Introduction: Read Exodus23v10to19

We turn our attention, briefly, to another set of laws that are important because they reveal to us something about God's priorities. God's concerns should also be ours. Many Christians do not give the laws in this passage the attention they deserve.

God commands the Israelites to:

(1) Rest the land. For six years you are to sow your fields and harvest the crops, but during the seventh year let the land lie unploughed and unused.

It seems to me unlikely that a farmer would rest the whole of his farm one year in seven unless he had an agreement with six other farmers. If a farmer who rested his land was given one sixth of the produce of the six farms that were fully operational he would be able to survive. I don't see how he could otherwise. It would not be in the interests of the poor if farmers went out of business or starved to death. Nor would it be helpful if lots of farmers all fallowed all their land in the same year. There would be thin pickings for the poor the six years they were fully operational. It seems better for all concerned if farmers adopted a sensible rotation policy and fallowed one seventh of their land each year. This would mean that the poor always had a the same amount of land to collect from.

The reasons for resting land one year in seven:

(a) In the absence of artificial fertilisers this was good for the land. Rainfall adds a certain amount of nitrates to the soil. A year's rest allows the nitrates to build up and restore fertility to the soil.

(b) It was a way of providing for the poor. The olives and grapes left unharvested could be collected by those without land. Even the fallow arable fields would produce some stalks of grain. The impoverished were not given handouts. They had to work for what they got. God encouraged a way of helping the poor that preserved their dignity. I have known farmers get nasty when people collect black berries from hedges bordering their land or pick mushrooms from their meadows. Let us be clear, the poor Israelites did not have to ask permission to collect fruit and grain from land that was being rested. It was their RIGHT.

(c) It was a conservation measure. The fallow land, the unpicked grapes and olives provided food for wild life. Every year one seventh of the farmed land was just left for the poor and wild life to feed off.

There is no doubt that intensive farming in Britain has had a damaging affect on wild life. By grubbing up hedges and all but eradicating arable weeds certain bird species have declined. Farmers are now paid to adopt environmentally friendly practices like leaving an uncultivated strip around the edge of a field.

I think some Christians might be surprised that God is interested in conservation. But we shouldn't be! Jesus said: "Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly father feeds them." Mt6v26. "Are not five sparrows sold for 2 pennies? Yet not one of them is forgotten by God." Lk12v6.

(2) Refresh the labourers. Six days do your work, but on the seventh day do not work, so that your ox and your donkey may rest and the slave born in your household, and the alien as well, may be refreshed.

God prohibited work on the Sabbath. The reason God gives for this here is that slaves, migrant labour and livestock should be given a rest. God knows what men are like! Given half a chance employers take advantage of employees and work them all hours. Laws had to be enacted in Britain in the nineteenth century restricting the amount of hours factory hands worked.

God was concerned:

(a) That the poorest and most vulnerable in society had a complete days rest each week. This was a wonderfully enlightened provision. God does not approve of the ruthless exploitation of labour.

I was talking to a PA in one of the big merchant banks in London. She said that it was common for PAs to be asked by their bosses to work until 8.30 pm in the evening. What sort of family life does this allow?

In countries like Japan and China men and women die of overwork. They get so stressed that they die early of strokes or heart attacks.

God knows that we need time to rest and relax. Whenever we think we know better than God trouble ensues.

(b) For animal welfare. God wanted the ox and the ass to have their day of rest! I find it touching that God shows concern for beasts of burden.

I think it true to say that Christians in the main do not take much interest in animal welfare. Perhaps we should be more concerned about how animals are treated. After all, God did not want oxen and donkeys worked to death. Perhaps he is not too keen either on experiments performed on animals.

(3) Regard their lips.

God told his people to watch their lips: "Do not invoke the names of other gods; do not let them be heard on your lips.

The Israelites were not to bandy about the name of Asherah, the goddess of fertility. Today there are plenty of people who are obsessed with sex. They can hardly engage in conversation without bringing sex into it. Sex is their god. Such individuals delight in filthy jokes, innuendo and suggestive remarks.

God's people were not expected to talk a lot about Baal Hadad the Canaanite god of productivity and prosperity. There are a group of people today whose favourite topic of conversation is money - their earnings, investments, speculations, bonuses and winnings. Some Christians obsess about their lack of it. My mother used to say of a lady who attended our church: "It's not long before Christine gets onto the subject of money."

Jesus told the Pharisees that they couldn't serve God and money. Money was a god that could oust the true God from their affections.

Bacchus was not a Canaanite god. He was the Greek god of wine making and wine drinking. I knew a man once whose only subject of conversation was drink. I travelled with him the seven miles between my village of Brockley and Bury St Edmunds. During the journey he conversed in detail about the drinks he had consumed the previous evening. He could remember the exact chronological order he had these drinks and the people who treated him. He recited them with lip smacking relish. Bacchus was his god. He was absolutely, totally committed to him.

(4) Rejoice in love.

The Israelites were to observe three festivals in order to yearly celebrate God's provision. They were:

(a) The Feast of Unleavened Bread. This was celebrated with the Passover in the month of winter sown barley harvest. It is possible that this festival began as a celebration of the early harvest - a harbinger of blessings to come - and the Passover was added to it. A link with barley harvest is suggested by the injunction to bring an offering to the feast.

(b) The Feast of Harvest. This took place after the wheat and other grains were harvested. It was also known as the Feast of Weeks or Pentecost possibly because it took place seven weeks or fifty days after the Feast of Unleavened Bread. The Day of the Firstfruits was yet another name given to this festival. I imagine that the firstfruits were of fruit, nuts and vegetables - the product of orchards, vines and gardens. Eventually it became a celebration of the giving of the Sinai law.

(c) The Feast of Ingathering. This marked the final harvest of orchards, vines and gardens in late autumn. It became known as the Feast of Tabernacles (tents) and as such was an opportunity to remember God's provision for his people in the wilderness when they dwelt in tents.

The inauguration of these festivals is a reminder to Christians of how important it is to celebrate God's goodness to us. It is right and proper for believers to collectively, humbly and joyfully meet together to thank God for the birth of his dear son at Christmas, Christ's resurrection at Easter and the gift of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. I believe it is also important to have a special Sunday for harvest thanksgiving. Increasing numbers of churches are giving up on this Sunday. Christians can no longer bother to bring flowers, fruit and vegetable to decorate their church for harvest thanksgiving. They are taking for granted all the good things God provides.

Samuel Pepys, the amazing 17th century diarist, had a feast year after year to celebrate the success of a truly horrendous operation to remove a kidney stone. Many people who had this operation died of infection. I would have died of shock! Pepys believed his survival was an occasion to thank God for and hence his annual celebratory feast.

I think as a general rule we Christians are not thankful enough!

(5) Respect the Law.

God expected the Israelites to respect the niceties of the Law. So the following were stressed:

(a) The Israelites were never to offer to God anything containing yeast. Yeast was a symbol of corruption and decay. When Jesus said, "The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and and mixed into a large amount of flour until it worked all through the dough" (Mt13v33), he was referring to bad things like worldliness or error that infect the church.

Possibly this Old Testament scripture is teaching us to avoid things with evil associations. Paul told the Christians at Corinth that they should not knowingly eat meat that had been dedicated to pagan gods. Perhaps we should avoid food associated with animal cruelty or the exploitation of the poor. The church should be careful where it invests its money and repudiate dubious money raising schemes like lotteries.

(b) The fat of sacrificial animals was the portion especially reserved for God. It was burned as part of the sacrifice to God. It was to be burned the day the animal was sacrificed. Fat left over night or a day or two would soon turn rancid and unfit to be offered to God.

This instruction teaches us not to get slack in service and worship. God is not happy when we arrive late for the Sunday services, when we start to miss the occasional service, when we forget to hold our quiet time or put it off until the fag end of the day. If we pray last thing at night when we are tired there is a tendency to rush our prayers or to fall asleep at prayer. This is akin to offering God rancid fat.

(c) The first fruits offered to God should be of the choicest quality. We should not hold the best back for ourselves.

The lesson is clear. We should offer God our best - not our second or third best. Sunday is undoubtedly quality time for most people. This is the time God expects us to offer him. More and more Christians in Britain are choosing to do other things with their quality time.

(d) The command: "Do not cook a young goat in its mother's milk," has intrigued and generally baffled commentators. It is interesting to compare it with other similar instructions: "When a calf, a lamb or a goat is born, it is to remain with its mother for seven days. From the eighth day on, it will be acceptable as an offering made to the LORD by fire. Do not slaughter a cow or a sheep and its young on the same day." Lev22v27to29. "If you come across a birds nest beside the road, either in a tree or on the ground, and the mother is sitting on the young or on the eggs, do not take the mother with the young." Dt22v6and7.

I think these prohibitions teach that we are not to be callous. There is something callous about cooking a kid in its mother's milk, taking a new born calf from its mother and taking a bird with its young. In each case there is a warning against violating motherhood.

It is a terrible thing to take away a baby from its mother. If God is concerned for goats, cows and partridges he is surely concerned for human mothers.

Today in Britain there are instances of frail old people being treated callously. Many have found the residential home that they have lived in for some years closed down to their great distress. Some old folk are discharged from hospital and sent home although they are unable to cope by themselves. Others are taken to hospital and have to lay for hours in corridors.

As I grow older I frequently pray, "God save me from callousness."