The People of God: The Story of the ChurchSample

The theme of the Sabbath is the subject of our passage again today. The Lord wanted Sabbath to run through every part of the life of His people. We see a Sabbath cycle each week when everyone was to rest from their work. Then a Sabbath cycle every seven years, when on the seventh year, the land was to rest for a year after being harvested. Then, every seven times, seven years (49 years) was to be a year of preparation for the fiftieth year, the year of Jubilee. This year was to be a year of liberty and celebration.

Above all, Sabbath cycles were about redemption. The Lord tells the people to see themselves as tenants on the land that ultimately belongs to him. The Sabbath cycles were a way of redeeming the land, just as the weekly Sabbath was a way of redeeming the people - pointing them back to the Lord and His purpose. The plan was to use a group of people and a land to show the rest of the world what human flourishing looks like. So many of the chapters in the books of Leviticus and Deuteronomy layout rewards for obedience and warnings against disobedience in how these laws are followed. As we still experience today, Israel often fails to live up to the ideal setting for them, but there are glimpses of God’s plan for His people to display his salvation to the world around them.