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Leviticus 24.

Oil & Bread in the Tabernacle.

The priests must replenish the Tabernacle Lampstand oil and the Table bread regularly.  Pure oil from beaten olives is used to light the lamps before the LORD every morning. The Shewbread is to be made of fine flour, twelve loaves, put into two piles of six on the Table in the Holy Place each Sabbath. Pure frankincense is to be put with each pile of six.

An incident of Blasphemy, what to do?

Two men fought in the camp. One of them (whose father was an Egyptian) blasphemed God’s Name.  The shocked people brought him to Moses who held him in custody until he could inquire of God. The LORD’s instructions were to…

• bring the man outside the camp
• gather all who had heard him blaspheme as witnesses;
• have them lay their hands on his head
• then let the congregation stone him to death.

“Whoever curses his God shall bear his sin. Whoever blasphemes the Name of the Lord shall surely be put to death.”

An eye for an eye – just retribution.

Whoever murders a person must also be killed. If anyone injures a neighbor, as HE has done to that one, so it shall be done to HIM. (Not more and not less)  An eye for an eye, fracture for fracture, tooth for tooth. If anyone kills a neighbor’s animal, he must make equal compensation. 

Leviticus 25.

Sabbath and Jubilee (50th) years.

As the people and animals rested every seventh day through the year, they AND the land were to rest every seventh year.  No crops were to be sown or vines pruned. The crops produced were left to fall to the ground (and/or for the poor).  

The same for the 50th year.  Of course that meant two years in a row (49th – 7×7 – and 50th) there would be no harvest.  God promised them if they would be faithful to let the land have its Sabbath rest, that HE would make a huge bumper crop on the 6th and 48th years. They would have enough to last until the harvest of the 8th and 51st year.  

“Would they trust God?  It turns out no.  Did they become greedy?  Yes.  And when God finally sent them off into captivity for 70 years, one reason He gave was to give the land its Sabbath rest, which they had neglected. “The land is MINE,” said the LORD.  If you don’t let it rest, it will be taken from you. 

NOTE: agriculturally, it was good for the land. Needed nutrients would be replenished in the resting years.

Jubilee Year was also a time to reset indebtedness.  Land that had been sold to get one out of debt, was returned to the original owner that year. (Remember each tribe was allotted certain land in Canaan.)  If a person had sold himself into servitude because of debt, he would be freed that year.  The price of the land or servant would be calculated according to how many years were left before Jubilee.  All’s fair.

Because the Levites had the job of Tabernacle and Temple upkeep and service, they were not given a portion of land in Canaan.  However they were given cities to live in with small fields around them for veggies & fruit to eat. 

An Israelite that is sold to a “sojourner or foreigner” because of debt, may been redeemed (bought back) by a wealthy relative in Israel.  (Think of Boaz with Naomi and Ruth.)  All are released on Jubilee year.

“For it is to me,” says the LORD, “that the people of Israel are servants.  They are MY servants whom I brought out of the land of Egypt. I am the LORD your God.”