“What shall we eat in the seventh year, since we shall not sow nor gather in our produce?” Leviticus 25:20
The above text is a legitimate question, isn’t it? I mean, if they were to NOT plant their crops in the seventh year (cp. 25:3-4), humanly speaking, what would they eat? Would they only have an empty fork? The text speaks of a Sabbath of the seventh year in which the children of Israel were to give the land a year’s rest. The term “fallow ground” refers to soil that has not been planted and therefore “rested” for one or more growing seasons so it could revitalize itself with nutrients. This is an agricultural principle which exists today that when a piece of ground “rests” for a year, it replenishes its nutrients through natural means and thus actually produces more the following year. Who, but only God, would have thought of such a wonderful provision for the ground He created!
But back to our text, what about the man trying to feed his family and the seventh year comes around. Would he trust God in faith, believing what God said to be true and not plant for one year? But how would they eat? That is the question in verse 20! I love God’s answer! He says, “I will command My blessing on you in the sixth year and it will bring forth produce enough for three years!” (vs. 21) If they were obedient and walked in faith by doing what He said, God’s Blessing of abundant crops would supply for three years to follow…until the next crops could be harvested! Walking in faith is a faith-stretching exercising! Believing God to supply our need does not mean we stop obeying God in our need. In the home, husbands are to love their wives even when they may be unlovable (I know, I know, that is surely few and far between!!) Wives are to submit to husbands even when they are seemingly “unsubmitable!” ( I know, I know, that is surely many times…I speak as a husband, you know.) Children are to obey parents even when they are so unfair!
Obeying is a truth that stretches our faith walk. But this exercise strengthens us all along. For the children of Israel, God said they would eat the bread of His “blessing” if they were obedient in letting the land rest in the seventh year. Reading the rest of the Old Testament, we find they did not obey and thus God removed them from the land in exile and the land received its Sabbaths rest for 70 consecutive years. If only they had obeyed, their fork would have been full of His blessing! Is faith on your fork?
