I know there are a number of people who say letting your land lie fallow for a year is good for the soil. I just want to note that it doesn't say that here. The same people probably say that eating pig and crayfish makes you more likely to die of cancer. But again, it's not the reason God gives. I can guarantee that leaving your olive trees and vines for a year was not God's design, because according to his Sabbath laws, those suckers were going to get picked - just not by you.
What is the reason? So that the poor can gather food from it, and also to allow wild animals somewhere to get some gnosh. I will point out that this is the equivalent of giving up 1/7 of your whole income to the poor. That's a hell of a lot. Now, I don't expect that they were expected to do their whole fields and olive groves and vineyards at once - they probably left 1/7 of their fields fallow every year or something.
The rules for following the Sabbath 1 day each week are here too. But the reason given now is so that everyone gets rest. Not just you, but also your pack animals, your slaves, your migrant workers, everyone.
Exodus (in between - the tabernacle mainly)
It's worth noting that many times, especially during the making of the tabernacle, there is work required of skilled craftsmen of many sorts. Skilled labour - even those skilled in artistry - is valuable and useful to God.
Exodus 31:12-17
Sabbath laws are again repeated here. They are in fact so important that if you don't follow them, you get cut off from the people or alternatively put to death. Once again it is portrayed as a sign between God and his people.
It is repeated again in Exodus 35. And Leviticus 23.
Leviticus 16:29-31
The day of atonement, apart from all the other stuff that goes on, is for the people a day of rest and fasting. Again, work is seen as a distraction between you and focussing on God, so it just has to take a place off to the side while the focus is put squarely on God.
Leviticus 23
Not only does this list a bunch of feasts, but it shows that every time there is a sacred feast, there is no work to be done, either for one day, or two days. Like public holidays, really. vs 22 states the fact that when you reap, you shouldn't reap all the way to the edges, and you shouldn't glean from where you've already reaped. This is in the context of the Feast of Weeks, which is after harvest I think.
Leviticus 25
Again here are recorded the rules for the Sabbath year, which really does make it sound like their fields are to be left totally, not rotated. They are allowed to eat, but only eat stuff the land produces itself - they're not allowed to sow or prune.
It also includes the rules for the year of jubilee, which for the purposes of work is another sabbath year. It also basically states that while an Israelite can sell themselves off as a hired worker (or as a slave to a resident alien), it only lasts till jubilee anyway. I find it hard to transfer this sort of idea over to our modern situation, where land isn't really how you measure riches anymore, and I'm guessing the majority of people don't run businesses but work for someone else.
Numbers 8:23-26
This verse is a riot. I remember being in a church once, actually it was a leadership conference. The speaker said "Everyone over the age of 50 stand up" (it was a Brethren conference, so basically everyone stood up). "You're too old. According to Numbers 8, you should retire, and you should be assisting someone who's 25 as they do the work." Now, he said it jokingly. Well, I like to think half-jokingly.
Seriously though, what do we do with these numbers? I mean, from my understanding of how things worked back then, 25 was pretty old. I mean, you were almost definitely married by then, probably with some kids. Whereas 50 years old, while it might have been old, probably was about the same as 50 years old now. You probably still would have been fairly fit, assuming you didn't come down with some sort of incurable illness. I might have to leave these until next time.
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