Stewards of the Land

Stewards of the Land

The earth, we must remember, is the Lord’s.

Leviticus 25:23, 24

“The land shall not be sold in perpetuity, for the land is mine. For you are strangers and sojourners with me. And in all the country you possess, you shall allow a redemption of the land.”

Love for God and obedience to His Law play out in everyday and systemic ways. With respect to the first commandment, we note that love for God involved even proper stewardship of the land.

The tribes of Israel were to receive an allocation of land upon conquering Canaan, and, within that, cities and farmlands would be parceled out to heads of households in a fair and just manner. But the land was still the Lord’s, and His will was that men should work the land and subdue it so as to cause the land to be fruitful and bring forth abundance (Gen. 1:26-28). They would be more likely to do this if they could keep in mind that this land was not their possession but their trust; they were to be stewards, not owners, at least, not as we think of this today.

We are always guests on God’s land, stewards of His gifts and treasures. And we demonstrate our love for Him every day in the way we care for and use all that He has entrusted to us.

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In the Gates is a devotional series on the Law of God by Rev. T.M. Moore, editor of the Worldview Church. He serves as dean of the Centurions Program of the Wilberforce Forum and principal of The Fellowship of Ailbe, a spiritual fellowship in the Celtic Christian tradition. He is the author or editor of twenty books, and has contributed chapters to four others. His essays, reviews, articles, papers, and poetry have appeared in dozens of national and international journals, and on a wide range of websites. His most recent books are The Ailbe Psalter and The Ground for Christian Ethics (Waxed Tablet).

Scripture quotations in this article are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, (c) copyright 2001, 2007 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.