EPA: Give the Land Its Sabbath

Psalm 119:103-105:

103 How sweet are thy words unto my taste! yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth!

104 Through thy precepts I get understanding: therefore I hate every false way.

105 NUN. Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.

How marvelous and how beautiful are the words of the God of Creation, the God of the Bible. Revelation 19:13speaks of the Lord Jesus Christ:

And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called The Word of God.

John 1:1:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

If you love God and His Christ, then you must love His Word, for they are one and the same.

God's Word is our owner's manual. It is a lamp unto our feet, and a light unto our path. This glorious book does not yield its secrets to the academics; only the childlike enter in. God has not chosen the wise, the wealthy, the beautiful, or the mighty; none of these currencies can buy access. God requires childlike faith—the currency, the medium of exchange—for the magnificent, invisible Kingdom of God.

Have you been born-again? Are you ready to activate your childlike faith? Are you prepared to become clean and white as the driven snow? Today is your day of salvation. Click onto "Further With Jesus" right now for childlike instructions and immediate entry into the Kingdom of God. NOW FOR TODAY’S SUBJECT.

GOD SAID, Galatians 6:7:

Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.

GOD SAID, Leviticus 25:2-7:

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.

3 Six years thou shalt sow thy field, and six years thou shalt prune thy vineyard, and gather in the fruit thereof;

4 But in the seventh year shall be a sabbath of rest unto the land, a sabbath for the LORD: thou shalt neither sow thy field, nor prune thy vineyard.

5 That which groweth of its own accord of thy harvest thou shalt not reap, neither gather the grapes of thy vine undressed: for it is a year of rest unto the land.

6 And the sabbath of the land shall be meat for you; for thee, and for thy servant, and for thy maid, and for thy hired servant, and for thy stranger that sojourneth with thee,

7 And for thy cattle, and for the beast that are in thy land, shall all the increase thereof be meat.

GOD SAID, Leviticus 25:20-22:

20 And if ye shall say, What shall we eat the seventh year? behold, we shall not sow, nor gather in our increase:

21 Then I will command my blessing upon you in the sixth year, and it shall bring forth fruit for three years.

22 And ye shall sow the eighth year, and eat yet of old fruit until the ninth year; until her fruits come in ye shall eat of the old store.

GOD SAID, Leviticus 25:11-12:

11 A jubilee shall that fiftieth year be unto you: ye shall not sow, neither reap that which groweth of itself in it, nor gather the grapes in it of thy vine undressed.

12 For it is the jubilee; it shall be holy unto you: ye shall eat the increase thereof out of the field.

MAN SAID: We are the masters of agriculture. We can chemically control the pests of the field and our genetically modified products will fill the earth with plenty.

Now THE RECORD. Every commandment of God has inherent within it a blessing or a curse. God's commandments are not given to man for God's benefit, but for man's. Because God's Word is the inerrant truth, to reject it generates the curse, which is simply the result of doing the wrong thing.

When God's Words in the Holy Bible are disregarded, the consequences reveal themselves in different levels of death. For example:

• God commands against fornication of any kind. Today, over 70 million Americans have sexually transmitted warts and lesions on their bodies, and that is just one issue. Sexually transmitted diseases abound.

• God commands against the consumption of alcoholic beverages. In America, there are over 13 million alcoholics, and multitudes more who suffer from alcohol abuse.

• God commands against homosexuality. In addition to horrendous medical and mental troubles, homosexuals experience a serious deficit in life expectancy.

• God commands against putting anything damaging into your body. Every day in the United States, there are over 20 million instances of illegal drug consumption.

It is incontrovertible: when God's Words in the Holy Bible are disregarded, the consequences reveal themselves in different levels of death. Those who are shouting for proof can stop right here.

Several features on GodSaidManSaid address the issue of God's perfect commandments concerning the Sabbath of the land. A few foundational paragraphs follow:

Carnaldom will, without fail, reject the Word of God. They will seek a remedy outside the commandment. Instead of success, they will reap compound dilemmas, and it is glaringly obvious in regard to the Sabbath of the land.

As a result of rejecting the Sabbath of the land, the overworked soil suffers mineral depletion, which results in deficient crops as well as pest infestations. The work-around remedies include chemical fertilizers, dangerous pest control chemicals, as well as genetically manipulated seeds. Unfortunately for the people of the earth, the work-around has serious detrimental side effects to man and beast.

"Dead zones" are what they are now being called. The world has 58 known dead zones, and 13 of them are off the coasts of the United States. These dead zones are swaths of sea void of life, and they are expanding. The cause of dead zones is fertilizer and sewage runoff which feed the runaway growth of algae. As the huge quantities of algae plants die, they decompose, drawing the water's oxygen. Fish can escape the oxygen-starved waters, but creatures such as mussels, lobsters, and clams cannot. They just die. Robert Diaz of the Virginia Institute of Marine Science predicts a doubling of dead zones in the next decade unless something is done. He claims that half of all American estuaries are oxygen starved.

The headline in the November 22, 2008 issue of Science News reads, "Farm Chemicals Can Hammer Frog Populations." A short excerpt follows:

Amphibian populations around the world have been declining recently, with many species on the brink of extinction. Infection with trematodes, tiny flatworms, can trigger debilitating limb deformities, and severe infections can kill the amphibians.

Researchers wanted to know why high rates of those deformities began showing up in the mid-1990s. The study suggests that one answer lies in atrazine's quick rise to dominance in U.S. agriculture. [End of quote]

"The Rise of Slime" is the headline in the January 2009 issue of Discover magazine. The following passage is from that feature:

More than half the fish that people hunt in the sea are gone, more than half the corals are gone, too, and pollution is strangling the vast stretches of the seafloor. Writing in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences last August, marine ecologist Jeremy Jackson of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography sounded an ominous note: "Mass extinction of multicellular life will result in profound loss of animal and plant biodiversity, and microbes will reign supreme."

As excess plant matter sinks to the seafloor, microbes rot it and suck oxygen out of the water in the process. The hypoxia suffocates seafloor animals. In summer, the Chesapeake Bay becomes a "dead zone." So does the Gulf of Mexico where the Mississippi dumps into it.

Some 400 regions of the world are now afflicted, permanently or occasionally, with dead zones, according to a report published in Science in August. When seafloor animals die off, the energy in the ecosystem flows into microbes and jellyfish, a trend Jackson refers to as "the rise of slime." If we do not alter the way we fish, farm, and generate electricity, he predicts, similar dead zones will spread across continental shelves all over the world. [End of quote]

The October 21, 2006 headline in Science News reads, "Waters near croplands impair frogs' immunity." An excerpt follows:

Pesticide-containing waters leave frogs more susceptible to fungal infections than pristine environments do, new field data suggests. [End of quote]

A January 2008 headline in Discover magazine reads, "Unsustainable Soil Use Can Cause Civilizations to Collapse." [End of quotes]

(These are all stories about what happens when you don't obey the Scriptures concerning the Sabbath of the land.)

In Robert Boyd's book, Scientific Facts in the Bible, found in the Library of Congress, we found the following concerning the land and its Sabbath:

A sure-fire remedy for pest control was given centuries ago, yet we are plagued today with insects, ofttimes with no remedy. Moses commanded Israel to set aside one year in seven when no crops were raised (Leviticus 25:1-24). God promised sufficient harvest in the sixth year to provide for this period. Following this plan, here is what would happen: insects winter in the stalks of last year's harvest, hatch in the spring, and are perpetuated by laying eggs in the new crop. Now, if one year in seven no crops were raised, there is nothing for the insects to subsist upon and the pests are controlled by this method. Our method today is "crop rotation," but we are still pestered with insects. "God's ways are not man's ways" (Isaiah 55:8-9). Man will never approach God's method. "Then there was the 'Year of Jubilee' after every seven Sabbatical years [every fiftieth year], which served to eliminate the insects, had a cycle of seven years, more or less, and which were not affected by the one year in seven." [End of quote]

A national move is underway in Israel to restore the Sabbath of the land commandment. Many farmers there have already implemented the principle. God's Sabbath of the land is the solution to pest control and mineral management, and the real remedy for agricultural dead zones. [End of quote]

The sub-headline in the August 2012 issue of Psychology Today reads, "Pesticide traces render too many foods unwise to eat except if organically grown." A few excerpts from this feature, "Food Without Fear," follow:

There's no question that fruits and vegetables are an essential part of a healthy diet and provide benefits to the body and mind that go far beyond conventional nutrition. Most are rich in phytochemicals whose natural power to support health and even combat disease is only now under serious study.

But industrial agriculture relies on hundreds of chemicals to target insects and diseases that can afflict crops. Unfortunately, many remain after the crops are harvested, even after produce is washed at home.

The Environmental Protection Agency tests the toxicity primarily of individual pesticide agents, but scientists are increasingly concerned about combined effects and the possible synergistic effects of consuming many chemicals, even in small amounts, at one time.

Using data from tests conducted by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Environmental Working Group has ranked 53 foods by amount and frequency of pesticide contamination. [End of quote]

In the Psychology Today feature, under the page heading "Foods Best Eaten Organically Grown," the following EPA findings are listed of 12 popular foods. Seven of them follow:

Apples: Of every 10 apples, 9 have traces of the fungicide thiabendazole, a carcinogen; 8 also have diphenylamine (DPA), linked to bladder tumors; workers applying it are required to wear long sleeves and gloves. Apples carry 40 other pesticides: carcinogens, hormone disruptors, neurotoxins, developmental toxins.

 Strawberries: Of every two strawberries you enjoy, one probably contains the fungicide captan, a probable carcinogen. It is usually accompanied by fellow fungicide pyraclostrobin, a known skin and eye irritant.

Peaches: Not all is peachy with peaches. They carry residues of 62 pesticides. Almost every other peach has fludioxonil, which targets the liver and kidneys. Some 30 percent of samples contain traces of iprodione, a possible carcinogen, and phosmet, which targets the nervous system of insects and humans, along with our reproductive system.

Grapes: The USDA found traces of 34 pesticides on Chilean grapes. Of every 10 imported grapes, almost 3 have the fungicide cyprodinil, which can irritate eyes, nose, and especially skin. One in 5 has the neurotoxin imidacloprid.

Bell Peppers: Behind the colorful coats of bell peppers lurk traces of 49 different pesticides, among them 26 possible hormone disruptors and 13 neurotoxins. More than 80 percent of samples have imidacloprid. The neurotoxin methamidophos, found in 30 percent of samples, is no less harmful.

Lettuce: This common salad and sandwich component comes with a side of 51 pesticides. At the top of the heap is imidacloprid, in 73 percent of lettuce tested. Traces of the herbicide DCPA were found in 30 percent of samples. The fungicide dimethomorph found on lettuce can damage lungs if inhaled.

Blueberries: Open a box of blueberries and 3 in 10 have residues of the fungicides boscalid and pyraclostorbin. Boscalid is toxic to the human liver and thyroid. Pyraclostrobin can irritate skin in high doses. The USDA found traces of 52 pesticides in blueberries. [End of quote]

Today, there are physical and psychological diseases and disorders that defy medical remedy. Many of these ailments which were once rare are at pandemic proportions. You can be sure man is at the root of the dilemma.

When God's Word is disregarded, the consequences reveal themselves in different levels of death. God's Word is true and righteous altogether—surely a place to build a life.

GOD SAID, Galatians 6:7:

Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.

GOD SAID, Leviticus 25:2-7:

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.

3 Six years thou shalt sow thy field, and six years thou shalt prune thy vineyard, and gather in the fruit thereof;

4 But in the seventh year shall be a sabbath of rest unto the land, a sabbath for the LORD: thou shalt neither sow thy field, nor prune thy vineyard.

5 That which groweth of its own accord of thy harvest thou shalt not reap, neither gather the grapes of thy vine undressed: for it is a year of rest unto the land.

6 And the sabbath of the land shall be meat for you; for thee, and for thy servant, and for thy maid, and for thy hired servant, and for thy stranger that sojourneth with thee,

7 And for thy cattle, and for the beast that are in thy land, shall all the increase thereof be meat.

GOD SAID, Leviticus 25:20-22:

20 And if ye shall say, What shall we eat the seventh year? behold, we shall not sow, nor gather in our increase:

21 Then I will command my blessing upon you in the sixth year, and it shall bring forth fruit for three years.

22 And ye shall sow the eighth year, and eat yet of old fruit until the ninth year; until her fruits come in ye shall eat of the old store.

GOD SAID, Leviticus 25:11-12:

11 A jubilee shall that fiftieth year be unto you: ye shall not sow, neither reap that which groweth of itself in it, nor gather the grapes in it of thy vine undressed.

12 For it is the jubilee; it shall be holy unto you: ye shall eat the increase thereof out of the field.

MAN SAID: We are the masters of agriculture. We can chemically control the pests of the field and our genetically modified products will fill the earth with plenty.

Now you have THE RECORD.




References:

Authorized King James Version

GodSaidManSaid, "The Land, Its Sabbath, and Your Table"

Yu, A., "Food Without Fear," Psychology Today, July/August 2012

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