Fortunately I’ve never experienced food insecurity. Hunger yes, but a meal always waits somewhere near. Many people in our world deal with with ongoing hunger and even famine. It’s easy to take for granted grocery stores open day and night for my convenience. I forget how good I have it.

God commanded the children of Israel to allow the land a Sabbath rest every seventh year. In that year they planted no crops, but the Lord blessed the harvest from the year before to cover two years. Then, every fifty years God instituted a year of Jubilee. Debts were forgiven, people returned to their family homes, and again, no crops were planted. However, a year of Jubilee followed a Sabbath year, meaning no work in the fields for two years in a row.

The Lord anticipated the angst: And if you say, “What shall we eat in the seventh year, if we may not sow or gather in our crop?” I will command my blessing on you in the sixth year, so that it will produce a crop sufficient for three years. When you sow in the eighth year, you will be eating some of the old crop; you shall eat the old until the ninth year, when its crop arrives.

Food sufficient for three years. The faith required to trust God for such a massive harvest sounds intense. God instituted this system to allow the land to rest (a method of sustainable agriculture), and to show his people his power to meet their needs.

It’s interesting to consider faith and food, and how God provides for us. Every time I walk down the aisle at the local market the fully stocked shelves declare his goodness. The Lord promises and the Lord provides.

Leviticus 25:20-22

Photo by @mintolime