Exodus 23:10-11

The seventh year thou shalt let it rest.

The Sabbatic year

This law was intended--

1. To show the fertility of the land of promise. Every seventh year, without skill or toil, the land would produce of itself sufficient for the poor and the beasts of the field.

2. To encourage habits of thrift and forethought, so that they might provide for the year of rest.

3. To test

(1) their faith in the providence, and

(2) their obedience to the laws of God. The subject suggests--

I. That periods may arrive by the order or permission of God when work must re laid aside. Commercial depression, sickness, old age.

II. That the prospect of such periods should lead us to provide for them. We are not like “fowls of the air,” or “grass of the field,” which have to be literally fed and clothed by the providence of God, and are utterly unable to forecast and provide for contingencies.

III. That the prospect of such periods should teach us resignation to the will of God and faith in His goodness (Matthew 6:25).

1. There remaineth “a rest” for the people of God.

2. Prepare for that rest by faith and obedience. (J. W. Burn.)