Leviticus, Chapter
25, Verse 43
Do not lord it over them harshly, but stand in fear of your God.
This verse in the book
of Leviticus is about how to treat the hired help or the slaves of the rich. It
was common for a poor Jew to hire himself out as a slave for up to seven years,
the year of the jubilee to pay for his daily bread. Although a slave; God
commands they will be treated with dignity and respect for all the Jews were
liberated by God from the Egyptians. This verse also from a modern standpoint
sounds a lot like servant leadership. The focus of the servant leader as
discussed by Greenleaf (2002) is primarily in serving. To serve both the
organization and the people in it; this involves the leader having to focus on
how to best serve and having concern for well-rounded work, community and power
sharing. This is the greatness of our Lord in that He shares with us His
majesty and forgives us our failings.
2017 is the 5777 Jewish year and is a year of Jubilee. As a leader, do
want you can to help your workforce to become as independent as they can. Help
them establish their own businesses if they have the skill and will if not help
them to establish their own estates. If you are a working person; do want you
can to become Holy in the eyes of the Lord and work toward establishing your
own estate.
The Year of the Jubilee[1]
Rest is good for the soul. The
righteous Jew was to not plant crops every seventh year and on the fiftieth
year to have a year of Jubilee where every debt was wiped away and every slave
freed. If only it could be so! During these special years God called Jews to
change their behavior. Consider the lessons God gives to leaders during these
special Sabbaths.
1.
It gave the people a time of rest.
2.
It gave the people an opportunity for redemption.
3.
It gave the people time for reflection.
4.
It gave the people time for reward and repair. (Sharpen
the Saw)
5.
It gave the people time for relationships (people over
material gain)
6.
It gave the people time to refocus. (God first)
God
created man in his image in the divine image he created him; male and female he
created them. (Gn 1:27) The two creation stories in the book of Genesis
communicate two important truths about the identity of man and woman and the
relationship between them. In the first account, God creates both male and female
at the same time and in the divine image. This act completes creation, and God
judges it to be ―very good (Gn 1:31). In this way, Sacred Scripture affirms the
fundamental equality and dignity of man and woman as persons created in God‘s
image. The second creation account emphasizes that both sexes are necessary for
God‘s plan. Having created Adam, God says,―It is not good for the man to be
alone (Gn 2:18). So God creates a helpmate who is suitable for him and matches him.―Helpmate
(ezer) is a word reserved in the Bible not for inferiors but most often for God
himself, who is Israel‘s ―helper. Indeed, after God creates all of the animals
and brings them to Adam to name, it becomes clear that none of them is―the
suitable partner for the man (Gn 2:20).Then God puts Adam under a deep sleep
and, using one of his ribs, builds up a woman for him as a suitable partner or
helpmate. When he sees the woman, Adam cries out in wondrous joy: This one, at
last, is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; this one shall be called―woman,
for out of ―her man this one has been taken. (Gn 2:23)Adam and Eve were
literally made for each other. Man and woman have been made to come together in
the union of marriage. The text of Genesis continues: That is why a man leaves
his father and mother and clings to his wife, and the two of them become one
body [flesh] (Gn 2:24). Marriage, this clinging together of husband and wife as
one flesh, is based on the fact that man and woman are both different and the
same. They are different as male and female, but the same as human persons who
are uniquely suited to be partners or helpmates for each other. The difference
between man and woman, however, cannot be restricted to their bodies, as if the
body could be separated from the rest of the human person. The human person is
a union of body and soul as a single being. Man and woman are two different
ways of being a human person. While man and woman are different, their
differences serve to relate them to each other. They are not different in a
parallel way, as two lines that never meet. Man and woman do not have separate
destinies. They are related to each other precisely in their differences. The
differences between male and female are complementary. Male and female are distinct
bodily ways of being human, of being open to God and to one another—two
distinct yet harmonizing ways of responding to the vocation to love. While
human persons are more than biological organisms, the roots of marriage can be seen
in the biological fact that a man and a woman can come together as male and
female in a union that has the potential for bringing forth another human
person. This kind of union fills the need for the continuation of the human
race. Since human beings exist at more than a biological level, however, this
union has further personal and spiritual dimensions. Marriage does not exist solely
for the reproduction of another member of the species, but for the creation of
a communion of persons. To form a communion of persons is the vocation of
everyone. As Pope John Paul II teaches, all human persons are created in the
image of God, who is a communion of love of three persons, and thus all are
called to live in a communion of self-giving love: ―to say that man is created in
the image and likeness of God means that man is called to exist ̳for ‘others,
to become a gift. Marriage, however, is a unique communion of persons. In their
intimate union as male and female, the spouses are called to exist for each
other. Just as Genesis describes Eve as a helper for Adam, we can see that in
marriage, a husband and wife are meant to help each other through self-giving.―In
the ̳unity of the two,‘ man and woman are called from the beginning not only to
exist side by side ‘or together, ‘but they are also called to exist mutually „one
for the other. ‟This communion of persons has the potential to bring forth
human life and thus to produce the family, which is itself another kind of
communion of persons and which is the origin and foundation of all human
society. It is precisely the difference between man and woman that makes
possible this unique communion of persons, the unique partnership of life and
love that is marriage. A man and woman united in marriage as husband and wife serve
as a symbol of both life and love in a way that no other relationship of human
persons can.
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