What does the Year of Jubliee mean?

What an exciting day today is. The mark of the beginning of the year of Jubilee. I wanted to share a little of what this means. It can easily slip by if you are not aware of it, especially since we are not on a Jewish calendar. Yesterday marked the last day of the Shemitah year (the 7th year). The year of Jubilee occurs after seven sets of seven years (49 total years) are finished. The fiftieth year is the year of Jubilee. This fiftieth year occurs on one of the annual feast days known as the Day of Atonement. This year was set up as a recurring time period where God’s will is that man’s possessions be returned to him. Since He owns it all anyway it’s His call! In the Old Testament if someone announced the Jubilee, a trumpet would be blown and all of Israel would hear it. The Hebrew word for jubilee is “yobel” meaning a ram’s horn or trumpet. This year was significant to Israel. When the trumpet sounded on this fiftieth year, on the Day of Atonement, LIBERTY would be proclaimed throughout the land. LIBERTY - the state of being free within society from oppressive restrictions imposed by authority on one’s way of life, behavior, or political views.

This meant that all property that had been taken for unpaid debts would have to be returned to the original owners. On this year you would not reap, plant or gather from the crops because it was to be holy to the nation of Israel.

Leviticus 25: 10-12 You shall thus consecrate the fiftieth year and proclaim a release through the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you, and each of you shall return to his own property, and each of you shall return to his family. You shall have the fiftieth year as a jubilee; you shall not sow, nor reap its after-growth, nor gather in from its untrimmed vines. For it is a jubilee; it shall be holy to you. You shall eat its crops out of the field. Can you imagine the jubilee you would hear from all of the people celebrating! All debts released and canceled and what was taken was given back! A fresh start. Atonement The Day of Atonement was the most holy day of the Jewish calendar. Rituals were performed to atone for the sins of the people. This represented a release of debt of sins. There is nothing coincidental about what God does. The first day of the Jubilee year being on the Day of Atonement is no accident. A release of debt, sin and all slaves and prisoners set free. How does this speak to Christians today? When Jesus died on the cross for us he paid a debt we could not pay. He released us of our sin once and for all. No more rituals needed. He freed us from the slavery of our sin. He made us righteous through Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross. Freedom The year of Jubilee means that all those who had to sell themselves into slavery because of their debts or had lost their property to survive was redeemed by God. No Israelite was to remain a slave permanently. This would also be a way to bring equality among the nation’s people so that the imbalance between the rich and the poor would be gone. In Leviticus it commanded to give the land a rest from its labor of producing for the people. This already coming off of a sabbath year (the Shemitah) where you were to let the land rest and live off of the prior years harvest. This would be a year that you would totally rely on God and His provision. This rest symbolizes the rest we have from our works because the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Symbolism The Jubilee year contains many pictures of salvation. Just as God released the land, the people, and all the property, we also have been released from a debt that we could not pay. We are free and have liberty from slavery. We are no longer slaves to sin. We have been released and set free! Jesus’ blood shed on the cross has atoned us of our sin and fulfilled the law. Now we can rest in Him. We don’t have to strive or work because the finished work has been done for us on the cross. We could have never been able to be freed from a debt like this without Him. John 6:29 says “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent”. Your work is to believe!

If you are a believer in Christ and what He did for YOU and have not accepted him as your Lord and Savior please let me know. I would love to share the prayer of salvation with you so that you to can experience the freedom in knowing true rest. This is the year that He will restore what you’ve been waiting on!

He’s a big God with big plans!

“Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.” 1 Corinthians 6:19-20