“The Year of Jubilee”

{The Year of Jubilee in Leviticus 25 is one of the most radical ideas in the Bible. Every 50 years, every Israelite was supposed to return to their original piece of allotted land. The jubilee would have effectively prevented cycles of intergenerational poverty and create a social and economic parity that would make Israel unique among all nations.}

God said that when the Israelis came into the land of Canaan, they could plant their crops for six years; but every seventh year they must not plant any seed at all, but just let the land alone. If any grain grew without being planted, they must not cut it, and the grapes on the vines must not be picked; for this seventh year was to be a Sabbath year; a year of rest for the land! Yet there would be enough to eat that seventh year because the Lord would give them enough extra crops the previous year to last for two years.

Every fifty years was the Year of Jubilee. This was a glad and happy year. This was a glad and happy year. The day it began, trumpets were blown all through the land. No one planted crops or harvested them that year, for God promised to give large crops the year before, enough to last through the entire Year of Jubilee. If anyone had been so poor that he had had to sell the field his father had given him, he got it back free when the Year of Jubilee came! For the Lord said that the person who brought it had to give it back at that time. Or if anyone had sold himself as a slave, he became free when the Year of Jubilee began. What a wonderful year!

God told the people that if they would obey His commandments, He would send them rain so that all their crops would grow well, there would be luscious fruit trees on their trees, they would have plenty of bread to eat, and no one would hurt them. The Lord would destroy or drive away the dangerous wild animals. He Himself would take care of His people and make all of their enemies afraid of them.

But if they didn’t obey His commandments, God said they would have sickness and trouble. When they sowed their grain, it wouldn’t come up, or if it did, their enemies would come and harvest time and steal it from them. Wild animals would carry off their children and kill their cattle. Only a few people would be left in all the land. The Lord would send disease and famine upon them. Their enemies would make war on them, and the people of Israel would be taken away to other country’s where the people would hate them; and many of them would die there.

But if those who were left would confess that they had been wicked and that it was God who had punished them, then He wouldn’t punish them anymore. He would be kind to them and bring them back again to the land He had promised to give to the children of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

Questions:

What was a Sabbath Year?

Why was the Year of Jubilee such a wonderful year?

How often did it come?

What did God tell the people would happen if they obeyed Him?

What if they disobeyed Him?