Context No. 3750 of 4322 · Leviticus

Leviticus 25:44-55: in context

44“‘As for your male and your female slaves, whom you may have from the nations that are around you, from them you may buy male and female slaves. 45Moreover, of the children of the aliens who live among you, of them you may buy, and of their families who are with you, which they have conceived in your land; and they will be your property. 46You may make them an inheritance for your children after you, to hold for a possession. Of them you may take your slaves forever, but over your brothers the children of Israel you shall not rule, one over another, with harshness. 47“‘If an alien or temporary resident with you becomes rich, and your brother beside him has grown poor, and sells himself to the stranger or foreigner living among you, or to a member of the stranger’s family, 48after he is sold he may be redeemed. One of his brothers may redeem him; 49or his uncle, or his uncle’s son, may redeem him, or any who is a close relative to him of his family may redeem him; or if he has grown rich, he may redeem himself. 50He shall reckon with him who bought him from the year that he sold himself to him to the Year of Jubilee. The price of his sale shall be according to the number of years; he shall be with him according to the time of a hired servant. 51If there are yet many years, according to them he shall give back the price of his redemption out of the money that he was bought for. 52If there remain but a few years to the year of jubilee, then he shall reckon with him; according to his years of service he shall give back the price of his redemption. 53As a servant hired year by year shall he be with him. He shall not rule with harshness over him in your sight. 54If he isn’t redeemed by these means, then he shall be released in the Year of Jubilee: he and his children with him. 55For to me the children of Israel are servants; they are my servants whom I brought out of the land of Egypt. I am the LORD your God.

This passage sits within the laws about servitude in ancient Israel, laws we read soberly across a great distance of time and culture, and not as an endorsement of slavery. Yet even here God builds in protections and a deeper principle. An Israelite who fell into poverty and sold himself was not to be treated harshly, always kept the right of redemption, could be bought back by a near kinsman, and was to go free at the Jubilee.

And God gives the reason: the children of Israel are my servants, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt; they could not be held in permanent bondage because they already belonged to God, who had redeemed them from slavery in Egypt. Two enduring truths shine through. God's people belong to him, redeemed by him, and so are not finally the property of any other. And the provision of a kinsman-redeemer, one who could pay the price to buy back his relative, points ahead to Christ, our kinsman who redeemed us from bondage.

Do I live as one who belongs to God, redeemed by him from bondage, and do I rejoice in Christ my kinsman-redeemer who paid the price to buy me back?

Sources

Leviticus 25:55: "To me the children of Israel are servants; they are my servants whom I brought out of the land of Egypt. I am the LORD your God."
Leviticus 25:48: "After he is sold he may be redeemed. One of his brothers may redeem him."
Leviticus 25:54: "If he isn't redeemed by these means, then he shall be released in the Year of Jubilee: he and his children with him."