11. “How to Live in a Land of Abundance” (Leviticus 18 and 19)

How to Live in a Land of Abundance

Leviticus 18:1-5 and 19:1-18

Hold your breath
Make a wish
Count to three

Come with me and you’ll be
In a world of pure imagination
Take a look and you’ll see
Into your imagination

That song “Pure Imagination” comes from the movie Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. The song goes on to say “Want to change the world? There’s nothing to it.” That movie and that song tap into something very human. As humans we long to live in a world of possibilities. A world of pure imagination. A world where Gobstoppers never lose their flavor. A world where elevators can go sideways and slantways and longways and back ways… and any other ways you can think of. A world where the only constraints to creativity are the limits of our imaginations. We might take a hard pass on the Oompa Loompas, but there is something about a world of abundance that feels right.

The story of the Bible is the story of a God that makes a world of possibilities, a world of abundance. And then sin messes everything up. Instead of living in lives of abundance, sin has made it so that our world is marred by scarcity. Our world is now often plagued by the fear that there will not be enough. But God didn’t make us to live lives of scarcity. He didn’t make us to live fearful and self-protective lives. No, God made us to live lives of security and love. God made us to live lives of abundance. So here’s the question Leviticus 18-19 is going to help us answer: How do we live lives of abundance in a world marred by scarcity?

This is kind of a part two to Geoff’s message last Sunday. You may recall that we’ve turned a corner in our study of Leviticus. The symbolic and ritual holiness has receded to the background, and now the focus is on moral and ethical holiness. A moral and ethical holiness that flow from being in a relationship with a holy God.  

Israel belonged to God. God brought them out of the land of Egypt, a land of scarcity, and was leading them into the land of Canaan, a land of abundance. And because they belonged to God, because they had this new identity — they were called to live distinctly. God placed his name upon Israel that they might learn to live lives from a place of abundance rather than scarcity. We see this in 18:3 God says to Israel, “You shall not do as they do in the land of Egypt, where you lived, and you shall not do as they do in the land of Canaan, to which I am bringing you.” The commands that God will lay out for Israel is the way that they are to live lives of holiness and love. God is defining for Israel how their relationship with Him should make a difference in their everyday lives.

When Chelsea and I went on our honeymoon we often sat by the pool and talked about how we wanted to live our new life together. If you are married or thinking about getting married, you’ve probably had conversations like this too. Conversations where you’ve talked about how you want your relationship to be distinct. And these conversations are sprawling. You talk about what the relationship will look like in every area of your new lives together. In finances, in work, in friendships and on and on. 

And that is what God is doing with Israel in these chapters of Leviticus. He is saying to Israel, “You belong to me. And because you belong to me this is how you are to live distinct. You shall be distinctly mine by the way you treat one another. By the way you care for the most vulnerable of society. By the way you live lives of integrity. By the way you love.” God is defining the relationship, telling Israel not to conform to the ways of Egypt, nor to the ways of Canaan. They aren’t to be like everybody else. They are to be distinct. They are to be holy. 

Holiness sometimes gets a bad rap. We don’t use the word so frequently in our culture. The only cultural reference that comes to mind is a song by Justin Bieber called “Holy.” But even if it’s not the most common word, “holy” does conjure up certain images and feelings. Holiness maybe brings up images of being sequestered from society. We think of monks and nuns who live together and are often separated from society. Or if you’ve been around some evangelical churches in the past 30-40 years, holiness might bring up feelings of being controlled. For some Christians holiness has been more about what people shouldn’t do rather than listening carefully to what God calls us to do. 

Holiness is awesome. Holiness is what a life of abundance looks like. Holiness is not about detaching from society. It is not about being distinct for the sake of distinctness. It is not about avoiding movie theatres, and not dancing, and not reading Harry Potter. No, holiness is about living a life of love. This whole section in Leviticus could be summarized by the command found in verse 18 “you shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Holiness looks like love. Jesus himself says that this is the second most important command in all the Bible. The first being, you shall love the Lord your God will all of your heart, soul, mind, and strength.  

The God of all abundance, the God who blesses his people with every spiritual blessing, the God who is in himself Holy — has brought us into a relationship with Himself so that we would live distinctly. Not because he wants to control us. But because he wants us to set us free. He wants us to live lives of abundance rather than lives of scarcity. We can see this very clearly in Israel’s story. 

Imagine what would it be like for an entire nation of people to be brought out of a land of scarcity and into a land of abundance? Imagine what would it look like if an entire nation lived from a place of abundance, rather than from a place of scarcity? How wonderful would that be? Think of the possibilities. Instead of people being tight-fisted with their resources they would hold them openhandedly – for the good of those most in need. Instead of people feeling the need to do whatever is necessary to get ahead – people would prioritize integrity over profits. Instead of living lives of fear, people would find their hope and their abundance in God. That is the kind of life that God was calling Israel to live. He brought them out of Egypt and was bringing them into the land of Promise – that they would live lives of abundance. Lives of holiness. Lives of love.

We don’t personally know what it was like to live in Egypt or Canaan. We don’t exactly know the temptations that Israel felt to just blend in and be like everybody else. But we do know what it is like to fear that there will not be enough. For the past two-week millions of Americans have been in limbo as to whether or not they would be able to afford food. We might not be able to just copy and paste these commands to our lives. But we still very much live in a world marred by sin and scarcity. And so we also know the temptation to live with our guard up all the time. We know what it is like to feel afraid that there will not be enough.

And I’ll be the first to acknowledge that God’s commands are challenging. They are challenging because they call us to do something that makes us uncomfortable. They require us to be vulnerable. They require us to give up our self-protective strategies and learn to love. CS Lewis said this about love. “To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything and your heart will be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact you must give it to no one, not even an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements. Lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket, safe, dark, motionless, airless, it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. To love is to be vulnerable.”

He is saying our self-protective strategies are effective in some ways. And we will see this same truth reflected in the commands that God gave to Israel. But we will also see that fear and scarcity cannot give us what we most want. Which is love. God’s call to holiness is a call to a life of love. 

So what we will do now is look at a few of the commands that God gave to Israel. To see how they move us away from scarcity and towards the God of all abundance.

One of the ways that Israel was called to be holy as the Lord their God is holy, was in their care for the poor. In verse 9 God says, “You shall not reap your fields right up to its edge, neither shall you gather the gleanings after your harvest.” Israel lived in an agrarian society. And in that society, land was a source of security. So God is commanding them to forgo some personal security so that way the poor can be cared for. What this looked like practically was that at least one edge of an Israelite’s field was to be untouched during the harvest. There were not to reap their entire field for themselves. Instead, the untouched harvest and anything that fell on the ground were meant for the “poor and the sojourner.” God was commanding his people to plan to have margins for those most in need. 

So holiness looks like not pursuing maximum profit for oneself. Holiness looks like planning to live under ones means, so that the most vulnerable in society can be cared for. The wisdom of this command is really quite wonderful. Material needs are going to be met, the poor and the sojourner are not going to go hungry. But it goes a little bit deeper than that too. The command says that the poor and the sojourner are the ones who are meant to harvest the margin. Which means that they will have the dignity that comes from picking the food for themselves. So there is a structure in place that gives them access to what they need, and they get to earn their own food. The holiness that God calls us to is both generous and it gives dignity.

It is a struggle to live under one’s means, isn’t it? With inflation, and tariffs, and the holidays coming up it sounds — fanciful. But the question we need to return to over and over again is the question — are we being conformed to a society marred by scarcity or are we being transformed by the God of all abundance? Think of the Haiti Initiative. Think of the organizations that care for people holistically. Holiness gives thought and careful planning to meet needs that are both material and spiritual.

The second way that Israel was called to be holy related to telling the truth. In verses 11-12 there are commands about lying, theft, and deception. The point is that because God’s people bear his name – they also need to evidence his character. God never lies. He is trustworthy and true. He is totally reliable. So people who bear God’s name, who call on his name, who are in a relationship with him are called to be truthful. Holiness looks like being people of character and integrity. The last command listed in verse 12 gets at this pretty clearly. “You shall not swear by my name falsely.” The reason given is because you will “profane the name of your God.”

Originally this referred to swearing an oath on God’s name when a crime was committed without witnesses. Someone would say, “As the Lord lives, I did not do ‘such and such thing.’” And it would be very easy to lie in this kind of situation. And it might seem advantageous to do so. You might be able to get away with something if you invoke God’s name. Why? Because you are appealing to his character. You are basically saying “God is trustworthy, I’m connected to God, therefore you can believe me.” Of course, this is a heinous way to hide wrongdoing. 

This type of thing still goes on in our world. We have forensics, so we don’t have exactly that same situation. But, people still use God’s name as a cover-up for evil. People still hide behind a cloak of “religion” for personal gain. Think of Televangelists. Think of the numerous scandals of abuse and power that have happened in the church. These things are particularly devastating. When someone claims God’s name and character as a cover up for harm, it causes significant damage. 

So holiness looks like being people of integrity. People who tell the truth. People who bear God’s name not perfectly, but honestly. And even more specifically to this command – holiness looks like holding leadership to a high standard. Not by being suspicious and cynical but rather by implementing structures and systems of accountability. Structures and systems that have real consequences for those who do harm in God’s name.   

The third way that God calls Israel to be holy, that we will look at this morning, is in business practices. Verse 13 says, “The wages of a hired worker shall not remain with you all night until morning.” This command is about the exploitation of a day laborer. What is going on here, is that someone hires a day laborer and promises to pay them a specific wage. A day laborer is someone who by definition is in a vulnerable spot. They are living day by day, paycheck to paycheck. So when the day is done the boss says, “Oh I’m so sorry but I can’t pay you until tomorrow.” The implication being that when tomorrow comes the boss will say the same thing all over again. 

If you keep reading into verse 14 there is something of a maxim given that underscores the point. “You shall not curse the deaf or put a stumbling block before the blind.” If you curse the deaf, they won’t hear it, if you put a stumbling block in front of the blind, they won’t be able to see it. So there is something about trickery going on here. To trick a day-laborer, or to trick a blind person is to exploit their vulnerability for your own gain.

The blind person trips and you get a laugh at them. You get a hard day’s labor out of someone and don’t pay them a single cent. But love does not do this. Holiness does not exploit others for personal gain. Holiness, as we’ve already seen, looks out for the vulnerable. Holiness seeks to give dignity to those in need. Holiness is less concerned about how much I can get for myself and more concerned about what someone else simply needs. 

One of the best real-life examples of this that I know comes from back around 2008, when the housing market went under. I know someone who owns a construction business and had roughly 8 people working for him. The builder told the business owner that he would not be getting paid for the work that they had already completed. The business owner sued but those things take a long time to resolve. So in the meantime what he did was pay his own guys out of his own pocket. He ate the cost so that his guys would be compensated. That is the kind of holiness that God calls us to.

There is a lot of overlap in these commands, isn’t there? We could keep going on – we could keep looking at command after command. And what we would see each time is that fear and scarcity, love and abundance are at war with one another. When the Apostle Paul quotes God’s command to love your neighbor as yourself – he says, “the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh.” The man-made strategies of self-protection move us away from lives of love. They promise to keep us safe but as we’ve seen it is at the expense of others – and in truth at the expense of ourselves too. Scarcity and fear keep us from love.

Israel had moments when they lived distinct and holy lives. One standout was Boaz who allowed Ruth to glean in his fields. But by and large Israel did not hold up their end of the marriage. They didn’t stick to the way that God laid out for their new life together. More often than not, they conformed to the nations around them. They heard the whispers of scarcity in their ears. And so, like Adam and Eve before them, eventually they too were kicked out of the land of abundance. 

As we’ve already said, the greatest hindrance to holiness is fear. Specifically, the fear that there will not be enough. Think about some of the commands that we’ve looked at already. Why would someone harvest all their grain and make sure every last piece of it was picked up? For fear of what the next harvest may or may not bring. Why do people make underhanded decisions in business? For fear that that is what it takes to keep up with everyone else. Scarcity is the enemy of holiness. Scarcity leads us away from trusting in God. Scarcity is why Adam and Eve worried that God was holding out on them. Scarcity is why Israel so often lived indistinguishable from Egypt or Canaan.

But do you know what’s wonderful about that? Scarcity does not stop God’s abundance – it has revealed it all the more in Jesus. 

The God of all abundance sent Jesus into a world marred by sin and scarcity. Jesus left the glories, the riches, and the abundance of heaven and became a human being. He became one of us, he became our neighbor, for the sake of love. And he lived not in a self-protective posture, but in an open and generous one. He multiplied food to feed those in need. He turned over the tables of those who profaned God’s name in God’s house of all places. And on the cross, he had his arms literally pulled wide open. In a moment when every single one of us would have protected ourselves. Jesus said “here are my hands and here are my feet. My life for yours. My life of holiness for your life of fear. My life of abundance for your life of scarcity.”

The holiness that God calls us to is possible, because of Jesus. He is our abundance. And He is also our holiness. He is the one that makes us distinct. He is the one who can silence the whispers of scarcity that echo in our hearts. He is the one who can speak the words of abundance that we so desperately need to hear again and again and again. That we are not our own but belong to God. You belong to the God of all abundance.