Leviticus 25:1-24
Q.1. Why was land to be rested in the Sabbath (seventh) year? How would the people survive if they had not sown a crop? – (Lev.25:1-7 & 18-22)
Israel was commanded to keep a Sabbath rest day of worship of the Lord each week. Additionally, every seven years they were to give their land a Sabbath rest to the Lord (Lev.25:3-4). Today we know it is good agricultural practice for the land to be fallowed at least every seven years. This meant that thoughts about God were woven into the fabric of life throughout the years, in all their pursuits. However, though they did not sow on the sabbatical rest year – I will so order My blessing for you in the sixth year that it will bring forth the crop for three years i.e. When you are sowing the eighth year, you can still eat old things from the crop, eating the old until the ninth year when its crop comes in (Lev.25:21-22). Such regard for God in all their activities guaranteed – that you may live securely in the land. Then the land will yield its produce, so that you can eat your fill and live securely in it (Lev.25:18-19). God wanted to establish the principle that whenever His people kept their trust in Him, they would never lack His supply.
Q.2. How did God ensure that Israelites would not be sold permanently into slavery in the land? – (Lev.25:8-17)
After seven times seven years = forty-nine… – the fiftieth year was the Year of Jubilee (Lev.25:8). On the Day of Atonement that proclaimed the release of all sin, all people who had been sold into slavery were set free (i.e. the tenth of the seventh month – Lev.25:9 c.f. Lev.23:27). God’s people were to be unique in granting forgiveness and freedom to all debtors – You shall thus consecrate the fiftieth year and proclaim a release through the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you, and each of you shall return to his own property, and each of you shall return to his family (Lev.25:10). In fact, every debt to be paid by servitude or property at any time was to be reckoned according to the remaining years until this Year of Jubilee.
Q.3. What was the underlying reason for the protection of those who fell into debt? – (Lev.25:17, 23-24)
This law applied to all within the territories of Israel – You shall not wrong one another, but you shall fear your God; for I am the Lord your God (Lev.25:17). The Year of Jubilee declared that – the land … shall not be sold permanently, for the land is MINE; for you are but aliens and sojourners with Me (Lev.25:23). God has a unique plan for Israel … Jerusalem, and the land, all the way to the Millennial Reign of Christ (c.f. Isa.2:1-4; Ezk.Chpts.40-48; Mic.4:1-5; Zech.14:4-9; 20:7-9). This is not true for Christian believers, because – our citizenship is in heaven from which also we eagerly wait for a Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ (Phil.3:20). All these compassionate provisions were built on the premise that – the sons of Israel are My servants; they are My servants whom I brought out of the land of Egypt. I am the Lord your God (Lev.25:55).