Elise and I have been very fortunate financially in our married lives. I credit it to hard work and making some good decisions over the years. God has blessed us greatly and we are very grateful. We also had the help and support of each of our families when we were first starting out. Without that help we would have had a very difficult time making it. Elise’s parents helped us in starting our veterinary practice and in buying our first home. Things went well enough for our business that we were able to sell our starter home and purchase a larger home in the same town. One in which we lived in for the next 32 years. During that time period real estate values in the western suburbs of Chicago increased substantially. When we sold last year we received a little more than double the price we paid originally. Again, we have been very blessed.
What if, after buying this home, several years later we were required to return the home back to the original owner? If as part of the sales contract we were told that in the fiftieth year after the original owner had sold his home, the current owner had to return the property to that original owner. Not sell to him but to, instead, hand it back to him (or her). Would be a hard pill to swallow. But his is exactly what is outlined in today’s reading as to how the Israelites were to deal with each other financially. It is called the Jubilee Year. The word Jubilee comes from the Hebrew word, “yubel”, which means Ram’s Horn. A Ram’s horn was blown to announce the beginning of the Jubilee Year.
In Leviticus the details of the Jubilee Year are explained. In essence, all property during this year is to be returned to the original owner. Persons who sold themselves into slavery were to be freed. Debts were to be forgiven. So if you owed someone a debt, in the Jubilee year it was forgiven. The idea was to prevent wealth from being concentrated into the hands of the few. Now there is no real evidence in the Bible that the Israelites ever actually obeyed the Jubilee year declaration. Soon after Moses made this declaration from God as part of the Law, Israel had moved into the land of Canaan, won over much of the land through battle with the Canaanites, and divided the land up amongst the twelve tribes. There was reluctance to give up the land that they had fought hard to win. Economics also made it difficult for the people to abide by this decree. Most saw the concept of the Jubilee year as more of an ideal than an actual requirement.
The other aspect of the Jubilee year was that, when debt was cancelled in the form of money owed, property returned and prison sentences commuted, there is someone who had to absorb that debt. A person who purchased property had to return it. If someone owed you money, that debt had to be forgiven. And if a person was in prison because they had not paid their debts, they were to be released. This may be the main reason why the Jubilee year never really took hold. For who would consent to forgive a legitimate debt owed to them. Who indeed….
The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners,[a]
2 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor and the day of vengeance of our God,
to comfort all who mourn, and provide for those who grieve in Zion—
to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy
instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. (Isaiah Chapter 61)
Sound familiar? This is what Jesus read in the Synagogue in his home town of Nazareth. Just before the crowds tried to run him off the cliff. Jesus was proclaiming Himself as the Jubilee. It was Jesus that was paying the debts we all owed due to our sinful nature. A debt that only God Himself could pay for us. Jesus became the Great Reset. Returning us to a state righteousness with God. Giving us all a “do over”. And even greater than that one single act of debt forgiveness, he made it so we can return to being in good graces with God by offering true repentance when we inevitably drift away.
We don’t receive financial relief through a Jubilee year as Moses declared. But Jesus, the new Moses, gives us much more than financial relief. He gives us spiritual relief that leads not to economic renewal. But to eternal renewal. The Jubilee of all Jubilees.
