Horizons — Land justice

Let Justice Roll Down: God’s call to care for neighbors and all creation  
Lesson 2: 1 Kings 21:1-16

Sam Perkins (name changed) grew up in a rural community, in a family that was land rich and cash poor. When he died, the family owed thousands of dollars in estate taxes and had to sell some of the land to pay them. When a new highway was planned, the state government claimed eminent domain for some of the remaining land and the family received a fraction of what the land was worth. This land grab happened many years ago but is still a bitter memory.

Biblically, retaining family land is important. In 1 Kings, chapter 21, King Ahab fancies the vineyard of his neighbor, Naboth. But when Ahab goes to Naboth and asks to buy his vineyard, Naboth refuses, saying, “Lord forbid that I give you my family inheritance!” Naboth’s reply is a weighted theological statement.

Biblically, land is a gift from God, and all the earth is the Lord’s. When Israel comes into the Promised Land, each tribe and family is allotted land that was to remain in the family in perpetuity. Land allows for the growing of crops and herds by which a family is sustained. If you must sell your land inheritance, the nearest relative is to purchase it. If there are no male heirs, then a daughter can receive it (Numbers 27:8-11). In asking for the land, Ahab is asking Naboth to violate God’s law. The family land is so important that the land is to be returned to the original family in the Year of Jubilee. In Leviticus 25:23-24, God tells us that, “The land cannot be sold permanently because the land is mine and you are foreigners — you’re my tenants. You must provide for the right of redemption for any of the land that you own.” Home sellers in a walled city have the right to buy their home back within a year (verse 29) and if the home is in a village, then it, too, must be returned in the Jubilee year.

The concept of all land belonging to God – and we as tenants of God – is inconceivable in our society. Keeping the homestead in the family is rare. Instead, in the words of Joni Mitchell’s song, “Big Yellow Taxi,” we “paved Paradise and put up a parking lot.”

Ahab goes home in a sulk, knowing he legally cannot force Naboth to sell. His Phoenician wife, Jezebel, who enticed Ahab to worship another god, plots a land grab, persuading Jezreel’s officials to lie about Naboth, saying he has committed blasphemy and treason. After the jury-rigged trial, and Naboth’s death by stoning, Ahab takes possession.

What Ahab and Jezebel did on a small scale, countries have done on an immense scale. Pope Nicolas V wrote edicts in 1452 and 1455, declaring it was permissible “to invade, search out, capture, vanquish, and subdue all Saracens and pagans whatsoever … [and] to reduce their persons to perpetual slavery, and to apply and appropriate to himself and his successors the kingdoms, dukedoms, counties, principalities, dominions, possessions, and goods, and to convert them to his and their use and profit  … ” The Congressional Indian Removal Act of 1830 stole land from Indigenous peoples, forcing their eviction for the sake of cotton growth.

Indigenous people in the U.S. held land in common with others, cultivating the soil as each had need. They worked in partnership with the land and water to be stewards of the land. In Genesis 2:15, humans were to “till and keep the garden.” Patricia Tull informs us that the better translation of the Hebrew word translated as “till,” is “to work for” or “to serve” the land. Today, Indigenous groups are teaching ancient, earth-healing methods of land management.

In what ways can you protect and work for the earth? Plant native species of plants that need less water and can sustain drought better? Pick up litter? Recycle? Help the monarch butterflies survive by planting milkweed? Research green practices that you and your church can do.