(Through the Bible) Leviticus 25-27

Now, as we get into chapter 25, they were to give the land a Sabbath day's rest, or Sabbath year. They were to plant the land for six years, the seventh year they were to let the land rest. Really? I like these laws of God.

Man, you got a lot of seven-day holidays spread through the year. And then, every seventh year, you just kick back and take the year off. You don't even plant anything in the night.

You just let grow up whatever grows up, and you eat that. But God said, if you will do this in the sixth year, I will cause your crops to be so bountiful that I'll give you a three years crop in the sixth year, so that it'll carry you through, clear and over, until you are harvesting from the eighth year. If you'll just follow this, God said, I'll let you have the whole year off.

You just eat what grows up wild. But in the sixth year, you'll have a triple crop that'll carry you clear on over to the harvesting of the eighth year. Now, I would venture to declare to you that some, what do they call them, agromanistists or agrologists or something? One of these guys in the field of agronomy, agronomist.

All right, thank you. Someday an agronomist is going to come up with a fascinating discovery that if you just let the ground lie in the seventh year, that it has a tremendous regenerative effect upon the land that has a way of coming out in the sixth year that you just have a bumper crop. I'm sure that it is a natural law that God has established, and that if people would follow it, they would find tremendous success.

They could actually have a year's vacation every seven years. Now, this is the law that we were talking about, spiritual laws, and we get to it. God said, now if you just walk in this, this is what I'm going to do.

You'll have plenty. Your vintage will last to the vintage season. I'm sure that they'll discover that the ground would produce much better in the six years, and that your overall crops in just growing for six years and letting the thing lie in the seventh year, your overall crop would actually be greater than growing it all seven years.

I'm certain that it is true, but you see people say, but I don't understand how that could work, and you get a bunch of, you know, egghead scientists to say, oh, there's no way that could work, you know, and they put it down, but I'm sure it would. It's there. It's a part of the laws that God has established.

Farmers could have it so easy or so much easier. I don't suppose a farmer ever has it easy. I don't think it's easy getting up that early in the morning, but they could have it so much easier the seventh year.

Just enjoy, you know. Now, when the people came into the land, they didn't follow this. They were a bunch of smarties just like you are, and so they figured, oh, well, we'll really make it next year, you know.

Look at the bumper crop we have this year. Ah, let's plant it, you know, this next year. We'll really go for it.

And they were constantly struggling with the land, plagued with drought, overproducing the land so that it was weakening the soil processes, or weakening the soil, its fertility. They disobeyed the laws of God. So after 490 years of being in the land, God said, all right, that's it.

Every seventh year, the land was to have a rest. You haven't given it any rest since you've come in. This poor land's been worked for 490 years.

It never did get its Sabbath. So I'm going to set you over in Babylon for 70 years so that the land can get its Sabbath. And the land is going to get its rest, and it's going to rest for 70 years because you didn't give it its Sabbath.

You didn't give it its Sabbath because in the 490 years, there would have been 70 of these Sabbath year rest. So God gave it the rest anyhow. But the people, look at the benefit they missed of a vacation, a year's vacation every seven years.

You know, I like the programs of God. I don't see anything wrong with this at all. I think it's pretty, I think God's pretty generous really with man.

Seventh year should be a Sabbath rest. Thou shalt neither sow thy field nor prune your vineyard. Just stay out of it.

Just rest. That which grows of its own accord of your harvest, thou shalt not reap. Just leave it there for the poor people, for the servants.

Let them come in and let them have it. You know, whatever grows on the great vines or whatever grows on your fruit trees and all, just let it be for the people to come in and take it in the seventh year because God will give you enough, a triple crop in the sixth year. And then there was to be a, they would count seven Sabbath years and then the next year, the 50th year, was a special thing.

So you got every 50 years, you got two years vacation. And this was the year of Jubilee, a year of real celebration. All debts were canceled.

All mortgages were canceled. All the slaves were set free. A year of Jubilee every 50 years.

And that was equivalent to the penny cost. You count seven Sabbaths and the next day, the 50th day was the penny cost. And so they did it with years.

You count seven of the Sabbath year cycles and then the next year, the 50th year, a special year of Jubilee. We are close to a Jubilee year right now, whether or not it's this year or next year or 81. It's right in here close and there are varied opinions as to when the Jubilee year actually is taking place.

Some have marked it, a few have marked it 79. Some have marked it 81 and many have marked it 80. And who am I to mark a year? But it'd be nice, take a year off.

You know, after all, if next year is going to be the Jubilee year, this means this is the rest year anyhow. So go for it, you know. But the year of Jubilee, he now deals with the laws in regarding to the year of Jubilee, beginning with verse 8. Cause the trumpet of the Jubilee to sound on the 10th day of the 7th month.

That was a day that we've already studied. What was the 10th day of the 7th month? Yom Kippur. Good.

And then ye shall hallow the 50th year and proclaim liberty throughout all the land of the inhabitants thereof. A year of Jubilee. Return every man unto his possession and return every man unto his family.

A Jubilee in that 50th year be unto you. And ye shall not sow, neither reap that which grows of itself, nor gather the grapes of your vineyard undressed. For it is the Jubilee, it shall be holy unto you and ye shall eat of the increase thereof out of the field.

And in the year of Jubilee, ye shall return every man unto his possession. And if you sell aught to your neighbor, or if you buy something from your neighbor's hand, ye shall not oppress one another. According to the number of years after the Jubilee, thou shalt buy of thy neighbor according to the number of years of the fruits he shall sell unto thee.

In other words, you never really bought the land, you leased the land, and the lease would go until the year of Jubilee. So you always figured the price by the number of years until the year of Jubilee. In other words, if the year of Jubilee was 40 years away, you'd have to pay a pretty good piece of cash for the land.

But if the year of Jubilee was maybe just three years away, then you always measured the price by the distance to the year of Jubilee, because in the year of Jubilee, the land always returned unto the original ownership. And the same was true of the servants. They were to go free.

The slaves were to go free in that year of Jubilee. The land shall not be sold forever, verse 23, for the land is mine. In other words, God says the land is mine.

You're not to sell it forever. It's My land. For ye are strangers and sojourners with Me.

In other words, you're My guest, God is saying. This land is Mine. You're My guest.

Now, it's always an interesting thing to me when I go over to the land. I love it because I think, wow, Lord, this is Your land and I'm just journeying with You. I'm a sojourner with You.

Your land, so I'm just sojourning through Your land here. And I love to sojourn through the Lord's land of Israel. It's a fascinating experience.

Now, if your brother is poor and he's sold away some of his possessions, and then his next of kin can redeem it and shall redeem what his brother has sold so that it stays with the family. And the various laws of redemption are given to us here in the 25th chapter of Leviticus. These are important laws, for they pertain to us, for we are redeemed by the blood of Jesus Christ.

And this idea of being set free in the seventh year, or in the jubilee year. And if you purchased a slave who was a Jew, he would serve you for six years. The seventh year he was to be set free.

Now, there is that interesting pattern of the six years of servitude, the seventh year being the year of liberty, being set free. And I see it really in the earth. I believe that Adam sold out the possession that God had given to him just about 6,000 years ago.

How close to the 6,000 years? Nobody really knows. Awfully close now, though. Because we do know that Adam sold out to Satan.

If you take the figures of the Bible and add them all up, ages of each person and all, you come to about 4,000 BC. That Adam sinned against God and gave the earth over to Satan. Now, we are in 1979, coming towards the close of it.

So, you've got a few years' divergency here that could be eaten up in several different ways. We are approaching, certainly approaching, and at least at the longest, we are less than 20 years from 6,000 years of slavery to sin, to Satan, his possession of this earth. Now, we know that there is a 1,000-year period coming of restoration, of a righteous reign of Jesus Christ, of peace and glory upon the earth.

And the fact that the 6,000 years are almost over to me is extremely exciting because I am personally convinced that the seventh millennium of the earth will be the glorious kingdom age and we can't be more than 20 years away. Now, I'm excited about that. And to me, there's nothing of doom and gloom but glory to God.

The mess is over. Oh, I'm so excited. What an exciting time to be living.

Close of this age. The close of this millennium. The close of this final millennium prior to that glorious seventh millennium, the millennial reign of Christ.

And he shall rule and reign for 1,000 years upon the earth. It's gonna rule and reign forever. 1,000 of it will be here upon the earth.

And we shall reign with him as kings and priests. Can you imagine that? How close we are? It's exciting. I love it.

So, this whole law of redemption through chapter 25. The redemption of the poor brother by the kinsman redeemer. What a picture of Christ.

The man is unable to redeem himself. His next of kin can move in and redeem it for him. Now, man could not redeem the world himself.

So, Christ became a man. So, he could be next of kin to man. So that he could redeem the earth back unto God.

Necessary that he become a man to become our brother. That he might become our kinsman redeemer. And that which man could not do, Jesus Christ has done.

In Revelation chapter 5, when we get into heaven and we're beholding that glorious scene, and we see the angel with a scroll, the title deed of the earth, with seven seals, writing within and without, standing there proclaiming, who is worthy to take this scroll and to loose the seals? Here is this whole thing of redemption. Adam forfeited the world over to Satan. It's his possession.

He said to Jesus, it's mine. I can give it to whomever I will. Who is able to redeem now? The earth.

And John began to sob convulsively because no man was found worthy to take the scroll and to loose the seals. That's right. No man can do it.

And as John was weeping, the others said, weep not John. Behold, the lion of the tribe of Judah hath prevailed to take the scroll and loose the seals. And I beheld him as a lamb that had been slaughtered.

And he came and he took the scroll out of the right hand of him who sat upon the throne. And as he did, the elders and the cherubim came forth with the golden vials full of odors, which are the prayers of the saints. And they sang a new song saying, worthy is the lamb to take the scroll and loose the seals, for he was slain and has redeemed us by his blood out of all the nations and tribes, tongues, and peoples, and has made us unto our God a kingdom of praise, and we shall reign with him on the earth.

Oh, how I long for that day when I'm standing there at the throne of God singing that glorious song of the redeemed and the worthiness of Jesus Christ. So this law was put in here for your benefit that you might understand just exactly why Jesus became a man, why it was necessary that he become a man in order that he might be a kinsman redeemer. And so there in chapter 25, you'll find it fascinating in that regards.

You might want to look at it more carefully. Chapter 26, again, God establishes the fact that they are to worship Him. They are not to have idols or graven images or standing images.

Set up any image of stone in the land to bow down to it, for I am the Lord your God. Ye shall keep my Sabbaths and reverence my sanctuary. I am the Lord.

Now, God says, if you will walk in my statutes and keep my commandments and do them. Walk, keep, do. Some of the commandments of God involve our walk.

Some of them command our actions and some of them are just sort of negatives. The things that we are to keep and to keep from. So God is now laying out, if you will do this, if you will obey, if you'll walk, if you'll keep, this is what I'm going to do.

God lays out the conditions of blessings. I want to bless you. These are the rules or laws that I have given, the laws of prosperity and all.

And if you will keep them, this is what's going to happen. I will give you rain in due season. The land shall yield her increase.

The trees of the field shall yield their fruit. Your threshing shall reach to the vintage. The vintage shall reach to the sowing time.

And ye shall eat your bread to the full and dwell in your land safely. So I'm going to just bless you and prosper you in the land. You're going to have plenty of food, plenty of crops.

The seed will last clear over to the sowing time. And you'll eat bread till you're full. Not only that, I will give peace in the land and ye shall lie down and none shall make you afraid.

Not only that, I will rid the evil beast out of the land. Neither shall the sword go through your land. So we'll give you peace in the land.

Lying down, not being afraid. The sword not passing through the land. And ye shall chase your enemies.

I'll give you power. And they shall fall before you by the sword. And five of you shall chase a hundred.

And a hundred of you shall put ten thousand to flight. Remember the story of Gideon? Three hundred fellows routed the Midianites. A hundred and thirty-two thousand of them.

And your enemies shall fall before you by the sword. For I will have respect unto you and make you fruitful and multiply you and establish my covenant with you. That verse refers to your children.

You're going to have beautiful families, grandchildren. You'll be fruitful and multiply. And again, the promise of plenty.

Ye shall eat the old store and bring forth the old because of the new. In other words, your crops will last over and you'll still be eating from last year's crops when you've already harvested this year's. And I will set my tabernacle among you so God's presence is promised.

My soul shall not abhor you. I will walk among you and will be your God and ye shall be my people. What a beautiful national privilege is offered now to these people.

The blessings of God abundantly. Peace in the land. Power for the people.

The posterity, being blessed. And beyond all this, God's presence dwelling there in the midst of the people. God walking with them and dwelling with them.

What more could any people desire or want? And the only condition is that now that you have my statutes, walk in them. Now that you have my commandments, just keep them and you'll have all of this. Now these things that God is promising, the prosperity, the peace, the power, these are the things for which men are seeking today.

But Jesus pointed out the folly of seeking these things. He said, after all of these things, do the heathen seek, but seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things will be given to you. That's what God is saying here.

If you will just follow me, if you'll just obey me, if you'll just look to me, then I'll do this for you. But you see, we've got things so reversed in our minds and in our concepts that we are so busy seeking these things, we don't have time to seek God. Well, Lord, I'd really like to seek you, but my, I don't know how I'm going to pay, you know, for this new television unless I take this Sunday job.

And, you know, all of these things that I'm seeking after that take me away from time with God, whereas if I would just give God the first of my heart, the firstfruits of my life, and just worship Him and follow Him and obey Him, He would do all these things for me. You say, well, how? I don't know any more than I don't know how gravitation works. I know it works.

I don't know how. I know that electricity works. I don't know how.

Oh, but I don't want to put my trust in anything I don't understand. Well, how many ladies are going to drive home tonight? Do you understand the internal combustion engine? Oh, well, that's different. It always is, isn't it? Now, God said, I am the Lord your God, which brought you forth out of the land of Egypt, that, why did I bring you out? I brought you out of the land of Egypt, why? That ye should not be their bondmen, and I have broken the bands of your yoke, and I've made you stand up straight.

Now, boy, under the bondage, I mean, these guys were bent over with loads that you can't believe. And you know, after years of carrying these heavy loads, you get to where you just walk humped over because they would carry hundreds of pounds upon their backs. And you just get to where you just walk stooped over.

But God said, look, I set you free from that so you can stand up straight because I'm your Lord. And I've brought you out that you would no longer be their bondmen, no longer be their servants. I want you now to be My servants, as that is servants of God, you can stand up straight.

Jesus said, take My yoke upon you. My yoke is easy. My burden is light.

There are people who would try to make you think that the burden of the Lord is a heavy, onerous thing to bear. And during the days of Jeremiah, these prophets or so-called prophets would go around saying, oh, the burden of the Lord, the burden of the Lord. Like it was some heavy thing.

And so God said to Jeremiah, He said, Jeremiah, there's a phrase I've heard so often, I'm so sick of it, I never want to hear it again. And Jeremiah, if you use this phrase, I'm going to refuse to talk to you from now on. It's that rotten phrase, the burden of the Lord.

God said, I'm sick of it. Don't use it. Just delete that from your vocabulary.

These guys all going around saying, the burden of the Lord, the burden of the Lord. Jesus said, My yoke is easy. My burden is light.

Oh, brother, pray that I'll just be able to hold on, you know, under this heavy load that God's laid on me. Who laid it on you? Hey, if your load is so heavy, you can't carry it. I have to assume that you've taken onto yourself something that God never put on you, brother.

If you find it so hard that you can hardly make it, then that isn't the Lord's yoke. His yoke is easy. If it's so heavy, you're really struggling under it.

That isn't His burden. His burden is light. But we often take upon ourselves things that God really wasn't putting on us.

And why do we take them on? Oh, because I would like the glory of man. So, when they're taking pledges, oh, I'll be glad to, brother. Everybody see me? I'll be glad to, you know.

And so, before men, I make commitments. And that's sad. Because then it gets so heavy.

I think, oh, serving the Lord is such a heavy burden. No, no. Serving my flesh is a heavy burden.

But serving the Lord is glorious. His yoke is easy. His burden is light.

Now, if you find yourself straining on the burden, then dump it. It's not His anyhow. And find the Lord's burden.

Serving the Lord is an exciting, glorious, pleasurable thing. I delight to do thy will, O Lord. That's the way it should always be.

Now, the Lord said in verse 14, But if ye will not hearken unto me, and will not do all these commandments, and if ye shall despise my statutes, or if your soul abhors my judgments, so that you will not do all my commandments, but break my covenant, then this is what I'm going to do for you. So, the conditions. Keep the commandments.

I'm going to bless you. Break the commandments. I'm not going to break you.

Four, I will appoint over you terror, consumption, the burning ache that shall consume the eyes and cause sorrow of heart. You will sow your seed in vain. Your enemy shall eat it.

Remember when Sam, Sam, or when Gideon was threshing the wheat, he was doing it in a cave to hide it from the Midianites, because the Midianites would stand back and let these guys harvest their fields, bring it all in, thresh it, and then the Midianites would move in and take it away from them. That wasn't so dumb, I guess, as far as the Midianites were concerned, but it's awfully hard when you're doing the work. I will set my face against you and you shall be slain before your enemies.

And they that hate you shall reign over you and you shall flee when none is pursuing. And if for all of this you will not hearken, if you're still stubborn, resistant, you won't listen, then I'll punish you seven times more for your sins. I'll break the pride of your power.

Now, he promised them earlier he'd give them power. Now he's going to break the pride of their power. And I will make your heaven as iron, your earth as brass.

He was going to cause the land to bring forth abundantly, but now he's going to make the earth as hard as brass. And your strength shall be spent in vain for your land will not yield her increase and neither shall the trees of the land yield their fruits. And if you continue to walk contrary to me after this and you will not hearken to me, then I will bring seven times more plagues upon you according to your sins.

And I will also send wild beasts among you which will rob you of your children and destroy your cattle and make you few in number. And if you're still not reformed by me in these things and you still are walking contrary to me, then I will also walk contrary to you and will punish you yet seven times for your sins. I'll bring the sword upon you and you shall avenge the quarrel of my covenant.

And when you are gathered together within your cities, I will send the pestilence among you and you shall be delivered into the hands of your enemies. And when I have broken the staff of your bread, 10 women shall bake your bread in one oven and they shall deliver you your bread again by weight and you shall eat and not be satisfied. You're going to experience actually constant hunger.

And if for all of this you will still not hearken but walk contrary, then I will walk contrary to you also in fury and I will chastise you seven times for your sins. You shall eat the flesh of your sons and daughters, the flesh, and I will destroy your high places, cut down your images, cast your carcasses upon the carcasses of your idols and my soul shall abhor you and I will make your cities waste and bring your sanctuaries to desolation and I'll not smell the sweet savor of your sweet odors. I'll not accept your sacrifices anymore.

And I will bring the land into desolation by your enemies and I will scatter you among the heathen and will draw out a sword after you and your land shall be desolate and your cities waste. Now, what is the story of the Bible in the Old Testament as we read the historic part? The story is just the fulfillment of what God said. As long as they sought the Lord, God prospered them and God blessed them and they were strong and they dwelt in peace and they had plenty.

But when they forsook the Lord, then God forsook them. And all of these things that God said what happened did happen to them. Even their eating their own children during a time of the siege of Samaria by Ben-Hadad.

All of these things took place until finally, as God said, they were dispersed into all the nations of the world so that God literally fulfilled those things that He said He would do to them. He did. And their land lay desolate for centuries.

The cities, desolate for centuries. Now, it is interesting to go through the land of Israel also because you'll see interesting looking mountains, which aren't really mountains or hills, which aren't really hills. And they are tells and they are the ruins of the city and it's hundreds of tells all over the land.

Sometime when I take one of these seven years off, I'd like to get a shovel and just go digging in some of those tells because of all the cities that have been just ruined and they're just lying there and they're covered now with dirt and just totally desolate, just like God said. And then shall the land rest and enjoy her Sabbaths and it surely has done that. And as long as it lies desolate, it will rest because you did not rest in your Sabbaths when you dwelt upon it.

And upon them that are left alive of you, I will send a faintness into your hearts and the land of your enemies and the sound of a shaking leaf will chase them and they shall flee as fleeing from the sword and they shall fall when none is pursuing. It'll give them a fear in their hearts. Wherever they go, there'll be fearful people because of the persecutions that will arise and they shall fall one upon another and there will perish among the heathen.

And the land of your enemies shall eat you up and they that are left of you shall pine away and so forth. But then God declares, if they shall confess their iniquity and the iniquity of their fathers with their trespass, they have trespassed against me, that also they have walked contrary to me and that I also have walked contrary to them and have brought them into the land of their enemies. If then their uncircumcised hearts be humbled and then they accept of the punishment of their iniquity, then will I remember my covenant with Jacob and also my covenant with Isaac and also my covenant with Abraham and I will remember and I will remember the land and the land also shall be left to them and shall enjoy our Sabbaths and lie desolate.

But then yet for all of that, verse 44, when they be in the land of their enemies, I will not cast them away, neither will I abhor them nor destroy them utterly to break my covenant with them for I am the Lord their God. In other words, I will preserve them as an ethnic group which God has done. He kept his promise.

He kept his word. No other nation, no other nation has had that same fate. Every other nation who has been without a homeland has disappeared as an ethnic group, not the Jew.

He has remained a Jew to the present day. God kept his word. Now these are the statutes and the judgments and the laws which the Lord made between him and the children of Israel in Mount Sinai by the hand of Moses.

And so God gave them the laws and then he gave them the conditions. If you keep them, I'm going to bless you, break them, and these are the things that are going to happen. So the things that have happened are just things that God said would happen and you can't really blame God because they did happen because God said they would.

And if you'd only listened to God, you would have known it. Now the Lord spake unto Moses saying, speak to the children of Israel and say unto them, when a man makes a singular vow, the person shall be for the Lord by thy estimation. Now if you make a vow unto God and say, God, I'm going to give you my life.

Wonderful. Now I want to take my life back. Lord, I've decided not to give you my life.

Well, hey, he won't play Indian with you. You want to take yourself back now? You don't want to give your life to God? Okay, drop 50 shekels of silver into the pot. You know, you had to buy yourself back from the Lord.

You made a vow. You made a commitment. God, I'm giving my life to you.

Now I'm going to take my life back. Okay, you can buy your life back from God for 50 shekels or 60. What is it? 50, 60 shekels of silver.

50 shekels of silver. That's if you're a man. If you're a girl, you get better off.

You're only valued at 30 shekels of silver. Now the main idea is be careful what you promise God. You know, the Bible says when you come into the presence of God, don't be swift to speak.

You know, read away your words. The Psalmist prayed, Lord, don't let me sin with my lips. And I think of how many times we actually sin with our lips when we're making promises and vows to God.

Now, the Bible says it's better not to make a vow at all. God doesn't require you to make vows. So it's better that you don't make any vow at all than to make a vow to God and break it.

Because God takes you serious. Now, what if we tried to treat each other in our transactions like we treat God? Well, friend, I'd like to give you my car here. Let me sign over the pink slip.

Oh, praise the Lord. That's wonderful. I need a car.

And then I come back the next day and say, I've decided I don't want to give you the car. I want it back. Oh man, I've already put new tires on.

Well, I want it back. My car, you know. We do that with God so often.

Oh, God, I want to give you this. Lord, I want to take it back. The Lord takes you serious.

He doesn't play those kind of games with you. All right, you want it back? Put in the kitty what it's worth. And that's what the whole chapter is about.

Anything that you vowed to God, anything that you promised to God, if you wanted to take it back, then God charged you. You'd have to come in and give the estimate for it. And you'd have to pay the estimated value of that thing.

You just don't get it back from God. He doesn't just give back to you. You have to buy back what you've given to God.

You want it for yourself. So it starts out with people promising their lives. Oh God, my life is yours.

I give my life to you. Fine, I'll take it. Oh God, I want my life back.

All right, 50 shekels. Oh God, I'll give you my lamb. This little lamb, Lord, is your little lamb.

Fine, I'll take it. Oh Lord, it's growing up to look so nice. And all I could probably, okay, buy it back for me.

See, but then if you bought the lamb back, not only did you have to pay the estimated price, but you had to add 20%. God wanted interest on his money. Yeah, it's not so easy.

The bank hasn't really, you know, gotten quite as bad, as heavy as God, as far as interest rates. God always said add a fifth part there too. And so here in the 27th chapter, things that have been dedicated to God, those things, God accepted them.

They belong to God. God considered ownership of them. Now, if you're trying to renege, take it back.

God would allow you to do it, but you had to pay for it. And then in the matter of things, you had to add a 20% surtax on it, unto the Lord. And the various ages by which things were done, valued and the thing is, you couldn't make any switcheroos on God.

You couldn't give Him, you know, a lamb and it grows up to be real nice. And then you had one that just was sort of sick and scrawny. Oh, well, I'll just switch it, you know, and do a switcheroo on God and give Him this poor one.

He wouldn't go for that either. And so you try that switcheroo, they both belong to God. And so no switcheroos on Him.

He wouldn't go for that kind of a bit. And you try that kind of stuff, you get in trouble, because then you'll take them both. And so He goes on and lays out this whole thing of things dedicated to God.

And if you wanted them back, the ways by which you got them back. Now, as far as the firstborn of anything, that just automatically belonged to God. God laid claim to the firstborn of everything.

The firstborn lamb, the firstborn calf, the firstborn of any of the animals, they all belong to God. You wanted to keep them, you could buy them from God. But God just automatically laid claim to the firstborn of everything.

Even your firstborn son, you had to buy from God. He belonged to God, firstborn. God claimed all the firstborn, so the firstborn is mine.

And so you want him, you can buy him. And so God is a shrewd businessman. And He deals in a very straightforward way.

So the firstling of the beast, which should be the Lord's firstling, no man shall sanctify it. You don't have to dedicate it. It's already God's.

Whether it's an ox or sheep, it's the Lord's. And if it be of an unclean animal, you know, if it's a horse or an animal that was considered unclean, you couldn't offer it to God. Then you had to buy it from the Lord because it's still the firstborn.

It still belongs to God. So you have a firstborn horse, you have to buy that from the Lord. He didn't want the horse, so he'd just take the money instead.

And so you shall redeem it according to the estimated price. And then add a fifth part there too. If it is not to be redeemed, if you don't redeem it, then you got to sell it for the estimated price.

Notwithstanding, verse 28, No devoted thing that a man shall devote to the Lord of all that he has, both of man and beast, and of the field of his possession, shall be sold or redeemed. Every devoted thing is most holy unto the Lord. Once you've devoted to the Lord, it belongs to the Lord.

None devoted which shall be devoted of men shall be redeemed. And if you try to do it, you'd be put to death. Now, all the tithe of the land, whether of the seed or the fruit of the tree, is the Lord's.

It is holy unto the Lord. God just laid claim. He just came and laid claim to a tenth of everything.

Of the first fruits, the first tenth belongs to God. Whatever's left is yours. And there wasn't any quibbling about it.

It's just first tenth belongs to God. Now, if you would hold back that tenth, if you would at all redeem that tenth that belongs to God, He just considers it belongs to Him. If you're going to hold back at all, then you've got to add 20%.

Some people borrow from their tithes. Man, that's rough interest. 20% you borrow on your tithes.

Because God said, that's mine. Keep your hands off of it. Belongs to me.

And if you take from it, then add a fifth part thereto, 20%. And if a man, verse 31, will redeem all of his tithes, he shall add thereto a fifth part, 20%. And concerning the tithe of the herd or the flock, even whatsoever passes under the rod, the tenth shall be holy unto the Lord.

Now, you're not to... Now, you see, when you bring your flock in, every tenth one belonged to God. You know, little firstlings of the lamb that come through. Every tenth one, Lord's.

Separate it. Hey, and you're not to look and see, you know, the tenth one coming through and you watch, oh man, you know, and move the line. God doesn't want any fudging.

And so, as you're passing them through the rod, you know, and all, the tenth shall be holy to the Lord and you shall not search whether it is good or bad. Neither shall you change it. Because if you change it, then both the one that was supposed to be Lord's and the one you changed it for, both belong to God.

So, it shall not be redeemed. Now, these are the commandments which the Lord commanded Moses for the children of Israel in Mount Sinai. So, he's a man.

God, you know, is asking quite a bit. Yeah, but look what he's giving you. Three seven day vacations during the year and every seventh year all.

Plus plenty. Plus his presence. I'd say that you're getting a pretty good deal.

You're getting a pretty good deal. Now, if you do your part, God does his part. If you will obey, this is what I'll do.

As we come into the New Testament and we read scriptures such as, Christ is the end of the law to those that believe. For the law came by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. For we are not under law, but under grace.

It does mean that we do now have a new relationship with God, which is not predicated upon doing and living. And thus, if you'll read the book of Hebrews again, you'll find it extremely interesting to you from the Christian perspective. Because in Hebrews, it points out that this old covenant was predicated upon man's obedience.

For the scripture saith, and he that shall do them shall live by them. So, the old covenant was predicated upon your obedience, you're doing it. But man failed.

The nation Israel is the testimony of man's failure. God, in keeping his word, dispersed them out of the land, scattered them into all of the world, made their land desolate, yet maintained their national identity, and is now fulfilling that promise that he gave where he would again deal with them and bring them back into the land. But in the meantime, God has established a new covenant with man that is no longer based upon the old covenant, and he that doeth them shall live by them.

But the new covenant is now established through the grace of God in Jesus Christ our Lord. And the new covenant doesn't emphasize what man does, but what God has done. Because the old covenant failed.

Not because it wasn't good. Not because it wasn't righteous. It was a righteous covenant.

Never look upon the law disparagingly. Oh, that's the law. Hey, wait a minute.

The law is holy, just, and good. It's the law of God. I consent to the law that it is right.

I read these things and I say, yes, that's right. My heart consents to the law, but my flesh rebels, and my flesh doesn't want to come under the yoke of the law. And thus, rather than being forever alienated from God and from the love and the life of God, God has now established a new covenant with man.

And in the new covenant, God now accepts me on the basis not of what I am doing, but on the basis of what He has done in sending His only Son to be a sacrifice for me and to bear my sins so that God can bring me into fellowship with Himself. Now, the old covenant failed because of man's weakness. The new covenant cannot fail because God cannot fail.

The old covenant predicated upon man couldn't make it. The new covenant predicated now upon God's faithfulness. Man's faithfulness didn't make it.

God's faithfulness, hey, it's going to make it. It can't fail because God is faithful. And God is going to do what He said He is going to do for you who will just simply now believe on the Lord Jesus Christ or on the Lordship of Jesus Christ.

You who will just submit your lives to Jesus Christ, you enter into a new covenant relationship with God through faith of Jesus Christ. And as you get into Hebrews, you'll read all about it. The better covenant established through better promises and better sacrifices and better priesthood, the whole thing that we have through Jesus Christ.

And the comparison is over against the book of Leviticus and the end of the book of Leviticus how does it end? Man, the people are all alienated from God. The covenant that was to bring them into fellowship with God actually separated them from God and dispersed them into the world. So the old covenant having failed, it was necessary that God create a new covenant in order that man might be brought unto God.

And that new covenant, God has established and confirmed it through Jesus Christ. Now, if you don't want Jesus Christ, then the only way you can relate to God is under the old covenant. But no one was able to successfully relate to God under that old covenant.

But that's your only choice. For there is no other name given among men whereby we must be saved. Peter said, the name of Jesus.

So He is our hope. He is the basis of the covenant that we have. He is the basis of our relationship with God.

And we have fellowship with God through Him and through the blood of His covenant. So go back and read Hebrews this week. You're going to find the book of Hebrews is just going to come alive and open up to you like never before.

Having now had this foundation in Leviticus and this old covenant which did fail, now go back and reaffirm that relationship that you have with God through this new covenant in Jesus Christ established on the better promises. Shall we stand? Now, as we go through the book of Numbers, wherever you get into the Numbers, just skip it if you want. It's not required reading.

Where you get into the genealogies of the families, skip those. They're not required reading. We'll let you off on that.

So, but there are some neat little nuggets buried in some of these genealogies and truths and thoughts. So we'll take the first 10 chapters of Numbers next week. But you don't have to read the whole thing.

There are portions that you can just scan, but don't scan the whole thing. Because there are some really valuable truths in this first 10 chapters of Numbers. And so we'll take the 10, moving on through.

May the Lord bless you and prosper you in His love and in His grace and in His fullness. May you just experience that joy of the Lord as your strength. And may you be established in the hope that is ours through Jesus Christ.

As we look for the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, who shall establish God's kingdom and bring us all into that glorious age of ruling and reigning with Him on an earth that has been renewed and revitalized. And one in which we'll keep the Sabbath, no doubt. The years and the whole thing.

Glorious age of the King. May God sustain you, give you strength and power in Jesus' name.