Parasha: “B’Har” (on the Mountain) LEVITICUS 25:1-26:2
“Give it a rest! Will ya?” I am sure you have heard that expression before, or “Give it a rest already!”
People tend to say that when one continues in some theme or argues over a point that is not really worth it, HOWEVER, this is what God is saying when He sees the earth, soil, and ground being over-worked; “Give it a rest!” just as people need to rest and take their “Shabbat rest” so does the land which really belongs to HIM, we are just using it.
This parashah deals with giving the land a rest after six years of planting and harvesting, on the seventh year the land shall rest. This, agriculturally, is very sound and comes from the mouth of the creator of all the earth. The reason is quite simple to understand. Crops, such as corn, wheat, barley, vegetables, etc., when they grow in the soil, take in nutrients, quite like us, when we eat, we absorb nutrients from the food we eat. Imagine the land after 6 years of planting and harvesting, all those nutrients, minerals, and chemicals from the soil, are being absorbed by the crops sown, if the land does not have a chance to rest and renew itself, it will soon become useless, quite void of nutrients…so… a year’s rest will give the soil enough time to replenish itself.
Adonai provided for His people during the year that there would be no harvesting or planting. He made sure that the sixth year would produce a bumper crop, enough to supply the Israelite families with food for the 7th and 8th year. We can also see it this way. There are 7 "Alephs" in the first verse of Genesis, the letter "Alef" can also be spelled "Elef" which means 1000. (Yeshlekha elef dolarim?) "Do you have 1000 dollars?" (example). So far, this world has existed for six thousand years of war, peace, work, turmoil, problems, you name it. We might look at the 7 thousandth year as the millennium of rest, of Shalom. The Millennium of Yeshua who will come back to rule.
We can apply this commandment today, to allow the land to rest after six years of planting and harvesting, even families that have little vegetable gardens in the back of their houses. May they enjoy six years of vegetables and then in the seventh year, just dump compost in the soil, food that goes bad, moldy bread, etc., don’t put it in the garbage, bury it in the garden, do that in that seventh year, and then the next year, plant and harvest again.
We can look at ourselves in a similar way. How do we count our lives? By a 365-day year? Or by sabbaticals? If we were to count our years by the day, we could say we have many days and years ahead of us! Really? Do we know tomorrow? (didn’t think so). However, if we were to count our years on Earth by counting by sevens? How many “sabbaticals” have we lived? How many “might” be left? If I were to count my sabbaticals, I would have to count starting in 1954. 1954-1960 first seven years, 1961-67, the second sabbatical. I would have to ask myself, what have I done or accomplished in each of these periods of seven years? Anything of importance? Have I influenced other lives? If we count by sabbaticals, we will find that we really don’t have many sabbaticals to live.
What do we do in our “seventh year?” wouldn’t it be wonderful to “rest” a whole year? Or just dedicate that “seventh year” to full-time ministry work? That would be quite hard to do for those of us that work for a living and depend on a salary. Don’t think the boss would be very happy to hear us say; “Boss, I want to take off for this year, it is my “sabbatical” I’ll come back next year at the same time!” (Yeah, uh-huh, weeelll, you might not find your job waiting for you after a year) but we do have the summers to rest. If we could divide the year into seven parts, we would end up with more or less 1.7 months of time. Why not minister for 1.7 months? Share God’s Word, teach the WORD to others, for those who can take off a year without compromising their jobs, take every seventh year and just take that time to rest, travel, minister, hike, walk, leave behind gospel tracts, visit different churches and/or Messianic synagogues, and may ADONAI supply ALL of your needs.
26:2 “YE SHALL KEEP MY SABBATHS! AND VENERATE MY SANCTUARY.
We can look at this in the spiritual realm as well. We are like the crops, which are planted, by Adonai, on this earth, to grow in HIM, and reach maturity, yet there comes a harvest time, when we will be harvested to go back home, to our eternal Sabbath’s rest, to enjoy our “Yovel” our time of “Jubilee” to reap what we have sown, souls that have come to YESHUA through our testimonies, believers who have grown to maturity through “teachers of the WORD” it is not enough to give out the WORD of God, there must be the ones who teach it, like seeds that are planted and watered. For this reason, spiritual gifts are given, and among those are the “teachers of the WORD” the ones who water the seeds so that they may grow, mature, and in the end, be harvested.
The parashah also talks about slaves and servants. An Israelite could not be considered a slave, but a servant, yet a foreigner could be considered a slave. Yet both treatment of the slave or servant had to be humane, and they had to be released during the time of Jubilee, every 50 years. Normally, a slave or servant would be released at the end of 6 years, however, if the slave or servant wished to remain with the master, the time with the master ended at the time of Jubilee.
What this portion of Torah is saying is that ALL possessions, both material, animal, and human, belong to Adonai. We have each other, our material blessings for only a season. We should enjoy each other and the blessings that the LORD has given us, for a season, employers should treat their employees with respect and with honor (they would be like the slaves and servants in Biblical times) Employers have their employees, just for a season.
Someday, when we stand before our Heavenly Father, we will be accountable for all the things we have been given, both human, animal, and material things. For the season in which they were given to us, how did we treat them? In the time of Jubilee, how will stand before Yeshua? Something to think about.
“Give it a rest! Will ya?” I am sure you have heard that expression before, or “Give it a rest already!”
People tend to say that when one continues in some theme or argues over a point that is not really worth it, HOWEVER, this is what God is saying when He sees the earth, soil, and ground being over-worked; “Give it a rest!” just as people need to rest and take their “Shabbat rest” so does the land which really belongs to HIM, we are just using it.
This parashah deals with giving the land a rest after six years of planting and harvesting, on the seventh year the land shall rest. This, agriculturally, is very sound and comes from the mouth of the creator of all the earth. The reason is quite simple to understand. Crops, such as corn, wheat, barley, vegetables, etc., when they grow in the soil, take in nutrients, quite like us, when we eat, we absorb nutrients from the food we eat. Imagine the land after 6 years of planting and harvesting, all those nutrients, minerals, and chemicals from the soil, are being absorbed by the crops sown, if the land does not have a chance to rest and renew itself, it will soon become useless, quite void of nutrients…so… a year’s rest will give the soil enough time to replenish itself.
Adonai provided for His people during the year that there would be no harvesting or planting. He made sure that the sixth year would produce a bumper crop, enough to supply the Israelite families with food for the 7th and 8th year. We can also see it this way. There are 7 "Alephs" in the first verse of Genesis, the letter "Alef" can also be spelled "Elef" which means 1000. (Yeshlekha elef dolarim?) "Do you have 1000 dollars?" (example). So far, this world has existed for six thousand years of war, peace, work, turmoil, problems, you name it. We might look at the 7 thousandth year as the millennium of rest, of Shalom. The Millennium of Yeshua who will come back to rule.
We can apply this commandment today, to allow the land to rest after six years of planting and harvesting, even families that have little vegetable gardens in the back of their houses. May they enjoy six years of vegetables and then in the seventh year, just dump compost in the soil, food that goes bad, moldy bread, etc., don’t put it in the garbage, bury it in the garden, do that in that seventh year, and then the next year, plant and harvest again.
We can look at ourselves in a similar way. How do we count our lives? By a 365-day year? Or by sabbaticals? If we were to count our years by the day, we could say we have many days and years ahead of us! Really? Do we know tomorrow? (didn’t think so). However, if we were to count our years on Earth by counting by sevens? How many “sabbaticals” have we lived? How many “might” be left? If I were to count my sabbaticals, I would have to count starting in 1954. 1954-1960 first seven years, 1961-67, the second sabbatical. I would have to ask myself, what have I done or accomplished in each of these periods of seven years? Anything of importance? Have I influenced other lives? If we count by sabbaticals, we will find that we really don’t have many sabbaticals to live.
What do we do in our “seventh year?” wouldn’t it be wonderful to “rest” a whole year? Or just dedicate that “seventh year” to full-time ministry work? That would be quite hard to do for those of us that work for a living and depend on a salary. Don’t think the boss would be very happy to hear us say; “Boss, I want to take off for this year, it is my “sabbatical” I’ll come back next year at the same time!” (Yeah, uh-huh, weeelll, you might not find your job waiting for you after a year) but we do have the summers to rest. If we could divide the year into seven parts, we would end up with more or less 1.7 months of time. Why not minister for 1.7 months? Share God’s Word, teach the WORD to others, for those who can take off a year without compromising their jobs, take every seventh year and just take that time to rest, travel, minister, hike, walk, leave behind gospel tracts, visit different churches and/or Messianic synagogues, and may ADONAI supply ALL of your needs.
26:2 “YE SHALL KEEP MY SABBATHS! AND VENERATE MY SANCTUARY.
We can look at this in the spiritual realm as well. We are like the crops, which are planted, by Adonai, on this earth, to grow in HIM, and reach maturity, yet there comes a harvest time, when we will be harvested to go back home, to our eternal Sabbath’s rest, to enjoy our “Yovel” our time of “Jubilee” to reap what we have sown, souls that have come to YESHUA through our testimonies, believers who have grown to maturity through “teachers of the WORD” it is not enough to give out the WORD of God, there must be the ones who teach it, like seeds that are planted and watered. For this reason, spiritual gifts are given, and among those are the “teachers of the WORD” the ones who water the seeds so that they may grow, mature, and in the end, be harvested.
The parashah also talks about slaves and servants. An Israelite could not be considered a slave, but a servant, yet a foreigner could be considered a slave. Yet both treatment of the slave or servant had to be humane, and they had to be released during the time of Jubilee, every 50 years. Normally, a slave or servant would be released at the end of 6 years, however, if the slave or servant wished to remain with the master, the time with the master ended at the time of Jubilee.
What this portion of Torah is saying is that ALL possessions, both material, animal, and human, belong to Adonai. We have each other, our material blessings for only a season. We should enjoy each other and the blessings that the LORD has given us, for a season, employers should treat their employees with respect and with honor (they would be like the slaves and servants in Biblical times) Employers have their employees, just for a season.
Someday, when we stand before our Heavenly Father, we will be accountable for all the things we have been given, both human, animal, and material things. For the season in which they were given to us, how did we treat them? In the time of Jubilee, how will stand before Yeshua? Something to think about.
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