Welcome to Leviticus study number 42. We plan on going into chapter 25 and covering verses 1 through 22, Lord willing, and the church don't rise. And we want to send out our hebelehala to Sister Joan Belindo in the Philippines. All the way over in the Philippines, Sister Joan, here's your hebelehala. And we appreciate her. We've kept in contact on MeWe and got a lot of listeners in Philippines spread out all over that little country. Appreciate every single one of them. All right, with that, we'll get into our study with a word of prayer. Father, we thank you, Lord, for this opportunity to be in your book. What I've learned to turn around and teach others, for them to receive what I'm saying and test everything by the scripture. and then the Holy Spirit leading them each where they need to go and teaching each one of us one-on-one the way you do. It's so wonderful and we thank you for it. Thank you for salvation. We thank you for the blessed hope. We thank you for our eternal salvation and home in heaven with Jesus in his precious name. We pray, amen. So Leviticus chapter 25 is a very important chapter in the Bible. I actually just kind of skipped over this, and as I read the rest of the Bible, for some years I didn't connect the dots. And that's how it'll go. Don't get discouraged if you come back, read the Bible for a few years, and find you're still learning things. This Bible is the Word of God. You're never going to get it all in this lifetime. But after a few years, I was really shocked when I found out and realized that Babylon came down and took the kingdom of Judah and the Jews captive and took them back to Babylon. And that much I understood. But then it was for 70 years. And I wondered right off that, I wonder why 70 years? Well, sometime later, I found the explanation. It's right here in this chapter. So we'll come back to that in a minute. We'll also see that the law itself, including what we're reading here in chapter 25, was specifically for Israel and the land of Israel. And we'll also note the number seven being so prevalent in this chapter as it is in God's plan of the ages and in places like the book of Revelation. But as we begin, we note that the Bible is rarely written in perfect chronological order, easy for me to say, and I've mentioned that before. And this passage is an example. We are going to go back in time, so to speak, to Mount Sinai. This is additional instructions given back on Mount Sinai that are just now being provided for us in the text. by Moses. So let's jump right in verses one and two. And the Lord spake unto Moses in Mount Sinai, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye come into the land which I give you, then shall the land keep a Sabbath unto the Lord. Now, it's important to take note of the fact this isn't talking about the regular Sabbath, which has already been instituted, where people would rest on the seventh day, but this is a Sabbath for the land itself. Notice verse two, it says, then shall the land keep a Sabbath unto the Lord. Let's continue with verses three and four. Six years thou shalt sow thy field and six years thou shalt prune thy vineyard and gather in the fruit thereof. Verse four, but in the seventh year shall be a Sabbath of rest unto the land. A Sabbath for the Lord. Thou shalt neither sow thy field nor prune thy vineyard. So, like most of God's laws, man has a real problem with this one. I mean, it's admitted. I believe it's a fair statement that it's counterintuitive, to use a big word, to think that not growing anything for an entire year, every seventh year, would somehow improve productivity. If I were working my job and after six years I told my boss I was taking a year off. And then I did that again after six more years. I don't think I would be able to convince him that that was actually helping things. I don't think I could convince him that that helped productivity. But we're not talking about the natural course here. We're talking about God and God's creation. Who knows God's creation better than God? Nobody. And sadly, Israel felt the same way. They said, that doesn't make sense. We're just going to pretend like God didn't say that. And they would eventually ignore that commandment for 490 years, counting back from about 606 or 586. I'm not sure at this point which one uh... marks the end of the four hundred ninety years so you could then count backwards and see exactly what year it began but four hundred ninety years before the captivity uh... israel would stop uh... observing this sabbath that was commanded now america ignored this principle of resting the land and so year after year they just grew everything they could and they They'd bring in manure and other fertilizers and chemical things they started to use at that time. Next thing you know, they had what's called the Dust Bowl. And I believe that was in 1930. You ought to read or watch the PBS. I don't recommend PBS all the time, but once in a while they get one right. I'm sure it was PBS who put out a documentary on the Dust Bowl. It was very interesting. It was an amazing, terrible story about what happened, especially in states like Oklahoma. during that time. And I recently brought it up at one of our BBF studies and accidentally referred to it as the dirt bowl. But that was the problem. The dirt had become so zapped of everything, all of its nutrients, and it became dry and empty of all the minerals and everything. And it just turned to dust and just blew away. And we're reminded of this in Isaiah 55, 7, and 9 when we think about how this isn't intuitive. It's not something you would really come up with on your own. Hey, every seventh year, let's take a whole year off from planting, and tilling the ground, and putting in the seed, and putting in the fertilizers, and working the ground. Let's just take the year off, and we'll just live off of whatever grows. But Isaiah said this in again chapter 55 7 through 9, let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return unto the Lord and he will have mercy upon him. and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon, for my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. This world is an ugly world. My wife and I were just talking a few minutes ago. Just how ugly this world can be so much of the time. Songs like, I said to myself, what a wonderful world. You've got to be very selective in what you pay attention to in this world if you're going to have that attitude. What I say to myself is that in spite of the darkness and terribleness of this world, so much sickness and death and betrayal and lies and all the wickedness of the LGBT and the porn industry and the sex slave trade that's going on and on and on and on and on it could go, in spite of all that, We can be encouraged in the Lord because we are saved. We have the Holy Spirit in us. We have good Christian fellowship, at least to some extent, some more than others. And we have an eternal future promised to us in a world that will be totally void of all this darkness. And so, don't dwell on your own thoughts. and opinions dwell on God's Word, His opinion, and His promises. That's the key to sanity and to have a sense of humor, which I believe God has as we read through the Bible. I've pointed that out on a few occasions. But God's thoughts here in Leviticus 25 continue, as He explains in verses 5 through 7, that which groweth of its own accord of thy harvest thou shalt not reap. Neither gather the grapes of thy vine undressed, for it is a year of rest unto the land. And the sabbath of the land shall be meat for you, for thee, and for thy servant, and for thy maid, and for thy hired servant, and for thy stranger that sojourneth with thee, and for thy cattle, and for the beasts that are in thy land shall all the increase thereof be meat. So God would provide enough in the sixth year and then they were allowed to go ahead and grab something, use what they needed as they needed it. They weren't allowed to go out and harvest it all and then, you know, can things and sell it on the market and dry it and treat it and store it and all that kind of thing. But God would provide enough in the sixth year and the ability to go out and grab a little lettuce or something if you wanted to use that from day to day. And you just had to trust the Lord. And that's the hard part, is trusting the Lord. Today, if I make $10, I give $1 to the Lord. That's not too painful. You don't think about it. It's $1. You make $100, and you give $10 of that to the Lord. And then maybe He puts it on your heart to throw in an extra buck for some other purpose, or to help somebody out that you know is in need. That's still not terribly painful. Then you make $1,000, So you give a hundred to the Lord's work and still over and above that as God leaves to give. You know, it's just counterintuitive. You're thinking, wow, that's going to add up after a while. All that money I could be using for this and this and this. I'm just here to tell you, God doesn't actively, I think, punish anybody. But what he'll do is say, hey, all right, you want to do it your way? Let's see how far that $100 goes or that $1,000 goes when you don't give me back just a minimum of 10%. You go on. Do it your way. It doesn't work out. I try to A few times, we'll say. I don't know how many, but there were a few times back in the 90s. I always regretted it. I always knew it. As soon as the car would break down, or this would go wrong, or that go wrong, you say, you're superstitious. No. A man reaps what he sows, and I sowed to the flesh. I refused to obey God's word, and it came out of my pocket in other ways, and I believe more than what I would have given in the first place to the Lord. Now, the other side of that, when I've given a minimum of 10% to the Lord's work, I've never, never had a problem. Now, let me tell you this, it isn't always by cash coming in. I'll give you one example. I was given my minimum 10%. I was in a terrible place in life at that time, and this is 20-some years ago. And my car breaks down, and I barely had enough money to pay my bills, let alone savings. And I get a call. Now, let me tell you something. I didn't tell anybody my car broke down, except for I did call my mom and dad. And I told him, no, I don't want you sending me money or anything. I just want you to know I'm not going to be able to come down and visit for a couple of weeks. I'm going to work this out. I'll let you know how it works out. I'm just praying about it. I didn't tell anybody else. And a lady called me out of the blue and gave me a little car. And I don't know exactly how much it was worth, but it was more than I could have probably saved up in a year to buy. And so, just like that. He didn't give me the cash to buy the car, he just went ahead and gave me the car. And I'm not going to go on and on about it, but I'm telling you when I read this stuff and I see these poor people just didn't have the faith to just believe God. And he made it very stern. If you look in the next chapter when we come to it, we'll talk more about it, but in verse 2, Leviticus 26, he says, ye shall keep my Sabbaths and reverence my sanctuary. I am the Lord. Now again, that's to Israel and during that time. Today we have the New Covenant, we have the New Testament, the epistles of Paul and general epistles telling us what we should be doing as Christians. It's not exactly the same as this, but the principle is the same. If God says do it, just do it and trust him. And then we'll see the consequences when we come to Leviticus 26, 33 through 35. And I will scatter you among the heathen and will draw you out a sword after you and your land shall be desolate and your cities waste. Then shall the land enjoy her Sabbaths as long as it lieth desolate and ye be in your enemy's land. Even then shall the land rest and enjoy her Sabbaths. That's exactly what's going to happen eight centuries after Moses gives this to Israel. We'll come back and talk more about that later. But that's the backdrop of the Babylonian captivity. Now, we now come to the Jubilee. It's spelled J-U-B-I-L-E in the Bible. You'll see other places it's spelled with two E's on the end and spell check and the word processor tells me that. And I just ignore it. Actually what I do whenever there's a Bible word and it tries to correct it, I'll just right-click and I'll add it to the dictionary so the next time I don't have to worry about it. And of course every time I get on a new computer I have to start all over with that. Anyway, verse 8 says And thou shalt number seven sabbaths of years unto thee, seven times seven years. So that's seven times seven. That's 49 years. And then, it says in the space of seven sabbaths of years, shall be unto thee 40 and nine years. So every 50th year, then they'd have the jubilee. I'm not going to spend a lot of time on the sevens here, but you're going to see sevens here. You're going to see it throughout scripture. Seven is the number of completion, perfection. It's the divine number of God. I've got to warn you, that doesn't mean that 666 is the number of the beasts, or 777 is the number of God. That's actually not true. Three sevens have an occult attachment to it, and the Bible never says anything about three sevens being the number of God. Seven is the number of God, the number of completion and perfection. Go to our Bible Numerics series you can find on Sermon Audio and Rumble and probably on the other platforms that we're on at some point and look for the number 7 if you want more information on that. But for time's sake, we need to continue. Verse 9 says, So every 50th year on the Day of Atonement, the trumpet would sound the year of Jubilee. And the whole year, would be a Sabbath year, and a year of release, I think is how it's called. Verse 10 says, And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land, unto all the inhabitants thereof. It shall be a jubilee unto you. And ye shall return every man unto his possession, and ye shall return every man unto his family. So that's talking about those who are bondservants, Slavery in the United States of America and in American history was nothing compared to the Bible version of being a servant. That's why the new versions really mislead people when they change the word servant to slave. It's not the same thing. We've talked about this before. We did an in-depth study in our Ephesian study on this. But we have seen and will see that kidnapping and making someone a slave was a crime punishable by death. And yet that's really pretty much where all the slaves came from in the United States. It was all kidnapping, man stealing is the Bible term for it. And it was wicked. And so, not only that, if you do away with the man-stealing, there would have been very few slaves in America, and then every 50th year they'd be released. So, you see those words, they may have rung a bell there to you. if I can make a pun here. Verse 10, and ye shall hallow the fiftieth year and proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof. Those words are etched on the Liberty Bell. So if it rang a bell, that might be why. The Liberty Bell in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. has those words on it, but obviously if you think about how they were applied in the context of the Liberty Bell and applied here, those words were ripped out of their original context in a major way. And if those words had been followed in their context, then the United States Constitution would have freed all slaves or indentured servants or bond servants every 50th year. making slavery an uneconomical practice. Therefore, it never would have evolved into the monstrosity that it did become by the time the 1860s rolled around producing what's called the Civil War. We continue in, let's read verses 11 through 13. A jubilee shall that fiftieth year be unto you, ye shall not sow, neither reap that which groweth of itself in it, nor gather the grapes in it of thy vine undressed. For it is the jubilee, it shall be holy unto you, ye shall eat the increase thereof out of the field. uh... in the year of this jubilee verse thirteen ye shall should return every man unto his possessions it's reiterating restating what we've uh... we've seen in uh... back to the issue of slavery here in america compared to this setup here in israel by the way this setup in israel was unheard of in the world god gave this setup And it was basically people were working off debts that they owed, and it was really not anything like, when you think of the word slavery, this is nothing like that. People are unfair because they hate God, they hate the idea of God's Word being the Bible, so they try to discredit the Bible by talking about slavery in the Old Testament. and pretending that it's exactly what we had in America, and it was not. So just keep that in mind when you ever talk to anybody about slavery in the Bible. Now, we come to the New Testament, there were slaves under Roman rule and Roman government, and that was worse than this. But that wasn't instituted by God. The New Testament form of slavery was instituted by the Roman government. So, anyway, back to the slavery in America issue. Many Southerners and slave owners up north, believe it or not, they owned slaves in the north too. Even after the Civil War started, there were still slave owners in certain places that were not part of the Confederacy. And the slave owners claimed to be following the Bible. Again, they perverted the Bible, they acted like Old Testament slavery was just like what they had, and it's not true. And if the Northerners had known their Bible and brought this information that I'm discussing right now to the forefront of the whole argument over slavery in America, things might have been different. There might have been some who tried to point these things out. I've read a lot of material on the pre-Civil War days and the Civil War, and I haven't found any evidence of that. But if this would have been forcefully and successfully brought to the forefront of the debate of slavery in America, then it would have been a much more humane system for starters. All those people who had been stolen away would have been sent back. If you go by the Bible, then the people who did the man-stealing would have been executed publicly. And slavery would always have been temporary. So it would have been less profitable for the owner to buy a slave because he had to let him go. And the closer you got to the Jubilee 50th year, there'd be less people being bought into slavery. There'd been nobody stolen from their families and forced into slavery, and there'd been fewer and fewer people approaching that 50th year. It would have been uneconomical, probably would have died out before the Constitution was even ratified. And that's the kind of thing that happened in England. uh... and they didn't have to have a civil war so let's continue verses fourteen through sixteen says and if thou sell aught unto thy neighbor and or biased ought of thy neighbor's hand ye shall not oppress one another according to the number of years after the jubilee thou shalt buy of thy neighbor and according unto the number of years of the fruits he shall sell unto thee uh... so you take the number of years left before jubilee and you'd consider that in the price when you're selling things and verse sixteen According to the multitude of years thou shalt increase the price thereof, and according to the fewness of years thou shalt diminish the price thereof. For according to the number of the years of the fruits doth he sell unto thee. So the law of Jubilee served kind of like our antitrust laws today, which keep the middle class from being destroyed. and producing a nation of serfs under a class of wealthy overlords. People who were really in need couldn't be gouged. And these laws here protected the Jews from that kind of thing, and our antitrust laws protect us today. But it's happening again here in America today. The middle class is being sold out, thrown under the bus, and all around the world it's happening. as the entire world under the criminal governments and criminals in our government march us toward the coming tribulation under the globalist New World Order of the Antichrist, to sum it up. And then the rules of trade under Jubilee Law are summed up by God here, verses 17 through 19. Ye shall not therefore oppress one another, but thou shalt fear thy God, for I am the Lord your God. Wherefore, ye shall do my statutes, and keep my judgments, and do them. And ye shall dwell in the land in safety. And the land shall yield her fruit, and ye shall eat your fill, and dwell therein in safety. And so God's law protected land rights, and private ownership, and workers' rights. He then deals with those who are too dense to understand the arrangement in verses 20 through 21, stating again, and if ye shall say, what shall we eat the seventh year? Behold, we shall not sow nor gather in our increase. Then I will command my blessing upon you in the sixth year, and it shall be bring forth fruit for three years. And ye shall sow the eighth year and eat yet of old fruit until the ninth year, until her fruits come in. Ye shall eat of the old store. In other words, God will provide, just obey.