Consecrate the
fiftieth year and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants.
It shall be a jubilee for you; each of you is to return to his family
property... Leviticus 25:10
We’re all familiar with the
word “jubilee”. It means a celebration of an anniversary, especially a fiftieth
anniversary. But do you know where it comes from?
Well, here it is, tucked
away in Leviticus 25. It is probably derived from the Hebrew word yobel (or jobel),
meaning a ram’s horn or trumpet, because this very special year was introduced
by a trumpet blast, blown throughout Israel in the seventh month.
God seems to like sevens.
Every seventh day was a sabbath, a day of rest. Every seventh year was a
“sabbath year”, when the ground lay fallow and also enjoyed a rest. And every
seven-times-seventh year (that’s every forty-ninth year, if your arithmetic’s a
bit rusty) introduced this specially special year, the year of jubilee.
So... what actually happened
during the jubilee year?
The straight answer, I’m afraid,
would seem to be: not a lot, actually!
There is no record of the
year of jubilee ever being observed throughout Israel’s history. Of course,
that doesn’t necessarily mean it wasn’t - perhaps it was, but just didn’t get
mentioned. (For what’s it’s worth, neither is there any record of the annual
Day of Atonement being observed.)
Whatever... the rules laid
down in Leviticus 25 stand as a kind of ideal - you might even say that as
Christians we are awaiting the jubilee-to-end-all-jubilees when Jesus returns.
In essence, this year was
intended as a national wiping clean of the slate - or, if you like, the
pressing of a re-set button.
Two great events were envisaged: first, all land
would be returned to its original, ancestral owners; second, all slaves would
be set free and given the means to start a new life.
Put as simply as that (there
was, of course, more detail) it’s clear that the year of jubilee marked a
radical social revolution (perhaps that’s why it never actually happened, if
that is indeed the case!).
The crude illustration that comes to my mind is
those occasions when you take a deep breath and set about clearing out a load
of junk that has accumulated over the years. Oh the bliss! the sense of
cleansing! the feel of making a new start!
The effect of the jubilee
legislation would have been twofold.
First, it would be
impossible for any person or family to become, if you’ll pardon the expression,
filthy rich.
Wealth in ancient Israel was
measured not so much in money in the bank (after all, there were no such things
as banks) as in land possessed. If you had a lot of money, certainly you could
buy land. But you knew, when you did so, that it would only be yours until the
next jubilee year; as we would say today, you had it on lease-hold rather than
free-hold.
Putting it another way, in
every generation there would be a levelling out of prosperity, and an
opportunity for those who had fallen foul of the system to get going again.
Second, it would be
impossible for any person or family to be perpetual slaves.
Slavery within Israel
generally arose because somebody whose life had taken a down-turn was forced to
sell themselves to a richer person in order to survive. They too would have the
opportunity to get their life up and running again.
Sounds radical? Yes, because
to our modern, and especially western eyes, it is radical! Think what this
would mean, for example, to those born into the Dalit class (“Untouchables”) in
India, and who are thus condemned to a life of humiliation and servitude... Or
to parents who are forced to leave home for months or years at a time in order
to find work to support their families, thus losing contact with growing
children... Slavery, sadly, is still a shocking reality in our modern world.
Well, it’s not going to
happen, is it? So why bother with these ancient laws?
The answer is that, if
nothing else, it gives us an insight into the mind of God, and the kind of
society he regards as just and healthy. (He isn’t only concerned about the
salvation of individual souls!)
The prophet Micah looked for
a day when “every man would sit under his own vine and under his own fig-tree”
(Micah 4:4). Beautiful! Isn’t that a jubilee vision? The Psalmist tells us
that, ultimately, “the earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it” (Psalm 24:1).
Isn’t that too? The prophet Isaiah rails against those who “add house to house
and join field to field, till no space is left” (Isaiah 5:8). And that?
Jesus told the story of the
rich fool (Luke 12:13-21), and warned of how hard (all right, hard, not
impossible!) it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of heaven (Mark 10:23).
Isn’t that a jubilee sentiment? Indeed, when he teaches us to pray that God’s
kingdom may come and his will be done “on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew
6:10), isn’t that a Jubilee sentiment? I could go on...
Ultimately, it’s about
fairness and justice for all. God cares about these things. Shouldn’t we too?
Father in heaven, as
I look at the cruelties and injustices of the world we have created, help me to
see it through your loving and compassionate eyes, and to do whatever is in my
power to put it right. Amen.
The Jubilee Centre is a
Christian charity that aims to bring a biblical bearing to social and economic
issues. Why not look them up at www.jubilee-centre.org?
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