On the road to Emmaus, Yeshua met with two of His disciples and, beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself. (Luke 24:27). For our Torah studies this year, therefore, week by week we will seek to discover how all of Torah prepared the way for the coming Messiah.
9thMay 2026 (22 Iyyar)
B’har (on a mountain), Leviticus 25:1-26:2, B’chukotai (in My statutes) Leviticus 26:3-27:34
When the Apostle Paul told Timothy, we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out (1 Timothy 6:7) it would have been an overflow of his understanding of Torah. Our portion this week focuses on ownership. The Children of Israel were being prepared for life in the Promised Land. The Land would be apportioned to the Tribes and through the Tribes to individual families. They would take possession of land that they had not worked for, yet it would become their inheritance from generation to generation.
Later generations might think differently about ownership than those who first received the family inheritance. They might take possession, holding it to themselves too firmly as if by right rather than privilege and responsibility. All of us, whatever we count as our own possession, whatever it is, entered the world with nothing, as a dependent new-born baby. If we were able to trace any inheritance back generation by generation, we would eventually come to the first days of Creation and might then recall that everything still belongs to God our Creator.
When we consider inheritance and ownership from a biblical perspective, therefore, we should understand things differently. We must not skip over an important verse, in which God established balance of ownership of His land:
The land shall not be sold permanently, for the land is Mine; for you are strangers and sojourners with Me. (Leviticus 25:23)
God did not relinquish His ownership when each family eventually were given their inheritance in the Land of Canaan. This principle is at the foundation of understanding of inheritance and ownership as we live in this world. We are to be stewards of what is assigned to us by God. We are to be partners with Him in caring for the land and for one another, having been entrusted to that care. The moment we try to take full control independently of God, is the moment when problems can begin.
For Israel, the rules of stewardship were made very clear. In our portion for study this week, we find warnings (Leviticus 26) of the consequences when the principles of stewardship were not followed. If initial warnings were not heeded, ultimately it led to the following consequences:
I will lay your cities waste and bring your sanctuaries to desolation, and I will not smell the fragrance of your sweet aromas. I will bring the land to desolation, and your enemies who dwell in it shall be astonished at it. I will scatter you among the nations and draw out a sword after you; your land shall be desolate and your cities waste. Then the land shall enjoy its sabbaths as long as it lies desolate and you are in your enemies’ land; then the land shall rest and enjoy its sabbaths. As long as it lies desolate it shall rest – for the time it did not rest on your sabbaths when you dwelt in it. (Leviticus 26:31-35)
God meant what He said. It is a lesson to the entire world that God sent His people into captivity in Babylon hundreds of years later. A study of the Prophets shows how warning after warning was given until exactly what God said through Moses came to pass. The Land of Israel’s inheritance became the land of their enemies until the full number of Sabbath years was fulfilled. If one makes a calculation of the years of captivity (70 years) compared with the number of years Israel inhabited the Promised Land (estimated as between 400 and 600 years), it would seem that not many sabbath years had been kept, despite God’s clear teaching!
Hear the voice of Amos, reminding Israel of God’s warnings through Moses. The gradual heightening of signs that eventually lead to judgement are typified here:
I gave you cleanness of teeth in all your cities,
And lack of bread in all your places;
Yet you have not returned to Me,
Says the Lord.
I also withheld rain from you,
When there were still three months to the harvest.
I made it rain on one city,
I withheld rain from another city.
One part was rained upon,
And where it did not rain the part withered.
So two or three cities wandered to another city to drink water,
But they were not satisfied;
Yet you have not returned to Me,
Says the Lord.
I blasted you with blight and mildew.
When your gardens increased,
Your vineyards,
Your fig trees,
And your olive trees,
The locust devoured them;
Yet you have not returned to Me,
Says the Lord.
I sent among you a plague after the manner of Egypt;
Your young men I killed with a sword,
Along with your captive horses;
I made the stench of your camps come up into your nostrils;
Yet you have not returned to Me,
Says the Lord.
I overthrew some of you,
As God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah,
And you were like a firebrand plucked from the burning;
Yet you have not returned to Me,
Says the Lord.
Therefore thus will I do to you, O Israel;
Because I will do this to you,
Prepare to meet your God, O Israel! (Amos 4:6-12)
Yet, here in our portion this week, is the simplest of requirements of God for blessing on His people in the land of their inheritance. Here is the pattern of life where man walks with God throughout all his days on earth, recognising the great privilege in sharing in the management of God’s creation and harvesting the rewards for a full and prosperous life. Here is a land management programme and a model of economics that does not fill the libraries of the world with endless books and take many years to study, being difficult to apply. It is contained in just a few chapters of the Books of Torah! It contains the principles of fairness, care for the poor, and respect for one’s neighbour. It involves yearly cycles of management of the earth ordained by the One who created everything. The cycles of seven years, leading up to the 50th year of Jubilee, where the ground rests in a similar manner to the weekly Sabbath rest of God’s people, contains understanding that we may not be able to completely fathom as to why it is best. Yet these are the rhythms of Creation ordained by the Creator who knows all about land and plant management and about the sharing that benefits all His people.
What a simple formula there is in calculating values of transactions depending on how many years are left to the Jubilee. Our minds, when filled by the desire to grasp after possessions, do not easily realise that assessment of value in these Scriptures is based on the amount of produce that can come from the land in the years to Jubilee, not on the value of the land itself. We are to be managers of God’s harvest fields and not own them in the absolute sense.
Sharing with God according to that which should be dedicated to Him out of all that He gave to His people, keeps one in mind of the fact that God desires us to be partners with Him. Just as great woes would follow departure from Him, so great blessings were received when man’s partnership with God was according to His ways. We are considering the most wondrous thing here, echoed across all Scripture and proved through the history of God’s people, that our Creator desires to be our friend.
Stewardship, learned through the practical matters of life with God, was also a preparation for greater fulfilment in other matters of God’s Kingdom. Remember faithful Daniel who was told:
Go your way till the end; for you shall rest, and will arise to your inheritance at the end of the days. (Daniel 12:13)
The Lord Yeshua also taught about these things. For example, in the Parable of the Talents He likened His leaving this world for a period of time to a ruler leaving his servants in charge of his property:
For the kingdom of heaven is like a man travelling to a far country, who called his own servants and delivered his goods to them. And to one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one, to each according to his own ability; and immediately he went on a journey. Then he who had received the five talents went and traded with them, and made another five talents. And likewise he who had received two gained two more also. But he who had received one went and dug in the ground, and hid his lord’s money. After a long time the lord of those servants came and settled accounts with them. (Matthew 25:14-19)
Which of us would like to hear the commendation of the Lord for how we stewarded His possessions?
His lord said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant; you were faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord. (Matthew 25:21)
There is a parallel between the inheritance of land referred to in this week’s portion and with other responsibilities given to God’s people Rremember our Lord also said:
I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. (John 15:5)
God made preparations with Israel for how to live and steward their allotted land with Him. The principles still go on in every aspect of our life. God still teaches us that He will partner with us in our life through Yeshua. Israel was to be a light to the world to show the way other nations might learn together to live under His blessings. The offer is still there at every level that, if we will trust Him, we can live prosperous lives. Things that we cannot do for ourselves, are possible with God. The practical aspects of stewardship of what God has entrusted to us are still relevant.
Relevant also are the matters of the Kingdom of God here on earth in the present day. Each of us who have become disciples of Yeshua HaMashiach may be entrusted with some practical or spiritual ministry: work of service. Remember what Yeshua said when reinstating Peter after His denial during the trial prior to Yeshua’s crucifixion:
So when they had eaten breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of Jonah, do you love Me more than these?”
He said to Him, “Yes, Lord; You know that I love You.”
He said to him, “Feed My lambs.”
He said to him again a second time, “Simon, son of Jonah, do you love Me?”
He said to Him, “Yes, Lord; You know that I love You.”
He said to him, “Tend My sheep.”
He said to him the third time, “Simon, son of Jonah, do you love Me?” Peter was grieved because He said to him the third time, “Do you love Me?”
And he said to Him, “Lord, You know all things; You know that I love You.”
Jesus said to him, “Feed My sheep.” (John 21 15-17)
With the help of the Holy Spirit, Peter then fulfilled his ministry as an Apostle.
Yeshua also gives ministries to all whom He calls.
And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ. (Ephesians 4:11-12)
The ministries given to those who are chosen to help others, through their appointed service to the body of believers, are not limited just to these. The list is extended by Paul in 1 Corinthians 12 to all manner of expressions of spiritual and practical abilities to help and build up God’s Kingdom through the lives of people whom He has called.
We learn from our Torah portion this week that what God commits to our stewardship is not for our personal ownership without Him. Both in practical and spiritual matters we are stewards of His Kingdom and His Creation in partnership with Him as we are called according to His purposes in Yeshua:
And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. (Romans 8:28)
