Confessional Lutheran Ministerium

Numbers 5:5-31 NKJV

 Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ⁶ “Speak to the children of Israel: ‘When a man or woman commits any sin that men commit in unfaithfulness against the Lord, and that person is guilty, ⁷ then he shall confess the sin which he has committed. He shall make restitution for his trespass in full, plus one-fifth of it, and give it to the one he has wronged. ⁸ But if the man has no relative to whom restitution may be made for the wrong, the restitution for the wrong must go to the Lord for the priest, in addition to the ram of the atonement with which atonement is made for him. ⁹ Every offering of all the holy things of the children of Israel, which they bring to the priest, shall be his. ¹⁰ And every man’s holy things shall be his; whatever any man gives the priest shall be his.’ ”

¹¹ And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ¹² “Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: ‘If any man’s wife goes astray and behaves unfaithfully toward him, ¹³ and a man lies with her carnally, and it is hidden from the eyes of her husband, and it is concealed that she has defiled herself, and there was no witness against her, nor was she caught— ¹⁴ if the spirit of jealousy comes upon him and he becomes jealous of his wife, who has defiled herself; or if the spirit of jealousy comes upon him and he becomes jealous of his wife, although she has not defiled herself— ¹⁵ then the man shall bring his wife to the priest. He shall bring the offering required for her, one-tenth of an ephah of barley meal; he shall pour no oil on it and put no frankincense on it, because it is a grain offering of jealousy, an offering for remembering, for bringing iniquity to remembrance.

¹⁶ ‘And the priest shall bring her near, and set her before the Lord. ¹⁷ The priest shall take holy water in an earthen vessel, and take some of the dust that is on the floor of the tabernacle and put it into the water. ¹⁸ Then the priest shall stand the woman before the Lord, uncover the woman’s head, and put the offering for remembering in her hands, which is the grain offering of jealousy. And the priest shall have in his hand the bitter water that brings a curse. ¹⁹ And the priest shall put her under oath, and say to the woman, “If no man has lain with you, and if you have not gone astray to uncleanness while under your husband’s authority, be free from this bitter water that brings a curse. ²⁰ But if you have gone astray while under your husband’s authority, and if you have defiled yourself and some man other than your husband has lain with you”— ²¹ then the priest shall put the woman under the oath of the curse, and he shall say to the woman—“the Lord make you a curse and an oath among your people, when the Lord makes your thigh rot and your belly swell; ²² and may this water that causes the curse go into your stomach, and make your belly swell and your thigh rot.”

‘Then the woman shall say, “Amen, so be it.”

²³ ‘Then the priest shall write these curses in a book, and he shall scrape them off into the bitter water. ²⁴ And he shall make the woman drink the bitter water that brings a curse, and the water that brings the curse shall enter her to become bitter. ²⁵ Then the priest shall take the grain offering of jealousy from the woman’s hand, shall wave the offering before the Lord, and bring it to the altar; ²⁶ and the priest shall take a handful of the offering, as its memorial portion, burn it on the altar, and afterward make the woman drink the water. ²⁷ When he has made her drink the water, then it shall be, if she has defiled herself and behaved unfaithfully toward her husband, that the water that brings a curse will enter her and become bitter, and her belly will swell, her thigh will rot, and the woman will become a curse among her people. ²⁸ But if the woman has not defiled herself, and is clean, then she shall be free and may conceive children.

²⁹ ‘This is the law of jealousy, when a wife, while under her husband’s authority, goes astray and defiles herself, ³⁰ or when the spirit of jealousy comes upon a man, and he becomes jealous of his wife; then he shall stand the woman before the Lord, and the priest shall execute all this law upon her. ³¹ Then the man shall be free from iniquity, but that woman shall bear her guilt.’ ”

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The first part of today’s reading deals with confession and restitution. God commanded a person who sinned against his neighbor to both confess his trespass and make restitution for it, which would cover the trespasser’s debt to his neighbor. Meanwhile, the trespasser also had to bring a sacrifice to make atonement for his sin before God. Christians in the New Testament are likewise commanded to confess their trespass and “be reconciled” to their brothers (cf. Matt. 5:24), which may include restitution, if such is possible (cf. Zacchaeus in Luke 19), and should also include forgiveness from the one who was wronged. At the same time, let us seek God’s forgiveness on the basis of Christ’s atonement, in which case making confession to a pastor provides the opportunity to receive absolution from the minister as from God Himself.

The second part of the reading provides a rather strange procedure for dealing with suspected adultery. There were already laws in place against adultery, starting with the 6^th Commandment, sentencing both adulterous men and women to death (cf. Lev. 20:10). But such a sentence required a legal conviction, which required proof. What if there was no proof, but only suspicion on the husband’s part? The ritual described in today’s reading would reveal the woman’s guilt or innocence.

For as strange as this ritual may seem, we must remember that the practice described here was commanded by God, and it had His miraculous power attached to it. Instead of endless accusations or outbursts of rage that could trouble a marriage for years, God gave His people a way for husbands and wives to live at peace. This is yet another example of God making provision for the sins that are common among men, to give the Israelites a way to resolve some of the conflicts that would arise in their society. Only in heaven will believers finally be free of such conflicts. Until then, as a part of daily contrition and repentance, Christian wives are guided to imitate the Church in submitting to their husbands, while husbands are guided to imitate Christ Himself in how they treat their wives (cf. Eph. 5:22-33). Let us pray: Lord, teach us by Your statutes, that we may live in harmony with our neighbors, and especially with our fellow Christians. Amen.

Numbers 4:1-20 NKJV

4 Then the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying: ² “Take a census of the sons of Kohath from among the children of Levi, by their families, by their fathers’ house, ³ from thirty years old and above, even to fifty years old, all who enter the service to do the work in the tabernacle of meeting.

⁴ “This is the service of the sons of Kohath in the tabernacle of meeting, relating to the most holy things: ⁵ When the camp prepares to journey, Aaron and his sons shall come, and they shall take down the covering veil and cover the ark of the Testimony with it. ⁶ Then they shall put on it a covering of badger skins, and spread over that a cloth entirely of blue; and they shall insert its poles.

⁷ “On the table of showbread they shall spread a blue cloth, and put on it the dishes, the pans, the bowls, and the pitchers for pouring; and the showbread shall be on it. ⁸ They shall spread over them a scarlet cloth, and cover the same with a covering of badger skins; and they shall insert its poles. ⁹ And they shall take a blue cloth and cover the lampstand of the light, with its lamps, its wick-trimmers, its trays, and all its oil vessels, with which they service it. ¹⁰ Then they shall put it with all its utensils in a covering of badger skins, and put it on a carrying beam.

¹¹ “Over the golden altar they shall spread a blue cloth, and cover it with a covering of badger skins; and they shall insert its poles. ¹² Then they shall take all the utensils of service with which they minister in the sanctuary, put them in a blue cloth, cover them with a covering of badger skins, and put them on a carrying beam. ¹³ Also they shall take away the ashes from the altar, and spread a purple cloth over it. ¹⁴ They shall put on it all its implements with which they minister there—the firepans, the forks, the shovels, the basins, and all the utensils of the altar—and they shall spread on it a covering of badger skins, and insert its poles. ¹⁵ And when Aaron and his sons have finished covering the sanctuary and all the furnishings of the sanctuary, when the camp is set to go, then the sons of Kohath shall come to carry them; but they shall not touch any holy thing, lest they die.

“These are the things in the tabernacle of meeting which the sons of Kohath are to carry.

¹⁶ “The appointed duty of Eleazar the son of Aaron the priest is the oil for the light, the sweet incense, the daily grain offering, the anointing oil, the oversight of all the tabernacle, of all that is in it, with the sanctuary and its furnishings.”

¹⁷ Then the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying: ¹⁸ “Do not cut off the tribe of the families of the Kohathites from among the Levites; ¹⁹ but do this in regard to them, that they may live and not die when they approach the most holy things: Aaron and his sons shall go in and appoint each of them to his service and his task. ²⁰ But they shall not go in to watch while the holy things are being covered, lest they die.”

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Here the specific duties of the clan of Kohath (and then of Gershon and Merari) are enumerated. At this point in the history of Israel, the priestly duties centered on (1) ministering in the tabernacle, (2) breaking down the tabernacle and preparing it for transport, (3) carrying its various pieces as they journeyed, (4) setting it up again when the people reached a new stopping point on their way to the land of Canaan, and (5) preventing anyone unauthorized from coming near the holy things.

Since all this had to be accomplished with the greatest care and attention to detail, and since many of the duties required heavy lifting, only men between the ages of 30 and 50 were to be engaged in these tasks directly. Only Aaron and his two sons were to handle the holy furnishings. The Kohathites were to carry the furnishings by their attached poles, while the Gershonites and Merarites were to attend to the frame of the tabernacle, with duties being assigned to each man by name, and with Aaron and his sons carefully supervising the whole process.

It’s this very chapter in Numbers that King David failed to consult when he tried to move the ark of the covenant to Jerusalem. No priests were chosen to carry it by its poles. It was placed haphazardly on a cart, and when a man laid hold of it to steady it, the Lord struck him dead (cf. 1 Chron. 13). This is how seriously the Lord took the laws about handling the holy things.

We have no similar commands concerning sacred things or sacred duties in the New Testament, since the tabernacle and the priesthood have found their fulfillment in Christ and the Church. There are no holy things in the Holy Christian Church, just holy people, that is, believers who have been sanctified and set apart for God and by God. And as the Old Testament priests were to be diligent in caring for the holy things, so all Christians, as priests under Christ, the High Priest, are to be diligent in caring for one another, for God is more zealous in guarding His saints than He was in guarding the sacred things of the tabernacle. As Zechariah says to God’s holy Church, “He who touches you touches the apple of His eye” (Zech. 2:9). Let us pray: Lord God, thank You for sanctifying us through Holy Baptism. Teach us by Your Spirit to love and care for our fellow saints as You have loved and cared for us. Amen.

Numbers 3:1-13; 3:40-51 NKJV 3 Now these are the records of Aaron and Moses when the Lord spoke with Moses on Mount Sinai. ² And these are the names of the sons of Aaron: Nadab, the firstborn, and Abihu, Eleazar, and Ithamar. ³ These are the names of the sons of Aaron, the anointed priests, whom he consecrated to minister as priests. ⁴ Nadab and Abihu had died before the Lord when they offered profane fire before the Lord in the Wilderness of Sinai; and they had no children. So Eleazar and Ithamar ministered as priests in the presence of Aaron their father.

⁵ And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: ⁶ “Bring the tribe of Levi near, and present them before Aaron the priest, that they may serve him. ⁷ And they shall attend to his needs and the needs of the whole congregation before the tabernacle of meeting, to do the work of the tabernacle. ⁸ Also they shall attend to all the furnishings of the tabernacle of meeting, and to the needs of the children of Israel, to do the work of the tabernacle. ⁹ And you shall give the Levites to Aaron and his sons; they are given entirely to him from among the children of Israel. ¹⁰ So you shall appoint Aaron and his sons, and they shall attend to their priesthood; but the outsider who comes near shall be put to death.”

¹¹ Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: ¹² “Now behold, I Myself have taken the Levites from among the children of Israel instead of every firstborn who opens the womb among the children of Israel. Therefore the Levites shall be Mine, ¹³ because all the firstborn are Mine. On the day that I struck all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, I sanctified to Myself all the firstborn in Israel, both man and beast. They shall be Mine: I am the Lord.”

⁴⁰ Then the Lord said to Moses: “Number all the firstborn males of the children of Israel from a month old and above, and take the number of their names. ⁴¹ And you shall take the Levites for Me—I am the Lord—instead of all the firstborn among the children of Israel, and the livestock of the Levites instead of all the firstborn among the livestock of the children of Israel.” ⁴² So Moses numbered all the firstborn among the children of Israel, as the Lord commanded him. ⁴³ And all the firstborn males, according to the number of names from a month old and above, of those who were numbered of them, were twenty-two thousand two hundred and seventy-three.

⁴⁴ Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: ⁴⁵ “Take the Levites instead of all the firstborn among the children of Israel, and the livestock of the Levites instead of their livestock. The Levites shall be Mine: I am the Lord. ⁴⁶ And for the redemption of the two hundred and seventy-three of the firstborn of the children of Israel, who are more than the number of the Levites, ⁴⁷ you shall take five shekels for each one individually; you shall take them in the currency of the shekel of the sanctuary, the shekel of twenty gerahs. ⁴⁸ And you shall give the money, with which the excess number of them is redeemed, to Aaron and his sons.”

⁴⁹ So Moses took the redemption money from those who were over and above those who were redeemed by the Levites. ⁵⁰ From the firstborn of the children of Israel he took the money, one thousand three hundred and sixty-five shekels, according to the shekel of the sanctuary. ⁵¹ And Moses gave their redemption money to Aaron and his sons, according to the word of the Lord, as the Lord commanded Moses.

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The first two chapters of the book of Numbers give us a reliable record of what the tribes of Israel looked like one year after they crossed the Red Sea. The Israelites had spent about a year at Mount Sinai, receiving and learning the laws that God had given to Moses, constructing and learning the rituals of the divinely-designed tabernacle. A census was taken, at God’s command, revealing a total of 603,550 men of fighting age (excluding the Levites). When we add the women, children, and elderly, plus the 22,000 Levite males, we arrive at a safe estimate of about two million people who made up both the nation and the church of Israel.

Numbers 3 describes two things: The dedication of the Levites to the Lord in place of the firstborn sons of the rest of Israel, and the camping location assigned to each of the three Levite clans, who were descended from Levi’s three sons, Gershon, Kohath, and Merari. The three clans, plus the smaller group of Moses, Aaron, and Aaron’s sons, with their families, were to surround the tabernacle. No one got through to God except through them.

Since God, by the blood of the Passover lamb, had rescued the firstborn of Israel from the plague against the firstborn in Egypt, He claimed the Israelite firstborn as His own. But He accepted the Levites, by exact count, as substitutes for the firstborn of the rest of Israel, not to kill them, but to employ them as His ministers for life. As depicted vividly by their encampment around the tabernacle, the Old Testament Levites were to be the keepers of sacred things and the mediators between God and His people.

There are shadows of Christ in these things. Christ, the firstborn of Mary and the only-begotten of God, was chosen by God to be the Substitute for sinful mankind, serving forever as the only Priest and Mediator between God and man. Only through Him may we approach the Father. Only through Him are we redeemed from the death we deserve, so that we may serve God as a royal priesthood under the New Testament.

Let us pray: Heavenly Father, You have accepted Your Son in our place and, through faith in Him, You have given us access to You. Accept our humble service, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

Leviticus 27:14-34 NKJV

¹⁴ ‘And when a man dedicates his house to be holy to the Lord, then the priest shall set a value for it, whether it is good or bad; as the priest values it, so it shall stand. ¹⁵ If he who dedicated it wants to redeem his house, then he must add one-fifth of the money of your valuation to it, and it shall be his.

¹⁶ ‘If a man dedicates to the Lord part of a field of his possession, then your valuation shall be according to the seed for it. A homer of barley seed shall be valued at fifty shekels of silver. ¹⁷ If he dedicates his field from the Year of Jubilee, according to your valuation it shall stand. ¹⁸ But if he dedicates his field after the Jubilee, then the priest shall reckon to him the money due according to the years that remain till the Year of Jubilee, and it shall be deducted from your valuation. ¹⁹ And if he who dedicates the field ever wishes to redeem it, then he must add one-fifth of the money of your valuation to it, and it shall belong to him. ²⁰ But if he does not want to redeem the field, or if he has sold the field to another man, it shall not be redeemed anymore; ²¹ but the field, when it is released in the Jubilee, shall be holy to the Lord, as a devoted field; it shall be the possession of the priest.

²² ‘And if a man dedicates to the Lord a field which he has bought, which is not the field of his possession, ²³ then the priest shall reckon to him the worth of your valuation, up to the Year of Jubilee, and he shall give your valuation on that day as a holy offering to the Lord. ²⁴ In the Year of Jubilee the field shall return to him from whom it was bought, to the one who owned the land as a possession. ²⁵ And all your valuations shall be according to the shekel of the sanctuary: twenty gerahs to the shekel.

²⁶ ‘But the firstborn of the animals, which should be the Lord’s firstborn, no man shall dedicate; whether it is an ox or sheep, it is the Lord’s. ²⁷ And if it is an unclean animal, then he shall redeem it according to your valuation, and shall add one-fifth to it; or if it is not redeemed, then it shall be sold according to your valuation.

²⁸ ‘Nevertheless no devoted offering that a man may devote to the Lord of all that he has, both man and beast, or the field of his possession, shall be sold or redeemed; every devoted offering is most holy to the Lord. ²⁹ No person under the ban, who may become doomed to destruction among men, shall be redeemed, but shall surely be put to death. ³⁰ And all the tithe of the land, whether of the seed of the land or of the fruit of the tree, is the Lord’s. It is holy to the Lord. ³¹ If a man wants at all to redeem any of his tithes, he shall add one-fifth to it. ³² And concerning the tithe of the herd or the flock, of whatever passes under the rod, the tenth one shall be holy to the Lord. ³³ He shall not inquire whether it is good or bad, nor shall he exchange it; and if he exchanges it at all, then both it and the one exchanged for it shall be holy; it shall not be redeemed.’ ”

³⁴ These are the commandments which the Lord commanded Moses for the children of Israel on Mount Sinai.

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The final verses of Leviticus provide some final instructions about dedications to the Lord. Houses and fields and other property could be dedicated to the Lord voluntarily, out of thankfulness for the bounty that came from Him and as a way of providing for the priests and for the costs of maintaining the tabernacle. Animals and food offerings could be dedicated to the Lord, but the firstborn male and every tenth animal acquired, along with the tenth part of their crops, could not be included in this special dedication, because these things were already claimed by the Lord as belonging to Him. You can’t give to the Lord what’s already His by right.

Although, in a sense, this is what we always do with our offerings. All that we have belongs to the Lord, and we are merely managers of it, charged with using it all according to God’s instructions. For Old Testament Israel, those instructions were more specific. The firstborn son, the firstborn male animal, and the tithe (that is, the tenth) had to be handed over to the Lord, or else be redeemed, while the rest of a person’s possessions could be used at a person’s discretion, with the option of dedicating things to God above and beyond the required tenth.

In the New Testament, there is no law regarding the firstborn, because God has already given His Son, the Firstborn of all creation, into death to redeem us, and He has made us all sons through faith in Christ Jesus. Nor is there a law regarding the tithe, because God no longer treats us as children but as mature adults. Indeed, some of the early Christians in Jerusalem chose to sell all their property and lay the proceeds at the apostles’ feet (cf. Acts 4:34-35). The Lord no longer specifies how much of our possessions should be given back to Him to support the Church and its ministry. He simply commands us, among other things, to support those who teach the Gospel, encouraging us to be generous with our offerings, but trusting us to use sound judgment in managing the possessions of which He has made us stewards. Let us pray: We give Thee but Thine own, whate’er the gift may be. All that we have is Thine alone, a trust, O Lord, from Thee. Amen (TLH 441, st. 1).

Leviticus 26:23-46 NKJV ²³ ‘And if by these things you are not reformed by Me, but walk contrary to Me,

²⁴ then I also will walk contrary to you, and I will punish you yet seven times for your sins.

²⁵ And I will bring a sword against you that will execute the vengeance of the covenant;

when you are gathered together within your cities I will send pestilence among you;

and you shall be delivered into the hand of the enemy.

²⁶ When I have cut off your supply of bread, ten women shall bake your bread in one oven, and they shall bring back your bread by weight, and you shall eat and not be satisfied.

²⁷ ‘And after all this, if you do not obey Me, but walk contrary to Me,

²⁸ then I also will walk contrary to you in fury;

and I, even I, will chastise you seven times for your sins.

²⁹ You shall eat the flesh of your sons, and you shall eat the flesh of your daughters.

³⁰ I will destroy your high places, cut down your incense altars, and cast your carcasses on the lifeless forms of your idols;

and My soul shall abhor you.

³¹ I will lay your cities waste and bring your sanctuaries to desolation, and I will not smell the fragrance of your sweet aromas.

³² I will bring the land to desolation, and your enemies who dwell in it shall be astonished at it.

³³ I will scatter you among the nations and draw out a sword after you;

your land shall be desolate and your cities waste.

³⁴ Then the land shall enjoy its sabbaths as long as it lies desolate and you are in your enemies’ land;

then the land shall rest and enjoy its sabbaths.

³⁵ As long as it lies desolate it shall rest—

for the time it did not rest on your sabbaths when you dwelt in it.

³⁶ ‘And as for those of you who are left, I will send faintness into their hearts in the lands of their enemies;

the sound of a shaken leaf shall cause them to flee;

they shall flee as though fleeing from a sword, and they shall fall when no one pursues.

³⁷ They shall stumble over one another, as it were before a sword, when no one pursues;

and you shall have no power to stand before your enemies.

³⁸ You shall perish among the nations, and the land of your enemies shall eat you up.

³⁹ And those of you who are left shall waste away in their iniquity in your enemies’ lands;

also in their fathers’ iniquities, which are with them, they shall waste away.

⁴⁰ ‘But if they confess their iniquity and the iniquity of their fathers, with their unfaithfulness in which they were unfaithful to Me, and that they also have walked contrary to Me,

⁴¹ and that I also have walked contrary to them and have brought them into the land of their enemies;

if their uncircumcised hearts are humbled, and they accept their guilt—

⁴² then I will remember My covenant with Jacob, and My covenant with Isaac and My covenant with Abraham I will remember;

I will remember the land.

⁴³ The land also shall be left empty by them, and will enjoy its sabbaths while it lies desolate without them;

they will accept their guilt, because they despised My judgments and because their soul abhorred My statutes.

⁴⁴ Yet for all that, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not cast them away, nor shall I abhor them, to utterly destroy them and break My covenant with them;

for I am the Lord their God.

⁴⁵ But for their sake I will remember the covenant of their ancestors, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the nations, that I might be their God:

I am the Lord.’ ”

⁴⁶ These are the statutes and judgments and laws which the Lord made between Himself and the children of Israel on Mount Sinai by the hand of Moses.

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Throughout the history of the Old Testament, and here again in Leviticus 26, we read of God’s warnings to His people not to disobey lest terrible things befall them. As was mentioned in yesterday’s devotion, God’s discipline and threat are a demonstration of His love. He does not want His people to disobey. He knows what is best for them and it’s simply to their overwhelming benefit that they obey and not rebel.

Here God states clearly that He will walk contrary to His people if they walk contrary to them. If God walks against you, you cannot be saved, and you will suffer hardship, loss, pain, suffering, and quite possibly eternal damnation unless you repent and come back to God’s Word and ways.

But no matter how disobedient and rebellious God’s people were, their sins would not frustrate God’s gracious will for them and their land. Like a loving father, God disciplined his people to bring them back to the right worship of Him. But if they did not heed His acts of discipline, He turned against them in His wrath. His aim in all this was to humble their proud hearts, so that they would confess their sins and accept their punishment.

You, dear saint, are sinful by nature, stubborn, hard-headed, and hard-hearted. God’s Law is meant to bring you to repentance so that you do not continue in sin. Luther was right in 1517 in his first of the 95 Theses: “When our Lord and Master Jesus Christ, said repent, He willed that the whole life of believers should be repentance.” Repentance keeps you right with God; it admits that God is right, and you are wrong. Repent and receive God’s forgiveness through Holy Absolution and the Supper, those things through which God delivers His grace, forgiveness, and strength to you.

Let us pray: Dear God, thank You for sending Jesus to pay for my sins on the cross. Help me always to trust You and Your Word and not myself, and bring me at last to Your eternal Banquet in heaven, through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.

Leviticus 26:1-22 NKJV

26 ‘You shall not make idols for yourselves;

neither a carved image nor a sacred pillar shall you rear up for yourselves;

nor shall you set up an engraved stone in your land, to bow down to it;

for I am the Lord your God.

² You shall keep My Sabbaths and reverence My sanctuary:

I am the Lord.

³ ‘If you walk in My statutes and keep My commandments, and perform them,

⁴ then I will give you rain in its season, the land shall yield its produce, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit.

⁵ Your threshing shall last till the time of vintage, and the vintage shall last till the time of sowing;

you shall eat your bread to the full, and dwell in your land safely.

⁶ I will give peace in the land, and you shall lie down, and none will make you afraid;

I will rid the land of evil beasts,

and the sword will not go through your land.

⁷ You will chase your enemies, and they shall fall by the sword before you.

⁸ Five of you shall chase a hundred, and a hundred of you shall put ten thousand to flight;

your enemies shall fall by the sword before you.

⁹ ‘For I will look on you favorably and make you fruitful, multiply you and confirm My covenant with you.

¹⁰ You shall eat the old harvest, and clear out the old because of the new.

¹¹ I will set My tabernacle among you, and My soul shall not abhor you.

¹² I will walk among you and be your God, and you shall be My people.

¹³ I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, that you should not be their slaves;

I have broken the bands of your yoke and made you walk upright.

¹⁴ ‘But if you do not obey Me, and do not observe all these commandments,

¹⁵ and if you despise My statutes, or if your soul abhors My judgments, so that you do not perform all My commandments, but break My covenant,

¹⁶ I also will do this to you:

I will even appoint terror over you, wasting disease and fever which shall consume the eyes and cause sorrow of heart.

And you shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it.

¹⁷ I will set My face against you, and you shall be defeated by your enemies.

Those who hate you shall reign over you, and you shall flee when no one pursues you.

¹⁸ ‘And after all this, if you do not obey Me, then I will punish you seven times more for your sins.

¹⁹ I will break the pride of your power;

I will make your heavens like iron and your earth like bronze.

²⁰ And your strength shall be spent in vain;

for your land shall not yield its produce, nor shall the trees of the land yield their fruit.

²¹ ‘Then, if you walk contrary to Me, and are not willing to obey Me, I will bring on you seven times more plagues, according to your sins.

²² I will also send wild beasts among you, which shall rob you of your children, destroy your livestock, and make you few in number;

and your highways shall be desolate.

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In the first 13 verses of today’s reading, we hear First and Third Commandment language. Having idols or graven images violates the First, and keeping God’s Sabbaths refers to the Third. God promised the Israelites wonderful blessings if they simply obeyed Him. The blessings were rain in the land (v. 5), peace in the land (v. 6), the growth of each Israelite family and clan (vv. 9-10), and God’s promise of dwelling with His people (vv. 11-12). He also promised His continual presences among them to walk with them and be their God. God established the Sabbaths and the sanctuary, so that through them He could dwell with His people and lavish His blessings on them in the promised land.

However, in vv. 14-22 terrible things were promised if the people did not obey: terror, disease, fever, fear, crop failure, defeat by their enemies, livestock destroyed, loss of children, plagues, and a general threat of seven times the punishments listed. Simply stated, by their disobedience the Israelites would annul the proper operation of God’s Covenant and so forfeit His rich blessings.

Like a parent warning his child not to do something lest a punishment would be inflicted, God told His people how He would deal with them; it’s not like they hadn’t been warned. By these punishments, however, He disciplined and corrected them. He disciplined them to bring them back to right worship of Him. As in Proverbs 13:24, “He who spares his rod hates his son, But he who loves him disciplines him promptly.” And Heb 12:6, “For whom the Lord loves He chastens.” That is always God’s motivation and goal, to love us and to bring us back to Him.

Repent, dear Christian, of every disobedience against God, then run to Holy Absolution and the Holy Supper where God deliver’s His forgiveness to you and strengthens you to continue to live in His grace.

Let us pray: Lord, thank You for Your loving discipline, and help me to learn from it and grow in Your grace; through Jesus Christ, Your Son. Amen.

Leviticus 25:35-55 NKJV

³⁵ ‘If one of your brethren becomes poor, and falls into poverty among you, then you shall help him, like a stranger or a sojourner, that he may live with you. ³⁶ Take no usury or interest from him; but fear your God, that your brother may live with you. ³⁷ You shall not lend him your money for usury, nor lend him your food at a profit. ³⁸ I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, to give you the land of Canaan and to be your God.

³⁹ ‘And if one of your brethren who dwells by you becomes poor, and sells himself to you, you shall not compel him to serve as a slave. ⁴⁰ As a hired servant and a sojourner he shall be with you, and shall serve you until the Year of Jubilee. ⁴¹ And then he shall depart from you—he and his children with him—and shall return to his own family. He shall return to the possession of his fathers. ⁴² For they are My servants, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt; they shall not be sold as slaves. ⁴³ You shall not rule over him with rigor, but you shall fear your God. ⁴⁴ And as for your male and female slaves whom you may have—from the nations that are around you, from them you may buy male and female slaves. ⁴⁵ Moreover you may buy the children of the strangers who dwell among you, and their families who are with you, which they beget in your land; and they shall become your property. ⁴⁶ And you may take them as an inheritance for your children after you, to inherit them as a possession; they shall be your permanent slaves. But regarding your brethren, the children of Israel, you shall not rule over one another with rigor.

⁴⁷ ‘Now if a sojourner or stranger close to you becomes rich, and one of your brethren who dwells by him becomes poor, and sells himself to the stranger or sojourner close to you, or to a member of the stranger’s family, ⁴⁸ after he is sold he may be redeemed again. One of his brothers may redeem him; ⁴⁹ or his uncle or his uncle’s son may redeem him; or anyone who is near of kin to him in his family may redeem him; or if he is able he may redeem himself. ⁵⁰ Thus he shall reckon with him who bought him: The price of his release shall be according to the number of years, from the year that he was sold to him until the Year of Jubilee; it shall be according to the time of a hired servant for him. ⁵¹ If there are still many years remaining, according to them he shall repay the price of his redemption from the money with which he was bought. ⁵² And if there remain but a few years until the Year of Jubilee, then he shall reckon with him, and according to his years he shall repay him the price of his redemption. ⁵³ He shall be with him as a yearly hired servant, and he shall not rule with rigor over him in your sight. ⁵⁴ And if he is not redeemed in these years, then he shall be released in the Year of Jubilee—he and his children with him. ⁵⁵ For the children of Israel are servants to Me; they are My servants whom I brought out of the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.

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This section of Leviticus 25 begins with the case of Israelites who worked off a debt to pay their fellow Israelites. The creditor was not allowed to take advantage of the impoverished person in his vulnerable state to rob him of his livelihood and push him even deeper into debt. These obligations to an impoverished family were motivated by the fear of God and Israel’s experience of Him as their emancipator and land-giver.

 The remaining verses deal with the status and treatment of Israelites who sold themselves to pay off a debt. The Israelites were not allowed to treat such people as their slaves. Instead, they employed them as hired laborers who lived with them on their land and used their wages to pay off their debt. Even if they had not yet paid off their full debt, they and their children were released from service at the Jubilee, so that they could return to their kin group free from debt and reclaim their holding from its buyer or its redeemer.

They were to be released then because they were God’s royal servants, His slaves, and He had released them from slavery in the land of Egypt. They belonged to God; therefore, they could not be sold as slaves. Their Israelite employers were therefore to fear God and take care not to trample on them “harshly” as the Israelites had been trampled on in Egypt (See Exodus 1:13-14)

By his substitutionary sacrifice, Christ paid off our debt to God and proclaimed our “release” from oppression by Satan. All those who, by faith, trust in Jesus are beneficiaries of God’s grace, His royal amnesty to His rebellious subjects. Just as the Jubilee issued from the Day of Atonement in ancient Israel, so their release from all sin and all the powers of darkness is the result of Christ’s sacrificial death

Let us pray: Lord Jesus, thank You for atoning for our sins in Your suffering and death on the cross. Strengthen our faith through Your Word and Sacraments until You call us Home to be with You forever. Amen.