Sophy. Why did God tell them to keep the seventh year holy, and to do no work?
Mamma. For several reasons. To show His care for them. To show that the land was God's land. And also to prove whether they would be faithful and trust Him. The people were to do nothing that year. All was to be left in the hand of God. Thus the people being entirely dependent on Him, His rights and power were fully owned, and enjoyed by them. A very blessed place! All God's ways of grace became tests of His people's faithfulness; and the sabbatical year was the first thing they lost.
S. Why did keeping the seventh year show God's care?
M. Because God promised that He would command His blessing on the sixth year, so that the land would bring forth enough for three years; thus while they were sowing their corn in the eighth year they had still plenty to eat. It also shewed God's right to the land. It was the place He had given to them when He redeemed them from Egypt, the place where His name was; and the place of His rest. His people, the stranger, and even the beast of the field were to enter into His rest. This His earthly people failed to do, because of their unbelief, and the hardness of their hearts. God was the Lord of the soil; and every fifty years it all went back to Him, so no one was oppressed, and all had their rights that God had given. If an Israelite lost his possession, it could only be for a time; for on the fiftieth year it all went back to the Lord, and He gave it again to him whose inheritance it was. This was called the year of jubilee, or the year of rejoicing. But the year of jubilee was lost when the sabbatical year was lost.
S. What was the seventh year a type of?
M. Of God's eternal rest. When God had created this earth, and man to live on it, He rested on the seventh day, and blessed it, and sanctified it, because He rested on that day from all the works, that He had created and made.
But when sin came in there could be no rest, until God made atonement for sin. We have read how He saved His people from the judgment of Egypt by the blood of the lamb on the doorpost; how He led them through the Red Sea, where all their enemies sank like lead in the mighty waters, and on through the Jordan, where the ark of the covenant stood firm. How He conquered the Philistines and all the power of Satan, and when the land had rest from war, how David sang; and Solomon proclaimed: "Arise, O Lord, into Thy resting place, Thou, and the ark of thy strength." God's people then ought to have rejoiced in His salvation.
S. Why did they not?
M. Because of their unbelief. God had said: "Be ye holy, because I am holy." He meant them to be a separate people; and to walk in separation of heart and mind from all the evil around. But, as we have seen, they got mixed up with evil almost at once. Solomon fell into sin as you remember in the end of his reign, and Jeroboam brought in false worship with his calves of gold. And though Judah was blessed under faithful kings, they were constantly drawn away by the evil. We saw what was the loss of power and blessing to Jehoshaphat when he joined affinity with Ahab; and how much sorrow the wicked daughter of Ahab caused all through her evil reign. The Book of Chronicles is intended to teach us this great lesson: that if the people of God are not separate from evil they have no power against their enemies, they have no sense of the favor of the Lord, and they do not enjoy God's rest.
God is the Lord—the Lord on high,
Salvation's all His own;
And He now brings His people nigh,
To bow before His throne.
His love conceived the wondrous plan,
The Father sent His Son
To do the work for fallen man,
Who naught but sin had done!
Jesus has conquer'd death and sin
For little ones like you;
He open'd heaven by entering in,
That you might enter too!
'Tis little ones who need His grace
Whom Jesus loves to bless;
And they will see His blessed face
Who now His name confess.
All power is His, in earth, in heaven,
Who stoops to say to thee;
"My little one, thy sin's forgiven,
Come trust, and rest in Me.”