Ex 23: 10-19: “And six years thou shalt sow thy land, and shalt gather in the fruits thereof: But the seventh year thou shalt let it rest and lie still; that the poor of thy people may eat: and what they leave the beasts of the field shall eat. In like manner thou shalt deal with thy vineyard, and with thy oliveyard. Six days thou shalt do thy work, and on the seventh day thou shalt rest: that thine ox and thine ass may rest, and the son of thy handmaid, and the stranger, may be refreshed. And in all things that I have said unto you be circumspect: and make no mention of the name of other gods, neither let it be heard out of thy mouth. Three times thou shalt keep a feast unto me in the year. Thou shalt keep the feast of unleavened bread: (thou shalt eat unleavened bread seven days, as I commanded thee, in the time appointed of the month Abib; for in it thou camest out from Egypt: and none shall appear before me empty:) And the feast of harvest, the firstfruits of thy labours, which thou hast sown in the field: and the feast of ingathering, which is in the end of the year, when thou hast gathered in thy labours out of the field. Three times in the year all thy males shall appear before the Lord GOD. Thou shalt not offer the blood of my sacrifice with leavened bread; neither shall the fat of my sacrifice remain until the morning. The first of the firstfruits of thy land thou shalt bring into the house of the LORD thy God. Thou shalt not seethe a kid in his mother’s milk.”
Paul wrote, “For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.” (Rom 8: 22) When the Lord cursed Adam after the Fall He said, “And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field; In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.” (Gen 3: 17-19) This reminds us that even creation is subject to considerable trial as a result of sin. In fact the second law of Thermodynamics tells us that entropy (or disorder) is increasing. If a person carefully places a large number of cans in a neat pile in the supermarket and someone bumps that pile then the pile will fall into a disorganised mess, a pile of cans will never randomly occur. This means that even creation needs to rest from time to time. Nature doesn’t have to rest every seven days like people but every seven years land that is worked needs to rest and recover. The Lord established rules so that the Land itself could rest and recover then produce crops indefinitely. The Lord also established times of holiday so that His people could take time to have a good break during the year and save themselves from being burnt out. We also read , “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee.” (Is 26: 3) and “Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.” (Phil 4: 6, 7) The holidays were not just given for physical rest but as a time for contemplating the Lord God and having spiritual and emotional rest as well. There was an ancient cultic ceremony in which gods were worshipped by boiling young animals in milk and this ceremony was forbidden to Israel so that they would not be tempted to be like the nations around them.
(The view expressed in this blog are my own and should not be taken as inspired in any way.)
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