Special Times to Give The Land a Rest

Leviticus 25:1–17
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The focus in chapters 25 and 26 is on Israel in their land. The word “land’ is used thirty-nine times in these two chapters. The Israelites were to possess and enjoy the land but in order to do so they must recognize and respect some basic facts. The first thing is that God owns the land and has every right to dispose of it as He sees fit (vv. 1-2). Another important fact is that God controls the calendar. He not only gave His people their land and their food but He also gave them “special times’ to give the land a rest so it would not be ravaged.

Just as people were to work six days and rest on the “Sabbath” so was the land on which they lived to be worked for six years (v. 3) and then allowed to rest on the seventh or sabbatical year (v. 4).  This meant that there was to be no organized harvest and no selling of produce to others (vv. 5-7).  As a result one-seventh of the time landowners and those who owned no land were on an equal footing as to their living off the land.  They were to take from the fields the food they needed as it grew of itself. All people, including the poor and the aliens, could gather from the fields and be God’s guests (Ex. 23:10-12).

Every seventh sabbatical year (every 49^th year) was to be followed by a year of Jubilee (v. 8). The characteristics for the year of Jubilee were: Repentance (v. 9) as the people were not to enter this year of Jubilee without the Lord first cleansing and forgiving them.  Release (v. 10) as the people were commanded to release their servants to return to their own families and lands. Rest (vv. 11-12) was an extra year of rest given to the land since the previous year would have been a Sabbath year. Restoration (vv. 13-17) of any property that was sold since the last year of Jubilee would revert to its original owner, for the Lord wanted His land to remain with the families to which it had been given.

Application

God puts an emphasis on rest for His people and His land and I need to have a time of rest or come apart.