Pray: "Open my eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of your law."

1. 1

   What do you learn about God (The Father, Son, or Holy Spirit)? His thoughts, ways or actions toward us, as His creation? How can you respond to God in prayer and praise?

2. 2

   The major subject of this chapter is the physical land of the promised land, and the food it produces to sustain the Israelites. According to verses 23 and 55, to whom does the land of Canaan and the people of Israel ultimately belong? Keep this in mind as you read God's instructions to Israel for how to care for the land and the people.

3. 3

   Read Leviticus 25:1-7 and 18-22. How often was Israel to let the land lie fallow and rest from agricultural work? What did God promise He would do for them if they trusted Him by obeying this instruction?

4. 4

   Read Leviticus 25:8-17 and 23-33. What things would get returned to their ancestral owners on the year of Jubilee, and what would not? How would this practice remind them who ultimately owned the land? How does this demonstrate God's grace for His people?

5. 5

   The rest of Leviticus 25 outlines specific instructions God gave to protect the poor related to the Year of Jubilee. 1) According to verses 35-43 and 47-55, how were the Israelites and rich foreigners to treat poor Israelites? How were they to treat the foreigner and stranger among them? 2) Leviticus 25:44-46 allowed for a more lasting form of slavery in Israel, which can be surprising to us modern Christians. It's important to remember that God was limiting the already-in-practice tradition of slavery in the ancient world, not prescribing it. He had already told Israel that they could not mistreat anyone (see Lev. 19:18, "Love your neighbor as yourself."). The Law was God's first word on many areas of life and sinful practices, not His last.

6. 6

   Ponder: When you consider your property (whether a house, land, or smaller items), do you often stop to consider that they are first and foremost not yours, but God's? How would it change your life to treat everything you owned as something you "rent" or "steward" from God?

7. 7

   Ponder: Like the relatives who could redeem (pay the price to set free) an enslaved Israelite before the year of Jubilee, Jesus came to redeem us who were slaves to sin and buried under our debt to God (see Romans 8:1-2 and Colossians 2:13-14). What does this truth make you want to say to God? Journal your prayer to Him in worship.