ECONOMY 05 – Land & Production Capacity

ECONOMY 05 – LAND & PRODUCTION CAPACITY

Leviticus 25:1-7                 Sabbath Year

‘…the land shall observe a sabbath for the LORD. Six years you shall sow your field, and six years you shall prune your vineyard, and gather in their yield, but in the 7th year there shall be a sabbath of complete rest for the land… You shall not sow your field or prune your vineyard. You shall not harvest the after growth’

Who and what gets a rest?

  • You, children, workers, animals… and land!
  • 6 years you shall cultivate the land
  • 1 year you shall give it a rest … what grows on its own is for others
  • God promises to give double yield in the 6th year

Why this command? What is God protecting?

  • Maintaining fertility of the land
  • Affirmation of the right of the owner to the harvest
  • But a check on overuse of the land
Modern methods to maintain fertility?

Fertilizer (cow dung, chemical, …)

  • Compost
  • Ash > minerals replenished
  • Crop rotation > different plants require different minerals
  • Flood > new soil
  • Nitrogen binding plants (Leguminosae)
  • Letting lay fallow > rain replenishes minerals
How serious is God about the Sabbath Year? – 2 Chr 36:20-21

586 BC God exiles the nation of Judah for their sin to Babylon:

‘He took into exile in Babylon those who had escaped from the sword, and they became servants to him and to his sons until the establishment of the kingdom of Persia… until the land had made up for its Sabbaths. All the days that it lay desolate it kept sabbath, to fulfill 70 years.’

How long is Judah exiled (punished)?

  • as many years as the land didn’t get the sabbath rest (70 years)!!
  • God is serious about this!
    • > fertility maintenance
    • > environmental protection … is very much on God’s heart
  • Today we are re-learning this the hard way
Lev 25:23   Land Ownership

Let’s say you own a piece of land. Are you the only owner of this land?

Lev 25:23    “The land shall not be sold permanently, for the land is mine; with me you are but aliens and tenants.”

  • Gen 1:1 God is the ultimate owner of all land since he is its Creator
  • Gen 1:28 Humans are temporary care-takers
  • Whose land was this 100 years ago?
  • Whose land will this be 100 years later?
    • > Land has many owners over the centuries.
  • Current owner’s right to use his land?
    • > yes, the owner or worker has a right to the crop of the land
    • > but not to the point of destroying fertility
    • > authority given, authority limited
    • > current owner is responsible to future owners
  • Can I put a factory on my land?
    • > yes, but I cannot poison the water, ground
    • > people in 100 y still need to live of the land
  • Do not steal… also not from future owners
  • Do not covet…don’t sacrifice fertility to greed
    • > we must learn to think long-term!
Deu 22:6-7         Bird’s Nest

“If you come upon a bird’s nest, in any tree or on the ground, with fledglings or eggs, with the mother sitting on the fledglings or on the eggs, you shall not take the mother with the young. Let the mother go, taking only the young for yourself, in order that it may go well with you and you may live long.”

What is commanded?

  • do not take mother
  • allowed to take eggs, young

 

Why this command? What happens if I take the mother? What is God protecting?

  • so that there will be young in the future
  • ensuring procreation
  • protection of animal species and environment
More foundationally

What is the mother bird?                                                  What are the eggs or the young?

Producer                                                <=>                          Product
Production capacity                            <=>                          production
Main thing                                             <=>                          increase
Capital                                                   <=>                          interest, gain
Investment                                            <=>                          profit
Sewing machine                                  <=>                          making charge
Rickshaw                                              <=>                           fare
Land                                                      <=>                            harvest

  • A command so simple, a child can understand it
  • A command so crucial, that Harvard Business School equally teaches it
  • Truth always works.
  • Truth remains the same throughout centuries.
  • Truth remain the same every where.
Does this mean that eating chicken is wrong?

Read carefully: ‘If you come upon a bird’s nest, in any tree or on the ground…’

  • this is a case of just ‘taking from nature’ without investing anything
  • But if I work, put in effort or invest, the case is different:

If I have a piece of land, set a chicken farm on it, breed and multiply chicken (investing care, food etc.) … then I have full right to eat or sell the chicken (mother birds).
Principle:

  • if I do not work, invest, multiply > my right to take is very limited
  • if I I work, invest, multiply > I have a right to take all
    Example: Am I allowed to cut a teak tree from jungle?
    Example: Can I make a teak plantation and later cut and sell the trees?
Summary
  • Principle for business and economy in general:
    • I must protect production capacity
    • I can take increase, gain, interest
      but do not touch capital, ability to produce
  • Principle for environmental protection:
    • If I have not multiplied > right very limited
      Take in such a measure that procreation
      ensured

God’s principles: protection of private property, encouragement of labor, protection of environment, long-term thinking, limiting greed, development

ECONOMY