessing, “for they are not all Israel, which are of Israel.” Romans 9:6⁶Not as though the word of God hath taken none effect. For they are not all Israel, which are of Israel: (Romans 9:6). This is typified in the son of the Israelitish woman who cursed God in the camp, as recorded here in our chapter. The ungodly part of the nation who, during the tribulation, ally themselves with the ten kingdoms of the revived Roman Empire and fall in with the worship of the beast, will come under God’s sore judgments, just as the guilty man in our chapter was stoned to death.

We also notice, at the end of our chapter, that if any man put a blemish upon his neighbor, a blemish was to be put upon him. Governmentally that is Israel’s place now, for they sought to mar the glory of Christ and, as it were, put a blemish upon Him, the true “lamb without blemish,” 1 Peter 1:19¹⁹But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot: (1 Peter 1:19), and surely a blemish is upon them.

How beautifully interesting is this twenty-fifth chapter! Every seventh year the land itself was to have a sabbath. They were to let it lie idle and not sow any crops that year, and the Lord promised that on the sixth year He would give them a good harvest, sufficient for three years, so that they would have plenty of food until they harvested their crops in the eighth year. Palestine is the Lord’s land and His eyes an upon it, and how wonderfully He would have cared for His people if they had only walked in His ways. What a favor bestowed upon them that they would have a year of rest every seventh year, but alas, in their covetousness they would use the weekly sabbath, as well as this sabbath at the end of seven years, for their own selfish ends. And yet how like ourselves who are never satisfied but always wanting more! The children of Israel were to be the Lord’s tenants in His land, and so we too ought to remember that we are only stewards for the Lord of all that we have.

Then there was the year of jubilee. Every fiftieth year the trumpet was to be sounded throughout the land on the day of atonement, at which time all the slaves in the land were to be set free. Any land that had been sold would then return to its original owner who could just go in quietly and possess it. What a wonderful time this was in Israel’s history, but of course it had to be repeated over and over again, for slavery soon began again and the people soon lost their possessions. But there is a better day coming when the Lord will take His land, and set His people free, never to be in bondage again.

ML 05/27/1951

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