Sabbath Years and Jubilee

INTRO

Yesterday, we learned about the Sabbath’s importance and the seven feasts the Israelites were commanded to celebrate. The purpose of the Sabbath and the feasts was to remember what God had done and would do for the Israelites. Every festival also points to the Messiah. As a recap, the seven festivals are:

1. Passover
2. Feast of Unleavened Bread
3. Firstfruits
4. Pentecost
5. Feast of Trumpets
6. Day of Atonement
7. Feast of Booths

God gave the Israelites a new calendar. Today, we’re going to dive into what this looked like over the course of 50 years.

TEACHING

Leviticus 25:1–2: We know God is the one who owns the land (v. 2). We will also see that God owns the people (v. 55). Wiersbe noted that God truly is the “landlord.”¹As the landlord, God wants to be sure His people know what to do. Verses 1–7 and 18–22 outline God’s rules for rest for the land.

Leviticus 25:3: The Israelites were to “sow your field for six years,” that is, to plant six years of crops.

Leviticus 25:4: The seventh year was to be a Sabbath of complete rest. The Israelites were to work the land for six years. But in the seventh year, they were to do no work—they were not to sow the field or prune the vineyard in the seventh year. They were not to touch the land.

Leviticus 25:5: They were instructed not even to reap what grew on its own.

Leviticus 25:6–7: They could feed themselves, their slaves, their hired hands, the foreigners who stayed with them, and the livestock from what the land produced in the Sabbath year. Why is it healthy to give land rest? If you continually work it, you’re breaking it down so that it doesn’t have any natural nutrients left. Constable said that God didn’t want the Israelites to “work the land to death.”²Why was it important to stop working for the seventh year? It was a time to regather themselves and be refreshed.

Leviticus 25:8–17: Not only did the land rest, but both land and financial debts were released (Deuteronomy 15:1–11). Each year, during the Feast of Booths, all Israel assembled and read from the book of law (Deuteronomy 31:9–13). God wanted the Israelites to go back to the law so they could do it for another six years. Over the course of time, the Israelites forgot the law and festivals and didn’t follow them anymore (Jeremiah 25:8–11). They stopped doing all this. The whole land would become conquered by their enemies. Why? Because they didn’t obey God’s law. When there’s a standard that God has given (Leviticus 18), and we don’t follow it, there’s always a consequence (Leviticus 20). God told them to let the land rest. Instead, they played god and were so thickheaded about working the land that they worked it to death. So God sent them away for 70 years.

Leviticus 25:18: “You are to keep My statutes and ordinances.” Apparently, that didn’t happen. Because they didn’t keep God’s ordinances, they missed out on the blessings of verse 19.

Leviticus 25:19: “The land will yield its fruit so that you can eat, be satisfied, and live securely in the land.” They lost their land because they didn’t keep the Sabbath. They lost their land because they kept doing the work.

Leviticus 25:20–21: God promised to take care of the Israelites by giving them so many crops in the sixth year that it would be enough for three years!

Leviticus 25:22: Why did the Israelites need provision for three years? Since they wouldn’t sow in the seventh year, they would sow in the eighth year, but the crop wouldn’t come until the ninth year. They needed provision for years six, seven, and eight. God was not only going to provide for seven years but for the next 50 (Leviticus 25:8)! But the Israelites didn’t trust the Word of the Lord. All of this was just for the seven-year time period, but let’s look at the Year of Jubilee by going back to verse 8.

Leviticus 25:8–12: Moses outlined seven sets of seven years in which the seventh year was a Sabbatical year. In the 50^th year, the trumpet blew on the Day of Atonement. This was the day the high priest went before the Lord to sacrifice the animals for atonement. Holiness was even present in the Israelite calendar. The Year of Jubilee was holy.

Leviticus 25:13–17: Wiersbe identified four words that God called for during the Year of Jubilee:

Repentance (v. 9): God called for repentance on the Day of Atonement.

Release (v. 10): They were to make sure everyone had been released!

Rest (v. 11): They were not to sow, reap, or harvest but to eat what had been given to them.

Restoration (vv. 13–17): both property and land.³

Leviticus 25:18–23: Fruit came from observing the Sabbath years and Year of Jubilee. God owned the land, so it was never permanently sold. The poor and the rich were equal. No one could ever have more than another for the long term because everything evened out in the Year of Jubilee. When a person walks through this process of repentance, release, rest, and restoration, they have been revived!

CLOSING

Do you want to know how you ultimately get this revival? Isaiah prophesied that a coming Messiah was going to do these things. The Spirit of the Lord has anointed the Messiah to bring good news to the poor, heal the brokenhearted, and proclaim liberty for the captives and freedom for the prisoners (Isaiah 61:1). Isaiah described what happened in the Year of Jubilee! He went on to say, “and to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favor.” The year of the Lord’s favor was the Year of Jubilee!

The Israelites went through a time of repentance, release, rest, and restoration so they could start all over again, and I believe the way that we start all over again (according to Luke 4) is by turning to Christ. We turn to Him for freedom! The way we experience the Year of Jubilee in our own lives is through Jesus Christ.