09 February

Bible in 365 Days

Leviticus 24-25

Leviticus 24

As this chapter is read, it seems at first to be out of place or out of order. Yet undoubtedly it is not so. The fact that we may not be able clearly to see the connection does not warrant its omission or give us any ground for placing it elsewhere.

In it provision was made concerning the oil and the shewbread. It would seem that the ingathering of harvest being complete and the feast thereof arranged for, in the giving of the laws they were thus reminded of the claims. of God on their produce, especially in the two matters which indicated their responsibility of light bearing and their privilege of communion.

Here also we have a fragment of history. It is the story of the blasphemer upon whom punishment fell. It may be that it was inserted here because of its occurrence during the period of the promulgation of the laws.

In any case, the point emphasized is that if for any reason a stranger take up his abode within the circle of the divine government, he is amenable to the laws thereof. Among the people under the Kingship of Jehovah taking His name in vain was a most heinous offense, and the man guilty thereof suffered the extreme penalty.

Leviticus 25

The last section of the Book of Leviticus is occupied with setting forth laws concerning the outward signs in the land of the proof of possession, together with certain promises and warnings, all ending with instructions concerning making and observing vows.

The signs affecting the land were, first, the Sabbath of the land and, second, redemption in the year of jubilee. These signs served to keep before the people the fact that God is the original Owner and Possessor of the land and that no man can treat it as absolutely his own. In the year of jubilee great human interrelationships were insisted on. The laws of this year of jubilee are carefully set out as they affect the land, dwelling houses, and persons. The only thing to which a man has a right in the land is that which results from his own labor. In the year of jubilee, moreover, the slave was to be liberated, thus reminding men that they could have no absolute and final property in any human being. The law, moreover, emphatically provided that during the period of bondage, the slave was not to be governed with rigor. In these laws the foundations of the social order were firmly laid. The interhuman relationships of both property and possession were conditioned in the fundamental fact of relationship to God.