Lev. 27: Belonging to God

The final chapter of Leviticus discusses what it takes to redeem things that have been given to the LORD, and the value of these things according to something called the "sanctuary shekel." This is 20 gerahs, which was, in my best estimation, the smallest currency used by the nation of Israel.

The equal rights activist in me recoils at the message of Leviticus 27:1-9, and probably made Elizabeth Cady Stanton who she is today. Basically, we have vows being made to God, and people were apparently often the subject of these vows. If a person wanted to make a donation monetarily as opposed to giving a person, they could. The values of certain demographics were as follows:

50 Shekels - Man aged 20-60
30 Shekels - Woman (presumably aged 20-60)
20 Shekels - Male aged 5-20
15 Shekels - Male over age 60
10 Shekels - Female aged 5-20, 60+
5 Shekels - Male aged 1 month - 5 years
3 Shekels - Female aged 1 month - 5 years

What horrifying bigotry. Not really. These pricing levels were for vows, and in no way reflected the value of a person in the cosmic scheme of things. There's a practical level to this as well. It would cost a lot to lose the male breadwinner. Infants and the elderly were not "worth less," look at it from a practical sense. Which is cold, I know, but the Bible hasn't been exactly warm and fuzzy up to this point.

Animals were also vowed, and became holy when given to the LORD. A bad one was not to be exchanged for a good one, and vice versa. Any substitutions make both animals holy. So, if one became the LORD's, it remained holy even if it was exchanged out...Both it and the substitute become holy (Lev. 27:10).

Anything offered an animal, but then redeemed it back, had a twenty percent...penalty? No. Surcharge? No...donation? Eh, works for me. That applied to the animals, a man's house, a field, etc.

Donated land was a monster unto itself. It's value was practically based on how much barley was required to seed it. The time of purchase's relativity to the Year of Jubilee was also part of the equation, as at that time, it would return to it's original owner anyway. During the Year of Jubilee, if there is no owner, it defaults to the priests. A sweet deal, that was probably never abused...right?

Want to dedicate your firstborn animal? Too bad, doesn't count. That already belongs to the LORD by default.

Verse 28 says that nothing a man owns or devotes to the LORD may be sold or redeemed, as it belongs to the LORD, and is holy. A seeming contradiction to verse 13, but verse 28 talks about a man's possessions, not what is offered to God. There could be substitution, but not paid redemption!

A person "devoted to destruction" could not be ransomed. Rather, he had to be put to death. The KJV calls this person "devoted of man," which makes me believe this was a pagan, either captured in battle, or purchased as a slave, or something like that.

At the end of the chapter, we are introduced to the concept of the tithe. This was not just monetary, it was also grain from the soil, and fruit from the trees, and animals in the herd. If a person wanted to redeem their tithe, which I can't really think of a practical reason why anyone would want to do that, there was that 20% redemption donation. Interesting that a person couldn't pick and choose which animals they wanted to tithe, it was "every tenth animal that passed under the shepherd's rod." There wasn't good or bad, it was seemingly random. It was an offering of quantity, not quality. These weren't animals that were going to be sacrificed, just those that would be set apart to the LORD.

I'm guessing that means for use by the priests, who had no time to go out and make a living in the way that the other 11 tribes did, as they were focused solely on tasks related to the tabernacle. It took a 12th of a nation of possibly millions of people to deal with that.

So, Leviticus wasn't too boring or muddy. There were things I read that were kind of shocking to my modern sensibility, and things that opened my eyes. Overall, I'd say that Leviticus gives an idea of what God expects as far as holiness, and just how absolutely serious He is about it. There was no room for error or deviation, as Nadab and Abihu, and the stoned blasphemer found out.