May 20, 2018 Background Scripture: Leviticus 25 Lesson Passage: Leviticus 25:1 – 12 In today’s lesson, God presents a plan to Moses that involves a Sabbath rest for the land. We are familiar with the weekly Sabbath that every person of the nation of Israel was required to observe. As former slaves, they might not have understood the importance of giving their physical bodies a time to replenish, rebuild, and refresh itself from the daily toil. Slaves were expected to take care of their physical bodies only in as much as they could remain healthy enough to do their master’s bidding. Any leisure beyond the rest that was deemed absolutely necessary could be seen as idleness on the part of the slave. While in Egypt, the mere suggestion of the people taking time away from work to go and worship God was interpreted as them having too much idle time. The additional work of retrieving their own straw was added to their burden of brick making so that they could work at the maximum capacity humanly possible. Worshiping God was seen as a waste of the slaves’ time by their Egyptian taskmasters. When they were given time off from work, it was for rest and recuperation and not recreation and religion. After hundreds of years of slavery, there was much they would not have understood about nurturing their bodies and their souls. The Sabbath was mandatory for them to be able to learn by doing. On the other hand, the Sabbath rest for the land was for the land to be worked for six years but not worked during the seventh year. The land would have a complete year where crops would not be planted and vineyards would not be pruned. The land owners were not to harvest any crop that grew voluntarily during the Sabbath year or gather grapes from the unpruned vines during the year of rest. Rather than the owners harvesting the increase, the increase was to be available for everyone; the owners, strangers, and animals—domesticated and wild. After this cycle is repeated seven times, then the seventh Sabbath year, or the fiftieth year, was declared by God to be a year of jubilee—or jubilant celebration. It was a year of freedom for the land and all of its inhabitants. The concept of the Sabbath is that it should be a time of ceasing from work and enjoying the blessings that God gives as increase because of our trusting Him and willingness to labor. The fact that one can cease from their labor is indicative of increase that has occurred to the point of being over and above our daily needs. We can rejoice because we have more than we need. But even more so, we can rejoice because of our relationship with the true Source of our blessings. It’s good to know that even if God chooses not to bless us, He has the power to do so as He pleases. It is refreshing to recall a “happy moment” from our past. When the thought seems to randomly appear out of nowhere, it is even more wonderful. God calls His people to purposely recall and use the occasion as a time of celebration. In spite of blessings, sometimes one falls on hard times. This may come about because of bad decisions on our part and sometimes it may come about due to no fault of our own. The Year of Jubilee observance provides a safety valve in case hard times come. Finally, we can rejoice because the Year of Jubilee has inherent in it the option of redemption by a kinsman-redeemer. The “Son of man” is the kinsman redeemer for all humanity. Robert C. Hudson April 18, 2018