Sabbath for the Land

“Speak to the Israelites and say to them: ‘When you enter the land I am going to give you, the land itself must observe a sabbath to the Lord.  For six years sow your fields, and for six years prune your vineyards and gather their crops.  But in the seventh year the land is to have a year of sabbath rest, a sabbath to the Lord. Do not sow your fields or prune your vineyards.  Do not reap what grows of itself or harvest the grapes of your untended vines. The land is to have a year of rest.” - Lev. 25: 1-5

Why does the land need to rest, Lord? And why should You care so deeply? Over the passage of time, we have learned some of the science behind Your wisdom. Dirt should not be tilled every year or it will be stripped of its nutrients. From an agricultural point of view, the land does, in fact, benefit from rest. But is this the reason You command rest; or is soil depletion a limit You have put in place to enforce rest - like the physical exhaustion we animals experience without rest? There is something mysterious about sabbath. Rest, I suspect, is a need which all creation shares because our Creator rests.

And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done.  So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation. - Gen 2:2

Humans live in cycles - daily, weekly, monthly and yearly cycles. There is rest woven into each of these cycles - either by nature or by divine mandate. The land, however, is on a much longer cycle. Its sabbath falls every 50 years. This makes some intuitve sense. The earth is older than man. The land which we till and sow in a yearly cycle remains largely the same from our birth to our death, unless we go to great lengths to reshape it. I believe the solidity of geography is an existential comfort which we humans take for granted. The mountains I loved as child remain standing for my grandchildren. We can go to those mountains and hike them together. The seas likewise pound the same coasts my forebearers knew. The jubilee year was intended to call people back to their ancestral lands. The jubilee year was intended as a year of wonder and freedom. You Yourself would provide for all without the work of tilling. You would bless the land as it rested. And all debts would be forgiven! There would be a great reset of the whole nation. Everyone would start with a clean slate on the land that they were given by You, LORD - a gift of Your hand.

We humans do not think of landforms in the same way that we think of trees, or birds, or ourselves. But perhaps You see the land differently, LORD. Land is important to you. You created the water and dry land well before you created man - but Your creation of the material world occurred in one continuous, intentional, glorious feat. Man was created on the last day of Your divine “work week.” We were the crown jewel of creation - the only part of creation to bear the image of the Triune God - but we are nonetheless part of the same creative act which formed the dirt. In fact Adam was was formed out of the red earth, and thus received his name. And once You breathed life into the clay You formed, once You had fashioned Adam a suitable helpmate, then You rested.

Perhaps the geography of this planet is in some way “alive” to You. The Promise which You entrusted to Abraham was not only the gospel of salvation in seminal form (Gal 3:8), it was also a promise concerning the land. Paul also speaks as though the ground itself longs for redemption. For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now.  And not only that, but also we ourselves, having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons and daughters, the redemption of our body. - Rom 8:22-23

It seems to me, LORD, that creation has a “body” much like we do. It is made of matter which eventually erodes, or shifts or is destroyed. There will come a day when the earth suffers a death of sorts, and also a rebirth. Jesus says that heaven and earth will pass away (Matt 24:35), while Revelation speaks of a New Heaven and a New Earth. Jesus says,  “I have come to cast fire upon the earth; and how I wish it were already kindled!” Some people interpret that passage metaphorically, but I am not so sure. It becomes clear in the very next verse that Jesus in thinking of His own impending death.  “But I have a baptism to undergo, and how distressed I am until it is accomplished!” Luke 12:50). Why should not all of creation follow the pattern of its Creator?

What if sabbath is a prophetic sign of the resurrection, in somewhat the same way scripture speaks of sleep as a sign of death? In sabbath, one period of activity comes to an end. We give thanks to you, God, for the gifts of that season, then we rest and start to work again.

Has Jesus started to work again after the sabbath of His death? (He did, after all, sleep on the sabbath!) Is this why He tells us, “I go to prepare a place for you?” (John 14:2) Has a new “week” already begun in a new heaven and new earth - one in which preparations are made for the Bride?

I do not know the answers to these questions! They are too deep for me. But I do know that Jesus has taken on the red clay of Adam and in doing so, He has sanctified the dust of this earth. Not that this earth will endure forever, but it will be transfigured in the Person of the Son. Our worn bodies, fashioned of the same dust, will also be glorified. Why should the earth itself not be renewed?

John the Beloved saw Jesus transfigured - both on earth and in heaven. He heard His friend pronounce these words as the New Jerusalem descended, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is among the people, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away.” And He who sits on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” - Rev. 21: 3-5

I find it greatly comforting to know that Jesus slept when He walked this earth. And He also kept Sabbath, though not in a way that satisfied the religious experts of his day. What if Sabbath is not only good for us because we need rest - what if keeping Sabbath is a prophetic act? What if resting is a way to show faith in God, faith in the resurrection of the dead, and hope for the new creation for which this world “groans and waits?”