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The Liberty Bell inscription “proclaim liberty throughout the land and to the citizens thereof” comes from Leviticus 25–27 and helps to nicely sum up the message of the book of Vayiqra (Leviticus) one word: freedom.
The word “redeeming” is repeated numerous times in this section. It’s a major theme of the biblical festival of Shavuot (Pentecost).
There is no freedom in a society without a baseline of laws that help people balance their rights and responsibilities to themselves and to their neighbor. There’s also no freedom in a place where people do not consider each other as brothers and sisters.
At Mt. Sinai, God made all those who left Egypt kinsman with the law of God as their constitution.
At Pentecost, the Spirit sent by the Father and Yeshua (Jesus) made all those who believe in Him heirs of Abraham and the freedom and responsibility that comes with being sons and daughters of God.
This study covers the Torah readings בְּהַר Behar (“on mount” [Sinai], Leviticus 25:1–26:2) and בְּחֻקֹּתַי Bechukotai (“in My statutes,” Leviticus 26–27).
The celebration of Shavuot includes a remembrance of the giving of the 10 Statements (10 Commandments) at Mount Sinai, but the finale parashot of Vayiqra (Leviticus) remind us that the LORD passed along much more about remaining set apart (i.e., קדוש qadosh/kadosh, or “holy”) at Sinai than what’s recorded in Exodus 20 (Lev. 25:1; 27:34).
The most common words in Vayiqra include:
• offering = קָרְבָּן qorban (Strong’s lexicon No. H7133a) = that which approaches
◦ The qorban doesn’t remove sin, it allows the offerer to approach God’s Presence.
• clean = טָהוֹר tahor (H2889) = fit
◦ Tahor doesn’t make one holy — set apart by God — but it does keep one holy.
◦Tahor doesn’t block entry toward the Presence.
• unclean = טָמֵא tamé (H2931) = unfit
◦ Doesn’t make one sinful or wicked.
◦ Tamé does blocks entry toward the Presence. However, trying to enter God’s Presence while tamé is wicked.
God tells us how to approach Him and to do so based on what is right in our own eyes will not get us far. The Israelites had to be mindful of what is going on in their bodies and around them. Natural bodily functions, which God Himself programmed into mankind, were not sinful in and of themselves.
Ignoring His object lessons and making up our own standards to make ourselves clean in our own eyes, will not help us arrive at the righteous destination God wants for us.
Rest, Relaxation and Restoration
When people are weary and heavy laden, God will provide them rest and Lev. 25 shows us how God does that.
Leviticus 25:2: “‘When you come into the land which I shall give you, then the land shall have a sabbath to the LORD.’” (NASB)
The Orthodox Study Bible points out, “This was a reminder that ‘man shall not live by bread alone’ (Dt 8:3; Mt 4:4).”
“And the sabbaths of the land shall be food for you and for your male slave and your female slave and your hired laborer and for the resident alien who adheres to you, for your livestock also and for the wild animals which are in your land all its yield shall be for food.” (Leviticus 25:6–7 New English Translation of the Septuagint)
Note that the Goyim/Gentiles were included in this. The hope of the Messianic age and the New Covenant prophecy is that all nations will hear the Testimony of the LORD and have their hearts transformed to beat in time with Heaven’s rhythm.
I find it interesting that this sections starts with the rule that Gentiles and Israelites were to share of the Shemitah equally yet later, we read that Gentiles who found themselves in debt or distress could be sold into a lifetime of slavery and their children would also be slaves who could be given away, bought and sold to different Israelites but Israelites could not be sold into permanent, intergenerational slavery.
If you’re a Gentile reading or hearing that, what should that tell you? It should prompt you to do whatever you need to do to join yourself to the people of Israel, rather than being satisfied living on the outer fringes.
The Yobel (Jubilee) was proclaimed on the 10th day of the seventh month on God’s calendar — יום הכפרים Yom haKippurim (Day of Atonement) — with the blowing of a shofar.
We are to circumcise and rend our hearts. That is the path to true release and freedom. If you are circumcised under the presumption that a simple surgical procedure will impress God and earn your way to His presence, Paul calls that mere mutilation.
Scripture show us again and again that before we can approach God, the true circumcision happens inside of us, not outside of us. God wants to dwell among His people and He is preparing His people. We should want to be grafted into Israel and God shows us how to prepare ourselves for His grafting.
‘Proclaim liberty throughout the land’
The pattern of the Yobel cycle is 49 years plus one — seven shemitah cycles of seven years — and the seven sevens of days plus one of Shavuot, suggests that both are teaching the lesson of release, of freedom.
The founders of the United States connected the principles of Yobel with personal liberty, putting “proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants thereof” on the Liberty Bell, now housed in Independence National Historical Park, Philadelphia. That was their intention.
“And you shall hallow the year, the fiftieth year, and you shall proclaim release on the land to all its inhabitants.” (Leviticus 25:10 NETS)
Founding father John Adams wrote that the bedrock of the U.S. Constitution is self-governance, and it is the key to any government:
“[W]e have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. … Our constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”
Your freedom ends where someone’s nose or fist begin. There are other people in the world, not just you. You have a choice, to be self-controlled or have control imposed on you. Your laws can be as simple as “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength and love your neighbor as yourself.” If a people can’t do that easily, then the laws of the land have to multiply to impose that basic regard.
Paul said the Law was added because of transgression, because people prefer to live through the loopholes rather than to love God and love others naturally.
Apostle Ya’akov (James) wrote that self-governance is the essence of the Law of God:
“For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror; for once he has looked at himself and gone away, he has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was. But one who looks intently at the perfect law, the law of liberty, and abides by it, not having become a forgetful hearer but an effectual doer, this man will be blessed in what he does.” (James 1:23–25 NASB)
Apostle Paul wrote:
“Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death?” (Romans 7:24 NASB)
He was talking about the man he was before Messiah, not the man Messiah was creating him to be. (See Romans 8 for how that happens.)
What does the Shemitah sound like, eating from untended vines and crops? It sounds like the Garden of Eden before the curse. There’s no “sweat of your brow” during the Shemitah year. Food grows in abundance without any attention. In this world, food is produced through struggle, but in Eden, plants produced food without struggle or toil.
Do we trust the One who sent the manna, designed the plants, and warns us when we are overextended? It’s not hard to get into debt in our age whether it’s consumer debt, student debt, medical debt, mortgages, etc. Do you want to live like that? You can either allow inertia to take control and the debt grows or do you take control and ask a financial expert to help you dig out.
Our bankruptcy laws are very loosely based on the concept of shemitah. Sometimes we need a redeemer to come along and sort it out.
“For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles in one point, he has become guilty of all. For he who said, “Do not commit adultery,” also said, “Do not commit murder.” Now if you do not commit adultery, but do commit murder, you have become a transgressor of the law. So speak and so act as those who are to be judged by the law of liberty. For judgment will be merciless to one who has shown no mercy; mercy triumphs over judgment.” (James 2:10-13 NASB)
Does this mean the law has been thrown in the trash? No. It means that when a person is transformed from the inside out, the law is on the inside, guiding us towards self-control so we don’t need a law on the outside to impose a law upon us.
In Luke 4:14–30, Yeshua proclaimed “freedom for the captives” when he read from Isaiah 61:1–2 while attending services in his hometown of Nazareth. The quotation in Luke parallels the Septuagint:
“The spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me; he has sent me to bring good news to the poor, to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to summon the acceptable year of the Lord and the day of retribution, to comfort all who mourn so that to those who mourn for Sion be given glory instead of ashes, oil of joy to those who mourn, a garment of glory instead of a spirit of weariness. They will be called generations of righteousness, a plant of the Lord for glory.” (Isaiah 61:1–3 NETS)
Yeshua’s interpretation of this text offended the people in his hometown synagogue as he pointed to several examples of God granting favor and freedom to Gentiles over the Jews. The Messiah declared that He was not a Messiah merely of the Jewish people but a Messiah of all the people.
You will see fewer discrepancies between the Dead Sea Scroll of Isaiah (which is in Hebrew) and the Septuagint than between the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Hebrew Masoretic text.
The Sages associate the Yobel with the Day of the Lord because of this text connecting the Yobel and the Day of the Lord together.
Isaiah was writing to a generation of people embroiled in and living in exile. They were uprooted and cast off into the nations but Isaiah is telling them that God will plant them back in the Land one day. He will restore them as the vineyard that God planted and the Gentiles will be grafted into it.
Yeshua had an interesting conversation with some disciples.
“…and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.” They answered Him, “We are Abraham’s descendants and have never yet been enslaved to anyone; how is it that You say, ‘You will become free’?”
Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin. The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son does remain forever. So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed.” (John 8:32–36 NASB)
Bless me! Curses!
There are more curses in this text than blessings in Leviticus 26. Someone actually counted them and found 14 blessings and 50 curses. This chapter is a warning to remember where you were and from what height you have fallen. Leviticus 26 mirrors the blessings and curses in Deuteronomy 28. These are national blessings and curses.
It seems like there are three different authors in this section: The Good News guy, the Bad News guy and the Hopeful guy.
Leadership contributes to direction toward or away from God. The priests in particular, are supposed to be the ones who teach the people about God’s law, to help them internalize it so the law exudes from the inside out.
Leaders who are indifferent to God’s law or abhor it apply that same attitude in their actions towards the people they are supposed to guide. The wise man accepts correction, but fools refuse to accept correction, preferring to dole it out instead, which corrupts those around him who listen to his folly.
Political and civic leaders, often called “shepherds” by the prophets, largely are a reflection of the leadership in homes and social groups, namely congregations of believers.
Leaders who aren’t “present” or “with it” in seeking knowledge, wisdom and understanding may watch as their “flocks” — families, congregants, constituents — drift toward popular trends that lack wisdom and understanding.
God speaks through challenging yet spiritually understandable means to encourage seekers to seek further (Isaiah 6:9–10; Matthew 13:15).
“And he said, “Go, and say to this people: ‘You will listen by listening, but you will not understand, and looking you will look, but you will not perceive.’ For this people’s heart has grown fat, and with their ears they have heard heavily, and they have shut their eyes so that they might not see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart and turn—and I would heal them.”” (Isaiah 6:9–10 NETS)
“And the disciples came and said to Him, “Why do You speak to them in parables?” Jesus answered them, “To you it has been granted to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been granted. “For whoever has, to him more shall be given, and he will have an abundance; but whoever does not have, even what he has shall be taken away from him. “Therefore I speak to them in parables; because while seeing they do not see, and while hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. “In their case the prophecy of Isaiah is being fulfilled,” (Matthew 13:10–14 NASB)
Parables are for those who are supposed to know and understand. The entire Torah spells out Yeshua’s mission on behalf of the entire world, yet the Jewish leadership refused to see it. Without Yeshua, there is no way to pole-vault into God’s presence.
As someone who deals in the truth making business, you have to be really careful about witnesses. If they are cherry picked, pulled out of context, selectively edited, it can cause a lot of trouble. We are called to compare scripture with scripture but we are not to edit the scriptures into our words but conform ourselves to His word. Peter warned that people twisted Paul’s words to their own destruction but that warning is equally valid about any scripture.
The curses in Lev. 26 have six general themes, depending on how you slice and dice them:
• Curse 1: Sickness, crop failure and warfare (Lev. 26:14–17)
• Curse 2: Drought and destruction of the House of God (Lev. 26:18–20)
◦ The abomination of desolation is not new. It happens repeatedly for the same reasons. Unregenerate human nature does not change and unregenerate people repeat their unregenerate history and God has to repeat His righteous reprimands to bring them back.
• Curse 3: Wild beasts (Lev. 26:21–22)
• Curse 4: Siege (Lev. 26:23–26)
• Curse 5: Starvation and desolation (Lev. 26:27–32)
• Curse 6: Exile (Lev. 26:33–39)
Where’s the hope?
How do we break the cycle of curses? With Repentance, redemption and return (Lev. 26:40–45).
This is Good news. When we remember where we come from and go though the yearly festival cycles, we can see how our world veered away from God by the choice of the first two people yet Yeshua became our leader to lead us toward God and toward life, to all who would choose it (Rom. 5:15–21).
God’s nation of priests (Ex. 19:5–6; 1Pet. 2:5, 9; Rev. 1:6; 5:9–10) are called to be pure and wholly devoted to modeling God’s better way, because we are part of God’s rescue message to the planet.
“Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” (2Cor. 5:20–21 NASB)
Ambassadors are to be a true representation of the country and the leader who appointed them. They also have the full authority of the leader they represent. To be an ambassador of Christ is a serious charge but if we don’t maintain our connection to Christ, our mission will not bear good fruit.
This is a lesson on how we move to where we used to be closer to God and to bring others with us.
Summary: Tammy
Banner photo: The freedom the world gives is fleeting but the freedom God gives is eternal. (Freeimages.com /
David Simmonds via Creative Commons License)