Trust and obey

Farming is a risky business. The farmer prepares the soil. Plants the seed. Takes out crop insurance. Fertilizer. Insecticide. Herbicide. He does all the right things, but he still has to wait for rain.

Too much rain and the crop is ruined.

Too little rain and the crop is ruined.

A farmer has to trust God to provide rain, so that he'll have a crop to harvest to provide for his family.

In Leviticus 25, God commanded the Israelite farmers to give the land a year of rest. When they arrived in the Promised Land, they were to count off the years. For six years they were to plant and harvest.

But in the seventh year, they were not to plant. Not a single seed.

What did that mean?

No planting or harvesting in year seven. But in year eight, plant a crop.

So they had to have enough of a harvest in year six to feed them, their families, and their livestock for two years. Enough to sell for purchasing other necessities for two years. Enough to have seed for planting in the eighth year. Remember, they couldn't just go to the Co-Op to buy seed. They had to store it.

How would you react at the end of year six?

What a relief! We don't have to do all this work of planting and harvesting next year!

But when it came time to plant, would you start to wonder if God really meant that He would provide for two years? Would you start worrying about whether or not you should sharpen the plow?

There's just a small window of opportunity for getting that harvest in the ground in order for it to get the rain it needs.

What if God didn't really mean it?

What if you had done something to incur God's wrath, so that He wouldn't provide for you and your family?

Besides, Jimmy's gonna need a new truck this year...and the little ones will need new shoes...and I'd really like to take my wife on that cruise with the seed company.

Do you see why it was so hard for the Israelites to keep the Sabbath year? The following two chapters detail the benefits of obedience and the consequences of disobedience. And yet it was still hard to do.

Do you see how trusting and obeying are inseparable?

God doesn't call us to give the land a Sabbath rest every seven years. But He does call us to obey Him.

"Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved." (Acts 16:31).

Believe that Jesus died for the penalty of your sins - that's the obedience.

And you shall be saved - that's the trust.

Trust God's Word. He said that the blood of His Son is sufficient to pay the penalty for your sins. Just like He told the Israelite farmer that He would provide enough of a harvest in year six to get him and his family through until year nine.

There's nothing else you can do. Nothing else that God expects you to do.

Trust and obey.