Leviticus 25:1-12 The LORD spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai,
saying, (2) "Speak to the people of Israel and say
to them, When you come into the land that I give you, the land shall keep a
Sabbath to the LORD. (3) For six years you shall sow your field, and
for six years you shall prune your vineyard and gather in its fruits, (4)
but in the seventh year there shall be a Sabbath of solemn rest for the
land, a Sabbath to the LORD. You shall not sow your field or prune your
vineyard. (5) You shall not reap what grows of itself in
your harvest, or gather the grapes of your undressed vine. It shall be a year
of solemn rest for the land. (6) The Sabbath of the land shall provide food
for you, for yourself and for your male and female slaves and for your hired
worker and the sojourner who lives with you,
(7) and for your cattle and for
the wild animals that are in your land: all its yield shall be for food. (8)
"You shall count seven weeks of years, seven times seven years, so
that the time of the seven weeks of years shall give you forty-nine years. (9)
Then you shall sound the loud trumpet on the tenth day of the seventh
month. On the Day of Atonement you shall sound the trumpet throughout all your
land. (10) And you shall consecrate the fiftieth year,
and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a
jubilee for you, when each of you shall return to his property and each of you
shall return to his clan. (11) That fiftieth year shall be a jubilee for
you; in it you shall neither sow nor reap what grows of itself nor gather the
grapes from the undressed vines. (12) For it is a jubilee. It shall be holy to you.
You may eat the produce of the field.
As we have made our way through Exodus and Leviticus we have seen that
many of the laws and commandments God has given to the nation of Israel are to
serve as important reminders, and are for their good. In Leviticus 25 we have
such laws given in the giving of the Sabbath and Jubilee years.
The following truths are made clear and taught in this chapter:
1.) They are to trust God to supply all of their needs. For six years
that could sow and reap, trusting God to supply the growth and feed their
nation, and to further demonstrate that trust in the Sabbath year, by trusting
God to supply a bumper crop in the sixth year. This bumper crop was given not
to enable them to become exceedingly wealthy, but so that they could make
preparation and provision for the Sabbath year. They were required to
demonstrate obedience in that sixth year by storing crops and food for the
coming Sabbath year.
2.) The land is God’s, they are not land owners rather they are
stewards of God’s land. God will bring them into the Promised Land, God will
drive out their enemies and God will establish and bless them in this land. The
Promised Land is not that which they deserve, it was not stolen from them, nor
did it belong to the ancestors since for hundreds and hundreds of years. It was
entrusted to them by God, but He remained the sovereign king, ruler and owner
of that land. God desired for the people to understand this and with that
understanding care for the land in an appropriate, God-glorifying manner. They
were to worship God in how they used, cared for and lived in the land.
3.) They were all God’s servants, no man belonged to himself, nor was
any man a power or authority unto himself. God was not just king, ruler and
owner of land, but also of the people. God made this clear to them when He
entered into the covenant with them back in Exodus 19 and 20, they were to be
His people, belonging to God, His nation. They promised to serve God and God
alone throughout all their generations. Therefore they were not to permanently enslave
their fellow countrymen but set them free in the year of Jubilee.
4.) The Sabbath and Jubilee years were also designed to encouraged
honesty, generosity and care for the poor. It ensured that the poor were not
just cared for, but were also restored to that which had been lost, or sold due
to their poverty. It sought to bring an end to the cycle of poverty that
families find themselves in, with the present or future generations inheriting
the poverty of the past generation. The Jubilee year encouraged them to be
honest in their business dealing when it came to the buying and selling of
properties and fields, whilst also protecting people from being taken advantage
of by deceitful, manipulative or powerful people.
There are many other reasons for which the Sabbath and Jubilee years
were instituted by God, but ultimately these years were designed to bring the
people back to that which was the centre of everything, God. It reminded them
that the land was God’s, the crops came from God and they belonged to God. God
was to worshipped, served and obeyed in all things. Life for the Israelites was
not about enriching themselves, but was to be about loving God and loving their
neighbour, seeking to build a nation that loved and served God.
Despite all the good reasons for which the Sabbath and Jubilee years
were instituted, on no occasion in the Old Testament do we ever read of either
of them being observed. Sadly we do read of oppression, cruelty and greed. The
failure to be obedient in matters such as these quickly led the nation into sin
and compromise, and brought them under God’s hand of severe discipline on a
number of occasions.
There are several important truths that we can learn from this
passage. We can apply the same four lessons we have observed in this passage:
The need to trust God to provide for all our needs, and that all things belong
to God, in the words of Job we came into the world with nothing and we will
leave with nothing. We need to remember that we are a part of God’s creation,
and all the more the so if we are believers in Christ, for we are now a part of
God’s people, God’s holy nation. We are also to care for one another, and
especially for the oppressed, poor, fatherless, orphaned and widowed.
But the more important truth that we need to learn from this passage
is that disobedience, the ignoring of God’s ways and commands, always leads to
sin, compromise and distress. Human wisdom is so often contrary to God’s wisdom
and therefore contrary to true wisdom. Human wisdom teaches us to get as much
as we can, to look out for ourselves, to do that which will ensure we will have
a good life and prosperous future. If there is a deal to be had we should go
for it, even if it comes at a cost to others. Human wisdom says swim or you
will sink! Therefore we work longer and harder, to use underhanded means to
gain a profit, or try to manipulate a deal so that we get more than what we
should. God’s wisdom says, trust in God, look to God for all things, serve,
obey and glorify God in all things, and demonstrate the truth of this in your
life and in your love for your neighbour. As we do this we are to confidently
rest in the fact that God will faithfully provide for all our needs. We need to
trust in the wisdom and ways of God, and not the world.
Faithful Father, Your goodness and wisdom
is so much higher and greater than ours. Your faithfulness knows no end!
Forgive us for the times when we have departed from Your wise, good and
faithful ways, thinking we know better, or thinking that You will fail us. In
doing this we have foolishly led ourselves into much distress and brought
others into suffering. Help us to learn the truths taught in Leviticus 25, and
to put them into action in our lives. May You truly be the centre of all that
we are, do, love and long for. Amen.
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