The Year of Jubilee

The year of Jubilee is a God given time to reflect upon the blessings of the past. To bring our thanks to God for His providence in a Queen who has enabled us to enjoy relative peace, social stability and freedom of worship. It is truly a time of celebration and we have much to celebrate. Around us in the world, we see many nations being torn apart by wars and religious hatred. Although, in this country we have seen the rise of secularism and a decline in religion, religion still remains a source of influence in many areas of our lives. God willing we may yet see a revival of godly living and practice, with celebrations of thankfulness to God for His continuing mercies, as happened in Israel of old when she returned from her period of captivity in Babylon. 

The institution of the sabbatical year, and the year of Jubilee was important in the life of God’s ancient people Israel as scripture records.  The sabbatical year was celebrated every seventh year by allowing the land to rest (EX 23:10; LEV 25:1-7). It would be a constant reminder of creation when God rested from His work on the seventh day, so the land would be rested in the seventh year. It was to remind Israel that God was Lord over all things, especially in the land of Canaan, the land He had given them. In the seventh year the fruit of the fields and vineyards were for the poor and needy to glean. 

In celebration of the event a great gathering of the people, all Israel, was held during the Feast of Tabernacles. There the Law of God was read publicly in order to promote the fear of the Lord among the people (DEUT 31:9-13). Sadly this great event, the sabbatical year and its celebration, became neglected prior to the captivity, just as Moses had predicted it would, even in their own land (LEV 26:34-35), despite the specific command to keep My Sabbaths found in (LEV 26:2). However it seems it was restored to some extent in Nehemiah’s day (NEH 9:13-18) after the captivity.

The year of Jubilee, the year after seven Sabbatic years, the fiftieth year was the year of Jubilee (LEV 25:8-55). The year of Jubilee was cause for even greater celebration, as debts were remitted, houses and lands that had been mortgaged were returned to the sellers, inheritances restored to their rightful owners, and slaves set free (LEV 25:39-46). Providing in type a glorious picture of the gospel age to come, prophesied by Isaiah (ISA 61:1), and inaugurated by Jesus (LUKE 4:18), gloriously foreshadowing that day when the final trumpet blast will herald His coming again (MATT 24:31) ushering in His eternal kingdom. It will, like the year of Jubilee, be a time when wrongs are righted, when redeemed man will be restored to the full image of His maker, and enters into his eternal inheritance in Christ Jesus.

Jubilee was celebrated in the seventh month, all Israel were called to a holy convocation by the blowing of trumpets on the first day of the month (NUM 29:1; LEV 23:27). The tenth day of the month was the day of atonement, a very important day for Israel nationally, when the sins of the past year were atoned for. The Feast of Tabernacles was kept from the 15th to the 21st of the month. 

These festivals had both a moral and spiritual purpose for Israel, in that they served to unite all Israel under God marking them as His special people thus separating them from the heathen nations around them. They reminded the people of the holiness of their God, for only the High Priest could enter the holiest place, and then only with the blood of the sin offering.

Releasing of debts helped relieve poverty in the land among widows and orphans for whom God had special concern (DEUT 10:18). Jubilee provided a check against covetousness and oppression, as restoring lands and houses ensured no inheritance was lost to a particular family as allocated to their ancestors. Thus none would become rich at the expense of the poor.

What do these festivals have to say to us today? Well first we can say that all the truths they teach are fully realised in Jesus Christ. On the question of atonement, when Jesus died upon the cross, He became the final and only sacrifice for sin (HEB 7:27). In Christ all are equal, rich and poor, bondservants and freemen (GAL 3:28), all are heirs and joint heirs with Christ. In Christ we gain more than Adam lost when he succumbed to sin in the garden of Eden. Whilst in one sense the Gospel age has brought a spiritual Jubilee, we look forward to that greater Jubilee yet to come. That is the age when all tears will be wiped away as the former things pass away, when sin will be no more, where justice and equity reign and we shall be forever with the Lord.