Scripture Daily

Context No. 1228 of 4322 · Leviticus

Context · Reflection

Leviticus 25:29-34: in context

29“‘If a man sells a dwelling house in a walled city, then he may redeem it within a whole year after it has been sold. For a full year he shall have the right of redemption. 30If it isn’t redeemed within the space of a full year, then the house that is in the walled city shall be made sure in perpetuity to him who bought it, throughout his generations. It shall not be released in the Jubilee. 31But the houses of the villages which have no wall around them shall be accounted for with the fields of the country: they may be redeemed, and they shall be released in the Jubilee. 32“‘Nevertheless, in the cities of the Levites, the Levites may redeem the houses in the cities of their possession at any time. 33The Levites may redeem the house that was sold, and the city of his possession, and it shall be released in the Jubilee; for the houses of the cities of the Levites are their possession among the children of Israel. 34But the field of the pasture lands of their cities may not be sold, for it is their perpetual possession.

These are laws about redeeming property. A house in a walled city can be bought back within one year of its sale, but after that it belongs permanently to the buyer and is not released even in the Jubilee. Village houses, counted with the fields, can always be redeemed and revert in the Jubilee. But the Levites are given a special provision: they may redeem their houses at any time, their city houses always revert in the Jubilee, and their pasturelands may never be sold at all, because these are their permanent possession.

The special protection for the Levites' property is worth noticing, and its reason lies in who the Levites were. They had no tribal territory of their own; their inheritance, God had said, was the LORD himself, not land. Because they had so little in the way of property, the little they did have, their houses in the Levite cities and their pasturelands, was given extra protection: always redeemable, always reverting, never permanently sold. God builds special safeguards around the possessions of those who had given up worldly inheritance to serve him. There is a tenderness in that. The tribe that had renounced a land-inheritance for God's sake is not left unprotected; God makes particular provision for them, guarding the little they have precisely because they had chosen him over property. It is a small picture of a principle: those who give up much for God are not forgotten by him; he takes particular care of the ones whose portion is himself. The Levites had the LORD as their inheritance, and the LORD saw to it that their modest earthly holdings were secured in a way no one else's were. God provides for those who have made him their portion.

If I have given up some worldly security for God's sake, can I trust that he takes particular care of those whose portion is himself, guarding what little they have as he guarded the Levites'?

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