The Christ Church Wednesday Bible Study Group is studying of the Old Testament book of Leviticus. The key to the book of Leviticus is found in verses 45 and 46 of chapter 11.
Leviticus 11:44-45 NIV I am the Lord your God; consecrate yourselves and be holy, because I am holy. Do not make yourselves unclean by any creature that moves along the ground. I am the Lord, who brought you up out of Egypt to be your God; therefore be holy, because I am holy.
These are the notes to Session 27, the final session in this study.
We've talked about the responsibility of obeying God’s commandments, the responsibility of submitting to His chastisements, and trusting His covenant. This book ends with a chapter on commitments to God which show that our promises to God must never be broken just as His covenant with us will never be broken. So when you make a commitment to God make sure that is something that you can and want to follow through with.
KEEPING OUR COMMITMENTS TO GOD (27:1–34)
This book ends with a chapter on commitments to God which show that our promises to God must never be broken just as His covenant with us. So when you make a commitment to God make sure that is something that you can and want to follow through with.
Ecclesiastes 5:2 NIV Do not be quick with your mouth, do not be hasty in your heart to utter anything before God. God is in heaven and you are on earth, so let your words be few.
Proverbs 20:25 NIV It is a trap to dedicate something rashly and only later to consider one’s vows.
In this chapter commitments, or vows,, are associated with things that are given in dedication to God. It could be a person, an animal, or a piece of property, you could redeem what was dedicated, with money which would be given to the priests for the upkeep of the sanctuary. The priest would evaluate the gift according to the rules laid down in this chapter. By giving money in exchange for the gift, the worshiper was “redeeming” the gift but still fulfilling the vow. These vows were strictly voluntary and were expressions of the worshiper’s gratitude to God for His blessing.
To redeem would be to gain or regain possession of (something) in exchange for payment.
You could redeem a person, an animal or property.
Redeeming a person who had been dedicated to God.
Leviticus 27:1-8 NIV The Lord said to Moses, “Speak to the Israelites and say to them: ‘If anyone makes a special vow to dedicate a person to the Lord by giving the equivalent value, set the value of a male between the ages of twenty and sixty at fifty shekels of silver, according to the sanctuary shekel; for a female, set her value at thirty shekels; for a person between the ages of five and twenty, set the value of a male at twenty shekels and of a female at ten shekels; for a person between one month and five years, set the value of a male at five shekels of silver and that of a female at three shekels of silver; for a person sixty years old or more, set the value of a male at fifteen shekels and of a female at ten shekels. If anyone making the vow is too poor to pay the specified amount, the person being dedicated is to be presented to the priest, who will set the value according to what the one making the vow can afford.
A worshiper might dedicate himself to the Lord or bring a member of the family or a servant to serve the Lord for life at the sanctuary. However, since there were plenty of Levites, and since they were especially set apart for sanctuary service, it was expected that the person given would be redeemed with money, and the money given to the priests for the ministry of the sanctuary.
Samuel is an example of someone dedicated to the Lord and his family did not redeem him by playing the redemption requirement.
Samuel, he was actually given to the high priest and trained to serve in the tabernacle. (read 1 Samuel chapters 1 & 2)
Children could be redeemed or, like Samuel, they could go into service when they became older.
1 Samuel 1:10-11, 21-28 NIV In her deep anguish Hannah prayed to the Lord, weeping bitterly. And she made a vow, saying, “Lord Almighty, if you will only look on your servant’s misery and remember me, and not forget your servant but give her a son, then I will give him to the Lord for all the days of his life, and no razor will ever be used on his head.” When her husband Elkanah went up with all his family to offer the annual sacrifice to the Lord and to fulfill his vow, Hannah did not go. She said to her husband, “After the boy is weaned, I will take him and present him before the Lord, and he will live there always.” “Do what seems best to you,” her husband Elkanah told her. “Stay here until you have weaned him; only may the Lord make good his word.” So the woman stayed at home and nursed her son until she had weaned him. After he was weaned, she took the boy with her, young as he was, along with a three-year-old bull, an ephah of flour and a skin of wine, and brought him to the house of the Lord at Shiloh. When the bull had been sacrificed, they brought the boy to Eli, and she said to him, “Pardon me, my Lord. As surely as you live, I am the woman who stood here beside you praying to the Lord. I prayed for this child, and the Lord has granted me what I asked of him. So now I give him to the Lord. For his whole life he will be given over to the Lord.” And he worshiped the Lord there.
The amount of money assigned to each age bracket and sex had nothing to do with the worth of the individual as a person. Everyone was precious to the Lord. The key idea was how much work they would have been able to do. A shekel was the equivalent of a month’s income for a worker, although we don’t know how much buying power it had. Thus a male from twenty to sixty was evaluated at about four years’ income.
Put that into modern economic equivalents, and you will rightly conclude that people didn’t rush into making these vows! It would indeed be a costly thing to pay four years’ income to fulfill a vow to the Lord.
Scholars are uncertain what exactly a shekel was, but here is one calculation of its value: the sanctuary shekel was defined as 20 gerahs. A gerah has been traditionally measured as 1/50 of an ounce, or 0.6 gram. The sanctuary shekel would then equal 0.4 of an ounce of gold (20 times 1/50 of an ounce), or 12 grams. Based on a price of 46.43 USD per gram, the approximate value of a sanctuary shekel would be $557.16, in today’s market.
Redeeming an animal who had been dedicated to God.
Leviticus 27:9-13 NIV “ ‘If what they vowed is an animal that is acceptable as an offering to the Lord, such an animal given to the Lord becomes holy. They must not exchange it or substitute a good one for a bad one, or a bad one for a good one; if they should substitute one animal for another, both it and the substitute become holy. If what they vowed is a ceremonially unclean animal—one that is not acceptable as an offering to the Lord—the animal must be presented to the priest, who will judge its quality as good or bad. Whatever value the priest then sets, that is what it will be. If the owner wishes to redeem the animal, a fifth must be added to its value.
Every animal dedicated to the Lord was considered holy, which meant it was set apart (“sanctified”) and belonged to the Lord. If the donor wanted to substitute an inferior beast, both animals then belonged to the Lord!
This was one of the sins of the priests in Malachi’s day
Malachi 1:13-14 NIV And you say, ‘What a burden!’ and you sniff at it contemptuously,” says the Lord Almighty. “When you bring injured, lame or diseased animals and offer them as sacrifices, should I accept them from your hands?” says the Lord. “Cursed is the cheat who has an acceptable male in his flock and vows to give it, but then sacrifices a blemished animal to the Lord. For I am a great king,” says the Lord Almighty, “and my name is to be feared among the nations.
In the case of animals, the donor had to add 20 percent to the priest’s evaluation.
Redeeming property which had been dedicated to God.
Leviticus 27:14-25 NIV “ ‘If anyone dedicates their house as something holy to the Lord, the priest will judge its quality as good or bad. Whatever value the priest then sets, so it will remain. If the one who dedicates their house wishes to redeem it, they must add a fifth to its value, and the house will again become theirs. “ ‘If anyone dedicates to the Lord part of their family land, its value is to be set according to the amount of seed required for it—fifty shekels of silver to a homer of barley seed. If they dedicate a field during the Year of Jubilee, the value that has been set remains. But if they dedicate a field after the Jubilee, the priest will determine the value according to the number of years that remain until the next Year of Jubilee, and its set value will be reduced.
If the one who dedicates the field wishes to redeem it, they must add a fifth to its value, and the field will again become theirs. If, however, they do not redeem the field, or if they have sold it to someone else, it can never be redeemed. When the field is released in the Jubilee, it will become holy, like a field devoted to the Lord; it will become priestly property. “ ‘If anyone dedicates to the Lord a field they have bought, which is not part of their family land, the priest will determine its value up to the Year of Jubilee, and the owner must pay its value on that day as something holy to the Lord. In the Year of Jubilee the field will revert to the person from whom it was bought, the one whose land it was. Every value is to be set according to the sanctuary shekel, twenty gerahs to the shekel.
The unredeemable things (vv. 26–34).
There are three: the firstborn of the beasts, anything God put under a ban, and the required tithes.
(1) The first born of the beasts
Leviticus 27:26-27 NLT “You may not dedicate a firstborn animal to the Lord, for the firstborn of your cattle, sheep, and goats already belong to him. However, you may buy back the firstborn of a ceremonially unclean animal by paying the priest’s assessment of its worth, plus 20 percent. If you do not buy it back, the priest will sell it at its assessed value.
The first born were set apart for the Lord at the first Passover
Exodus 13:2 NIV “Consecrate to me every firstborn male. The first offspring of every womb among the Israelites belongs to me, whether human or animal.”
Exodus 34:19-20 NIV “The first offspring of every womb belongs to me, including all the firstborn males of your livestock, whether from herd or flock. Redeem the firstborn donkey with a lamb, but if you do not redeem it, break its neck. Redeem all your firstborn sons. “No one is to appear before me empty-handed. (the donkey was unclean)
Note that firstborn females were exempted. The text probably makes mention of a donkey because they were the main means of transport for the Hebrews, and because of their value God mercifully allowed them to be redeemed with a lamb.
What's going on with the poor donkey? This was alluded to above. When the firstborn of a beast was given to (devoted, sanctified) the LORD, it was sacrificed. The problem with the firstborn of a donkey is that this animal was considered unclean and could not be used as a sacrifice. However since donkeys were valuable animals used for many chores, the law allowed one to redeem his donkey with a lamb (again we see in essence the blood of a lamb paying the price to set the donkey free, all of these blood sacrifices of course -- and this one clearly a substitutionary sacrifice -- pointed to God's future Lamb for only His blood offered as a substitute could effect redemption of men from slavery to Sin and Satan.) If the donkey was not redeemed it had to be killed.
These animals took the place of the firstborn of Israel whom the blood of the lamb redeemed from judgment. These animals could not be redeemed. But if the animal was “unclean,” which probably means blemished in some way, the donor could redeem it by paying the evaluated price and adding 20 percent. (No blemished animal would be put on the altar, and certainly a priest could never accept an animal listed as “unclean.”)
(2) Things “devoted” to the Lord.
Leviticus 27:28-29 NIV “ ‘But nothing that a person owns and devotes to the Lord—whether a human being or an animal or family land—may be sold or redeemed; everything so devoted is most holy to the Lord. “ ‘No person devoted to destruction may be ransomed; they are to be put to death.
To devote something to the LORD was a further step than consecration by a vow; it often had the meaning of destroying the item so that it could not be used by anyone else, and all of its value was given to God. Therefore if something was already declared a devoted offering, it could not be given in a vow. It already belonged to God and was most holy to the LORD. Like the first born males.
For these reasons, an item devoted to God could not be redeemed for a price. It already belonged to the LORD and had to be given to Him.
The phrase “accursed thing” in the KJV doesn’t mean that God cursed these things but that He put them under a ban so that they wholly belonged to Him.
3) The tithes of the produce
Leviticus 27:30-33 NIV “ ‘A tithe of everything from the land, whether grain from the soil or fruit from the trees, belongs to the Lord; it is holy to the Lord. Whoever would redeem any of their tithe must add a fifth of the value to it. Every tithe of the herd and flock—every tenth animal that passes under the shepherd’s rod—will be holy to the Lord. No one may pick out the good from the bad or make any substitution. If anyone does make a substitution, both the animal and its substitute become holy and cannot be redeemed.’ ”
The tithes of the produce had already been set apart for the Lord and couldn’t be used any other way. It appears that the Jews paid three tithes: a tithe to the Levites, who in turn tithed it to the priests
Numbers 18:21-32 NIV “I give to the Levites all the tithes in Israel as their inheritance in return for the work they do while serving at the tent of meeting. From now on the Israelites must not go near the tent of meeting, or they will bear the consequences of their sin and will die. It is the Levites who are to do the work at the tent of meeting and bear the responsibility for any offenses they commit against it. This is a lasting ordinance for the generations to come. They will receive no inheritance among the Israelites. Instead, I give to the Levites as their inheritance the tithes that the Israelites present as an offering to the Lord. That is why I said concerning them: ‘They will have no inheritance among the Israelites.’ ” The Lord said to Moses, “Speak to the Levites and say to them: ‘When you receive from the Israelites the tithe I give you as your inheritance, you must present a tenth of that tithe as the Lord’s offering. Your offering will be reckoned to you as grain from the threshing floor or juice from the winepress. In this way you also will present an offering to the Lord from all the tithes you receive from the Israelites. From these tithes you must give the Lord’s portion to Aaron the priest. You must present as the Lord’s portion the best and holiest part of everything given to you.’ “Say to the Levites: ‘When you present the best part, it will be reckoned to you as the product of the threshing floor or the winepress. You and your households may eat the rest of it anywhere, for it is your wages for your work at the tent of meeting. By presenting the best part of it you will not be guilty in this matter; then you will not defile the holy offerings of the Israelites, and you will not die.’ ”
A tithe that was brought to the sanctuary and eaten “before the Lord”
Deuteronomy 14:22-27 NIV Be sure to set aside a tenth of all that your fields produce each year. Eat the tithe of your grain, new wine and olive oil, and the firstborn of your herds and flocks in the presence of the Lord your God at the place he will choose as a dwelling for his Name, so that you may learn to revere the Lord your God always. But if that place is too distant and you have been blessed by the Lord your God and cannot carry your tithe (because the place where the Lord will choose to put his Name is so far away), then exchange your tithe for silver, and take the silver with you and go to the place the Lord your God will choose. Use the silver to buy whatever you like: cattle, sheep, wine or other fermented drink, or anything you wish. Then you and your household shall eat there in the presence of the Lord your God and rejoice. And do not neglect the Levites living in your towns, for they have no allotment or inheritance of their own.
And a tithe every three years for the poor.
Deuteronomy 14:28-29 NIV At the end of every three years, bring all the tithes of that year’s produce and store it in your towns, so that the Levites (who have no allotment or inheritance of their own) and the foreigners, the fatherless and the widows who live in your towns may come and eat and be satisfied, and so that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hands.
No farmer could keep the Lord’s tithe and redeem it with money. It had to be given as the Lord directed.
The major lesson of this chapter is that God expects us to keep our commitments to Him and be honest in all our dealings with Him. We must not try to negotiate “a better deal” or to escape responsibilities. It’s good to give money to the Lord, but giving money isn’t always an acceptable way to express our devotion to God. That money might be a substitute for the service we ought to be rendering to the Lord.
What Samuel said to King Saul needs to be heard today:
1 Samuel 15:22 NIV But Samuel replied: “Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the Lord? To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams.
Finally, we need to remember that Jesus Christ paid with His own life the redemption price for sinners, and we weren’t worth it. He redeemed us not with silver and gold but with His own precious blood.
1 Peter 1:17-21 NIV Since you call on a Father who judges each person’s work impartially, live out your time as foreigners here in reverent fear. For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake. Through him you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and glorified him, and so your faith and hope are in God.
Any sacrifice we make for Him is nothing compared to the sacrifice He made for us.
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