The Sabbath for the Land, the Jubilee, and a God Who Plans Ahead

What Does Mount Sinai Have to Do With Farming?

The Torah reading of Behar opens with a curious formula:

The children of Israel are still camped under Mount Sinai. They have nearly 38 more years of wandering in the desert ahead of them. The generation Moses is addressing will actually never make it to the land of Canaan — only two of those gathered under Mount Sinai will enter the Promised Land. Their bodies will be scattered in the Sinai desert.

So the rabbis in the First Century rightly asked:

The answer reveals something profound about how God operates. The Torah is given as a whole unit, beyond the boundaries of time and place. God is not leaving things to the last minute. He is giving us warnings, instructions, teachings, and leadership that prepares us for what is to come. You can't keep these commandments from today — this is something you need to prepare for. And almost every valuable command that God gave, whether through Moses or through the prophets or through Yeshua and the apostles, is something He gave with warning and instructions to prepare.

The Shmita — and God's Miracle Provision

Not only human beings, servants, children, and farm animals get to rest on the Sabbath — but the land itself, the dirt, the mud, the field. And if you talk to farmers that know what they're doing, they will tell you: yes, you have to let the land rest. What you suck out of the land by over-planting it and over-working it will not return unless you let the land rest.

But how could you let the land rest with no refrigeration and no way to keep the crops from rotting? The land resting for one year means at least a year and a half to two years without new crops, by the time the land is replowed, replanted, and the crops ripen again. So God made provision. He says in the sixth year He will give enough crops — enough food to carry them over the sabbatical year and for another year after, until the third year when they can really enjoy the plenty. It's a miracle.

This principle — when God tells you to do something He will provide the means to do it — is at the heart of Parashat Behar. He's not going to ask you to do something that will damage your health and the health of your family. He knows what He is doing. It is very modern and even postmodern these days to speak about conservation of nature and agricultural lands. The rainforest is diminishing and the soil in agricultural lands is impoverished. Farmers are forced to put much more fertilizer on their land, which increases costs. Our Torah portion starts with exactly these postmodern concerns and provides a solution with a divine anointing. This was actually God's command even before Adam and Eve sinned:

Seven Times Seven — The Jubilee Year of Liberty

The shmita — seven times over — brings you to the 49th year. And the 50th year is the Jubilee. On the tenth day of the seventh month — Yom Kippur — the Jubilee is proclaimed with trumpets. What does it mean? Debts are forgiven. If you sold your family inheritance land in the land of Canaan because you were in debt, the land returns to you. Your Hebrew slaves will be free. The original division of the land by lots in the days of Joshua returns to its place. Every land is restored to its original owners.

Notice the pattern: the world was created in seven days. The first verse of the Bible in the Hebrew language has seven words. This unit of seven is an indication of earthly perfection, of earthly things under the control of the Creator Himself — including the land.

The most important thing we are all waiting for — the return of our Lord — carries with it the same pattern. God has warned us thousands of years earlier of how it's going to happen, where, and more or less when. The parable of the ten maidens — five had extra oil because they were waiting for the bridegroom to come. And he was late. As he would be — he's a Middle Easterner, a Jew from the Middle East. There's no wedding I've ever been to, or performed, that has ever been on time. Those girls should have known. Then there was the man who thought he'd have time to go home, shower, and dress up when he saw action starting. He didn't. He arrived greasy from his work in the garage and was thrown into outer darkness. He wasn't ready.

The shmita is a good example of how God told us to be ready. And He said: "When I ask you to do something, I will give you the means to get it done."

The lesson of Behar is simple: when God calls us to be ready, He also provides everything we need to obey.