Leviticus episode 9 - When Worship Reorders Society: From Blasphemy To Freedom

What if the most radical social policy begins in worship? We open Leviticus 24–25 and find a blueprint where reverence for the Name reshapes hearts, households, and even soil. This conversation moves from the gravity of blasphemy to the tenderness of Sabbath for the land, showing how God’s character becomes a public ethic. The thread is simple and demanding: when you know who God is, you treat people with dignity, you rest what you could exploit, and you build communities that make mercy ordinary.

We wrestle with the modern hunger for justice and why programmes alone can’t carry the weight of renewal. From Jesus’ question about gaining the world and losing the soul, we argue for a holistic mission: proclaim good news and live it. That lens reframes environmental care as discipleship, not trend. Romans 8’s vision of creation groaning for freedom meets Leviticus’ land Sabbath, and practical examples surface: when wells are dug carelessly, the poor suffer; when the church serves wisely, living water flows. The story of arsenic poisoning in Bangladesh becomes a case study in how stewardship and compassion belong together.

Then comes Jubilee: debts cancelled, slaves set free, land returned, inheritance restored. It is the social architecture of hope and a preview of the kingdom reset when Christ returns. We explore how the early church budgeted to free slaves and care for orphans, and how that spirit continued through Wesley’s revival preaching and Wilberforce’s long fight against the slave trade. The challenge is clear: guard the Name, cultivate Sabbath habits, and carry Jubilee into policies, generosity, and everyday choices that prefer contribution over consumption.

If this resonates, subscribe, share the episode with a friend, and leave a review telling us where you long to see Jubilee break out next. Your voice helps the conversation move from ideas to action.

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Transcript

Setting The Scene In Leviticus

SPEAKER_01 0:30

Yeah, book by book, and here we are at beautiful green, sunlit sandown park here in Surrey, England, as we come now to the ninth in our series of the Book by Book Studies in the Book of Leviticus. It's a thrilling book, it's turning out to be, and I'm joined here, I'm Richard Buse, I'm joined here by Dr. Paul Blackham, and also by the Reverend Joseph Steinberg, who works with the Church Mission Society in Oxford. He's of Jewish background, and that's so fascinating as we look at these studies in Leviticus. What we'll do then is to come to chapter 25 of this great book, and now verse 39. And it's the words of God he's speaking. If one of your countrymen becomes poor among you and sells himself to you, do not make him work as a slave. He is to be treated as a hired worker or a temporary resident among you. He is to work for you until the year of Jubilee. Then he and his children are to be released, and he will go back to his own clan and to the property of his forefathers. Because the Israelites are my servants whom I brought out of Egypt, they must not be sold as slaves. Do not rule over them ruthlessly, but fear your God. This is a very practical study that we're engaged in right now. Living in the land and justice and compassion under the marks of God's redeemed people. So, Joseph, may I start with you? I mean, all the Levitical laws of social justice, they seem quite attractive to modern years, especially when we think about make poverty history and programs like that. But actually, where does where does genuine social justice stem from?

SPEAKER_00 2:12

Well, it's interesting because I mean social justice is an important issue today, and it should be. Social justice is important. But I think Jesus gives us some perspective on it when he says, what does it profit a person to gain the whole world

What Fuels True Social Justice

SPEAKER_00 2:27

but lose their own soul? And I think that we need to hold into context the contrast between caring for the world around us, which God wants us to do, but also caring about our relationship with God. If there was a program which was just about, you know, come come to know God through the Lord Jesus, we wouldn't see many people taking that up. But when we have programs that deal with social justice, a lot of people take it up. That's good, but I think that what the Lord wants, and we see this in Leviticus, is that He wants, as we've been using that word, holistic, He wants whole change. He wants a change from the inside out, He wants our hearts to be changed, and that is what is supposed to fuel the social transformation that we're supposed to see in the world around us. And sometimes I think we put the cart before the horse. And that's why it's important, for instance, for me. I feel very committed to working for the Church Mission Society, because mission isn't just about proclaiming the good news, it's also about living the good news, it's about being the good news. And so justice is right here at the heart of Leviticus, and we see this, and we're gonna look at this in the study today. But justice is important, but so is, of course, coming into that fellowship relationship with God from which justice flows. And that is supposed to pervade all of our relationships. Oh, yes.

SPEAKER_01 3:39

Change the world. My dad, actually, he was uh a missionary with the Church Mission Society years ago in Kenya. And what was dad doing? He was preaching the gospel, preaching the cross, but he was also establishing schools and things like that. And that was part of the whole deal, really. And all for the glory of God, ultimately, that's what it's about.

SPEAKER_00 4:00

That's right.

SPEAKER_01 4:00

So when we think of his name, that's important. Actually, they talk about blasphemy in these

Why Blasphemy Against The Name Matters

SPEAKER_01 4:06

chapters. Why is blasphemy, Paul Blackham, uh, against the name so so serious in the book of Leviticus?

SPEAKER_02 4:13

Well, it's right, and sometimes people today will talk about blasphemy or blasphemy laws, and people say, yeah, blasphemy is bad because it offends people's beliefs. Actually, Leviticus isn't coming from that angle at all. That's not why it's fine, it's because it's not about people's beliefs, it's against because of the Lord God, it's it's an offense against him. And here it says it's blasphemy against the name. And that's it, just the name. Why why is what's the series of that? Well, the name of the Lord God, that is everything that the Lord God is. It it's so for instance in Genesis 4.26 it says people began to call on the name of the Lord. Meaning, you know, they began to call out to him for who he is and what he stands for, his gospel, his covenant, his his mercy, his forgiveness. And then in Exodus, you know, Moses wants, he he asks to see the glory of God. And what does the the Lord speaks his name in his presence, and it's the Lord, the Lord, compassionate and merciful and slow to anger, and so on. So you think, ah, the name, that's everything that God stands for. That's who he is, that's what his heart, what his his business, his manifesto. And then my the one that I always um uh I remember is in Acts 5, uh, and it's from verse 40 in Acts 5, uh when we have the the apostles are there, and uh it says it's Acts 5, verse 41, the apostles left the Sanhedrin rejoicing because they had been counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the name.

SPEAKER_01 5:48

Yeah, it's there, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 5:50

Day after day in the temple courts and from house to house, they never stop preaching, teaching, and proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the Christ. So this issue of blasphemy, it's not just that a person casually or or thoughtlessly says something that against God or something. It's a re- it's this deep rejection of all that God is. So that's why when we read this story in Leviticus 24, and it seems really shocking that someone is executed for doing that, it's because if they are rejecting all that God is, there is no place for them. And that's that's ultimately the really serious news. If anybody rejects all that God is, the judgment day is coming. And so when we read that little story and we're shocked by it, let's take it as a warning. If we reject all that God is, he has no place for us.

SPEAKER_01 6:37

And ultimately, if we're his servants, everything we do is to be for the sake of the name.

SPEAKER_02 6:42

For the sake of the name.

SPEAKER_01 6:43

And actually, it's touching everything that we do. Even the land here is in uh Leviticus is

Sabbath For The Land And Creation’s Hope

SPEAKER_01 6:50

affected. I mean, the land itself, Joseph, gets a Sabbath rest, I learn here. Can you explain how that fits into the Bible's teaching?

SPEAKER_00 6:58

Well, again, Leviticus is concerned with the whole of life. And of course, creation fits in with that. You know, we've done some serious damage to the earth over the last number of years, and I think a lot of that in some ways stems from an individualistic understanding, an individualistic spirituality, rather than having an understanding of the community of belief or community of faith, a commute nation, national faith, uh, national and international global care of the earth. And I think that God in Leviticus is showing us that, in fact, and reminding us back to Genesis that we were originally supposed to care for the earth. And part of that care, again, when God created the earth, was that day of rest, that Sabbath. And it was an acknowledgement as well that everything ultimately is the Lord's. And so it's interesting if you go and you look into, say, Romans chapter 8 and you go to verses 20. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God. So we know that Paul is saying that creation groans an expectation to be made new again, this new creation. And so, in many ways, this Sabbath rest is painting the picture of that day of ultimate rest when the new creation is everything is brought back into the way it was meant to be. You know, once again, this theme comes up again and again and again where disease, where decay and death is no longer a part of the created order. Well, it never was a part of the created order, but a part of the result of the fall. So this is very much a sign and symbol uh of the longing that we have to see, even the earth, even creation itself, to see the world cared for properly in the way God had preordained for us to do that, and the way that ultimately when when the Lord Jesus returns, we'll be able to live in that fashion.

SPEAKER_01 8:54

It's good actually that today there is a conscience about uh conservation and the environment and all of that. It's a big issue today. Uh actually, where does the the Church of the Lord stand

Caring For Creation As Christian Witness

SPEAKER_01 9:06

in regard to all this poor black?

SPEAKER_02 9:08

Well, it is a it's it's it is an important issue because because, like as Genesis tells us that uh when he created humanity, the Lord God said to gave us responsibility to look after the world. And sometimes people have taken the attitude, well, if Jesus is coming and he's gonna destroy, you know, burn up the everything when he arrives, well, who cares anyway? You know, if it's all gonna be destroyed anyway, we may as well just get on with destroying it anyway.

SPEAKER_01 9:33

I mean, there is a branch of theology that will say that. Preach the word, brother, that's all you've got to do. Let the world the world.

SPEAKER_02 9:39

Forget everything else. But I kind of if I mean, because they well, when Jesus comes, he'll sort it all out so we won't bother now. I wonder is that right to take that view of say, sin, I'll just keep on sinning because when Jesus comes back, he'll get rid of all the sin, so it doesn't matter if we sin now. Not at all. We should have that mentality, really, I think, of saying, how how am I gonna live in the new creation?

SPEAKER_01 10:01

When that when all these things are sorted out, it's his world, I mean he's gonna fix it and he wants to fix it.

SPEAKER_02 10:06

He wants to fix it. And because he's coming back to renew all things, there should be that attitude of renewal in us so that we think, I mean, you know, in the new creation, are we gonna sort of uh have this consumerist mentality of use and abuse? Of course not. We have we will have a uh be um in a holistic relationship with the whole creation and in unity and together with it. So I think now it's uh it's part of our testimony to say we care for the creation, we love the creation, we want to live in harmony with it now. And these principles in the in Leviticus about giving the land rest, that should be part of our attitude. So, you know, we do recycle, we do attempt to minimize our impact on abusing the world.

SPEAKER_00 10:49

Yeah. But also when we do abuse the world, it it does result in death, which God hates because people suffer. I mean, I could bring up any number of uh of things happening in the world, even as we speak, uh, because of the result of not caring for the world

Mission, Mercy, And Environmental Harm

SPEAKER_00 11:02

properly. There are more people today dying of arsenicosis, arsenic poisoning, than of AIDS in Bangladesh because of improper dwelling in the land, just to try to get to fresh water, but not done in the proper way. And we're having to try to, as a mission society, have people there working in a place where the gospel can't freely be shared, to share the gospel in a way uh through service, through trying to fix these wells. People are just being poisoned to death. More people dying of that than AIDS. Amazing, because we're not caring for the earth properly.

SPEAKER_01 11:29

We ought to actually summon up prayer support for CMS, which you represent and for its many workers around the world. It's a big society.

SPEAKER_00 11:37

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 11:37

And it's doing huge work in Asia, Africa, all over the place. And uh all the prayer that we can get for what is being done through you and your colleagues is to be appreciated. I suppose I mean you could say in the last analysis that there's well, not in the last analysis, but there's a level on which you can say there's two kinds of people in the world, the consumers and the contributors. And we want to be among the contributors. That's right. This year of Jubilee

The Jubilee Reset Explained

SPEAKER_01 12:03

now. What about that? Uh we read about that in uh in uh chapter 25. Uh let us say something about what it was uh this year of jubilee, Joseph.

SPEAKER_00 12:14

In many ways, it was a symbol of the return of Christ, I want to say. It's a picture of when the Lord returns and resets everything. It's almost like the reset button on a PC. Because suddenly everything is for all the debts are forgiven, slaves are freed. More than that, slaves are given an inheritance. They're not just set free, they're actually given a life to live again, afresh, a new start. And so this year of Jubilee is a jubilee, celebration, because all things are made new. It's a it's just the perfect picture of when the Lord returns. And also, again, right up to uh Romans 8.23, which talks about, in a sense, when when the Lord returns, we are adopted as his children. And so it's not even just that, okay, you can come live in this city. We're actually heirs and heiresses of the kingdom that God ushers in. So it's an amazing celebration which paints uh a picture of the coming eschaton of the return of Christ. Very, very beautiful picture of that. Very practical picture as well.

SPEAKER_01 13:10

Yes, it is. Uh, then the way that which the church must um maintain this sort of spirit of jubilee, Paul.

Living The Spirit Of Jubilee Today

SPEAKER_01 13:18

How can it do that? What's that all about?

SPEAKER_02 13:19

Well, that's the thing, isn't it? Because we're um we go out and we preach this good news about Jesus Christ, and then what it that good news of Jesus Christ, as you say, we're we make it changes our hearts, and instead of wanting to take from people, we want to give to people. And the church all around the world down the ages gives its energies to not just only when Jesus comes that people are set free, but getting people an experience of freedom now. For instance, um during the in the first centuries after the apostles, the biggest item on the budget of local churches was money to free slaves. That was the biggest item in the budget. The second biggest item was providing for orphans. Why did they do that? Because they had the spirit of jubilee. They wanted, like in the Acts of the Apostles, where they said there was no, that they they gave to everybody as they had need. Because there was that, and the Lord had set them free in their hearts to be generous, to give away whatever they could. And the church carried on doing that. And so when people saw them, they thought, these are people, they live so different to us. They believe in setting people free, they believe in justice and compassion and dignity for human beings. We need to keep that.

SPEAKER_01 14:29

Very much so, and it all comes out of the gospel, that's the original source of it all.

SPEAKER_02 14:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 14:36

Uh, the gospel, the preaching of the word, God's holy desire for his people, and uh out of that comes strength and a whole range of social activity and action for

Wesley, Wilberforce, And Gospel-Driven Reform

SPEAKER_01 14:48

other people. I mean, if you take the Wesley brothers, 250 years ago, John and Charles Wesley, they said to each other, we are going to change the course of history. And they did, by their preaching up and down the land, 20, 20, uh, was it four, 40,000 sermons, ten times round the world on horseback, a tremendous energy level just for the gospel. But out of that came a whole mass of social enterprises. So the very last letter that John Wesley ever wrote when he was uh about eighty-eight was to William Wilberforce, the campaigner for the the abolition of the slave trade. And the letter went as follows Unless God has called you for this very purpose, you will be worn out by the opposition of men and devils. But if God is with you, who can be against you? Go on, sir. Go on in the name of God and in the power of his might. And then within a week, Wesley was dead, but Wilberforce was alive, and with this campaign came to victory and to bring a whole mass of liberation and jubilee to great segments of the world. We've got to be a part of that movement, but it starts with where God is in the heart of the Lord Jesus Christ and his love for this world. God bless you. And in a little while, we'll be right back with our last program in this

Closing Blessing And Series Finale Tease

SPEAKER_01 16:09

series. Thank you so much. God bless you today.