In the Ten Commandments, the Lord God gave the forth commandment, “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God.In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it." (Exodus 20:9-11)
Then, when He gave the Law of Sabbaths, He said, “Six years you shall sow your land and gather in its produce, but the seventh year you shall let it rest and lie fallow, that the poor of your people may eat; and what they leave, the beasts of the field may eat. In like manner you shall do with your vineyard and your olive grove. Six days you shall do your work, and on the seventh day you shall rest, that your ox and your donkey may rest, and the son of your female servant and the stranger may be refreshed." (Exodus 23:10-12)
Now, He would explain in detail how the children of Israel were to fulfill this commandment and law; 'Six years you shall sow your field, and six years you shall prune your vineyard, and gather its fruit; but in the seventh year there shall be a sabbath of solemn rest for the land, a sabbath to the Lord. You shall neither sow your field nor prune your vineyard. What grows of its own accord of your harvest you shall not reap, nor gather the grapes of your untended vine, for it is a year of rest for the land. (Leviticus 25:3-5)
God created the heavens and the earth (Genesis 1:1); Thus the heavens and the earth, and all the host of them, were finished. And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made. (Genesis 2:1-3) And God intends for all of creation to have a time of rest, even the earth. We can not expect to keep going and going without stopping at some point to rest; and we can not expect this earth to continue producing what we need without giving it time to rest and be restored.
Not only that, but God is always concerned about the poor and the needy. Those who have are not supposed to continue to "reap a harvest" on the backs of those who less fortunate than they are. They are supposed to allow them the opportunity to rest from their labor, but also to reap some of what they have labored hard to sow. That's why in the seventh year, 'And the sabbath produce of the land shall be food for you: for you, your male and female servants, your hired man, and the stranger who dwells with you, for your livestock and the beasts that are in your land—all its produce shall be for food. (Leviticus 25:6-7)
‘And you shall count seven sabbaths of years for yourself, seven times seven years; and the time of the seven sabbaths of years shall be to you forty-nine years. Then you shall cause the trumpet of the Jubilee to sound on the tenth day of the seventh month; on the Day of Atonement you shall make the trumpet to sound throughout all your land. And you shall consecrate the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a Jubilee for you; and each of you shall return to his possession, and each of you shall return to his family. That fiftieth year shall be a Jubilee to you; in it you shall neither sow nor reap what grows of its own accord, nor gather the grapes of your untended vine. For it is the Jubilee; it shall be holy to you; you shall eat its produce from the field. (Leviticus 25:8-12)
‘In this Year of Jubilee, each of you shall return to his possession. And if you sell anything to your neighbor or buy from your neighbor’s hand, you shall not oppress one another. According to the number of years after the Jubilee you shall buy from your neighbor, and according to the number of years of crops he shall sell to you. According to the multitude of years you shall increase its price, and according to the fewer number of years you shall diminish its price; for he sells to you according to the number of the years of the crops. Therefore you shall not oppress one another, but you shall fear your God; for I am the Lord your God. (Leviticus 25:13-17)
In a previous lesson, we studied about the seven annual festivals appointed by the Lord God, four spring festivals and three fall festivals. The Lord God mentions two of the three fall festivals again here, Trumpet and Day of Atonement. As we studied previously, these festivals represent the rapture of the church and the second coming of Christ Jesus. Now, He mentions the year of Jubilee. Jubilee means a special anniversary or event, especially one celebrating fifty years of a reign or activity.
After completing seven sabbath year, the children of Israel were to begin the fiftieth year by allowing everyone to return to their own home and family and start with a clean slate. The Lord God commanded this so that, unlike today's societal views, the rich wouldn't continue to get richer and the poor wouldn't continue to get poorer. God wants us to be generous and compassionate towards each other, but since this is something most of us won't do naturally, He instituted a specific time for the people to put this behavior into practice.
When Christ Jesus began His earthly ministry, He quote from the prophet Isaiah, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed; to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.” [Isaiah 61:1-2] (Luke 4:18-19) The Jubilee symbolized this year of the Lord, when you shall not oppress one another, but you shall fear your God.
Another lesson the Lord God was teaching the people was The earth is the Lord’s, and all its fullness,The world and those who dwell therein. (Psalm 24:1-2) Everything belongs to God. We are just stewards of what He has blessed us with. Therefore, we are to share it with others. We may not be able to observe every detail of this law today, but we can still implement the meaning behind the law to our lives: we should not oppress each other in how we deal with and treat each other, but through love serve one another. For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” But if you bite and devour one another, beware lest you be consumed by one another! (Galatians 5:13-15) We should be generous And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you. (Ephesians 4:32)
If we allow ourselves to have a day of rest, allow others to have a day of rest, allow the land to have a day of rest and then allow the land to have a year of rest, then the Lord God will do for us what He promised to do for the children of Israel, and provide us what all we need; ‘So you shall observe My statutes and keep My judgments, and perform them; and you will dwell in the land in safety. Then the land will yield its fruit, and you will eat your fill, and dwell there in safety. And if you say, “What shall we eat in the seventh year, since we shall not sow nor gather in our produce?” Then I will command My blessing on you in the sixth year, and it will bring forth produce enough for three years. And you shall sow in the eighth year, and eat old produce until the ninth year; until its produce comes in, you shall eat of the old harvest. (Leviticus 25:18-22) AMEN!
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