The Bible introduces us to jubilism, a unique system designed by God to protect the weak and create economic justice for all. It begins with equal distribution of the land into private hands. Did the jubilee economic system provide a way for people to get out of poverty? Did it act as an equalizer across the board, lost to modern economic theories? Can we learn from it? Let’s examine Leviticus 25.
How did the land sabbath work as a farming system?
While Moses was on Mount Sinai, the Lord said to him, “Give the following instructions to the people of Israel. When you have entered the land I am giving you, the land itself must observe a Sabbath rest before the Lord every seventh year. For six years you may plant your fields and prune your vineyards and harvest your crops, but during the seventh year the land must have a Sabbath year of complete rest. It is the Lord’s Sabbath. Do not plant your fields or prune your vineyards during that year. And don’t store away the crops that grow on their own or gather the grapes from your unpruned vines. The land must have a year of complete rest. (Leviticus 25:1-4a NLT)
What was to be done during the fallow year on the farm?
You shall not sow your field or prune your vineyard. What grows of itself in your harvest you shall not reap, and you shall not gather the grapes of your undressed vine. It shall be a year of solemn rest for the land. The Sabbath of the land shall be for food for you; for yourself, for your servant, for your maid, for your hired servant, and for your stranger, who lives as a foreigner with you. For your livestock also, and for the animals that are in your land, shall all its increase be for food. (Leviticus 25:4b-7 WEB)
What was the economic benefit to regaining the family farm in the jubilee year?
Count off seven weeks of years—that is, seven times seven—so that the seven weeks of years totals forty-nine years. Then have the trumpet blown on the tenth day of the seventh month. Have the trumpet blown throughout your land on the Day of Reconciliation [Atonement]. You will make the fiftieth year holy, proclaiming freedom throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It will be a Jubilee year for you: each of you must return to your family property and to your extended family. (Leviticus 25:8-10 CEB)
Did the jubilee conclude two years of land rest? What was the reason for celebration that year? Was this a great economic equalizer?
This is a year of complete celebration, so don't plant any seed or harvest what your fields or vineyards produce. In this time of sacred celebration you may eat only what grows on its own. During this year, all property must go back to its original owner. (Leviticus 25:11-13 CEV)
How was the lease of the land to be transacted honestly between two parties?
And if you make a sale to your neighbor or buy from your neighbor, you shall not wrong one another. 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. If the years are many, you shall increase the price, and if the years are few, you shall reduce the price, for it is the number of the crops that he is selling to you. You shall not wrong one another, but you shall fear your God, for I am the Lord your God. (Leviticus 25:14-17 ESV)
How would God provide enough food during the sabbath year?
You are to keep My statutes and ordinances and carefully observe them, so that you may live securely in the land. Then the land will yield its fruit, so that you can eat, be satisfied, and live securely in the land. If you wonder: ‘What will we eat in the seventh year if we don’t sow or gather our produce?’ I will appoint My blessing for you in the sixth year, so that it will produce a crop sufficient for three years. When you sow in the eighth year, you will be eating from the previous harvest. You will be eating this until the ninth year when its harvest comes in. (Leviticus 25:18-22 HCSB)
Who really owns the land, indigenous people, conquerors, later settlers or God?
The land is not to be sold with any finality, because the land belongs to me. You’re sojourners and travelers with me. So throughout all of your land inheritance, grant the right of redemption for the land. (Leviticus 25:23-24 ISV)
Is the jubilee a way that a family can regain its land, lost due to ill health, foolishness, war, drought or some other cause of poverty?
If thy brother be waxen poor, and hath sold away some of his possession, and if any of his kin come to redeem it, then shall he redeem that which his brother sold. And if the man have none to redeem it, and himself be able to redeem it; Then let him count the years of the sale thereof, and restore the overplus unto the man to whom he sold it; that he may return unto his possession. But if he be not able to restore it to him, then that which is sold shall remain in the hand of him that hath bought it until the year of jubile: and in the jubile it shall go out, and he shall return unto his possession. (Leviticus 25:25-28 KJV)
How were houses in walled cities treated differently than country homes?
Likewise, if a man sells a house for habitation in a walled city, then his redemption right remains valid until a full year from its sale; his right of redemption lasts a full year. But if it is not redeemed for him within the space of a full year, then the house that is in the walled city passes permanently to its purchaser throughout his generations; it does not revert in the jubilee. (Leviticus 25:29-30 LSB)
How were houses outside the city walls and Levite’s houses treated differently than city homes?
The houses of the villages, however, which have no surrounding wall, shall be regarded as open fields; they have redemption rights and revert in the jubilee. As for the cities of the Levites, the Levites have a permanent right of redemption for the houses of the cities which are their possession. What, therefore, belongs to the Levites may be redeemed, and a house sale in the city of this possession reverts in the jubilee, because the houses of the cities of the Levites are their possession among the sons of Israel. But pasture fields of their cities shall not be sold, for that is their permanent possession. (Leviticus 25:31-34 NASB)
How was moneylending to be handled differently than today’s banking system? Is there an ethical dilemma here?
If any of your fellow Israelites become poor and are unable to support themselves among you, help them as you would a foreigner and stranger, so they can continue to live among you. Do not take interest or any profit from them, but fear your God, so that they may continue to live among you. You must not lend them money at interest or sell them food at a profit. I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt to give you the land of Canaan and to be your God. (Leviticus 25:35-38 NIV)
Was a lender in Israel not allowed to treat a fellow Israelite as a slave to pay off a debt?
And if one of your brethren who dwells by you becomes poor, and sells himself to you, you shall not compel him to serve as a slave. As a hired servant and a sojourner he shall be with you, and shall serve you until the Year of Jubilee. And then he shall depart from you—he and his children with him—and shall return to his own family. He shall return to the possession of his fathers. For they are My servants, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt; they shall not be sold as slaves. (Leviticus 25:39-42 NKJV)
Was an ethical form of slavery allowed among foreign residents? Kidnapping for slavery was illegal and could incur the death penalty. Yet, slavery was allowed for crimes like theft, to pay off debts, as welfare for the destitute, and similar ethical reasons.
Show your fear of God by not treating them harshly. However, you may purchase male and female slaves from among the nations around you. You may also purchase the children of temporary residents who live among you, including those who have been born in your land. You may treat them as your property, passing them on to your children as a permanent inheritance. You may treat them as slaves, but you must never treat your fellow Israelites this way. (Leviticus 25:43-46 NLT)
Was the jubilee also a time of release for Israelites who had sold themselves into slavery to a resident alien?
If an alien or temporary resident with you becomes rich, and your brother beside him has grown poor, and sells himself to the stranger or foreigner living among you, or to a member of the stranger’s family, after he is sold he may be redeemed. One of his brothers may redeem him; or his uncle, or his uncle’s son, may redeem him, or any who is a close relative to him of his family may redeem him; or if he has grown rich, he may redeem himself. He shall reckon with him who bought him from the year that he sold himself to him to the Year of Jubilee. The price of his sale shall be according to the number of years; he shall be with him according to the time of a hired servant. (Leviticus 25:47-50 WEB)
Would the purchase price for his freedom be proportional to the number of years until the jubilee? Were Israelites to be treated as slaves or ordinary laborers?
If there are many years left before the Jubilee, the Israelite will pay for their purchase in proportion to their purchase price. If only a few years are left, they will calculate that and pay for their purchase according to the years of service. Regardless, the Israelite will be to the buyer like a yearly laborer; the buyer must not harshly rule over them in your sight. If the Israelite is not bought back in one of these ways, they and their children must be released in the Jubilee year because the Israelites belong to me as servants. They are my servants—I brought them out of Egypt’s land; I am the Lord your God. (Leviticus 25:51-55 CEB)
Does the jubilee economic system provide a way for people to get out of poverty? Does it act as an equalizer across the board, lost to modern economic theories? Can we learn from it? You decide!
