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There are some Torah rules that absolutely can’t be performed because there is no Temple. There are also some Torah rules that can only be performed in the Holy Land, but there are many that can be performed anywhere in the world without the Temple.
All the instructions in this reading are in the context of the Shmitah and Yobel. Don’t take them out of context. They have nothing to do with penalties that one might incur for failing to keep the Shabbat or for breaking one of the Ten Commandments.
Seven degrees of separation: Shabbat, Shavuot, Shmitah, Yobel
Here are some similarities between the Shabbat, Omer, Shmitah and Yobel:
- Shabbat (Sabbath) = 7 days
- Shmitah (sabbatical year) = 7th year
- Omer (bushel of grain) = 7 weeks + 1 day (between Passover and Shavuot/Pentecost)
- Yobel (Jubilee) = 7 shmitahs + 1 year
These festivals are all designed to be discussed and understood in parallel with each other. The Shabbat day of rest should be thought of the same way as the sabbatical year (Shmitah).
The counting of the Omer should be thought of the same way as the counting of the Yobel. There are consequences for ignoring these rules. The consequences for ignoring the Shabbath and Shmitah are the same. The consequences for ignoring the Omer and the Yobel are the same.
The holy day cycle and the Shabbat are applicable regardless of where you live. They are eternal, and not limited to a particular place or a particular era. The Shabbat is on Saturday whether we believe it or not. It is inextricably tied to the creation week, a point in history. It’s counted regardless of whether it’s observed or not.
The same is true with Shavuot. Shavuot is inextricably linked to a time in history, which is the giving of the 10 commandments. It’s counted regardless of whether it’s observed or not.
The Shmitah is also counted by God, whether the people declare it or not, whether the people obey it or not. It’s true regardless and we are to be responsible for it regardless. It’s counted regardless of whether it’s observed or not.
“Those who had escaped from the sword he carried away to Babylon; and they were servants to him and to his sons until the rule of the kingdom of Persia, to fulfill the word of the LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed its sabbaths. All the days of its desolation it kept sabbath until seventy years were complete.”
2Chronicles 36:20–21 NASB
Steps toward return: Shmitah and Yobel in history
We have evidence that the Sanhedrin declared the Jubilee in A.D. 67, but the next Jubilee wasn’t declared until 1867, which was declared by the Jewish leadership in London. It was also affirmed by Queen Victoria and Charles Warren, who had been commissioned by Queen Victoria to go on an expedition to the Holy Land.
It was declared agains in 1917 when Israel was liberated from the Ottomans. It was declared again when Jerusalem was liberated from the Arabs in 1967.
Although we don’t have a historical record of God or the Jewish leadership declaring a Yobel between A.D. 67–1867, that doesn’t mean that God isn’t counting them.
To proclaim freedom, to proclaim the return to your ancestral land, there are steps that have to happen that only God can control.
Step 1: It takes two to tango
The current occupant has to give it up. The foreigner has to release it. It requires the occupant to leave and for the owner to take it.
If the rightful owner doesn’t return to his ancestral land, the foreigner has no choice but to hold onto it until the rightful owner gets his act together and take repossession of his land. In this time, the land is “desolate.” If the people refuse to claim their rightful land, it’s not God’s fault.
Step 2: Three years of grace
To prepare for the Yobel, those who specialize in grain such as (wheat, barley, rye) crops stop planting at the end of the sixth year and do not resume planting until the end of the eighth year. This spans approximately three years. God promised to bless the people with enough abundance of grain that it will last them all the way through this time.
Step 3: Realize Whose property we manage
We don’t own anything, we just rent. Even our own bodies are on rent from God. We have no right to sell God’s stuff. God gave them the promised land for them to live in, as long as they paid their rent. What did God charge to the children of Israel for rent? Their rent was their obedience to the Shmitah and Jubilee system. Since the children of Israel didn’t follow the Shmitah and Yobel cycles, they were evicted from the land.
“‘The land, moreover, shall not be sold permanently, for the land is Mine; for you are but aliens and sojourners with Me.’”
Leviticus 25:23 NASB
There are certain circumstances in which the land did not revert to its original owner. There were very limited scenarios where you can transfer property in perpetuity. That scenario was if a person sold their land to the priesthood and then didn’t buy it back by the time of the jubilee. From that point on, the priesthood would permanently own it and could not revert. Regardless, the priesthood could never sell the land to a non-Israelite.
The Shmita and the Yobel were designed as a sabbatical for the land, not for the people. For those who grew wheat, rye, barley, etc. for a living, they could do other things make a living and sustain their families during the years when they were required to let their soil rest. But that temporary change of career takes faith.
Lessons from Shabbat, Shmitah and Yobel
There are consequences to the people of Israel for failing to keep the Shmitah and the Yobel. If the people are more concerned about their short term survival and comfort than their faith in God, there are consequences for that lack of the faith. We hear the same excuses from people who don’t want to keep the Shabbat. They say, “If I don’t work on Shabbat, I won’t survive.” The people made the same excuses to not keep the Shmitah and Yobel. It’s the same excuses that Jeremiah cites later on.
If we focus our life on our wealth, prosperity and pleasure, then we will lose them. If we serve them as our gods, we will lose them.
People give themselves over to the idols (and the demons behind them) it’s because they want something in return. If someone wants success in battle, they will make an offering to a god of war. If they want children, they will give an offering to a goddess of fertility. If someone wants wealth and prosperity, they will make an offering to that god. It’s a quid pro quo.
God is simply saying that if they want to go around Him and worship their idols to get prosperity, wealth, fertility, etc., instead of asking Him for those things and doing what He wants them to do, they will lose all their wealth, prosperity and fertility. If you pursue wealth and pleasure, you will lose them and the nation will no longer be wealthy and prosperous.
God made people rich and poor, not to encourage the setup of social programs where the rich give and the poor take but to learn both the rich and poor mutually benefit each other.
Jeremiah 17–18 is one of the best passages that explains why both Shabbat and Shmitah observance are important.
Leviticus 26: Not all atonement is bought with blood
“‘If they confess their iniquity and the iniquity of their forefathers, in their unfaithfulness which they committed against Me, and also in their acting with indifference against Me — I also was acting with indifference against them, to bring them into the land of their enemies — or if their uncircumcised heart becomes humbled so that they then make amends for their iniquity, then I will remember My covenant with Jacob, and I will remember also My covenant with Isaac, and My covenant with Abraham as well, and I will remember the land. ‘For the land will be abandoned by them, and will make up for its sabbaths while it is made desolate without them. They, meanwhile, will be making amends for their iniquity, because they rejected My ordinances and their soul abhorred My statutes.”
Leviticus 26:40–43 NASB
Atonement for a sin against the land is not made with blood. The land despises blood and will expel people who shed innocent blood. Atonement for the land is made by eviction. You are evicted until you are humbled, humiliated and repentant.
God can’t be bribed. He doesn’t want money, He wants obedience. When we live on obedience, then He will accept our gifts. We want to give gifts in lieu of obedience. Gifts don’t repair a broken relationship. Repentance and obedience repair a broken relationship. Gifts are an outpouring of reconciliation, not the cause of reconciliation.
Summary: Tammy