Sup Juggalos,
Again we are talking about certain things that according to Mosaic Law or the word of God in the Old Testament. When discussing the Sabbath Laws understand that there is a purpose behind some of these laws. It says that the fields must be sowed and harvested for six years while the seventh year the fields are to be untouched. This was to allow the animals and poor to eat from the fields, however leaving a field unattended and allowing wild animals on them also helps the soil. Every time that you reap and sow a field you rob nutrients from the soil. If you give a field a chance to rest than the nutrients can get replenished. We already know that on the Sabbath Day everyone is supposed to rest, of course in this day and age that's almost impossible, but for people that work the land it is very possible. The reason for the rest is to not only have a day of worship but also to give the slaves and workers a chance to rest. Interesting enough, there is a lot of focus upon harvest, crops and livestock which also bears a resemblance to the focus for ancient Pagan cultures as well. This is easily explainable in the sense that crops and livestock meant survival and basic needs and as cultures dwell close by and in some cases intermingled the concerns of one culture was shared by another. This plays a big part in the Three Annual Festivals. The Feast of Unleavened Bread was a festival designed to celebrate the Exodus from Egypt and involved celebrating with bread that isn't baked with yeast so the bread is flat. The Feast of Harvest in which offerings and food from the first fruits of the crops were used to celebrate and the Feast of Ingathering that was used to celebrate the end of the harvest year. Sacrifices were used during this time as well. The blood sacrifice had to be prepared a certain way or it was considered to be offensive like cooking a young goat in its mother's milk was considered to be offensive. It's funny in the sense that when modern day people think about blood sacrifice the first image that they conjure up is Satanism or witchcraft when in all actually this was a perfectly acceptable practice over 2000 years ago.
God's Angel to Prepare the Way
20 "See, I am sending an angel ahead of you to guard you along the way and to bring you to the place I have prepared. 21 Pay attention to him and listen to what he says. Do not rebel against him; he will not forgive your rebellion, since my Name is in him. 22 If you listen carefully to what he says and do all that I say, I will be an enemy to your enemies and will oppose those who oppose you. 23 My angel will go ahead of you and bring you into the land of the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Canaanites, Hivites and Jebusites, and I will wipe them out. 24 Do not bow down before their gods or worship them or follow their practices. You must demolish them and break their sacred stones to pieces. 25 Worship the LORD your God, and his blessing will be on your food and water. I will take away sickness from among you, 26 and none will miscarry or be barren in your land. I will give you a full life span.
27 "I will send my terror ahead of you and throw into confusion every nation you encounter. I will make all your enemies turn their backs and run. 28 I will send the hornet ahead of you to drive the Hivites, Canaanites and Hittites out of your way. 29 But I will not drive them out in a single year, because the land would become desolate and the wild animals too numerous for you. 30 Little by little I will drive them out before you, until you have increased enough to take possession of the land.
31 "I will establish your borders from the Red Sea [a] to the Sea of the Philistines, [b] and from the desert to the River. [c] I will hand over to you the people who live in the land and you will drive them out before you. 32 Do not make a covenant with them or with their gods. 33 Do not let them live in your land, or they will cause you to sin against me, because the worship of their gods will certainly be a snare to you."
As the Hebrews increase in numbers their need for resources will increase as well. After all, there is no TIVO or WOW to keep people occupied with their spare time and with working from sun up to sun down, there's a whole lot of humping going on. Good crops, good harvest, good sex equals more babies. More babies means the need for more space and more food. It kind of reminds me of the move "Midnight at the Museum" where the little roman character says "If we do not expand, we will die". Unfortunately the Hebrews are not the only culture in need of space and resources, so the only way to get more land and more resources is to take it from someone else. So into the land of the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Canaanites, Hivites, and Jebusites they will go. So the people of these lands have no choice but to flee or be wiped out. Now the Ten Commandments talk that God is a Jealous God and that He doesn't want his chosen people to worship other gods so put the other people to the sword and crush their temples and destroy their idols. I would like to say that there is a better way, but the people during this time period didn't see it that way.
