EXPOSITION LXV.

CHAP. XXV. 1-22.

1. And the Lord spake unto Moses in mount Sinai, saying,

2. 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.

3. Six years thou shalt sow thy field, and six years thou shalt prune thy vineyard, and gather in the fruit thereof;

4. But in the seventh year shall be a sabbath of rest unto the land, a sabbath for the Lord: thou shalt neither sow thy field, nor prune thy vineyard.

5. That which groweth of its own accord of thy harvest thou shalt not reap, neither gather the grapes of thy vine undressed: for it is a year of rest unto the land.

6. And the sabbath of the land shall be meat for you; for thee, and for thy servant, and for thy maid, and for thy hired servant, and for thy stranger that sojourneth with thee,

7. And for thy cattle, and for the beasts that are in thy land, shall all the increase thereof be meal.

The law which we have just read, was to take effect as soon as the Israelites should enter the promised land, and was a very remarkable one. It was no less than this, that as at the end of every six days, the Israelites were to keep a day of rest unto the Lord, so at the end of every six years, they should keep a year of rest unto the Lord. This was to be called, "the sabbatical year;" it was to commence immediately after the in-gathering of all the harvests of the sixth year was concluded, and so would necessarily prevent them from sowing any seed for the year following. To render this compatible with the comfort, and indeed the very existence of the

*

people, it pleased the Almighty to work a perpetual miracle during the year which preceded the sabbatical year, and which is thus promised in a later part of the chapter: "I will command my blessing upon you in the sixth year, and it shall bring forth fruit three years, and ye shall sow the eighth year, and eat yet of old fruit until the ninth year; until her fruits come in ye shall eat of the old store."

Here then was a perpetual miracle, perfectly sufficient to mark the divine authority of the lawgiver,. that whereas, ordinarily, each year only produced sufficient to supply the cultivator until the fruits of the year following were gathered in, the harvests of every sixth year should be so supernaturally abundant, as to supply all the inhabitants of the land for three years. In fact, it appears to have been simply an extension of the miracle of the manna, of which, as you will remember, there always fell a sufficiency upon the sixth day to compensate for its suspension on the seventh. Probably, in both cases, the intention of the Almighty was the same, to mark the respect and reverence due to the divine and blessed institution of the sabbath. But perhaps there was a still farther object, to impress upon the minds of the Israelites, that, as we have already observed, "The Lord their God was their King," and that, as is expressly said in the twenty-third verse, "The land shall not be sold for ever, for the land is mine, for ye are strangers and sojourners with me." Therefore, as the only rent they could pay to the Almighty,

* See verses 20, 21, 22.

He thus, as it were, claimed the value of the produce of every seventh year, forbidding them to gather as a regular harvest, even "that which groweth of its own accord." Although apparently allowing them, and their servants, and their cattle, to partake promiscuously of these fruits, of which it is said, “ All the increase thereof shall be meat."

8. And thou shalt number seven sabbaths of years unto thee, seven times seven years; and the space of the seven sabbaths of years shall be unto thee forty and nine years.

9. Then shalt thou cause the trumpet of the jubilee to sound, on the tenth day of the seventh month, in the day of atonement shall ye make the trumpet sound throughout all your land.

10. And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof: it shall be a jubilee unto you; and ye shall return every man unto his possession, and ye shall return every man unto his family.

11. A jubilee shall that fiftieth year be unto you: ye shall not sow, neither reap that which groweth of itself in it, nor gather the grapes in it of thy vine undressed.

12. For it is the jubilee; it shall be holy unto you; ye shall eat the increase thereof out of the field.

13. In the year of this jubilee ye shall return every man unto his possession.

14. And if thou sell aught unto thy neighbour, or buyest aught of thy neighbour's hand, ye shall not oppress one another:

15. According to the number of years after the jubilee thou shalt buy of thy neighbour, and according unto the number of years of the fruits he shall sell unto thee:

16. According to the multitude of years thou shalt increase the price thereof, and according to the fewness of years thou shalt di minish the price of it: for according to the number of the years of the fruits doth he sell unto thee.

17. Ye shall not therefore oppress one another; but thou shalt fear thy God: for I am the Lord your God.

18. Wherefore ye shall do my statutes, and keep my judgments, and do them; and ye shall dwell in the land in safety.

19. And the land shall yield her fruit, and ye shall eat your fill, and dwell therein in safety.

20. And if ye shall say, What shall we eat the seventh year? behold, we shall not sow, nor gather in our increase:

21. Then I will command my blessing upon you in the sixth year, and it shall bring forth fruit for three years.

22. And ye shall sow the eighth year, and eat yet of old fruit until the ninth year; until her fruits come in ye shall eat of the old store.

We learn from these verses, that to the very remarkable law of which we have already spoken, was added another of precisely a similar tendency, namely, that every fiftieth year should be a jubilee. Thou shalt number seven sabbaths of years unto thee, seven times seven years, and the space of the seven sabbaths of years shall be unto thee forty and nine years. In this fiftieth year, liberty was to be proclaimed to all the inhabitants of the land, every man was to return to his possession which he had sold, or to his family, from which by bondage or debt, or any other reason, he had been separated.

This, again, was merely an extension of the same law and the same miracle as that of the sabbath, but perhaps with a still wider and more deeply spiritual intention. That, as at the end of every fifty years, which was probably the average length of a generation in those days, all who were really Israelites looked forward to a general restitution of all things, that had been alienated or lost, and to an entire freedom from the bondage to which they might have been subjected, and to a year of perfect rest, and peace, and great temporal enjoyment and abundance;

so their minds might thus, in an especial manner, as well as by the sabbatical years in a more general manner, be led to a continual anticipation, with joy and hope, of "the rest (sabbatismos) which remaineth to the people of God."

May the Almighty vouchsafe, for the sake of his dear Son, that this may be one of the important practical lessons, which we may, as a family, and as individuals, derive from our own blessed sabbaths. That as on those hallowed days we are called aside from the business of life, and led to find our enjoyment and happiness only in the sacred services of our God; so that each returning sabbath may come as the herald of eternity, bringing with it its short, though blessed foretaste of holier employments and calmer joys, and a far more delightful refreshment for the weary soul. May we, by the devout, and prayerful, and constant use of its holy ordinances, be growing in the daily desire and preparation for the blessed and eternal sabbath of the land, where all ordinances shall have ceased, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it; and where the joys shall be infinite, and the holiness perfect, and the glories inconceivable, and the rest eternal.

THE END.