Torah Portions: Leviticus 25:1-27:34
Behar / Bechukotai ('On the mountain' / 'In My statutes')
Who is the owner of the place where you live? Did you buy the property? Or is it leased for a period? Maybe it is rented, where someone else owns the property, but you can use its facilities. Or perhaps the land is owned by another, but the house was a gift for you to live in.
Strangers and Sojourners
There are two linked Torah portions this week, which describe God’s covenant provision for His people Israel in the special gift of a promised land in which to dwell. This provision has two foundational truths:
- God owns the land (Lev 25:23). In fact, all the earth is His (Ex 19:5).
- God entered into an unconditional covenant with Abraham and all his descendants about the gift of the land. It was not leased or rented, but was for an “everlasting possession” (Gen 15:18; 17:8).
However, in their “possession” of the land, the Lord said that the people were to consider themselves “strangers and sojourners with Me” (Lev 25:23, KJV), because He would dwell with them there. Thus, each family would possess a piece of the land to live on (but not to own) while keeping their focus upon Him.
We too, in our transient journey through this life, are also strangers and sojourners, pilgrims here for a short time. We should, like Abraham, be looking for a permanent place – a better country; a heavenly one such as our Lord Jesus has prepared for us in His Father’s house (Heb 11:9-10, 16; John 14:2).
Loving Discipline
Secondly, God’s desire was that His people would fulfil their promise to obey all His commandments (Ex 19:8; 24:3) as a witness to the nations around them that He is God and there is no other (Isa 45:22). He would bless them if they listened and obeyed His statutes (Sh’ma Yisrael), bringing safety and peace, but there would be a seven-fold increase in correction if they refused and disobeyed (Lev 26:18, 21, 23, 27). This punishment included pestilence (Lev 26:25; 2 Chr 7:13) – a warning for our own nation also, today.
But those who choose to know the God of Israel find that He disciplines in love for our good, accepting us as sons. His correction of our faults is for our blessing so that a harvest of righteousness and peace may be produced (Heb 12:11).
The Call to Repentance
In mercy, God says to us in Britain today, as He did to Israel through Jeremiah: “if that nation I warned repents of its evil, then I will relent and not inflict on it the disaster I had planned” (Jer 18:8). Will we continue to close our ears and go our own way, or will we turn from our sin? The Lord is not wanting anyone to perish but everyone to come to repentance (2 Pet 3:9).
In Jeremiah’s day, when Israel defiled the land by idolatry and abominable practices, people were also dying of deadly diseases (Jer 16:4), as in our nation today. God’s word at the potter’s house was clear: “turn from your evil ways, each one of you, and reform your ways and your actions”. Let us learn from this word and pray that we are not as those who replied: “We will continue with our own plans; we will all follow the stubbornness of our evil hearts” (Jer 18:11-12).
Pray for repentance in our nation, for He desires to bless and save.
Author: Greg Stevenson