|
Jacob,
age 92. and Rebecca, age 89, both lost their first
spouses to death, and they met each other and
decided to get married. They are excited about
their decision to get married. They go for a stroll
to discuss the wedding and on the way they pass
a drugstore. Jacob suggests they go in.
Jacob
addresses the man behind the counter: "Are
you the owner?"
The pharmacist answers "Yes".
Jacob: "We're about to get married. Do you
sell heart medication?"
Pharmacist: "Of course we do.
Jacob: "How about medicine for circulation?
Pharmacist: "All kinds."
Jacob: "Medicine for rheumatism, scoliosis?
"
Pharmacist: "Definitely."
Jacob: "How about Viagra?"
Pharmacist: "Of course."
Jacob: "Medicine for memory problems, arthritis,
Jaundice?"
Pharmacist: "Yes, a large variety. The works."
Jacob: "What about vitamins, sleeping pills,
Geritol, antidotes for Parkinson's disease?"
Pharmacist: "Absolutely."
Jacob: "You sell wheelchairs and walkers?"
Pharmacist: "All speeds and sizes."
Jacob says to the pharmacist:
"We'd like to use this store as our Bridal
Registry”!
Sin is
powerful; sin is pervasive; it has permeated the
universe. One of the things that it does is wear
us out. How many of you get tired, weary, worn
out? It seems like the longer you live in this
world, the more tired and weary you get, doesn’t
it?
What would
life be if you were a slave, and had to work hard
every day, week after week, year after year, with
no break, until you died? Such a life would be
terrible, wouldn’t it? And, sadly, there still
are slaves in this world, even now.
You see,
when Adam and Eve sinned, their rebellion against
the Melech Olam - the King of the universe, their
disobedience to the All-Wise God, their treachery
against the good Lord, ruined not only themselves,
and all their descendants, but the entire universe.
A curse fell not only upon humanity, but also
upon the ground, and all of nature. Nature functions
very differently now than the way it did before
the Fall.
Sin has
impacted not only humanity, each one of us - body,
soul and spirit; mind, will and heart, but all
of creation - the plants, the animals, the weather,
the Earth itself, and beyond - the galaxies and
the universe. I once saw a photograph of two galaxies
crashing into each other.
This is
exactly what the Word of God tells us: the entire
created universe was subjected to futility and
frustration, and slavery to corruption and decay.
Life is no longer pleasant and easy, as it was
at first in the Garden of Eden. Now, we have to
work hard, toil, sweat, fight weeds and thorns
and thistles, in order to eat our daily bread.
Will it
always be like this? Will we always have to work
hard, strive, get tired and weary and worn out?
Is there no return to the Beginning, to the glorious
days of Eden? Is there no peace? Is there no rest
for the weary? The Word of God says yes! Things
will change! And the Jewish holidays and God’s
calendar give us hints and promises that they
will!
Last week
we considered the Sabbath and the seven annual
holy days. Every seventh day, beginning Friday
night at sunset and continuing through Saturday
night at sunset, is to be set aside for rest -
physical and spiritual rest.
The Sabbath
reminds us that our great Creator God created
the universe in six literal days, and on the seventh
day He rested and was refreshed. If the Almighty
rested, and was refreshed, shouldn’t we? We all
need to rest. Some of us are so busy - too busy,
and we need to simply set apart a day, and what
better day than God’s Sabbath, and rest, and get
refreshed, and renewed, and revitalized! Are you
resting physically?
“But Rabbi
Loren, I have so much work to do. And, I need
to work to provide for my family.” Trust God,
and rest, and He will provide, just as He provided
a double portion of manna on the sixth day while
we were in the wilderness.
The Sabbath
also reminds us of our need for spiritual rest.
It wasn't until the Jewish people were delivered
out of Egypt that we began observing the Sabbath.
The Sabbath also reminds us of the salvation provided
by our wonderful Messiah, the "Lord of the
Sabbath" who alone is able to give rest to
the human soul, as He promised when He said, "Come
to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and
I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you, and
learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart;
and you shall find rest for your souls"
(Matthew 11:28-29).
My brothers
and sisters, the key to salvation and victorious
living is resting in God, resting in the Messiah,
trusting that God and Messiah have worked on our
behalf to save us! We can’t work our way into
Heaven - that’s impossible! We can only rest our
way into that glorious reality! We rest, trusting
that God and Messiah have done the work of salvation
for us!
Have you
learned how to rest by trusting in Messiah? Have
you learned how to rest in Him on a continual
basis, believing in Him, seeking Him, waiting
on Him, so that you discover what He wants you
to do? Have you learned the secret of being still,
and knowing that the Lord is God? Of resting and
being still, so that you can hear God’s still,
small, quiet voice speaking to you?
Then,
there are the seven annual holidays, which year
by year they pace our lives according to the cycle
God has designed into creation. They remind us
of the great things God has done in Israel's history.
In addition, each holiday is a prophecy which
looks forward to what God is going to do in human
history. These holidays reveal God's master plan
to save humanity through the Messiah. They point
us to the Person and Work of the Son of God. The
seven yearly holidays, which are completed in
the seventh month - the month of completion.
That brings us to Shemittah:
The Seventh, Sabbatical Year
Not only
do people need various times of rest, but so does
the Holy Land. For six years we are allowed to
sow seed, and reap our crops, but not on the seventh
year. We could eat what grew on its own, but sowing
crops and reaping them during the seventh year
must cease. The land needs to be refreshed, the
soil needs to be renewed. God is concerned about
His special, holy land, and it too must rest.
Isn’t
it interesting how the Word of God, in its wisdom,
3500 years ago, informed the Jewish people about
this important agricultural principle, that our
land need to rest, the soil needed to be renewed,
so that it wouldn’t get exhausted?
“I don’t
know about that Rabbi Loren. Not sowing and harvesting,
and only eating those crops that grew by themselves,
for a whole year? A family could lose income.
They could suffer.” No if Israel was faithful,
and we trusted in God, that He would provide,
just as He promised that He would order an extra
blessing for the sixth year, that would provide
for the Shemittah year, the seventh year, until
the new harvest came in. Don’t you trust that
He will provide for you, and your family, if you
order your life the way He has commanded?
And, what
do you suppose that we were to do with that extra
time during that year that we didn’t sow our crop?
Seek God more, study, pray, mediate on Him and
His Word; maybe do something good for others around
us.
Shanat Yovel: The
Year of Jubilee
Furthermore,
at the completion of every seven times seven years,
there was a greater cycle of completion and rest.
After every forty-nine years an extra year of
rest was added, called the "Shanat Yovel"
- the "Year of Jubilee." Yovel comes
from a Hebrew root means a joyful sound, associated
with the sound of a trumpet. Again, for a second
year, there was no sowing, and no reaping. But
God promised that He would provide enough so that
the people would not grow hungry.
This special
year was to be made holy, sanctified, set apart
to accomplish special purposes. On Yom Kippur,
in the seventh month, on the day to make atonement,
a shofar was blown, proclaiming d’ror - liberty,
freedom, release from economic and social hardship.
Every family that had to sell the family property
had it restored to them. Property was to be restored
to its original owners, those sold into slavery
were to be released, the land of Israel was to
have an extra year of rest, and the entire nation
of Israel returned to a state of equilibrium.
The land
of Israel was never to be permanently sold - only
leased. You see, if a family that owned a piece
of property in Eretz Yisrael came upon hard times,
and had to sell their property, its value was
determined by how many years it was to the Year
of Jubilee. If Shanat Yovel was ten years away,
its value was worth ten harvests. If Shanat Yovel
was 30 years away, it was worth 30 harvests. Basically,
you leased the land, and were entitled to the
crops for those amount of years - but you didn’t
actually buy the Land itself.
This would
prevent the rich from getting too rich, and accumulating
all the Land of Israel, and the rich take over
too much of the land, and become too desperately
rich, and the poor become too desperately poor.
What a great economic/social system!
We couldn’t
buy up the land of Israel, because the Land itself
belonged to God. He is the Owner of the Land of
Israel. It’s His. It belongs to Him. It’s His
to give. And in His goodness He leased it out
to the various families of Israel, and it was
never to be permanently sold.
“The Land
is Mine” declares the Lord. And, may I suggest
that we should view everything that way? “Your
life is Mine. Your money is Mine. Your wife, your
husband, your sons, your daughters, are Mine.
Your job is Mine. Your time, your energy, your
abilities, are Mine. You, and everything your
have, everything you are, belong to Me. Therefore,
won’t you serve Me?”
If a Jewish
man became poor, and needed to sell his property,
then it was the responsibility of his nearest
relative to buy back what had been lost.
But Rabbi
Loren, are you telling me that I am my brother’s
keeper? Don’t I have a right to keep my hard-earned
money for myself? You’re telling me that I need
to use my money, not to make my life easier, but
to take of the life of my relative, who I may
not even like? That’s right!
If a man
had to sell his home that was within a walled
city (and a wall is what made a city a city),
then he only had a year to come up with the money
to buy back his house, and the seller was required
to sell it to him. After the year, in a more urban
environment, the purchaser could keep the home.
It did not return to the original owner in the
Year of Jubilee. Houses in villages that didn’t
have walls were considered to be like open fields,
and so they returned to their sellers in the Year
of Jubilee.
That did
not hold true in the case of the Levites, since
they did not own landed property like the rest
of Israel, and their homes in their cities were
their permanent possessions.
Now, if
a Jewish man became poor, we were to take care
of him. We were to loan him money, but not take
interest from him. He was to receive a free loan
that he was to repay over time. The Jewish community
has followed this command, and most Jewish communities
have Free Loan associations, where you can get
a loan at no interest.
In our
world today, richer nations take advantage of
poorer nations, loaning them money. What has happened
all too often is that the poorer nation gets deeper
and deeper into debt, until the poorer nation
becomes an economic slave of the richer nation.
There is a movement to forgive the debt of poorer,
Third World nations, and I think it’s a good idea.
Like there was in Israel, there should be a time
limit to debt.
If a Jewish
man became so poor that he had to sell himself
to get money, or pay off his debts, we were not
to treat him harshly. He was to be treated like
an honored employee, not like a slave. And, he
and his sons were to be released in the Year of
Jubilee, and return to their own property.
If a Jewish
man became so poor that he had to sell himself,
and he sold himself to a non-Jew living in our
land, then he had the right to redeem himself,
to buy back his freedom, if he could come up with
the money; and, his relatives also had the right
to redeem him and free him. If he was unable to
be redeemed, then he was automatically set free
during the Year of Jubilee.
I am reminded
of the One who became our Relative, so that He
could redeem us. The truth is that all of mankind
became impoverished and enslaved. Because we disobeyed
the Righteous God, we became slaves to sin, and
came under the power of the Evil One. We became
servants to the Kingdom of Darkness. We could
not redeem ourselves; we could not come up with
the money to ransom ourselves, and be released
and restored.
But God
saw our dilemma, and the terrible situation we
were in, and the suffering we were experiencing
as slaves to the Adversary, and He allowed His
Son to become One of us; Messiah become a Man,
so that He would be able to redeem us from.
He was
willing and able to pay the redemption price -
His life, His blood, which is the most valuable
and precious substance in the universe, far more
precious that silver and gold and the finest jewels!
When He died, and His blood was shed, He enable
us to be redeemed, and set free. For us, Messiah’s
death was like a great Year of Jubilee!
Shanat
Yovel does not exhaust the number seven’s relationship
to God’s calendar. There is a tradition that the
seven days of creation are symbolic of seven thousand
years of human history. When the Son of God comes,
he will not only save Israel and the Jewish people,
and the sons and daughters of God, but He will
redeem, restore, renew, save Planet Earth, and
eventually bring peace, rest, joy and delight
to the entire universe as well! I’m looking forward
to that greatest of Jubilees, and am planning
on being there, and participating in it, because
I’ve learned to rest in God and in the Messiah.
How about you?
|
