Return, return, ye captives!
Return unto your home!
The silver trumpet soundeth,
The jubilee has come!
Leviticus 25:11-24
“A JUBILEE shall that fiftieth year be unto you: ye shall not sow, neither reap... For it is the jubilee; it shall be holy unto you: ye shall eat the increase thereof out of the field.”
The trumpet of jubilee was to be sounded on the great day of atonement, after the scapegoat had carried away the people’s sins to the land of forgetfulness. What a blessed time this would be! The whole year was to be set apart and liberty proclaimed to all — a whole year of enjoyment without labor. With such blessing, poverty would disappear. Fruit would grow in abundance under the gracious hand of God without any cultivation by man. He Himself, the Source and Giver, would provide for all.
What blessing to His creatures, with the power to bring it to pass. Surely He is worthy to be worshiped as “the Creator, who is blessed forever” (Rom. 1:25). And yet we know Him in a more blessed way through His dear Son, the full expression of His heart of love.
How sad to think that Israel never enjoyed the wonderful goodness of God in this way, for it seems in this as in everything else, they failed to obey; apparently they never kept the year of jubilee.
But God will not be frustrated in His purposes; His heart will yet be gratified. Israel have sold themselves and their land to strangers but God has not given up the thoughts of His love towards them. The glad time is coming when the land will yet keep its jubilee; for “in the year of this jubilee ye shall return every man unto his possession.” v. 13.
In buying and selling, Israel were told not to oppress one another. The value of land or possessions was to be reckoned according to the number of years until the next jubilee, when all possessions returned to their former owners. Thus it would be unjust to put a high price on a possession when the jubilee was near. So it was that the Lord Himself regulated the value of things. And this would remind us, who look for the Lord’s soon coming, not to set a high value on things which we are so soon to leave behind. When the trumpet sounds for us, we will leave this world forever to go and be with and like our Saviour.
“The land shall not be sold forever: for the land is Mine; for ye are strangers and sojourners with Me.” v. 23. Israel forfeited all their possessions and sold themselves into bondage, but the Lord will vindicate His rights in that day, no matter what thoughts Israel’s enemies might have nor how powerful they might be. The Lord may allow them in His judgment to come in like a flood and overflow the land, but still it is His land, and He will appear in Person to the salvation of the remnant of His people and to the awful destruction of all their enemies.
It is very sad to think that when the Lord came to His own land, His own people did not receive Him (John 1:11). He was a Stranger here and had no place to lay His head. Such was the sorrowful state of His people. Yet He found a home in the hearts of poor repentant ones whom His grace attached to Himself. It was not the time to bring in the year of jubilee then. He must first die for His people’s sins, and for all who trust Him as their Saviour now. If we would be faithful to Him, we too would be “strangers and sojourners” with Him during the time of His rejection.
ML-11/05/1972