Monday, May 9, 2016

Today’s Reading  |  Exodus 23:10–13        
For six years you shall sow your land and gather in its yield; but the seventh year you shall let it rest and lie fallow, so that the poor of your people may eat; and what they leave the wild animals may eat. You shall do the same with your vineyard, and with your olive orchard. Six days you shall do your work, but on the seventh day you shall rest, so that your ox and your donkey may have relief, and your homeborn slave and the resident alien may be refreshed. Be attentive to all that I have said to you. Do not invoke the names of other gods; do not let them be heard on your lips. (NRSV)

Reflection
These rules in Exodus were the law of the land: leaving the land untouched every seventh year meant it could recoup the nutrients and moisture needed to produce healthy and abundant crops in the future. The crops that did mature during the seventh year—those that survived on their own—were to be left for those in need. If this year of fallow, this year of allowing nature to reenrich the soil, was bypassed, the crops in the following years would yield less and less, and the poor and the wild animals would not get the food they surely needed.

As for the people, they were to work six days, labor six days, teach and instruct six days—but on the seventh day, rest, so that they and all for whom they were responsible could recoup and gather strength for the coming six days.

Do we hear the wisdom of these rules in our current society, thousands of years separated from the people to whom these rules were addressed? I like the part about resting the seventh day—that should not be too difficult. But how about the way we treat the land that produces what we eat? With fertilizer and irrigation, we can produce abundant crops, feed livestock, and even fuel our cars and trucks, but we also pay a high price. The cost is not for the goods produced, but for the pollution from fertilizer runoff, for the quantity of water used to grow crops, and for the eventual destruction of the soil. How might the guidance of Exodus encourage us to care for ourselves, those around us, and all of creation?

Prayer
God of all creation, I thank you for the earth you have given us and I ask you to help me be the best possible steward for you. Amen.

Written by Roger Wilson, Member of Fourth Presbyterian Church

Reflection and Prayer © Fourth Presbyterian Church

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