«You shall not cheat one another, but you shall fear your God; for I am the Lord your God» (Leviticus 25:17, NSRV).
This principle of honesty was given in the context of land ownership. I want to comment briefly on the context before analyzing the verse itself. It was God’s divine will that the land be cultivated for six years, and it should rest the seventh, which was called the sabbatical year. Any land that was sold went back to the original owners every fifty years. This means that if someone were forced to sell their property, it wasn’t forever. No matter how many times a property was sold, it went back to the original owner in the fiftieth year. It’s valued at sale was diminished according to the number of harvest left before the fiftieth year, and sabbatical years were discounted, because the land would rest those years. The fiftieth year was called the Year of Jubilee.
Let’s take a look at the life lessons we learn from this custom. Whoever sowed trusted that in the sixth year the harvest would be double and would provide for the sabbatical year, when the earth would rest. God even takes care of nature! The Year of Jubilee ensured that there would be no extreme wealth or extreme poverty. If we practiced this principle, we would learn that we are only stewards of what we own. The word «stress» would not exist in dictionaries, since each human being, besides their weekly rest, would have a year of rest after six years of work. There would be no lack of fertility in the soil. Wealth would flow more freely; hunger and poverty would be unknown. How far we are from the divine ideal!
Today’s verse is applicable to interpersonal relationships within the con text of this way of understanding land ownership, private property, and the material value of things. It is a reproach to deceit, lying, and unfaithfulness. When cheating is referred to as astuteness, lying is justified by situational ethics, and unfaithfulness is dismissed as a slip, God refers to them by their proper name: deceitfulness. Those who do not respect God play with His mercy and reach the edges of infatuation, without taking seriously the sin of cheating. «To trifle with hearts is a crime of no small magnitude in the sight of a holy God.»-The Adventist Home,ch. 8, p. 57.If you do not respect the feelings of others, God will place your name alongside those of criminals. That is how serious cheating is for God! If you have been cheated on, you will understand why God abhors this conduct.
Whoever fears God will treat the people around them with respect and admiration. Today, renew your promise of honesty to God and to your loved ones.
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Taken from: Devotional Thoughts for Women 2023
“DAUGHTER OF MINE” Do Not Be Afraid
From: Arsenia Fernandez-Uckele
Collaborators: Xiomara Perdomo & Angelica Cuate
