God's Property Rights Text: Leviticus 25:23-34
Introduction: Whose World Is It Anyway?
We live in an age of profound confusion about the most basic things. We are confused about what a man is, what a woman is, what marriage is, and what money is. But underlying all of these confusions is a much more fundamental confusion, and it is the question of ownership. Who owns the world? Who gets to set the terms? The modern secularist, whether he is a Marxist or a crony capitalist, believes that the world is a pile of raw materials up for grabs. For the socialist, the State owns it all, and doles out portions as it sees fit, which is another name for tyranny. For the radical individualist, he is his own god, and his property is absolutely his own, to do with as he pleases. Both are dead wrong, and both are in rebellion against the first principle of reality.
The Bible, in contrast, begins with a thunderous declaration of ownership. "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth." This means that before there was a state, before there was a market, before there was a single human being to lay claim to anything, there was God. And because He made it all, He owns it all. Every atom and every star, every dollar and every dirt clod, belongs to Him. This is not a pious sentiment. It is the bedrock of all sane economics, all true justice, and all godly society.
In our text today, from the heart of the Torah, God lays out the economic implications of His ownership. He is giving Israel the land, but He is giving it to them with His terms and conditions attached. These laws about land redemption and the Year of Jubilee are not dusty regulations for an ancient agrarian society. They are a revelation of the character of God and the nature of the world He made. They are a frontal assault on all forms of economic tyranny and all pretensions of human autonomy. They teach us that we are not ultimate owners, but rather stewards, tenants, and sojourners on God's earth. And in these laws, we find a beautiful picture, a glorious type, of our ultimate redemption in the Lord Jesus Christ.
The Text
‘The land, moreover, shall not be sold permanently, for the land is Mine; for you are but sojourners and foreign residents with Me. Thus for every piece of land of your possession, you shall provide for the redemption of the land. ‘If a brother of yours becomes so poor he has to sell part of his possession of land, then his nearest kinsman redeemer is to come and redeem what his brother has sold. Or in case a man has no kinsman redeemer, but recovers his means and finds sufficient payment for its redemption, then he shall calculate the years since its sale and return the balance to the man to whom he sold it, and so return to his possession of land. But if he has not found sufficient means to return it to himself, then what he has sold shall remain in the hands of its purchaser until the year of jubilee; but at the jubilee it shall revert, that he may return to his possession of land. ‘Likewise, if a man sells a house for habitation in a walled city, then his redemption right remains valid until a full year from its sale; his right of redemption lasts a full year. But if it is not redeemed for him within the space of a full year, then the house that is in the walled city passes permanently to its purchaser throughout his generations; it does not revert in the jubilee. The houses of the villages, however, which have no surrounding wall, shall be considered as open fields; they have redemption rights and revert in the jubilee. As for cities of the Levites, the Levites have a permanent right of redemption for the houses of the cities which are their possession. What, therefore, belongs to the Levites may be redeemed, and a house sale in the city of their possession reverts in the jubilee, for the houses of the cities of the Levites are their possession among the sons of Israel. But pasture fields of their cities shall not be sold, for that is their perpetual possession.
(Leviticus 25:23-34 LSB)
The Land is Mine (v. 23-24)
The entire passage is built on the foundation laid in the first verse of our text.
"‘The land, moreover, shall not be sold permanently, for the land is Mine; for you are but sojourners and foreign residents with Me. Thus for every piece of land of your possession, you shall provide for the redemption of the land." (Leviticus 25:23-24)
Here is the ultimate property declaration. God says, "the land is Mine." This is the great corrective to all our economic heresies. The socialists believe the land belongs to the collective, which in practice means the State. The libertine capitalist believes the land belongs absolutely to the individual. God says that both are wrong. The land belongs to Him. He holds the ultimate title deed. This means that private property is a real and valid concept, but it is not absolute. It is a stewardship, a lease, granted by the great Landlord.
Because the land is His, it cannot be sold "permanently." The Hebrew word means in perpetuity, forever cut off. This strikes at the root of building dynastic wealth that permanently disenfranchises other families. God's economy is designed to prevent the kind of consolidated power that leads to oppression. He built a reset button into the system. Man's possession of the land is temporary and conditional.
He describes the Israelites as "sojourners and foreign residents with Me." They are tenants on His land. This should cultivate a profound sense of humility and dependence. We are not the masters of our fate; we are guests in God's house. This is true for us as Christians in an even deeper sense. Peter tells us we are sojourners and exiles (1 Peter 2:11). Our true citizenship is in heaven. We are to use our earthly possessions with a light touch, knowing that we are just passing through. Our investments should be in the permanent country, not the temporary one.
Because of this divine ownership, God commands that they must "provide for the redemption of the land." The land must always have a way back to the family to whom God originally assigned it. This isn't just a property law; it's a covenantal principle. God gave each tribe and family an inheritance, and that inheritance was to be protected.
The Kinsman Redeemer (v. 25-28)
Next, God provides the mechanisms for this redemption, beginning with the central figure of the kinsman redeemer.
"‘If a brother of yours becomes so poor he has to sell part of his possession of land, then his nearest kinsman redeemer is to come and redeem what his brother has sold...'" (Leviticus 25:25)
Here we see God's provision for poverty and misfortune. When a man falls on hard times and must sell his land, which was his means of production and livelihood, he is not simply cast out. The family has a responsibility. The "nearest kinsman redeemer," the go'el, is to step in. This is a family member with the duty and the right to buy back the land and restore it to his impoverished relative. This is a beautiful picture of covenantal faithfulness. The family is the first line of social security, not the state.
This, of course, is a glorious type of Christ. The whole book of Ruth pivots on this principle. Boaz is the kinsman redeemer who steps in to redeem the inheritance of Naomi's family and, in doing so, takes Ruth, a Gentile, as his bride. This is what Jesus has done for us. We were spiritually impoverished, having forfeited our inheritance through sin. We were sold into slavery. And Jesus, our elder brother, our nearest kinsman through the incarnation, stepped in. He had the right to redeem, being without sin. He had the power to redeem, being God. And He had the will to redeem, because of His great love. He paid the price, not with silver or gold, but with His own precious blood, to buy us back.
The text provides other avenues as well. If the man has no kinsman redeemer, but he himself prospers again, he can buy it back (v. 26-27). The price is pro-rated based on the number of years until the Jubilee. This is fair and just; the buyer is not being cheated. He is simply being paid for the harvests he was entitled to. But if all else fails, there is a final backstop: the Year of Jubilee (v. 28). Every fifty years, the great reset occurs. All debts are canceled, all slaves are freed, and all land reverts to its original family. This prevented permanent serfdom and ensured that every family had a new start. It was a constant reminder that their ultimate hope was not in their own efforts, but in God's gracious, cyclical provision.
Cities, Villages, and Levites (v. 29-34)
The law then makes some careful distinctions regarding different types of property.
"‘Likewise, if a man sells a house for habitation in a walled city, then his redemption right remains valid until a full year... it does not revert in the jubilee. The houses of the villages, however, which have no surrounding wall, shall be considered as open fields; they have redemption rights and revert in the jubilee.'" (Leviticus 25:29-31)
Why the difference? A walled city was a center of commerce. A house there was primarily a commodity, a place of business or residence detached from the means of production. It was not the family's essential inheritance in the same way as the ancestral land. Therefore, it could be sold permanently after a one-year grace period for redemption. But a house in an unwalled village was tied directly to the fields. It was part of the agricultural lifeblood of the family. To lose the house was to lose practical access to the land. Therefore, it was treated like the land itself, always redeemable and subject to the Jubilee reset. God's law is not a blunt instrument; it is wise and discerning, making distinctions that protect the foundations of a godly society, which is the family and its ability to be productive.
Finally, a special case is made for the Levites. The Levites were the priestly tribe and were not given a tribal land inheritance like the others. Their inheritance was the Lord Himself (Num. 18:20). They were supported by the tithes of the people. They were given certain cities to live in, scattered throughout Israel. Because these houses were their only fixed possession, God provided special protection for them. Their houses were always redeemable and always reverted in the Jubilee (v. 32-33). However, their pasture lands, the common lands around their cities, could not be sold at all (v. 34). This was their "perpetual possession." God ensured that the tribe dedicated to His service would always be provided for. Their economic security was directly tied to His law and His provision, not their own speculation or agricultural labor.
Redeemed for Possession
So what is the general equity of all this for us? We are not living in ancient Israel. We do not have a kinsman redeemer we can call on to buy back our foreclosed house. The Year of Jubilee is not on our civic calendars. But the principles that undergird these laws are eternal because the God who gave them is eternal.
First, we must live as stewards, not owners. All that we have is a gift from God, entrusted to us for a short time. Our homes, our businesses, our bank accounts, are His. This should kill our pride and destroy our anxiety. We are to manage His property faithfully, for His glory and for the good of others, particularly our families and the household of faith.
Second, we must see that God's economic vision is centered on the family, not the state or the isolated individual. These laws were designed to protect the family's inheritance and its ability to be productive for generations. This is why the biblical vision of a healthy society is one of widespread, family-owned property, not massive state-run collectives or faceless corporate feudalism.
Most importantly, we must see Christ in all of this. The entire system of redemption points to Him. He is our Go'el, our Kinsman Redeemer, who paid a debt He did not owe because we owed a debt we could not pay. He bought us back from the slavery of sin and death. And He has secured for us a permanent inheritance, a possession that can never be sold or forfeited, a home in the heavenly city. The Year of Jubilee was a shadow. Jesus, in His first sermon, announced that the reality had come. He opened the scroll to Isaiah and read, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives... to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor" (Luke 4:18-19). That year of favor, the ultimate Jubilee, is now. In Christ, our debts are canceled. In Christ, we are set free. In Christ, we are returning to our true possession, which is God Himself. We were foreigners and sojourners, but in Him, we are sons and heirs.