Jubilee Year
Leviticus 25:10 “And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof: it shall be a jubilee unto you: and ye shall return every man unto his possession, and ye shall return every man unto his family.”
Amazingly to this day many people are still somewhat familiar with the year of “Jubilee”. But being “somewhat familiar” and understanding its purpose are two very different things. What is or was the “Jubilee Year” really about and does it mean anything to us today? There are only four references to the Jubilee Year in the Bible and all of them point to the following: 1) God gave the Promised Land to Israel for a permanent home- it was and is their inheritance, 2) Liberty and freedom of slavery for the children of Israel is proclaimed (Liberty and freedom comes from owning your own land), 3) It also points to the return of Jesus Christ in the future.
The “Jubilee” is mentioned in only three sections of the Bible and referred to in one other place. Not a lot of verses for an idea we have all heard of. Lev. 25:8-17 gives the entire outline of the Jubilee. Lev. 27:17-24 Tells how to calculate the monetary value of the land according to how far in the future the Jubilee year is. Numbers 36:4 The family inheritance is discussed in conjunction with the Jubilee year. Ezekiel 46:17 refers to the “Year of Liberty” and the return of one’s inheritance.
Lev. 25:10 uses the words “liberty” and “Jubile” (no second letter e). We need to understand the original meanings of these words in Hebrew to understand more fully the Jubilee year. “Liberty” is translated from the Hebrew “dror” meaning “freedom, liberty, an event required every 50 years to restore Israelite slaves to freedom and Israelite land to tribal allotments” (Strong’s #1865). “Jubile” is “trua” in Hebrew meaning “trumpet blast, battle cry, shout, alarm, joy blowing of trumpets, high sounding, joyful sound, rejoicing” (Strong’s #8643). Every other use of the word translated as “jubilee” in the Bible is the Hebrew word “yobel” meaning “ram’s horn; (blowing ram’s horn) jubilee, year of jubilee” (Strong’s #3104). The Hebrew word “trua” very much correlates with the trumpet blast at the return of Jesus Christ.
We now have enough information to summarize the “Jubilee year” as outlined in these few Bible verses. The jubilee year was proclaimed after seven annual seven-year Sabbath sabbaticals (49 years) and was ushered in on the Day of Atonement with the blowing of Ram’s Horns. It was the “fiftieth” year. No crops were to be planted as it is a holy year of rest dedicated to God and to the restoration of land to Israel and freedom for all the people of Israel. All slaves were to be released; land was to be restored back to families (In ancient Israel one could never really sell their land as it would revert back to the original family every fifty years. One would truly “lease” the land according to a Biblical formula of monetary value-(See Lev. 27:17-24). “The tendency to impose checks upon the alienation of landed property was exceptionally strong in Israel. The fundamental principle is that the land is sacred possession belonging to Yahweh.”[1] It points out the Holy Sabbath day was extended out to a Sabbath of seven, seven-year cycles with the 50th year being the “Jubile”. It recognized “God’s sovereignty over the land, which was given to them…This portrays Israel’s entrance into the blessings of the messianic reign” … and “It foreshadows the blessings of Rom. 8:19-23 for the entire earth. It will include a great outpouring of the Spirit, the complete fulfillment of Joel’s prophecy (Joel 2: 28-32).”[2]
We have seen how the year of “Jubile” is about the return of one’s inheritance back to the family every 50 years. It is all about freedom, liberty, freeing of slaves and most importantly it portends the return of Jesus to earth to restore all land and to free all peoples from slavery. The imagery of the blowing of the ram’s horn on the Day of Atonement is the exact same symbol used by Christ at His triumphant return to earth in the future. The year of “Jubile” provides us a symbolic glimpse of the future Kingdom of God and the restoration of the earth for all mankind to restore all land and to free all peoples from the slavery of sin. One can compare the trumpet (or rams’ horn) blowing and the return of all ISRAEL to the promised land of inheritance and the liberating freedom to the following scriptures of Christ’s future return. Isa. 2:3-5; Micah 4:3-5; Isa. 11:11; Isa. 27:13; I Thes. 4:16; I Cor. 15:52; Rev. 11:15 and Rev. 19:1-16.
The Jubile Year is not just about ancient Israel it is also symbolically portends our Christian inheritance into the coming Kingdom of God.
Mike Wallace
[1] Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th ed., Vol. 15, Jubilee Year.
[2] New Unger’s Bible Handbook. Revised by Gary N. Larson 1984. Sabbatical year and jubilee, p. 94.
