Jubilee: Proclaiming the Favorable
Year of the Lord
“The Spirit of the Lord God
is upon me, Because the Lord has
anointed me To bring good news to the afflicted; He has sent me to bind up the
brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to captives And freedom to prisoners; To
proclaim the favorable year of the Lord
And the day of vengeance of our God; To comfort all who mourn, To grant those
who mourn in Zion, Giving them a
garland instead of ashes, The oil of gladness instead of mourning, The mantle
of praise instead of a spirit of fainting. So they will be called oaks of
righteousness, The planting of the Lord,
that He may be glorified.” Isaiah 61:1-3 [NASB, emphasis
added]
Nobody
likes to miss Golden Jubilee. As I write this, I receive exciting phone calls
telling me to come home for Jubilee. Indeed, any Jubilee is very exciting!
However, I used to wonder what Jubilee is all about, didn’t you? Read along
with me as I attempt to address it in this short article.
Nowadays,
Jubilee is understood as many things. We even have Silver and Platinum Jubilee. The word Jubilee comes from
Leviticus 25:8-10 which refers to the year after every seven sabbatical years,
i.e. the 50th year. The basis for this commandment is the Sabbath
(meaning “rest”). God created everything in 6 days
and rested on the 7th day. Every 7th day is a Sabbath,
every 7th year is a sabbatical year. Israelites shall work for 6
years and cease to work in the 7th
year. They don’t need to worry because God promises miraculous harvest in the 6th
year for them to survive till the harvest time of the 8th year.
Seven sabbatical years equal 49 years, and therefore the 50th year
(Sabbath of the Sabbatical Years) is known as the Jubilee.
Long
before the Israelites entered the Promised Land, God gave this commandment to
them through Moses on Mount Sinai to be taken seriously. However, there is no
record in or outside the Bible about Israelites observing Jubilee. 2 Chronicles
36:21 indicates that the Israelites were taken to Babylonian exile because they
failed to observe it. How they failed to observe it is not difficult for us to
surmise as we have read the incident of Israelites going out to gather manna on
Sabbath, even when Moses had commanded them not to (Exodus 16:22-36). They
wouldn’t trust the power of God to sustain them.
Apart
from the themes of rest and trusting God, Jubilee is also to set captives free:
free from slavery, free from debts, and allowing them to start afresh (Leviticus
25). This is what Isaiah is alluding to in Isaiah 61:1-3. In the book of
Isaiah, we see him prophesying judgment and the coming Babylonian captivity of
Judah. He also prophesied the Salvation of God to His people, especially in his last 27 chapters. He foresaw
their mourning, and in effect is saying, “Rejoice for Salvation has come.” This
passage is not exactly about the literal Jubilee of Leviticus 25, but in the
words of John F.A. Sawyer, it is ‘a sermon on it.’
The
phrase in v1, “to proclaim liberty” and in v2, “to proclaim the favorable year
of the Lord” is the essence of Jubilee. According to v1, this is what the
anointed prophet (Messiah) would be doing at the end of the exile. He comes to
comfort His people, which is likened to the joy of Jubilee. The actions described in Isaiah 61 is not
something the nation had done, nor could a mere prophet like Isaiah accomplish
it. In Luke 4:17-21, Jesus said that it is fulfilled in Him.
The ultimate purpose of this proclamation is the
glory of God, and its effect is the joy of the people clothed with the garment
of praise (v3). Let’s focus only on the phrase “to proclaim the favorable
year of the Lord” of verse 2. The
infinitive ‘to proclaim’ has the idea of drawing someone’s attention to
establish contact. It is intentional and true for all, and accessible to all
the hearers.
The message is the ‘favorable year’ of the
Lord. It means it is the year acceptable and pleasing to God. There is no more condemnation,
punishment or banishment. Isaiah foresaw their suffering and mourning in exile
due to the judgment of God. Now, God is going to show His mercy on them. Isaiah
contrasted their (present) suffering and (promised) joy in such a way that it
looks nonsensical to neglect this proclamation. He pictured them as if they are
yearning eagerly for this favorable year
when they would come back to their land, rebuild their home and society. What a
comfort for them at last!
This favorable year is ‘of’ the Lord. The
people do not deserve, nor can they coerce or cajole God; it is the sheer acts
of God’s Jubilee. God is the planner and He shall be the fulfiller too.
Salvation is of the Lord.
First of all, our Jubilee is not that of Leviticus
25 for a few reasons. a) We aren’t Jews,
but Christians; the Jubilee was good news to Israel, but not necessarily to
non-Israelite. b) We aren’t under the Mosaic covenant, but the new covenant; we
aren’t promised the miracles of the 6th year. c) We don’t have any
property assigned to us by God. Moreover, it also means we shouldn’t expect the
blessing of Jubilee (cancellation of debts, returning of lands, etc.) without
considering these facts.
We celebrate Jesus, the true Jubilee. In him is the
forgiveness of sins, and the deliverance from slavery
to sin and from the yoke of Satan. We are given the citizenship of heaven. We
are made acceptable to the holy God. We are made sons and heirs of God. Our
treasure is laid up in heaven. We are clothed with the righteousness of God. We
are indwelled by the Spirit of God to live a just and godly life.
We Christians continue to proclaim this truth until the return of Christ that it is the
favorable year of the Lord. As 2Cor. 6:2 reiterates, now is the acceptable time
for salvation. If you have not received Christ, wouldn’t it be joyful to hear
Him say, “Come to me you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you
rest, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out, but give eternal
life” (Matt 11: 33; John 6:37; 10:28)? And must we not be faithful to His
calling as He has been faithful to us all these 50 years? And when we pursue
Christlikeness, all the significance and implications of Jubilee shall make
sense to us and others!
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