The Year of Jubilee
Lev 25:10 And you shall consecrate the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you, when each of you shall return to his property and each of you shall return to his clan.
Some numbers in the Bible have special symbolic meanings. For example, “12” symbolises order/government, depicted in the tribes of Israel and the disciples. “10” symbolises law/judgment, depicted in the 10 commandments and 10 plagues, and the list goes on.
Without becoming obsessed with numerology but yet maintaining a proper place of God’s symbolic intent for certain numbers, we approach this particular passage of Scripture in Leviticus 25 which talks about the Year of Jubilee and it is in this particular year that freedom is declared. The Hebrew word for “liberty” is “der-ore” which means spontaneity, fluidity, which by implication means freedom. Let’s take a look at what this particular year brings:
A year of freedom stemming out of rest
v13 In this year of jubilee each of you shall return to his property
Jubilee comes after 7 consecutive cycles of 7 years where at the end of each cycle, a Sabbath year is proclaimed. 7 symbolises rest and after 7 consecutive rest periods, the following year becomes a year of freedom.
Just like the sabbaths, the year of Jubilee is a year to be made holy, sanctified for a specific purpose of declaring freedom, where workers returned to their homes, and their employment passes were put on hold for that particular year. To facilitate the Jubilee release, God made it compulsory in His word for employers to act upon the declaration of freedom for all slaves. This same principle also applied for the land, where no sowing or reaping was to take place for business purposes. All crops became by way of Jubilee, used for consumption purposes only.
Notice that in the 49th year, the land was already laid to rest and no work was to be done on it so that it could recover itself in the entire year. Just after the year of rest, freedom was declared for the workers. As an employer, these two consecutive years (Sabbath plus Jubilee) became a stretch of faith because in essence, business came to a standstill. Rest and liberty in essence, were not luxurious thoughts supported by passive income as espoused by motivational speakers but a command by the Lord rooted in faith.
Lev 25:18 “Therefore you shall do my statutes and keep my rules and perform them, and then you will dwell in the land securely.
19 The land will yield its fruit, and you will eat your fill and dwell in it securely.
20 And if you say, ‘What shall we eat in the seventh year, if we may not sow or gather in our crop?’
21 I will command my blessing on you in the sixth year, so that it will produce a crop sufficient for three years.
22 When you sow in the eighth year, you will be eating some of the old crop; you shall eat the old until the ninth year, when its crop arrives.
What God is saying here to us is in our Year of Jubilee, there is a freedom (50) that stems out of rest (7 sevens). We have to trust Him completely to provide in the Year of Jubilee as we declare freedom. Faith is the foundation of Jubilee and Sabbath.
A year of propriety following after holiness
v15 You shall pay your neighbor according to the number of years after the jubilee, and he shall sell to you according to the number of years for crops.
It is also in this year where God puts particular emphasis on proper financial accounting of the exchange of goods. For land fit for sowing and reaping of crops, the number of years after Jubilee becomes the base figure for transaction. No other form of bases are to be used for transaction purposes.
God was fully aware that defrauding was taking place among His people and deliberately made this statement so that they would be aware that He was watching over them with the expectation that they should be holy as He is holy.
In the same manner, the Jubilee serves a reminder to us that we should be holy just as He is holy. Our position of righteousness in Christ is not one that is placed upon us as a badge of significance but one of responsibility. In other words, because we are righteous, we act righteously; because God is holy, we act out of the position of holiness. We do not cut corners and change bases of transaction out of preference.
A year of redemption serving as a reminder
Lev 25:23 “The land shall not be sold in perpetuity, for the land is Mine. For you are strangers and sojourners with Me.
Mortgages were supposed to be settled in Jubilee and if any mortgage or debt was unable to be paid off in Jubilee, the debtor was released from his debt. The same applied to slaves who had sold themselves into slavery. If they were able to redeem themselves or have someone redeem them, they should do so in that year. However, if they were unable to do so, the Jubilee’s cancelation set them and their family free from the obligation of slavery. In other words, slavery was not meant for a lifetime.
What was more important here was not so much the redemptive aspect but the reminder that it served to the people in two areas. One, the land was not theirs. They were merely stewards not owners. Two, they were sojourners (no permanent place here on earth) not permanent dwellers, and their real home was the kingdom of heaven.
God set the Jubilee to remind us that we are stewards of everything and owners of nothing. As a steward, we are expected to give an account of our lives and the various aspects of our lives that we are put in charge of. Putting this into perspective, it is not about us asking God to increase our land/finances/properties/businesses just so that we can enjoy abundance, but about us having the right mindset in whatever we are stewarding - everything belongs to God, and our destination is the Kingdom of heaven, not perpetuity in the very things that are passing away.
Dear friend, in your year of Jubilee, you will have freedom that follows a rest in God. Trust Him completely to provide. It is also a reminder of who you are in Christ and how you are to represent Him. Walk in all His ways. Lastly, it serves as a timely reminder that you are a steward of everything that He has put in your charge. Don’t hold onto everything tightly; it belongs to God anyway. May the year of Jubilee recharge you for greater things to come!
Jason
