Jubilee, Part 3, What About Food?
Leviticus 25:11-12 That fiftieth year shall be a jubilee for you; in it you shall neither sow nor reap what grows of itself nor gather the grapes from the undressed vines. For it is a jubilee. It shall be holy to you. You may eat the produce of the field.
The same agricultural rules apply for the Jubilee year as a Sabbatical or Shemitah year. A Jubilee year is like a Sabbatical or Shemitah year on steroids. By definition, a Jubilee year comes immediately after a Shemitah year (Leviticus 25:8-13).
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For two consecutive years, the land is to rest. There is to be no physical labor or working of the land. Seed is not to be planted. The soil is not to be tilled or turned over. Weeds are left to grow unchecked. Olive trees are not to be trimmed or pruned. Grape vines are left unattended to grow wildly. Whatever grows will grow. The farmers are not to harvest or gather crops that do grow during the Sabbatical year or the Jubilee year. The food that grows is for the farmer, servants, workers, foreigners, and the poor. Of the food that is not eaten by people, the remainder is for the animals.
On the surface, this does not seem very practical. What are we going to eat if we let the land rest for two consecutive years? God says no farming activity for every 49th and 50th years. It would be three years before any organized farming and harvest is to take place.
The context of these verses is the discussion of consecutive Sabbath years of rest for the land, a seventh year Sabbath and year of Jubilee following. The question is being asked of God. If we cannot work the fields, how are we expected to eat and survive?
Has God lost His mind? What kind of law is this? Crazy…
Relax, God has taken this into consideration. He has a plan.
Leviticus 25:20-22 ‘But if you say, “What are we going to eat on the seventh year if we do not sow or gather in our crops?” then I will so order My blessing for you in the sixth year that it will bring forth the crop for three years. ‘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.
God says He will abundantly provide with bumper crops in the year before the land’s Sabbatical rest, three times the usual amount. Three times the production should do it; one for the Shemitah year, one for the Jubilee year, and one for the crop planted when farming is re-initiated until harvested.
A point of the Shemitah and Jubilee is to turn and trust in God. He will provide.
Provision given by God. Prepare and save for the season. He tells you what is coming.
Granted, the Shemitah and Jubilee are part of the Mosaic Law for the Promised Land of God’s chosen people, Israel. But do take these into consideration on a global scale.
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