Today in the New Testament age, the age of grace, we are in the year of jubilee, for the gospel has brought us into jubilee – we have returned to God as our inheritance and to the church as our family. Hallelujah for the year of jubilee, the acceptable year of the Lord!
Since the Lord Jesus came, we entered into a new age, the age of grace, and this entire age is an age of jubilee! And when He returns again, there will be yet another jubilee, a particular jubilee for the people of Israel and for the Lord’s overcomers.
We need to hear the jubilee and speak the jubilee for all sinners and also for the prodigals, the brothers and sisters who wandered off, who veered off the Christian path, and who have backslidden from the church life.
We all need to be returned to our possession and to our family, and we all need to be delivered from whatever has captured and distracted us. We need a jubilee, a return to God and to our family – the church.
When in the Old Testament the jubilee was sounded out, there was joy and ecstasy throughout the land, for all those who sold their land and even themselves were returned to their land and to their family.
The Year of Jubilee in the Bible in its Type, Prophecy, and Application in our experience
There are four main portions in the Bible that speak of the year of jubilee.
The first one is in Lev. 25:8-17 – the type of the jubilee. Every seven years there was a Sabbath year, when people did not sow or till their ground but eat of the produce as it grew; then, after the seventh Sabbath year, in mid-year, they sounded aloud the ram’s horn, and had a ringing shout, a huge shout: the year of jubilee is here!
This was a very joyous occasion – nobody was sitting gloomy and morose, but everyone was ecstatic, crazy, jubilant, exultant, filled with exhilarating joy and happiness. This all took place on the tenth day of the seventh month, the day of expiation.
On that day Israel was supposed to proclaim liberty in the land; this was the real proclamation of emancipation! Each one was to return to his possessions and to his family! These are to of the most important things in our life: what we have and who we’re with.
Our possession is what supplies us, gives us a livelihood, and keeps us alive and in the enjoyment. Our family is our household, what brings us warmth, love, security, and safety. Praise the Lord for the year of jubilee!
In Isa. 61:1-3 we see the prophecy of the jubilee. Here the Lord promises that He will bind up the wounds of the broken-hearted and proclaim liberty to the captives. Many are wounded and are broken-hearted, but they will be bound up by the anointed One of Jehovah – Christ!
And this One, Christ, will proclaim liberty to the captives. He will open the eyes of the blind (the blind ones are bound), and proclaim the acceptable year of Jehovah, the year of jubilee.
The year of jubilee is the year that Jehovah accepts all the sinners, all those who were captives of Satan and sold under sin, those in death, those who are in bondage by so many things. He will accept them and comfort those who mourn, turning their mourning into dancing! Hallelujah!
The fulfillment of the year of jubilee is in Luke 4:16-22, when the Lord came and read this portion from Isaiah and said, Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.
The Lord Jesus, the One sitting in front of His fellow country men, was anointed by God, having the Spirit of the Lord upon Him, and He came to preach the gospel, proclaim the release of those in captivity, recover the sight to the blind, and send away in release all those who were oppressed. Hallelujah!
This Scripture is still being fulfilled today, more than 2000 years later, for we as believers in Christ are here because of our jubilee Jesus!
In Acts 26:16-19 we see that Paul was commissioned to preach a sevenfold gospel – the jubilee!
We need to preach this gospel, day by day and to everyone. This is what people need; they are oppressed, sick, blinded, and poor – they need the jubilee!
Thank You Lord for coming to proclaim the year of jubilee – the acceptable year of the Lord! Hallelujah, Christ has come to proclaim liberty to the captives, to open the eyes of the blind, and release those in bondage. Praise the Lord, Jesus Christ was anointed by God with the Spirit to announce the year of jubilee and send away in release all those who were oppressed! Lord Jesus, bring us fully into the jubilee – cause us to return to God as our inheritance and to the church as our family! Hallelujah for the jubilee!
In the Year of Jubilee we Return to God as our Inheritance and We’re Freed from Slavery
The year of jubilee in Lev. 25:8-17 is recorded as a prophecy in Isa. 61:1-3 and it is fulfilled in reality in Luke 4:16-22. In this year of jubilee there were two main blessings: the returning of every man to his lost possession and the liberation from slavery.
Each of the family in Israel was allotted a portion of the good land; however, after they all received their portions, some became poor and sold their allotment, thus losing their possession, their inheritance. Even more, some became so poor that they sold themselves into slavery, thus losing their freedom and becoming separated from their families.
Therefore, when the year of jubilee came, each one of them who has sold his possession – his allotted portion of the good land – was returned to it without paying anything to redeem it (see Lev. 25:10, 13, 28), and everyone who had sold himself into slavery regained his freedom and was returned to his family (vv. 39-41). Hallelujah!
This is a type of us, the New Testament believers, and of all human beings.
When God created man, He intended to give Himself in Christ to man to be his possession, his inheritance (see Gen. 2:9; 13:12-15; Psa. 16:5; 90:1); however, man became fallen, and in his fall he lost God as his possession (Gen. 3:24; 4:16; Eph. 2:12) and he even sold himself into slavery under sin, Satan, and the world (John 8:34; 1 John 5:19).
But when Christ came as the jubilee Jesus, He brought in the year of jubilee! Hallelujah!
God’s New Testament salvation which was accomplished by God’s grace and is based on His redemption in Christ (Rom. 3:24; 5:1-2; Eph. 2:8), brings fallen man back to God as his divine possession (Acts 26:18; Gal. 3:14; Eph. 1:14; Col. 1:12; Luke 15:12-24), releases man from slavery under sin, Satan, and the world (John 8:32; Rom. 6:6, 14; 8:2; Heb. 2:14-15; John 12:31), and restores man to his divine family, the household of God (Gal. 6:10; Eph. 2:19), that he may enjoy fellowship in God’s grace (2 Cor. 13:14).
This is not just to “heal us a little” or cure us, but to emancipate us and liberate us from slavery and the power of sin!
And our return to our possession and release from slavery is not due to us having money to redeem ourselves: rather, Christ paid the price, He redeemed us, and He wiped our debt clean so now we can enjoy the year of jubilee!
Our home was lost to foreclosure, we have no money to get it back, but Christ paid the price and the ram’s horn was sounded, and now we can return to our possession and to our home without paying anything for it!
We have been returned to God, who is man’s ordained possession when God created man.
It is not God who lost man, but man lost God; God is our inheritance, but due to the fall of man we have left God, we have lost God. But praise the Lord, we are now in the year of jubilee, and we have returned to God as our lost divine possession, and we have been released from all the bondage!
God is ours – He is our possession in the year of jubilee! He is so rich, so full, so sweet, and so all-inclusive, and we can enjoy Him as our inheritance! Whatever our desire is – He exceeds!
When we were saved, we were sealed by the Spirit and we were given the Spirit as the pledge of our inheritance (see Eph. 1:13-14); the Spirit is the foretaste of the full taste of the Triune God in Christ as the Spirit to be our inheritance forever.
The Triune God is man’s unique inheritance and designated possession; even though we lost this possession, when we hear the gospel and believe, we are returned to our inheritance and we are delivered from slavery!
Hallelujah, if the Son sets us free, we are free indeed, for His truth sets us free!
Every human being – not just the Israelites but every man that ever lived or will ever live – has lost his possession due to the fall of man; but Jesus came to proclaim the year of jubilee, and we all are being returned to our lost possession!
Every human being – every descendant of Adam – is under the slavery of Satan, sin, death, and many other evil things; but the year of jubilee proclaimed by the Lord Jesus releases us from slavery and returns us to God as our inheritance!
Praise the Lord, the year of jubilee is here! Hallelujah, we have been returned to the Triune God as our inheritance, we have been liberated from the slavery of sin and Satan, and we have been returned to the church as our family! Thank You Lord Jesus for emancipating us by liberating us from sin and its power! Thank You Lord for bringing us back to God to enjoy God as our inheritance and possession. He is so rich, so full, so sweet, so wonderful, and He satisfies all the desires of our heart! What freedom! Glorious freedom! God, our designated inheritance, is ours!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by Minoru Chen for this week, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1984, vol. 4, “The Jubilee,” ch. 1, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-Study of Leviticus (2), week 10, The Jubilee (1).
- Hymns on this topic:
# Once I was bound by sin’s galling fetters, / Chained like a slave I struggled in vain; / But I received a glorious freedom, / When Jesus broke my fetters in twain. / Glorious freedom, wonderful freedom, / No more in chains of sin I repine! / Jesus the glorious Emancipator, / Now and forever He shall be mine. (Hymns #310)
# Give up the world, Christ to obtain, / He is your heart’s very need; / What else can you desire or seek? / All things are empty indeed! / He is so rich, He is so full, / He can fulfill all your needs! / He is so good, He is so sweet, / All your desire He exceeds! (Hymns #1025)
# You, Lord, have sent away, released, / Those once oppressed, whose bondage ceased. / You have proclaimed today to be / God’s promised year of Jubilee. / Lord, You have now fulfilled God’s Word; / Your proclamation we have heard. / We join with You, our hearts You’ve stirred; / God’s kingdom’s here, the age has turned. (Song on, The Jubilee)
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