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Sabbatical Year and Jubilee

When I signed up to do this talk I thought, “this will be an easy one. There’s so much to tie Jubilee in to the Messiah and the New Covenant. You’ve got freedom for captives; you’ve got rest for the land; forgiveness of debts.” All the feasts are a shadow, so Jubilee must be the king of all of them, right?

Right??

So in all my studies about Jubilee I discovered one amazing mind-blowing truth about Jews and the Jubilee year: No one does it at all!That’s right. I’m not sure they can even calculate it from back when it was observed! Oh, there’s plenty of commentary. There are opinions and reasonings; arguments for and against this and that aspect of it, but very little is done with it. The Jews say Jubilee is only for when they possess the land. They do possess the land, you say? No, they say it’s for when they possess all the land (all of what was originally allotted to them) and/or the majority of the Jews live in the land (most are still in the diaspora at this point).

So that’s Jubilee. What about the Sabbatical year every seven years? Do they observe that? Well. Kind of. They don’t plant on their lands… if they live in Israel that is… the Jews in the diaspora don’t even pay attention to it because it was commanded to begin “when you come in the land”. I say they don’t plant their lands because they will rent/sell the land to Arabs who have no problem planting on the land during that year.

This is why I call this a Hebrew Roots study instead of a Jewish Roots study. I love the Jewish roots. I love the culture, the traditions, the teachings and the dancing. I love the depth and the symbolism. I love the shadows of our Messiah. But more than that I want to see the shadows of Him in His Word and when they miss out I don’t want to miss it. There are a number of areas where I part ways with them– where they don’t go far enough or they go too far. The Scripture says not to kindle a flame on the Sabbath so they won’t turn on a light switch. Hey, that’s fire in that bulb. Ok. That’s fine, but what they do next is too far: they have a Shabbos goy (Shabbos = Shabbat in Ashkenazi or Yiddish — that is European Jewish; goy= gentile). Basically they have a foreigner who helps them by doing the things they aren’t supposed to do on the Sabbath. The only problem is the Law is given explicitly (in most cases) for them and for the foreigner in their midst, so by trying to skirt around the Law they are breaking it.

So we’re studying the Hebrew Roots. We want to see what the Jews say, but we also want to see what the Word of G-d says. So for Jubilee we are going to go completely back to see what G-d intended it to be.

We’ll start with Leviticus 25:1-23.

G-d intended the Sabbatical year and Jubilee to kind of be a reboot for the community. Everyone gets set back to where they were seven years before, all the poor and rich are to eat from the same crops that grow wild, all those who had been forced to sell themselves in servitude get to go free. In Jubilee you add that whoever has sold their land gets it back (so basically the land was rented up through the Jubilee year — never sold permanently).

One other note: while the Jubilee and the Sabbatical years are basically a Sabbath for the land they do not give the people a year off from normal work. True, people can’t work the ground by sowing, pruning, harvesting, etc., but they can repair the barn, fix up the house and anything else they need to do. It is not a Sabbath for the people and their animals. They get their weekly Sabbath and get breaks on some of the festival days, but on the Sabbatical and Jubilee year-long breaks it is just the land that doesn’t have to work.

We’re going to take this in pieces, so first:

The Land Lies Fallow:

Exodus 23:10-12 says that we should sow and gather for six years and on the seventh the land is to lie fallow. It is a sabbath for the land. Everyone opens their gates and animals and poor eat freely of whatever grows. There is also a parallel to the Sabbath here where it says six days you work and the seventh is rest for you, your slaves, your servants, your ox, your donkey… basically everything gets a weekly Sabbath except your land.

You’ll notice throughout Torah that G-d is relational with everything. In Genesis 1:26 G-d gives us dominion over everything, then through Torah he explains how we are to be responsible with that dominion. He explains our relations with people and even with animals.

In Ex. 23:19 (just a few verses down from where we are) He says “don’t boil a young goat in its mother’s milk.” In Deuteronomy 25:4 He tells us not to muzzle an ox while it is threshing (while it is working for us). Respect your animals. Don’t even do to them what you would not want done to you and your children.

So here with the Sabbatical year He is instructing us that we should also respect our land. In Lev. 25:23 G-d reminded us that it’s not our land anyway. He emphasizes this point in 2 Chronicles 36:20-21 when He tells the Israelites that they will be in bondage until the land enjoys its Sabbaths. This shows us how important our respecting His creation is to Him.

People then say, if we don’t sow or harvest on the seventh year “what will we eat?” (Lev. 25:20) In Lev. 25:21-22 G-d responds telling us that He will bless us so much in the sixth year that we will still be eating from it when we begin harvesting, not in the seventh year, not in the eighth year, but in the ninth year! Now if you’ve been following along you may have caught that every seven years we have a Sabbatical year, then on the 50th year we have a Jubilee. Wouldn’t that put us with (after seven sets of seven) a Sabbatical year on the 49th year followed by the Jubilee on the fiftieth year? That would be two years without planting, pruning or harvesting back-to-back. However, G-d promised that if we believe Him and follow through He will provide through the seventh year (the Sabbatical year), through the eighth year (the Jubilee year) and up until the harvest of the ninth year when we gather in the fruit of our own toil again. Talk about a test of faith. No wonder the Jews don’t follow this one. “Oh we believe You, G-d. But that’s just crazy talk!” So back to 2 Chron. 36:20-21 G-d had to give the land a Sabbath Himself because I think there are few of His people, even strong Christians today, who would have the faith to believe this one. But we see that He must mean it. It would be a true test of our faith to trust Him for one year. He is asking us to trust Him for two years back-to-back! That’s tough! Do we believe that G-d is Who He says He is and that He will do what He tells us He will do?

Release of Debts:

Now let’s read Deut. 15:1-11. This is talking about how we deal with the poor. So we have dealing with land, with animals, and now with the poor. You can really see the heart of G-d here. In Deut. 15:7-8 He implores us not to harden our heart against our needy brother because we are close to the seventh year when we will have to forgive whatever hasn’t been paid back. He tells us to open our hand wide and to lend our poor brother or sister sufficient for his need.

Then He promises in Deut. 15:10 to bless us and in Deut. 15:6 He even promises “You will lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow…” I’ve heard this quoted a lot, but have you ever put it in this context? With Jubilee and letting your land lie fallow? With trusting G-d for provision on this level? I mean think about the context here. G-d is asking you not just to trust Him, but to give some of your provisions that you’ve set aside for this year away. He is asking you to take from what you have stored for your family and give it to your needy brother knowing that you and your family are about to go into a year where you’re relying on your stores from last year’s crop and whatever seeds volunteer to come up without your intervention. You’re going into this knowing that whatever you give this brother in need you will probably not get back before you are called by G-d to forgive the debt entirely. But G-d is promising not only to provide for you as you are faithful, but to provide for you completely and abundantly. Having the courage to accept G-d’s challenge would really offer a tremendous opportunity for learning. It would allow us to see that it really is He Who provides all our needs and not we ourselves.

Freedom for Slaves:

Now this is the one we’ve all been waiting for: release for the slaves. This is what we all associate Jubilee with. Most of us have probably heard Isaiah 61:1-3 and Luke 4:16-21 related to Jubilee in countless sermons through our lives. I want to look a little deeper and the relations between Jubilee and these passages.

Isa. 61:1 talks about proclaiming liberty to captives.

Lev. 25:9-10 talks about blowing a shofar (ram’s horn) at Yom Kippur (the Day of Attonement) to announce the year of Jubilee and proclaim release to inhabitants. [Note: Jews do blow a shofar every Yom Kippur to proclaim release from bondage.]

Isa. 61:3 says we will be given garments of praise for our spirit of heaviness.

Deut. 15:12-16 says to furnish our slave liberally from our flock as we release him. We are instructed not to send him out empty-handed.

What an amazing parallel to our Messiah and His promises to us. What a teaching of dependence these appointed times are. What a vision of who is really in control. To me it is a bit of a blessing that we don’t have Jewish tradition to look at for explanation of these great appointed times of Adonai. We get to go and seek from Him what these times were to mean and what shadows He desires us to see through them.

I believe that one day in eternity many of us will all be able to see the fullness of this and every shadow. I believe in that day we see all land lie fallow as we trust G-d for our provision and enjoy what He allows to come up without our toil. May we all one day and forever be given garments of praise for our spirits of heaviness.

In the mean time may we furnish those who are less fortunate “liberally from our flock” and may we lend to many nations, but not borrow. If we are faithful to obey His Word He will be faithful to deliver His promises.

May the G-d of Israel bless you and give you His peace.

Other Notes From my Studying:

Both Jubilee and the Sabbatical years are announced at Yom Kippur with the blast of a ram’s horn. Jubilee in Hebrew is Yobel which means “ram” or “ram’s horn”. The Sabbatical year in Hebrew is called Shmita which means “release”.

Land lies fallow and slaves freed in each, but land also returned to original owners in Yobel year.

Yobel falls on 50th year. This shows a parallel to Shavuot (Pentecost) with 7 weeks of 7 days - or falls on the 50th day.

One Response to “Sabbatical Year and Jubilee”

Topaz Says:
September 27th, 2008 at 3:38 pm
I stumbled upon this with much ease.
In reading, it opened my eyes and ears a little more to what I have recently been experiencing without understanding.
I will be reading more and understanding more, hopefully.

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Sabbatical Year and Jubilee

The Land Lies Fallow:

Release of Debts:

Freedom for Slaves:

Other Notes From my Studying:

Further Reading about the Sabbatical year and Jubilee:

One Response to “Sabbatical Year and Jubilee”

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