What Shall We Eat - Lessons from The Year of Release
by Peter Forbes
On two occasions, MATT 6:25 ff, LUKE 12:22-32 Jesus exhorts his followers to 'take no thought' about food and raiment. This counsel is not advising carelessness about the future. Jesus is reminding Israel why they can trust in God's provisions. Jesus provides proof for his assertions by appealing to God's provision to Israel in the year of release.
Consider some details from the commands relating to the Year of Release and the Jubilee.
'And the land shall yield her fruit, and ye shall eat your fill, and dwell therein in safety. And if ye shall say, What shall we eat the seventh year? behold, we shall not sow, nor gather in our increase: Then I will command my blessing upon you in the sixth year, and it shall bring forth fruit for three years'.
(Leviticus 25:19-21)
The promise is that God would provide for Israel in the year of release and the Jubilee. The food requirements would be provided by God blessing the harvest in the sixth year to such an extent that there would be food enough for the seventh and eighth years. Therefore the Israelite, at the beginning of the Year of Release and the Jubilee would already have the evidence in his barns on which he could base his confidence in his God.
His confidence for the year of release was not a careless abandonment of his future needs. Rather was it that he could give all his attention to the way his God would bring 'release' without having to worry about the material things of life - His God had already provided those things. The proof was in the barn.
In the 'sermon on the mount' Jesus says
' Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment? Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?'
(Matthew 6:25-26)
'Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?'
(Matthew 6:31)
Three time Jesus utilises language from LEV 25.
MATT 6:26 'take no thought what ye shall eat' LEV 25:20
MATT 6:26 'Sow not nor gather into barns' LEV 25:20
MATT 6:31 'What shall we eat?' LEV 25:20
The Israelite who heard Jesus' words would think about the Year of Release and the Jubilee and draw the conclusion that he had the evidence of his own experience to rely on which enabled him to appreciate that food for the seventh and eight year had been provided as it was in his barns already.
Therefore 'take no thought' was an encouragement given against the background of food already being available.
However Jesus is extending the lesson beyond the year of release and year of Jubilee by saying:
'Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them.'
(Matthew 6:26).
The provision for the 'fowls of the air' extended beyond the Year of Release and the Jubilee. God always provided for the birds even though they never sowed seed nor reaped and gathered into barns. Therefore Jesus is extending the principle of God's provision in the Year of Release and the Jubilee to cover all aspects and times of the life of his disciples. The disciple of Jesus should appreciate, along with the Psalmist 'I have not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread.' (Psalms 37:25)
Knowing this the disciple is freed from the anxieties that beset the 'Gentiles', and being freed is in a position to 'seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you'. (Matthew 6:33)
The events recorded in Luke 12 took place at a later time that the 'sermon on the mount'. On this occasion Jesus extends the point that he is making by telling a parable before encouraging the disciples to 'take no thought'.
Luke 12:16 'And he spake a parable unto them, saying, The ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully: :17 And he thought within himself, saying, What shall I do, because I have no room where to bestow my fruits? :18 And he said, This will I do: I will pull down my barns, and build greater; and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods. :19 And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry. :20 But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided?'
Against the background of the Year of Release and the Jubilee one would expect that 'The ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully'. In such circumstances he would say 'I will pull down my barns, and build greater; and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods'. His problem was not that he had 'much goods' nor was it that he built 'greater' barns. His problem was that he did not view the provision as creating an opportunity for service to his God. Rather his outlook was 'Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry'. His thought was not to 'seek first the kingdom of God'.
Thinking that he would 'eat, drink, and be merry' he reflected the attitude of those who trusted in themselves rather than in God in Jerusalem when the Assyrians were around Jerusalem in the days of Hezekiah. Their thoughts were '... let us eat and drink; for to morrow we shall die'. (Isaiah 22:13)
It is against this background, in Luke 12, that Jesus says 'Take no thought for your life ...' (Luke 12:22). The 'certain rich man' misused the provision of the year of release and the Jubilee.
In reality the Year of Release and the Jubilee provided a time when the Israelite would not have to live by the curse on Adam: 'In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread,' (Genesis 3:19). He was specifically prohibited from labouring in the field - 'But in the seventh year shall be a sabbath of rest unto the land, a sabbath for the LORD: thou shalt neither sow thy field, nor prune thy vineyard'. (Leviticus 25:4)
This time was to be to the Israelite as if he were freed from the curse of Eden living in the 'paradise of God' which was a figure of the kingdom for which we look for: 'To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God.' (Revelation 2:7)
Jesus told his followers, and us to: ' Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom'. (Luke 12:32) It is our obligation to appreciate that if His 'good pleasure' is to give us the kingdom he will ensure that we are never found 'begging bread' and appreciating this we will be able to serve our Father freed from such 'Gentile' concerns.