Most of the chapter is about how to "redeem" people or things that had been promised to the Lord in a vow. Vows are not a particularly familiar concept to us nowadays, at least in this sense, and so the detail in this part of Leviticus might seem a little puzzling to us. Why would God choose to end this book of the law with this particular section?
The vows referred to were when someone made a voluntary promise to give something to God. It was sort of a "credit card" kind of worship. The person might not have a sheep available at that point in time, but he was promising to give one to God in the future, usually as a voluntary expression of thankfulness for God's blessing or favour in his life, or in anticipation of some way that he was trusting God to intervene on his behalf. A modern day example might be when we pledge to give a certain amount of money to a church building project or a missionary endeavour, even if we don't have that much money available yet. We're trusting God to provide, and promising to give in the near future.
In some ways, this section is a sad commentary on the weakness of human nature. If promises are supposed to be kept, why would God make provision for people to break them and reverse their vows? I think it's simply that God in His graciousness is recognising that sometimes humans change their minds or realise that they impulsively made a vow which they're unable to follow through with. So he's offering the people a way out: a way of backtracking on vows they were unable or unwilling to fulfil, so that they wouldn't deserve a penalty for breaking their word.
There's a lot of detail about what to do if you'd promised to donate a house or field or animal to the Lord, but the section that caught my attention this morning was the early part of the chapter where it talks about redeeming people - presumably when a person had pledged themself or another family member to serve God in the temple or serve the priests by working in the fields. (An example of this might be when Hannah prayed, in the first book of Samuel, longing to become pregnant and vowing to give the child back to the Lord.)
It would be so easy to interpret these verses in the wrong way. A "price list" is laid out at the beginning of chapter 27, clarifying what needed to be paid to redeem someone who had been pledged to the Lord. The price for men is higher than for women; the price for a healthy, mature adult is more than for children or the elderly. It's easy to see how this section could contribute to the flawed worldview that so many people embrace today: believing that a person's value lies in what they are able to do. This is the worldview that allows people to have no qualms about killing an unborn child because she has Down's Syndrome, or advocating euthanasia for an elderly person with a physical or psychological disability. Our modern world focuses on what people are able to contribute to society and assesses a person's value on that basis.
It's true, in fact, that this list of redemption prices is based on the "market value" of people in those days. The amount to be paid is in line with what that person would fetch if they were working. It's not in any way intended to be demeaning of women, children or the elderly, but is simply a recognition of the value that person had in the workforce of that society, and therefore the level of sacrifice involved in dedicating them to serve the Lord.
How vital it is that we don't carry a wrong understanding of this passage into our dealings in the modern world. There's nothing in scripture that suggests women are less valuable to God than men, that adults are of more value than children, or that the young and strong are of more value than the old and weak. Our true value lies in the fact that we are unique individuals, created in the image of God.
- How rare is it? Gold is more valuable than plastic because there's less of it in the world. If there's only one of something, it's especially valuable, much more so than something that is common and easy to come by.
- Who created it? A painting by a master like Van Gogh has more value than a picture by an unknown artist.
And every single one of us, young or old, rich or poor, strong or weak, male or female, was created in the image of God by God Himself, the greatest Artist of all time.
This is where our true value lies. It's really nothing to do with what we can achieve, and everything to do with who we are in God's sight.
