December 22, 2023

Passage Read: Leviticus 27 - Numbers 3
Meditation Verses: Leviticus 27:14-15

Thought

To consecrate something to the Lord is to lose ownership of it to the Lord. You could still use it, but it technically belonged to the Lord, even to the point where in the year of Jubilee actual control and ownership would pass to the priests. If the one who consecrated the item to the Lord wanted it back, to have full control and ownership, he had to pay a fifth more than the original valuation to buy it back from the Lord. The priests received that money on behalf of the Lord. If a man consecrated something of his as holy to the Lord, then he had to remember that, that it actually belonged to the Lord and he was not free to dispose of it however he wished.

Application

We dedicate things to the Lord today, but it doesn't have the same meaning as God described here, that He actually became the owner of the thing. If we dedicated our home in service to the Lord, then the church should receive the money from its sale, not ourselves. Or else, we should pay the original valuation price of the house when dedicated and add a fifth to it and give that to the church in order to retain the right of keeping the final sales price for ourselves. We have such a light view of these concepts, as compared to when God first explained them, as if they're only spiritual concepts and have no material consequence. To understand these things God's way makes Him much more real and near than to understand them in the modern way. I don't want to throw these terms around as if meaningless, but I want to recognize that there are serious, real world implications to God's Word. He cares about what we say and what we do with things we say belong to Him.