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Behold, All Things Become New, Jesus Christ, Our Jubilee

John Jeffrey / 2022-01-25

The Jubilee was a proclamation given by God to Moses for the children of Israel to follow (Leviticus chapter 25). Jubilee occurred on the 50^th year beginning from the time the Israelites inherited the promised land of Canaan.

Here are a few major aspects of Jubilee:

Jubilee occurred on the 50^th year.

A loud trumpet was sounded throughout the land of Canaan.

If a person was held as a servant because of a financial debt, at Jubilee the servant was set free.

If a person became poor and sold his land, at Jubilee the land was returned to the original owner.

If a person became poor and sold some of his possessions, at Jubilee the possessions were returned to the original owner.

Leviticus 25:9 Then shalt thou send abroad the loud trumpet on the tenth day of the seventh month; in the day of atonement shall ye send abroad the trumpet throughout all your land. (verse 10) And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout the land unto all the inhabitants thereof: it shall be a jubilee unto you; and ye shall return every man unto his possession, and ye shall return every man unto his family.

The Israelites performed no labor to earn the houses, land, and property given to them when they entered the promised land of Canaan. God gave these things to them freely as a gift.

Deuteronomy 6:10-12 "And when the LORD your God brings you into the land which he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give you, with great and goodly cities, which you did not build, and houses full of all good things, which you did not fill, and cisterns hewn out, which you did not hew, and vineyards and olive trees, which you did not plant, and when you eat and are full, then take heed lest you forget the LORD, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.

Joshua 24:13 I gave you a land on which you had not labored, and cities which you had not built, and you dwell therein; you eat the fruit of vineyards and oliveyards which you did not plant.'

From a Biblical historical perspective, the source of Jubilee began hundreds of years before God chose Abram and (Genesis 17:8) promised to give to him and his seed all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession.

In the process of time the Israelites became slaves in Egypt under Pharoah. The Israelites cried out to God and he responded to their cries. Exodus 3:7 & 8 Jehovah said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people that are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters; for I know their sorrows;

8 and I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land unto a good land and a large, unto a land flowing with milk and honey; unto the place of the Canaanite, and the Hittite, and the Amorite, and the Perizzite, and the Hivite, and the Jebusite.

Jubilee was a way of ensuring that each family maintained permanent possession of the land given to them when they entered the promised land of Canaan.

From a New Testament perspective, Jesus Christ is comparatively our Jubilee.

We were in the bondage of sin and aliented from God; but God demonstrated his love for us with the gift of His Son:

Ephesians 2:8 for by grace have ye been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God;

Ephesians 2:11-13 Therefore remember, that once ye, the Gentiles in the flesh, who are called Uncircumcision by that which is called Circumcision, in the flesh, made by hands;

12 that ye were at that time separate from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of the promise, having no hope and without God in the world.

13 But now in Christ Jesus ye that once were far off are made nigh in the blood of Christ.

Jesus instructed His apostles:

Matthew 28:19-20 Go ye therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit:

20 teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I commanded you: and lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.

The Jubilee gave liberty to those who were held as servants because of financial debt. Comparatively speaking, Jesus Christ is our New Testament Jubilee in that he set us free from the bondage of sin.

Because of Jesus Christ, we can say, “Behold all things become new!