Introduction – A New Revelation on Mt. Sinai
The Lord had spoken to Moses out of the Tabernacle of the congregation in chapter 1. He here (chap. 25.) addresses His servant in Mount Sinai, and gives him. a new revelation, comprised in this and the following chapter, which has special reference to the land and to Israel's restoration to it in the future. For whatever any individual amongst them might do to draw down on himself divine wrath, Jehovah had bound Himself to give the land to the seed of Jacob (Gen. 28:13), and He would assuredly fulfill His word. Yet the land, though given them to possess, was never absolutely theirs. It was God's (25:23). By-and-bye, therefore, they shall re-inherit it; none can override Jehovah's claim to it. But if His, He had the right of prescribing certain conditions connected with the people's tenure and the enjoyment of it. Of such we now read.
The first of these has reference to the Sabbatical year (25:2), and the second to the institution of the Jubilee (8-55). As on the seventh day they were to rest from all their work, so in the seventh year the land was to have rest from cultivation by the husbandman, the term used of the one is that used of the other. It was to be a Sabbath of rest, "shabbath shabbathon." " 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, for thy servant, and for thy maid, and for thy hired servant, and for the stranger that sojourneth with thee, and for thy cattle,, and for the beasts that are in thy land, shall all the increase thereof be meat " (4-7).
One-seventh of their time God did not allow them to use for their own ends. One-seventh of the increase of the ground God did not allow the occupier to possess as his own. Jehovah had a right to do that, and strict righteousness was manifested in this law; for whilst the husbandman had full right to the produce of his tillage, God only claimed as His to dispose of the increase of the land, on which the occupier had expended no labor. The land was to keep that year a Sabbath unto the Lord. The barns and the storehouses were not to be filled that year for the occupier's profit. A cessation from all agricultural operations was to take place throughout it. The Sabbath day spoke of rest. The Sabbatical year spoke of it likewise, yet not to the injury of the cultivator of the ground, for his wants as well as those of his household, would be amply provided for; but the cattle and the wild beasts, God's creatures, were to be cared for by the Creator no less than His intelligent creature-man. Of this year Jehovah had spoken, when communicating the terms of the first covenant made between Israel and Himself (Ex. 23:11). Man's wants were first thought of, but those of the beasts as well. What the poor left, the beasts of the field were to eat. The Lord preserveth man and beast (Psa. 36:6). And just as the Sabbath day's observance was not to stand in the way of that which was needful to be done in the sanctuary, and for the circumcising of those who were eight days old, so the ordinance of the Sabbatical year did not interfere with due provision for the people's need. It may have been that a year of lying fallow was good for the ground, as it is said thereby to enjoy its rest (Lev. 26:34; 2 Chron. 36:20). But this law was a test to see if cupidity, and a disregard for others, would characterize the people, which the Lord had brought out of Egypt. How they would act in reference to it Lev. 26:34, 35, foretold. God well knew and forewarned them as to that which they would fail to do, announcing to the people as they rested under the shadow of Mount Sinai, but recently emancipated from Egyptian slavery, that the land should lie desolate, though not forever, keeping its Sabbaths, whilst exile was their lot. After the captivity the returned remnant (Neh. 10:31) remembered and observed this law, and that special feature in connection with it, namely, the release to be granted to every Jewish debtor (Deut. 15:1, 2, 9), or as Nehemiah expressed it, " That we should leave the seventh year, and the exaction of every debt." This year, then, was one of great importance to all, and on the feast of Tabernacles, which fell within it, the law was commanded to be read to all the people (Deut. 31:10, 11). So whilst this institution tested their willingness to obey God's commands, it also provided a suitable opportunity for reminding them all of God's law, on the observance of which depended their continuance in the land. But if they should fail, as assuredly they have, and their present long exile witnesses of their failure, on what can they count if they can count on anything for happier times in the future, and the full enjoyment of Jehovah's former blessing? The principle established by the institution of the Jubilee supplies us with the answer.
Every seventh year was to be a year of rest unto the land. Seven times seven years were to roll by, and then would come the Jubilee. On the Day of Atonement, in the fiftieth year, the trumpet of loud sound Shophar t’ruahah was to be heard proclaiming the Jubilee, in virtue of which the chains of the Hebrew slave in the land were broken, and the claims of any one over the portion of land which originally belonged to another was extinguished, and to be relinquished. “Ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof; it shall be a Jubilee unto you, and ye shall return every man unto his possession; and ye shall return every man unto his family" (25:10).
A joyful sound it must have been. But this institution really furnished them with nothing new. It only restored liberty to the slave, and the land to its original owner. Restoration was its special feature, just that which suited a failing people, who by some means or other, really the fruit of sin, had lost either personal liberty, or their ancestral possessions. Israel were the Lord's servants (25:55), so He thus legislated for them. The land was His (23), so perpetual alienation from its owner by any human claim Jehovah would not allow. How speaking will all this surely be to them in the future, when reaping the full blessing of restoration to that from which they have justly been driven because of their disobedience, and realizing the goodness of Jehovah to those who could neither ensure their personal liberty, nor the safe keeping of their patrimonial estate.
Nowhere but in Israel was there such a provision made, for it was not man's thought, but God's. What a sight it must have been, the land in the Sabbatical year lying everywhere fallow, no sound of husbandry heard, the plow and the harrow laid by, no seed sown, nor field irrigated, the sixth year's crop having been unusually abundant, providing sufficient for three years (20-22), so the wants of the population were amply provided for, and there was no shortcoming for man or beast. Who would have thought of this? Who could promise this? Who could fulfill such a promise, but one? He to whom the land belonged, the Lord Jehovah, the Creator. At the recurrence of the Jubilee this must have been still more marked, for no want, no stint was experienced by any living thing.