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" 14 Jesus returned to
" … 8 “ ‘Count off seven sabbaths of years—seven times seven years—so that the seven sabbaths of years amount to a period of forty-nine years. 9 Then have the trumpet sounded everywhere on the tenth day of the seventh month; on the Day of Atonement sound the trumpet throughout your land. 10 Consecrate the fiftieth year and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you; each one of you is to return to his family property and each to his own clan. 11 The fiftieth year shall be a jubilee for you; do not sow and do not reap what grows of itself or harvest the untended vines. 12 For it is a jubilee and is to be holy for you; eat only what is taken directly from the fields. 13 “ ‘In this Year of Jubilee everyone is to return to his own property. 14 “ ‘If you sell land to one of your countrymen or buy any from him, do not take advantage of each other. 15 You are to buy from your countryman on the basis of the number of years since the Jubilee. And he is to sell to you on the basis of the number of years left for harvesting crops. 16 When the years are many, you are to increase the price, and when the years are few, you are to decrease the price, because what he is really selling you is the number of crops. 17 Do not take advantage of each other, but fear your God. I am the Lord your God. 18 “ ‘Follow my decrees and be careful to obey my laws, and you will live safely in the land. 19 Then the land will yield its fruit, and you will eat your fill and live there in safety. 20 You may ask, “What will we eat in the seventh year if we do not plant or harvest our crops?” 21 I will send you such a blessing in the sixth year that the land will yield enough for three years. 22 While you plant during the eighth year, you will eat from the old crop and will continue to eat from it until the harvest of the ninth year comes in. 23 “ ‘The land must not be sold permanently, because the land is mine and you are but aliens and my tenants. 24 Throughout the country that you hold as a possession, you must provide for the redemption of the land. 25 “ ‘If one of your countrymen becomes poor and sells some of his property, his nearest relative is to come and redeem what his countryman has sold. 26 If, however, a man has no one to redeem it for him but he himself prospers and acquires sufficient means to redeem it, 27 he is to determine the value for the years since he sold it and refund the balance to the man to whom he sold it; he can then go back to his own property. 28 But if he does not acquire the means to repay him, what he sold will remain in the possession of the buyer until the Year of Jubilee. It will be returned in the Jubilee, and he can then go back to his property. 29 “ ‘If a man sells a house in a walled city, he retains the right of redemption a full year after its sale. During that time he may redeem it. 30 If it is not redeemed before a full year has passed, the house in the walled city shall belong permanently to the buyer and his descendants. It is not to be returned in the Jubilee. 31 But houses in villages without walls around them are to be considered as open country. They can be redeemed, and they are to be returned in the Jubilee. 32 “ ‘The Levites always have the right to redeem their houses in the Levitical towns, which they possess.[Levites were not given any property. They lived off the generosity of the people through the institution of the tithe.]" (Leviticus 25:8-32, NIV)
Introduction
Two weeks ago, I began this series of three messages on the Year of the Lord’s Favor, the Year of Jubilee. As I told you then, I believe this is a word from the Lord for our congregation. I want to encourage you to do everything you can to attend every Sunday, especially next Sunday, when I will preach on lost inheritances being restored, and two weeks from today when I will take the entire service to share with you the vision the Lord has given me for our congregation.
First we learned that during the Year of Jubilee every debt was cancelled. Last Sunday, we celebrated the fact that every Jewish captive was set free.
Those first two components to Jubilee also took place every seventh year during what was known as a “Sabbath” year. During the Jubilee Year every piece of property was given back to the family that originally owned it. In other words, during the Jubilee Year, every lost inheritance was restored…! (The only exception were the houses in the walled cities – they could not be redeemed unless they belonged to a Levite, because the Levites were given no property in the land, rather, the Lord was their inheritance or “portion,” and they lived off the obedience of the people in respect to the tithe and the offering.)
In order to fully understand this third dynamic and appreciate how its principles apply to our lives today, I need to give you a little background…
· Land was divided equally among the tribes, according to their size. (God cared for everyone and made provision for all of their needs!)
God was just in doing this because everything belonged to Him and He had given the peoples living in the land over four hundred years to repent of their atrocious sins, including child sacrifice.
· Different geography meant different destinies; different destinies meant different enemies; different enemies meant different challenges and different methodologies; different challenges and different methodologies meant different victories; different victories meant different destinies. Though their destinies were different, they were all wonderful…!
· Ideally, families were the primary means by which each child was prepared to find and fulfill their destiny, but ancestral sins sometimes caused the loss of the family heritage.
1. Before I was born, God established a wonderful destiny for my life.
God revealed this to Jeremiah corporately.
"10 This is what the Lord says: “When seventy years are completed for
But, God also revealed this to Jeremiah personally.
" 4 The word of the Lord came to me, saying, 5 “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.” 6 “Ah, Sovereign Lord,” I said, “I do not know how to speak; I am only a child.” 7 But the Lord said to me, “Do not say, ‘I am only a child.’ You must go to everyone I send you to and say whatever I command you. 8 Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you and will rescue you,” declares the Lord. 9 Then the Lord reached out his hand and touched my mouth and said to me, “Now, I have put my words in your mouth." (Jeremiah 1:4-9, NIV)
David believed the same thing:
"1 For the director of music. Of David. A psalm. O Lord, you have searched me and you know me. 2 You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. 3 You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. 4 Before a word is on my tongue you know it completely, O Lord. 5 You hem me in—behind and before; you have laid your hand upon me. 6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain. 7 Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? 8 If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. 9 If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, 10 even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast. 11 If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me,” 12 even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you. 13 For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. 14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. 15 My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, 16 your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. 17 How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them! 18 Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand. When I awake, I am still with you." (Psalm 139:1-18, NIV)
Why did God give
"12 As the sun was setting, Abram fell into a deep sleep, and a thick and dreadful darkness came over him. 13 Then the Lord said to him, “Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own, and they will be enslaved and mistreated four hundred years. 14 But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves, and afterward they will come out with great possessions. 15 You, however, will go to your fathers in peace and be buried at a good old age. 16 In the fourth generation your descendants will come back here, for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure.”" (Genesis 15:12-16, NIV)
"1 Of David. A psalm. The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it;" (Psalm 24:1, NIV)
The only inheritances that were restored were to the Israelites, not to the pagan peoples living in the land…! God had originally established the boundaries of the habitation of every nation, but those pagan peoples had forfeited their birthright through continued and extended idolatry and iniquity so God was giving the land to the Israelites…!
"24 “The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands. 25 And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else. 26 From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. 27 God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. 28 ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’" (Acts 17:24-28, NIV)
2. Before I was born, God chose certain relationships would come into my life.
As God told different tribes and clans to settle in different places, He was deciding who their neighbors would be.
· Family
· Neighbors, friends, co-workers, etc.
My destiny involves overcoming certain enemies, but also developing certain friendships and relationships. In order to fulfill that destiny, I must learn to walk out these relationships in a godly manner.
When crossing
“…the initial division of the land was explicitly to the clans and households within the tribes, in such a way that each received land according to size and need (Nu. 26:52–56; Jos. 13–21)[1] “
"52 The Lord said to Moses, 53 “The land is to be allotted to them as an inheritance based on the number of names. 54 To a larger group give a larger inheritance, and to a smaller group a smaller one; each is to receive its inheritance according to the number of those listed. 55 Be sure that the land is distributed by lot. What each group inherits will be according to the names for its ancestral tribe. 56 Each inheritance is to be distributed by lot among the larger and smaller groups.”" (Numbers 26:52-56, NIV)
Restoration of property to original owners implied restoration of original relationships.
3. Before I was born, God provided for all of the needs I would have in my life.
" 25 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? 26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27 Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? 28 “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30 If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 31 So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. " (Matthew 6:25-34, NIV)
" In the last days the mountain of the Lord’s temple will be established as chief among the mountains; it will be raised above the hills, and peoples will stream to it. 2 Many nations will come and say, “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob. He will teach us his ways, so that we may walk in his paths.” The law will go out from
Restoration of land implied a restoration of the means of production and a restoration of a certain measure of prosperity God had intended for each family from the beginning.
4. Before I was born, God decided to redeem all of the failures I would experience in my life.
My sin separates me from God and causes me to lose my spiritual destiny (my spiritual inheritance.)
God will help me rediscover His plan if I will turn toward Him and walk in His grace.
Conclusion
The wonderful reality of jubilee is why we choose to serve God faithfully and whole-heartedly. (Love-slave concept)
2 “If you buy a Hebrew servant, he is to serve you for six years. But in the seventh year, he shall go free, without paying anything. 3 If he comes alone, he is to go free alone; but if he has a wife when he comes, she is to go with him. 4 If his master gives him a wife and she bears him sons or daughters, the woman and her children shall belong to her master, and only the man shall go free. 5 “But if the servant declares, ‘I love my master and my wife and children and do not want to go free,’ 6 then his master must take him before the judges. He shall take him to the door or the doorpost and pierce his ear with an awl. Then he will be his servant for life." (Exodus 21:2-6, NIV)
" 12 If a fellow Hebrew, a man or a woman, sells himself to you and serves you six years, in the seventh year you must let him go free. 13 And when you release him, do not send him away empty-handed. 14 Supply him liberally from your flock, your threshing floor and your winepress. Give to him as the Lord your God has blessed you. 15 Remember that you were slaves in
Remember – Jubilee works both ways:
· To experience redemption from my failures, I must be willing to extend redemption toward others in their failures.
· To be forgiven, I must forgive.
· To be restored, I must restore.
· To experience provision, I must provide. (Slave owners were told not to send their freed slaves away empty-handed.)
· If I want my debt cancelled, I must be willing to cancel the debt of others.
· If I want to be free, I must be willing to set others free. (and, not send them away empty-handed…!)
· If I want to recover my lost destiny, then I must allow others to recover their lost destiny…!
Selfishness is at the root of all sin, that’s why God takes it so seriously and why He wants so desperately to move us from self-centeredness to other-centeredness (fundamental qualification of all good shepherds, illustrated by a godly relationship with their families, etc.)
Are there some things that, once lost, can never be restored completely again? To put it another way, can God’s plan for our life ever change?
God’s plan may well change in its particulars, but not in its underlying principle…!
Ultimate fulfillment of Jubilee and restoration of all things will come with the return of Jesus Christ when the trumpet will sound, etc.
Invitation
God has made His decision to offer me Jubilee. Now it is up to me to respond in repentance, faith, humility, and obedience.
[1]D. A. Carson, New Bible Commentary : 21st Century Edition, Rev. Ed. of: The New Bible Commentary. 3rd Ed. / Edited by D. Guthrie, J.A. Motyer. 1970., 4th ed. (Leicester, England; Downers Grove, Ill., USA: Inter-Varsity Press, 1994), Le 25:8.
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