Wherefore ye shall do my statutes, and keep my judgments, and do them; and ye shall dwell in the land in safety.
Leviticus 25:18 belongs to the Lord's instruction for the land's sabbatical years, especially the seventh-year sabbath and the fiftieth-year jubilee. The speaker is Christ veiled in the pillar of cloud, the same Teacher who gave the sermon on the mount, presenting on the mount of beatitudes the same principles given on Sinai, where all the law and the prophets hang on love to God and love to neighbor. God is the ruler, householder, and true owner of the earth and the land, and the people are His tenants.
Doing and keeping God's statutes and judgments about the land brings dwelling safely and securely in the land. When obedient, God by His blessing makes the land productive, giving in the sixth year enough to provide for three years. That sixth-year crop sustains the people while they do not sow or gather in the seventh year, until the new harvest comes in, and the land produces enough food for them.
In the seventh year the soil is to rest from cultivation, with cultivation forbidden so worn-out soil rests and is invigorated. Its spontaneous growth is left free to the poor, strangers, and flocks, herds, and livestock. This arrangement teaches dependence on God's provision, liberality, care for the poor, duty to one another, and freedom from selfishness and stinginess. So obedience is practical missionary work and the gospel of the Old Testament.
Obedience includes the command not to oppress one another, while setting aside God's law and failing to relieve human suffering shuts away God's blessing and brings insecurity. The verse was written for ancient Israel as well as for Christians now. Its spirit is carried out when a true penitent yields to the Holy Spirit, confesses wrong done through unjust business, overreaching in trade, or defrauding others even when within the law, refuses gain awarded by unjust earthly courts, relieves a poor brother without usury or increase, refuses to oppress another, fears God, gives to the poor, and makes restitution as far as possible as evidence of a genuine work of grace.
Leviticus 25:18 belongs to the Lord's instruction for the land's sabbatical years, especially the seventh-year sabbath and the fiftieth-year jubilee. The speaker is Christ veiled in the pillar of cloud, the same Teacher who gave the sermon on the mount, presenting on the mount of beatitudes the same principles given on Sinai, where all the law and the prophets hang on love to God and love to neighbor. God is the ruler, householder, and true owner of the earth and the land, and the people are His tenants.
Doing and keeping God's statutes and judgments about the land brings dwelling safely and securely in the land. When obedient, God by His blessing makes the land productive, giving in the sixth year enough to provide for three years. That sixth-year crop sustains the people while they do not sow or gather in the seventh year, until the new harvest comes in, and the land produces enough food for them.
In the seventh year the soil is to rest from cultivation, with cultivation forbidden so worn-out soil rests and is invigorated. Its spontaneous growth is left free to the poor, strangers, and flocks, herds, and livestock. This arrangement teaches dependence on God's provision, liberality, care for the poor, duty to one another, and freedom from selfishness and stinginess. So obedience is practical missionary work and the gospel of the Old Testament.
Obedience includes the command not to oppress one another, while setting aside God's law and failing to relieve human suffering shuts away God's blessing and brings insecurity. The verse was written for ancient Israel as well as for Christians now. Its spirit is carried out when a true penitent yields to the Holy Spirit, confesses wrong done through unjust business, overreaching in trade, or defrauding others even when within the law, refuses gain awarded by unjust earthly courts, relieves a poor brother without usury or increase, refuses to oppress another, fears God, gives to the poor, and makes restitution as far as possible as evidence of a genuine work of grace.