Jubilee

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Most people think of Leviticus as a big, long, boring list of regulations that the Israelites were bound to follow. But even in all of the ceremonial and traditional commandments that God passed down to the Israelites, there are principles that remain with us today when it comes to our daily lives as Christians. Leviticus 25 describes the "jubilee", when they would "...return every man unto his possession, and ye shall return every man unto his family." (Lev 25:10) Basically, the transactions that were carried out during that period were reversed and most things returned to their original owners (with some exceptions, such as houses within a walled city).

"The land shall not be sold for ever: for the land is Mine; for ye are strangers and sojourners with Me." Leviticus 25:23

The principle that I see behind this is that we are not our own - our possessions are not even really ours. Everything we have is God's, and to be used for HIS glory! We are only "strangers and sojourners" here, as that verse says. The things we accumulate on this earth will not carry over - it doesn't matter how much "stuff" we have in this life! Everything in this earth is the Lord's, and we are merely stewards of it for the time we have it, until that "jubilee" when we leave our temporal homes to be with Him.

We see this idea emphasized in the letters from Peter:

"Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul." 1 Peter 2:11

What are these fleshly lusts? Could be any number of things, but lust is not necessarily limited to sexual desire (though it is that too). We can just as easily (or more easily!) lust after possessions, the "nice little things" that make life a little more comfortable, enjoyable, or exciting. Not that those things are bad in and of themselves, but when it crosses into idolatry, and you become a servant of those possessions, then that's when there's a problem. I talked about idolatry earlier, so I won't belabor that subject. The point is, though, that we have to keep a correct perspective on the temporal things that God blesses us with in this life.

For me personally, the prospect of putting these topics I've written about for some time into practice as a husband and father is now right around the corner, which to my discredit may account for my delay in getting back to writing on here! Last week, the young lady I've been courting agreed to be my wife. Life seems to go faster all the time...

"Lord, what is man, that Thou takest knowledge of him! or the son of man, that Thou makest account of him! Man is like to vanity: his days are as a shadow that passeth away." Psalm 144:3-4

As a husband and father, our responsibility to keep a correct perspective on our earthly possessions is accentuated. When you have a family that looks to you for direction, your own reaction to the tools God gives us, whether we use them for His glory or for our vanity, is multiplied by the size of your family. It means that the earthly possessions He's blessed us with have the potential to either ensnare your whole family... or be used by your whole family, both now and in generations to come, to exponentially bring glory to God, For myself, I pray God will give me the wisdom to always be mindful that everything we have is actually His, and by passing this on to my family, that we'll be exponentially glorifying to Him!
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