In 1984 Elise and I graduated from veterinary school. One month prior to graduation, we found jobs working at two separate veterinary clinics in Bradford and Tioga Counties, Pennsylvania. One in the town of Wellsboro and the other in Troy. After graduation we turned into the Beverley Hillbillies by cramming all our stuff into a moving van and headed east to Pa. We arrived without a home or any type of place to live. Just blind faith and hope. One of Elise’s employers, and his wife, put us up in their basement with the truck parked in the clinic parking lot for what ended up being a week while we searched for a residence. Elise cried while I told her that everything would work out. And work out it did. We found a home owned by a couple whose daughter we would become fast friends with. They also convinced us to join the square dance club, where we still dance to this day. And last year we bought a home back in the same area where we arrived homeless all those years ago.
Today’s first reading is from the book of Leviticus. In this portion God instructs Moses on Mount Sinai regarding what is called the Jubilee Year. The Jubilee Year is defined as “seven weeks of years” or seven times seven years. The following year, the fiftieth year, is deemed to be a sacred year. During this year several things are to happen. One is that any land that the land owner has leased to another is to return to the original owner. In addition, the land is not to be sown (planted) nor should they reap the produce of the land during this year. The Israelites were to rely on the production of the land prior to the jubilee year to provide for them.
The goal of the Jubilee year was, in part, to prevent a family from perpetually losing their land and becoming generational poor. Land owners would either sell or lease their land if they would fall on hard times financially but the jubilee allowed for the land to be reverted to the original owner. Purchase price would be determined by the number of years remaining until the jubilee. The more years there were until the jubilee, the more the land was worth since there were more years of crop production before the land went back to the owner.
But it was the idea that the Israelites could not work the land during the jubilee year that was the spiritual crux of the jubilee concept. The same applied to what was called the Sabbath Year. During the seventh year, land could not be sown or reaped. The Israelites had to depend on the production in the years prior to the sabbath year as they had to rely on the years prior to the jubilee year.
A similar concept existed for the Israelites while they wandered in the desert. God provided manna for them to eat and they were told to collect the manna each morning. But not on the Sabbath. God provided enough manna the day prior to the Sabbath such that would last for 2 days. Each day during the week they were instructed to not collect additional manna to save. If they did, the extra manna would spoil.
The commonality between all these situations? Faith. The Israelites had to have faith that God would provide manna each day and twice as much for the Sabbath. That God would provide during the 6th year sufficient produce to feed them during the Sabbath Year. And during jubilee year, God would supply enough food to last during the 49th year (a Sabbath Year) AND the 50th year (the actual jubilee year). They were not to rely on themselves but on God’s love and mercy.
What is faith? And why does God require it? From Hebrews:
“Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” (Hebrews 11:1)
In order for one to have faith in God, one must believe that He exists. And we have a choice, via free will, to either have faith or not have faith. And in this way God can know who believes in Him and who does not. In a sense, faith is a test. For if we believe that God exists, and that He loves us, faith that He will act in our best interest becomes obvious. If we are not certain that God exists then we are more likely to have faith in ourselves. In our own abilities. For us, in that basement in Troy, Pa all those years ago, Elise and I learned to turn control over to God.
