Old Testament: Exo 23.10–11

To read the Bible in a year, read Exodus 22–24 on January 30, In the year of our Lord Christ 2022

By Don Ruhl 

God did not just care for the well-to-do in Israel, but the poor of the land also, and he cares for the wild animals, otherwise, he would not have created them. Therefore, he wanted the land owners, or the farmers, in Israel to provide for both: 

“Six years you shall sow your land and gather in its produce, but the seventh year you shall let it rest and lie fallow, that the poor of your people may eat; and what they leave, the beasts of the field may eat. In like manner you shall do with your vineyard and your olive grove.”

– Exodus 23.10–11 

This taught Israel, and it teaches the church that everything God has made we should care for. We are free to use creation, but we are not free to abuse God’s creation. We are here to take care of it. 

A second thing to learn from this, is that Israel needed faith in the Lord God during that seventh year when they did not produce a crop. He would provide for them, which he did by preserving the crop from year six, that it would last through the end of year eight! 

Questions: 

• Do you believe God will provide for you? 
• Do you help the poor and the animals of the earth? 

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