Rest for the Land

Rest for the Land

Even the earth needs a Sabbath, as farmers today understand.

Exodus 23:10, 11

“For six years you shall sow your land and gather in its yield, but the seventh year you shall let it rest and lie fallow, that the poor of your people may eat; and what they leave the beasts of the field may eat. You shall do likewise with your vineyard, and with your olive orchard.”

During the seventh year people were not to work the land. It was to be allowed to rest and to produce naturally whatever God was pleased to draw forth from it. The poor, as well as the wild beasts (note the conservationist thrust of this) were allowed to wander the fields for a year of “gleaning” in order to meet their needs, whereas landowners were expected to store up food from the sixth year to last all the way to the eighth. God promised that He would allow their harvests to be ample for this institution, but the people had to be faithful and obey.

Modern farmers understand the wisdom, for their fields’ sake, of allowing a section to lie fallow for a season. These are often sown with clover and other substances that re-enrich the soil for subsequent years’ fruitful sowing. Even the earth needs a rest in this time of sin, as it groans and travails under the demands of men and other creatures, that it might faithfully and fruitfully supply their needs. Wise farmers “redeem” their lands from overuse with modern fertilizers, soil replenishing, and irrigation. This concern for the land, while it only makes “economic” sense, has been in the mind of God, Who loves His creation, from the beginning.

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In the Gates is a devotional series on the Law of God by Rev. T. M. Moore, editor of the Worldview Church. He serves as dean of the Centurions Program of the Wilberforce Forum and principal of The Fellowship of Ailbe, a spiritual fellowship in the Celtic Christian tradition. He is the author or editor of twenty books, and has contributed chapters to four others. His essays, reviews, articles, papers, and poetry have appeared in dozens of national and international journals, and on a wide range of websites. His most recent books are The Ailbe Psalter and The Ground for Christian Ethics (Waxed Tablet).

Scripture quotations in this article are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, (c) copyright 2001, 2007 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.