FaTo: Finding a Home II (Appendix)

 
  In my earlier post FaTo: Finding a Home II, I spoke about how we should always be wise in our use of the money which the Lord has lent to us. I decided to enclose the below thoughts separately as they are not central to the issue which was at hand. 

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  The Old Testament offers a quite interesting development on our discussion about renting property. The civic laws given to the nation of Israel in the book of Leviticus are not entirely quiet on the subject:

  Simply put, the law said that land could not (for all intents and purposes) be sold- only rented- and every 50 years (on the year of Jubilee) it would return to its original owner.

   This law would have meant that, although one generation might come into some financial trouble, no family could be sent spiralling into poverty. Even if money and flocks and possessions had been bartered away, after 50 years the family would receive their land back and thus could continue to make a living. Unfortunately, the Israelites failed to keep the Jubilee year and, in the whole history of Ancient Israel, it only took place once. 

  I hasten to point out that this law only applied to land outside of city walls, i.e. agricultural land. Houses and buildings inside of a city would not provide the means to sustain a poor family, therefore there was no need for the law to protect the sale of it. Likewise, in the 21st century few people make a living ‘off of the land’ and therefore there is not need for such a law to stop the sale of land. It is also worth pointing out that the land owners in Biblical Israel would probably only have ‘leased’ their land away when they were in desperate need of cash (and this law stopped them from fully selling the land, thus protecting future generations from losing their inheritance) whereas modern day landlords are overwhelmingly better off than most of their tenants and are not in the midst of financial woe.

  I take the following principle away from this particular levitical law (although I don’t claim to have the definitive answer):

   In all activities surrounding the sale of property, efforts must be undertaken to ensure that no family or individual will make a dramatic loss which may lead to significant long-term financial difficulty.

  In practical terms, the above principle actually has quite a big effect. I know of one Christian family who decided to sell their property to someone whose life was in some turmoil out of the desire to offer some help, even when another offer looked like it might be completed quicker and easier. Perhaps if we do need to rent or buy a property, we should be looking for a vendor who could really do with the benefit, rather than rushing to buy from a property developer or big-shot? Again, this requires prayer. I also think that this principle resonates amongst the many people stuck with negative-equity at that moment. How can we ease their burden when looking for a house?

Whatever our individual circumstances, we should try to alleviate the financial burdens and worry of our landlords or vendors and act with the love that Christ shows us.