Whose Am I? February 28 Readings: Leviticus 24-25, Mark 6:1-29, Psalm 30, Proverbs 6:6-8

Links to February 28 Readings:  Leviticus 24-25, Mark6:1-29, Psalm 30, Proverbs 6:6-8

When we talk about the Sabbath, we are usually thinking about one day a week when Israel was commanded to refrain from work. But it was so much more than that. Leviticus 25 takes the Sabbath to the next level. It tells of Sabbath years and of the Year of Jubilee. Every seventh year Israel was to let the land rest. No crops were to be planted and they were to live off what the land produced naturally. Every fiftieth year there was a year of Jubilee, of freedom.

When the year of Jubilee came, debts were cancelled and all land reverted to its original owners. Loans were made on the basis of the years left before the Jubilee. (For the record, there is little evidence that Israel ever observed the Jubilee year, not even once.)

We know that the Sabbath day was designed as a day of rest, a time for Israel to cease their other pursuits and consider the goodness of God. But why the Sabbath Year? What was it all about? Leviticus 25:23 gives us at least one reason.

“The land is not to be permanently sold because it is mine, and you are only foreigners and temporary residents on My land.”

The land did not belong to the Israelites and so they were not allowed to permanently sell it. Every fifty years all the land was to revert to the proper tribe and the proper family as a recognition that Israel could not sell what did not belong to them. The Land belonged to God. 

It is a good lesson for us to learn as well. My life, my body, my money, even my hopes and dreams - none of them are really my own anymore. I was bought with a price, as 1 Corinthians 6 says. Everything I have and everything I am belongs to God. I do not get to simply do as I please with my life because it is not my own. 

I have had my own Jubilee, when Jesus Christ set me free through his death. My debt of sin was cancelled and my life reverted to its proper owner, the God of Heaven. "My chains are gone, I've been set free." 

Lord, forgive me for those times when I have forgotten who owns me. I am not my own, I was bought with a price! You purchased me with the blood of your Son and I am yours. Willingly. Enthusiastically. Thankfully.