Leviticus 25:6, commentary and pictures

After settlement in Canaan every seventh year was the sabbath of the land, following six successive years in which fields were sown and reaped. In that seventh year cultivation of the soil was forbidden, agricultural work was intermitted, and the land lay uncultivated in its spontaneous growth. What grew of itself without planting or sowing was food and common property with free access for all living from the land. That included the owner and household, servant and maid, hired servant and hired worker, stranger and sojourner and resident foreigner, the poor and needy and fatherless and widow, and flocks and herds and beasts of the field and livestock and animals, so that the poor and the cattle had a feast together.

Giving the land its sabbath rest was a requirement for cultivating the soil, and the rest renewed and rested and invigorated worn-out soil. Refusing it from selfishness and self-reliance brought loss of the land's vigor, dearth, and sickness. The arrangement taught that the land belongs to the Lord as Householder and Owner and original proprietor, and that the people are His tenants possessing it only for a time. It taught that God and not nature governs the land and its produce, so Israel was to depend on His provision. When obeyed under God's blessing the sixth year's harvest supplied food for three years, showing that God made the land productive and provided for the sabbatical year.

The provision is the gospel of the Old Testament and practical missionary work, the principle of liberality and special provision showing God's care for the poor and unfortunate. It was made to lessen suffering and to bring hope and sunshine into the lives of the suffering and distressed, overcoming stinginess and selfishness. It left time for study, social fellowship, worship, and benevolence, and it binds the same unselfish duty to help needy brethren now instead of closing the heart to them. God's order puts needy human beings before the beasts, so treating animals better than the poor reverses His order. The verse does not make labor a sin and does not put believers in the jubilee where the land must rest and the poor must be supported without labor. To use it to forbid work and require support without work is error that confuses and distracts, deceives some, cannot prosper, and will be brought down while truth triumphs in the end.