Reading
SAA Notes
This is a long chapter – it has something important to say. Remember the Books of the Law paint the picture of an ideal society. Israel only followed these regulations imperfectly. Land and debtors – both were to obtain rest. Ownership of land was not vested in the Crown as in Australia. It was vested in the clan and it returned to the clan. Clan members could not sell but only lease it out during a Jubilee cycle of 50 years. This gave great political power and freedom to ordinary people – such that we don’t have today here in Australia!
SJA Notes
* Dear God, please help us today as we walk this road.
“And you shall consecrate the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants.”
The Year of Jubilee, every fifty years. The year itself was consecrated. The purpose of it was freedom and redemption, rest and reliance on God.
There was freedom from debt. Redemption from slavery. The land was left alone and had rest for the whole year. Reminders that the land was the Lord’s.
Important too is the day on which the fiftieth year is proclaimed and consecrated.
The Day of Atonement!
All of those things – freedom, redemption, rest – We see these in Jesus! His work of salvation when He atoned for our sin. We are redeemed through Him, His blood the price.
The Year of Jubilee is a big sign God gave to His people. For them to know there is something more, go deeper, look at what God is teaching us God’s people about debt, about slavery.
For us today, we have Jesus. The greatest big sign God has given to us His people. Teaching us about debt, slavery, freedom, redemption.
Hallelujah!
* Gracious Lord God,
Thank You for bringing us freedom from our sin. What a jubilee that is for us!
Thank You for embedding this within the framework of how Israel was to function, so that it might remind them at the time, and us in the now, for our need to be free from our sin.
Thank You for Jesus, You in the Person of the Son, by whose work our freedom is won.
Amen.