Leviticus 25:35-55 And if your brother be waxen poor, and fallen in decay with you; then you shall relieve him: yes, though he be a stranger… The equity of the Mosaic laws has striking illustrations in the words now under review. We see it - I. IN THE KINDNESS ENJOINED TOWARDS THE POOR. 1. Their necessities are to be relieved. (1) Though they be strangers. The stranger "with" the Hebrew, and so, subject to his law, is recognized as a brother (see verses 35, 36). (2) Usury is not to be taken from the poor. "That thy brother may live." Rights of property must not override those of existence (Matthew 6:25). "That thy brother may live with thee." The hands of the poor are as necessary to the rich as is the wealth of the rich to the poor. 2. The reasons for mercy are edifying. (1) "I am the Lord your God." I stand in covenant relationship to you. I have a right to require this of thee. (2) I "brought thee out of the land of Egypt." The remembrance of thy miseries in Egypt should influence thee to consider those of the poor stranger by thee. (3) I "gave you the land of Canaan." Gratitude to me should move thee. I can yet more gloriously reward thy mercy in giving thee inheritance in the heavenly Canaan. II. IN THE KINDNESS ENJOINED TOWARDS THE SLAVE. 1. The Hebrew must show it. (1) Not to his brother only, but also towards the stranger. (2) Yet there is a difference. The Hebrew slave goes out in the jubilee; but the power of a Hebrew master over the stranger is not then removed. This law prefigured the dominion which the righteous will have over the wicked in the morning, viz. of the resurrection (see Psalm 49:14). (3) The stranger, by becoming a proselyte, might claim the privilege of the Hebrew. So may the wicked, by repentance towards God and faith in the Lord Jesus, become a Christian, and enjoy the privileges of the righteous. 2. The stranger must show it. (1) The stranger is presumed to be not so merciful as the Hebrew. Privileges of grace should make men generous. (2) The cruelty of the wicked must be restrained by the laws of the good. III. IN THE DETERMINATION OF THE RANSOM PRICE. In this determination: 1. The rate of wages is an element. The principles of hired service should be remembered by masters in the treatment of slaves. 2. This rate was then multiplied into the years prospective to the jubilee. (1) This determination of the rate was in favour of the slave; for if the law had not settled it, then it must be settled by agreement, in which case the master would be in a position to drive a hard bargain to the prejudice of the slave. Law should, for the same reason, control the claims of landlords where they prejudice the rights of their tenantry. (2) In this law there is equity also with respect to the master. Any difference in the value to him of a slave over that of a hired servant is compensated in the risk of life, in which, after the redemption, he has now no pecuniary concern. IV. IN THE DIFFERENCE OF THE LAW RELATING TO A COUNTRY HOUSE AS COMPARED WITH A HOUSE IN A WALLED CITY. 1. The country house returned to the owner of the land. (1) This house is presumed to be simply a residence. The inconvenience of removal of residence is not formidable. (2) To a Christian the removal of residence from this world should not be formidable. 2. The house in the walled city did not so return. (1) Such a house may be presumed to be a place of business. In this case, establishment in a locality is often of great importance. Landlords should consider the interests of their tenants as well as their own. (2) But within the first twelve months after the sale of a house in a walled city, the owner bad a power of redemption. This was before the business could be said to be established. It gave the seller an opportunity to repent of a bargain which may have been forced upon him by the pressure of a temporary necessity. (3) What a mercy that the sinner has space for repentance! - J.A.M. Parallel Verses KJV: And if thy brother be waxen poor, and fallen in decay with thee; then thou shalt relieve him: yea, though he be a stranger, or a sojourner; that he may live with thee. |
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