Saturday 01 August 2009

Background

Today's passage extends the principle that the people need tokeep holy time (Leviticus 23 - see yesterday's notes) to the land. God commands that the landitself will keep a Sabbath every seventh year. The Lord is stillspeaking through Moses from Mount Sinai, so this teaching comesclose after the construction of the tabernacle (tent) in which theark of the covenant and stone tablets were kept among the people(Exodus40).

This passage is unique in the Hebrew Scriptures as it is the onlydirect teaching about property and land tenure, and what God has tosay would shock contemporary estate agents and housingmarkets.

Beyond the basic seventh year's rest from working the land, Godcommanded that after a cycle of seven of these sabbaticals thepeople would keep a jubilee year. In that 50th year, all landbought or sold would revert to its previous owner, and everyonewould regain any loss. Accordingly, the Lord instructed that whenpeople bought or sold land they should set the price based on howmany years remained before the jubilee, specifying that they wereselling only the number of harvests that remained, not the landitself.

The passage acknowledges the important role that economic ties playin keeping a society stable. The Lord gave instructions thatprotected stability over the long term, while allowing incentivefor individual hard work and improvement of land and wealth overthe space of a lifespan. More than that however, this passagetaught an ethic of land management that valued the health of thewhole people over the acquisition of much by a few. Wealth was tohave no value in and of itself, except as a loan from God to aidabundant life. Individuals were always to remember that they wereonly temporary stewards of the things in God's world.

The Jubilee2000 campaign worked to make banks and governments holdingloans to developing nations reduce or nullify their claim. The ideawas to redistribute the spoils of economic growth and developmentto the poorer parts of the world. This is the passage, amongothers, that inspired that campaign.

To Ponder

Do you think the practice of 'jubilee' isrelevant to our society at all?

How do you feel about the things you own, whetheryou are rich or poor in relation to those around you?

How does your economic life relate to yourspirituality? And vice versa?