Volume XVIII, Issue X: Rest for the Land.
Mountains in Springtime Solitude
Photos by Carrie Austin Eheart
A surprise Spring snow blankets the Blue Ridge.
Bald Mountain in George Washington National Forest.
Twenty Minute Cliff. New green and snow.
Lower Crabtree Falls.
A place for prayer and reflection.
And the Lord spake unto Moses in mount Sinai, saying, 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. Six years thou shalt sow thy field, and six years thou shalt prune thy vineyard, and gather in the fruit thereof; 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. 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. 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. And for thy cattle, and for the beast that are in thy land, shall all the increase thereof be meat. And thou shalt number seven sabbaths of years unto thee, seven times seven years; and the space of the seven sabbaths of years shall be unto thee forty and nine years. Then shalt thou cause the trumpet of the jubile to sound on the tenth day of the seventh month, in the day of atonement shall ye make the trumpet sound throughout all your land. And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof: it shall be a jubile unto you; and ye shall return every man unto his possession, and ye shall return every man unto his family. A jubile shall that fiftieth year be unto you: ye shall not sow, neither reap that which groweth of itself in it, nor gather the grapes in it of thy vine undressed. For it is the jubile; it shall be holy unto you: ye shall eat the increase thereof out of the field. In the year of this jubile ye shall return every man unto his possession. And if thou sell ought unto thy neighbour, or buyest ought of thy neighbour's hand, ye shall not oppress one another: According to the number of years after the jubile thou shalt buy of thy neighbour, and according unto the number of years of the fruits he shall sell unto thee: According to the multitude of years thou shalt increase the price thereof, and according to the fewness of years thou shalt diminish the price of it: for according to the number of the years of the fruits doth he sell unto thee. Ye shall not therefore oppress one another; but thou shalt fear thy God:for I am the Lord your God. Wherefore ye shall do my statutes, and keep my judgments, and do them; and ye shall dwell in the land in safety. And the land shall yield her fruit, and ye shall eat your fill, and dwell therein in safety. And if ye shall say, What shall we eat the seventh year? behold, we shall not sow, nor gather in our increase: Then I will command my blessing upon you in the sixth year, and it shall bring forth fruit for three years. And ye shall sow the eighth year, and eat yet of old fruit until the ninth year; until her fruits come in ye shall eat of the old store. The land shall not be sold for ever: for the land is mine, for ye are strangers and sojourners with me. And in all the land of your possession ye shall grant a redemption for the land. If thy brother be waxen poor, and hath sold away some of his possession, and if any of his kin come to redeem it, then shall he redeem that which his brother sold. And if the man have none to redeem it, and himself be able to redeem it; Then let him count the years of the sale thereof, and restore the overplus unto the man to whom he sold it; that he may return unto his possession. But if he be not able to restore it to him, then that which is sold shall remain in the hand of him that hath bought it until the year of jubile: and in the jubile it shall go out, and he shall return unto his possession. And if a man sell a dwelling house in a walled city, then he may redeem it within a whole year after it is sold; within a full year may he redeem it. And if it be not redeemed within the space of a full year, then the house that is in the walled city shall be established for ever to him that bought it throughout his generations: it shall not go out in the jubile. But the houses of the villages which have no wall round about them shall be counted as the fields of the country: they may be redeemed, and they shall go out in the jubile. Notwithstanding the cities of the Levites, and the houses of the cities of their possession, may the Levites redeem at any time. And if a man purchase of the Levites, then the house that was sold, and the city of his possession, shall go out in the year of jubile: for the houses of the cities of the Levites are their possession among the children of Israel. But the field of the suburbs of their cities may not be sold; for it is their perpetual possession. And if thy brother be waxen poor, and fallen in decay with thee; then thou shalt relieve him: yea, though he be a stranger, or a sojourner; that he may live with thee. Take thou no usury of him, or increase: but fear thy God; that thy brother may live with thee. Thou shalt not give him thy money upon usury, nor lend him thy victuals for increase. I am the Lord your God, which brought you forth out of the land of Egypt, to give you the land of Canaan, and to be your God. And if thy brother that dwelleth by thee be waxen poor, and be sold unto thee; thou shalt not compel him to serve as a bondservant: But as an hired servant, and as a sojourner, he shall be with thee, and shall serve thee unto the year of jubile. And then shall he depart from thee, both he and his children with him, and shall return unto his own family, and unto the possession of his fathers shall he return. For they are my servants, which I brought forth out of the land of Egypt: they shall not be sold as bondmen. Thou shalt not rule over him with rigour; but shalt fear thy God. Both thy bondmen, and thy bondmaids, which thou shalt have, shall be of the heathen that are round about you; of them shall ye buy bondmen and bondmaids. Moreover of the children of the strangers that do sojourn among you, of them shall ye buy, and of their families that are with you, which they begat in your land: and they shall be your possession. And ye shall take them as an inheritance for your children after you, to inherit them for a possession; they shall be your bondmen for ever: but over your brethren the children of Israel, ye shall not rule one over another with rigour. And if a sojourner or stranger wax rich by thee, and thy brother that dwelleth by him wax poor, and sell himself unto the stranger or sojourner by thee, or to the stock of the stranger's family: After that he is sold he may be redeemed again; one of his brethren may redeem him: Either his uncle, or his uncle's son, may redeem him, or any that is nigh of kin unto him of his family may redeem him; or if he be able, he may redeem himself. And he shall reckon with him that bought him from the year that he was sold to him unto the year of jubile: and the price of his sale shall be according unto the number of years, according to the time of an hired servant shall it be with him.If there be yet many years behind, according unto them he shall give again the price of his redemption out of the money that he was bought for. And if there remain but few years unto the year of jubile, then he shall count with him, and according unto his years shall he give him again the price of his redemption. And as a yearly hired servant shall he be with him: and the other shall not rule with rigour over him in thy sight. And if he be not redeemed in these years, then he shall go out in the year of jubile, both he, and his children with him. For unto me the children of Israel are servants; they are my servants whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.” – Leviticus 25
The Sabbath Rest, the Lord prescribed it. In this passage the people were told specifically to give the land a rest. It would not result in impoverishment, rather plenty. It was certainly counterintuitive. It proved to be so much so that the people did not observe it. At the time of the Babylonian Captivity, they’d racked up seventy years of unkkept Sabbaths for the land. During the time of captivity the land rested for seventy years.
This observation might lead to another way of looking at this time when many of us cannot work. Around the world much of the economy is stalled. We think of lost productivity – but is there another way to see this time. It is not so much a judgment of the Divine as it is a forced rest. Could this be a time for a reset in our thoughts and priorities, a time from which we can emerge more robust than before?
Our ancestors endured times more challenging than these, wars, famines, pestilences and they not only survived, but brought out of such times new innovation and renewed vigor to address the challenges before them. Perhaps times like these give us pause to rethink where our priorities lie and can serve to open up new ways of looking at the way we live. Can these times for us become a time of Jubilee?
The Heart of Jubilee
Inherent in the concept of Jubilee is the restoration of the ability to make a living. Practically, that is put forth in the returning of ancestral lands and redemption from slavery. Recognizing that human nature and human affairs will result in the loss of land (necessary for production of food) and freedom (necessary for the human spirit to prosper), the Scripture provides for the restoration of both in this passage. The heart of Jubilee is not just the rest of the land, nor is it primarily about its redistribution. Jubilee is a means by which no one is shut out from the means to provide for oneself and no one becomes permanently enslaved. It is, in fact, a call to productivity. Those who bought up the lands of their neighbors had a specified amount of time to profit from it. Those who had lost land and freedom had opportunity to begin again.
So what does the concept of Jubilee look like in the modern world? I think the societies of America and Australia show the true results of the opportunity to begin again. A new world provided fresh opportunities. When I was a boy they’d still pay you to come to Australia because they needed workers. Today they limit visas like most nations in the world. One way Jubilee can practically manifest itself in our modern world is in our restoration of manufacturing jobs to our shores. Cutting regulations and careful application of tariffs had begun this process before the pandemic. Modern workers do not own enough land to provide for themselves, but it might be argued that their jobs are such a property. The opportunity to produce is now not so much an agricultural one as one in the meeting of basic human needs.
Making our own energy is a good Jubilee phenomenon. Surely this has restored much to our domestic well being. Jubilee also manifests itself in creative reinvention. Mike Lindell, the mind behind the My Pillow company re-purposed his production lines to make reusable masks during the pandemic crisis. Closer to home, Devil’s Backbone Brewery re-purposed its dining room operations to offer generous ‘Family Meals’ for carryout. We enjoyed a plentiful bounty of barbecue and macaroni and cheese from their kitchen. I can highly recommend it! They also made a way for their customers to obtain basic foodstuffs that they get from their suppliers, keeping business flowing to the companies that supply restaurants. That is the spirit of Jubilee! Jubilee is not finished until there is reopening! Such is the nature of this wonderful feast!
