What He said!, Pt 12: Jubilee!

Leviticus 25:1-7                     1The LORD said to Moses at Mount Sinai, 2“Speak to the Israelites and say to them: ‘When you enter the land I am going to give you, the land itself must observe a sabbath to the LORD. 3For six years sow your fields, and for six years prune your vineyards and gather their crops. 4But in the seventh year the land is to have a year of sabbath rest, a sabbath to the LORD. Do not sow your fields or prune your vineyards. 5Do not reap what grows of itself or harvest the grapes of your untended vines. The land is to have a year of rest. 6Whatever the land yields during the sabbath year will be food for you—for yourself, your male and female servants, and the hired worker and temporary resident who live among you, 7as well as for your livestock and the wild animals in your land. Whatever the land produces may be eaten.

Leviticus 25:8-13                   8“ ‘Count off seven sabbath years—seven times seven years—so that the seven sabbath years amount to a period of forty-nine years. 9Then have the trumpet sounded everywhere on the tenth day of the seventh month; on the Day of Atonement sound the trumpet throughout your land. 10Consecrate 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. 11The fiftieth year shall be a jubilee for you; do not sow and do not reap what grows of itself or harvest the untended vines. 12For it is a jubilee and is to be holy for you; eat only what is taken directly from the fields. 13“ ‘In this Year of Jubilee everyone is to return to their own property.

The temptation might be in a new believer to think of God as solely concerned about the spiritual lives of his children.  It certainly is the case that he wants to grow in holiness, but we should not limit hum to just the one milieu.  God is involved in all parts of the lives of his children:  The spiritual yes, but also the physical, emotional, and environmental aspects.  He is aware that human beings tend to overdo things and wear themselves out and also those around them.  Because of this tendency to wander and wear out he has given his children ways to reboot and redirect their energies to him.

These opportunities to refresh exist on the micro and macro level.  One even has its own Commandment, the 4th:  “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy” (Exodus 20:8).  Most people know the Sabbath is intended to be a holy day, a day of rest, but they may not know there are periods of time on a grander scale also intended to bring rest.  Similar to the weekly Sabbath day of rest, there was to be a yearly period of rest.  This was called the Sabbatical Year, that is, a period of time equal to seven years where the 7th year was akin to the 7th day.  The idea was to give the land time to lie fallow and the people time to draw near to God and learn to trust him.  Every 7th year there was to be a year of no work, no tilling of the soil, and no dressing of the vineyards.  Then, on an even grander scale, following seven of the Sabbatical years, that is, after 49 years, was to be another year of rest for the land and the people.  This was called the Year of Jubilee.

The Year of Jubilee was basically a once in a lifetime reboot.  For a society which had just escaped slavery through the Exodus, it was change of direction that had no equal.  No society at that time had ever seen such a thing.  The idea was from that time forward no Israelite male could permanently lose his inheritance, nor permanently lose his freedom through slavery, nor burden himself with insurmountable debt.  All those things were released in the 50th year.  All prisoners and captives were set free, all slaves were released, all debts were forgiven, and all property was returned to its original owners.  In addition, all labor was to cease for one year, and those bound by labor contracts were released from them. The price of land sold varied according to the time left before the next Year of Jubilee.  As it happens, the Jubilee Year wasn’t observed for very long as it only applied to the Israelites who remained in their native land.  Soon after, through their own disobedience, the Israelites were taken into exile.  In fact, part of the reason the Israelites went into captivity was that they didn’t observe these resting years.  Because they didn’t trust that God would provide, and dedicate time to resting, they reaped the consequences.

The concept of Jubilee is more than just an intellectual exercise though.  The entire idea of Sabbath, Sabbatical Year, and Jubilee Year is based on rededication to God of person and property.  In our 21st Century culture some people are in actual slavery, but many, many more are engulfed in figurative slavery.  I’m thinking here of slavery to the demands of money, or power, or position.  Farmers have learned that land has to be regularly left fallow to regenerate.  Failing to do that brings poor crop production and reduced success for the farmer.  Why have we not learned this principle applies also to our emotional, spiritual, and physical health?

The idea of rest matters because God takes rest seriously.  He doesn’t want his people to make work an idol, thinking that if they plant and harvest enough, or work, or plan, or commute, or negotiate enough they can provide for their needs on their own.  He wants us to depend on him.  But more than that he wants us to be freed from our own personal bondages.  This is where the Year of Jubilee is applicable to our 21st Century lives.  Christ came to redeem us from our sin; before we accepted him as our Savior we were slaves to sin.  Even prisoners.  But because Jesus sacrificially died on that cross we have been set free.  We have experienced the Jubilee Year in real time! 

Here’s the thing:  Because of our workaholism we think we have to struggle to make ourselves acceptable to God.  When I began to grow out of the agnosticism of my birth family in my early twenties, I thought I had to follow the structures of the Church exactly.  I had to go to Confession every week, I had to say the prayers exactly (no verbal stumbling), I had to attend service with no misses.  In other words, I had the form of Godliness without the substance (2Timothy 3:5).  But I learned relationship with Christ brought rest.  In the forgiveness He gave me I found my own Jubilee!  How about you?