True Ownership
Leviticus 25:23–24 (NIV)
23 “ ‘The land must not be sold permanently, because the land is mine and you reside in my land as foreigners and strangers. 24 Throughout the land that you hold as a possession, you must provide for the redemption of the land.
We buy, we accumulate, we own. But what if we really own nothing. It is just an illusion to meet our selfish desires, to cling to the things of this world. What if, in reality, God owns it all, and he allows us to “own it” on a temporary basis, so that we can be stewards of the resources and property he has given us. In this passage from Leviticus, God was giving instructions to the people of Israel prior to entering the Promised Land. Included in the instructions was how to manage land or property to account for the poor, those who had to sell their land to make ends meet. Every 50 years was the Year of Jubilee, when any land that was purchased was returned to its ancestral owner without charge. I imagine one’s initial response would have been, “but it’s mine, I bought it fair and square.” And yet in this verse God reminds them that it isn’t their land, their property to begin with, it’s his. God wanted his people to keep that viewpoint when they entered the land God was giving them so they would be able to practice openhanded mercy and justice with their neighbors. What would happen in our own country if we viewed the land, our property, even anything we posses, as God’s rather than our own. Would it change our sense of accountability to God? Would it help us to not cling so tightly to what we think we are due? What if it really isn’t my property, my house, my car, my possessions, but God’s? Then we should ask, what does God want me to do with it? How many wars and battles, how many family disputes have been waged over possession of land and material things?