But in the seventh year the land is to have a year of sabbath rest, a sabbath to the Lord. Do not sow your fields or prune your vineyards. The seventh year is a Sabbath for the land: no sowing, no pruning, no organized agricultural activity. The land's rest is not primarily for ecological renewal (though that is a real benefit) but for theological acknowledgment: the land rests because the land belongs to the God who rested on the seventh day. The covenant community's agricultural rest is the acknowledgment that they are stewards, not owners, of the land.

COMMUNITY REFLECTIONS

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