Leviticus 27

THE last chapter of Leviticus treats of vows, laying down Jehovah's directions respecting them, and comes in in a natural order. For since, in 25, 26, we have Jehovah's regulations about the land, and the provision for its restoration to its rightful owner, God's claim as Lord of the soil being maintained, we are now instructed as to the permission granted to Israel, who were like tenants at will, to consecrate to the Lord by a vow, either of men, animals, houses, or lands; in a word, of whatever property they possessed. Owing all, as they did, to Jehovah's goodness and mercy, and at times tasting in a special way of that goodness, it would be no wonder, if. moved by some marked favor shown to them, they vowed of what they possessed to God. Hence the directions concerning vows detailed in this chapter.
Who were free to bind themselves by a vow we learn in Num. 30, and the binding nature of such an engagement Deut. 23:21 sets forth. Here we learn what could be thus set apart for God. Now in two ways might living things be vowed to Him. They might be consecrated to Him in life, or they might under certain conditions be devoted to Him forever. This last kind of vow is here called cherem (Lev. 27:28,29). Men, animals, and also fields could be thus devoted; for such no redemption was permitted (28). As regards men, such a vow was probably intended only to affect those who were the enemies of God (1 Kings 20:42) and of Israel (Num. 21:3), for their death was the only possible fulfillment of it. Of this the Canaanites are an example (Deut. 20:17), as well as the Amorites under Sihon and Og, on the east of the Jordan (Deut. 3:6,7). Later on the Amalekites were ordered by God to be thus treated (1 Sam. 15:3). So Samuel hewed Agag, their king, in pieces before the Lord, when Saul had in disobedience preserved him from death. To devote (charam) anything to God was a solemn and an irrevocable act, and this Jephthah learned to his cost; who, in accordance with his rash vow to offer up as a burnt offering whatsoever should come forth out of his house to meet him, if he returned victorious from the fight, felt himself constrained to sacrifice his daughter, who was his only child. His rash vow caused him to descend into the tomb childless, the bright object of that home having been immolated by the father's hand. Jephthah had opened his mouth unto the Lord, and he could not go back (Num. 30:2).
But a man might vow to the Lord one of the human race without such being devoted to destruction. In such a case, a money payment was to be made; " the person," we read, " shall be for the Lord by thy estimation " (Lev. 27:2). What that estimation was to be the Lord proceeds to declare, and from it there was no appeal. For the estimation was based on two considerations which never could alter, viz., the age and the sex of the individual vowed to God. These questions settled, the estimation of the lawgiver, as here laid down, decided the amount of the money payment that was to be made (3-7), unless the one who made the vow was too poor to pay the stipulated sum. In that case, but in that case only, the priest was authorized to appraise the value of the individual, according to the ability of him who made the vow to meet the payment to be made. Poverty, then, could never be pleaded as an excuse to bar God's claim, or to shelter the one who made the vow from fulfilling it. No one was obliged to make a vow: " If thou forbear to vow, it shall be no sin unto thee " (Deut. 23:22). But when once made the Lord would" require it. An engagement entered into with God could not be set aside at the dictation or caprice of man. The Lord would require the fulfillment of the contract; and since none but Levites could in person be engaged in the Lord's work in the Tabernacle, we can understand why, on the one hand, a payment in lieu of the personal service of one of the twelve tribes was to be demanded, and why, on the other hand, when Hannah vowed to lend her child Samuel unto the Lord as long as he lived, she brought him to Eli the priest in fulfillment of it, and no money payment was thought of in his stead.
Again, suppose a man desired to vow one of his animals to God, he was free to do it; but in accordance with the terms of this law, which made a marked difference between those beasts which could be offered in sacrifice, and those which as unclean could never be put on God's altar. If it was one of the former, the beast, the subject of the vow, was given to God, and no exchange was permitted. If the man did change it, then both it and the animal substituted Jehovah imperatively demanded. Should he vow an unclean beast to God, the priest valued it, and if the man wished to redeem it, he had that privilege reserved to him on payment of the price at which the priest valued it, with one-fifth part more in addition. Redemption was thus permitted when an unclean beast was the subject of the vow, but had no place when a person consecrated in that manner a clean beast to God. For this last no redemption was provided. In the case of one of the human racer payment in lieu of personal service was demanded.
(To be continued.)
Leviticus
HOUSES and fields could be also thus consecrated to God. In these cases redemption was permitted, on payment of one-fifth part more in addition to the price at which they had been valued. The value of the house was to be fixed by the priest. The value of the land was fixed by God, and declared by the lawgiver, being estimated by the quantity of seed required to sow it, an omer of barley being reckoned at 50 shekels of silver. This determined the value of the land from Jubilee to Jubilee. But if the owner or occupier of the land sanctified it for a less term than the whole period from one Jubilee to the next, then the priest appraised its value according to the years yet to run, ere the Jubilee came round, abating from the estimation laid down by the lawgiver, according to the term of years yet unexpired. If redeemed before the Jubilee, the man preserved his property, but if not, he lost it forever, and the field became the Lord's (21), as a field devoted, i.e., irrevocably, God's, who gave it to the priest.
By the regulations of the Jubilee, as we have seen, man's claim on another man's property was extinguished. With God's claim it was different. If it was not redeemed in time by payment of the stipulated sum, His claim on it would never be relaxed. And differing from the regulations iii chapter xxv., where the kindred of the poor man could, if so minded, come to his assistance, no one, it would seem, could satisfy God's claim on the land but the maker of the vow himself, except in the case of a field thus consecrated to the Lord by its occupant, who was not its original owner, Where such was the case, whilst the occupier could vow it for the term of his occupancy, the field at the Jubilee reverted to its original possessor. The justice of this regulation is evident. So whilst providing for the outflow of a man's heart in thankfulness to Him, God watched over the rights of His poor ones, and maintained likewise His own. For we read that no firstling, on which the Lord as such had a claim, could be the subject of such a vow, any more than the tithe of the herd or of the flock, which He had already bestowed on the Levites (26-32). The tithes of the land, however, could be redeemed, but only on payment of one-fifth more than their value (30-31). Here this book ends, which details statutes and judgments, and laws which the Lord made between Himself and the children of Israel in Mount Sinai by the hand of Moses (26:46); as well as commandments which the Lord commanded Moses for the children of Israel in that same Mount (27:34).
In the opening paper on this book (vol. 3., p. 134), we pointed out the four great divisions into which Leviticus divides itself, 1-10.; 11-16.; 17-28; 24-27. We would now in conclusion briefly trace out the moral order in which the subjects it contains are brought out by the Spirit of God. We have already referred to part of it (vol. 4, pp. 112, 212; vol. 5, p. 140); we would now trace it out as a whole. Viewing the book in this light it divides itself into two great parts-1-16; 17-27. In the first we have set forth God's provision in grace for souls, truth which concerns saints. In the second we see traced out His desires for, and His ways with, His earthly people Israel, from the Exodus to the Millennium. Commencing with the revelations concerning sacrifices and offerings which God could receive for the offerer's acceptance, whether moved to bring an offering out of the fullness of his heart, or necessitated to come because he had sinned, we learn of the need of the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ, if any of the children of men are to stand in acceptance before God (1-7). But nothing more is wanted, than what His death and resurrection provide, and declare. For not only has He died, but He lives in resurrection, and has ascended into heaven, and consequent on this He has entered on His office of High Priest, in accordance with the teaching of Heb. 8:4. So, following directly on the laws relating to the offerings, but not preceding them, we read of the institution of the Aaronic priesthood (7-10), in accordance with the character of which the Lord Jesus Christ now exercises His priesthood on high.
Further, consequent also on His leaving earth, the Holy Ghost was to come and abide here; so we are taught in the next chapter of the presence on earth of that which cannot be defiled (11:36), and in connection with it, and closely following after it, we are reminded of freedom from the defiling presence of sin by death (37), for which, in its completeness, the believer now waits. The carcass would not render the fountain or pit in which there was plenty of water (lit., a collection of water) unclean, should it chance to fall into it; nor was seed, if about to be sown, defiled by contact with it. After this we have regulations about defilement (12-15), closing with the divine provision-propitiation by blood, to meet the cases before God of sins, and of uncleannesses (16). Now we may trace in all this, as set forth typically, New Testament teaching needful for God's saints who form part of the Church of God. The death of the Lord Jesus in its various aspects, the priesthood of Christ, and the coming of the Holy Ghost, these are truths of primary importance for the saints; and connected with the coming of the Holy Ghost, teaching has been provided about man's nature, the value of death with reference to it, and how fully the atoning sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ has glorified God, and met every need of the conscience (Heb. 11-10).
But Jehovah had an earthly people, once highly favored, though now, as a nation, disowned. Has He forever cast them off? No-By-and-bye He will take them up again, and bless them, when the number of the saints destined to form the Body of Christ is completed. Hence, following on after these fundamental truths for saints who form the Church of God, we have teaching which especially concerns Israel, taken up, and dwelt upon (17-27). But who, in the days of Moses, unless divinely taught, would have arranged for that which speaks of Israel to come in after that which concerns those who are the Church of God? We may boldly declare that no one in the wilderness would have dreamed of such a thing. Called out, as Israel were to be God's earthly people, they were to be separated unto God, and to maintain the revelation which He gave them of Himself as Jehovah. This we have seen forms the teaching of chapter xvii. But if thus favored, He would regulate, as became Him, the daily and the domestic life of both the people and the priests (18-22). After this, the history of His ways with them in grace as Jehovah's people, from the Exodus to the Millennium, is set out in that ecclesiastical calendar, contained in chapter 23; for they would nationally be ever in His sight, even though apostasy might do its dire work among them, and meet with its due reward (24).
Further, since God has taken them up to be people, He has provided for them an inheritance. We read in the next place therefore of God’s provision for the continuance of their enjoyment of the land, as well as that for the portion of any of His earthly people to return to its original possessor, if for a time he had (25). The institution of the Jubilee set forth, the people are warned of the certainty of governmental dealing with them, if they proved to be disobedient, a dealing which, if called for, would not stop short of banishing them from their land, though only for a time; since God assured them that He would remember His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and He would remember the land, if they should confess their sins in the land of their captivity 26: so exile shall not be ever forever their lot. Restoration, then, they are taught to await, and a restoration to their land, never again to be dispossessed of it. And as God knew how divine goodness will act on the heart, when the people shall be in the enjoyment afresh of His favors, He has provided for the expression of it in the regulations that follow concerning vows 27, with which the book ends. But this chapter comes in as a kind of supplement, the book apparently ending with 26:40. The propriety of this, the moral order we have traced out makes apparent. Chapter 27 may be viewed in the light of a supplement, and as the commencement of a new chapter in their history when restored in grace, to which, as far as the Old Testament takes us, there is no end.
Commencing, then, as Leviticus does, with the provision for the people to bring an offering for their acceptance, if moved by a sense of divine goodness, it closes with the provision for them to make vows, and to pay them, when especially sensible of divine grace. But in the beginning of the book the thought is kept before them of the sacrifice of Christ, because of which the individual could be accepted. In the close, standing as they will in the full consciousness of divine, and abiding favor, provision is made for the expression of the thankfulness of their hearts, but without any typical allusion to the need of the sacrifice of Christ. This is beautifully correct.
In the first part of the book, then, we have teaching which concerns us. In the last part, God's ways and desires for His earthly people are set forth. And Moses, guided of God, thus arranged the book, a witness to those who can see the moral order of its contents, that it was written in the order in which the Spirit of God was pleased to have it recorded.