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The First Commandment: Statues and Precepts (39)
Leviticus 25.23, 24
23 “The land shall not be sold permanently, for the land is Mine; for you are strangers and sojourners with Me. 24 And in all the land of your possession you shall grant redemption of the land.”
Love for God and obedience to His Law play out in everyday and systemic ways. With respect to the first commandment, we note that love for God involved even proper stewardship of the land, since the land all belonged to the Lord (Ps. 24.1).
The tribes of Israel were to receive an allocation of land upon conquering Canaan, and, within that, cities and farmlands would be parceled out to heads of households in a fair and just manner. But the land was still the Lord’s, and His will was that men should work the land and subdue it so as to cause the land to be fruitful and bring forth abundance (Gen. 1:26-28). They would be more likely to do this if they could keep in mind that this land was not their possession but their trust; they were to be stewards, not owners, at least, not as we think of this today.
We are always guests on God’s land, stewards of His gifts and treasures. And we demonstrate our love for Him every day in the way we care for and use all that He has entrusted to us.
T. M. Moore
The Law of God is the soil which, fertilized by the rest of God’s Word and watered by His Spirit, brings forth the fruit of Christian life. If you’d like to understand this process better, and how to make best use of the Law in your walk with and work for the Lord, order the book, The Ground for Christian Ethics, from our online store.
Except as indicated, Scripture taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.