Leviticus 27 – Giving to the Lord our very best

Leviticus 27 is the concluding chapter of this book. The message of this chapter seems to be a departure fr0m the rest of the book. It has to do with making vows to the Lord. Making vows to the Lord could be an emotional response to God for the blessings that one had received from Him. While a vow seems like an appropriate thing to do in the light of God’s goodness, it is something one ought not to make casually. Hence Ecclesiastes 5:4-6 advise us to be judicious in making vows. These verses say “When you make a vow to God, do not be late in paying it; for He takes no delight in fools. Pay what you vow! It is better that you should not vow than that you should vow and not pay. Do not let your speech cause you to sin and do not say in the presence of the messenger of God that it was a mistake. Why should God be angry on account of your voice and destroy the work of your hands?”

Here in Leviticus 27, God set right the matter concerning making vows to Him. Simply put, a vow is a promise. And we all make promises in the crucial milestones of our lives. We give our promise to be faithful to our spouse in the marriage vows. We make promises to raise our children in a godly fashion when we dedicate them to the Lord. The most important promise we make to the Lord is when we promise to give to Him our life, set apart for His service. Verses 1-8 deals with the most important pledge one could make to the Lord i.e. to pledge one’s life to Him. Value is attached to a person giving his life to the Lord’s service. Monetary value was assigned to a person due to his or her capacity to contribute to manual labor. A person was valued based on gender and age. Verses 9-25 provided regulations on what one should do regarding pledging his property. The later part of the chapter deals with things that already belong to the Lord. Firstly, first-born of any human or animal; secondly, lands, animal or things specially devoted to the Lord; and thirdly, the tithes.    

What do we take away from this closing chapter? God is faithful and worthy of our response to His goodness toward us. We should give him our lives in total surrender. We must love and serve Him at all times, young or old. But we ought to give Him while we are still able and energetic and not offer Him the fading ashes of our heart. Our God is worthy of the best we can offer, so let’s give Him our very best. When we do that, He multiplies blessings back into our lives!