Introduction
This is our last message in a series about the ancient Israelite Year of Jubilee. Every 50th year on the Day of Atonement the ancient Israelites would blow a ram’s horn. We get the name "Jubilee" from the Hebrew word for ram's horn, which is jubel or yobel. Different kinds if horns can be used for the sacred Jewish trumpet (AKA shofar). The prefered horn is a curved ram. Next in line would be a curved from a sheep, followed by a curved horn from any other animal--like a kudu, which have visually striking spiral horns. The least preferred horns for a shofar would be a straight horn or a horn from a non-kosher animal. Cow horns were not supposed to be used.
On the Year of Jubilee, slaves were freed, all debts were forgiven, land that had been sold was restored to the original owner. There was also no agricultural work during the Year of Jubilee.
The Jubilee was every 50th year, but Israelites also got a year off every seventh year.
Leviticus 25:18-22
18 “If you want to live securely in the land,
follow my decrees and obey my regulations. 19 Then
the land will yield large crops, and you will eat your fill and live securely
in it. 20 But you might
ask, ‘What will we eat during the seventh year, since we are not allowed to
plant or harvest crops that year?’ 21 Be
assured that I will send my blessing for you in the sixth year, so the land
will produce a crop large enough for three years. 22 When
you plant your fields in the eighth year, you will still be eating from the
large crop of the sixth year. In fact, you will still be eating from that large
crop when the new crop is harvested in the ninth year.
Israel was God’s Kingdom on Earth
Most people don’t understand how special was ancient Israel. They were a very, very special people. They had the opportunity to be God’s chosen nation on earth. They were to be God’s royal priesthood who represent God to the whole world. As such, they would enjoy many special benefits that other nations didn’t have that allowed the Israelites the freedom to concentrate on showing God to the whole world.
One special blessing was a year off of work every seventh year. This was huge—especially living in and agricultural economy. Lev. 25:18-22 answers the obvious question: how can people who live by subsistence farming survive without farming for a year?
Verses 18-22 explain the Israelites would have normal harvests for five years. Then they would God would send a super abundant harvest in the sixth year. They would eat what they wanted in the sixth year and store away all the surplus. When the farmers took the seventh year off, they would eat some of their stores from the sixth year. In the eighth year, they would plant they next crop, but they would have to wait until that crop matured and was harvested. So they would still be eating the food they stored away on the sixth year and those stores would last all the way to the beginning of year ninth year when were back on track with the regular planting and harvesting cycle. This was the blessing God promised the Israelites if they would be faithful.
God’s People Live By Faith
How could the Israelites live this way? They could only do it by trusting in their Lord. The whole concept of Israel was based on faith in Yahweh, their God.
Yahweh is the God who called Abraham to leave his homeland in Ur and go to a “Promised Land”.
Yahweh is the God who delivered the Hebrew slaves from Egypt—the most powerful empire in the world at the time. Only God could defeat Egypt and win the Hebrew's freedom.
Yahweh is the God who provided mana from Heaven and water of life as the Hebrews wandered in the dessert for forty years. There was no farming going on for those forty, but could provided. If God can provide for forty year of wandering in the dessert, He can provide one or two years of food for the Israelite's sabbatical years.
Yahweh is the God who conquered the Canaanites for the Israelites. God did the fighting. Take the battle of Jericho for instance. Tha battle plan was ludicrous and designed to show everyone that it was only God who won the battle. The Israelites marched around the city for seven days and then on the seventh day they blew trumpets. They didn't use catapults of siege works. They blew ram's and the walls cam crumbling down!
What was required of the Israelites for all this to happen? Faith. They had to trust God and obey. Faith and obedience was what God required as they took possession and lived in the Promised Land. They had to trust God to provide enough food for living—even if they took one day off per week, one year off every seven, and celebrated a Jubilee every 50th year. This was the requirement and the blessing reserved specifically for God's people, Israel.
Unfortunately, Biblical scholars and historians say most evidence shows the ancient Israelites never fully followed the Sabbath cycle. One of the main sins of which Biblical prophets accused Israelites is not observing the Sabbath. They only occasionally took the seventh year off and there is little evidence that they every really fulfilled the stipulations of the Jubilee year. They always found loopholes so they didn’t take the Jubilee year off from work. They found ways to work around the law so they didn’t have to set all their slaves free, they didn't forgive debts, and they didn’t give land back to the original owners.
Some religious scholars point out the seventy years the Jewish captives spent in Babylon after the fall of Jerusalem were to make up for all the Sabbath years the Israelites skipped. According to 2 Chronicles 36:20-21, “The land finally enjoyed its Sabbath rest, lying desolate until the seventy years were fulfilled, just as the prophet had said.” Even though the Israelites disobeyed, God made sue the land had its rest. God cares about the land, even if people don't.
That’s what people do. We don’t fully trust God. We're disobedient. When we don’t fully trust God, we try to work things out ourselves. We do it our own way. We try to justify our disobedience and do what seems right in our own eyes.
At first glance, this seems like normal behavior. It seems like we’re being prudent, like we’re only doing what makes sense. Sin often seems to make sense when we look at it from a merely human perspective. It’s what happened at the fall of humanity in the Garden of Eden.
God made the Garden and told Adam and Eve they could eat any fruit in the whole Garden, only don't eat the fruit from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. If they ate it, God said they would die. Satan told Adam and Eve in Genesis 3:4-5, 4 “You won’t die! …God knows that your eyes will be opened as soon as you eat it, and you will be like God, knowing both good and evil.”
And it says in verses 6-7, “6 The woman was convinced. She saw that the tree was beautiful and its fruit looked delicious, and she wanted the wisdom it would give her. So she took some of the fruit and ate it. Then she gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it, too.”
Thus, sin entered the world and we’ve been trying to do it all our own way ever since. Look where it’s gotten us: a broken creation, a broken humanity, and we are stressed and a mess and slaves to our own sin.
You would think God had given up on us, but he hasn’t. God still loves us. John 3:16 says – “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”
And so Christ came to save us. He left the glory of Heaven to come to our broken world. He didn’t come in glory as he deserved. Instead, he was born as a humble child to poor parents. He lived as one of us—ordinary people. He was like us in every way—accept without sin, for He trust God and obeyed perfectly. Jesus fulfilled God’s law perfectly. Jesus calls us to repent of our sin, to turn to God, to trust Him and obey.
Jesus died on the cross to pay the penalty of our sin. If we trust Him, we are no longer guilty.
We have eternal life in Him and we are called to be His people.
1 Peter 2:9 says, “…for you are a chosen people. You are royal priests, a holy nation, God’s very own possession. As a result, you can show others the goodness of God, for he called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light.”
Christians
who trust in Jesus as Lord are now Israel.
We are God’s chosen people. We are the captive Hebrew slaves who have been set free, but our freedom isn't just from Egyptian slave masters (or some other earthly
power). Our freedom is a freedom from the dark power of sin enforced by Satan.
Galatians 5:1 says, “So Christ has truly set us free. Now make sure that you stay free, and don’t get tied up again in slavery to the law.”
You have
to choose freedom over slavery every day.
You see, whenever you choose to trust your own way more than God’s way,
you are choosing slavery to sin.
Think over your life. Think about how it was when you’re rejected God’s way and chosen your own path. It may have felt good initially, but then it led to trouble, to stress and
weariness and pain. Soon you were enslaved, and it felt awful. And the only way out is to repent and seek forgiveness.
Confession of Sin (adapted from UMH
893)
So now, let us repent and
confess our sins to the Lord and receive His forgiveness. Here is a prayer you can use. Read this prayer of confession as your words to God today. Adapted it and add to it according to your need.
Lord, I confess my day to day failure to be truly human. I confess I often fail to love with all I have and am, often because I do not fully understand what loving means, often because I am afraid of the risk. Lord, we confess to You. I have cut myself off from others and erected barriers of division. I confess that by silence and ill-considered word I have built up walls of prejudice. Lord, I confess that by selfishness and lack of sympathy I have stifled generosity and left little time for others.
Holy Spirit speak to me. Help me listen to Your word of forgiveness, for I am very deaf. Come, fill this moment and free me from my sin. Amen.
Forgiveness
My friend, with the authority God gives me, I say to you: In the name of Jesus Christ, you are
forgiven. Amen.
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