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In Christ, Mark
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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.
The Lord said to Moses at Mount Sinai, “Speak to the Israelites and say to them: ‘When you enter the land I am going to give you, the land itself must observe a sabbath to the Lord. For six years sow your fields, and for six years prune your vineyards and gather their crops. But in the seventh year, the land is to have a year of sabbath rest, a sabbath to the Lord. Do not sow your fields or prune your vineyards. Do not reap what grows of itself or harvest the grapes of your untended vines. The land is to have a year of rest. Whatever the land yields during the sabbath year will be food for you—for yourself, your male and female servants, and the hired worker and temporary resident who live among you, as well as for your livestock and the wild animals in your land. Whatever the land produces may be eaten.’
'Count off seven sabbaths of years—seven times seven years—so that the seven sabbaths of years amount to a period of forty-nine years. Then have the trumpet sounded everywhere on the tenth day of the seventh month; on the Day of Atonement sound the trumpet throughout your land. Consecrate the fiftieth year and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you; each one of you is to return to his family property and each to his own clan. The fiftieth year shall be a jubilee for you; do not sow and do not reap what grows of itself or harvest the untended vines. For it is a jubilee and is to be holy for you; eat only what is taken directly from the fields.’
'In this Year of Jubilee everyone is to return to his own property.’
'If you sell land to one of your countrymen or buy any from him, do not take advantage of each other. You are to buy from your countryman on the basis of the number of years since the Jubilee. And he is to sell to you on the basis of the number of years left for harvesting crops. When the years are many, you are to increase the price, and when the years are few, you are to decrease the price, because what he is really selling you is the number of crops. Do not take advantage of each other, but fear your God. I am the Lord your God.’"
Leviticus 25:1-17
This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.
In support of today’s message from the first seventeenth verses of the Book of Leviticus, a few terms with associated definitions and illustrations:
1. Exploit: To make of meanly or unfairly for one’s own advantage.
On a social networking site, a person with the screen name "hotlilflgirl" had a profile that stated she was "15, enjoy(ed) being around boys and want(ed) to meet new people." This “she” wasn’t really a she at all but a 31-year-old man who was later convicted of sexually abusing eleven children he met online. He was arrested, convicted, and sentenced to forty-five years in prison.
2. Scam: A fraudulent or deceptive act or operation.
A man is awaiting sentencing after pleading guilty for taking money from nine elderly people in a home repair scam. The man had approached the elderly people at their homes and offered free inspections for insect and moisture damage. In each case, he said damage existed and offered to repair it, requiring payment upfront. Victims wrote checks for almost $13,000 in advance to pay for repairs that were never performed by the offender.
3. Con man or woman: A person who is not what he or she pretends to be. One who intentionally perverts the truth in order to induce another to part with something of value or to surrender a legal right. One who intentionally deceives or misrepresents.
A 2008 story told of a British con man who pretended to be the father of recently deceased actor Heath Ledger. The man was so convincing that he first tricked actor Tom Cruise into consoling him over the phone and then and nearly got another actor, John Travolta, to purchase him a plane ticket to the United States. The same man also convinced the funeral home where Ledger's body was being held to book him and his "family" rooms at a New York hotel and was able to speak on the phone with the doctor who performed Ledger’s autopsy.
What do all three of these real life matters have in common?
Each one involves one person taking advantage of another, a sin that we’re about to see does not sit well with God.
In today’s scripture passage, we find the Lord first providing guidance on “Sabbath years” before turning toward a special observance called “the Year of Jubilee”.
In regard to the Sabbath year, we read where it involved giving the land a break every seven years once the Israelites entered “the land” that the Lord was ‘going to give” them, a land we know was called Canaan, also referred to widely as “the Promised Land”.
For six years, the people of Israel could sow their fields and prune their vineyards, gathering crops at harvest time. But in the seventh year, the land was to have a “Sabbath rest”, a year when the fields wouldn’t be sown or the vineyards pruned. Further, the Israelites weren’t permitted to “reap what grows of itself or harvest the grapes” of “untended vines”. Nothing was to be done to the land to facilitate a production of crops but note that whatever the land would yield on its own would be permitted to be eaten as food by the Israelite people as well as their “male and female servants”, and their “hired worker and temporary resident” who lived among them. Additionally, the “livestock” and “wild animals” would be able to also eat “whatever the land” would produce.
With this knowledge of the “Sabbath year” in hand, we now turn to the second item in this passage, the “Year of Jubilee” which was to take place every fiftieth year, marked by the sounding of trumpets at the end of the Day of Atonement. The scriptures show us the following specific guidelines that were set by the Lord for this special year. They included:
1. The year was to be consecrated or made holy.
2. The people were to proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants.
3. Each person was to return to his family property and each to his own clan.
4. The people were to observe the Sabbath rest restrictions for harvesting the land.
In addition to this, we find God making it clear that the people weren’t to take advantage of each other if they sold or bought land, stating:
"You are to buy from your countryman on the basis of the number of years since the Jubilee. And he is to sell to you on the basis of the number of years left for harvesting crops. When the years are many, you are to increase the price, and when the years are few, you are to decrease the price, because what he is really selling you is the number of crops."
He reiterated His warning:
"Do not take advantage of each other, but fear your God. I am the Lord your God."
Here, we see it was obvious that God expected honest dealings amongst His people who He had blessed with the land, a land that really belonged to Him first, and we should know that He expects us to be honest in all our dealings with one another today as well.
With this, some questions for self examination:
1. How often have we had our trust violated by someone who intentionally deceived or took advantage of us?
2. How often have we deceived someone or took advantage of them for our own gain?
Answering question one with a “yes” would be pretty easy I think but what about the second question? A little tougher right because it points the finger at ourselves but if we’re honest, the answer is also “yes”.
Live long enough and I am sure there will be a time when one will betray the trust of another because it would benefit themselves. And so often, this transgression presents itself as being easier when it involves someone the offender is close to because they wouldn’t even begin to entertain the possibility that their friend would intentionally try to deceive them. It’s this blind trust that makes them an easy mark for deception.
It works the same way in reverse in regard to those we choose to trust and the irony here is that we can commit a wrong on others that we absolutely despise when it’s done to us.
So how can we avoid being taken advantage in life as well as not taking advantage of others?
The answer to both is by turning to the Lord and allowing Him and His Spirit to lead and guide us.
You see, we can test every life situation for truth by making sure that the Word of the God is written in our hearts and minds, and by submitting to the power of the Holy Spirit that dwells within every Christ believers.
Both will expose any lie or deception that is manifested against us.
Both will keep us from trying to sinfully manipulate or mislead another.
The scriptures affirm these truths as we see in this closing verse from Paul’s first letter to the church in Corinth:
"He (the Lord) will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of men's hearts." 1 Corinthians 4:5
Amen.
In Christ,
Mark
PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.
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