Why did God Want Property Ownership to Reset Every 50 Years?
In Leviticus 25 God instructs the Israelites to observe a “year of jubilee” every 50 years where all Israelite property would basically reset and be given back to the original owner.
Whenever the Israelites would buy or sell property (slaves, land, or houses) they would have to factor in when the next jubilee year would be. If jubilee was coming next year, then the price of the land would be really cheap, because the buyer would only be able to harvest crops on it for one year before giving it back. But if the next jubilee year wasn’t for another 49 years, then the price of the land would be expensive because the buyer would be able to harvest crops on it for 49 years.
This seems like a really strange practice for God to impose upon the Israelites, but then at the end of the chapter he explains WHY he wanted them to practice this. He basically says:
the reason why I want you to do this is that you’ll always be reminded of the fact that I am the true owner of you, your slaves, and your land.
That’s pretty cool. Anytime an Israelite would “buy” something, they were really just paying to rent it for a limited amount of time.
If someone became poor and had to sell some of their property for money, they were encouraged to buy it back again if they could afford to later. If a slave became rich, he was encouraged to pay off the “lease” on his ownership.
In the original language, the word used for “buying back” is translates into “redemption” which can also have a secondary definition of “kinsman”. The words “redemption” and “kinsman” seem like two really different words, but after reading this chapter, It makes a little more sense because when someone was sold into slavery, that person’s “kinsman” (or close relatives) were encouraged to “buy back” that person. If I were sold into slavery today, only someone really close to me (like a parent, sibling, or close friend) would want to buy me back out of slavery.
This process of “redemption” is exactly what Jesus did for me. As a sinner, I am poor, possessing no spiritual property of my own, and I was born into a house enslaved by sin. By default, I belong to sin—Sin owns me, and I am Sin’s slave. But then Jesus comes along, and does something only a close relative would ever do: he voluntarily pays to “buy me back,” and free me from my slavery to Sin.
Reading this chapter about jubilee gives me the warm fuzzies because it helps me see just how much Jesus really does care about me so much that he spent his own resources just to buy me back out from under my slavery to Sin.