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I. SABBATHS.

1. The Sabbatic year (vers. 10, 11). Every seventh year the land was to lie fallow, and what it spontaneously produced was to be a provision for the poor, and for the beasts of the field. There was connected with the ordinance a special promise of unusual fertility in the sixth year - of such plenty as would make the nation independent of a harvest in the seventh (Leviticus 25:21, 22). The Sabbatic year was

(1) A period of rest for the land. Even nature requires her seasons of rest. Only thus will she yield to man the best of her produce. The seventh year's rest was an agricultural benefit.

(2) A period of rest for the labourer. It gave him time for higher employment. Moses enjoined that the whole law should be read on this year at the feast of Tabernacles (Deuteronomy 31:10, 14). This may have been designed to teach, "that the year, as a whole, should be much devoted to the meditation of the law, and engaging in services of devotion" (Fairbairn).

(3) A merciful provision for the poor. It laid an arrest on man's natural selfishness, and taught beneficence and consideration for the needy. It showed that if man cared not for the poor, God did.

(4) It was a test of obedience. It would test conclusively whether the people were disposed to obey God, or would be ruled only by their own wills. In point of fact, the ordinance was not kept. It proved to be too high and Divine a thing for covetous and selfish dispositions. The neglect of it commenced very early, and lasted till the period of the captivity (2 Chronicles 36:21).

(5) A periodical reminder that the land, and everything that grew upon it, belonged to God. Had the Israelites observed the ordinance, the recurrent plenty of the sixth year would, like the double supply of manna on the sixth day in the wilderness, have been a visible witness to them of the supernatural presence of Jehovah in their midst.

2. The weekly Sabbath (ver. 12). The invaluable seventh day's rest was also to be sacredly observed by the nation. Well-kept Sabbaths have much to do with national prosperity.

II. FEASTS. The stated festivals were three (vers. 14 17). The design in their appointment was to commemorate mercies, to keep alive the memory of national events, to foster a sense of unity in the people, to quicken religious life, to furnish opportunities of public worship. They afforded a means of strengthening the bond between the people and Jehovah, promoted brotherly intercourse, infused warmth and gladness into religious service, and were connected with a ritual which taught the worshippers solemn and impressive lessons. The feasts were: -

1. The Passover - here called "the feast of unleavened bread" (vers. 15-18). It commemorated the great National Deliverance (see on Exodus 12.). The use of unleavened bread was a call to spiritual purity (1 Corinthians 5:8). The blood was offered (ver. 18) as an ever-renewed atonement for sin. The "fat" of the sacrifice betokened the consecration of the best.

2. Pentecost - here called "the feast of harvest, the first-fruits of thy labours" (ver. 16). Its primary reference was agricultural. It was a recognition of God in the gift of the harvest. It besought his blessing upon the labours of the field. It consecrated to him the first-fruits (ver. 19) of what he had given (two wave-loaves, Leviticus 23:17). In the dedication of the wave-loaves, as in the weekly presentation of the shewbread in the tabernacle (Exodus 25:30), there was further symbolised the dedication to God of the life which the bread nourished. Fitly, therefore, was this day chosen for the presentation to God of the first-fruits of his Church (Acts 2.).

3. The feast of Tabernacles - "the feast of ingathering" (ver. 16). This was the feast of the completed harvest, when the corn, the wine, and the oil, had all been gathered in. During the seven days of the feast the people dwelt in booths, in commemoration of their wanderings in the wilderness. The dwelling in booths was a symbol also of their present pilgrim condition on earth, as "strangers and sojourners" (Psalm 39:12). The precept in ver. 19, which seems related to this feast, - "Thou shalt not seethe a kid in his mother's milk," had probably reference to some harvest superstition. On its moral lessons, see Deuteronomy 14:21. - J.O.

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KJV: And six years thou shalt sow thy land, and shalt gather in the fruits thereof:

WEB: "For six years you shall sow your land, and shall gather in its increase,