As always, here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:
3And
he said to the kinsman-redeemer, “Naomi, who has returned from the fields of
Moab, has sold the portion of the field which [belonged] to our brother
Elimelech. 4And I, I said, ‘I will uncover your ear to say, ‘Buy
[it] before ones sitting and before the elders of my people.’ If you will redeem,
redeem, and if he will not redeem, tell to me and I will know because none
besides you to redeem and I after you.’” And he said, “I, I will redeem.”
Before I move on, I want to note something I’m pondering. I
don’t know the answer, just pondering.
A huge part of what is driving this entire story is the matter
of property inheritance and levirate marriage. The way God set things up was
that He gave the land to the Israelites, then portioned it out to the twelve
tribes, then to individual families, and then it became imperative that that
land remain in the ownership of those families. He says in Lev 25:23,
“The
land must not be sold permanently, because the land is Mine and you reside in My
land as foreigners and strangers.”
“The land must not be sold permanently,…” I guess I could
understand if He was saying they mustn’t sell it to someone besides an
Israelite. God promised Abraham He would give the land to his descendants. That
makes sense and it would make sense that they were not to sell any of that land
to foreigners, that it was always to stay in the hands of Israelites. But that
isn’t what He means. He’s talking about selling land between Israelites
themselves.
For some reason, God makes a really big deal about this
property ownership. In Lev 25, He goes on to say (vv25-28):
“If
a fellow countryman of yours becomes so poor he has to sell part of his
property, then his nearest kinsman is to come and buy back what his relative
has sold. Or in case a man has no kinsman, but so recovers his means as to find
sufficient for its redemption, then he shall calculate the years since its sale
and refund the balance to the man to whom he sold it, and so return to his
property. But if he has not found sufficient means to get it back for himself,
then what he has sold shall remain in the hands of its purchaser until the year
of Jubilee; but at the Jubilee it shall revert, that he may return to his
property.”
Even the year of Jubilee is set up as a time when any land
that has been sold reverts to its original ownership. And it isn’t just “reverts
to Israelite ownership” or even “reverts to the tribe it was given to,” or even
the family it was owned by. It is to the
man.
Hmmmm. Land is just land. It’s just dirt. In the big scheme
of things, “property” is just a particular patch of dirt. Granted it is
important, especially in an agrarian society where land was your very life itself.
One grew crops to live. They didn’t have grocery stores. They had to grow what
they ate and that took land. So land was important. But why is it that big a
deal what land? And why is it such a
big deal that a particular patch of dirt remained in the proper succession of a
specific family’s genealogy?
The whole issue of Zelophehad’s daughters centered around
this decided understanding. When the question of their father’s inheritance first
came up and the girls (who had no brother) asked about it, the Lord responded:
“…,
you shall speak to the sons of Israel, saying, ‘If a man dies and has no son,
then you shall transfer his inheritance to his daughter. If he has no daughter,
then you shall give his inheritance to his brothers. If he has no brothers,
then you shall give his inheritance to his father’s brothers. If his father has
no brothers, then you shall give his inheritance to his nearest relative in his
own family, and he shall possess it; and it shall be a statutory ordinance to
the sons of Israel, just as the LORD commanded Moses” (Numb 27:8-11).
Later, the issue came up again when the leaders from the
girls’ tribe (Manasseh) were worried that the girls would marry into another
tribe. If they do, the leaders reasoned, then that land would be lost to our
tribe and become part of another! The Lord responded:
“This
is what the LORD has commanded concerning the daughters of Zelophehad, saying,
Let them marry whom they wish; only they must marry within the family of the
tribe of their father. Thus no inheritance of the sons of Israel shall be
transferred from tribe to tribe, for the sons of Israel shall each hold to the
inheritance of the tribe of his fathers. Every daughter who comes into
possession of an inheritance of any tribe of the sons of Israel shall be wife
to one of the family of the tribe of her father, so that the sons of Israel
each may possess the inheritance of his fathers. Thus no inheritance shall be
transferred from one tribe to another tribe, for the tribes of the sons of
Israel shall each hold to his own inheritance” (Numb 36:6-9).
I’m still struggling to understand why, in the big scheme of
things, this is so important. I can see why, within any generation, people
might get bent out of shape about such things. In fact they do, even today, but
mainly because everyone is worried they might not get their piece of the pie. It’s
all about money. Today it is totally about money and wealth and power. What
baffles me is why God cares so much. Once again, it’s really just dirt and it
would seem like basically one patch of dirt ought to be about the same as any
other.
But it gets even more intense than this. This business of
property ownership is so important that God Himself set up the plan of levirate
marriage. When a man died, if he had not yet sired an heir, his brother was
supposed to marry the widow and then the inheritance would go to her child.
That, in itself, had to be a very delicate business culturally. Wouldn’t that
add an interesting element to a man’s funeral – with his brother standing there
and over across the room is this young woman who yesterday was only his
sister-in-law? All of a sudden, he’s actually obligated to marry her, have sex
with her, and sire an heir for his brother. Wouldn’t that be interesting???
And then we see it so important to God Himself, that, if a
man refused to do so, He says:
“But
if the man does not desire to take his brother’s wife, then his brother’s wife
shall go up to the gate to the elders and say, ‘My husband’s brother refuses to
establish a name for his brother in Israel; he is not willing to perform the
duty of a husband’s brother to me.’ Then the elders of his city shall summon
him and speak to him. And if he
persists and says, ‘I do not desire to take her,’ then his brother’s wife shall
come to him in the sight of the elders, and pull his sandal off his foot and
spit in his face; and she shall declare, ‘Thus it is done to the man who does
not build up his brother’s house’” (Deut 25:7-9).
Hmmmm. I could understand if the big issue was just keeping
the land under Israelite ownership. I could even understand if God wanted to
keep the tribes intact and not allow land to be sold among them. But it goes
far beyond that. Once land is owned by a particular man, it becomes a legal and
cultural imperative that that land must be kept in the proper succession of that
man’s heirs … forever. No matter how
many centuries go by, no matter how many generations come and go, land was to
stay in that man’s genealogy. And that is so important that God Himself would
institute the practice of levirate marriage.
Why?
I don’t know.
I smell some really profound spiritual truth lurking behind
the scenes. There is something about God and about man and about eternity that
I do not understand, that I don’t see, and so I am unable to grasp why this
land thing is so important to Him. Either that or there is some truth about
Jesus that I’m missing. He is the great Kinsman-redeemer. Surely, His
redemption of us and our world is the same fractal pattern somehow. The other
thing that may prove eminently significant here is that the “land” we’re
talking about is the Promised Land.
In fact, none of it is “just dirt.” Perhaps “the land” symbolizes faith itself
and how the Lord wants faith to be passed on from one generation to the next?
I don’t know.
When I do see it, I know it will blow me away. It will
totally rock my world. I’ll understand some aspect of life and of reality and
of God Himself which I don’t understand today. This is just another atom-bomb
of truth He might drop into my soul.
It just isn’t dropping today.
I know it’s there. For some reason I’m apparently just not
ready to grasp it.
Hmmmmm. Looks like time for another Habakkuk: “I will stand
at my watch and I will look to see what He will say to me …”
“Call unto Me and I will answer thee,
and show thee
great and mighty things
which thou knowest not” (Jer
33:3).
Even so, come, Lord
Jesus.
No comments:
Post a Comment