“And thou shalt number seven sabbaths of years unto thee, seven times seven years; and the space of the seven sabbaths of years shall be unto thee forty and nine years. Then shalt thou cause the trumpet of the Jubile to sound on the tenth day of the seventh month, in the day of atonement shall ye make the trumpet sound throughout all your land. And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof: it shall be a Jubile unto you …” Leviticus 25:8-10, King James Version
Every fiftieth (50th) year … in other words!
Not a day of Jubilee, not just a week … but a whole year of Jubilee!
The Hebrew noun used here for “Jubilee” is normally “yobel,” meaning a “ram’s horn!” Which entities were hollowed, smoothed and fashioned into a sort of “trumpet!” An audible (loudly so), musical (indicating joy) herald of the beginning of that amazing year! Called the “Trumpet of the Jubilee” in verse 9 above.
(One of these days a “trumpet blast” is going to begin a new year for us Christians too. A whole new way of life, in fact!)
But here’s the thing about this Year … it did not begin back in the Spring! Normally the Israelites’ new year was then, at Passover time.
But every fifty years … their year began anew … precisely on the Day of Atonement! “The tenth day of the seventh month,” still verse 9 above, the exact date for “Atonement!” The Day (typically, symbolically, prophetically) Israel’s sins were forgiven! Covered by the blood!
This much I already see: God is emphasizing (again) that the shedding of blood is the means of redemption, of release, of liberty, of Jubilee! (Much blood was shed on that Day of Atonement, the only Time in the whole year the Jewish High Priest could enter the Holy of Holies, with a basin of blood in his hand!)
Jubilee, when slaves went free!
Jubilee, when (lost, confiscated, forfeited) land was restored!
Jubilee, where every Jewish life was impacted for good!
Yes, all those blessing built on Atonement!
Have you appropriated the Blood of Jesus in your life? Trusted Jesus’ Finished Work on Calvary? Believed in Jesus our Saviour and great High Priest? Who is right now at the Father’s Right Hand, interceding for us because of that Blood, His Blood!
If so … you too have been liberated!
You too can enjoy Jubilee!
Freed from slavery!
Entered into God’s “Rest!”
Note: the land had to lay fallow again this Jubilee year! (After having already remained unfarmed, unplanted the previous year, which would have been a Sabbath Year in it own right! Two years … no farming!
Two years … trusting Almighty God to feed you!.
But is that not too the essence of the Christian life? Trusting God for every area of existence? Jesus promised in Matthew 6:33 … “Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things (food and clothing and shelter) shall be added unto you.”
Wow!
More about this Year of Jubilee tomorrow, the Lord willing. Specifically how Jesus referred to this amazing Event when He was on earth! Yes, in His first (recorded in Scripture) Sermon in Nazareth, no less!
Oh, this too … enjoy your liberty in Jesus today!
“Stand fast therefore in the LIBERTY wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.” Paul writing in Galatians 5:1.
Then elsewhere in the New Testament: “For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath MADE ME FREE …” Romans 8:2
— Dr. Mike Bagwell
Jesus, the Emancipator!
Who “broke us out” of the prison house of sin and degradation! So much so that Micah 2:13 calls Jesus the “Breaker!”
Amen!
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