The
Year of the Jubilee, Leviticus Chapter 25
A. The law of the fallow year.
a. This is an expansion of the law of Exodus 23:10-11.
b. An expansion of Deut. 15:1-2.
c. Debts and pledges given for loans were released.
B. Verses 8-12 -
a. The fiftieth year after the 7th Sabbatical year.
b. Verse 10 - the two concepts fundamental to the entire institution.
(1)Liberty - burden from debt and the bondage it may have brought.
(2) Return - ancestral property and mortgages associated with property.
(3) It is these two ideas that find themselves expressed in the New Testament as we see later.
C. Verses 13-17 - The financial implications of a recurring Jubilee are spelled out.
a. The sale of any property amounted to only the sale for the use of the land.
b. So - how close or far away from the Jubilee determined the value of the property.
D. Verses 18-22 - If you observe these rules (an exhortation),there will be a special blessing.
a. Theological implications, must trust in the Lord entirely.
b. Must realize that YHWH controls nature!
E. Verses 23-24 - These verses are a heading to the remaining paragraphs
F. Verses 25-55- The details of redemption.
A. The Three stages of poverty.
(1) Stage one. Hard times for any reason.
(2) Near kin were to redeem the land for family.
(3) The seller also has the right (always) to redeem the land for himself.
(4) At any level, whether sold or redeemed by kinsman, it reverts to the original family on the Jubilee.
a. The Exception - Verses 29-31.
(1) Rules do not apply to land in the city.
(2) Homes in the village are subject to the rules.
b. Another exception - vs. 32-34. The Levities were
subject to the above rules regardless of location.
B. Stage Two - vs. 35-38 -
(1) The Endemic Poor - If the poor person cannot stay solvent.
(2) Kinsman must maintain him as a dependent laborer.
(3) Must provide interest free loans.
C. Stage 3a - vs. 39-43. - Total economic collapse -
(1) has nothing left to sell or mortgage.
(2) He and his family are already in servitude to the kinsman.
(3) Never allowed to treat this person or his family as slaves.
(4) Situation must remain as is until the next Jubilee.
a. The Exception - (vs. 44-46) This is a reminder that the Jubilee did not apply to foreign slaves. Redistribution of the land was the primary point.
C. Stage 3b - vs. 47-55 - Outside the clan
(1) If debt of person was outside the clan, then the responsibility lay with the entire clan to keep the property.
(2) See vs. 48-49. The responsibility moves outward.
(3) The clan also had the duty to see that a non-Israelite
debtor behaved as an Israelite.
D. In Summary
(1) Timing was everything. Economy was tied to the Jubilee.
(2) Purpose was to keep the land .
Background on Luke 4
Jesus comes back home to Nazareth following his anointing by John and temptation by Satan and joins his friends and family for an evening of worship on the Sabbath. He in fact, leads worship that evening by reading and teaching from the Scriptures—which, it turns out—are the profoundly evocative Jubilee words found in Isaiah 61:1- It is the derôr (“liberty” to the captives).
A. Jesus changes the Passages of Isaiah 61:1
1) Four phrases in Isaiah 61:1, Jesus skips, to heal the broken hearted."
2) Replaces with" Let the oppressed go free, from Isa. 58:6.
3) Now back to chapter 61,deletes, "the day of vengeance of our God." (612b)
Luke’s account doesn’t just tell about how Jesus came to Nazareth and announced the good news. The announcement itself embodies the good news. Through this announcement, Jesus presents himself as the fulfillment of one of the most profound prophesies of the Hebrew Scriptures. The hope of the people of Israel will be fulfilled in him. Jesus is the Messiah, “the anointed one,” because he has been “anointed” (chriō, specially chosen) by God to bring good news to the poor. In the Beatitudes the poor in spirit are blessed and will receive the kingdom of heaven (Mt. 5:3), but in Luke the good news brought by Jesus is proclaimed for those who are economically poor. And what is this good news? The good news is that those in debtors’ prison will be pardoned, the blind will see (remembering that blindness meant poverty in biblical times), and the economically and politically oppressed will be freed—because the year of God’s
amnesty, the Jubilee, had arrived.
First, we must point out how many Bibles label the entire section from 4:16-30 something like, “Jesus’ Rejection at Nazareth.” That is actually only the last of four themes in the section, and I don’t think Luke would have agreed with this label. The first theme, and the one that most determines the meaning of the next three, should be something like, “Jesus aligns self with time of Salvation.” Write that in the margins of your Bible.
Second, note the word “Spirit” (ðíå™ìá, pneuma), a term that is of critical importance in Luke. Jesus is conceived by the Spirit (1:35); he was just baptized with the Spirit (3:21), and now is empowered by the Spirit (4:1, 14, 18). Walter Pilgrim says that this Spirit “is the divine reality behind Jesus’ life and mission and that of the church.”1 The Spirit has anointed Jesus “to bring good news (i.e., the gospel) to the poor.” Jesus’ anointing in the Spirit at baptism was a divine commissioning. In his reading and sermon at Nazareth, Jesus says that he was ordained to bring the good news of God’s redemptive task to one particular social group: the poor. It is possible that the term “poor” is a collective term that stands for all of the others in the passage: the captives, blind, and the oppressed. It is more likely, however, that he means it as a separate term alongside the others. This would be more in line with the numerous other examples of Jesus’ particular concern for the poor.
T hird, “release to the captives.” In the texts of the Jubilee (Lev. 25-27) and Sabbath Year (Deut. 15:1, Exodus 23:11), the term “Release” (aphesis) was used as a technical term for the forgiveness of real, financial, debts. In Luke's Gospel, this concept seems to be broadened to include the forgiveness of sins (1:77; 7:47; 24:47), but authentic forgiveness of financial debts remains just under the surface.
Fourth, “recovery of sight to the blind.” As on other occasions, Jesus is probably speaking on two levels: a literal recovery from blindness (Luke 7:21; 18:35-43) and a metaphorical recovery of the poor from an oppressive social situation (John 9).
All in all, there are four themes in this passage that point back to the Jubilee language of Leviticus. 1. Announcement of good news to the poor; 2. Release of (debt) slaves (and spiritual release in general); 3. Liberation of captives; and 4. the acceptable year of the Lord (Year of the Lord’s favor).
One must be cautious about applying the socio-economic justices themes of Leviticus and Isaiah directly to the life and teaching of Jesus. Jesus did have concerns for wealth, poverty, and liberation, but he was larger than that. He did not call for the establishment of a Jubilee-style debt cancellation program, and nothing of the type has ever occurred since.
journey.
1. Bringing good news to the poor
Who are the poor? What does it mean to “bring” good news to them? The KJV translated this as “preach” good news to the poor, which emphasized the word and not the deed. Given the background of Isaiah, this on one level is literally the poor, on another level, all without God are poor. Jesus was called, ordained to this task. What does that mean to we who are followers?
2. This is fulfilled in your hearing
This grand vision can only be fulfilled (pepērōtai, completed, consummated) when those who have ears to hear do hear and act on it. What does it mean to have this message come to pass eschatologically when our ears are able to hear it? It is a magisterial vision, and impossible without God’s help. Jesus is saying that we must hear it, and own it, and act on it.
3. Jesus’ sermon on this text (Luke 4:21-30)
Finally Jesus’ sermon on this text is essentially two stories taken from familiar passages in their own scriptures. What made them important (and troubling) was that in both the people to whom God showed favor were foreigners. The simple message was that God came to people outside their protected circles. God’s Jubilee is not a spiritual gift only for those inside the church on the hill. The gift of God’s love comes not only to us but also to those outside of our race, class, sex, country, and beliefs.
The people heard Jesus’ message and were enraged. The message of God’s love for the stranger was so heretical that they tried to kill the hometown boy who preached it to them. They took him to a high hill outside of town and attempted to throw him off, but miraculously, “he passed through the midst of them, and went on his way” (Luke 4:30).
What does this say about us? How high is our “fear factor” for learning the truth about God’s love? Do we hoard it or are we capable of living out the idea that every member of the Lord's family is my brother/sister in Christ and when one hurts we all hurt?
The Final Jubilee of Man
Psalms 24:1, "The earth is the Lord's and everything in it, the world and all who live in it......"
The Jubilee was to be proclaimed with the blast of a trumpet. It is this instrument from which the name Jubilee comes from (yobel). The major themes of Jubilee are release/liberty and return/restoration.
The idea of redemption and return are combined in the vision of Isaiah 35 (Also Isaiah 61) whereas Isaiah explains that the Jubilee will be God's final intervention into the economy of man. Listen to this:
"the ransomed of the Lord will return. They will enter Zion with singing; everlasting joy will crown their heads. Gladness and joy will overtake them, and sorrow and sighing will flee away."
And finally we all wait for that grand day which we often sing of:
"When the trumpet (yobel) of the Lord shall sound and time shall be no more" we then enter the final Jubilee.
by
Lane
1Pilgrim, Ibid., p. 67.