Leviticus 25:3-7, 20-22
Six years thou shalt sow thy field, and six years thou shalt prune thy vineyard, and gather in the fruit thereof; But in the seventh year shall be a sabbath of rest unto the land, a sabbath for the LORD: thou shalt neither sow thy field, nor prune thy vineyard. That which groweth of its own accord of thy harvest thou shalt not reap, neither gather the grapes of thy vine undressed: for it is a year of rest unto the land. And the sabbath of the land shall be meat for you; for thee, and for thy servant, and for thy maid, and for thy hired servant, and for thy stranger that sojourneth with thee, and for thy cattle, and for the beast that are in thy land, shall all the increase thereof be meat.
And if ye shall say, What shall we eat the seventh year? behold, we shall not sow, nor gather in our increase. Then I will command my blessing upon you in the sixth year, and it shall bring forth fruit for three years. And ye shall sow the eighth year, and eat yet of old fruit until the ninth year; until her fruits come in ye shall eat of the old store.
CHARLES SIMEON (1759-1836): The command to give rest to the land every seventh year must appear exceeding strange to those who have not duly considered it. Most would account for it perhaps from its being conducive to the good of the land, which would be too much exhausted, if it were not permitted occasionally to lie fallow.
THOMAS COKE (1747-1814): It is a known rule in husbandry, that land requires rest; and therefore it is generally laid fallow, in order to recruit its strength: this, doubtless, among others, was a reason for the present institution.
CHARLES SIMEON: But this could not be the reason: for then a seventh part of the land would most probably have been kept fallow every year, and not the whole land all at once…Nor can the idea of lying fallow be applied with any propriety to the olive-yards and vineyards, which, though not trimmed and pruned that year, were suffered to bring all their fruit to maturity.
C. H. MACKINTOSH (1820-1896): Where, throughout all the earth, do we read of a land enjoying a year of unbroken repose—and a year of richest abundance?
MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): It was a kindness to their land to let it rest sometimes, and would keep it “in heart” as our husbandmen express it, for posterity, whose satisfaction God would have them to consult, and not to use the ground as if it were designed only for one age.
ALEXANDER MacLAREN (1826-1910): Yes, no doubt that is true partially; but that was never the sole, nor even the main purpose.
CHARLES SIMEON: We must look then to some other source for the reasons of this commandment.
JOHN GILL (1697-1771): It is “a sabbath for the Lord,”—for His honour and glory, to ascertain His property in the land, to show the power of His providence, and display His goodness in His care of all creatures, without any means used by them.
ROBERT HAWKER (1753-1827): God here asserted His right of property, as the LORD of the whole earth.
CHARLES SIMEON: In Leviticus 25:23, God says to His people, “The land is mine.” And it was His: He had dispossessed the former inhabitants, and had given it to His own people, assigning to every tribe its precise district, and to every family their proper portion. This they would have been likely to forget in the space of a few years: and therefore, as the great Proprietor, He specified the terms on which he admitted them to the possession of His land, reserving to Himself the tithes and first-fruits, and requiring the whole to be left uncultivated and common every seventh year. Thus the people would be reminded from time to time that they were only tenants, bound to use the land agreeably to the conditions imposed on them.
C. H. MACKINTOSH: The rationalist may ask, “How can these things be?”
ADAM CLARKE (1760-1832): “What shall we eat the seventh year?” A very natural question, which could only be laid at rest by the sovereign promise in the next verse: “I will command my blessing upon you in the sixth year, and it shall bring forth fruit for three years.”
JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): The phrase must be observed, that God would “command His blessing” in an especial manner, and beyond the usual course, so that the land should be twice or thrice more fertile.
ROBERT HAWKER: Rather than God’s people shall be losers by their dependence upon Him, He will even work a miracle to supply them; for causing the sixth year to be three times as prolific, was little less than a standing miracle.
C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): They were to have enough for the year of rest, and for the next year in which the harvest was growing, and still to have something over for the ninth year. They scarcely could want as much as that; but God would give them more than they actually needed, exceeding abundantly above what they asked or even thought…There was to be no private property in the spontaneous produce of that year. It was free to everybody; free even to the cattle, which might go and eat what they would, and where they would.
MATTHEW HENRY: They were hereby taught to be charitable and generous, and not to engross all to themselves, but to be willing that others should share with them in the gifts of God’s bounty, which the earth brought forth of itself—They were reminded of the easy life man lived in paradise, when he ate of every good thing, not, as since, in the sweat of his face. Labour and toil came in with sin. They were taught to consider how the poor lived, that did neither sow nor reap, even by the blessing of God upon a little.
ROBERT HAWKER: See that sweet promise, Psalm 132:15, “I will abundantly bless her provision: I will satisfy her poor with bread.” What a strong leading feature is here given of man’s dependence upon God. And what a precious comment doth Jesus Himself give of it in Matthew 4:4—“Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.”
G. CAMPBELL MORGAN (1863-1945): These signs served to keep before the people the fact that God is the original Owner and Possessor of the land and that no man can treat it as absolutely his own.
MATTHEW POOLE (1624-1679): As God would hereby try their faith, and exercise their obedience, so He gave them eminent proof of His own exact providence and tender care for them.
MATTHEW HENRY: It was intended for an encouragement to all God’s people, in all ages, to trust Him in the way of duty, and to cast their care upon Him.
THOMAS COKE: They who follow God’s will may safely trust Him for a provision. It would be a shame to a Christian if he had less faith than a Jew, and if we should be more afraid of wanting bread than they were.
ROBERT HAWKER: Was not the extensiveness of this mercy, in reaching to all ranks and orders of the people, intended to shadow forth the extensiveness of that mercy which Jesus by His glorious redemption hath accomplished?
MATTHEW HENRY: This year of rest typified the spiritual rest which all believers enter into through Christ, who giveth us comfort and rest “concerning our work, and the toil of our hands, because of the ground which the Lord hath cursed,” Genesis 5:29. Through Him we are eased of the burden of worldly care and labour, both being sanctified and sweetened to us, and we are enabled and encouraged to live by faith. And, as the fruits of this sabbath of the land were enjoyed in common, so the salvation wrought out by Christ is a common salvation.
C. H. MACKINTOSH: Here, then, we have the special feature of the Lord’s land. He would have it to enjoy a sabbatical year, and in that year there was to be the evidence of the rich profusion with which He would bless those who held it as tenants under Him. Happy, highly privileged tenancy! What an honour to hold it immediately under Jehovah! No rent! No taxes! No burdens! Well might it be said, “Happy is the people that is in such a case; yea, happy is that nation whose God is Jehovah,” Psalm 144:15.
