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Leviticus 27.9-13
“If the vow is an animal that may be offered as an offering to the LORD, all of it that he gives to the LORD is holy. He shall not exchange it or make a substitute for it, good for bad, or bad for good; and if he does in fact substitute one animal for another, then both it and the substitute shall be holy. And if it is any unclean animal that may not be offered as an offering to the LORD, then he shall stand the animal before the priest, and the priest shall value it as either good or bad; as the priest values it, so it shall be. But if he wishes to redeem it, he shall add a fifth to the valuation.”
Leviticus 27.14, 15
“When a man dedicates his house as a holy gift to the LORD, the priest shall value it as either good or bad; as the priest values it, so it shall stand. And if the donor wishes to redeem his house, he shall add a fifth to the valuation price, and it shall be his.”
We’re still looking at these special “valuation offerings.” Here we see that the priest could enter into the valuation process when the offering was something exceptional, or perhaps when the value could not be readily determined. If the donor merely wanted to give a monetary gift rather than, say, his house, still, his house could provide a basis for determining how much to give. He would offer the house, then redeem it for the valued price plus one-fifth.
I confess to a certain amount of confusion and uncertain regarding these statutes. At the very least we can say this much: God made it easy for His people to give beyond what was required of them, but, in encouraging them to do so, He protected them against capriciousness in giving, either on their parts or on the parts of greedy priests.
This series of In the Gates we present a detailed explanation of the Law of God, beginning with the Ten Commandments, and working through the statutes and rules that accompany each commandment. For a practical guide to the role of God’s Law in the practice of ethics, get The Ground for Christian Ethics by going to www.MyParuchia.com and click on our Book Store.