Jubilee

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We have been in this series where we are looking at the Biblical theme of Sabbath.
We started this series by looking at the rhythm of Creation, if you remember back to that week we looked at this and showed how there was a daily rhythm of worship, an annual rhythm of worship and a weekly rhythm of worship…It’s all baked right into Genesis 1.
Then we looked at the idea of there being two kinds of work. Working with God, the sort of easy and abundant work vs the hard work of the curse…and living in the sabbath ideal means working hard but resting in God’s love.
Then we looked at the command to rest…Literally this is so important to God it is part of the 10 commandments
Then last week was a kind of interlude in the series, the point of last week was to ruthlessly eliminate hurry out of our lives…That God never intended for us to be as hurried as we are…The hurry blots out God...
And for the next couple of weeks we are going to look at Jubilee in the Bible. once you see how important it is…It is literally everywhere in the Bible.
So we have a ton to cover today let’s dig into it.

Leviticus 25

Leviticus 25:1-2

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

Every 7th year the land gets a sabbath...
Did you get that? So the Sabbath is for people, but now God is commanding that the land, the earth gets a sabbath too…
There are a couple of things worth noting here.
Creation matters to God!
God created our earth and now he is caring for it by commanding his people to give it a break
Do you know that the vitiman B12 used to be natural in food that grows but our food no longer has it because we have overfarmed the soil?
B12 is injected into meat now and that is how people get that nutrient
Since I dont eat meat I have to take a B12 Vitiman
But See creation matters to God, why do we treat our world as if it is a throw away world. God Loves our world, he made it!
Why is it that so many people claim to experience God through creation but don’t spend any time or care on it?
So God gives the land a Shabbat..A Ceasing…That year is a sabbath year!
and the reality is, how does the land “keep a sabbath?” The only way the land can keep a sabbath is if the people living on the land don’t work it
lets keep reading
Leviticus 25:3-7

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.

If you remember back to the time when the Israelites were in the dessert, God fed them with bread from heaven..It was called mana…You went out and collected what you needed for the day and you ate...
This is the idea…Ok Israel…To show your reliance on me…Take a whole year and I will provide for you out of the ground!
Go out and get what you need for the day…God will provide…just like mana from heaven
So this is the sabbath year…every 7 years...
But wait there is more!
Leviticus 25:8-12

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.

So you have the 49th year which is a sabbath year, and. Then you add one more year…An extra special sabbath. This is called the Jubilee.
And here is what is so key about all of this, The day of atonement is when all of your sins are symbolically exiled out of the camp of Israel...
If we were to go back to Leviticus 16 and read that chapter we would see
That this day was a HUGE day in the life of Israel..
There was special clothes for the priest…The priest would slaughter a bull for his own sins...
Then there were these two goats…And one would be slaughtered to cleanse the sanctuary
and the other goat the priest would stand there and confess all of the sins of Israel onto this goat…and then they would send it into the wilderness to die...
And this was such an important day because all of the sins of Israel would be wiped out in one fail swoop!
Where does that sound familiar? …Isn’t there someone who later would take on the sins of the world…Be marched out side the city to die?
So the Jubilee is a HUGE reset...
So the first day of jubilee starts with wiping the slate clean of sin between you and God
But everything else is about you having a new relationship with people
Here is the idea of it.
Israel is God’s chosen people! The people who are going to reveal the character of God to the world!
So every 50 years God tells them to reset the relationship with him and with each-other
When someone became bankrupt in the ancient world, you didn't just go get a loan, you sold your children off to slavery
You sold your land off (Which was your inheritance and the inheritance of your children)
I mean can you imagine having to do this and thinking...
One day…The Jubilee is coming…This super sabbath that will make all things new!
On top of that…We have to understand the Jubilee as well as a practice of Kings!
Kings in the ancient near east would declare a year of their “favor” where debt would be settled
Where the king would let slaves go free
The Year of Jubilee was this incredible picture of freedom
All of this sets up this biblical hope…

The Sabbatical Hope

And we have to remember the sabbath is a symbol of eternity…So every 7 years there is a Super Sabbath that lasts all year and then every 50th year there is this MAJOR sabbath that will last anther year...
The jubilee only occured once in a lifetime an impoverished Israelite would spend most of his life anticipating the jubilee!
The Jubilee is a sense that something is coming, something that will disrupt the order of everything
Something is coming that is associated with the day of atonement…
Something is coming that will change my life forever and my sins will be forgiven
So Jubilee gave this sense of anticipation to everyone!
that a time is coming! A day is coming…when everything would be set right
That one day…There will be a new king…that will forgive sins and set people free!
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let’s keep going…So we have the Jubilee in Leviticus 25…and in 26 we get the blessings if people keep the Jubilee or the curse if they do not...

3 “If you walk in my statutes and observe my commandments and do them, 4 then I will give you your rains in their season, and the land shall yield its increase, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit. 5 Your threshing shall last to the time of the grape harvest, and the grape harvest shall last to the time for sowing. And you shall eat your bread to the full and dwell in your land securely.

Ok starting out in verse three we right away get this idea that God will be taking care of his people!
It will be good for you to keep the jubilee!
WHY: Because God wants his people anticipating a time of his coming

6 I will give peace in the land, and you shall lie down, and none shall make you afraid. And I will remove harmful beasts from the land, and the sword shall not go through your land.

The land shall have Shalom. Literally, if you keep the Jubilee, God will bring peace on the land...
Jump down to verse 9
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9 I will turn to you and make you fruitful and multiply you and will confirm my covenant with you. 10 You shall eat old store long kept, and you shall clear out the old to make way for the new. 11 I will make my dwelling among you, and my soul shall not abhor you. 12 And I will walk among you and will be your God, and you shall be my people.

Did you catch this?
God will make you fruitful and you will multiply
I will make my dwelling among you....WAY BACK IN LEVITICUS GOD IS SETTING UP THE IDEA THAT HE IS COMING!
I will walk among you
What does this sound like? The garden ideal…It sounds like Eden…
So God says listen…what you lost in the garden, its isn't hopeless…
I am inviting you back into relationship with me…but you have to keep this pattern!
What God is saying is I will make you into a new creation
But if you continually give yourself over to the rhythms and patterns of this world then I wont do that!
What sin has ripped out of your hands is not all lost…if you can just keep my jubilee then you can have this amazing restored relationship with me
But if you don’t.....If you don’t keep a Jubilee
Leviticus 26:14-16

14 “But if you will not listen to me and will not do all these commandments, 15 if you spurn my statutes, and if your soul abhors my rules, so that you will not do all my commandments, but break my covenant, 16 then I will do this to you

And then there was a huge list of things that would happen...
Wasting disease
Your enemies will eat your crops
You will die by the sword
Your enemies will rule over you..
Basically if you don’t listen to me then what is going to happen is that you will be ground back to dust... Just like the curse of the garden
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21 “Then if you walk contrary to me and will not listen to me, I will continue striking you, sevenfold for your sins.

So if the ideal is 7th day rest!
then the anti ideal is being punished 7 times!
and three more times God will say…if you still don’t do this I will punish you 7 times over...
Its like hey, the sabbath is a big deal, these sabbath years are huge!
The sabbath is so big because it is a way that you repent over your perceived ownership of time…It becomes a way that you surrender to the kingdom of God.
Leviticus 26:33-34

33 And I will scatter you among the nations, and I will unsheathe the sword after you, and your land shall be a desolation, and your cities shall be a waste.

34 “Then the land shall enjoy its Sabbaths as long as it lies desolate, while you are in your enemies’ land; then the land shall rest, and enjoy its Sabbaths

So if you don’t practice the jubilee…You will be exiled so at least the land can rest!
have we gotten our fill of Leviticus today?
We have zero record of Israel ever practicing a time of Jubilee.
And the key here is that Israel will be exiled the amount of time of the sabbaths they missed
Ok I know this is like heavy on the brain this morning...
Israel is exiled…They are sent to Babylon...
And if any of you remember there is this prophet named Daniel…And in chapter 9 he is praying because he remembers his prophet friend Jeremiah that said.....when 70 years are gone for Israel…You shall seek me and find me when you seek me with all of your heart....
Daniel is praying for the restoration of Israel…He is like God we have been exiled 70 years…So can we come home now.... and the answer that Daniel gets is super strange

24 “Seventy weeks are decreed about your people and your holy city, to finish the transgression, to put an end to sin, and to atone for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal both vision and prophet, and to anoint a most holy place

I know this is cryptic but this is 70x7 which is 490 years
This little verse is so confusing and you basically have to have a PHD to understand it...
So Daniel is realizing that it is 7 sets of 70....in otherwords 70 missed jubilee years…And God is punishing them 7 times
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Its a powerful statement about the history of Israel forsaking the jubilee
And the reality is that we could get really confusing here with numbers and such, but that is not what I am going to do to you...
What has to happen in these 490 years
The rebellion of Israel needs to be over
Sealing up Israel’s sin
Atonement for Evil…Israel is still evil
Bringing eternal righteousness
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So you can study Daniel 9 and try and turn it into a formula …people have literally gone crazy studying this scripture…But what is the 70 sets of 7
490 is anti -Jubilee that is exile
So what Daniel learns is that exile will end in 490 years
Can anyone guess who comes on the scene 490 years later and declairs a mission of Jubilee...
Someone who is constantley releasing the sick by healing them
Giving sight to the blind
Someone who has a forgiveness mission
Israel may not have practiced a jubilee but today you can practce a jubilee mission of your own...
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The word forgive in the New Testament greek has two meanings
It means to release someone
It means to give a gift....
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Peter asks Jesus about this
Matthew 18:21-22

21 Then Peter came up and said to him, “Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?” 22 Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you seven times, but seventy-seven times.

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Seventy-seven times in the ancient greek is 70x7…Do you get the connection to Daniel??? The Jubilee is here…Forgive 490 times!
Be a jubilee person
The point of all of this Leviticus and Daniel talk today is that you can have a mini jubilee every time you act like Jesus acted
You can have a mini jubilee every time you forgive someone of their sin
Because in the same way as the Jubilee Celebration
Forgiveness is a Release & a gift
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Challenge

Maybe you and Jesus need to have a jubilee conversation right now.
He wants to offer you forgiveness....release you from your sin & make you new...
Let’s pray
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