And for thy cattle, and for the beast that are in thy land, shall all the increase thereof be meat.
After settlement in Canaan, six successive years of sowing and reaping were to be followed by every seventh year as a Sabbath year, when all agricultural work and cultivation of the soil stopped and the land lay fallow in its spontaneous growth. In that seventh year the land was left to produce on its own, and what grew of itself was not treated as the owner's exclusive property. Its rest was also God's direction for the care of the land itself, and the arrangement taught dependence on His provision and recognition of His control over the land and its produce.
The land's spontaneous increase in that year was to be food with free access as common provision for people and for cattle and the wild beasts in the land. What grew without cultivation was shared by Israelites, servants, guests, the poor, strangers, the fatherless, the widow, flocks and herds, so that the land's rest became a benefit to living creatures. In the seventh year, when farming stopped and the land lay fallow, its spontaneous produce served as food for the land's animals as well as being left for the poor, the stranger, the cattle, and the herds. This provision gave people time for study, fellowship, worship, and acts of kindness.
Needy human beings come before beasts in that provision: what grew of itself was to be gathered first by the poor, and what they left was to be eaten by the cattle and the beasts of the field. The land is God's land and its produce is under His care and provision: He is the Householder, rightful owner and original proprietor who owned and cared for the land and its inhabitants and made it productive, while the people were only His tenants permitted to possess it for a time. He takes care of the poor and makes special provision for them by His own interposition.
He invigorates worn-out soil by rest, so obedience helps restore the cursed land to health and fruitfulness, while refusing to give it a Sabbath brings loss of vigor, dearth, and sickness. By His own interposition and blessing in the sixth year He gave enough to last three years when His people obeyed, with the sixth-year harvest supplying food for the following three years. The provision made the land's rest a benefit that taught liberality and overcame stinginess and selfishness, required special consideration for the poor and unfortunate to lessen suffering and bring hope and sunshine into distressed lives.
Reversing the appointed order is condemned: treating horses, dogs, and other dumb animals as princes while the poor are left in want and forbidden even to gather what grows freely puts beasts before needy human beings. The law of the Sabbath year and jubilee does not mean that it is a sin to labor, that the jubilee is now present, that the land must now rest, or that the poor must be supported without labor on the plea of selling what one has and giving alms. To use the verse so is confusing and distracting error that deceives some, cannot prosper, and will be brought down while truth triumphs in the end, and persistence in it is dishonest and leads to total darkness until folly is made manifest to all.
After settlement in Canaan, six successive years of sowing and reaping were to be followed by every seventh year as a Sabbath year, when all agricultural work and cultivation of the soil stopped and the land lay fallow in its spontaneous growth. In that seventh year the land was left to produce on its own, and what grew of itself was not treated as the owner's exclusive property. Its rest was also God's direction for the care of the land itself, and the arrangement taught dependence on His provision and recognition of His control over the land and its produce.
The land's spontaneous increase in that year was to be food with free access as common provision for people and for cattle and the wild beasts in the land. What grew without cultivation was shared by Israelites, servants, guests, the poor, strangers, the fatherless, the widow, flocks and herds, so that the land's rest became a benefit to living creatures. In the seventh year, when farming stopped and the land lay fallow, its spontaneous produce served as food for the land's animals as well as being left for the poor, the stranger, the cattle, and the herds. This provision gave people time for study, fellowship, worship, and acts of kindness.
Needy human beings come before beasts in that provision: what grew of itself was to be gathered first by the poor, and what they left was to be eaten by the cattle and the beasts of the field. The land is God's land and its produce is under His care and provision: He is the Householder, rightful owner and original proprietor who owned and cared for the land and its inhabitants and made it productive, while the people were only His tenants permitted to possess it for a time. He takes care of the poor and makes special provision for them by His own interposition.
He invigorates worn-out soil by rest, so obedience helps restore the cursed land to health and fruitfulness, while refusing to give it a Sabbath brings loss of vigor, dearth, and sickness. By His own interposition and blessing in the sixth year He gave enough to last three years when His people obeyed, with the sixth-year harvest supplying food for the following three years. The provision made the land's rest a benefit that taught liberality and overcame stinginess and selfishness, required special consideration for the poor and unfortunate to lessen suffering and bring hope and sunshine into distressed lives.
Reversing the appointed order is condemned: treating horses, dogs, and other dumb animals as princes while the poor are left in want and forbidden even to gather what grows freely puts beasts before needy human beings. The law of the Sabbath year and jubilee does not mean that it is a sin to labor, that the jubilee is now present, that the land must now rest, or that the poor must be supported without labor on the plea of selling what one has and giving alms. To use the verse so is confusing and distracting error that deceives some, cannot prosper, and will be brought down while truth triumphs in the end, and persistence in it is dishonest and leads to total darkness until folly is made manifest to all.