Every fiftieth year in Israel’s chronology (her long-term calendar) … God’s people were to observe a special time of “Jubilee.” (Yes, really twelve full months!)

The land must rest!

And any “leased” land must revert to its original owner!

When this idea (Law of God) is instituted, the rich can’t get richer and the poor become poorer! Not for long, anyway. The financial playing field is leveled every fifty years! (God is quite the Economist!)

I am sure by now someone is wondering … “What’s all this got to do with JESUS?” As the Lesson Title suggests.

It centers on His first Sermon, recorded in Luke chapter 4. We know His Text for that Occasion, too! He may have personally selected it, or it may have been the ” Scripture Reading” for that particular Sabbath Day.

Here’s Luke’s Account … “And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up: and, as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and stood up for to read.” Luke 4:16, notice that Jesus “customarily” went to the synagogue! Like we should “customarily” go to God’s House as well.

He was asked by the ruler of the synagogue (a blended Greek term literally meaning “to come together”) … to read God’s Word and then (usually) time was given to offer comments on that Portion of God’s Word.

That Old Testament Selection … Isaiah 61:1-2, a part of verse 2 at least. Our Saviour stopped mid-verse there, for a reason. The Passage implies (no it declares) that when Messiah comes … the “Year of Jubilee” will be fulfilled! And Jesus is that Messiah!

Out of our Lord’s Mouth followed these Words, given to Isaiah given hundred years earlier … “The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound; to proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD.” Beautiful, sublime!

The Year of Jubilee was designed by God especially to minister to the “meek,” to the “brokenhearted,” to the “captives,” and to the “bound!” Liberation!

Luke has it: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord.” Luke 4:18-19, essentially the same as Isaiah, but watch the slight vocabulary variations! Still “Year of Jubilee” language, though.

Jesus, while on earth, lived His Life (and died His vicarious Death) … as a Living Manifestation of the “Year of Jubilee!”

That’s why we sing about His “setting the captives free!”

But how do we KNOW Jesus was thinking this way, His being very “Jubilee?” He said so, during that Sermon!

“And he (Jesus) closed the book, and he gave it again to the minister (ruler of the synagogue), and sat down. And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him. And he began to say unto them, THIS DAY IS THIS SCRIPTURE FULFILLED IN YOUR EARS.”Wow, Luke 4:20-21.

Jesus … Jubilee!

Another song now, “He set me free!”

Then a Hebrew word, “HALLELUJAH!”

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

When Jesus comes again to this earth, to reign a thousand years, He will institute the Year of Jubilee officially, personally. But this one will last a millennium, not just a few months! (No fighting over Land, then!)

“He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus.” Revelation 22:20

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The LAND that each Israelite would be given (once they had conquered Canaan) was to remain in his possession perpetually. It was a tribal (family) inheritance. Yes, that held true for every Tribe but the Levites, who belonged to God and needed no land. (As the priestly tribe and the tribe who cared for the tabernacle and its accessories.)

Of course there were times when a Jewish man (due to what we’d call “bankruptcy” or some similar term) “lost” his land, or under duress “sold” his inheritance due to poverty!. (As did Elimelech in the Book of Ruth. Well, he actually moved away from his land, due to temporary famine. Allowing someone else to “claim” it. A sad situation indeed!

But even then … every fifty years … no matter who then lived on that land … it reverted to its original owner!

Bible Proof: “That (LAND) which is sold shall remain in the hand of him that hath bought it UNTIL THE YEAR OF JUBILE: and in the jubile it shall go out, and he (the original ‘owner’) SHALL RETURN UNTO HIS POSSESSION.” Leviticus 25:28

God legislating the real estate market!

And what gives God the “Authority” to do that?

Well, He is Almighty God. None is over Him! He is absolutely supreme! Plus this too …

Leviticus 25:23 … “The land shall not be sold (only temporarily forfeited, lost due to poverty) for ever: for the land is mine; for ye are strangers and sojourners with me.” God just said THE LAND IS MINE!

No wonder we call it “the Holy Land!”

And the precious Jews living there even today … are merely “leasees” of their property. Merely “strangers and sojourners” with the Lord being the true Proprietor!

The True land-LORD! (Smile, please.)

They argue (and fight) politically and regionally to this day … over whose land that is. A little Plot which on the map is marked “Israel.”

Answer: it is God’s property!

“FOR THE LAND IS MINE,” He thunders!

If the political bodies of the world would only read Leviticus 25! And believe it. And obey it, act on it.

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

One could also make the case that God owns the whole earth! After all, He is the Creator! “The EARTH is the LORD’S, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein.” Psalm 24:1

We are just “guests!”

Peter may have had this Leviticus 25 idea in mind when he penned … “Dearly beloved, I beseech you as STRANGERS and PILGRIMS, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul.” 1 Peter 2:11

Wow!

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“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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Everyone (with any Bible background at all) knows how the Old Testament carefully teaches that honor is due to the Sabbath day. “Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.” Exodus 20:8

But now we are learning that Israel was also to observe a whole “Sabbath Year” … during every seventh year of their national life! Yes, and that’s the subject of Leviticus 25:1-7.

God to Moses: “Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye come into the land which I give you, then shall the land keep a sabbath unto the LORD. Six years thou shalt sow thy field, and six years thou shalt prune thy vineyard, and gather in the fruit thereof; but in the SEVENTH YEAR shall be a sabbath of rest unto the land, a sabbath for the LORD: thou shalt neither sow thy field, nor prune thy vineyard.” Leviticus 25:2-4

Wow!

My first question … how will the people eat during this whole year? Remember, they are farmers for the most part. This is an “agricultural economy!”

The answer: GOD WILL FEED THEM FROM THE VOLUNTEER PRODUCE of that fallow land! This is total dependence upon the Lord! This is faith! (If God fails, starvation ensues!) “And the sabbath of the land shall be MEAT for you; for thee, and for thy servant, and for thy maid, and for thy hired servant, and for thy stranger that sojourneth with thee, and for thy cattle, and for the beast that are in thy land, shall all the increase thereof be meat.” Leviticus 25:6-7

But note too that God will not only feed the Jews from that “resting” (observing the Sabbath) land … but also feed their “servants!” And too the “foreigners” in their midst, “strangers” in our King James Version. Then add the “livestock” as well! (A Lesson could be written on God’s care for the animals here!) But not just the domesticated animals, the wildlife too! This is astounding!

But (today’s emphasis) Deuteronomy 31:9-13 explicitly tells us even more about this Sabbatical Year. “And Moses wrote this law (the Book of Deuteronomy at least, maybe the whole Pentateuch), and delivered it unto the priests the sons of Levi, which bare the ark of the covenant of the LORD, and unto all the elders of Israel. And Moses commanded them, saying, At the end of every SEVEN YEARS, in the solemnity of the YEAR OF RELEASE (THE SABBATH YEAR), in the feast of tabernacles (IN THE FALL OF THAT SABBATICAL YEAR). When all Israel is come to appear before the LORD thy God in the place which he shall choose, thou shalt READ THIS LAW (THE WORD OF GOD) before all Israel in their hearing. Gather the people together, men, and women, and children, and thy stranger that is within thy gates, that they may HEAR, and that they may LEARN, and FEAR the LORD your God, and observe to do (OBEY) all the words of this law: and that their CHILDREN, which have not known any thing, may HEAR, and LEARN to FEAR the LORD your God, as long as ye live in the land whither ye go over Jordan to possess it.”

A Bible Conference!

Lasting for seven days, if not eight!

This is what was happening in Nehemiah chapter 8 … when Ezra was reading God’s Law (“And he read therein before the street that was before the water gate from the morning until midday, before the men and the women, and those that could understand; and the ears of all the people were attentive unto the book of the law”) and explaining the Scripture (“They read in the book in the law of God distinctly, and gave the sense, and caused them to understand the reading”) to all the people! (Expository Preaching, now!)

Wow!

Bible Study for a whole Nation!

During the Sabbath Year!

God’s Word … it is that important!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

Are you studying, learning, obeying that precious old Book (our God-inspired Bible) every day of your life?

Acts 17:11 says of a noble people: “They received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily.”

May we be that noble!

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I have counted, and the word “land” occurs 19 times in Leviticus chapter 25. Once every 3 verses, on average!

Then in Leviticus chapter 26 … 23 more times, the noun “land!”

What’s more, God gave these upcoming “laws” about the “land” … while Moses was still on Mount Sinai!

Leviticus 25:1 … “And the LORD spake unto Moses IN MOUNT SINAI, saying ….” Then follow 54 more verses about the “land,” properly treating it under God’s Authority!

After all, He (the Lord) made the land (Genesis 1:1), and certainly knows how it is designed to optimally function!

The thing that strikes me this morning is the very fact that God is so sure Israel is going to arrive and dwell in the “land,” that He is already legislating behavior in that “land!” For that “land,” for the very “ground” itself!

And Israel could have been occupants of that “land” much sooner, had she trusted God!

In only eleven short days, to be exact! “There are eleven days’ journey from Horeb (Sinai) by the way of mount Seir unto Kadeshbarnea.” Deuteronomy 1:2

But Israel (through doubt, through disobedience) managed to stretch that brief time into forty long years!

Still … God knew they were going to arrive some day!

My point here … God’s Laws can (at least at times) be viewed as “assurances!” As virtual “guarantees!” As “commitments” on His Part to do what He has commanded, in the very location He has specified!

You can’t let the land “rest,” unless you are living on that land, unless you own that land!

Back to Leviticus 25:1-4 … “And the LORD spake unto Moses in mount Sinai, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye come into the land which I give you, then shall the land keep a sabbath unto the LORD. Six years thou shalt sow thy field, and six years thou shalt prune thy vineyard, and gather in the fruit thereof; but in the seventh year shall be a sabbath of rest unto the land, a sabbath for the LORD: thou shalt neither sow thy field, nor prune thy vineyard.”

Let the land rest one year of every seven!

The acreage you own gets a “Sabbath” too!

Wow!

Let me give a New Testament illustration of the principle I am here trying to show you.

In Luke 8:22 we read: “Now it came to pass on a certain day, that he (Jesus) went into a ship with his disciples: and he said unto them, LET US GO OVER TO THE OTHER SIDE of the lake. And they launched forth.” 

This is a command (as was “Let the land rest” in Leviticus 25), a mandate from God! That is … “Disciples, launch the boat, the ship!” We’re going (now a promise) to the “other side” of the lake, Sea of Galilee.

But then a storm arose! And the crew (Disciples) panicked! “But as they sailed he fell asleep: and there came down a storm of wind on the lake; and they were filled with water, and were in jeopardy. And they came to him, and awoke him, saying, Master, master, we perish.” Verses 23-24

They were fearful … even though Jesus had just told them, “We’re going to the other side!” He, our Lord, meant that Statement to be not only a command (“Prepare the ship”) … but also a promise. We shall arrive over there! Let US go!

In like manner God’s Laws about the land … long before Israel ever set foot on that land … were promises that one day (in this case not 11 days but 40 years) they would conquer and indwell Canaan!

And they did!

Old Alexander Maclaren used to preach, “God’s Commandments are also God’s enablements!”

Indeed!

Tomorrow we shall look in greater detail at the first seven verse of Leviticus 25, that “land.” That Promised Land!

Come to think of it … that Land Israel now possesses again!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

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