#211: Jubilee: Rest, Release, Reset
And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year and proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof: it shall be a jubilee unto you; and ye shall return every man unto his possession, and ye shall return every man unto his family (Lev 25:10).
When we hear the word jubilee, we attribute it to mean a special anniversary – usually in fraction and whole number multiples of 50. Jubilee stems from the bible. But it meant more than celebration to the people of God. Jubilee meant rest, release, restoration, redemption and reset. It meant an all-round liberty.
Last week, we studied the weekly feast of shabbat – a theme that is rooted in creation on all of God’s creation and not just for the Jews. In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth and when the heavens and the earth were finished down to the last detail, on the seventh day God rested (Shabbat) from all his work and sanctified the seventh day. And God’s presence filled (Nuakh) all of creation. Everything was going well, till sin was found in man. One of the consequences of sin was that the ground was cursed, and man would have to till it for it to yield fruit (Gen 3:17-19). Before now the LORD caused the land to yield fruit by itself (Gen 1:11-13). Man did not have to labor for it. But at Genesis 3, God did not only pronounce curses on man, He spoke of a redeemer who would crush the serpent and restore man back to Eden. While the promised redeemer was yet to come, God wanted His people to have a taste of Eden and the rest characterized with Eden as well as a foretaste of the eternal rest to come by the redeemer of mankind. So, He instituted the weekly feast of Shabbat. Besides Shabbat, Israel had seven major yearly feasts nested in sevens –
- The shabbat (the seventh day of the week)
- The passover (a seven-day feast beginning from the fourteenth day of the first month)
- The feast of first fruits (the 8th day of the passover week – or the first day of a new week after celebrating shabbat of passover ***the day Jesus resurrected from the dead as the first fruit of the new creation)
- The feast of weeks (seven weeks feast after the shabbat of passover – pentecost is after the last day of the feast of weeks)
- The feast of trumpets (the first day of the seventh month – a day of solemn rest)
- The day of atonement (the tenth day of the seventh month – the only day in a year that the High Priest entered God’s presence. On this day, God would forgive Israel’s sin)
- The feast of booths (seven-day feast after the fourteenth day of the seventh month)
That is a lot of sevens. The details are found in Leviticus 23. God was making His eternal plan plain in these texts – that there was a rest He was preparing for them, and He was inviting them to live in the present in that reality of the future, though they were not yet there. He was partly reversing the curse of Gen 3. But the curse was not only on man, but on the land.
This leads us to Lev 25.
But in the seventh year, there shall be a sabbath of solemn rest for the land, a sabbath to the LORD. You shall not sow your field or prune your vineyard. Lev 25:4
So, a full year of no work. How would they survive?
The Sabbath of the land shall provide food for you, for yourself and for your male and female slaves and for your hired worker and the sojourner who lives with you, and for your cattle and for the wild animals that are in your land: and all its yield shall be for food. Lev 25:6-7
Wow. Sounds like Eden. And this leads us to the year of Jubilee
You shall count seven weeks of years, seven times seven years, so that the time of the seven weeks of years shall give you forty-nine years. Then you shall sound the loud trumpet on the tenth day of the seventh month. On the day of atonement, you shall sound the trumpet throughout all the land. And you shall consecrate the fiftieth year and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you, when each of you shall return to his property and each of you shall return to his clan. Lev 25:8-10
The rest of the chapter discusses what the year of Jubilee meant. Here is an excerpt: it was a mega-sabbath; it had a special impact on the ownership and management of land in the Land of Israel. That year slaves and prisoners would be freed, debts would be forgiven and the mercies of God would be particularly manifest. The Jubilee "Year of release" deals largely with land, property and property rights. This was an unprecedented or unaccustomed act of social justice that was put in place to make sure that no one became disproportionately poor or rich over multiple generations. The whole nation was to push "Reset" twice in a century. Most Israelites would have witnessed it once in their lifetime and it would have been a long-awaited time – a time to hope for.
Lev 26 can be summarized in these words: keep my sabbaths and all will be well with you (1-13). But if you do not, I will make your enemies come and carry you in exile (14-46). Exile, which we studied in the month of March on this blog was a direct consequence of sin right from the garden where Adam and Eve were exiled from God’s presence. Exile was therefore the reverse of Rest. Would Israel choose God’s provision of rest or risk being exiled?
Sadly, Israel ignored God’s provision (Isaiah 58:13-14), just as we and the rest of mankind do too often a times. They were on exile, so that the land could enjoy sabbath rest while they were on exile (Lev 26:34-35). As you know, the Israelites were in exile for seventy years (significant to the seventh day sabbath). In Daniel 9, Daniel received a vision that the oppression of Israel would last for another 490 years (seven times seventy years). So how would Israel enjoy rest again?
This leads us to Jesus (who arrived exactly 490 years from when the order was given by king Cyrus to rebuild Jerusalem as prophesied in Daniel 9). He was the Anointed One promised in Daniel 9. And when He entered the scene for His public ministry, He went into a synagogue on a sabbath and read out loud:
The spirit of the LORD is upon Me,
because He has anointed Me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent Me to proclaim liberty to the captives
and recovery of sight to the blind,
to set at liberty those who are oppressed,
to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favor. (Luke 4:18-19).
Wow. Liberty, restoration – all themes of Jubilee. God was finally going to release, redeem, restore, reset and bring rest to His people. The LORD of the sabbath came into the scene to do what the Israelites under the law were incapable of doing – keeping the sabbath law up to jubilee. He came to proclaim the year of God’s favor – the year of jubilee! (in seven lines of recorded prophecy).
Spend some time to savor this as God will by His grace show us next week the ministry of Jesus in bringing about the long-awaited year of Jubilee.
Written by Faithful Ogbeche.
Powerful!
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