Put out more flags

Bunting? Check!

Cucumber sandwiches? Check!

Union Jack hat and Umbrella? Check!

Britain is preparing for a big party that will kick off a summer of celebration, starting with the Queen's Diamond Jubilee celebration this coming weekend, and culminating in the Olympics in August. We're all looking forward to having a fantastic Summer of Fun - and the good weather has arrived just in time!

But behind it all the excitement, the niggling worry about how we will afford it all in this time of economic austerity never quite goes away.

Which is a little how the people of God must have felt about the original Jubilee celebrations commanded by God in Leviticus 25.

As part of his instructions to his redeemed people, the Lord ordained that the weekly pattern of 6-days work one-day rest was to be repeated with years. So people were to sow their fields and reap a regular harvest for six years, but the seventh year was also to be a sabbath year. They were to let their fields lie fallow - to plant nothing. They were to live from the things that grew naturally in the fields, and from crops stored from previous harvests.

But in addition to this there was another Mega-sabbath to be kept. After seven of these sabbath years - 49 years - they were to celebrate a special year of Jubilee on the 50th year.

These seven-year farming sabbaths model good land management in ancient cultures. Leaving land fallow allows it to "recover" and remain fruitful over time. When land is overworked it's productive value drops over time.

But it wasn't pragmatics that drove the Sabbath rule - they had a spiritual purpose. It was to teach them that there is more to life than work, work, work. It was to teach them to trust God for provision. It was to reflect the character and nature of God as a worker who rested and rejoiced in his handiwork.

Every time a sabbath year came round, no doubt they would be looking forward to having a "sabbatical". It was a chance to rest and to celebrate. But what would they eat? What would they live off? As well as planning for it with the storage of crops, they would also have to rely on God's provision to see them through the year. In order to be obedient to God's law, they needed to trust that He would supply their needs. They needed to trust in Jehovah Jireh - The Lord our Provider (See Genesis 22 v 14)

But in addition to Rest, Reliance and Rejoicing, the Jubilee was designed to model and show one other really important thing.

Call back into the blog tomorrow to discover what that is...