The institution of the Jubilee had a double testimony. It testified of man's confusion, and it testified of God's order. During forty-nine years, many things were allowed to get into disorder under the hand of man. One man got into poverty, another into debt, another into bondage, another into exile. Again, one man, through extravagance, had let his inheritance slip through his hands; another by his shrewdness or penuriousness had added to his.
Thus it happened during man's day, but the trumpet of jubilee changed, in a moment, the entire condition of things. No sooner had that hallowed sound fallen on the ear than the debtor was released, the slave emancipated, and the exile brought back. The jubilee was God's year, and He would have no debtors, no slaves, and no exiles. All should be free and happy, and all abundantly supplied throughout Jehovah's year. When the Lord alone is exalted, all must be right.
It is interesting and very practical to note the various ways in which men would be affected by the approach of the year of jubilee. The man who had lost property would be glad because he would get it back. The man who had gained property would be sorry because he would lose it. But the man who had neither lost nor gained, the right-minded Israelite who had retained his patrimony and was satisfied therewith, this man would regard the jubilee simply as a noble testimony to God's order. He would not regard it with reference to his gains or losses, but as securing the blessing of the entire nation.
Thus it was with the Jew in reference to the jubilee, and thus it should be with the Christian in reference to the glorious appearing of the Son from heaven. We should simply look forward to that blessed event as the moment of Christ's exaltation—the moment of His full investiture with the kingdoms of this world—the moment in which a period shall be put to all man's misrule and confusion. The order of God shall be established for evermore. Blessed, longed-for moment!
The cross is the remedy for all man's confusion, and the basis of God's order. This is strikingly brought out in the ordinance of the jubilee. "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." Lev. 25:99Then 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. (Leviticus 25:9). The trumpet of jubilee and the Day of Atonement were inseparably linked together. The blood of the cross is the foundation of everything. In the times of the restitution of all things, the river of life will proceed out of the throne of God and of the Lamb. (Rev. 22:11And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb. (Revelation 22:1).) C.H. Mackintosh