Leviticus 25:2-55 Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them, When you come into the land which I give you… I. Let us first LISTEN TO THE QUESTION. "What shall we eat the seventh year?" Now this was a question of mere nature. Grace had nothing to do with it. It is man trusting in his own native strength, man who judges all things by his own reason, man who goes no further in his belief than what he can see and what he can understand. Human nature can understand ploughing and reaping. Nature can comprehend scattering the seed. Nature can believe in a self-dependent life, but nature cannot understand renouncing all human activity and living absolutely on Jehovah's blessing, and, therefore, in a spirit of querulous unbelief, it asks, "But what shall we eat?" Asking this question is virtually to arraign God at the bar of Reason, and say, "It is all very well to tell us that we are not to plough, and not to gather, and not to reap; but what shall we eat? We shall starve if we are only to feed on what Thou givest us. If we do this thing we shall have empty barns, and empty barns will mean empty mouths, and empty mouths will mean national ruin and death." Thus blinded nature always argues, and will not trust for more than it can see. A plough that can be beheld is valued far before a God that can only be believed. Now is not this a question continually being asked in the present day? Is it not being put by some here this morning? There is one yonder asking it in this wise: If I do all that God tells me, how shall I get on in life or make my way? If I conduct my business according to high Christian principles, if I give absolute and complete obedience to all the commands of Scripture, if I keep my fingers clean of those things that defile the world's hands, and if I maintain my integrity, and refuse to stoop to all the petty little meannesses that I find common in the business of the world, well, then, what shall I eat? May I not as well put up the shutters at once? This very matter was brought before me only yesterday by a professing Christian. Said he, "Sir, it is all very well for you to talk as you do, and right you should, but if we don't do these little things, our children will have to suffer for it. We are living in the world, and we have to do in a measure as the world does, for if we don't, what shall we eat?" Thus unbelief steps in, and says, "Perfect obedience to God means starvation." Whilst on the other hand faith replies, "Perfect obedience means a feast on blessing." Faith cares not from whence the supply may come; faith troubles not about probable results; it obeys God's commands, asks no questions, and raises no objections. Let us not, however, be too hard on these persons, for this question is often asked more in a spirit of anxiety than a disposition to cavil. A timid believer, with no thought of limiting the Holy One of Israel, may put the question in some such form as this: "Well, sir, it is all very true what you say, and God forbid I should doubt His providence, but supposing I should be sick during this year — supposing I should have a long, weary illness, that keeps me from work for weeks! What should I do? Facts are stubborn things, and if I cannot earn a penny, how am I to purchase anything for the family? If there is to be a long cessation from employment, what shall we eat?" Or, it may be, there are some already in this position, who are saying, "It is easy, sir, for you to stand up on that platform and talk, but you would alter your language if you were in my place. Look! When I scan the horizon, I cannot see one harvest-field that I am likely to reap this year. If I go to all my barns I find them empty; if I go to my trees I find them stripped. Humanly speaking, I can see no hope of anything but hardship and privation, and the question of my heart this morning is, 'What shall we eat this year?' and though I have asked it a hundred times, I seem no nearer the solution of the problem." Well, dear friend, you have my heart's truest sympathy, and I would that I could help you, and all like you, but yet I must say, "Trust in God and do the right." "I will command My blessing," is God's answer to your question of anxiety. Sometimes, however, the question is asked more from curiosity than even anxiety. It is in such spirit that we ask the question this morning, "What shall we eat?" It is not a question whether God will give us food or not; we know He will; but we should like to know what manner of food it is He will put into our mouths this seventh year. Will it be the same as last year or better? Will there be a new flavour about it, or a repetition of the old savour? Shall it be fruit from a new tree, or new fruit from an old tree? What shall be our kind of experience during this year? Shall we, during its months, eat of the fruit of Canaan, or shall we be satisfied with the manna of the wilderness? II. Well, we will try now TO GIVE YOU THE ANSWER as you have it in the text. We shall live on the blessing of our God. Israel had to learn one truth, and that one truth was this — that God's blessing was worth more than all their own efforts; that if God spake a word of commanding blessing, it was worth more to them than all their ploughs and agricultural labour. Beloved, is not this true for you? Have not you in three ways to learn the lesson that the Lord will provide? It will be true this year in your life as far as temporal matters are concerned. It is not the expenditure of brain power, or the employment of arm muscle that will win you your bread; it is the blessing of God resting on you. There is nought apart from that; and we pray that you may acknowledge the precious truth, and at the end of this year say, concerning your gettings, "It is because Jehovah has commanded His blessing." But there is a higher life you and I have to live, and that is soul life. How will that be maintained this year? I answer — By the blessing of God. No man has power to keep the fire within his own soul aglow; no man has might sufficient to keep his own faith from staggering; no one has self-contained ability to keep his own heart from wandering. And how true will it be in reference to us as a Church! The preacher this year must look to God for his texts. "The Lord will provide" must be recognised even in that. It is not the service, it is the blessing on the service. It is not the word, it is the blessing on the word. It is the dew that is on the manna that makes it so refreshing; it is Jehovah's benediction that alone satisfies; and though we may drive our own plough, and though we may try and scatter the seed broadcast on every hand, yet if you obtain one spiritual feast this year, the speaker steps back and says it is not of him. If God makes him a means of blessing unto one soul, it is neither he nor his sermon, it is the Lord's commanded blessing that has refreshed the heart. Had we time, we might show you how this applies to everything in connection with the Church. Our schools will prosper just as Heaven's blessing is their portion. There is one other thought which arises naturally out of the subject; it is this, that the answer to the question, "What shall we eat the seventh year" is "Exactly the same as you had on the sixth year," because you will observe, if you look at the context, that God gave them a double blessing on the sixth year, so that the trees yielded twice their wont — treble rather — and the fields a threefold harvest. So that on the seventh and eighth years they had no new kind of fruit to that they had on the sixth. It was the same fruit, and of the same flavour. (A. G. Brown.) Parallel Verses KJV: Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye come into the land which I give you, then shall the land keep a sabbath unto the LORD. |
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