If one of your fellow Israelites becomes poor and sells some of their property, their nearest relative is to come and redeem what they have sold. – Leviticus 25:25

Today's Scripture Reading (November 22, 2021): Leviticus 25

We live under the belief that what a nation does should be for the benefit of the people who live in the country. Every government should be able to make decisions that will help the citizenship. But that is not the way the world often works. Politicians often become indebted to the corporations who helped them get elected, and in return, they tend to do things that benefit them instead of the people of the nation.

Foreign-owned and multi-national companies, especially in developing nations, can exert enormous pressures on the political system to benefit the company's desires over the needs of the people. And that effect can become exaggerated by the phenomenon of foreign ownership. The problem of foreign ownership was a circumstance of which the Mosaic Law was aware. Under the demands of the Law of Moses, when Israel moved into the land that was promised to them, it would be divided up according to tribe or family unit. But the law also recognized that people would fall on hard times and that one way that they might be able to get out of that trouble would be to sell their land. And it was possible that, in many instances, the buyer would be from outside the tribe or family, and through this process of foreign ownership, the tribe would gradually lose control over the area in which they lived. And so, the law specified that when an Israelite became poor and needed to sell the property, the one who should buy it would be someone from the family, the nearest relative. In this way, the property remained in control of the tribe, and the influence of people from outside of the tribe was minimized.

It is the theme of the story of Ruth. As Naomi falls on hard times, Boaz, a close relative of Naomi's, is invited to save Naomi and Ruth by purchasing the land. But in a plot twist, the redemption of the land seems to include Ruth, something that is not in the Mosaic Law, and Boaz isn't actually the nearest relative. Before Boaz can redeem the land and marry Ruth, the closest relative has to pass on the arrangement. In Ruth, this nearest relative is called a kinsmen or guardian-redeemer. And, in the story, he is willing to redeem the land but not marry the girl, and so that pleasure falls on Boaz, who redeems the land and marries Ruth, in the process keeping the land, and the girl, in the family, and fulfilling this aspect of the Mosaic Law.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Leviticus 26