Bible Commentaries

THE YEAR OF JUBILEE

‘And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all 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.’

Leviticus 25:10-13

The Old Testament jubilee was meant to be a type of the entire New Testament dispensation in three points, imaging by its Sabbatic character the Gospel rest in Christ, by its unreserved deliverance of captives and slaves the Christian redemption from guilt and spiritual bondage, and by its universal restitution of property to the poor and needy the fulness of that inheritance which is treasured up for all the faithful in Christ, whose unsearchable riches, like the national possessions, opened up by the jubilee, enrich all, without impoverishing any who make good their title.

I. The first element of jubilee gladness, common to the Jew of old and the Christian amid the celebrations of the Gospel age, is the joy of distinction or of privilege.—There was not a single memorial of blessing or promise, temporal or spiritual, which the jubilee did not recall, and hold up before the eyes of that most-favoured nation. The Jewish theocracy had for one of its main features a system of Sabbaths curiously and profoundly arranged for the interpenetration of Divine and political principles. Every half-century formed a grand Sabbatical circle. The fiftieth year, or year of jubilee, settled at the outset the great problem that no other people ever solved except through ages of struggle and revolution.

II. Its design and effect are evident.—(1) It was a bar to monopoly of the land. (2) It was a perpetual lesson in hope and encouragement. It was a constant assertion of equality. (3) It fostered patriotism, a virtue that thrives best on the soil. It kept alive in every man a sense of ownership in his country. (4) It was an inwrought education of the family, fostering a sense of its dignity, and guarding the sanctity of marriage and legitimacy of birth.

III. Though a political measure, it is informed with spiritual significance.—It shadows forth the recovery from evil, the undoing of all burdens that weigh down humanity, the eternal inheritance awaiting God’s children when His cycle is complete.

Illustration

(1) ‘This wonderful system not only kept houses and lands from accumulating in the hands of a few, and preserved a race of independent freeholders, but it was a constantly recurring type of that blessed time which awaits us, when the tyranny and wrong and oppression of time shall pass away in the golden light of millennial bliss. How sweetly does the word “redemption” recur, as if it were sweet to utter. Oh that our lives were more constantly permeated by the thought that we have been bought back to God by precious blood, and have inalienable rights!’

(2) ‘When Lincoln freed the American slaves, he simply proclaimed a freedom which scores of thousands had died to win, but for which the slave himself had done nothing. He had only to hear, and believe, and walk out, and he would have all the power of the United States to make the proclamation good. Just so; I have only to hear, and believe, and walk out, and I shall have all the mightiness of God behind me to make good His great Proclamation of release from my debt to the broken law; of liberty from the tyranny of sin within, and of circumstance and evil powers without; of reinstatement in all the possessions proper to a child of God; of return to God my spirit’s home; and of a future blessed with rest, and peace that passeth understanding. Jesus has won this jubilee for me.’

(3) ‘A fresh start! I need it sorely. Not only every seventh year, but every seventh day. Not only every fiftieth year, but all the time. I need to begin again. I need to forget my sinful past. I need a new grip on myself and my duty. I need a clean slate, a new sheet of paper. And I can get it all from Thee, O most indulgent Father!’

(4) ‘What are the blessings of jubilee? We have all been told that in true Gospel theology there are three R’s—Ruin, Redemption, Regeneration. But we may with strict truth say, as we think of the notes of the gospel trumpet, that in the message of the Gospel there are five R’s. First, Remission; second, Release; third, Restoration; fourth, Reunion; and the fifth and crowning blessing of the jubilee, Rest.’

SOJOURNERS WITH GOD

‘Ye are strangers and sojourners with Me.’

Leviticus 25:23

Explain the custom of restoring the land at the Jubilee to its original owner or his representative. We might wonder to find the Israelites described as “strangers and sojourners,” after they had ended the long wilderness journey, and had entered on the possession of Canaan.

I. The promised land was the divinely appointed rest and portion of the people; but the Old Testament never fails to indicate that even its best things are types and shadows, and the Israelites had to learn that even in Canaan they had no continuing city. No man was to feel himself in absolute possession of his portion. It was entrusted to his control for a time, but a superior power appointed that time and brought it to a close. Canaan, therefore, from one point of view, represents to us the heavenly rest, from another the portion which God has given to His people in this world. That provision is good—let nobody despise it—but it is not the best. We must not take it as our promised inheritance. Our inheritance is coming, and meanwhile an earnest of it is sealed by the Holy Spirit on our hearts. Temporal blessings come to us by covenant, as well as eternal blessings, but we must use them as strangers and sojourners.

II. Sojourning is the condition of God’s children in this world.—It is, indeed, the condition of all men in one sense, but this is one of the obvious truths which are most likely to be overlooked. I don’t know many sadder things than to see men trying to make their portion here, to hear them saying, ‘Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years,’ to watch them toiling on, though the house is crumbling as they build. They are all beings who need a true portion, an immortal home. Every man among them is so constituted that he cannot do without it. How will it be when the light of eternity looks in through the broken roof and the tottering walls, and the man goes out homeless and desolate!

What is a ‘stranger’? He is one who belongs to a different country from that in which he lives, and carries with him something of the land from which he comes. His speech, his manner, a thousand little traits, reveal it. The believer comes from no land foreign to this earth of ours, but something has come to him, something ‘that has elsewhere its rising and its setting, and cometh from afar.’ A new relation to Christ has been formed in his soul, which has given a new turn to his life, and has brought him into relationship with another world. Desires and hopes are near his heart which cannot find satisfaction here. He is in that sense a stranger beyond all other men.

What is a ‘sojourner’? He is the man who means to move. He dare not take rest as one who means to dwell here in permanence. There might be something depressing in the conjunction of these two words, ‘stranger and sojourner,’ but there are other words in the list which brighten the gloom—‘The land is Mine,’ ‘Strangers and sojourners with Me.’ The experiences of life may be desperately trying, but they need never separate us from God’s providence and love. This is one of the great commonplaces of Scripture. It hardly needs to be illustrated, but it very much requires to be believed.

Illustrations

(1) ‘In the text are the lessons of God’s proprietorship and our stewardship, the transiency of our stay and the need of whole-hearted trust.’

(2) ‘Seek to cultivate as a joy and strength the consciousness that the Lord of the land is ever with you. Whoever goes, He abides. Whoever and whatever change, He changes never. Where thou goest He will go. So since we are ever ‘with Him’ we have companionship even when most solitary, and even in a strange land shall not be lonely.’