Shmita.

 

2021 in the Jewish calendar is a Shmita year - a sabbath year.  See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shmita

Really interestingly, in the sabbath year no food is to be produced by agriculture as the land is allowed to lie fallow. Instead food must be stored from the previous year, or imported .  That which does grow on the uncultivated land is to be free for the poor to use.   Ominously God does say that if the people don't keep the sabbatical year then He will give them over to their enemies so that the land can lie fallow in the 7th year  (Leviticus 26:33-35)  Does anyone else see a possible parallel with what is happening in these days?  Does it feel as though in many ways God has forced us to take a break, put things on hold, stop getting and spending? Our food is being collected into foodbanks in unprecedented quantities in a year when so many of us have been forced to take furlough and ' rest'.  We might look on 2020 as being our year of Shmita - but we dont yet know what the New Year 2021 will hold !! I wonder if the world might be on sabbatical next year in many ways we can’t yet forsee.  

 

Israel never really followed God's laws on Shmita. As a result we have no idea what they (and the world) missed out on.  Had they followed God's plan for the land there would have undoubtably been untold benefits both in terms of the planet, conservation, global warming, and society - care for the poor and re-balancing of the rich/poor divide.  Im guessing that the reason the 7 year Sabbath and the 50 year Jubilee were never taken on board by God’s people was because it looked impossible.  How could you forgive all debt, return everything to its original owner and do all those other crazy things that the jubilee demanded?  How could you make double in one year so you’d be able to live reasonably the following year whilst not producing?   It sounds bonkers and it takes a huge amount of faith to believe it would even be possible. Even though God explicitly says it is possible and He will be faithful to provide ( Lev 25:20-22)

But if this year has shown us anything it is that the world is at its best when things are impossible.   A year ago we would have thought it impossible for anyone to have been able to come up with a vaccine and a plan to issue it to the whole world within nine months  Who would have thought that the worlds airlines could have been grounded for months, giving the planet a chance to breathe?  Last year in our local town about 2,000 presents for underprivileged kids were collected in the annual Christmas appeal.  This year, when 3,500 people have lost their jobs in that same town, apparently 20,000 toys have been collected!   Makes no sense does it?  

I think the whole point of the Shmita year might be to force us to throw ourselves on the kindness and mercy of God ( and probably of each other too) in ways we would never normally dream of.  Kindness abounds when a society recognises that every neighbour is in the same tight spot that we are.  Wartime spirit and all that.  This year, if you have been on an enforced sabbatical, Im betting you will also have seen blessing come in ways you could not have anticipated.  For me it has been the furlough payments.  Miraculous provision – truly.  Next year Brexit will throw up more issues on top of Covid .  We can either be terrified, or we can wait and see what God will do.  Because for sure. He will do something.  And it will be unexpected and good.