Providing A Fresh Start

LESSON 8

JULY 26, 2009

PROVIDING A FRESH START BIBLE BASIS: Lesson Scripture: Leviticus 25:8-21,23,24 BIBLE TRUTH: God seals His promise. MEMORY VERSE: ... Ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof: it shall be a jubilee unto you; and ye shall return every man unto his possession, and ye shall return every man unto his family. Leviticus 25:10 LESSON AIM: That you will appreciate liberty through God's deliv ance.

LESSON SCRIPTURE LEVITICUS 25:8-21,23,24 8. And thou shalt number seven Sabbaths of years unto thee, seven times seven years; and the space of the seven sabbaths of years shall be unto thee forty and nine years. 9. Then shalt thou cause the trumpet of the jubilee to sound on the tenth day of the seventh month, in the day of atonement shall ye make the trumpet sound throughout all your land.

10. And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof: it shall be a jubilee unto you; and ye shall return every man unto his possession, and ye shall return every man unto his family. 11. A jubilee Shall that fiftieth year be unto you: ye shall not sow, neither reap that which growth of itself in it, nor gather the grapes in it of thy vine undressed.

12. For it is the jubilee; it shall holy unto you: ye shall eat the increase thereof out of the field. 13. In the year of this jubilee ye shall return every man unto his possession 14. And if thou sell aught unto thy neighbour, or buyest aught of thy neighbour's hand, ye shall not oppress one another: 15. According to the number of years after the jubilee thou shalt buy of neighbour, and according unto the number of years of the fruits he shall sell unto thee: 16. According to the multitude of years thou shalt increase the price thereof, and according to the fewness of years thou shall diminish the price of it: for according to the number of the years of the fruits doth he sell unto thee. 17. Ye shall not therefore oppress one another; but thou shalt fear thy God: for I am the LORD your God.

18. Wherefore ye shall do my statutes, and keep my judgments, and do them; and ye shall dwell in the land in safety.

poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are 19. And the land shall yield her fruit, and bruised, to preach the acceptable year ye shall eat your fill, and dwell therein in of the Lord" (Luke 4:18,19). safety. After giving the scroll back to the atten20. And if ye shall say, What shall we eat dant, Jesus sat down to teach about this the seventh year? behold, we shall not text. The congregation was startled to hear Him say "This day is this Scripture sow, nor gather in our increase: fulfilled in your ears." 21. Then I will command my blessing upon you in the sixth year, and it shall Jesus had just announced a kind of "jubilee" with the beginning of His preachbring forth fruit for three years. ing, teaching, and healing ministry. In essence, He had claimed to be the Mes23. The land shall not be sold for ever: siah, for the rabbis anticipated such a jufor the land is mine; for ye are strangers bilee when the Messiah would come. Those gathered couldn't believe it! "Is and sojourners with me. not this Joseph's son?" they asked 24. And in all the land of your possession rhetorically. Jesus pushed back by saying "Ye will surely say unto me this proverb, ye shall grant a redemption for the land. Physician, heal thyself and "No prophet is accepted in his own country." LIFE NEED FOR TODAY'S LESSON Jesus went on to apply His announceAIM: That you will see Jesus as He begins ment of jubilee by mentioning God's concern for Gentiles, such as the His ministry. Sidon-ian widow (I Kings 17:7-24) and Naa-man, the Syrian leper (II Kings 5). In INTRODUCTION other words, the genuine Messiah's jubilee would be for the whole world, inAnnouncing Jubilee At a certain point very early in Jesus' cluding Gentiles. ministry, He returned to His hometown of Nazareth (Luke 4:14-30). Luke reports that This enraged the congregation to the He went there "in the power of the Spirit," point that they acted as an angry mob. and He went into the synagogue "as his They attempted (but failed) to cast Him custom was." Isaiah the prophet was the down from the brow of the Nazareth hill. How could Jesus' hometown move reading for that particular Sabbath. so quickly from treating Him as a special Jesus, considered to be a special guest, guest to seeing Him only as "Joseph's unrolled the scroll to the place we know as son" and then to having a willingness to Isaiah 61:1,2. There He read "The Spirit of murder Him as a false prophet? Perhaps today's study on jubilee will shed light the Lord is upon me, because he hath on this question. anointed me to preach the gospel to the

BIBLE LEARNING AIM: That you will see and understand the concept of Jubilee. I. CONCEPT OF JUBILEE (Leviticus 25:8-12) A. Calculation (verse 8) 8. And thou shalt number seven sabbaths of years unto thee, seven times seven years; and the space of the seven sabbaths of years shall be unto thee forty and nine years. A special Sabbath year must be observed every 50 years. This is known as the Year of Jubilee, as we shall see below. Its design is such that every Israelite who lives a normal lifetime will experience this special year at least once. The calculation seven times seven is obviously simple. But alongside this simplicity is the elegance of the number seven as part and parcel of the concept of Sabbath.

early October to us. The designation seventh month is in reference to the cycle of the Israelite religious year, although this particular month eventually becomes the first month of the Jewish civil year. A full explanation of the Day of Atonement is found in Leviticus 16:29-34; see also 23:26-32. The greatest of releases in ancient Hebrew experience is to be the annual release of sins on this day. The tabernacle (or temple) is to be sanctified once again, and the people are to have their collective sins atoned for by means of the high priest’s sprinkling of goat blood on top of the ark covering. What better time, then, to begin the Year of Jubilee in signaling, in part, the release from debts? C. Consecration (verse 10) 10. And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof: it shall be a jubilee unto you; and ye shall return every man unto his possession, and ye shall return every man unto his family.

B. Proclamation (verse 9) 9. Then shalt thou cause the trump of the jubilee to sound on the tenth day of the seventh month, in the day of atonement shall ye make the trumpet sound throughout all your land Some scholars think that the meaning the word jubilee is literally "ram's horn. This makes a certain sense, due to the fact that a ram's horn is what is to be blown to announce the jubilee. (We should not think of a trumpet here in terms of the modern brass musical instrument!) The seventh month, in which the day of atonement occurs, is late September and

The Israelite nation is built on three tiers: the household, the clan, and the tribe (see Numbers 26; Judges 6:15). Jubilee is designed to protect the household's right to a particular piece of land (see the distribution of land in Numbers 26 and Joshua 13-21; compare Judges 21:24 and I Kings 21:1-3). Jubilee, the fiftieth year, is the year in which all debts are to be rescinded. Further, all Israelites who have indentured themselves into debt-slavery are to be released so they can return to their own possessions and household (extended family). What a joy! The concepts of freedom and restoration come over into the New Testament era in profound, eternal ways

through Jesus (see the lesson's Intro- one owns the land (see verse 23, duction). below); only the use of the land, in terms of harvests, is sold (verse 16, below). So any "sale" of land is really a QUESTION form of leasing. Fuller explanation fol1. Was there a time when you longed for lows. a fresh start? How did things turn out? QUESTION D. Restriction (verses 11,12) 3. What does today's text teach us 11,12. A jubilee shall that fiftieth year be about the use of debt, if anything? unto you: ye shall not sow, neither reap B. Restrict Undue Advantage (verses that which growth of itself in it, nor 14-17) gather the grapes in it of thy vine undressed. For it is the jubilee; it shall be 14. And if thou sell aught unto thy holy unto you: ye shall eat the increase neighbour, or buyest aught of thy neighbour's hand, ye shall not opthereof out of the field. press one another. In addition to release from debt and the return of land, the land must lie fallow for The command not to oppress one anthe jubilee. It is to be a holy year, devoted other is repeated in verse 17. Thus this to genuine rest for humans, animals, and repeated command serves as bookends land. No sowing is allowed, but one and all for what is said in verses 15, 16. can certainly eat from the field, meaning 15, 16. According to the number of the open country. years after the jubilee thou shalt buy of thy neighbour, and according unto QUESTION the number of years of the fruits he 2. How are the Passover and Year of shall sell unto thee: According to the Jubilee observances different from multitude of years thou shalt increase one another in concept? How are they the price thereof, and according to the similar? How do those differences and fewness of years thou shalt diminish the price of it: for according to the similarities speak to us today? number of the years of the fruits doth he sell unto thee. II. RETURN DURING JUBILEE (Leviticus 25:13-17)

Sale of land is to be regulated according to the number of years until a jubilee is A. Reclaim Family Property (verse 13) proclaimed. The cost is calculated ac13. In the year of this jubilee ye shall cording to how many harvests remain before the jubilee, when the land is to return every man unto his possession. be restored to ancestral ownership. The This is a repeat of part of verse 10. The one who "buys" the land thus is leasing purpose of repeating this statement is to rather than purchasing. emphasize the nature of land in Israel. No

The importance of family property is seen in the inquiry of Zelophehad's five daughters in Numbers 27:1-11. Since their father died without leaving any sons, they feared their father's name would disappear from the clan. An allowance of property to the daughters would ensure that the family name could continue. A follow-up inquiry in Numbers 36 clar ifies further still what is (and is not) to happen. Thus the jubilee procedure we see spelled out here is tied closely to household, clan, and tribal identities.

them; and ye shall dwell in the land in safety. We sometimes sing the old hymn "Trust and Obey." The Israelites are first to obey the Lord and then trust that He will provide the resources for them to live in the land in safety. This is the essential message of the book of Deuteronomy (see 28:1-14 for the blessings of obedience). To disobey is to be thrust from the land (29:25-28).

The exhortation not to oppress one an other is repeated from verse 14. This ex hortation is based on the fear of God that the people are to have. Thus we get the idea that economic oppression is carried out by those who do not fear God (see Proverbs 1:7). The very fact that Yahweh is their God should cause the Israelites to value their relationships with each other by not op pressing one another economically. The sad story of Naboth and his vineyard re veals that even an Israelite king is not to force a fellow Hebrew to sell the families property (I Kings 21, especially vers 3). What happened to Naboth is an example of the arrogance of power. III. OBEDIENCE TO GOD (Leviticus 25:18-21) A. Mandate and Benefit (verses 1:19) 18. Wherefore ye shall do my statute and keep my judgments, and do

4. Which is your usual pattern in your relationship with God: "trust, then obey," or "obey, then trust"? What's the difference? 19. And the land shall yield her fruit, and ye shall eat your fill, and dwell therein in safety. When God's people obey the Lord in terms of jubilee, He blesses them beyond their imagination. To practice jubilee takes faith and even courage. "Can we survive by letting the land lie fallow?" the people may ask themselves. The Lord knows such a question will pop up, so He answers it in the next verse. B. Question and Answer (verses 20, 21) 20,21. And if ye shall say, What shall we eat the seventh year? behold, we shall not sow, nor gather in our increase: Then I will command my blessing upon you in the sixth year, and it shall bring forth fruit for three years. A good salesperson anticipates objections before they come up. God, the master salesman, does just that. He knows the people will hesitate to let the land lie

For our part, we must remind ourselves continually that an attachment to the things of this world is deadly. The world itself is good (Genesis 1:31), but we do not own it. The principles of this world are bad, and we are to reject them (Colossians 2:8). Either way, we should be strangers to that which passes away (I Corinthians 7:31).

God gives a promise, and the people must trust! He fed them during all those years in the wilderness, didn't He? As He promises food during the fallow Sabbath-years (again 25:1-7), so He promises food during the Year of Jubilee. QUESTION IV. PROVISION OF REDEMPTION

QUESTION 17. Ye shall not therefore oppress on another; but thou shalt fear thy God for I am the LORD your God.

fallow out of a concern for having enough to eat. This anxiety is not just about the jubilee year, but also concerns the Sabbath-years of Leviticus 25:1-7.

(Leviticus 25:23,24)

5. How does (or should) our perspective change when we remember that God owns all the land?

A. What Not to Do (verse 23) B. What to Do (verse 24) 23. The land shall not be sold for ever: for the land is mine; for ye are strangers and 24. And in all the land of your possessojourners with me. sion ye shall grant a redemption for the land. Although the land is an inheritance to the Israelites (Leviticus 20:24), it ultimately Leviticus 25:23-38 discusses the details belongs to God. Thus the Israelites should concerning the law o f redemption for think of themselves as tenants. Since God the land (compare Ruth 4; Jeremiah is the owner, the land can only be leased, 32:6-8). Over several decades, an astute with the price being set by the number of person can accumulate much land and harvests until the next jubilee. become very wealthy. Rich landowners will have free reign with those caught in To the phrase strangers and sojourners we the spiral of poverty that can lead to may compare the phrase "strangers and permanent debt-slavery (the modern pilgrims" in I Peter 2:11. These phrases term for this is peonage). After selling speak to the mind-set that God's people land to pay off a debt, a person in are to have. (Contrast the use of the word economic distress loses the primary entitlement that is thrown around so much means of earning a living. today.) The strangers and sojourners Jubilee prevents the land from being outlook is to keep the ancient Israelites sold permanently (verses 23-38) and from having a wrong perspective. God is keeps the debt-slaves from being in the the real owner of the land. Under His condition indefinitely (verses 39-55). protection and care, the people can jubilee, land "ownership" reverts back experience the good of the land. These and the slaves are set free. These are facts set the standard by which they are to not rules to be sprung unfairly on treat one another. Treatment of the poor someone who, unaware of jubilee and those who have had to sell themselves provisions, has already paid for some into debt-slavery is of special concern (see land. Leviticus 25:35-43, 47-53).

BIBLE APPLICATION AIM: That you will see how we celebrate liberty. The Jubilee Ideal and Practice Jubilee was to be the year in which (1) liberty was proclaimed for all Israelites who were enslaved for debt; (2) the remission of debt occurred; (3) land was restored to families who had been com pelled to sell it in the previous 49 years and (4) the land had to lie fallow. This described fully in Leviticus 25:8-55 and referred to in Leviticus 27:16-25 and Numbers 36:4. Jubilee thus was in large part Gods loudspeaker of care for the poor. God has always been concerned for the poor. This is why the farmer was command not to glean the corners of his field (Leviticus 19:9,10; 23:22; Ruth 2:2 The harvest in such areas was to be left for the poor. Jubilee was God's gift to the destitute and despairing, providing them a fresh start. Can this practice teach us something today? We also may wonder if Israel ever practiced jubilee as a nation. We don't really have any firm evidence that they did (Isaiah 37:30 is a possible reference to jubilee ideas). We know that the generation that followed Moses rebelled against God and His laws (Judges 2:10-13). The lack of reference to jubilee in the historical narratives of the Old Testament does not mean that jubilee was not practiced. That would be an argument from silence. We simply do not know. After Solomon's reign, the kingdoms of Israel and Judah were ruled by many kings who would not have welcomed the

practice of jubilee. Other ancient Near Eastern kingdoms did practice the remission of debts at the accession of a new king, but nothing exactly like jubilee. Despite its possible disuse, the prophets appeal to the jubilee ideal metaphorically as part of the coming kingdom of God (example: Isaiah 61:1-3). New Testament Jubilee The "servant" of Isaiah has a jubilee-like ministry to restore Israel to the "land" (see Isaiah 35, 42, 58, 61). Jesus saw himself as that servant when He announced His jubilee ministry to those of His hometown (see the lesson's Introduction). But they rejected Him. Even so, Jesus inaugurated His ministry with the concept of jubilee in mind; forgiveness of the sin debt and restoration of relationship to God were key features of the proclamation of the kingdom. The first-century church proclaimed Jesus' idea of a kingdom characterized by a jubilee spirit (see Acts 4:32-37). The thought of "restoring" was jubilee vocabulary (Acts 1:6; 3:21). As the church proclaims the eternal jubilee available in Christ, she needs to discern if she is practicing an earthly jubilee ideal as Jesus would have us do. Yet as we engage in prayer and soul searching in this regard, we will be careful not to "read into" the New Testament an Old Testament law that was operative only for ancient Israel. The jubilee principle as stated by Paul to the Corinthians is this: "By an equality, that now at this time your abundance may be a supply for their want, that their abundance also may be a supply for your want: that there may be equality: as it is written, He that had gathered much had nothing over; and he that had gathered little had no lack" (II Corinthians 8:14, 15). Practicing

this ideal will be easier when we come to shall return every man unto his family. grips with the fact that we are "strangers Leviticus 25:10 and pilgrims" here (again, I Peter 2:11). HOW TO SAY IT: STUDENTS' RESPONSE Gentiles. Jen-tiles. Leviticus. AIM: That you will recognize why we Leh-v«7-ih-kus. Moses. Mozes or should be thankful Jesus gives us a fresh Mo-zez. Naaman. JV
DAILY HOME BIBLE READINGS

List ways a Christian can grant a jubilee freedom to a brother or sister in Christ. MONDAY Jesus' Vision of Ministry (Luke 4:14-19)

Prayer Our Father, teach us to forgive as we have been forgiven, to give as we have been given to, and to love as we have been loved. In the comfort of Your sovereign provisions and the name of our Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. MEMORY VERSE TO REMEMBER ... Ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof: it shall be a jubilee unto you; and ye shall return every man unto his possession, and ye

TUESDAY Forgiveness and Mercy (Matthew 18:21-35) WEDNESDAY Compassion and Mercy (Luke 10:25-37) THURSDAY Compassion for the Helpless (Matthew 9:35-38) FRIDAY Compassion for the Bereaved (Luke 7:11-17)