Beth-El Baptist Church
02/17/2007
Greg Tomlinson
What is the Jubilee?
The jubilee is a special event in the Jewish calendar that about which many do not really understand.
Where can we find out the basics of the 'jubilee'?
Leviticus 25:1-11
The jubilee is a one year time of extensive freedom in the promised land. It is a land of rest for the fields and of the people. It occurs after every 7, 7 year rests for the land on the 50th year.
What does the word 'jubilee' mean?
Leviticus 23:24-25 Numbers 10:5-6; 23:21; 29:1-2; 31:6-7
Joshua 6:2-5 1 Samuel 4:5-6
Job 33:26 Psalm 27:6
Exodus 19:13
There are two different Hebrews words that the King James translates as 'jubile'. One (teruwah) is only translated as 'jubile' in Leviticus 25:9. Its basic word definition means an alarm or a shouting. It could be looked at as something that is loud to get attention and to announce some event or activity. In this case, it announces the Jubile itself. The other word (yowbel) is sometimes translated as the instrument that is blown, a rams horn. Therefore its theological meaning does not come from the word itself but of its meaning.
The meaning comes to a better light as the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Old Testament, is used as a bridge between the Old and the New Testament languages.
Luke 1:76-79 Ezekiel 46:16-18
Matthew 26:28 Mark 1:4
Luke 4:18 Acts 2:37-38; 10:43; 13:38-39; 26:18
Ephesians 1:7-9 Colossians 1:14-15
Hebrews 9:22-23; 10:18
From the Hebrew, to the Greek, to English, it would be translated 'liberty' or forgiveness or remission (of sins). The picture of the jubilee ultimately points to Jesus Christ by whom we are given the gift of freedom from the bondage of sin and the condemnation of God through our great sinfulness.
What really happens at the jubilee?
Leviticus 25:9 – A day of atonement
Exodus 29:36-37 Leviticus 16:29-34; 23:26-32
Romans 5:10-11 Hebrews 10:9-12
2 Corinthians 5:18-19
The day of atonement is a day in which the gift of a sacrifice is offered as payment for the debt owed to God for the sins. The days of atonement by the Levitical Priesthood was temporary until the true atonement, Jesus Christ, would be offered and accepted once for all by God.
Leviticus 25:3-7, 11-12, 20-22 – A resting of the land
Matthew 6:31-34 Philippians 4:11-12, 19
1 Peter 5:6-7 2 Corinthians 5:4-9
2 Chronicles 36:21 Hebrews 4:3-6
The need for trusting in God to provide the food that would be necessary to sustain life for the two consecutive years in which an agricultural society would deliberately NOT plant cannot be over stated. Their very existence relied upon God to provide well above and beyond the normal years crops. Everything depended upon God's provision. Yet, God provides far more for us now through His grace and by His sacrifice. He sacrificed himself in order to provide to us a rest that does not last one year, nor two but for all eternity.
Leviticus 25:10, 13-16, 23-28, 29-30, 31-34 – A marker for buying, selling, and returning property
Psalm 34:22; 49:14-15; 71:23 Galatians 4:3-7
Titus 2:13-15 Romans 3:23-26
1 Corinthians 1:29-30 Ephesians 1:3-9
Colossians 1:13-16 Hebrews 9:11-15
Property could be sold to other Israelites if they grew poor enough that they could not afford to 'keep' it. The seller would sell the property based upon the value of the vegetation to be harvested until the time of the next jubilee year. At the jubilee year, the property would be returned to the original seller. There are provisions for purchasing the property back from the buyer prior to the jubilee year. The process of purchasing the property back is called 'redeeming'. It could be accomplished either by the original property owner or by one of his close relatives.
Leviticus 25:10, 35-37, 39-43, 44-46, 47-54 – A timing for release from slavery
1 Peter 3:18-22 Romans 6:6-7, 16-23; 8:2-3
John 8:34-36 Matthew 1:21
The poor who had sold themselves to others, if they were of the Hebrews, they would not be slaves but 'hired servants' or employees. At the jubilee they would be released from serving. If they were not of the Hebrews, they remained as slaves (not hired servants) forever. Even if a Hebrew sold himself as a servant to a non-Hebrew, the law required the non-Hebrew to release the servant at the jubilee. There were provisions for a servant to purchase his way out of serving by paying the “employer” a sum of money associated with the time remaining until the year of jubilee. The servant or one of his close relatives could legally purchase his freedom. It is the freedom from slavery that Jesus purchased for us. For men were enslaved to sin and Jesus paid the cost of redemption. In matters of eternity, the jubilee does not come within 50 years but at the end of eternity. That is how precious and how long it takes the unbeliever to pay the penalty for selling themselves to sin.
Summary:
The jubilee is about freedom. Freedom of the land to rest, to return to inherited property, from slavery..