BEHAR/BECHUKOTAI
Leviticus 25:1-27:34
Reading #1 - Leviticus 25:1-18
My Thoughts:
We read in verse 10 that the 50th year in the Land is holy, it is a jubilee! A year of rest and a year of return. I don’t know if the sages have lost track of the jubilee years, or if they just decided not to celebrate because they were not in the Land? In 2017, Israel celebrated the 50th year (Jubilee) of its current existence. Will this continue? There are some Commandments that are hard to follow if we are not in the Land. But, somehow we must compensate for this. It is certainly is a time that we should reexamine Laws like this and see those in authority in Israel to find out how we can follow them.
Challenge:
In verse 18 we read that if we follow the Law and do it faithfully, that we will live safely in the Land. This is a promise. We have seen miracles in the past 50 plus years in Israel -- of Hashem protecting His people and His Land. But we must realize this is contingent upon following and doing the Law. As we read in Torah, if the Law is not followed then He will punish. This punishment is up to Him, but Torah outlines it well. My point -- we must follow and do the Law. Those of us who live in the Land and those of us in exile. It starts with you and me. Here is my challenge today. Follow and do the Torah to the best of your ability. Start today. Review what you are not doing and change. It’s time. We want the Mashiach to return and rule and reign from the Temple in Jerusalem. In order for this to happen we must be prayerful and obedient. Let’s do that now!
Reading #1 - Leviticus 25:1-18
25 Hashem said to Moses on Mount Sinai, 2 “Speak to the children of Israel, and tell them, ‘When you come into the land which I give you, then the land shall keep a Sabbath to Hashem. 3 You shall sow your field six years, and you shall prune your vineyard six years, and gather in its fruits; 4 but in the seventh year there shall be a Sabbath of solemn rest for the land, a Sabbath to Hashem. You shall not sow your field or prune your vineyard. 5 What grows of itself in your harvest you shall not reap, and you shall not gather the grapes of your undressed vine. It shall be a year of solemn rest for the land. 6 The Sabbath of the land shall be for food for you; for yourself, for your servant, for your maid, for your hired servant, and for your stranger, who lives as a foreigner with you. 7 For your livestock also, and for the animals that are in your land, shall all its increase be for food.
8 “‘You shall count off seven Sabbaths of years, seven times seven years; and there shall be to you the days of seven Sabbaths of years, even forty-nine years. 9 Then you shall sound the loud trumpet on the tenth day of the seventh month. On the Day of Atonement you shall sound the trumpet throughout all your land. 10 You shall make the fiftieth year holy, and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee to you; and each of you shall return to his own property, and each of you shall return to his family. 11 That fiftieth year shall be a jubilee to you. In it you shall not sow, neither reap that which grows of itself, nor gather from the undressed vines. 12 For it is a jubilee; it shall be holy to you. You shall eat of its increase out of the field.
13 “‘In this Year of Jubilee each of you shall return to his property.
14 “‘If you sell anything to your neighbor, or buy from your neighbor, you shall not wrong one another. 15 According to the number of years after the Jubilee you shall buy from your neighbor. According to the number of years of the crops he shall sell to you. 16 According to the length of the years you shall increase its price, and according to the shortness of the years you shall diminish its price; for he is selling the number of the crops to you. 17 You shall not wrong one another, but you shall fear your Elohim; for I am Hashem your Elohim.
18 “‘Therefore you shall do My statutes, and keep My ordinances and do them; and you shall dwell in the land in safety.
