Jubilee
Many people look at the Old Testament and say that the Old Testament was then, and this is now. However, what the Old Testament tells us was then and it is also now as our God is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. One of the things God talks to us about in the Old Testament is in Leviticus 25 and is about proclaiming a Jubilee. So, what would it mean in our lives to experience a Jubilee? In the Bible, a Jubilee is a reset, a release, a restoration, and a rest. God proclaimed the year of Jubilee during a time when people had become indentured servants and land was taken from them as a repayment for dept that they incurred and could not repay. In the year of the Jubilee, the fiftieth year, those in dept were released and all land was returned to original owners, and all the land was to rest. In the year of the Jubilee people would not work the land and would eat only what the land naturally provided. They would depend on God’s provision to meet their needs. So, both God’s people and the land would rest. So, what does that have to do with us today?
From an early age we learn the word “mine.” We see little children taking things and saying “mine.” As we get older, we continue in our life to take ownership of things and say they are “mine.” To all our acquired stuff, our opinions, beliefs, our loved ones, our land, our independence, our self-sufficiency, and most of all our lives, to all these things we say, they are “mine.” And we tend to protect at any cost all that we believe is “mine.” Sometimes we protect what we call “mine” by doing things we might not otherwise do and things we know are not right, for example, maybe we sacrifice relationships to protect our opinions and beliefs, maybe we manipulate situations to protect all we have worked for, and we do so because protecting all we have gathered and worked for in this world, all that we call “mine”, gives us a sense of security. The world tells us, “We are the masters of our fate, and the captains of our soul,” so we get, take, and protect and tell ourselves we are in control. But are we?
In Leviticus, God speaks to us of a Jubilee, of a release, a return, a freedom from our depts, a letting go of the idea of “mine.” God tells us in verse twenty-three that the land is not ours, He says, “for the land is mine and shall not be sold in perpetuity. For you are strangers and sojourners with me.” Psalm 24:1 tells us, “The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it.” Throughout scriptures we are told that we are to be stewards of all God has given us, and not owners, and this includes our lives. And we are also told to use who we are and all we have to honor God and one another. That is a different view than gathering up all we can to call “mine” and doing all we can to get, protect and keep it. The world tells us the more we have the better off we are, and the more secure our lives are. But if we look at all we have, we all know on some level that at any moment we can lose it, and this includes our lives. A fire, tornado, a diagnosis, a divorce, a death, and the list goes on and on, any of these things can take all we have.
When we look at the second part of Leviticus 25: 23, God tells us we are strangers here and sojourners with Him. He is telling us our time in this world is temporary, it is not our forever home. He is also telling us we are not alone in this world, we are here with Him and are to rely on Him and trust in His provision for us. Yet so often rather than depending on God, giving thanks to Him and placing our trust in Him for all we are and have we strive for control. Control over what is not ours in the first place.
The year of Jubilee was to be a time to practice grace, forgiveness and generosity as God does with us. It was a time to begin again. It was a time of focusing on depending on God for all ones needs. It was a time of resting from work to produce food and a time of taking what the land produced naturally and trusting in God. It was a time when God instructed that we are not to wrong one another and we are to fear our God, for He is our Lord and God. No where in scripture are we told we will dwell securely in the land when we have gathered up vast amounts of land and property to call “mine.” In verse 25:18 God tells us we will dwell in the land securely when we obey and live out His commands and instructions to us. Are we listening?
In the New Testament, God would again proclaim a Jubilee for us through His Son Jesus Christ. It would be a time of grace, forgiveness, freedom from the bondage to sin and all that controls us by walking with and in Christ. Scripture tells us that our security, protections, and all we need are in Christ. When we are united with Christ as sojourners “walking with Him, we have a firm foundation that no circumstance in this world can take from us.
We are visitors and guests living our lives in all, that is His. As we begin to realize and take to heart what God is telling us we can begin to experience a Jubilee. Instead of striving to add to what we falsely believe is “mine,” we can begin to be grateful for all that is God’s that He shares with us and provides for us. We begin to realize life is temporary but our life with God is eternal. We begin to examine what is truly important and what we have made into idols that may be controlling us. We can ask ourselves what we are putting before God in our lives thinking it will give us all we need? Trusting in Jesus removes our need to possess and to control and gives us instead gratitude for all God gives us and it gives us rest, a release, a reset, and restoration for our lives. In the Old Testament prior to God giving us Jesus, God tells His people to have a Jubilee and experience His grace. In the New Testament in Luke 4, God tells us our Jubilee is in Christ. The Jubilee God called His people to in Leviticus, today is realized in Jesus. God’s favor given to us, through His son Jesus who came to set us free from a dept of sin we could never repay. Jesus who calls us to Himself to give all who are weary rest. Jesus who tells us not to fear or worry about our daily needs because our God knows what we need and will provide. As our focus shifts from the fear based gathering of things and possessions to embracing our relationship with Jesus we can release our grip on “mine.” We can embrace a trust and dependence on God to care for all that is His, all that He shares with us and walk under His wisdom in our role of being good stewards. As we trust and obey, we can experience the blessing of Jubilee, the rest, restoration, release and reset we all long for.
Please join me in prayer as we close.
Father, we again give thanks for your word and your presence with us as we sojourn through this world on our way home to you. Thank you for the ultimate reset you give us in Christ, and for all you give us and the knowledge that all we are and all we have is yours and from you. Thank you that in you we are secure, we can rest and have a hope that will never be taken from us. Bless us Father with the strength and wisdom to be good stewards of our lives and all you bless us with, help us to walk in such a way that brings you honor and that does not wrong another. In you we dwell securely.
