Leviticus 25:23–25: “The land shall not be sold permanently, for the land is Mine; for you are strangers and sojourners with Me. And in all the land of your possession you shall grant redemption of the land. If one of your brethren becomes poor, and has sold some of his possession, and if his kinsman-redeemer comes to redeem it, then he may redeem what his brother sold.”

January 8th, 2023 by Pastor Ed in devotional

In Leviticus 25, God is prohibiting the land that He was giving them from ever being permanently sold. This was true throughout the land, except for houses built in walled cities. Those houses did not revert back to the original owners during the Year of Jubilee, which was a year, once every fifty years, that was set apart by God for slaves to be set free and for debts to be forgiven.

There is interesting imagery behind the Jubilee celebration. It was to represent salvation and redemption, which would later be completed by the Savior, Jesus Christ. Here in verse 23 of Leviticus, God said the land “shall not be sold permanently” and the reason given was because His people were “sojourners” with Him. Land was in a sense leased by the Israelites, but it was not allowed to remain in their possession.

Before they came into the Promised Land, the danger was that some might settle down along the way while the rest of God’s people moved on. The ones who settled somewhere would then be alienated from the God who dwelt among His people. Those who settled down would in this sense lose their relationship with God. Jesus warned us in Matthew 6:19 of the same problem cropping up in our own lives today. He said, “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matt. 6:19–21). We are all sojourners or wanderers in life. We dare not become too settled. We all need the Redeemer to buy us out of poverty; to buy us out of the slavery to sin we sold ourselves into.

“LORD, redeem our lives today and use us for Your purpose.”