THE THEME OF THIS DEVOTION:
The Shemittah Sabbatical Year required faith in what God could do apart from what our natural minds can comprehend. It was a regular exercise in utter dependence on God, year to year, season to season, month to month, week to week, day to day, hour to hour, moment to moment.
We are called to a walk of faith in the “Now”—continually, without interruption. (Hebrews 11:1)
When I was a boy, my family told of a man in our fellowship of churches who lived a life of continual dependence on God. I don’t remember his name, but he was renowned in our fellowship because of the mighty acts that God performed in his life.
One story that I remember had to do with an assignment God gave him. The LORD spoke to him to go to a certain city and minister there. But he had no money for bus fare.
He obeyed the LORD step by step in his life. So, he packed his clothes and went to the bus station. He got in the ticket line. It was a long line. As each person ahead of him was served and stepped aside he kept communing with the LORD in his heart.
Just as the last person ahead of him was getting his ticket, this brother felt a hand behind him put something in his right hand. It was enough money for his bus fare. He stepped up to the window and paid for his bus fare.
I don’t know if he even turned to see whose hand put the money into his hand. The point is simply that the life of obedience to God is always rewarded with whatever is needed for the task that the LORD has assigned.
Hebrews 11:1 simply says, “NOW faith is the substance of things hoped for; the evidence of things NOT SEEN.” (emphasis mine)
The text in Leviticus 25:21 contains a remarkable call to faith for all the people of Israel throughout their journey in The Land of Promise:
VE’TZI’VU’TI ET-BIR’CHA’TI LA’CHEM BASH’SHA’NA HASH’SHI’SHIT
I will command my blessing for you in the sixth year
VE’A’SAT ET-HAT’TE’VU’AH LISH’LOSH HAS’SHA’NIM
and it will make a crop (sufficient) for the three years
The commandment was that they were to let the land lie fallow for year seven and plant in year eight for a crop in year nine.
This is very much like Joseph receiving knowledge and wisdom from God for preserving Egypt and the whole region round about for a seven-year period from the yield of the prior seven yields.
It was also like the widow who fed Elijah until the drought ended (three and a half years). She did so from a miraculous supply of oil and meal.
This is very much like our LORD’S command to his disciples to not take extra clothes or money on their ministry journeys, but to let God supply them as they went ministering the Gospel of the Kingdom.
There is some area in your life where God will require you to depend exclusively on him. It will be a link between your natural abilities and the supernatural workings of God in your life.
Do not neglect this link. Never let success sever you from this dependence. This is your Source. This is your Secret Fellowship with the One Who loves you beyond your wildest imagination.
