A Bigger Sabbath

Greetings All,

Let's start with scripture, a quick piece from Leviticus.  It is from the part we haven't gotten to yet, but it blessed me this morning and I hope it will bless you.

NRS

Leviticus 25:1 The LORD spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai, saying: ² Speak to the people of Israel and say to them: When you enter the land that I am giving you, the land shall observe a sabbath for the LORD. ³ Six years you shall sow your field, and six years you shall prune your vineyard, and gather in their yield; ⁴ but in the seventh year there shall be a sabbath of complete rest for the land, a sabbath for the LORD: you shall not sow your field or prune your vineyard. ⁵ You shall not reap the aftergrowth of your harvest or gather the grapes of your unpruned vine: it shall be a year of complete rest for the land. ⁶ You may eat what the land yields during its sabbath-- you, your male and female slaves, your hired and your bound laborers who live with you; ⁷ for your livestock also, and for the wild animals in your land all its yield shall be for food.

Once again the Lord speaks to Moses and gives him commandments for the people to follow, not the big ten, but ones that are for the good of their physical lives but even better for their spiritual ones.  The big ten include the commandment about keeping a Sabbath every seventh day.  This is a practice that theoretically they have been practicing for a while now in the wilderness so they are at least used to the concept; but here the Lord super sizes the concept of Sabbath rest, of Sabbath trust and dependence, as He tells the Israelites not only to have a Sabbath day, but to have a Sabbath year for the land.  The truth is this is good agricultural practice, but I would offer that it is more about them than the land. 

Can you imagine taking your trust in God for your daily bread and increasing it to trusting Him for your daily bread for 365 days in a row?  No longer can you prune, or sow, or harvest for an entire year.  The land will still produce, but the Israelites are not aloud to work the land, they must trust in God that the land will produce enough for not only them, but everyone in their household and their animals!  This is a level of faith that I am not sure I possess to be completely honest.  So often I want to trust in my ability to work and do and provide for myself and family; to trust God for all of my families provisions for a year without me working is frankly an overwhelming idea.  I don't think I am alone in feeling overwhelmed by the idea because I am not sure there is a shred of Biblical evidence that Israel ever followed this command and there is certainly no evidence that they ever celebrated a Year of Jubilee which is the culmination of seven sets of seventh year Sabbaths for the land.

The good news for the Israelites and for us today is that God knows how overwhelming this concept must be.  Notice that He didn't tell them to immediately start practicing this, He told them to start practicing this once they entered the Promised Land.  He was giving them not only all of their wilderness time to get used to trusting God on such an incredible level, but He was also giving them their first six years in the Promised Land.  They would get to experience years of God providing for their daily needs in the wilderness with manna, quail and water sources, to experience God being true to His word of bringing them into the Promised Land, and to have six full years of enjoying this promised land flowing with milk and honey before they are ever expected to trust God on such a monumental level. 

He knew they would need time and He knows we need the same.  Trusting anyone, much less God, is a process that happens over time.  The longer I am in relationship with someone the more or less trust I develop in them.  For every time they prove trustworthy, my trust increases.  God knows this and wants every opportunity to prove Himself trustworthy to us so we can grow to that place of complete trust and dependence upon Him.  We need to take baby steps of trust and faith everyday by picking things to trust God with and as He proves Himself trustworthy we can begin to move from baby steps to strides, to ultimately giant leaps of faith.  Wesley talked about sanctification being the process of becoming perfect in love, equally it is a process of becoming perfect in trusting God.  Celebrating a Sabbath year of completely trusting God for one's families provisions is the embodiment of entire sanctification.  God allowed the Israelites to grow into this depth of trust, I would offer that He gives us the same opportunity.  The question for each of us today is "Will we take baby steps of trust and faith in God to lead us down a path that ends in perfect trust and a bigger Sabbath in our lives?"

Your brother in Christ,
Faron