a hand up and out

Posted on November 9, 2016 by Jefferson Vann

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GOD WANTS TO RESCUE THE POOR

Leviticus 25:35=38

Lev 25:35 “If your brother becomes poor and cannot maintain himself with you, you will support him as though he were a foreign guest and a temporary resident, and he will live with you.
Lev 25:36 Take no interest from him or profit, but fear your God, that your brother may live beside you.
Lev 25:37 You will not lend him your money at interest, nor give him your food for profit.
Lev 25:38 I am Yahveh your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt to give you the land of Canaan, and to be your God.

a hand up and out

Keeping the poor from becoming poorer is better for everyone. Society itself suffers when the poor are left with no way to find relief. Debt destroys people from the inside out. Most people only see the outward, visible signs of poverty. But the feeling of hopelessness, the fear of being trapped forever with no way out, eats away at your life. The heart begins to suspect even the generous of wrong motives, leading to a general mistrust, and loss of joy. A soul who would never dream of hurting others suddenly begins to ask what can be done to get out — even thinking about wrong ways out.

God wanted his community to be a safe place, where the poor could get a hand up and out of their captivity, without losing their dignity. The new covenant community should be a safe place for that too.

LORD, help us to help the poor out of their poverty, because you are our God, who rescues the captives.

Posted in compassion, consideration of others, hope, poverty | Tagged | 1 Comment

law abuse

Posted on November 8, 2016 by Jefferson Vann

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INTEGRITY IS BETTER THAN MERE LEGALITY

Leviticus 25:29-34

Lev 25:29 “If a man sells a house where he stays in a walled city, he may redeem it within a year of its sale. For a full year he will have the right of redemption.
Lev 25:30 If it is not redeemed within a full year, then the house in the walled city will belong in perpetuity to the buyer, throughout his generations; it will not be released in the liberation.
Lev 25:31 But the houses of the villages that have no wall around them will be classified with the fields of the land. They may be redeemed, and they will be released in the liberation.
Lev 25:32 As for the cities of the Levites, the Levites may redeem permanently the houses in the cities they possess.
Lev 25:33 And if one of the Levites exercises his right of redemption, then the house that was sold in a city they possess will be released in the liberation. Because the houses in the cities of the Levites are their possession among the people of Israel.
Lev 25:34 But the fields of pastureland belonging to their cities may not be sold, because that is their possession permanently.

law abuse

These further laws of jubilee redemption were designed to prevent people from profiteering off of the jubilee event. These laws were signs of God’s grace, and meant to prevent the rich from taking over all the land and property. They were designed to eliminate loopholes. There needs to be stipulations in laws that prevent the laws from themselves promoting evil. For another example, is anyone else tired of people telling them that they cannot get married because they will lose their government benefits? I sure am.

LORD, give us the courage to obey the law, and wisdom not to abuse the law to do wrong.

Posted in discernment, integrity, justice, law | Tagged | 1 Comment

hope of recovery

Posted on November 7, 2016 by Jefferson Vann

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THE POOR NEED HOPE

Leviticus 25:23-28

Lev 25:23 “The land will not be sold in perpetuity, because the land is mine. Because you are guests and temporary residents with me.
Lev 25:24 And in all the country you possess, you will allow a redemption of the land.
Lev 25:25 “If your brother becomes poor and sells part of his property, then his nearest redeemer will come and redeem what his brother has sold.
Lev 25:26 If a man has no one to redeem it and then himself becomes prosperous and finds sufficient means to redeem it,
Lev 25:27 let him figure out the years since he sold it and pay back the balance to the man to whom he sold it, and then return to his property.
Lev 25:28 But if he does not have sufficient means to recover it, then what he sold will remain in the hand of the buyer until the year of liberation. In the liberation it will be released, and he will return to his property.

hope of recovery

One of the benefits of the law of land redemption is that it prevented rich, land-owners from swallowing up all the property and creating an upper class to oppress others. No matter how bad things got, you could always plan on the restoration of your property at the end of a fifty year cycle. There was also provision for a kinsman to bail you out in the mean time. Even if your poverty was your own fault, there was still hope of recovery.

There are many around us who are caught in a trap of extreme poverty, and they have no hope of recovery. These need to know that God has a future planned for them — a future of blessing and dignity.

LORD, show us how to reach the poor with the good news.

Posted in blessings, gospel, hope, money, redemption | Tagged | 1 Comment

abundant grace

Posted on November 6, 2016 by Jefferson Vann

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Leviticus 25:18-22

Lev 25:18 “Therefore you will do my prescriptions and keep my rules and perform them, and then you will stay in the land securely.
Lev 25:19 The land will yield its fruit, and you will eat your fill and stay in it securely.
Lev 25:20 And if you say, ‘What will we eat in the seventh year, noticing we may not plant or gather in our crop?’
Lev 25:21 I will command my blessing on you in the sixth year, so that it will produce a crop sufficient for three years.
Lev 25:22 When you plant in the eighth year, you will be eating some of the old crop; you will eat the old until the ninth year, when its crop arrives.

abundant grace

The entire old covenant was a lesson — a lesson in grace. This passage shows that. God promised the Israelites that if they just followed his simple instructions, and let him do what he said he would do, they would have plenty, and they could stay in the land he gave them. If they dared to trust his provision during the Sabbath year, then the leftovers from the sixth year would keep them fed until the ninth year. That is abundant grace.

LORD, thank you for your provision of abundant grace.

Posted in dependence upon God, grace, trust | Tagged | 1 Comment

freedom and fairness

Posted on November 5, 2016 by Jefferson Vann

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ETERNALLY EQUAL

Leviticus 25:13-17

Lev 25:13 “In this year of liberation each of you will return to his property.
Lev 25:14 And if you make a sale to your associate or buy from your associate, you will not wrong one another.
Lev 25:15 You will pay your associate according to the number of years after the liberation, and he will sell to you according to the number of years for crops.
Lev 25:16 If the years are many, you will increase the price, and if the years are few, you will reduce the price, because it is actually the number of the crops that he is selling to you.
Lev 25:17 You will not oppress — a man against his associate, but you will fear your God, because I am Yahveh your God.

freedom and fairness

The jubilee laws were about more that freedom. It was truly a chance for those who had amassed debt and sold their property to have their freedom to use it restored. But the stipulations of this freedom included making sure that buyer and seller were treated with fairness. All the Israelites were to be treated with the same preference, regardless of their economic status. That equality would reflect the fundamental equality that comes from being created equal. The only limits to that equality were temporary, and came from the personal choices made by those under the covenant.

Under the new covenant, the only limits to our equality are individual choices as well. And, a day is coming, when even those temporary inequalities will be done away with. God’s judgement will make everything fair, and every believer free.

LORD, thank you for creating us equal, and promising us eternal fairness and freedom.

Posted in deliverance, equality, forgiveness, freedom, restoration, Uncategorized | Tagged | 1 Comment

the sound of freedom

Posted on November 4, 2016 by Jefferson Vann

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QUITTING TIME

Leviticus 25:8-12

Lev 25:8 “You will count seven weeks of years, seven times seven years, so that the time of the seven weeks of years will give you forty-nine years.
Lev 25:9 Then you will sound the loud trumpet on the tenth day of the seventh month. On the Day of Reconciliations, you will sound the trumpet throughout all your land.
Lev 25:10 And you will consecrate the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all those who stay there. It will be a liberation for you, when each of you will return to his property and each of you will return to his clan.
Lev 25:11 That fiftieth year will be a liberation for you; in it you will neither plant nor reap what grows of itself nor gather the grapes from the undressed vines.
Lev 25:12 Because it is a liberation. It will be holy to you. You may eat the produce of the field.

the sound of freedom

The jubilee year was to be a reminder that no matter how bad things became, there would always be a future when freedom and blessing returned. All around the Israelites, there would be reminders of bondage and failure and brokenness. So, God built into their cultural heritage reminders that he plans to undo all that, and restore them by his grace. When the trumpet sounded on the tenth day of the seventh month, it was a call to quit work and go home. It was the sound of freedom.

LORD, thank you for a future that will be free from all the things which bind us.

Posted in deliverance, encouragement, freedom, grace, plan of God, restoration, second coming | Tagged | 1 Comment

Shenandoah

Posted on November 3, 2016 by Jefferson Vann

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A WORD FROM CHARLIE ANDERSON

Leviticus 25:1-7

Lev 25:1 Yahveh spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai, and this is what he said,
Lev 25:2 “Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, when you come into the land that I give you, the land will keep a Sabbath to Yahveh.
Lev 25:3 For six years you will plant your field, and for six years you will prune your vineyard and gather in its fruits,
Lev 25:4 but in the seventh year there will be a Sabbath of solemn rest for the land, a Sabbath to Yahveh. You will not plant your field or prune your vineyard.
Lev 25:5 You will not reap what grows of itself in your harvest, or gather the grapes of your undressed vine. It will be a year of solemn rest for the land.
Lev 25:6 The Sabbath of the land will provide food for you, for yourself and for your male and female slaves and for your hired worker and the guest who lives with you,
Lev 25:7 and for your cattle and for the wild animals that are in your land: all its yield will be for food.

Shenandoah

In the classic Jimmy Stewart movie, “Shenandoah”, Charlie Anderson is saying grace: “Lord, we cleared this land. We plowed it, sowed it, and harvest it. We cook the harvest. It wouldn’t be here and we wouldn’t be eating it if we hadn’t done it all ourselves. We worked dog-bone hard for every crumb and morsel, but we thank you Lord just the same for the food we’re about to eat, Amen.” But, later in the movie, when war and its effects are all around them, Charlie prays again, and that prayer reflects the reality that eveyone — even Charlie and his family — needs God’s help.

The Israelites had a reminder every seven years that they needed God. The cycle of planting and pruning and gathering would be halted that year, and only gathering would take place. For an entire year, the whole nation would learn that their survival and blessing depends not on their work, but on God’s provision of grace.

LORD, thank you for your constant provision, and for the occasional reminder that we are not doing it all ourselves.

Posted in blessings, dependence upon God, grace, prayer, providence, Sabbath | Tagged | 2 Comments

the price of innocent life

Posted on November 2, 2016 by Jefferson Vann

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DEMONIC LOGIC

Leviticus 24:17-23

Lev 24:17 “Whoever takes a human soul will surely be put to death.
Lev 24:18 Whoever takes an animal’s soul will make it good, soul for soul.
Lev 24:19 If anyone injures his associate, as he has done it will be done to him,
Lev 24:20 fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth; whatever injury he has given a human will be given to him.
Lev 24:21 Whoever kills an animal will make it good, and whoever kills a human will be put to death.
Lev 24:22 You will have the same rule for the temporary resident and for the native, because I am Yahveh your God.”
Lev 24:23 So Moses spoke to the people of Israel, and they brought out of the camp the one who had cursed and stoned him with stones. And the people of Israel did as Yahveh commanded Moses.

the price of innocent life

The man who had blasphemed God in the desert on the way to the promised land was to pay the penalty with his own life, and the LORD used that opportunity to remind Moses and the Israelites of the sanctity of human life. It is not a contradiction to tell the people that they are to protect life but also that some lives had to be taken as a judgment. On the one hand, God wants to protect the innocent, but on the other hand, he warns that those guilty of major crimes will have to pay the price for their mistakes with their own lives. There is a valuation here — just like the valuation that makes a difference between the taking of a human soul (life) and an animal soul (life).

But that valuation is turned upside down by those who argue against a government’s right to put a criminal to death, but that government cannot prevent a parent from killing his innocent unborn child. There is no logic in that. It is demonic.

LORD, restore our nations to the godly wisdom of protecting all their innocent lives.

Posted in abortion, discernment, judgment | Tagged | 1 Comment

his glorious reputation

Posted on November 1, 2016 by Jefferson Vann

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ARE YOU SHARING HIM OR SHAMING HIM?

Leviticus 24:13-16

Lev 24:13 Then Yahveh spoke to Moses, and this is what he said,
Lev 24:14 “Bring out of the camp the one who cursed, and let all who heard him lay their hands on his head, and let all the congregation stone him.
Lev 24:15 And speak to the people of Israel, and this is what you should say, whoever curses his God will be responsible for his mistake.
Lev 24:16 Whoever blasphemes the name of Yahveh will surely be put to death. All the congregation will stone him. The temporary resident as well as the native, when he blasphemes the Name, will be put to death.

his glorious reputation

In this incident, God directly clarifies his law, so that Moses and all Israel knows that blasphemy carries the death penalty, and that it applies to anyone who lives among the covenant community. The actual hearers of the blasphemy are to identify the criminal by placing their hands on his head, then the congregation will execute him by stoning. The reason this crime is considered so extreme is that the whole community lives by means of God’s redemption. The community lived to share his glorious reputation with the watching world. To blame him for one’s troubles was to rebel against his grace.

LORD, instill in us a fear of harming your glorious reputation, and a strong desire to enhance it and preserve it.

Posted in blasphemy, dependence upon God, glory, responsibility, witness | Tagged | 1 Comment

extreme blamism

Posted on October 31, 2016 by Jefferson Vann

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IT IS NOT GOD’S FAULT

Leviticus 24:10-12

Lev 24:10 Now an Israelite woman’s son, whose father was an Egyptian, went out among the people of Israel. And the Israelite woman’s son and a man of Israel fought in the camp,
Lev 24:11 and the Israelite woman’s son blasphemed the Name, and cursed. Then they brought him to Moses. His mother’s name was Shelomith, the daughter of Dibri, of the tribe of Dan.
Lev 24:12 And they put him in custody, till the will of Yahveh should be clear to them.

extreme blamism

One of the bad character traits of ancient Egypt was the tendency to blame their gods when things went wrong. This man was among the mixed crowd of families that went out with the Israelites, intending to make a new home in Israel once it was established in the promised land. But this man could not resist the urge to continue acting like his people did in Egypt. That meant engaging in extreme blamism, even blaming the gods for their problems. Unfortunately for him, blaming God for one’s problems is actually a major crime under the Mosaic covenant.

While the new covenant does not prescribe stoning as a deterrent for extreme blamism, it does strongly warn those who blaspheme the Holy Spirit. That sin is unpardonable in any age.

LORD, we know you are not the cause of our problems. No matter what goes wrong in our lives, may we have the wisdom to seek you, not blame you.

Posted in blasphemy, faithfulness, loyalty, relationship with God | Tagged | 1 Comment