The people still have many years of wandering the desert before they arrive in the promised land – so why does our parasha turn to the Sabbatical and Jubilee laws when the land must rest? Seforno points out that at this point, the story with the spies had not yet happened and entering the land was imminent. Therefore it made sense to provide an “instruction manual” for how to live in the land that they were about to enter. It is only because of the sin of the spies that this “instruction manual” became premature.
