Walter Bruggemann writes, “Sabbath sets a boundary to our best, most intense efforts to manage life and organize land for our security and well-being” pg. 59. 
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If you look back at history, you can see how–again and again–people try to find their security in the land and not in God; how people try to use land like it is theirs and not God’s; and how people try to manipulate to serve their purposes rather than recognize God’s purposes that are being fulfilled in the land.

​Walter Brueggeman points out that “at the boundary, poor people without land are redefined as ‘brother and sister’, as members of God’s covenant promise.” God wants us to remember that land is for sharing with all people who are part of God’s promise to save the world and not destroy it. Pray that God would help you remember that the land we live on belongs to God, and not us, and that you would live in ways that reflect that fact.

Question to Ponder: How can seeing the land as belonging to God and not us help us to love our neighbors the way that Jesus commanded us to?

This week’s devotions are adapted from the book, The Land: Place a Gift, Promise, and Challenge in Biblical Faith  by Walter Brueggemann. Fortress Press, Minneapolis. 2002.