Biblical Stewardship: Strange Old Testament Rules

By: Brian Seay, CFA

Every seven years you should rest. No work, just rest and celebrate God’s goodness with your family. Also, everyone else rests so there is no Door Dashing your next meal. Every 50 years you need to give back any land or other income producing assets that you acquired over the last 50 years. Not sell, not lease back, give back.

You might say, well that might have worked in Ancient Israel, but it doesn’t apply today. Those are rules from before Jesus’s resurrection, which provided for ultimate atonement for sin. We are sinners and are unable to follow the law as God laid out in the Old Testament. We are human and simply can’t be Holy on our own. The Resurrection of Christ provides us with all the grace and forgivness we need for our sins. Thank God! So why did they put those books in the Bible if they don’t matter today?

Just because we don’t live under the Old Testament law, doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t learn from Ancient Israel. Afterall, we only know that we are sinners because we compare our actions to biblical principles, many of which come from the Old Testament. So, what should we apply today from all of those strange economics rules in Leviticus

In Leviticus, God sets up a system of economic cycles every 7 years and every 50 years. Just like the week involves 6 days or work and one day of rest, every 7 years includes one sabbath year. That means working for 6 years, and then no work, at all, in year 7. How in the world could an agrarian society make that work? The Jews would have surmised that starvation would be widespread every 7 years.

That’s crazy….and that’s entirely the point.

First, the Israelites needed to trust that God would do as he prescribes and make the harvest in year 6 so plentiful that it would cover Israel through year 7. God is building their faith through the process. Helping them learn to rely on him and not on their own success (or failure) for sustenance.

This cycle also makes the Israelites different, Holy and set-apart, from other nations, a witness to God’s love and grace. Israel is operating in a very different way than all of the other surrounding nations. Imagine visiting a country like that today. Your mind would be blown, you would wonder why they do what they do.

God also established the Jubilee every 50 years. In the 50th year, all of the income producing assets, land in this case, were returned to the families that originally received it when the Israelites entered Israel. For 49 years families would tend their crops, some more successfully than others. If a family fell on hard times, they could mortgage or sell their land to another more successful family. That new owner would then profit from their own land plus the land they had acquired.

However, this creates a society of successful families and poor families. God allows this occur for a time so that each person is responsible for their actions, good and bad. But he does not allow it to occur across generations. Giving back acquired land doesn’t create total economic equality in Israel, but it does prevent families from being perpetually poor and in debt. In this way, God is providing a way for those families that became poor to earn their way back into self-sufficiency. It was also a reminder to the successful families that they should help those in need and that all their wealth ultimately comes from God. This model is demanding and requires obedience; scholars also question whether Israel truly followed this economic system as prescribed.

So what can we learn for today? God doesn’t ask today that we give away our assets every 50 years or stop to rest every 7 years. But he does want us to look for him as the ultimate provider. God intends that we are focused on using our wealth to help those in need. Not just through hand-outs, but by helping them become self-reliant. I also think God calls us to go through periods of earning and resting. Some years we work more, others we work less and focus more on our families. This is contrary to the “American way” of working as much as possible 24/7 for 365 days a year.