"THE WIDE RANGING INSTITUTION OF JUBILEE"
RECAP: Origin and Purpose - This fiftieth year is sacred—it is a time of freedom and of celebration
when everyone will receive back their original property, and slaves will return
home to their families.
§ The text of the Book of Leviticus argues that the Jubilee existed because
the land was the possession of Yahweh,
and its current occupiers were merely aliens or tenants, and therefore the land
should not be sold forever. Midrashic sources argue that the Jubilee
was created to preserve the original division of land between the Israelite
tribes, as evidenced by the rabbinical tradition that the Jubilee should not be
imposed until the Israelites were in control of Canaan.
§ Leviticus also states that the Israelites were the servants of Yahweh,
which classical rabbis took as justification for the manumission (freeing) of
Israelite slaves at the Jubilee, using the argument that no man should have two masters, and thus, as the servants of
Yahweh, the Israelites should not also be the servants of men.
§ Leviticus 25:10
(CEV) And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout 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.
RESUME: The
Jubilee as the Liberation (cont’d)
One establishes with joy and with appreciation how faith in
God also carries Israel's culture, living in it a primacy in time, in work, in
relationships. Some realities, which involve persons, tools and means to live,
are not able to be subjected to unchecked egoism and the insatiable careerism
of some people.
The believer may not tolerate the forms and the duration of
a life of slavery, even as it was practiced by other peoples. Just so it is not
tolerable that, because of debt or poverty, a family or a father be deprived of
his land forever, since the land comes from God and is a fruitful gift for man.
From this, the detailed divine laws which idealistically
intervene to promote justice and hope. The utopia consists precisely in the
distance between one jubilee and another, and the difficulty of putting it into
practice, but the orientation is clear: it questions, challenges, presses to
accept the gift and to promote a culture of liberation.
Jubilee each of you shall return to his property. And if
you sell to your neighbor or buy from your neighbor, you shall not wrong one
another» (Leviticus, 25, 12-14).
Concerning Persons
Children of God, let us not
perish for lack of knowledge. How are we to learn to live a life of victory if
we fail to study and meditate on the Word of God? We are called to read,
read, and read scripture so as to be endowed and empowered with wisdom. We
learn from more than one Book in the Bible that our Lord and Savior Jesus
Christ wants us to live free from bondage. Look at what Isaiah says:
- 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; Isaiah 61:1-11_. And then, review what David wrote in Psalms 41:11(KJV)_:
- By
this I know that thou favourest me, because mine enemy doth not triumph
over me.
And as we continue in our
study of the Book of Leviticus 25, we learn how we are to treat our brother.
- And if your
brother becomes poor beside you, and sells himself to you, you shall not
make him serve as a slave: he shall be with you as a hired servant and as
a sojourner. He shall serve with you until the year of the jubilee; then
he shall go out from you, he and his children with him, and go back to his
own family, and return to the possession of his fathers. For they are my
servants, whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt; they shall not be
sold as slaves. You shall not rule over him with harshness, but shall fear
your God. (v.v. 39-43)
§
Israel was also commanded in the Bible to redeem tithes
and other things based on how long it was to the next Jubilee period (Leviticus
27)
In the midst of these things we mustn’t forget that_
Leviticus 26 states:
The reason ancient Israel went into captivity was for not allowing the land to
rest every seven years - by not giving it a break and letting it enjoy its own
Sabbath rest! ….to be cont’d
Playwright
Janet Irene Thomas
Founder/CEO
Bible
Stories Theatre of
Fine
& Performing Arts
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