THE YEAR OF JUBILEE
Leviticus 25:8-12
8 “‘Count off seven sabbath years—seven times seven years—so that the seven sabbath years amount to a period of forty-nine years. 9 Then have the trumpet sounded everywhere on the tenth day of the seventh month; on the Day of Atonement sound the trumpet throughout your land. 10 Consecrate the fiftieth year and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you; each of you is to return to your family property and to your own clan. 11 The fiftieth year shall be a jubilee for you; do not sow and do not reap what grows of itself or harvest the untended vines. 12 For it is a jubilee and is to be holy for you; eat only what is taken directly from the fields.
I thought it a good idea to follow up our study of the Passover. with an in-depth study of "The Season of Jubilee." We will begin our study today, Monday, May 2, and close on Friday, May 6th. Perhaps you will see it as a necessity for moving forward in the perfect love of Jesus, in the PROCLAMATION of LIBERTY.
Jubilee’s Meaning
The word “jubilee” in the Old Testament is from the Hebrew word "yobel" or "yovel" meaning “a ram’s horn, trumpet” or “coronet.” If someone announced the Jubilee, they would be actually blowing a trumpet and all of the congregation of Israel would be able to hear it. The Year of Jubilee was special to Israel as we shall read about in Leviticus and see if there is any significance or symbolism for the Christian today.
The Jubilee then came every fifty years. When the trumpet sounded on the fiftieth year, and specifically on the Day of Atonement, liberty would be proclaimed “throughout the land to all its inhabitants” and then all of the property that had been taken by others for unpaid debts would have to be returned to the original families (clans). On that year there would be no reaping or planting or gathering of the crops for it was to be "holy to" the nation Israel and everyone could "eat the produce of the field." What a celebration that must have been. Everyone that had been indebted was then released from that debt and able to start over again by having their land returned to them.
Interestingly the official beginning of the Jubilee Year started on the Day of Atonement, which is symbolic of the atoning of sin for the nation of Israel, fulfilled in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ at Calvary. This too represented a release from a debt…the debt that we owed from our sins that we could never have paid in a million lifetimes. In the Jubilee Year all of the slaves and prisoners were set free and all of the land that had been taken by others due to unpayable debts was released back to the original owners.
Once again, symbolically, we were slaves of sin (Rom 6:17) and held captive by them due to our inability to pay for them so in a similar fashion, God commanded that “In this year of jubilee each of you shall return to his property” (Lev 25:13) and the prisoners and slaves could be set free.….to be cont’d
Playwright Janet Irene Thomas
Founder/CEO
Bible Stories Theatre of
Fine & Performing Arts
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