What is the JUBILEE? by Tuese Ahkiong

What is the JUBILEE?

by Tuese Ahkiong

Scripture from ESV 

A year of emancipation and restoration provided by ancient Hebrew law to be kept every 50 years by the emancipation of Hebrew slaves, restoration of alienated lands to their former owners, and omission of all cultivation of the land.

The Jubilee (Hebrew: יובל yōḇel; Yiddish: yoyvl) is the year at the end of seven cycles of shmita (Sabbatical years) and, according to Biblical regulations, had a special impact on the ownership and management of land in the Land of Israel. According to the Book of Leviticus, Hebrew slaves and prisoners would be freed, debts would be forgiven, and the mercies of God would be particularly manifest.

Rabbinic literature mentions a dispute between the Sages and Rabbi Yehuda over whether it was the 49th year (the last year of seven sabbatical cycles, referred to as the Sabbath's Sabbath), or whether it was the following (50th) year.^[1] The Jubilee ("Year of Release") deals largely with land, property, and property rights.

Luke 4:16-19   And he (YESHUA) came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up. And as was his custom, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and he stood up to read.¹⁷ And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written,

¹⁸ “THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD IS UPON ME,
BECAUSE HE HAS ANOINTED ME
TO PROCLAIM GOOD NEWS TO THE POOR.  HE HAS SENT ME TO PROCLAIM LIBERTY TO THE CAPTIVES AND RECOVERING OF SIGHT TO THE BLIND, TO SET AT LIBERTY THOSE WHO ARE OPPRESSED,
¹⁹ TO PROCLAIM THE YEAR OF THE LORD'S FAVOR.”

²⁰ And he rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. ²¹ And he began to say to them, “TODAY THIS SCRIPTURE HAS BEEN FULFILLED IN YOUR HEARING.”

Yeshua says that this Scripture has been FULFILLED in those who heard Him.  This  passage is quoted from Isaiah 61:1-2 and is related to the year of Jubilee.  He leaves out, “and the day of vengeance of Our God.”  The Day of Vengeance would take place in 70AD.

YES, The Spirit of THE LORD is upon Christ.

Matthew 3:16  And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw THE SPIRIT OF GOD DESCENDING LIKE A DOVE AND COMING TO REST ON HIM;

YES, Yeshua was anointed to proclaim The Gospel.

Luke 4:43 but he said to them, “I MUST PREACH THE GOOD NEWS of the kingdom of God to the other towns as well; for I WAS SENT FOR THIS PURPOSE.”

 

Yes, Christ proclaimed The Good News to the poor and the blind received their sight.  

Matthew 11:4-6 

And Jesus answered them, “Go and tell John what you hear and see: ⁵ THE BLIND RECEIVE THEIR SIGHT and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, AND THE POOR HAVE GOOD NEWS PREACHED TO THEM. ⁶ And blessed is the one who is not offended by me.”

 

YES, Christ proclaimed Liberty to captives and those oppressed.  

John 8:36  So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.  

Matthew 4:23-24 And he went throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction among the people. ²⁴ So his fame spread throughout all Syria, and they brought him all the sick, those afflicted with various diseases and pains, THOSE OPPRESSED BY DEMONS, those having seizures, and paralytics, and he healed them.

Isaiah 61:1-2   THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD GOD IS UPON ME, 

BECAUSE THE LORD HAS ANOINTED ME
TO BRING GOOD NEWS TO THE POOR;
HE HAS SENT ME TO BIND UP THE BROKENHEARTED,
TO PROCLAIM LIBERTY TO THE CAPTIVES,
AND THE OPENING OF THE PRISON TO THOSE WHO ARE BOUND;
² TO PROCLAIM THE YEAR OF THE LORD'S FAVOR,
AND THE DAY OF VENGEANCE OF OUR GOD;
TO COMFORT ALL WHO MOURN;

Leviticus 25:10    And you shall consecrate THE FIFTIETH YEAR, and PROCLAIM LIBERTY THROUGHOUT THE LAND TO ALL ITS INHABITANTS. IT SHALL BE A JUBILEE FOR YOU, when each of you shall return to his property and each of you shall return to his clan.

CHRIST is the Jubilee in that He sets captives free from sin, returns people to the true land, Himself; cancels their debt, gives His people rest and provision, avenges them from their enemies.  He proclaims this around 30 AD at the beginning of His ministry.  The Good News Gospel goes out to the elect remnant of Israel in that last generation of The Old Covenant.  "The Great Commission" is fulfilled by 70AD along with The Promises of The Jubilee.

Each week is 7 years – the 7^th year of each week is an entire year of Sabbath rest for the land.  Seven times Seven weeks is 49 years which is followed by The Year of JUBILEE.

1	2	3	4	5	6	7
8	9	10	11	12	13	14
15	16	17	18	19	20	21
22	23	24	25	26	27	28
29	30	31	32	33	34	35
36	37	38	39	40	41	42
43	44	45	46	47	48	49
50

Isaiah 34:8  FOR THE LORD HAS A DAY OF VENGEANCE,
a year of recompense for the cause of Zion.

CHRIST returns in Vengeance in 70AD upon the unbelieving Jews who rejected Him and persecuted His people.  

2 Thessalonians 1:5-10

⁵ This is evidence of the righteous judgment of God, that you may be considered worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you are also suffering— ⁶ since indeed God considers it just to repay with affliction those who afflict you, ⁷ and to grant relief to you who are afflicted as well as to us, when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels ⁸ in flaming fire, inflicting VENGEANCE on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. ⁹ They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might, ¹⁰ when he comes on that day to be glorified in his saints, and to be marveled at among all who have believed, because our testimony to you was believed.

Leviticus 25   (ESV)

25 The Lord spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai, saying, ² “Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, When you come into the land that I give you, THE LAND SHALL KEEP A SABBATH TO THE LORD. ³ FOR SIX YEARS YOU SHALL SOW YOUR FIELD, AND FOR SIX YEARS YOU SHALL PRUNE YOUR VINEYARD AND GATHER IN ITS FRUITS, ⁴ but IN THE SEVENTH YEAR THERE SHALL BE A SABBATH OF SOLEMN REST FOR THE LAND, A SABBATH TO THE LORD. You shall not sow your field or prune your vineyard. ⁵ You shall not reap what grows of itself in your harvest, or gather the grapes of your undressed vine. It shall be a year of solemn rest for the land. ⁶ The Sabbath of the land shall provide food for you, for yourself and for your male and female slaves and for your hired worker and the sojourner who lives with you, ⁷ and for your cattle and for the wild animals that are in your land: all its yield shall be for food.

⁸ “YOU SHALL COUNT SEVEN WEEKS OF YEARS, SEVEN TIMES SEVEN YEARS, SO THAT THE TIME OF THE SEVEN WEEKS OF YEARS SHALL GIVE YOU FORTY-NINE YEARS. ⁹ Then you shall SOUND THE LOUD TRUMPET ON THE TENTH DAY OF THE SEVENTH MONTH. On the DAY OF ATONEMENT YOU SHALL SOUND THE TRUMPET THROUGHOUT ALL YOUR LAND. ¹⁰ And you shall CONSECRATE THE FIFTIETH YEAR, and PROCLAIM LIBERTY THROUGHOUT THE LAND TO ALL ITS INHABITANTS. IT SHALL BE A JUBILEE FOR YOU, when each of you shall return to his property and each of you shall return to his clan. ¹¹ That fiftieth year shall be a JUBILEE for you; in it you shall neither sow nor reap what grows of itself nor gather the grapes from the undressed vines. ¹² For it is a JUBILEE. It shall be holy to you. You may eat the produce of the field.

¹³ “In this year of JUBILEE each of you shall return to his property. ¹⁴ And if you make a sale to your neighbor or buy from your neighbor, you shall not wrong one another. ¹⁵ You shall pay your neighbor according to the number of years AFTER THE JUBILEE, and he shall sell to you according to the number of years for crops. ¹⁶ If the years are many, you shall increase the price, and if the years are few, you shall reduce the price, for it is the number of the crops that he is selling to you. ¹⁷ You shall not wrong one another, but you shall fear your God, for I am the Lord your God.

¹⁸ “Therefore you shall do my statutes and keep my rules and perform them, and then you will dwell in the land securely. ¹⁹ The land will yield its fruit, and you will eat your fill and dwell in it securely. ²⁰ And if you say, ‘What shall we eat in the seventh year, if we may not sow or gather in our crop?’ ²¹ I will command my blessing on you in the sixth year, so that it will produce a crop sufficient for three years. ²² When you sow in the eighth year, you will be eating some of the old crop; you shall eat the old until the ninth year, when its crop arrives.

²³ “The land shall not be sold in perpetuity, for the land is mine. For you are strangers and sojourners with me. ²⁴ And in all the country you possess, you shall allow a redemption of the land.

²⁵ “If your brother becomes poor and sells part of his property, then his nearest redeemer shall come and redeem what his brother has sold. ²⁶ If a man has no one to redeem it and then himself becomes prosperous and finds sufficient means to redeem it, ²⁷ let him calculate the years since he sold it and pay back the balance to the man to whom he sold it, and then return to his property. ²⁸ But if he does not have sufficient means to recover it, then what he sold shall remain in the hand of the buyer UNTIL THE YEAR OF JUBILEE. IN THE JUBILEE IT SHALL BE RELEASED, AND HE SHALL RETURN TO HIS PROPERTY.

²⁹ “If a man sells a dwelling house in a walled city, he may redeem it within a year of its sale. For a full year he shall have the right of redemption. ³⁰ If it is not redeemed within a full year, then the house in the walled city shall belong in perpetuity to the buyer, throughout his generations; it shall not be RELEASED IN THE JUBILEE. ³¹ But the houses of the villages that have no wall around them shall be classified with the fields of the land. They may be redeemed, and they shall be RELEASED IN THE JUBILEE. ³² As for the cities of the Levites, the Levites may redeem at any time the houses in the cities they possess. ³³ And if one of the Levites exercises his right of redemption, then the house that was sold in a city they possess shall be RELEASED IN THE JUBILEE. For the houses in the cities of the Levites are their possession among the people of Israel. ³⁴ But the fields of pastureland belonging to their cities may not be sold, for that is their possession forever.

³⁵ “If your brother becomes poor and cannot maintain himself with you, you shall support him as though he were a stranger and a sojourner, and he shall live with you. ³⁶ Take no interest from him or profit, but fear your God, that your brother may live beside you. ³⁷ You shall not lend him your money at interest, nor give him your food for profit. ³⁸ I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt to give you the land of Canaan, and to be your God.

³⁹ “If your brother becomes poor beside you and sells himself to you, you shall not make him serve as a slave: ⁴⁰ he shall be with you as a hired worker and as a sojourner. HE SHALL SERVE WITH YOU UNTIL THE YEAR OF THE JUBILEE. ⁴¹ Then he shall go out from you, he and his children with him, and go back to his own clan and return to the possession of his fathers. ⁴² For they are my servants, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt; they shall not be sold as slaves. ⁴³ You shall not rule over him ruthlessly but shall fear your God. ⁴⁴ As for your male and female slaves whom you may have: you may buy male and female slaves from among the nations that are around you. ⁴⁵ You may also buy from among the strangers who sojourn with you and their clans that are with you, who have been born in your land, and they may be your property. ⁴⁶ You may bequeath them to your sons after you to inherit as a possession forever. You may make slaves of them, but over your brothers the people of Israel you shall not rule, one over another ruthlessly.

⁴⁷ “If a stranger or sojourner with you becomes rich, and your brother beside him becomes poor and sells himself to the stranger or sojourner with you or to a member of the stranger's clan, ⁴⁸ then after he is sold he may be redeemed. One of his brothers may redeem him, ⁴⁹ or his uncle or his cousin may redeem him, or a close relative from his clan may redeem him. Or if he grows rich he may redeem himself. ⁵⁰ He shall calculate with his buyer from the year when he sold himself to him UNTIL THE YEAR OF JUBILEE, and the price of his sale shall vary with the number of years. The time he was with his owner shall be rated as the time of a hired worker.⁵¹ If there are still many years left, he shall pay proportionately for his redemption some of his sale price. ⁵² If there remain but a few years UNTIL THE YEAR OF JUBILEE, he shall calculate and pay for his redemption in proportion to his years of service.⁵³ He shall treat him as a worker hired year by year. He shall not rule ruthlessly over him in your sight. ⁵⁴ And if he is not redeemed by these means, then HE AND HIS CHILDREN WITH HIM SHALL BE RELEASED IN THE YEAR OF JUBILEE. ⁵⁵ For it is to me that the people of Israel are servants. They are my servants whom I brought out of the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.

Leviticus 27:24   IN THE YEAR OF JUBILEE THE FIELD SHALL RETURN TO HIM FROM WHOM IT WAS BOUGHT, to whom the land belongs as a possession.

Leviticus 27:16-25 

 “If a man dedicates to the Lord part of the land that is his possession, then the valuation shall be in proportion to its seed. A homer of barley seed shall be valued at fifty shekels of silver. ¹⁷ If he dedicates his field from THE YEAR OF JUBILEE, the valuation shall stand, ¹⁸ but if he dedicates his field after THE JUBILEE, then the priest shall calculate the price according to the years that remain until THE YEAR OF JUBILEE, and a deduction shall be made from the valuation. ¹⁹ And if he who dedicates the field wishes to redeem it, then he shall add a fifth to its valuation price, and it shall remain his. ²⁰ But if he does not wish to redeem the field, or if he has sold the field to another man, it shall not be redeemed anymore. ²¹ But the field, when it is RELEASED IN THE JUBILEE, shall be a holy gift to the Lord, like a field that has been devoted. The priest shall be in possession of it. ²² If he dedicates to the Lord a field that he has bought, which is not a part of his possession, ²³ then the priest shall calculate the amount of the valuation for it up TO THE YEAR OF JUBILEE, and the man shall give the valuation on that day as a holy gift to the Lord. ²⁴ IN THE YEAR OF JUBILEE the field shall return to him from whom it was bought, to whom the land belongs as a possession. ²⁵ Every valuation shall be according to the shekel of the sanctuary: twenty gerahs shall make a shekel.

Numbers 36:4  And when the JUBILEE of the people of Israel COMES, then their inheritance will be added to the inheritance of the tribe into which they marry, and their inheritance will be taken from the inheritance of the tribe of our fathers.”