Sabbath 20/03/35/120                                                                                                   

Dear Friends,

The birthright of our people was given to us by God when He distributed the tribes.  Each nation has the responsibility to keep intact the inheritance of their people for future generations.  Esau sold his birthright for a bowl of stew and God despised him for it.  God then had Esau absorbed into Israel in the second century BCE through their conquest by Judah under the Maccabeans, and then placed Judah under the Hasmonean dynasties under Herod the Great.

God’s law provides for the protection of the clans and tribes through the inheritance legislation and through the Jubilee system. Only the harvests can be sold and never the land in perpetuity.

This week it was reported that Australia is considering the sale of 30,000 hectares of agricultural land and 615,000 megalitres of irrigation water to a Chinese government corporation for the purpose of growing sugar cane in perpetuity. The action is contrary to God’s law and God will deal with the Australian system because of it. The wealth and future prosperity of our children are being squandered because of it.

An argument is being advanced that the country needs the investment.  However, most countries in the world accept investment and retain land ownership.  The Bible allows the sale of the number of crops for the years within the Jubilee minus the Sabbath years of the cycles.  Thus the price for the lease of land is the value of the crops left to harvest until the next Jubilee minus the Sabbath years when crops are not permitted to be grown in those years. Thus there are eight years to be omitted from the 50 years and hence only 42 years of crops can be sold, and the price is adjusted downwards for the leases until the next Jubilee.  It is a simple and just system and it protects the lands for the tribes.  No woman who is an inheritor of the lands in her tribe is allowed to marry outside of the tribe in order to preserve the ownership of the lands within her tribe.  It is a simple and efficient system and must be followed.  In the same way the transfer of lands can only be done and bankruptcy can only last until the next Sabbath year of the cycle when the debts are to be forgiven.  This matter is separate to the land sales from one Jubilee to the next, when control returns to the tribe and the clans and the families.

It is irrelevant what the political structure thinks about it.  The law of God is to be obeyed and any action to sell or allow lands to be sold to another nation is an act of treason by the political structure that allows it.

The land system will be explained at the Reading of the Law in relation to the ownership and tithe system.
 
Each person should encourage others regarding the laws of God and the impermissible transfer of lands outside of the tribal groups under God’s law, and the authorities should be held to account for such conduct.

Concerning the tithing system based on the Jubilee structure and land usage the paper Tithing (No. 161) should be studied.

This Sabbath year should see the lands rested and only offerings based on earned income from wages should be offered. Please make sure that the church operates as efficiently as possible and is not diminished by failure to provide sufficient offerings.

Wade Cox
Coordinator General