Leviticus 23:22

Leviticus 23:22 says, And when ye reap the harvest of your land, thou shalt not make clean riddance of the corners of thy field when thou reapest, neither shalt thou gather any gleaning of thy harvest: thou shalt leave them unto the poor, and to the stranger: I am the LORD your God.  God told the people of Israel to not reap the corners of their fields and to not glean their fields, but ti leave some behind for the stranger.  We today as followers of Christ may not have fields to harvest or glean, but I believe that God still expects us to help those in need as much as we possibly can.  Verse twenty-three adds, And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,  Verse twenty-four continues, Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, In the seventh month, in the first day of the month, shall ye have a sabbath, a memorial of blowing of trumpets, an holy convocation.  God told Moses that in the seventh month on the first day of the month that they the people of Israel were to have a sabbath as a memorial of the blowing of the trumpets.  This was to be a holy convocation, or meeting.  Verse twenty-five concludes, Ye shall do no servile work therein: but ye shall offer an offering made by fire unto the LORD.  The people were not to do unnecessary work during this time, but were to offer a burnt offering to God.  We are to keep the sabbath, or Lord's day as we celebrate and keep it holy and to do no unnecessary work.  Verse twenty-six states, And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,  Verse twenty-seven adds, Also on the tenth day of this seventh month there shall be a day of atonement: it shall be an holy convocation unto you; and ye shall afflict your souls, and offer an offering made by fire unto the LORD.  The tenth day of the seventh month was to be a day of personal atonement where the people were to afflict, or I believe we could say search, their souls and then they were to offer a burnt offering to God.  We may worship God as a group, but before we do we need to first individually search our own soul to make sure that nothing stands between God and us.  Verse twenty-eight continues, And ye shall do no work in that same day: for it is a day of atonement, to make an atonement for you before the LORD your God.  This was to be another day set aside fir God with no unnecessary work being done.  Too often today we declare anything that we want to do as necessary on the days set aside for God instead of keeping them holy for God.  Verse twenty-nine declares, For whatsoever soul it be that shall not be afflicted in that same day, he shall be cut off from among his people.  I don't believe that this means a physical affliction, but a lack of being willing to search one's life for any sin in it.  Those unwilling to do so were to be cut off from the rest of the people of Israel.  This wasn't just an act of going through the motions, but a real searching of one's life.  We today must be sincere in our relationship with God and search for any sin that needs to be rooted out daily.  Verse thirty adds, And whatsoever soul it be that doeth any work in that same day, the same soul will I destroy from among his people.  God told Moses that He would destroy anyone who was doing unnecessary work that day.  As followers of Christ, God may not destroy us for working unnecessarily on Sunday or other days set aside for worshipping Him, but I wonder if He often does not destroy the things we gain that day.  Verse thirty-one continues, Ye shall do no manner of work: it shall be a statute for ever throughout your generations in all your dwellings.  Then verse thirty-two concludes, It shall be unto you a sabbath of rest, and ye shall afflict your souls: in the ninth day of the month at even, from even unto even, shall ye celebrate your sabbath.  This was to be a day set aside exclusively for God.  We today need that time that is set aside exclusively for searching our soul and worshipping God.