(Leviticus 25:1-22) The Lord then spoke to Moses at Mount Sinai, saying, 2 “Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them, ‘When you come into the land which I shall give you, then the land shall have a sabbath to the Lord. 3 Six years you shall sow your field, and six years you shall prune your vineyard and gather in its crop, 4 but during the seventh year the land shall have a sabbath rest, a sabbath to the Lord; you shall not sow your field nor prune your vineyard. 5 Your harvest’s aftergrowth you shall not reap, and your grapes of untrimmed vines you shall not gather; the land shall have a sabbatical year. 6 All of you shall have the sabbath products of the land for food; yourself, and your male and female slaves, and your hired man and your foreign resident, those who live as aliens with you. 7 Even your cattle and the animals that are in your land shall have all its crops to eat.
8 ‘You are also to count off seven sabbaths of years for yourself, seven times seven years, so that you have the time of the seven sabbaths of years, namely, forty-nine years. 9 You shall then sound a ram’s horn abroad on the tenth day of the seventh month; on the day of atonement you shall sound a horn all through your land. 10 You shall thus consecrate the fiftieth year and proclaim a release through the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you, and each of you shall return to his own property, and each of you shall return to his family. 11 You shall have the fiftieth year as a jubilee; you shall not sow, nor reap its aftergrowth, nor gather in from its untrimmed vines. 12 For it is a jubilee; it shall be holy to you. You shall eat its crops out of the field.
13 ‘On this year of jubilee each of you shall return to his own property. 14 If you make a sale, moreover, to your friend or buy from your friend’s hand, you shall not wrong one another. 15 Corresponding to the number of years after the jubilee, you shall buy from your friend; he is to sell to you according to the number of years of crops. 16 In proportion to the extent of the years you shall increase its price, and in proportion to the fewness of the years you shall diminish its price, for it is a number of crops he is selling to you. 17 So you shall not wrong one another, but you shall fear your God; for I am the Lord your God.
18 ‘You shall thus observe My statutes and keep My judgments, so as to carry them out, that you may live securely on the land. 19 Then the land will yield its produce, so that you can eat your fill and live securely on it. 20 But if you say, “What are we going to eat on the seventh year if we do not sow or gather in our crops?” 21 then I will so order My blessing for you in the sixth year that it will bring forth the crop for three years. 22 When you are sowing the eighth year, you can still eat old things from the crop, eating the old until the ninth year when its crop comes in.
TODAY'S THOUGHTS AND MEDITATION:
God wants the best for us; and because He created everything, He knows how everything works the best. He also wants to reward us for being faithful. I have heard people say that this is conditional love. It is not. God has unconditional love for everyone, and this is why He went to the cross - for everyone - whether they choose to believe in Him or choose to reject Him. It is up to each individual to accept the Lord's free gift of forgiveness and salvation... to become a new creation - a child of God.
And still, God doesn't force Himself on anyone. So then, as we choose to live in God's will, being obedient in what He says, demonstrates our trust and faith in Him. For example, when God tells us to love our neighbor as ourselves, but we choose not to and instead go to war with them, this demonstrates that we don't trust the Lord and what He says. So it is interesting how some people will say, "I believed in God and did things His way but it doesn't work because I was constantly at war." Well... clearly they didn't do things God's way!
While we are told not to wrong anyone (verse 14), it is not about do's and don'ts, we are told to fear the Lord (verse 17). It is all about having a personal relationship with Him! And when we focus on our relationship with God, in that relationship we will learn to actually trust Him more and act on that trust in His strength, love and guidance. We will definitely be rewarded in heaven for good deeds done with right motives. And here on earth, whether or not we are rewarded in some way that we would desire, we will see a huge difference in our lives when we live in trust and obedience! To have God's joy, peace and contentment - is reward enough!!!
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