Wait, But I Thought…

“The Land must not be sold permanently, because the land is mine and you are but aliens and tenants. Throughout the country that you hold as a possession, you must provide for the redemption of the land.” (Leviticus 25:23-24)

This is one of those obscure passages that we skip over without much thought. However, as I was reading this the other day, it struck me once again how deeply the assumptions of our culture influence what I think “the Bible says”! Take the above passage for instance: it is a great reminder that God mandated a system of redemption into the very fabric of Jewish existence, including redemption of land (and slaves, but we won’t go into that!). The Year of Jubilee was a practical way for God to return the land to its original stewards every 50 years (if it had been sold to alleviate debt).

Now I say “steward” intentionally, because God makes it very clear that the Jews did not own the land – He did. Their families were “aliens”, “tenants” who just had permission to use it as stewards (to support their survival). And here is my confession: I always assumed that private property was the system mandated by God (in the Bible) and “pagan” peoples like First Nations folks in Canada were the only folks who believed that no human had the right to actually claim ownership over a piece of land indefinitely. Somewhere along the line, I took John Locke’s theory of “natural rights”, (famously trumpeted by our American cousins as the inalienable rights of life, liberty and pursuit of happiness) as biblically-mandated truths. In fact, Locke first declared that all peoples had a right to the “pursuit of property” (that is how closely notions of private property and happiness were linked), but “pursuit of happiness” became the motto of our cousins to the south, many of whom earnestly believe that their country was founded on so-called Christian principles, and that these are the key Christian principles. In fact, Locke and other philosophers whose ideas were used to build and justify the constitution of the United States of America were deists who would have great difficulty in signing our EFCC 10 Articles of Faith.

Now this is not to pick on the Americans (after all, beating them in hockey is quite sufficient!). We could pick apart similar claims that “Canada was originally a Christian nation, based on Christian principles”. Certainly some Christian principles were foundational in the founding of both North American nations – but many secular notions were as well. And this is my point: I have a tendency to assume that those secular notions are biblical – when in fact they may even run counter to God’s truth. Hence, my sense of ownership of my land, my stuff – and my accompanying attachment to it (and anger at losing it) create serious loyalty issues for me. God tells me in I Peter that I am an alien – not a citizen of this world and here in Leviticus He reminds me that He owns the land not us. Yet I still have some vague sense that I am justified to cling to this world (and my “private property” in particular) and that this is somehow a God-ordained right.

This all makes me wonder how many other axioms that I vehemently defend as biblically-mandated truths are really cultural values that I have absorbed by osmosis. This is why the Word is still powerful – it subversively challenges those wrong beliefs that plague my heart and mind. Perhaps the Word still has much more to undo and redo in my mind before I get to glory…

Seeing “in a glass darkly” with you,

Bill

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