The First Commandment

No other gods

The First Commandment

No other gods

City Homes

The First Commandment

No other gods

Leviticus 25.29-34

“If a man sells a dwelling house in a walled city, he may redeem it within a year of its sale. For a full year he shall have the right of redemption. If it is not redeemed within a full year, then the house in the walled city shall belong in perpetuity to the buyer, throughout his generations; it shall not be released in the jubilee. But the houses of the villages that have no wall around them shall be classified with the fields of the land. They may be redeemed, and they shall be released in the jubilee. As for the cities of the Levites, the Levites may redeem at any time the houses in the cities they possess. And if one of the Levites exercises his right of redemption, then the house that was sold in a city they possess shall be released in the jubilee. For the houses in the cities of the Levites are their possession among the people of Israel. But the fields of pastureland belonging to their cities may not be sold, for that is their possession forever.”

The case of properties within walled cities was different, perhaps because people who lived in walled cities – which were few – did, perhaps exclusively, the kind of work that did not require extensive portions of land (carpenters, for example). They needed a more settled environment where they could trade their labor for the increase gained by others.

Thus, houses sold within walled cities could only be redeemed within the first year. After that they remained the property of the buyer, surviving in his hands or those of his heirs, even beyond the Jubilee, or until he decided to sell. This was especially true for the Levites, who owned no lands or properties. Homes purchased from Levites, moreover, were to be released in the Jubilee, thus restoring to that tribe the only property granted to them by the Lord. Pasturelands belonging to the Levites were not to be sold.

We place these property laws within the context of the first commandment, but we might also visit them under the eighth as well. Here they remind us, as the Lord insists, “The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it” (Ps. 24.1). We worship and serve the Lord by keeping this stewardship principle in mind in all we do.

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.

Next to Godliness

The First Commandment

No other gods

Leviticus 25.25-28

“If your brother becomes poor and sells part of his property, then his nearest redeemer shall come and redeem what his brother has sold. If a man has no one to redeem it and then himself becomes prosperous and finds sufficient means to redeem it, let him calculate the years since he sold it and pay back the balance to the man to whom he sold it, and then return to his property. But if he has not sufficient means to recover it, then what he sold shall remain in the hand of the buyer until the year of jubilee. In the jubilee it shall be released, and he shall return to his property.”

No Pagan Practices

The First Commandment

No other gods

Deuteronomy 23.17-18

“None of the daughters of Israel shall be a cult prostitute, and none of the sons of Israel shall be a cult prostitute. You shall not bring the fee of a prostitute or the wages of a dog into the house of the LORD your God in payment for any vow, for both of these are an abomination to the LORD your God.”

Beware of Mediums

The First Commandment

No other gods

Leviticus 19.31

“Do not turn to mediums or wizards; do not seek them out, and so make yourselves unclean by them: I am the LORD your God.”

Stewards of God’s Gifts

The First Commandment

No other gods

Leviticus 25.23, 24

“The land shall not be sold in perpetuity, for the land is mine. For you are strangers and sojourners with me. And in all the country you possess, you shall allow a redemption of the land.”

Preserving the Sanctity of the Community

The First Commandment

No other gods

Deuteronomy 17.2-7

“If there is found among you, within any of your towns that the LORD your God is giving you, a man or woman who does what is evil in the sight of the LORD your God, in transgressing his covenant, and has gone and served other gods and worshiped them, or the sun or the moon or any of the host of heaven, which I have forbidden, and it is told you and you hear of it, then you shall inquire diligently, and if it is true and certain that such an abomination has been done in Israel, then you shall bring out to your gates that man or woman who has done this evil thing, and you shall stone that man or woman to death with stones. On the evidence of two witnesses or of three witnesses the one who is to die shall be put to death; a person shall not be put to death on the evidence of one witness. The hand of the witnesses shall be first against him to put him to death, and afterward the hand of all the people. So you shall purge the evil from your midst.”

Deuteronomy 6.13-15

“It is the LORD your God you shall fear. Him you shall serve and by his name you shall swear. You shall not go after other gods, the gods of the peoples who are around you, for the LORD your God in your midst is a jealous God, lest the anger of the LORD your God be kindled against you, and he destroy you from off the face of the earth.”

Only God, No Other

The First Commandment

No other gods

Exodus 23.13

“Pay attention to all that I have said to you, and make no mention of the names of other gods, nor let it be heard on your lips.”

Deuteronomy 23.12-14

“You shall have a place outside the camp, and you shall go out to it. And you shall have a trowel with your tools, and when you sit down outside, you shall dig a hole with it and turn back and cover up your excrement. Because the LORD your God walks in the midst of your camp, to deliver you and to give up your enemies before you, therefore your camp must be holy, so that he may not see anything indecent among you and turn away from you.”

The Lesson of the Fruit Tree

Leviticus 19.23-25

“When you come into the land and plant any kind of tree for food, then you shall regard its fruit as forbidden. Three years it shall be forbidden to you; it must not be eaten. And in the fourth year all its fruit shall be holy, an offering of praise to the LORD. But in the fifth year you may eat of its fruit, to increase its yield for you: I am the LORD your God.”