The Sabbath Year and Year of Jubilee
Leviticus 25:1-24, Deuteronomy 25:1-18, Isaiah 61:1-3)
1. It doesn’t take long for people to develop a sense of entitlement. Let me illustrate.
2. A Jewish woman is walking on the beach with her little grandson. Suddenly a huge wave sweeps the boy out to sea. Desperate, the woman looks up to heaven and says, “God, please rescue my grandson, my only grandson, the light of my life!”
Miraculously, the next big wave deposits the little boy at her feet, completely unharmed.
She looks up to heaven and says, “He had a hat!”
3. Many of us feel entitled to freedom, but most people in the world do not enjoy the freedoms we do.
4. Leviticus 25:10 is the motto on the Liberty Bell that hangs in front of Independence Hall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in the KJV: “Proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof.”
5. That verse, however, is about a once-in-fifty year event called the Year of Jubilee. It came after seven sets of Sabbath years, and the two of them communicate similar lessons.
Main idea: The Sabbath Year and the Year of Jubilee speaks of freedom, restitution, forgiveness, rest, a second chance, and joy in Jesus Christ.
I. The Sabbath Year and Jubilee According to the TORAH (Leviticus 25:1-24, Deuteronomy 25:1-18)
A. The Sabbath (SEVENTH) Year
1. The land rests FALLOW.
2. Everyone – man and beast – can freely eat from what grows ANYWHERE.
3. Jewish slaves are RELEASED unless they choose to stay under their master.
4. All DEBTS between Jews were canceled.
B. The YEAR of Jubilee (every 50 years), a Sabbath of Sabbaths
1. Followed the 7th Sabbath year, meaning two years off in a ROW.
2. God promise to provide a WINDFALL of crops before these two fallow years.
3. All farm land returned to the its family of ORIGIN based upon God’s original division of the Land.
• Do you have a map in your Bible of where the tribes of Israel were to be settled?
• Ever wonder why there are so many genealogies in the Book of Numbers?
4. All debts were canceled and all Jewish slaves (even those electing slavery) were RELEASED.
5. Two years in a row without sowing crops meant TRUSTING in God’s promise to provide.
Application: God gave man the earth to meet his needs, but man was responsible not to abuse the earth, but to think long term (like keeping ground fertile). We have to work by the sweat of our brow, and work can, in itself, be a way to glorify God. But there is another side. God here teaches balance and faith. Too much work is not good, but rest, relaxation, and socializing is also a good thing. Many of us might struggle with being control freaks and could never trust God to provide living off the land. Others of us might go nuts if we weren’t always busy with work. These holidays would expose and perhaps force a cure.
II. The Sabbath Year and Year of Jubilee in PRACTICE
A. The Sabbath Year was seemingly never FULLY observed observed in early Old Testament Israel (before 536 BC).
2 Chronicles 36:20-21, “He took into exile in Babylon those who had escaped from the sword, and they became servants to him and to his sons until the establishment of the kingdom of Persia, to fulfill the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed its Sabbaths. All the days that it lay desolate it kept Sabbath, to fulfill seventy years.”
B. After the RETURN to the Land (536 BC), it seems the Sabbath Year was practiced.
There is evidence from extra-Biblical lit. that the Jews observed the sabbatical year after the Exile. Both the Book of Maccabees and Josephus recount that Bethzur fell to Antiochus IV because the food supply of the garrison was quickly exhausted, since it was during a sabbatical year (1 Macc 6:49-54; Antiquities, XIII. 8:1; War I. 2:4). He relates that during the reign of John Hyrcanus the Jewish nation refrained from aggressive warfare during the sabbatical year (Antiquities. XIII. 8:1; War. I. 2:4). He also relates that Julius Caesar remitted the annual tribute from the Jewish people in the sabbatical year, since in it the people did not till their fields or gather their fruit (Antiquities, XIV. 10:6). In the Book of Jubilees, Enoch is said to have “recounted the sabbaths of the years” (4:18). [source: biblicaltraining.org/library/sabbatical-year].
C. After Israel divided (930 BC) and then the northern tribes captured (722 BC), it became IMPOSSIBLE to practice the Year of Jubilee.
D. Only a MINORITY of the Jews returned to Israel when allowed; most remained scattered throughout the Roman Empire even in Jesus’ day.
E. The Rabbis created ways to observe these holidays in a TOKEN way, but also to avoid its difficult aspects, like FORGIVING loans.
1. Rabbi Hillel (who died when Jesus was young) came up with the prosbul.
2. Perhaps this is what Jesus meant when He said to “give to everyone who asks of you.” It is possible He may have been addressing the circumventing of the Sabbath Year law of debt cancellation. This is especially possible because the evidence that Jesus is commenting on the Torah is overwhelming when it comes to the Sermon on the Mount.
F. Although making attempts to incorporate concepts from these commands, most modern Jews do NOTHING truly special for these two holidays.
III. The Sabbath Year, Year of Jubilee and MESSIAH
A. The “Year of the Lord’s FAVOR” speaks of the MILLENNIUM as an extension of Jubilee.
Isaiah 61:1-3, “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn; to grant to those who mourn in Zion— to give them a beautiful headdress instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit; that they may be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he may be glorified.”
• in one sense, the Messianic Age began when Jesus began His ministry (for His followers)
• in another sense, it is yet future when He returns to reign
B. Spiritual FREEDOM in Christ and entering Sabbath REST
John 8:36, “So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.”
I was saved at the age of 17, but I think of how much I have enjoyed the freedom in the Lord that I have found. Whether it is freedom from guilt and the fear of condemnation, freedom from the fear of man, finding meaning and direction, knowing right from wrong, making good decisions, or knowing the will of God – those are just a few of the freedoms I have found.
See Hebrews 4:1-8 about entering God’s Sabbath rest (both the day and year)
Free from bondage to Satan, free from relating to God on the basis of Torah observance, free from the traditions and restrictions imposed by man.
1. Our spiritual debts are canceled.
2. No matter how we’ve messed up, we inherit the land, not of Israel but heaven itself.
3. We are free from bondage to the devil and our sinful nature.
4. We live by faith in God’s provision, not by the work of our hand.
5. All our welcome to partake of this blessing, not just landowners.
6. We have been freed, but we must be careful not to become enslaved again.
C. Right now, that freedom must be GUARDED.
Galatians 5:1, “For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.”
Colossians 2:8-10, “See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ. For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, and you have been filled in him, who is the head of all rule and authority.”
D. In yet another sense, Jubilee foreshadows the ultimate freedom of the ETERNAL STATE.
(see Revelation 7:15-17).
The Sabbath Year and the Year of Jubilee speaks of freedom, restitution, forgiveness, rest, a second chance, and joy in Jesus Christ.
