Just What Is Shemitah and WHy Should I Be Aware of What It Really Means?

 “Six years shall you sow your land and gather in its produce, but the 7^th Year you shall let it rest and lie fallow. In like manner your vineyard and olive groves” (Ex 23:10-11).

Hey Gang:  About a year ago I was introduced to a book by Jonathan Cahn titled The Mystery of the Shemitah.  I was not sure whether a Shemitah was an off breed from the cheetah cat or some exotic food dish that was rapidly becoming the craze of the social world.  But it did not take me long to see that what Jonathan was saying was far more worthy of my time and interest than wasting my time in front of the four cornered time consuming monster. 

I have struggled with this morning message for more than a month because, what I do not want to do is confuse you or to open up a Pandora’s box that I do not have the expertise or knowledge to assure you understand, but I believe we should be up-to-speed on the subject.  Since my first introduction to the subject, my file on The Shemitah Year has grown on a weekly basis as more and more of the prophetic guru’s around the world have followed Jonathan’s lead and dug into the true meaning of Shemitah and how it will impact on every person on planet earth in a profound way.  

You may have heard Jonathan Cahn interviewed, heard or read news, and then wondered about “The Year of Shemitah’ or The Mystery of Shemita.   With the bride-of-my-youth’s permission I gleaned her notes from her study of Shemitah and added a few tid-bits of my own and pray it will give you enough information that is Biblical,  and how it is interpreted and how it may impact you today.   

To better understand we might think of Shemitah in a more understandable term like “sabbatical” or ‘rest’.     There many times when I envied those in the higher teaching profession, when I heard that prof such and such went off for a year sabbatical to study the eating habits of the tsetse fly or some other weird subject that no one really cares much about. 

To gain a good Biblical foundation for understanding God’s intent with the Shemitah Year you might want to read and study the following Scriptures:   Exodus 23:10-13; Leviticus 25; Deuteronomy 15, 31:10-13.

You will find that Shemitah is not a festival, but is Scriptural; it is Hebrew a word translated in Scripture as release or remission. 

Remember the Creation Story?  God worked for six days creating all that we survey and declared the seventh day a day of rest. It was a day to be kept holy (Ex 31:15) and was to be honored as a time of rest, worship focus on relationship with Father God.  Jesus taught it was permitted to ‘do good’ on the Sabbath.

I recall as a young lad there were ‘Blue Laws’ in many States, including my home town of Altoona, Pennsylvania; it was clearly stated that Sunday was to be honored as a time of rest and worship and honoring God; store were closed and only essential work was carried on.  It was very strange to walk down an empty Main Street on Sunday, after seeing the streets bumper to bumper with cars and sidewalks filled with people the previous day.

Shemitah relates to the 7^th Year which God declared as a year of rest for His Land (Ex 23:10-11). The Land was not to be cultivated, sown, or pruned, but whatever grew from previous plantings could be eaten (Lev 25). This was to be a blessing and the produce of the sixth year would be sufficient sustenance with the uncultivated produce of the seventh year.  In Leviticus 26:2 God says “IF you obey, I WILL send rain, grant peace, look on you with favor….”  BUT IF you disobey,  I WILL….(V 14-39).  Notice the “if” and the “I will”.  This was given as a blessing to the Land and people of Israel.

Note also that there is another seven found in Deuteronomy  25:8-15 – the Year of Jubilee.  This special 50^th year followed seven, seven year periods and was a time of celebration.  It is a continued year of LAND rest and ALL property being returned to the rightful family.   High points of Jubilee year were Hebrew slaves were to be released from their bondage and lands that had changed ownership, for any reason, reverted back to the original owner.  Can you imagine how that would work in or society today?  

 We see how serious God was about the Sabbath Year’s rest - when the Israelites failed to heed God’s command, they were in Babylonian captivity for 70 years, one year for each 7^th year they failed to keep and let the Land rest. (American farmers learned to let land lie fallow regularly after over use depleted the soil.) 

Soooo, with this very limited back ground on Shemitah, tomorrow we will move on and look at what Shemitah means for this day and age and does it really have anything to do with me.  Was it not given to the Jews and for their culture only?  Does it really have any impact on our day and age? Does it even any impact on the United States of America?  What should we be doing to prepare for its coming?

Blessings

Gramps

PS This will be continued Sat July 4 and the last segment Mon 6^th.  You can check the Web for Shemitah or Jonathan Cahn to read more.