Shmita - Reaping While Resting

Natural REST

Faith TEST

Triple BLESSED

Theme: Forgiveness, rest

· Cancels debts

· Release slaves

· Short term investment for long term gain- get three years harvest for one years rest (of NOT planting)

Reason for Sabbaths:

God’s love wants to protect us from burning out:

· our LIVES – so we can ENJOY the harvest

o Let body rest or else you get sleep deprived

· our LAND – so it can PROVIDE a continual harvest

o Let land rest or nutrients deprived

Shmita = to release (rest)

· Rest is a restorative break from labor and worldly striving.

· Rest is an essential feature of the Sabbath—a day of rest on which no work was to be done.

· Rest comes to symbolize salvation itself - As a time of peace and calm, free from work

Concept Summary

· Rest represents a break from physical labor and worldly striving. It provides a time for mental and spiritual restoration.

The Sabbath DAY

· Every seventh day of the week celebrates the creation of the world by God when He made everything over the course of six days and rested on the seventh (see Genesis 1-2).

Genesis 2:2 NLT

2 On the seventh day God had finished his work of creation, so he rested from all his work.

7673 שָׁבַת, שָׁבַת [shabath /shaw·bath/][1] = “cease and desist”

· to cease – desist (from labour) – put an end to

· to keep or observe the sabbath

· to celebrate

Shmita = Rest every seventh YEAR

· The Sabbath YEAR

· Or the 7th Year Sabbath

· 7 years - no matter what else is going on in the world or even the children’s age at that time.

Leviticus 25:1–4 NLT

1 While Moses was on Mount Sinai, the Lord said to him, 2 “Give the following instructions to the people of Israel. When you have entered the land I am giving you, the land itself must observe a Sabbath rest before the Lord every seventh year. 3 For six years you may plant your fields and prune your vineyards and harvest your crops, 4 but during the seventh year the land must have a Sabbath year of complete rest. It is the Lord’s Sabbath. Do not plant your fields or prune your vineyards during that year.

· Like the seventh day of the week, every seventh year is holy.

· God commands the Jewish people to let the Land rest every 7 years.

· It is a Sabbath day of rest for the whole country, for a whole year.

Proactive –

· Shmita is proactive biblical command

· Shmita has multiple references in Exodus, Leviticus, and Deuteronomy.

· The Shmita (Sabbatical) year is an entire year devoted to strengthening our bond with God through resting in His finished work.

· Observing Shmita gives us an opportunity to express our faith by trusting God that we can continue to reap, even while we rest!

WHEN –

· When God gave the commandment to the Jewish people in the desert, they had not yet entered the Land

a Year of Release

· God instructed Israel to let the fields lie fallow every seventh year and give the land its sabbath rest.

1 – Shmita is NATURAL Rest

· Land released (rest)

· During shmita, the land is left to lie fallow and all agricultural activity, including plowing, planting, pruning and harvesting, is forbidden by halakha (Jewish law).

2 – Shmita Year is a FAITH test

Counterintuitive – to conventional “sowing” and reaping

· Not only is it a massive test of faith to not work the land for an entire year,

· But when you stop to think about what it would actually mean to properly and fully obey that commandment, it would take a gigantic leap of faith to stop all agriculture for an entire year.

· Terrifying, in fact. How will they eat? Without supernatural help and provision it looks pretty alarming. God, predictably, had thought of that.

Leviticus 25:20–22 NLT

20 But you might ask, ‘What will we eat during the seventh year, since we are not allowed to plant or harvest crops that year?’ 21 Be assured that I will send my blessing for you in the sixth year, so the land will produce a crop large enough for three years. 22 When you plant your fields in the eighth year, you will still be eating from the large crop of the sixth year. In fact, you will still be eating from that large crop when the new crop is harvested in the ninth year.

Shmita = God’s PROMISE to PROVIDE

God wants the inhabitants of the Land to remember who it really belongs to.

Leviticus 25:23 NLT

23 “The land must never be sold on a permanent basis, for the land belongs to me. You are only foreigners and tenant farmers working for me.

Like a fast, or a weekly shabbat rest, holding back from the temptation to work in the shmita year allows God’s people more opportunity to lift their eyes above the chores of everyday life, up to heaven and eternal matters.

It takes faith and discipline, but we can look to God for provision and for fruitfulness as we obey Him even when it costs us.

3 – Shmita = Triple BLESSED

· Debts released (cancelled)

· all debts among the people of Israel are cancelled.

· All debts, except those of foreigners, were to be remitted.

Glean for free

· but it also has blessings for those in poverty and debt: the poor are free to glean all the naturally growing crops they want for no charge

Shmita = The Power of Perpetual Seed

Mark 4:26–28 NLT

26 Jesus also said, “The Kingdom of God is like a farmer who scatters seed on the ground. 27 Night and day, while he’s asleep or awake, the seed sprouts and grows, but he does not understand how it happens. 28 The earth produces the crops on its own. First a leaf blade pushes through, then the heads of wheat are formed, and finally the grain ripens.

Perpetual seed = perpetual harvest!

· seed keeps producing – won’t have to

· Be encouraged! If you have seed in the ground, it will keep coming back to you!

· 30 – 60 – 100-fold!

Blessings for Obedience = multiplication

· bountiful harvest

· Triple blessings to sustain you during the resting years

Return of Israel = Land Flourishes

· When the Jews returned to Israel about 100 years ago, the land began to flourish again fulfilling God’s Word.

Failure of Rest = Forfeiture

expulsion, Slavery – even from the Promised Land!

· Observing the Shmita was mandatory and not optional in God’s mind.

· Failing to keep the weekly Sabbath and the Sabbath year of rest for the fields had serious consequences for the people of Israel.

· Modern examples – stock market crash - 2001, 2008, 2015 China crash – 2022?

Make up for lost time

· Example = Babylonian captivity

o – the reason for the 70-year exile in Babylon was to let the land catch up on the 70 sabbath years’ rest that it did not get.

o Spiritual law cannot be violated!

2 Chronicles 36:21 NLT

21 So the message of the Lord spoken through Jeremiah was fulfilled. The land finally enjoyed its Sabbath rest, lying desolate until the seventy years were fulfilled, just as the prophet had said.

Call to Action: Trust in God BLESSINGS while RESTING in His Promise!

· God really wants us to release, to let go, and to trust Him by following his ways even when it is scary.

· We need to let go of control and admit that not only the Holy Land is His, but our lives and indeed all the world is His.

· He made it, He owns it, and if He says put your tools down and rest, we need to obey.

· We can trust Him to look after us when we walk in obedience.