Leviticus 25:1 ¶ And the
LORD spake unto Moses in mount Sinai, saying, 2
Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye come into
the land which I give you, then shall the land keep a sabbath unto the LORD.
3 Six years thou shalt sow thy field,
and six years thou shalt prune thy vineyard, and gather in the fruit thereof;
4 But in the seventh year shall be a
sabbath of rest unto the land, a sabbath for the LORD: thou shalt neither sow
thy field, nor prune thy vineyard. 5
That which groweth of its own accord of thy harvest thou shalt not reap,
neither gather the grapes of thy vine undressed: for it is a year of
rest unto the land. 6 And the sabbath of
the land shall be meat for you; for thee, and for thy servant, and for thy
maid, and for thy hired servant, and for thy stranger that sojourneth with
thee, 7 And for thy cattle, and for the
beast that are in thy land, shall all the increase thereof be meat.
Here is another kind of Sabbath, a Sabbath of rest for the land.
We know today from experience and science how land can become exhausted. A Soil
Erosion website put it this way; “if crops are repeatedly cultivated in an
area, the soil eventually becomes infertile.”[1]
Now, I come from a long line of farmers but I am not a farmer. I don’t know if
this fact applies to this Law of God for the Hebrews. Early 18th
century commentator Matthew Henry wrote that God made it clear that He was the
Hebrew’s landlord and that they were tenants. I think this can be enlarged to
include all of us who use what belongs to God. Allowing things to grow wild in
the seventh year was to result in free access to the food that grew for the
Hebrews, their slaves and hired servants, and foreigners living among them as
well as for their animals.
For me, what is astounding about these rules is that God gave the
Hebrews and I think we can safely say that it would do no harm to God’s word if
we acknowledged their gift to all mankind a day off from activity in a week and
a year in seven for the land to rest and everyone to enjoy its bounty
unrestricted. Just imagine that if you applied it to your life. Of course, we
are not under the Law and our cultural and legal restrictions are not at
argument here. I just think that a guarantee that you, and that includes those
who toil on their days off like women, are entitled to one day off from any
work in a week and that for one year in seven the land should lie untilled is
amazing.
[1]
“Soil Conservation: Everything You Need to Know,” https://soilerosion.com/tag/land-overuse/,
(accessed 1.17.2020).
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