Jesus - Saves

AdamsEve · Chief Honcho Joined: 14 Feb 2008 Posts: 1342

Spreading the Wealth

Only registered users can see links on this forum!
Register or Login on forum!

Lev. 25:8-12
The word “ Jubilee ” means “ blowing the ram’s horn ”.

The root occurs also in the name Jubal, the father of musicians ( Gen 4:21 ). The name Jubilee occurs only in Leviticus and in Numbers 36:4. But the idea of release of those enslaved for debt occurs, not only at v 10, but also at Isaiah 61:1; Jeremiah 34:8, 15, 17; Ezekiel 46:17.

From this word the idea of celebration has come into English, especially the celebration of a fiftieth anniversary.

Probably it was well that the announcement came “ on the Day of Atonement ” ( v 9 ), that solemn day of contrition. Otherwise many a hardhearted, rich Israelite would have refused the obligations of the release.

The Jubilee and sabbaticals were not always observed ( 2 Chronicles 36:21 ).

It seems rather impractical to have had two fallow years in succession, the forty-ninth and the fiftieth, though, of course, God could have simply compounded the blessing for the forty-eighth year.

A suggestion to relieve the problem comes from the Book of Jubilees. This book, written perhaps about 200 BC, is a reworking of Genesis with every event dated. The dates are counted from Creation and are given in terms of jubilees, sabbaticals, years, months, and days. But the Jubilees are only forty-nine years long. This may have been a mistake on the part of the author of Jubilees. Or it may give a clue to a better translation of v 10. Just as seven weeks from Sunday to Sunday is called fifty days by inclusive reckoning in 23:15-16, so in the present sense the last of the forty-nine years might be called the fiftieth year by inclusive reckoning.

“ To proclaim liberty ” ( v 10 ) for the slaves was characteristic of every sabbatical year. The return to the family homestead was a special feature of the Jubilee. The word for “ liberty ” is used at Jeremiah 34:8-17 of the freeing of slaves in the sabbatical year.

Lev. 25:13-17
In the Jubilee the land was not absolutely entailed as it was in Nuzi in Mesopotamia. According to the Nuzi tablets, the Hurrian law forbade the sale of land. An interesting legal fiction arose by which a man who wanted to sell his land would adopt ( for a price ) the man who wanted to buy it. These sale-adoptions were ancient ways to get around the law.

Other Nuzi adoption customs and family laws are reflected in the families of the patriarchs in Genesis who came from Mesopotamia; but the Mosaic legislation on land had no parallel with those land laws. There was no way to get around the law except by Jezebel’s simple expedient of murder ( 1 Kings 21 ).

These land laws cannot be duplicated in our day, but they can teach us the importance of curbing the tendency to increase wealth in the hands of the few. The poor had better be protected in any society, or revolts will follow as wealth accumulates and people decay.

Lev. 25:18-28
The success of laws such as these depended on the people’s obedience; but the system still would not work except for the special blessing of God, who owned the land and also the people and had his sovereign purposes for both ( vv 18-19 ).

Verse 21 underlines the importance of the providential blessing of God. It was doubtless good for the land to lie fallow one year. God would bless an obedient nation with rains, and pests would cease under his hand. Unfortunately the nation turned to other gods, and God vacated the land until it had “enjoyed its sabbath rests” ( 2 Chronicles 36:21 ).

Verses 23-24 spell out the details of the Jubilee. There are certain exceptions and special regulations. The NIV’s “ must not be sold permanently ” is a better translation than the KJV’s “ not be sold forever, ” which is ambiguous. This law of land reform is perpetual, but the land when sold was to be sold for a limited time only, not permanently.

Not only was the land to return to its original family in the Jubilee, but a man who had been forced to sell his land out of necessity could buy it back at any time he could raise the money ( v 24 ). If his near kin could do it, he should. If the man’s fortunes increased, he could do it himself.

The best example of this law’s working is in the Book of Ruth in the family of Naomi. The family was poor and sold their possessions. On Naomi’s return a near kinsman was at first willing to buy back her land for her. It appears that he was willing because she had no heirs, and he thought the fields would revert to him. When he learned that he must also marry Ruth, the widow, and raise up an heir who would get the property, he refused and gave way to Boaz, the next kinsman in line.

To “ refund the balance ” ( v 27 ) is to pay back the price of the field at the later day, which would be less than the price at the earlier date. The translation “ balance ” is more accurate than the RSV’s “ overpayment ” or KJV’s “ overplus. ”

The city is different from the country (v 29 ). To live in a walled city was a privilege, not a right. Real estate in the walled city was at a premium. Its value was not just its land but the improvements in terms of house and fortifications.

A man temporarily in need could sell the house and redeem it in a year, but after that time the buyer was protected. In v 16, when a man sold his farm, he was selling so many crops until the Jubilee.

Recap

The word for our 50th anniversary is “ jubilee “.

The “ seventh month “ for the “ Day of Atonement “ was in late September and early October and is in reference to to the cycle of their religious calendar and becomes the first month of the Jewish civil year.

There is attestation that trumpets served in religious services as early as 2000 BC.

The is Israelite nation was built on three orders...
The household, the clan, the tribe.

The land was to be left fallow but the people could still eat what grew naturally on the fields.

Could WE survive if we left the land fallow for a year?

Does this lesson teach you anything about debt?

If the people obeyed in the terms of the Jubilee the Lord would bless them.

God gave a promise but the people had to trust.

We all must remember we are aliens in this land...
“ 1 Peter 2:11 Beloved, I beseech you as sojourners and pilgrims, to abstain
from fleshly lust, which war against the soul” and not get to attached to the things of the world, the world itself is good; God created it but the integrity of the world is bad. “ Colo 2:8 Take heed lest there shall be any one that maketh spoil of you through his philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ: “ and we should be as strangers to that which will pass away. 1 Cor 7:31 and those that use the world, as not using it to the full: for the fashion of this world passeth away.

Prayer:
Dear Father in Heaven I pray we all do not get to attached to the things in this world and dedicate our time and energies to You and Your Word. It IS NOT this world it IS the world to come. Thank You Lord.

In the name of Jesus. Amen

TGIF

_________________
Acts 4:12
Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name
under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.”