Are you Preparing for the next Shmittah starting Aviv 1, 2023?
Brethren, if you have not already started preparing for the coming land Sabbath (Shmittah), I urge you to please start NOW. If you claim to be a follower of Messiah Yeshua and keep the commandments of YHWH, then please look into the instructions of YHWH concerning the land Sabbath and keep it during the year starting Aviv 1, 2023.
Many of you understand the importance of keeping the Feast Days and Sabbaths of YHWH, but do you also understand that we are to also keep the Shmittah in the 7th year? YHWH tells us several times that we are to keep his Shabbats:
Lev 19:3 Ye shall fear every man his mother, and his father, and keep my sabbaths: I am the LORD your God.
Lev 19:30 &Lev 26:2 Ye shall keep my sabbaths, and reverence my sanctuary: I am the LORD.
YHWH tells us that we are to keep His Sabbaths, meaning: the weekly Sabbath (Ex 20), the Feast Days (Lev 23), and the Land Sabbath (Lev 25).
YHWH tells us in Leviticus 25 how we are to keep it (along with Deu 15:1-3 & Deu 31:10-13). You can find more detailed information concerning why Aviv 1 2023 is the next Shmittah at our website, www.returnoftheremnant.com
My wife and I can attest to the fact that keeping the Shmittah is not difficult as we kept it in 2016 and were blessed by YHWH in keeping this commandment. Regardless if you live in the country or in the city, this can be kept.
Over the past several years I have heard from several believers from the Hebrew Roots and Messianic Movement who have said to me: This commandment does not apply to me because I do not “live in the Land (Israel)” and they will quote Leviticus 25:2
Lev 25:2 Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye come into the land which I give you, then shall the land keep a sabbath unto the LORD.
But there is a flaw in that argument. IF you say that you do not ‘live in the land (Israel)’ then why are you keeping Passover?
Exo 12:25 And it shall come to pass, when ye be come to the land which the LORD will give you, according as he hath promised, that ye shall keep this service.
The service mentioned here in context with Exodus 12 is keeping the Passover.
What about this verse?
Deu 18:9 When thou art come into the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee, thou shalt not learn to do after the abominations of those nations.
Because we are not ‘in the land (Israel)’ does that mean we can learn to do the abominations of which YHWH tells us NOT to do? Of course not! Just these verses alone should cancel any doubt on whether or not we should keep the land Sabbath!
As I mentioned before, my wife and I kept the last Shmittah starting Aviv 1, 2016 and we were blessed by keeping it. Even today, we are still eating food from our storehouse from the last Shmittah! YHWH tells us that He will pour out a blessing on those who do keep it:
Lev 25:20-21 And if ye shall say, What shall we eat the seventh year? behold, we shall not sow, nor gather in our increase: Then I will command my blessing upon you in the sixth year, and it shall bring forth fruit for three years.
Keep in mind how serious this commandment is to YHWH. We read in 2 Chronicles 36 how the children of Israel transgressed the Torah of YHWH. During a 490 year period, Israel did not honor the commandment of YHWH in keeping the Shmittah, so they were conquered by King Nebuchadnezzar and taken to Babylon so that the land would receive the Sabbaths that it did not get during that 490 year period, which was 70 years.
2Ch 36:20-21 And them that had escaped from the sword carried he away to Babylon; where they were servants to him and his sons until the reign of the kingdom of Persia: To fulfil the word of the LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed her sabbaths: for as long as she lay desolate she kept sabbath, to fulfil threescore and ten years.
Hopefully you see that this is a commandment that we still need to observe. Keep in mind that by keeping the commandments (including the Shmittah) wherever you live, you are fulfilling a 3500 year old prophecy from Moshe:
Deu 30:1-5 And it shall come to pass, when all these things are come upon thee, the blessing and the curse, which I have set before thee, and thou shalt call them to mind among all the nations, whither the LORD thy God hath driven thee, And shalt return unto the LORD thy God, and shalt obey his voice according to all that I command thee this day, thou and thy children, with all thine heart, and with all thy soul; That then the LORD thy God will turn thy captivity, and have compassion upon thee, and will return and gather thee from all the nations, whither the LORD thy God hath scattered thee. If any of thine be driven out unto the outmost parts of heaven, from thence will the LORD thy God gather thee, and from thence will he fetch thee: And the LORD thy God will bring thee into the land which thy fathers possessed, and thou shalt possess it; and he will do thee good, and multiply thee above thy fathers.
Brethren, again I cannot stress enough the importance of keeping the next Shmittah in 2023. Open your eyes and see what is going on in the world. All the curses that we read about in Leviticus 26 are unfolding before our very eyes…terror, famine, pestilence, sword (war). Please start preparing NOW, while you still have time and look for the BLESSING that comes from our Heavenly Father when we love (covenant loyalty) Him by keeping His Torah!
Shalom~
Chad Wilhelms