B'har (On Mount Sinai)
Leviticus 25:1-26:2; 26:3-27:34
Jeremiah 32:6-27;16:19-17:14
2Corinthians 7-13

The Heart of the Matter

For our culture, many of the instructions of Leviticus seem quite foreign to us. There is even a debate whether most of these scriptures pertain only to the time in which we have entered The Land. Buying and selling of crops, allowing the land to rest on the seventh year and redeeming our poor relative from slavery, you have to admit are just not things most of us spend many waking moments on today. When it comes to food storage most are trying to figure out how to store a few months and have never thought about the three years to take us through the Jubilee. Once again, we can get lost in the relevance of these verses for our day and read them far too fast. To do so may cause us to miss the whole point of the verses.

Again, Torah is about relationships. The mysteries and wonders of Torah are awesome, but if we miss the theme of relationship, we miss the whole point of the matter. Torah is teaching us through practical day-to-day life instructions how to love our Creator and how to treat one another. This principle is brought out again in Leviticus 25:14-17. Here scripture speaks of selling property to a neighbor with the idea of how many years are left until the Jubilee and the return of said property. On the surface we do not see the point of the instruction, because in our society when we sell an item to someone, we do not expect him or her to bring it back in seven years. What is sold is sold. So what can we learn in this instruction? The point is in verse 17, which tells us not to take advantage of one another in our transactions.

Let's put some flesh on this one. Back in the days when I sold real estate, I hated to sell property to or for friends. Most times it turned out to be a disaster. I found that no matter how hard I tried, the "friend" was much harder to work with than a stranger off the street. They usually wanted special favors and in the end just could not believe why I did not turn my entire commission over to them and call the transaction a favor based on friendship. This was taking advantage of a friendship, which is what Leviticus is warning us against.

These verses should cause us to consider a thought for a moment. Just how much do we do in life that has someone else's interest at heart? How many of our daily actions and decisions are based solely on what is in it for me and me only? How much time do we take to consider how our actions are affecting those around us in a positive or negative manner?

The second part of this verse may cause us to change our present way of thinking from "Only me" to "Oh me." It tells us that the reason we are not to take advantage of one another is because of our fear of Elohim. Some may ask how this has a bearing on the issue at hand. Consider this scenario for a moment. There is a fear of Elohim that has been glossed over by modern day easy grace teachings which say that all is forgiven and you really need never think about your actions in this life. Such teaching surmises that you will one day come before your Messiah, simply point to the cross you wore around your neck, and all of life will be glossed over, erased and forgotten about. This teaching does not take into account that though our sins are forgiven in Messiah, what we do upon this earth with that grace will one day be judged by fire.

We will stand before our Creator and give an account for the life that we have led. We will give an account for the way in which we followed His commands and we will give an account for the way we treated each other. The standard in that day will be words like we read this week. We will stand and give an account of how we took advantage of each other or receive rewards based upon how we put others first in life. This should produce a bit of reverent fear regarding the way in which we live our daily lives.

Once again, Leviticus teaches us not to dwell on what we do not understand, but rather to look to the heart of the matter and focus on what we know we should be doing!