God’s Care for the Economically Disadvantaged
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of the poor. Hebrew slaves who did not receive their liberty in the
sabbatical year were now set free.
But that which especially distinguished the year of jubilee was the
reversion of all landed property to the family of the original possessor.
No one was at liberty to trade his estate. Neither was he to sell his
land unless poverty compelled him to do so. Whenever he or any of
his kindred might desire to redeem it, the purchaser must not refuse to
sell it. If unredeemed, it would revert to its possessor or his heirs in
the year of jubilee.
The Lord declared to Israel: “The land shall not be sold forever:
for the land is Mine; for ye are strangers and sojourners with Me.”
Leviticus 25:23
. God was the rightful owner, the original proprietor. It
was to be impressed upon the minds of all that the poor and unfortunate
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have as much right to a place in God’s world as the wealthy.
Such were the provisions made by our merciful Creator, to lessen
suffering, to bring some ray of hope, to flash some gleam of sunshine
into the life of the destitute and distressed.
Great evils result from the continued accumulation of wealth by
one class, and the poverty of another. The sense of this oppression
would arouse the passions of the poorer class. There would be a feeling
of despair and desperation which would tend to demoralize society
and open the door to crimes of every description. The regulations that
God established were to promote social equality. The sabbatical year
and the jubilee would in a great measure set right that which had gone
wrong in the social and political economy of the nation.
These regulations, designed to bless the rich no less than the poor,
would restrain avarice and cultivate a noble spirit of benevolence. By
fostering goodwill between all classes, they would promote stability
of government.
We are all woven together in the great web of humanity. Whatever
we can do to benefit others will reflect in blessing on ourselves. The
law of mutual dependence runs through all classes of society. The poor
are not more dependent upon the rich than are the rich upon the poor.
While the one class ask a share in the blessings God has bestowed
upon their wealthier neighbors, the other need the faithful service, the
strength of brain and bone and muscle, that are the capital of the poor.