Leviticus 25:4-7

. . . even as we rest on the Sabbath because we stop working. Every seventh year, the land is given a rest. It stops working, as it were. I think you can begin to see that God is doing this, in a sense, as an act of kindness both to the land, almost as if it was a living thing, as well as to the farmer who was farming the land. It's a gift to him to give that land rest. In both cases, it's an act of kindness because if he keeps on farming the land year after year after year, he wears it out. And then, the land stops producing wealth, as we are seeing all over the United States now.

Let's summarize the seventh year: No sowing. No reaping. No storing of what comes up volunteer. No pruning of your vines or trimming of your trees. However, the farmer was still allowed to eat what came up volunteer. He's allowed to eat it, but he had to go out and pick it every day. He was not allowed to reap it. He was not allowed to store it, even though it came up volunteer. He had to leave it there until he needed it. Then he went out and got it.

You get what's going on here? It's just like they had to do with the manna. It's a reminder of the manna. Every morning you go out and you take what you need to eat, and then the next morning you do the same thing.

He could eat what comes up volunteer, but also can the poor, the alien, the animals of the field—the wild animals, as well as the domesticated animals like the cattle. They were allowed to eat freely of what came up volunteer in the field. What you can begin to see here is this is a form of God's welfare system.

Leviticus 25:4-7

Leviticus 25 is a parallel account to Deuteronomy 15, stipulating that very seventh year, the land was to rest from intensive agricultural production. This land rest was to be a time of renewal of the land as well as a time of rest for those who farmed the land.

With the land rest came the prospect of a greater harvest—a new beginning.

Leviticus 25:1-7

Now when we think about the Sabbath and rest, we typically think about the weekly Sabbath that occurs on Saturday, the seventh day of the week. Here, God is outlining a Sabbath and a rest for the land. This is important.