Did you know the seventh day isn’t the only Sabbath YHWH gave His people? There is a Sabbath rest for the land too. It is not to be planted, pruned or harvested. It is to be allowed to grow “of its own accord.” (Lev. 25:5) Why would YHWH give the land a rest? 
Farmers can attest to the necessity of allowing the land time to replenish, but can you imagine the planning and work required to live without one harvest? There weren’t provisions to rotate crops, a common practice of modern farming in YHWH’s command. People would need to harvest a triple portion in the sixth year until to provide until the eighth year harvest. Would the people plant larger crops in the sixth year? According to the scriptures, they didn’t plant more, YHWH blessed the sixth year so abundantly the people could gather for three years in one harvest…WOW! The Lord doesn’t give us restrictions He doesn’t make a way for us to get through. The land’s Sabbath rest is a beautiful picture of YHWH’s provisions. But with every blessing there is a warning. Leviticus 26:35 says “As long as it lies desolate it shall rest—for the time it did not rest on your sabbaths when you dwelt in it.” This is part of the covenant between YHWH and His people. Did Israel keep this command? 2 Chronicles 36:20-21 says –
“And those who escaped from the sword he carried away to Babylon, where they became servants to him and his sons until the rule of the kingdom of Persia, to fulfill the word of the LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed her Sabbaths. As long as she lay desolate she kept Sabbath, to fulfill seventy years.”
Lesson of the day: YHWH means what He says. Lord, help me to obey.
