A Jubilant Redemption Series

On this Labor Day weekend, as we look at the account of the “Year of Jubilee,” we will observe a period of rest and restoration extended to the children of Israel. The Bible tells us that the Jubilee occurred every forty-nine years (v. 8). It was a time when all the land experienced a sabbath, or a rest period, for an entire year. People weren’t supposed to grow their crops, and the land was allowed to rest and stay fallow (v. 11). The Jubilee was announced with the joyous bugle of the shofar (v. 9), which reminds us of the return of Jesus Christ when “He shall send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together His elect” (Mt 24:31).

According to Ronald E. Clements, the Jubilee was a “sabbath of sabbaths, and in it all property had to be restored to its original condition and owner,”(1) and all debts were to be forgiven. The contemporary Christian singer Michael Card wrote a song about the Year of Jubilee; and in this song he presented some insight into its deeper spiritual meaning. He said, “The Lord provided for a time for the slaves to be set free, for the debts to all be cancelled so His chosen ones could see. His deep desire was for forgiveness, He longed to see their liberty, and His yearning was embodied in the Year of Jubilee. Jubilee, Jubilee, Jesus is our Jubilee! Debts forgiven, slaves set free! Jesus is our Jubilee!”(2)

How many of you hard-working Americans would like to have a year’s vacation and have all your debts cancelled? Our world is in such a fallen state today that such a notion is simply fantasy. However, we can find rest and forgiveness in Jesus Christ, for Michael Card said that Jesus is “our” Jubilee. The Jubilee represented salvation and redemption, which was later manifested and completed in the ministry of Jesus, the Messiah. This morning we will take a closer look at some of the spiritual insight found in the account of the Year of Jubilee, and see how it relates to the work of God in His Son, Jesus Christ.

Sojourners in Life (v. 23)

23 The land shall not be sold permanently, for the land is Mine; for you are strangers and sojourners with Me.

The Lord said here that the land “shall not be sold permanently,” and the reason why is because His people were sojourners with Him. Ronald E. Clements said, “The intention of restoring property to its original ownership after forty-nine years is . . . a practical confession that the land rightly belongs to God and that the Israelites were only ‘passing guests’ upon it who were allowed to make use of it by God’s grace.”(3) He continued to state that originally, “property belonged communally to the whole clan or tribe . . . [and] thus this law seeks to alleviate some of the dangers inherent in the right of private ownership of land by recalling the basic principle that all the land was God’s gift.”(4)

What if some of God’s people had chosen to settle down and claim ownership of some real estate before the conquest of Canaan? This is what happened to the tribes of Reuben and Gad when they observed the lands of Jazer and Gilead. They approached Moses and Eleazar and said, “Let this land be given to your servants as a possession. Do not take us over the Jordan” (Numbers 32:5). If they had settled down, they would have run the risk of being alienated from the face of God whose presence dwelt among His people in the tabernacle; which was the continually-moving center of worship for the Israelites. Moses replied, “If you turn away from following Him, He will once again leave [you] in the wilderness” (Numbers 32:15).

Now keep in mind, that this application is pre-conquest, before the Israelites actually inherited the Promised Land. Israel conquered the land of Canaan and settled down, and the people were allowed to stay in one place and work the land; nevertheless, they were still considered sojourners. They were passing guests in this world and in this life. The Lord would one day redeem His people from the face of the earth; but for anyone attached to possessions and property, they risked forfeiting their relationship and place with God. Jesus said, “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God” (Mt 19:24).

There is a spiritual application here for believers. In Matthew 6:19-21, Jesus said, “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” In the Israelite’s case, Jesus might have said to them, “For where your [land] is, there your heart will be also.”