Leviticus 25:1-7

Leviticus 25:1-7

[1] And the LORD  spake  unto Moses  in mount  Sinai,  saying,  [2] Speak  unto the children  of Israel,  and say  unto them, When ye come  into the land  which I give  you, then shall the land  keep  a sabbath  unto the LORD.  [3] Six  years  thou shalt sow  thy field,  and six  years  thou shalt prune  thy vineyard,  and gather  in the fruit  [4] 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.  [5] 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.  [6] 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, [7] And for thy cattle,  and for the beast  that are in thy land,  shall all the increase  thereof be meat. 

What does Leviticus 25:1-7 Mean?

Contextual Meaning

As God ordered the people to rest every seventh day, so He ordered them to let the land rest every seventh year. By resting the people renewed their strength and rejuvenated their productivity in His service. By resting the land"s strength likewise revived and its productivity increased. Modern agronomists have supported the practice of allowing land to lie fallow periodically. God did not want the Israelites to work the land "to death" (i.e, to rape their environment). It belonged to God. Ecologists have argued for the same careful use of the environment that God required of His people. By using the land properly the Israelites sanctified their possession of it. They set it apart to God.
The people were to regard the crops that grew up during the sabbatical year as an offering to Yahweh. God told them not to harvest them. He permitted the slaves, hired people, foreign residents, aliens, cattle, and animals ( Leviticus 25:6-7) to eat freely of what was His.
"From this, Israel, as the nation of God, was to learn, on the one hand, that although the earth was created for Prayer of Manasseh , it was not merely created for him to draw out its powers for his own use, but also to be holy to the Lord, and participate in His blessed rest; and on the other hand, that the great purpose for which the congregation of the Lord existed, did not consist in the uninterrupted tilling of the earth, connected with bitter labour in the sweat of his brow (Gen. iii17 , 19), but in the peaceful enjoyment of the fruits of the earth, which the Lord their God had given them, and would give them still without the labour of their hands, if they strove to keep His covenant and satisfy themselves with His grace." [1]
"In its overall plan, the Sabbath year was to be a replication of God"s provisions for humankind in the Garden of Eden. When God created human beings and put them into the Garden, they were not to work for their livelihood but were to worship ... So also in the Sabbath year, each person was to share equally in all the good of God"s provision ( Leviticus 25:6). In the Garden, God provided for the man and woman an eternal rest (cf. Genesis 2:9, the Tree of Life; Genesis 3:22 b) and time of worship, the Sabbath ( Genesis 2:3). The Sabbath year was a foretaste of that time of rest and worship. Here, as on many other occasions, the writer has envisioned Israel"s possession of the "good land" promised to them as a return to the Garden of Eden." [2]
"God"s people must order their lives to harmonize with their belief that the bounty of the earth they share is from the sovereign Creator of the earth." [3]