Leviticus 27

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Dave Burnette's Commentary

Leviticus Chapter 27

Written By: God through Inspiration

Penned By: Moses

Date Penned: (1445-1444 BC)

Overview: A Handbook for the Priests and Levites (c 1-27)

Theme: Living a Holy Life (c 18-27)

Message: Payments to the Lord (v 1-34)

Leviticus 27 Commentary

(27:1) Giving to the Lord - The Israelites were required to give or dedicate certain things to the Lord and to his service: the firstfruits of their harvests, firstborn animals, their firstborn sons, a tithe of their increase. Many wished to go beyond this and dedicate themselves or another family member, additional animals, a house, or a field to God. In these cases, it was possible to donate money instead of the actual person, animal, or property. Some people made rash or unrealistic vows. To urge them to think about it first, a 20 percent penalty was put on those items purchased back with money. This chapter explains how valuations were to be made and what to do if a donor later wished to buy back what had been donated to God.

(27:2-8) Each to Give According to their Substance - The Lord told Moses how much to value an offering for a special vow, which involved the dedication of people of various ages. The value was not based on anyone's intrinsic worth but on the worth of the service the person could perform. A man or woman in the prime of life was given a higher valuation because he or she could do more work than a child or older adult. This was not a measure of their human worth or significance as a person but a token indicator to distinguish the relative value of the vow.

(27:9-10) Keeping Our Promises - God taught the Israelites that when they made a vow to him, they must not go back on their promise even if it turned out to cost more than expected. (This applied to animals; humans could be redeemed or purchased back.) God takes our promises seriously. If you vow to give 10 percent of your income and suddenly some unexpected bills come along, your faithful stewardship will be costly. God, however, expects you to fulfill your vow even if it is difficult to do so. This is the backdrop for the warning Jesus made to be very cautious about making vows to God (Matthew 5:33-37)

(27:14-25) The Donation of Property - The Israelites could give real estate as a voluntary offering in much the same way that people today can give property through a will or donate the proceeds from the sale of property to a church or Christian organization.

(27:28-29) Items Donated to God Were Not to be Sold for Gain - Things that were specially devoted to or set apart for God were to be completely destroyed. This would apply to all personal property, including captured persons, plunder from idol worshipers, and the idols themselves. These were to be destroyed and could not be redeemed. The execution of people in such cases would not have involved human sacrifice, since this is clearly forbidden (see Deuteronomy 12:29-31; Isaiah. 57:3-6; 66:3). This suggests that the dedication of people to God leading to their deaths here points to some sort of capital punishment.

(27:33) A Cheerful Giver - Many of the principles regarding sacrifices and tithes were intended to encourage inward attitudes as well as outward actions. Those who give grudgingly show that they have stingy hearts. God wants us to be cheerful givers (2 Corinthians 9:7) who give with gratitude to him.

(27:34) An Unchanging God - The book of Leviticus is filled with the commands God gave his people at the foot of Mount Sinai. From these commands we can learn much about God's nature and character. At first glance, Leviticus seems irrelevant to our modern world. But digging a little deeper, we realize that the book still speaks to us today- God has not changed, and his principles are for all times. As people and society change, we need constantly to search for ways to apply the principles of God's law to our present circumstances. God was the same in Leviticus as he is today and will be forever (Hebrews 13:8).

Dave Burnette's Life Application

Honesty

Each day we walk through the Bible chapter by chapter making an application of our text to help us grow in the Lord. Many applications can be made from each day's text. Today we continue in the book of Leviticus with Chapter 27 and in today's text we see the last entry in this Priests Handbook where we see the Character of the Lord revealed. The deeper we look in this book we see sin, sacrifice, instruction, and warning on how to live as God instructs His People. Today we learn how God instructs us to give to Him so we will be humble in our hearts and right with Him. What catches my eye is how God expects us to keep our promises or vows. In making application we see today that it is accepted in society to lie. Businesses have 2 sets of books, Marriage vows are kept only 40% of the time, Bills are not paid on time, Students cheat at school. Employees lie on their resumes, ect, the list goes on and on and it is accepted by society as a whole to not be honest. The Lord does not approve of our behavior and the truth is defined in our text today. The Lord wants Christians to stand out in society today by keeping our vows and being honest. Simply put God wants us to be people of integrity. How about you? Do you keep your vows and promises to God and Man? If not let us repent and learn from today's text to be people who keep our word and be a light in this world to point others to Christ.

Leviticus 27

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Leviticus 27

¹And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,

²Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When a man shall make a singular vow, the persons shall be for the LORD by thy estimation.

³And thy estimation shall be of the male from twenty years old even unto sixty years old, even thy estimation shall be fifty shekels of silver, after the shekel of the sanctuary.

⁴And if it be a female, then thy estimation shall be thirty shekels.

⁵And if it be from five years old even unto twenty years old, then thy estimation shall be of the male twenty shekels, and for the female ten shekels.

⁶And if it be from a month old even unto five years old, then thy estimation shall be of the male five shekels of silver, and for the female thy estimation shall be three shekels of silver.

⁷And if it be from sixty years old and above; if it be a male, then thy estimation shall be fifteen shekels, and for the female ten shekels.

⁸But if he be poorer than thy estimation, then he shall present himself before the priest, and the priest shall value him; according to his ability that vowed shall the priest value him.

⁹And if it be a beast, whereof men bring an offering unto the LORD, all that any man giveth of such unto the LORD shall be holy.

¹⁰He shall not alter it, nor change it, a good for a bad, or a bad for a good: and if he shall at all change beast for beast, then it and the exchange thereof shall be holy.

¹¹And if it be any unclean beast, of which they do not offer a sacrifice unto the LORD, then he shall present the beast before the priest:

¹²And the priest shall value it, whether it be good or bad: as thou valuest it, who art the priest, so shall it be.

¹³But if he will at all redeem it, then he shall add a fifth part thereof unto thy estimation.

¹⁴And when a man shall sanctify his house to be holy unto the LORD, then the priest shall estimate it, whether it be good or bad: as the priest shall estimate it, so shall it stand.

¹⁵And if he that sanctified it will redeem his house, then he shall add the fifth part of the money of thy estimation unto it, and it shall be his.

¹⁶And if a man shall sanctify unto the LORD some part of a field of his possession, then thy estimation shall be according to the seed thereof: an homer of barley seed shall be valued at fifty shekels of silver.

¹⁷If he sanctify his field from the year of jubile, according to thy estimation it shall stand.

¹⁸But if he sanctify his field after the jubile, then the priest shall reckon unto him the money according to the years that remain, even unto the year of the jubile, and it shall be abated from thy estimation.

¹⁹And if he that sanctified the field will in any wise redeem it, then he shall add the fifth part of the money of thy estimation unto it, and it shall be assured to him.

²⁰And if he will not redeem the field, or if he have sold the field to another man, it shall not be redeemed any more.

²¹But the field, when it goeth out in the jubile, shall be holy unto the LORD, as a field devoted; the possession thereof shall be the priest's.

²²And if a man sanctify unto the LORD a field which he hath bought, which is not of the fields of his possession;

²³Then the priest shall reckon unto him the worth of thy estimation, even unto the year of the jubile: and he shall give thine estimation in that day, as a holy thing unto the LORD.

²⁴In the year of the jubile the field shall return unto him of whom it was bought, even to him to whom the possession of the land did belong.

²⁵And all thy estimations shall be according to the shekel of the sanctuary: twenty gerahs shall be the shekel.

²⁶Only the firstling of the beasts, which should be the LORD's firstling, no man shall sanctify it; whether it be ox, or sheep: it is the LORD's.

²⁷And if it be of an unclean beast, then he shall redeem it according to thine estimation, and shall add a fifth part of it thereto: or if it be not redeemed, then it shall be sold according to thy estimation.

²⁸Notwithstanding no devoted thing, that a man shall devote unto the LORD of all that he hath, both of man and beast, and of the field of his possession, shall be sold or redeemed: every devoted thing is most holy unto the LORD.

²⁹None devoted, which shall be devoted of men, shall be redeemed; but shall surely be put to death.

³⁰And all the tithe of the land, whether of the seed of the land, or of the fruit of the tree, is the LORD's: it is holy unto the LORD.

³¹And if a man will at all redeem ought of his tithes, he shall add thereto the fifth part thereof.

³²And concerning the tithe of the herd, or of the flock, even of whatsoever passeth under the rod, the tenth shall be holy unto the LORD.

³³He shall not search whether it be good or bad, neither shall he change it: and if he change it at all, then both it and the change thereof shall be holy; it shall not be redeemed.

³⁴These are the commandments, which the LORD commanded Moses for the children of Israel in mount Sinai.

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