Redemption גְּאֻלָּה

We are in chapter twenty-five of Leviticus with our word for today. גְּאֻלָּה right and obligation of repurchase, repurchase, deliverance, redemption. It is used 14 times in the Old Testament, 9 times in our chapter. Our word is used in the sense of redemption, the act of purchasing back something previously sold, buyback. Let’s look at a few in our chapter since it has the most uses in the Bible. Leviticus 25:23-28, 31 The land shall not be sold in perpetuity, for the land is mine. For you are strangers and sojourners with me. And in all the country you possess, you shall allow a גְּאֻלָּ֖הredemption of the land. “If your brother becomes poor and sells part of his property, then his nearest redeemer shall come and redeem what his brother has sold. If a man has no one to redeem it and then himself becomes prosperous and finds sufficient means to גְאֻלָּתֽוֹ redeem it, let him calculate the years since he sold it and pay back the balance to the man to whom he sold it, and then return to his property. But if he does not have sufficient means to recover it, then what he sold shall remain in the hand of the buyer until the year of jubilee. In the jubilee it shall be released, and he shall return to his property. If a man sells a dwelling house in a walled city, he may גְּאֻלָּת֔וֹ redeem it within a year of its sale. For a full year he shall have the right of גְאֻלָּתֽוֹ redemption … But the houses of the villages that have no wall around them shall be classified with the fields of the land. They may be גְּאֻלָּה֙ redeemed, and they shall be released in the jubilee. Any property that was sold since the last Year of Jubilee would revert to its original owner, for the Lord wanted His land to remain with the tribes, clans, and families to which it had been allotted. For parents to care for their families, they had to have land to cultivate, and the private ownership of property gave stability to the economy. The Lord owned the land and only loaned it to His people. He wanted them to have a sense of proprietorship and responsibility in caring for His property. People usually take care of what they themselves own. Whenever a piece of land was sold, the proximity of the next Year of Jubilee determined the price, for this determined how much produce the new owner could get from the soil. Since the buyer knew full well that the land would eventually revert back to the original owner, he certainly wasn’t going to pay more for the land than what he would be able to get out of it. These laws made it impossible for ruthless wealthy real estate speculators to accumulate vast land holdings and thus upset the economy. Even the poorest Israelite family received its land back, and by working the land, they could gain enough wealth to meet their needs and perhaps the needs of others. The Year of Jubilee provided a new beginning for the released slaves and the landowners, and this kept poverty and inequality to a minimum. The people were not to oppress one another, but remember that the land was God’s and they were only His tenants. Like the announcement of the Year of Jubilee, the Gospel is good news to us, because our debts have been paid and are completely forgiven. Just as the debtors and slaves were set free to enjoy Jubilee, we are set free when we trust in Christ to save us. Salvation through faith in Jesus Christ is a “Jubilee” experience, for it restores broken families and lost blessings and brings “times of refreshing. I’ll close with this great passage. Acts 3:19–21 Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out, that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send the Christ appointed for you, Jesus, whom heaven must receive until the time for restoring all the things about which God spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets long ago.