Yahweh said to Moses in Mount Sinai, “Speak to the children of Israel, and tell them, ‘When you come into the land which I give you, then the land shall keep a Sabbath to Yahweh. You shall sow your field six years, and you shall prune your vineyard six years, and gather in its fruits; but in the seventh year there shall be a Sabbath of solemn rest for the land, a Sabbath to Yahweh. You shall not sow your field or prune your vineyard. What grows of itself in your harvest you shall not reap, and you shall not gather the grapes of your undressed vine. It shall be a year of solemn rest for the land. The Sabbath of the land shall be for food for you; for yourself, for your servant, for your maid, for your hired servant, and for your stranger, who lives as a foreigner with you. For your livestock also, and for the animals that are in your land, shall all its increase be for food.
“ ‘You shall count off seven Sabbaths of years, seven times seven years; and there shall be to you the days of seven Sabbaths of years, even forty-nine years. Then you shall sound the loud trumpet on the tenth day of the seventh month. On the Day of Atonement you shall sound the trumpet throughout all your land. You shall make the fiftieth year holy, and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee to you; and each of you shall return to his own property, and each of you shall return to his family. That fiftieth year shall be a jubilee to you. In it you shall not sow, neither reap that which grows of itself, nor gather from the undressed vines. For it is a jubilee; it shall be holy to you. You shall eat of its increase out of the field.
“ ‘In this Year of Jubilee each of you shall return to his property.
“ ‘If you sell anything to your neighbor, or buy from your neighbor, you shall not wrong one another. According to the number of years after the Jubilee you shall buy from your neighbor. According to the number of years of the crops he shall sell to you. According to the length of the years you shall increase its price, and according to the shortness of the years you shall diminish its price; for he is selling the number of the crops to you. You shall not wrong one another, but you shall fear your God; for I am Yahweh your God.
“ ‘Therefore you shall do my statutes, and keep my ordinances and do them; and you shall dwell in the land in safety. The land shall yield its fruit, and you shall eat your fill, and dwell therein in safety. If you said, “What shall we eat the seventh year? Behold, we shall not sow, nor gather in our increase;” then I will command my blessing on you in the sixth year, and it shall bear fruit for the three years. You shall sow the eighth year, and eat of the fruits from the old store until the ninth year. Until its fruits come in, you shall eat the old store.
“ ‘The land shall not be sold in perpetuity, for the land is mine; for you are strangers and live as foreigners with me. In all the land of your possession you shall grant a redemption for the land.
“ ‘If your brother becomes poor, and sells some of his possessions, then his kinsman who is next to him shall come, and redeem that which his brother has sold. If a man has no one to redeem it, and he becomes prosperous and finds sufficient means to redeem it, then let him reckon the years since its sale, and restore the surplus to the man to whom he sold it; and he shall return to his property. But if he isn’t able to get it back for himself, then what he has sold shall remain in the hand of him who has bought it until the Year of Jubilee. In the Jubilee it shall be released, and he shall return to his property.
“ ‘If a man sells a dwelling house in a walled city, then he may redeem it within a whole year after it has been sold. For a full year he shall have the right of redemption. If it isn’t redeemed within the space of a full year, then the house that is in the walled city shall be made sure in perpetuity to him who bought it, throughout his generations. It shall not be released in the Jubilee. But the houses of the villages which have no wall around them shall be accounted for with the fields of the country: they may be redeemed, and they shall be released in the Jubilee.
“ ‘Nevertheless, in the cities of the Levites, the Levites may redeem the houses in the cities of their possession at any time. The Levites may redeem the house that was sold, and the city of his possession, and it shall be released in the Jubilee; for the houses of the cities of the Levites are their possession among the children of Israel. But the field of the pasture lands of their cities may not be sold, for it is their perpetual possession.
“ ‘If your brother has become poor, and his hand can’t support himself among you, then you shall uphold him. He shall live with you like an alien and a temporary resident. Take no interest from him or profit; but fear your God, that your brother may live among you. You shall not lend him your money at interest, nor give him your food for profit. I am Yahweh your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, to give you the land of Canaan, and to be your God.
“ ‘If your brother has grown poor among you, and sells himself to you, you shall not make him to serve as a slave. As a hired servant, and as a temporary resident, he shall be with you; he shall serve with you until the Year of Jubilee. Then he shall go out from you, he and his children with him, and shall return to his own family, and to the possession of his fathers. For they are my servants, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt. They shall not be sold as slaves. You shall not rule over him with harshness, but shall fear your God.
“ ‘As for your male and your female slaves, whom you may have from the nations that are around you, from them you may buy male and female slaves. Moreover, of the children of the aliens who live among you, of them you may buy, and of their families who are with you, which they have conceived in your land; and they will be your property. You may make them an inheritance for your children after you, to hold for a possession. Of them you may take your slaves forever, but over your brothers the children of Israel you shall not rule, one over another, with harshness.
“ ‘If an alien or temporary resident with you becomes rich, and your brother beside him has grown poor, and sells himself to the stranger or foreigner living among you, or to a member of the stranger’s family, after he is sold he may be redeemed. One of his brothers may redeem him; or his uncle, or his uncle’s son, may redeem him, or any who is a close relative to him of his family may redeem him; or if he has grown rich, he may redeem himself. He shall reckon with him who bought him from the year that he sold himself to him to the Year of Jubilee. The price of his sale shall be according to the number of years; he shall be with him according to the time of a hired servant. If there are yet many years, according to them he shall give back the price of his redemption out of the money that he was bought for. If there remain but a few years to the year of jubilee, then he shall reckon with him; according to his years of service he shall give back the price of his redemption. As a servant hired year by year shall he be with him. He shall not rule with harshness over him in your sight. If he isn’t redeemed by these means, then he shall be released in the Year of Jubilee: he and his children with him. For to me the children of Israel are servants; they are my servants whom I brought out of the land of Egypt. I am Yahweh your God.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv2, 3, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 14, 15, 16, 18, 21, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 30, 31, 32, 34, 35, 42, 45, 47, 49, 50, 53 Hebrew, shall rest a rest.
Hebrew, shall rest a rest.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 17, 18, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 28, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 38, 39, 41, 43, 44, 46 Lev 25:1 And the LORD spake unto Moses in…
Lev 25:1 And the LORD spake unto Moses in mount Sinai, saying,
Ver. 1. And the Lord spake unto Moses in Mount Sinai.] Posthuman, returning from the eastern parts, is, by Sulpitius, {a} brought in thus speaking: I saw the Red Sea, I went up Mount Sinai, the very top whereof, reaching up almost to heaven, cannot be come at.
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{a} Sulp., Dial i., cap. 2.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 5, 6, 9, 10, 11, 12, 14, 15, 16, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 27, 28, 30, 31, 33, 34, 35, 36, 39, 41, 42, 43, 47, 50, 53 i.e. Near Mount Sinai. So the Hebrew particle beth…
1491
i.e. Near Mount Sinai. So the Hebrew particle beth is sometimes used, as Gen 27:13; Jos 5:13; Jdg 8:5; 2Ch 33:20, compared with 2Ki 21:18. So there is no need to disturb the order of the history in this place.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain On vv1, 8, 23, 39 The law of Moses laid a great deal of…
The law of Moses laid a great deal of stress upon the sabbath, the sanctification of which was the earliest and most ancient of all divine institutions, designed for the keeping up of the knowledge and worship of the Creator among men; that law not only revived the observance of the weekly sabbath, but, for the further advancement of the honour of them, added the institution of a sabbatical year: In the seventh year shall be a sabbath of rest unto the land, Lev 25:4. And hence the Jews collect that vulgar tradition that after the world has stood six thousand years (a thousand years being to God as one day) it shall cease, and the eternal sabbath shall succeed - a weak foundation on which to build the fixing of that day and hour which it is God's prerogative to know. This sabbatical year began in September, at the end of harvest, the seventh month of their ecclesiastical year: and the law was, 1. That at the seed-time, which immediately followed the end of their in-gathering, they should sow no corn in their land, and that they should not in the spring dress their vineyards, and consequently that they should not expect either harvest or vintage the next year. 2. That what their ground did produce of itself they should not claim any property or use in, otherwise than from hand to mouth, but leave it for the poor, servants, strangers, and cattle, Lev 25:5-7. It must be a sabbath of rest to the land; they must neither do any work about it, nor expect any fruit from it; all annual labours must be intermitted in the seventh year, as much as daily labours on the seventh day. The Jews say they "began not to reckon for the sabbatical year till they had completed the conquest of Canaan, which was in the eighth year of Joshua; the seventh year after that was the first sabbatical year, and so the fiftieth year was the jubilee." This year there was to be a general release of debts (Deu 15:1, Deu 15:2), and a public reading of the law in the feast (Deu 31:10, Deu 31:11), to make it the more solemn. Now, (1.) God would hereby show them that he was their landlord, and that they were tenants at will under him. Landlords are wont to stipulate with their tenants when they shall break up their ground, how long they shall till it, and when they shall let it rest: God would thus give, grant, and convey, that good land to them, under such provisos and limitations as should let them know that they were not proprietors, but dependents on their Lord. (2.) It was a kindness to their land to let it rest sometimes, and would keep it in heart (as our husbandmen express it) for posterity, whose satisfaction God would have them to consult, and not to use the ground as if it were designed only for one age. (3.) When they were thus for a whole year taken off from all country business, they would have the more leisure to attend the exercises of religion, and to get the knowledge of God and his law. (4.) They were hereby taught to be charitable and generous, and not to engross all to themselves, but to be willing that others should share with them in the gifts of God's bounty, which the earth brought forth of itself. (5.) They were brought to live in a constant dependence upon the divine providence, finding that, as man lives not by bread alone, so he has bread, not by his own industry alone, but, if God pleases, by the word of blessing from the mouth of God, without any care or pains of man, Mat 4:4. (6.) They were reminded of the easy life man lived in paradise, when he ate of every good thing, not, as since, in the sweat of his face. Labour and toil came in with sin. (7.) They were taught to consider how the poor lived, that did neither sow nor reap, even by the blessing of God upon a little. (8.) This year of rest typified the spiritual rest which all believers enter into through Christ, our true Noah, who giveth us comfort and rest concerning our work, and the toil of our hands, because of the ground which the Lord hath cursed, Gen 5:29. Through him we are eased of the burden of worldly care and labour, both being sanctified and sweetened to us, and we are enabled and encouraged to live by faith. And, as the fruits of this sabbath of the land were enjoyed in common, so the salvation wrought out by Christ is a common salvation; and this sabbatical year seems to have been revived in the Christian church, when the believers had all things common, Act 2:44.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv1–55 And the Lord spake unto Moses in Mount Sinai,....…
And the Lord spake unto Moses in Mount Sinai,.... Not when Moses was with the Lord on that mount forty days, but after he came down from thence, even after the tabernacle was set up, while the children of Israel where encamped about that mountain, and before they took their journey from thence; for they continued some time in the wilderness of Sinai, and here it was the Lord spoke to Moses; for the words may be rendered "by" or "near Mount Sinai" (g); and so Josephus (h) says, the following laws were delivered to Moses, when Israel was encamped under Mount Sinai:
saying; as follows.
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(g) "apud seu juxta montem", Piscator; so Ainsworth, Patrick, &c. (h) Antiqu. l. 3. c. 12. sect. 3.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 9, 10, 12, 14, 15, 16, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 27, 28, 30, 31, 34, 35, 36, 39, 41, 42, 43, 47, 50, 53 In token of his peculiar right to the land…
In token of his peculiar right to the land of Canaan, God in this chapter appoints,
1. That every seventh year should be a year of rest, ver. 1-7.
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2. That every fiftieth year should be a year of jubilee, ver. 8-17. A peculiar blessing annext, ver. 18-22. The land sold may be redeemed: if not, it shall revert at the year of jubilee, only with some exceptions, ver. 23-34. Usury forbidden, ver. 35-38. Jewish servants to be released at the jubilee, ver. 39. but heathens might be retained, ver. 40-46. Of an Israelite that sold himself to a stranger, ver. 47-55.
In Mount Sinai - That is, near Mount Sinai. So the Hebrew particle beth is sometimes used. So there is no need to disturb the history in this place.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 8, 11, 14, 15, 20, 23, 25, 29, 32, 36, 42, 43, 50, 55 The law concerning the Sabbatical or seventh year repeated,
CHAPTER XXV
The law concerning the Sabbatical or seventh year repeated,
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1-7.
The law relative to the jubilee, or fiftieth year, and the
hallowing of the fiftieth, 8-12.
In the year of jubilee every one to return unto his
possessions, 13.
None to oppress another in buying and selling, 14.
Purchases to be rated from jubilee to jubilee, according to the
number of years unexpired, 15-17.
Promises to obedience, 18,19.
Promises relative to the Sabbatical year, 20-22.
No inheritance must be finally alienated, 23, 24.
No advantage to be taken of a man's poverty in buying his land,
25-28.
Ordinances relative to the selling of a house in a walled city,
29, 30;
in a village, 31.
Houses of the Levites may be redeemed at any time, 32, 33.
The fields of the Levites in the suburbs must not be sold, 34.
No usury to be taken from a poor brother, 35-38.
If an Israelite be sold to an Israelite, he must not be obliged
to serve as a slave, 39,
but be as a hired servant or as a sojourner, till the year of
jubilee, 40,
when he and his family shall have liberty to depart, 41;
because God claims all Israelites as his servants, having
redeemed them from bondage in Egypt, 42, 43.
The Israelites are permitted to have bond-men and bond-women of
the heathens, who, being bought with their money, shall be
considered as their property, 44-46.
If an Israelite, grown poor, be sold to a sojourner who has
waxed rich, he may be redeemed by one of his relatives, an
uncle or uncle's son, 47-49.
In the interim between the jubilees, he may be redeemed; but if
not redeemed, he shall go free in the jubilee, 50-54.
Obedience enforced by God's right over them as his servants,
55.
NOTES ON CHAP. XXV
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 4, 6, 8, 9, 10, 12, 14, 15, 16, 21, 23, 24, 27, 29, 34, 36, 39, 41, 47, 50, 53 Lev 25:1. In mount Sinai — That is, in…
Lev 25:1. In mount Sinai — That is, in the wilderness of Sinai, or near mount Sinai, as the Hebrew particle beth frequently signifies. For they did not remove from this wilderness till the 20th day of the seventh month after their coming out of Egypt.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 14, 15, 18, 23, 25, 28, 30, 32, 35, 37, 38, 39, 43, 44, 47 The sabbatical year and the year of Jubilee belong…
The sabbatical year and the year of Jubilee belong to that great sabbatical system which runs through the religious observances of the Law, but rest upon moral rather than upon formally religious ground. It is not, therefore, without reason that they are here set apart from the set times which fell strictly within the sphere of religious observances.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv2, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 12, 14, 21, 22, 23, 27, 29, 33, 35, 40, 43, 45, 47, 49, 53 The rest (sabbathises sabbatum). The land was to enjoy…
The rest (sabbathises sabbatum). The land was to enjoy the benefit of rest every seventh year, to remind God’s people that he had created the world, and that he still retained dominion over it, (St. Augustine, q. 91, 92,) requiring the spontaneous fruits of that year as a tribute, part of which he gave to the poor. In the mean time, all creatures rested from their labours, and the people were taught to have an entire confidence in Providence. (Calmet) --- This law was given in the desert of Sinai, in the month of Nisan, the second year after the exit: but it did not begin to be in force till the Hebrews entered into the land of Chanaan. (Haydock)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain On v1 Of the Sabbatical and Jubilee Years
FOURTH SECTION
Of the Sabbatical and Jubilee Years
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“The keeping holy of the hallowed territory, the holy land, by the Sabbatical year; of the consecrated inheritance by the Jubilee Year, and thus also of those who had become impoverished, the Israelites who had fallen into servitude; the keeping holy of the outward appearance of the holy land (streets and ways); of the public Sabbath feast and of the Sanctuary of the religion of the land. Lev_25:1 to Lev_26:2.” —Lange.
Lev_25:1-55
1And the Lord spake unto Moses in mount Sinai, saying, 2Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye come into the land which I give you, then shalt the land keep a sabbath unto the Lord. 3Six years thou shall sow thy field, and six years thou shalt prune thy vineyard [fruit garden1], and gather in the fruit thereof; 4but in the seventh year shall be a sabbath of rest unto the land, a sabbath for the Lord: thou shalt neither sow thy field, nor prune thy vineyard 5[fruit garden1].2 That which groweth of its own accord of thy harvest thou shalt not reap, neither gather the grapes of thy vine undressed:3 for it is a year of rest unto the land. 6And the sabbath of the land shall be meat for you; for thee, and for thy servant,4 and for thy maid, and for thy hired servant, and for thy stranger that sojourneth with thee, 7and for thy cattle, and for the beasts [animals5] that are in thy land, shall all the increase thereof be meat.
8And thou shalt number seven sabbaths6 of years unto thee, seven times seven years; and the space of the seven sabbaths6 of years shall be unto thee forty and nine years. 9Then shalt thou cause the trumpet of the jubile to sound [cause the sound of the cornet to go through the land7] on the tenth day of the seventh month, in the day of atonement shall ye make the trumpet sound throughout all your land. 10And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof: it shall be a jubile8 unto you; and ye shall return every man unto his possession, and ye shall 11return every man unto his family. A jubile8 shall that fiftieth year be unto you: ye shall not sow, neither reap that which groweth of itself in it, nor gather the 12 grapes in it of thy vine undressed.3 For it is the jubile;8 it shall be holy unto you: ye shall eat the increase thereof out of the field.
13In the year of this jubile8 ye shall return every man unto his possession. 14And if thou sell9 ought unto thy neighbor, or buyest ought of thy neighbor’s hand, ye shall not oppress [overreach10] one another: 15according to the number of years after the jubile8 thou shalt buy of thy neighbor, and according unto the number of years of the fruits he shall sell unto thee: 16according to the multitude of years thou shalt increase the price thereof, and according to the fewness of years thou shalt diminish the price of it: for according to the number of the years of the fruits doth he sell unto thee. 17Ye shall not therefore oppress [overreach10] one another; but thou shalt fear thy God: for I am the Lord your God.
18Wherefore ye shall do my statutes and keep my judgments, and do them; and ye shall dwell in the land in safety. 19And the land shall yield her fruit, and ye shall eat your fill, and dwell therein in safety. 20And if ye shall say, What shall we eat the seventh year? behold, we shall not sow, nor gather in our increase: 21then I will command my blessing upon you in the sixth year, and it shall bring forth fruit for three years. 22And ye shall sow the eighth year, and eat yet of old fruit until the ninth year; until her fruits come in ye shall eat of the old store.
23The land shall not be sold for ever:11 for the land is mine; for ye are strangers and sojourners with me. 24And in all the land of your possession ye shall grant a redemption for the land. 25If thy brother be waxen poor, and hath sold away some of his possession, and if any of his kin come to redeem it, then shall he redeem that which his brother sold. 26And if the man have none to redeem it, and himself be 27[has become12] able to redeem it; then let him count the years of the sale thereof, and restore the overplus unto the man to whom he sold it: that he may return unto his possession. 28But if he be not able to restore it to him, then that which is sold shall remain in the hand of him that hath bought it until the year of jubile:8 and in the jubile8 it shall go out, and he shall return unto his possession.
29And if a man sell a dwelling house in a walled city, then he may redeem it within a whole year after it is sold; within a full year [a term of days13] may he redeem it. 30And if it be not redeemed with the space of a full year, then the house that is in the walled city shall be established for ever to him14 that bought it throughout his generations: it shall not go out in the jubile.8 31But the houses of the villages which have no wall round about them shall be counted15 as the fields of the country: they may be redeemed, and they shall go out in the jubile.8
32Notwithstanding [But concerning16] the cities of the Levites, and [omit and] the houses of the cities of their possession, may the Levites redeem at any time. 33And if a man purchase of the Levites,17 then the house that was sold, and [in18] the city of his possession, shall go out in the year of jubile:8 for the houses of the cities of the Levites are their possession among the children of Israel. 34But the field of the suburbs of their cities may not be sold; for it is their perpetual possession.
35And if thy brother be waxen poor, and fallen in decay with thee; then thou shalt relieve him: yea, though he be a stranger [poor, and his hand trembles by thee, thou shalt hold him up as a stranger19], or a sojourner; that he may live20with thee. 36Take thou no usury of him, or increase: but fear thy God; that thy brother may live with thee. 37Thou shalt not give him thy money upon usury, nor 38lend him thy victuals for increase. I am the Lord your God, which brought you forth out of the land of Egypt, to give you the land of Canaan, and to be your God.
39And if thy brother that dwelleth by thee be waxen poor, and be sold unto thee; 40thou shalt not compel him to serve as a bondservant: but as an hired servant, and as a sojourner, he shall be with thee, and shall serve thee unto the year of jubile:841and then shall he depart from thee, both he and his children with him, and shall return unto his own family, and unto the possession of his fathers shall he return. 42For they are my servants, which I brought forth out of the land of Egypt: they shall not be sold as bondmen. 43Thou shalt not rule over him with rigor; but shalt fear thy God. 44Both thy bondmen, and thy bondmaids, which thou shalt have, shall be of the heathen that are round about you; of them shall ye buy bondmen and bondmaids. 45Moreover of the children of the strangers that do sojourn among you, of them shall ye buy, and of their families that are with you, which they begat in your land: and they shall be your possession. 46And ye shall take them as an inheritance for your children after you, to inherit them for a possession; they shall be your bondmen for ever: but over your brethren the children of Israel, ye shall not rule one over another with rigor.
47And if a sojourner or stranger wax rich by thee, and thy brother that dwelleth by him wax poor, and sell himself unto the stranger or21 sojourner by thee, or to the stock of the stranger’s family: 48after that he is sold he may be redeemed again; one of his brethren may redeem him; 49either his uncle, or his uncle’s son, may redeem him, or any that is nigh of kin22 unto him of his family may redeem him; or if he be able, he may redeem himself. 50And he shall reckon with him that bought him from the year that he was sold to him unto the year of jubile:8 and the price of his sale shall be according unto the number of years, according to the time of an 51hired servant shall it be with him. If there be yet many years behind, according unto them he shall give again the price of his redemption out of the money that he was bought for. 52And if there remain but few years unto the year of jubile,8 then he shall count with him, and according unto his years shall he give him again 53the price of his redemption. And as a yearly hired servant shall he be with him: and the other shall not rule with rigor over him in thy sight. 54And if he be not redeemed in these years [by these means23], then he shall go out in the year of jubile,8 both he, and his children with him. 55For unto me the children of Israel are servants; they are my servants whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.
TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL
Lev_25:3-4. כֶּרֶם. See Textual Note 6 on Lev_19:10.
Lev_25:5. The Sam., LXX. and Syr. prefix the conjunction.
Lev_25:5; Lev_25:11. נָזִיר means primarily the separated (see Gen_49:26; Deu_33:16), then the consecrated. Except in the passages referred to, and in this chap, it is always used of the Nazarite. It is applied to the vine either as for this year consecrated, so LXX. ἁγιάσματος σου; or by a figure of speech, thy Nazarite vine, as having its branches unpruned like the unshorn locks of the Nazarite. The latter is generally preferred by the commentators. See Keil who refers to the Latin viridis coma, Tibull. i. 7, 34; Propert. ii. 15, 12. Ten MSS., the Syr. and Vulg. read the word in the plural.
Lev_25:6. The Sam. and Syr. read this and the three following words in the plural.
Lev_25:7. וְלַחַיָּה. See Textual Note1 on Lev_11:2.
Lev_25:8. Sabbath is used here as in Lev_23:15 (see note there) rather in a figurative way than with the definite sense of weeks.
Lev_25:9. The word יוֹבֵל = Jubile of Lev_25:10 does not occur in this verse, and there is no occasion for its insertion. The שׁוֹפַר תְרוּעָה is the loud sound, clangor, of an instrument usually translated trumpet in the A. V., but occasionally (1Ch_15:28; 2Ch_15:14; Psa_98:6, etc.) more correctly cornet. It was either the horn of an animal (according to the Mishna, of chamois or wild goat), or made of metal in the fashion of a horn. The LXX. renders σάλπιγξ, the Vulg. buccina.
Lev_25:10-13, etc. יוֹבֵל is translated throughout this chapter and Leviticus 27, jubile. So also Num_36:4. In Exo_19:13 it is rendered trumpet (marg. cornet), and in the only other places where it occurs, Jos_6:4-6; Jos_6:8; Jos_6:13, ram’s horns. Outside of the Bible the word is always spelt jubilee, but being here spelt jubile, Clark considers that it was intended to be pronounced as a dissyllable, making a close imitation of the Heb. word. Authorities differ as to its sense etymologically. See the subject discussed in Bochart, Hieroz, I. c. 43 (vol. I., pp. 463–466 ed. Rosen.), and Gesen. Thes. s. v. The LXX. renders ἄφεσις with relation to what was to be done in this year rather than as a translation of the Heb. word. Josephus (Ant. III. 12, 3) uses the Heb. word ἰωβήλος, which he explains as meaning liberty, ἐλευθερίαν δὲ σημαἰνει τοὔνομα. The Vulg. has jubileus. In Eze_46:17 it is called שְׁנַת הַדִּרוֹר = the year of liberty, from which Josephus probably derived his interpretation. This accords well with the context in Lev_25:11, and also with the derivation from יָבַל = to flow freely.
Lev_25:14. The Heb. has the verb in the plural; but the Sam. has the sing in accordance with the sing, pronouns following. The word buy, קָנֹח is inf. abs., as in Gen_41:43.
Lev_25:14. אַל־תּוֹנוּ. The verb יָנָה in the Hiph. applies especially to that sort of civil oppression brought about by fraud, which is best, expressed in English by the word overreach.
Lev_25:23. לִצְמִתֻת, lit. for cutting off (as in marg. A. V.), viz. from all hope of redemption. In modern phrase, in perpetuity.
Lev_25:26. The marg. his hand hath attained and found sufficiency exactly renders the Heb.; but the text of the A. V. is a sufficiently good translation except in failing to bring out the idea that the ability to redeem has come about since the sale took place. The Jewish interpretation was accordingly correct, that the right of redemption should only accrue in case the ability to re-purchase was gained after the sale had taken place; a merely voluntary sale must hold until the jubilee year.
Lev_25:29. יָמִים תִּהְיִח גְּאֻלָּתוֹ, lit. days shall its redemption be, i.e. the right of redemption shall continue for a definite time and no longer, which time has been explained in the previous clause to be a year; it is better, however, to let the translation follow the Heb. than to paraphrase so much as has been done in the A. V.
Lev_25:30. The k’ri לוֹ for the text לֹא is also the reading of the Sam. and of thirteen MSS.
Lev_25:31. יֵחָשֵׁב is sing. The Sam., LXX. and Syr. have the plural.
Lev_25:32. On this use of the particle ו see Nordheimer’s Heb. Gr. § 1093, 6, c, h. It is evident that there is nothing said about the redemption of the cities, which the form of the A. V. would seem to imply, but only of the houses in them.
Lev_25:33. There is much diversity of opinion as to the meaning of this clause. The text of the A. V. is supported by the LXX. and by the Targums, and is defended by Keil. A difficulty arises from the use of the word יִגְאַל = redeem; but Keil maintains, on the authority of the Rabbins, that this is used in the sense of קָנָה = to buy. He grounds the usage on the fact that the Levitical cities were originally assigned to the tribes as a part of their inheritance; they relinquished the houses, or a part of the houses in them (together with pasture grounds) to the Levites for dwelling-places. When therefore one of another tribe purchased of a Levite, he was in fact redeeming the inheritance of his tribe. So Murphy. On the other hand, the reading: If one of the Levites redeems a house in the city (according to the marg. of the A. V.), is preferred by Clark following Rosenmüller, De Wette, Kranold, Herxheimer and others. The meaning will then be, that if a Levite has sold a house to one of another tribe, and another Levite redeem it, then in the Jubilee year it must revert to its original possessor. But it is more than questionable whether the Levites had any such general right of redemption on behalf of their fellow Levites as this would suppose. The Vulg. inserts a negative, Si redemptœ (sc. œdes) non fuerint, and this is sustained by Houbigant, and preferred by Woide, Ewald, Bunsen and Knobel. It is adopted by Lange in the translation and exegesis; but it is a serious objection that it would require a change in the Heb. On the whole, the text of the A. V. seems best sustained, and gives the clearest sense.
Lev_25:33. On the use of וְ in the figure Hendiadys see Gesen. s. v. 1, b.
Lev_25:35. The particle as is inserted here by the LXX., Vulg., Targums, Luther, etc., and is recognized as to be supplied by many commentators, as Keil, Clark and others. So also Riggs. On the other hand the Syr. gives just the opposite sense: thou shalt not hold him for a sojourner or foreigner; but he shall live with thee. Others, as Lange, adopt the sense expressed in the A. V.
Lev_25:35. וְחֵי according to Keil, an abbreviation for וָחַי occurring only here.
Lev_25:47. The missing conjunction is supplied in ten MSS., the LXX. and Syr.
Lev_25:49. See Textual Note4 on Lev_18:6.
Lev_25:54. The Heb. does not express the noun at all. That supplied by the marg. of the A. V. is clearly more agreeable to the context than that in the text. So Lange, following the Syr. The other ancient versions do not supply the ellipsis.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
This chapter, with the first two verses of the following one, forms another Parashah. or proper lesson of the law; the parallel lesson from the prophets is Jer_32:6-27, concerning Jeremiah’s redemption of Hanameel’s field in Anathoth. This and the following chapter, which is the conclusion of the book proper, form a single Divine communication. “The institution of the jubilee years corresponds to the institution of the day of atonement (Leviticus 16). Just as all the sins and uncleannesses of the whole congregation, which had remained unatoned for and uncleansed in the course of the year, were to be wiped away by the all-embracing expiation of the yearly recurring day of atonement, and an undisturbed relation to be restored between Jehovah and His people; so, by the appointment of the year of jubilee, the disturbance and confusion of the divinely appointed relations, which had been introduced in the course of time through the inconstancy of all human or earthly things, were to be removed by the appointment of the year of Jubilee, and the kingdom of Israel to be brought back to its original condition.” Keil. The systematic character and correspondence of the two great divisions of Leviticus are thus brought into view.
The institution of the Sabbatical year occupies the first seven verses, and that of the year of Jubilee, with its effects upon rights and property, the remainder of the chapter. The latter may be subdivided into the institution itself (Lev_25:8-12); the legal return of every man to his own land, and the effect of this on contracts (Lev_25:13-34); and finally the emancipation of the Hebrew slave with its consequences (Lev_25:35-55). “The Sabbatical year and the year of Jubilee belong to that great Sabbatical system which runs through the religious observances of the law. They were solemnly connected with the sacred Covenant.” Clark. They are therefore appropriately placed immediately after the “appointed seasons” of the previous chapter; yet they are also somewhat separated from these, as “they were distinguished by no religious ceremonies, they were accompanied by no act of religious worship. There were no sacrifices, nor Holy Convocations belonging to them.” Although forming a part of the Hebrew ecclesiastical system, they were yet chiefly marked in their effects by their civil and social relations. As the whole civil polity of Israel was fundamentally theocratic, so were these remarkable provisions in their national life placed upon a religious basis.
“There are perhaps in the whole ancient world no institutions bearing comparison with the Hebrew year of release and of Jubilee, either in comprehensiveness or in loftiness of principle. It is impossible to appreciate too highly the wonderful consistency with which the Sabbath was made the foundation of a grand series of celebrations extending from the Sabbath-day to the Sabbath-month, and the Sabbath-year, and lastly to a great Sabbath-period of years. And all these institutions were associated with ideas admirably calculated to foster both a sense of dignity and humility, both zeal in practical pursuits and spiritual elevation, both prudence and charity.” Kalisch.
“The fundamental thought is: Jehovah is the Lord of the land of Jehovah, with all its blessings, with its soil and its harvests, with its inheritances and its dwellings, with its rich and its poor, with its free and its slaves, its roads and its bye-ways, its holy seasons, the Sabbath days and its central holy place, the Tabernacle.” Lange.
Lev_25:1-7. In mount Sinai clearly means in the region about the mountain, as in Lev_7:38; Lev_26:46; Lev_27:34, etc. “Mount Sinai is emphasized to allow the immediately following ordinance to come into prominence as a prophecy of the distant future.” Lange. Neither the Sabbatical nor the Jubilee year were to be observed until the settlement of the people in the promised land. On Lev_25:4 Lange quotes Keil as follows: “The omission of sowing and reaping presupposed that the Sabbatical year commenced with the civil year, in the autumn of the sixth year of labor, and not with the ecclesiastical year, on the first of Abib (Nisan), and that it lasted till the Autumn of the seventh year, when the cultivation of the land would commence again with the preparation of the ground and the sowing of the seed for the eighth year; and with this the command to proclaim the jubilee year ‘on the tenth day of the seventh month’ throughout all the land (Lev_25:9), and the calculation in Lev_25:21-22, fully agree.” On the expression Sabbath Sabbathon of Lev_25:4, see Textual Note 2 on Lev_23:3. In Lev_25:4-7 all agricultural labor is forbidden for the Sabbatical year. Two questions arise: how were the wants of the people to be provided for during the year? and how was the time thus freed from its usual employments to be spent? In regard to the first, reference is usually made to the great productiveness of the land, and to the fact that there would be a considerable spontaneous growth of grain, while the fruit trees and the vine would of course bear nearly as usual. Greater use would also have been made of animal food by those who possessed cattle, or were able to purchase it, and the uncropped fields would have allowed of the support of herds and flocks in unusual numbers. These facts lessen the difficulty, and indeed remove it altogether for the wealthy and for the poor also during several months of the year; all this spontaneous produce was common property, and might be gathered by any one for immediate use but not stored. Undoubtedly during the time of the ripening of the various cereals there would thus be abundant provision for the wants of the whole population. But after all, the main reliance must have been upon the stores laid up previously in view of the coming on of the Sabbatical year, and this is pointed out in Lev_25:20-21. It is also to be noticed that only agriculture labor was suspended, and that the commerce of the cities went on as usual. In regard to the employment of the time: the command is given in Deu_31:10-12, that at the feast of Tabernacles in this year the law should be read in the hearing of all the people, including not merely the men who were alone required in other years to assemble at the feast, but also the women and children. This provision, joined with the analogy of the seventh day, shows that the leisure of the Sabbatical year was to be improved in acquiring a knowledge of the Divine law, and doubtless in renewing family ties and associations. It is distinguished not as an idle year, but as a year of intellectual and moral, rather than of manual occupation. Other passages in the law on this subject are Exo_23:10-11, and Deu_15:1-18. The latter is the most detailed of all, and provides for the release in that year of all debts due from Israelites, and of all Israelites in bond-service. The Sabbatical year was doubtless provided for the sake of man and its bearing upon his spiritual welfare; yet when the law pronounces (Lev_25:2) the land shall keep a Sabbath unto the LORD, we are forced to see a symbolical significance in the very rest of the land itself. “The earth was to be saved from the hand of man exhausting its power for earthly purposes as his own property, and to enjoy the holy rest with which God had blessed the earth and all its productions after the creation. From this, Israel, as the nation of God, was to learn, on the one hand, that although the earth was created for man, it was not merely created for him to draw out its powers for his own use, but also to be holy to the Lord, and participate in His blessed rest; and on the other hand, that the great purpose for which the congregation of the Lord existed, did not consist in the uninterrupted tilling of the earth, connected with bitter labor in the sweat of his brow (Gen_3:17; Gen_3:19), but in the peaceful enjoyment of the fruits of the earth, which the Lord their God had given them, and would give them still without the labor of their hands, if they strove to keep His covenant and satisfy themselves with His grace.” Keil. The law of the Sabbatical year was not to come into operation until after the completion of the conquest. It is hardly probable that it was actually observed until the Captivity, see 2Ch_36:21, unless possibly a few times in the very beginning of the settlement in Canaan. Later, “there are found several historical notices which imply its observance. The Jews were exempted from tribute in the Sabbatical year by Alexander the Great (Jos. Ant. xi. 8, 6), and by Julius Cæsar (ib. xiv. 10, 6). The inhabitants of Bethsura could not stand out when besieged by Antiochus Epiphanes, because they had no store of provisions owing to the Sabbatical year (1Ma_6:49), and the inhabitants of Jerusalem suffered from a like cause when they were besieged by Herod (Jos. Ant. xiv. 16, 2; xv. 1, 2).” Clark. Tacitus also mentions the Jewish “seventh year given to indolence” (Hist. v. 2, 4), and St. Paul (Gal_4:10) charges the Judaizers with observing years as well as days and months.
Lev_25:8-12. The institution of the year of Jubilee. The present chapter contains the whole literature of the Jubilee year to be found in the Pentateuch, except the discussion of its effect upon fields dedicated to the Lord in Lev_27:16-25, and except also the allusion in the case of the daughters of Zelophehad, Num_36:4. Lange: “The relation of the last Sabbatical year to the Jubilee year itself creates a special difficulty. If the people did not sow or reap during two years, there would result a stoppage of four years.” [This seems to overlook the fact that the Jubilee was proclaimed on the 10th Tisri, when the whole work of the agricultural year had been rounded out and completed, so that the break of two years, serious as this was, did not extend either forward or backward in its effects beyond those years themselves.—F. G.]. “On this account it has indeed been supposed that the 49th year itself was the Jubilee year (see Keil, p. 162 [Trans. p. 458]. Art. Sabbath and Jobeljahr in Herzog’s Real-encyclopädie).” [This view was first advocated by R. Jehuda, and has been adopted by Scaliger, Usher, Petavius, Rosenmüller, and others, and hesitatingly by Clark in his commentary. It is entirely rejected by Keil as contradictory to the plain language of the text, and by Clark in his Art. Jubilee in Smith’s Bibl. Dict. The text (Lev_25:8-11) is perfectly plain, using the same forms of language as in regard to the feast of Pentecost after the completion of the seven weeks, between which and this Pentecostal year there is a clear analogy. Notwithstanding the authority of the critics above referred to, it must be considered as certain that the Jubilee followed the seventh Sabbatical year, and that thus once in every half century two fallow years were to occur together. The provisions for food were the same in the one case as in the other: no agricultural labor was to be performed, but the spontaneous productions of the earth were the common property of the whole population. Large reliance must therefore have been placed upon food previously stored and, perhaps, on foreign commerce.—F.G.] “We see from the book of Jeremiah that this feast was poorly kept in Israel, not on account of apprehended need, but in consequence of the hardening effect of proprietary relations, and the hard-heartedness of the powerful and great. (Knobel, p. 563. Jeremiah 34). But the year of Jubilee formed the culmination of the ideal relations of Israel which the law aimed at without actually reaching.… It is most full of significance that on the 10th of the 7th mouth (at the end of the seven Sabbatical years on the great day of Atonement, without doubt immediately after the full accomplishment of the propitiation) the trombone was to sound through all the land to announce the year of Jubilee as a year of freedom (דְּרוֹר), the highest feast of the laborer, and of nature, the redemption of lost inheritances, the ransom of the enslaved, the year of the restoration of all things (Isaiah 61). The instrument of the announcement is the trombone, the horn (שׁוֹפַּר), the sound of which יוֹבֵל had proclaimed also the feast of the covenant of the law.” After the solemn quiet of the day when all the people must “afflict their souls,” and when the great rites of the annual propitiation had been completed, probably at the time of the evening sacrifice, the sudden burst of sound proclaiming the year of Jubilee must have been peculiarly impressive. The proclamation of freedom was most appropriate just after the great reconciliation of the people with God had been symbolically completed. The chief allusions to this year in the prophets are Isa_61:1-2; Jer_32:6-15; Eze_7:12-13; Eze_46:16-18.
Lev_25:13-34. In the year of Jubilee every man was to return to his inherited possession. The principle on which this law is based is given in Lev_25:23 : The land was the absolute possession of Jehovah alone; He had allotted it to the families of Israel as strangers and sojourners with Him, and however these allotments might be temporarily disturbed in the exigencies of life, in the Jubilee they must all be restored again. Lev_25:14. Sell aught refers only to land and houses in the country. Personal property (except slaves) was not affected by the Jubilee as debts were by the Sabbatical year (Deu_15:1-11). The price of the land was determined (Lev_25:15-16) by the value of the harvests remaining until the Jubilee. “In the valuation of the harvest there was always opportunity for fraud; therefore the earnest warning not to oppress [overreach] one’s neighbor.” Lange. Lev_25:20-22 relate in terms to the sabbatical year, but only in regard to the supply of food. This is of course, equally applicable to the Jubilee year, and thus both cases are covered. The question arises in connection with the latter, but needs also to be answered for the former, and is therefore arranged with reference to that as the more frequently recurring. The verses stand therefore quite in their proper place; if placed, as various critics would have them, just after Lev_25:7, the Jubilee year could only be provided for by a repetition. Lev_25:23-28. Lange: “The land shall not be sold even to defeasance, i.e., completely. It shall also not be sold absolutely; the form is not an hereditary lease, once for all, but a temporary lease for a course of years.—For the land is Mine, Jehovah says, and ye are strangers and sojourners with Me.—Therefore the soil throughout the whole land was placed under the law of redemption. Also redemption could take place before the 50th year if the nearest Goel or redeemer of the impoverished man stepped in and bought back for his benefit that which had been alienated. If the redeemers (relatives, according to their degrees of relationship, having the ability and the will) failed, then the case was conceivable that the impoverished man himself might come into the possession of means before the 50th year, and then the redemption was reserved to him according to the usufruct of the yet remaining years.” If neither of these means of redemption were availed of, then the law of reversion absolutely and without consideration came into play in the Jubilee year. There could never be injustice in this, as all purchases had been made with a full knowledge of the law. The law, if thy brother be waxen poor, throughout presupposes that no Israelite would sell his inheritance except under the pressure of poverty. Comp. 1Ki_21:3.
Lev_25:29-34. The alienation and redemption of houses (a) of the people generally, Lev_25:29-31; (b) of the Levites, Lev_25:32-34. (a) Lange: “A dwelling-house within a walled city could be redeemed within the space of the first year, but not afterwards. The law could not be brought to bear upon the more fixed relations of cities without prejudice to justice and order. The reason certainly is not that the houses in the cities belonged “to the full proprietorship of their possessors.” The possessors themselves were really tenants of Jehovah.” [The law of redemption relates to land, and is based upon the original division of the land among the families of Israel. In cities the original value of the land constituted but a small part of the value of a house; the rest was the creation of human industry. The property represented by the original value of the land is recognized in the right of redemption for a year, which also concurred with the general purpose of the law in checking the sale of real estate; but beyond this the house in the city was justly treated as of the nature of personal property. Calvin also observes justly that there was not the same objection to the falling of city houses into the hands of the wealthy as of those in the country. On the one hand, the expense of maintaining them was greater, and could be better borne by the wealthy; and on the other, the possession of a house was not at all as necessary to a poor man in the city as in the country where he could scarcely otherwise find shelter.—F. G.] “But the houses in open places were put, as an appurtenance to the farm, under the law of redemption within the fiftieth year, or of reversion at the end of that period.” (b) See the Textual Notes on Lev_25:32-33. Lange, in his translation and exegesis of Lev_25:33, follows the Vulgate, and objects to the view of Keil as too subtle, and as inapplicable to the clause: and the city of his possession. The latter objection is removed by considering this as a hendiadys, and translating in the city. Lange considers that the clause “has something like these the senses: even houses of the Levites fall back again, even if they were the whole city. Or again: only by this means the Levitical cities remain guaranteed as such.” The pasturage of the Levites was absolutely inalienable, even temporarily (Lev_25:34), and the reason for extending the law of redemption to their houses in the cities is evidently that they had no other inheritance, and it was therefore necessary in this to assimilate them to the rest of the people that they might enjoy the same safeguards against hopeless poverty with their brethren. This provision applied to the priests also, who constituted one family of the Levites, and were in the same situation as their brethren in regard to landed property. It is noticeable on the one hand that this is the only mention of the Levites in this book; and on the other, that the provision of cities for them had not yet been announced. Both facts admit of the easy explanation that the whole legislation had been communicated to Moses in the Mount, so that any part of it may presuppose another; but that he was to announce it to the people in the order best adapted to their needs. The Levites are not therefore spoken of in this book, except thus incidentally in order to keep them distinct from the priests; and the law in regard to the redemption of their houses in their cities is given to complete the law of Jubilee; but the assignment of the cities themselves is reserved to the directions for the division of the land.
Lev_25:35-55. The emancipation of the Hebrew slave with its consequences. The main subject is still the law of Jubilee; but in connection with the effect of this upon the Hebrew slave, the treatment of the poor generally is spoken of.—And if thy brother,i.e. an Israelite, be waxen poor, he was not to be treated as an outcast, but with the consideration shown to a resident foreigner, who also had no landed possession. Lev_25:36-37, forbid the taking of usury of him, or increase. In the latter verse this is applied also to the furnishing of food. It is entirely clear that the prohibition is not simply of what is now commonly called usurious interest, but of any interest whatever. There was no law regulating the amount of interest; no interest was allowed to be taken of a Hebrew brother, and no limitation was put upon that which might be demanded of a foreigner. Lange, however, considers the words: a stranger or a sojourner (Lev_25:35) as in apposition with the pronoun him, and taking the view expressed in the A. V., says: “It is very noticeable that this holds good also of the foreigner.” See Textual Note 19. Lange adds: “Jehovah says this, the great Benefactor, who has delivered His Israel out of Egypt, and purposes to give him the whole land of Canaan, in order to make him, through thankfulness, like-minded with his God.” (Lev_25:38.) Lev_25:39-43. Hebrew servants to Hebrews. The law provides that such servants shall not be treated as ordinary slaves entirely dependent upon the will of their master, but rather as simply under a contract, like a hired servant. In Exo_21:1-4 it has already been provided that the term of servitude for the Israelites should not extend beyond six years, and in the seventh they should go out free; it is now further provided, as an almost necessary supplement to that law, that, whatever the number of years he might chance to have served, he should go free in the Jubilee when the land of his inheritance reverted to him, and would need his care. “Through this principle slavery was completely abolished, so far as the people of the theocracy were concerned.” Oehler. In Ex. the freedom of his wife and children is also assured, unless the wife be one given him by his master, and therefore his slave. In that case the wife and children remained the master’s, and the same qualification is doubtless to be understood of Lev_25:41 here. In Exo_21:5-6, provision is made for the case of a slave who preferred to continue with his master; it would have been unnecessary at any rate to mention this unusual exception here; but probably it applied only to the ordinary release in the seventh year of service, and was not intended to take place also at the Jubilee. If the slave freed at the Jubilee chose to go back to his master, he could of course do so, but could only devote himself to perpetual servitude after another six years’ service. Lev_25:42-43. Lange: “The Israelites were not allowed to become men’s slaves, because they were God’s slaves. The Jews could misinterpret these noble words in arrogance in opposition to the heathen (John 8); but Christian industry has read them too little.” Lev_25:44-46. Heathen slaves of Hebrew masters. The Israelites, in common with all nations of their time, were permitted to hold heathen slaves. It was a patriarchal custom of long standing, and the supply was kept up by natural descent, by purchase from foreigners, and by captives taken in war. The people were not yet prepared for the abrogation of this, and in consequence the Mosaic law permits its continuance, but in many ways mitigates its rigor (see Exo_21:16; Exo_21:21; Exo_21:26-27), especially by providing that the slave might adopt the religion of his master, and be circumcised, and thus entitled to all the privileges of a Hebrew servant (comp. Exo_12:44). This had certainly been done with all the slaves of Abraham, and probably with those of Isaac and Jacob. It is likely that no inconsiderable portion of the Israelites of the time of Moses were the descendants of slaves thus manumitted. Lev_25:47-55. Hebrew servants to foreign masters. By this addition all possible cases of servitude are covered. Lange: “The prohibition of oppressive power against an Israelite brother occurs again Lev_25:43, and again Lev_25:46. So strongly were the Israelites now bound to charitableness and to the fostering of freedom; so strongly also was the power of the stranger and foreigner coming into Israel limited in relation to heathen encroachments upon the Jewish right of freedom. If an impoverished Jew sold himself or his house to a foreigner, any one of his kindred might become his redeemer, the brother, the uncle, the uncle’s son, or any blood relation; also he might redeem himself, if he had laid by enough for the purpose. Everything breathed the tendency to freedom; but it was conditioned by law. The price of the redemption was fixed according to the years which he had yet to serve to the year of Jubilee, and according to the usual wages. In case there was no redemption, he was set free in the year of Jubilee. At the close occurs yet once more the solemn sanction of the law, Lev_25:55.” This law evidently contemplates the acquisition of wealth by foreigners residing in Israel, and their living in undisturbed prosperity. The Hebrew slave of a Hebrew was released without redemption after six years of service, and also in the year of Jubilee whenever that might occur; but apparently the law of Exodus 21 does not apply to foreign masters, and here nothing is said of release, except by redemption, until the Jubilee. This would be a strong inducement to an impoverished Hebrew to sell himself to an Israelite rather than a foreigner, and concurs with the general tendency of the law to discourage any subjection to foreigners.
Lange connects the first two verses of the following chapter with this section as is done in the Jewish Parashah. They seem, however, to belong to the general conclusion of the book contained in the following chapter.
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
I. Lange (under Exegetical): “The chosen land, seen from a distance, appears as a paradisaical world, inexhaustible in fruitfulness.… But it is to be particularly noticed that the prescribed Sabbath rest of the land forced the people back again to the inexhaustible source of food in the breeding of cattle, and so far to simple Idyllic relations; the breaking the hardness of purchase and property relations would further the return of Idyllic simplicity, soften the differences of rank, and above all, avert the so-called proletarian relations, and glorify Jehovah as the gentle sovereign Lord and manor Lord of the families of Israel joined together in brotherhood. By this also comfort was brought to the cattle, and even to the wild animal. In later times the turbulent, restless pressing on of industry is not appeased by voluntary or legal times of rest and years of remission, but indeed by commercial crises, civil catastrophes and extraordinary helps in necessity; but the proper ideas or ideal of the Sabbatical and Jubilee years have not yet come to be clearly seen in the Christian consciousness of the time.” What is noted by H. Spencer as the rythmic flow of all things in the universe is provided for in regard to human activity in this wonderful legislation; the disastrous consequences attending its absence are noted above by Lange.
II. Lange (also under Exeg.): “The limitation of human proprietary right to the soil has also its permanent ideal significance. God challenges to Himself the royal right over terrestrial nature, as a clear idea of this is given indeed in the winter storm over the sea, the Alpine glacier and the deserts. Man is inclined, in his egotistical industry, to harass nature as his beast.”
III. “Looking at the law of Jubilee from a simply practical point of view, its operation must have tended to remedy those evils which are always growing up in the ordinary conditions of human society. It prevented the permanent accumulation of land in the hands of a few, and periodically raised those whom fault or misfortune had sunk into poverty to a position of competency. It must also have tended to keep alive family feeling, and helped to preserve the family genealogies…… But in its more special character, as a law given by Jehovah to His peculiar people, it was a standing lesson to those who would rightly regard it, on the terms upon which the enjoyment of the land of Promise had been conferred upon them. All the land belonged to Jehovah as its supreme Lord, every Israelite as His vassal belonged to Him.” Clark.
IV. The law of slavery as understood among ancient nations generally is here essentially modified and softened, the Levitical precepts tending in the same direction with those of the Gospel which, after so long a time, have now nearly effected its abolition throughout the civilized world. But in regard to the Hebrews themselves, the law went much further, and substantially abolished slavery at once, reducing it to a six years’ service, and even this interrupted by the year of Jubilee, and subject to many restrictions. It is still further to be remembered that any foreign slave might be admitted to the privileges of the Hebrew, by becoming an Israelite through the reception of circumcision. Thus strongly did the law set its face against the institution of slavery.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
Lange (under Exeg.): “The Sabbath year is the germ of the Jubilee year, as this is a type of the New Testament time of deliverance, restoration and freedom (Isaiah 61; Luk_4:18), and further, a prelude and a prophecy of the heavenly and eternal Sabbath itself (Hebrews 4).”
Lange (Homiletik): “The year of Jubilee of the theocratic land. The great year of rejoicing in the theocratic community. Ideals which have been scantily and scarcely fulfilled in the letter in Israel, but which in Christianity are continually being realized in the spirit. And this indeed in the commendable care of the fields and forests; in the dread of a gross profit out of nature; in the limitation of the proprietary right of individuals over nature; in customs of gentleness; in the consecration of the social right of fellowship; the right of the poor, the right of the laboring man, the right of rent and purchase. The later dismal caricatures of these ideals. Seven years a period after which the administration of nature required a new revision; forty [fifty] years a period after which the arrangements of business required a revision. The neglect of reform a source of revolution. The Jubilee year a type of the Gospel time of deliverance (Isaiah 61; Luk_4:16). The true preaching of the Gospel always a proclamation of the true Jubilee year. The Jewish and the Christian emancipation from slavery: 1) its common foundation, 2) its greater difference, 3) its unceasing development in the world.”
As the law provided for a redeemer for the poor, so, says Wordsworth, Christ became the Redeemer for the spiritually poor, reinstating us in our lost estate, and delivering us from the bondage of sin; and this He was entitled to do because by His incarnation He took our nature and became our Kinsman.
By the prohibition of sowing and harvesting in the Sabbatical and Jubilee years was again taught that principle which the Israelites learned from the manna in the wilderness, and which the words of Christ make of perpetual validity, that “man doth not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord.”
Very full and striking are the provisions of this chapter for the loving care of the poor, not for the sake of the poor only, but for the sake of him who should show them kindness. That the blessing of this lesson might not cease with the Mosaic dispensation, God has provided that we shall have the poor always with us, and our Lord has elevated our ministrations to them into ministrations to Himself. Similarly kindness and consideration towards those who labor for us is taught by Moses, and is ever made one of the prominent practical duties of Christianity. See Eph_6:9, etc.
Footnotes:
[1]Lev_25:3-4. כֶּרֶם. See Textual Note 6 on Lev_19:10.
[2]Lev_25:5. The Sam., LXX. and Syr. prefix the conjunction.
[3]Lev_25:5; Lev_25:11. נָזִיר means primarily the separated (see Gen_49:26; Deu_33:16), then the consecrated. Except in the passages referred to, and in this chap, it is always used of the Nazarite. It is applied to the vine either as for this year consecrated, so LXX. ἁγιάσματος σου; or by a figure of speech, thy Nazarite vine, as having its branches unpruned like the unshorn locks of the Nazarite. The latter is generally preferred by the commentators. See Keil who refers to the Latin viridis coma, Tibull. i. 7, 34; Propert. ii. 15, 12. Ten MSS., the Syr. and Vulg. read the word in the plural.
[4]Lev_25:6. The Sam. and Syr. read this and the three following words in the plural.
[5]Lev_25:7. וְלַחַיָּה. See Textual Note1 on Lev_11:2.
[6]Lev_25:8. Sabbath is used here as in Lev_23:15 (see note there) rather in a figurative way than with the definite sense of weeks.
[7]Lev_25:9. The word יוֹבֵל = Jubile of Lev_25:10 does not occur in this verse, and there is no occasion for its insertion. The שׁוֹפַר תְרוּעָה is the loud sound, clangor, of an instrument usually translated trumpet in the A. V., but occasionally (1Ch_15:28; 2Ch_15:14; Psa_98:6, etc.) more correctly cornet. It was either the horn of an animal (according to the Mishna, of chamois or wild goat), or made of metal in the fashion of a horn. The LXX. renders σάλπιγξ, the Vulg. buccina.
[8]Lev_25:10-13, etc. יוֹבֵל is translated throughout this chapter and Leviticus 27, jubile. So also Num_36:4. In Exo_19:13 it is rendered trumpet (marg. cornet), and in the only other places where it occurs, Jos_6:4-6; Jos_6:8; Jos_6:13, ram’s horns. Outside of the Bible the word is always spelt jubilee, but being here spelt jubile, Clark considers that it was intended to be pronounced as a dissyllable, making a close imitation of the Heb. word. Authorities differ as to its sense etymologically. See the subject discussed in Bochart, Hieroz, I. c. 43 (vol. I., pp. 463–466 ed. Rosen.), and Gesen. Thes. s. v. The LXX. renders ἄφεσις with relation to what was to be done in this year rather than as a translation of the Heb. word. Josephus (Ant. III. 12, 3) uses the Heb. word ἰωβήλος, which he explains as meaning liberty, ἐλευθερίαν δὲ σημαἰνει τοὔνομα. The Vulg. has jubileus. In Eze_46:17 it is called שְׁנַת הַדִּרוֹר = the year of liberty, from which Josephus probably derived his interpretation. This accords well with the context in Lev_25:11, and also with the derivation from יָבַל = to flow freely.
[9]Lev_25:14. The Heb. has the verb in the plural; but the Sam. has the sing in accordance with the sing, pronouns following. The word buy, קָנֹח is inf. abs., as in Gen_41:43.
[10]Lev_25:14. אַל־תּוֹנוּ. The verb יָנָה in the Hiph. applies especially to that sort of civil oppression brought about by fraud, which is best, expressed in English by the word overreach.
[11]Lev_25:23. לִצְמִתֻת, lit. for cutting off (as in marg. A. V.), viz. from all hope of redemption. In modern phrase, in perpetuity.
[12]Lev_25:26. The marg. his hand hath attained and found sufficiency exactly renders the Heb.; but the text of the A. V. is a sufficiently good translation except in failing to bring out the idea that the ability to redeem has come about since the sale took place. The Jewish interpretation was accordingly correct, that the right of redemption should only accrue in case the ability to re-purchase was gained after the sale had taken place; a merely voluntary sale must hold until the jubilee year.
[13]Lev_25:29. יָמִים תִּהְיִח גְּאֻלָּתוֹ, lit. days shall its redemption be, i.e. the right of redemption shall continue for a definite time and no longer, which time has been explained in the previous clause to be a year; it is better, however, to let the translation follow the Heb. than to paraphrase so much as has been done in the A. V.
[14]Lev_25:30. The k’ri לוֹ for the text לֹא is also the reading of the Sam. and of thirteen MSS.
[15]Lev_25:31. יֵחָשֵׁב is sing. The Sam., LXX. and Syr. have the plural.
[16]Lev_25:32. On this use of the particle ו see Nordheimer’s Heb. Gr. § 1093, 6, c, h. It is evident that there is nothing said about the redemption of the cities, which the form of the A. V. would seem to imply, but only of the houses in them.
[17]Lev_25:33. There is much diversity of opinion as to the meaning of this clause. The text of the A. V. is supported by the LXX. and by the Targums, and is defended by Keil. A difficulty arises from the use of the word יִגְאַל = redeem; but Keil maintains, on the authority of the Rabbins, that this is used in the sense of קָנָה = to buy. He grounds the usage on the fact that the Levitical cities were originally assigned to the tribes as a part of their inheritance; they relinquished the houses, or a part of the houses in them (together with pasture grounds) to the Levites for dwelling-places. When therefore one of another tribe purchased of a Levite, he was in fact redeeming the inheritance of his tribe. So Murphy. On the other hand, the reading: If one of the Levites redeems a house in the city (according to the marg. of the A. V.), is preferred by Clark following Rosenmüller, De Wette, Kranold, Herxheimer and others. The meaning will then be, that if a Levite has sold a house to one of another tribe, and another Levite redeem it, then in the Jubilee year it must revert to its original possessor. But it is more than questionable whether the Levites had any such general right of redemption on behalf of their fellow Levites as this would suppose. The Vulg. inserts a negative, Si redemptœ (sc. œdes) non fuerint, and this is sustained by Houbigant, and preferred by Woide, Ewald, Bunsen and Knobel. It is adopted by Lange in the translation and exegesis; but it is a serious objection that it would require a change in the Heb. On the whole, the text of the A. V. seems best sustained, and gives the clearest sense.
[18]Lev_25:33. On the use of וְ in the figure Hendiadys see Gesen. s. v. 1, b.
[19]Lev_25:35. The particle as is inserted here by the LXX., Vulg., Targums, Luther, etc., and is recognized as to be supplied by many commentators, as Keil, Clark and others. So also Riggs. On the other hand the Syr. gives just the opposite sense: thou shalt not hold him for a sojourner or foreigner; but he shall live with thee. Others, as Lange, adopt the sense expressed in the A. V.
[20]Lev_25:35. וְחֵי according to Keil, an abbreviation for וָחַי occurring only here.
[21]Lev_25:47. The missing conjunction is supplied in ten MSS., the LXX. and Syr.
[22]Lev_25:49. See Textual Note4 on Lev_18:6.
[23]Lev_25:54. The Heb. does not express the noun at all. That supplied by the marg. of the A. V. is clearly more agreeable to the context than that in the text. So Lange, following the Syr. The other ancient versions do not supply the ellipsis.
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv8, 10, 12, 13, 17, 21, 23, 29, 32, 35, 39 THE JUBILEE. (Lev. 25:8-23)
THE JUBILEE. (Lev. 25:8-23)
thou shalt number seven sabbaths of years--This most extraordinary of all civil institutions, which received the name of "Jubilee" from a Hebrew word signifying a musical instrument, a horn or trumpet, began on the tenth day of the seventh month, or the great day of atonement, when, by order of the public authorities, the sound of trumpets proclaimed the beginning of the universal redemption. All prisoners and captives obtained their liberties, slaves were declared free, and debtors were absolved. The land, as on the sabbatic year, was neither sowed nor reaped, but allowed to enjoy with its inhabitants a sabbath of repose; and its natural produce was the common property of all. Moreover, every inheritance throughout the land of Judea was restored to its original owner.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 14, 15, 17, 18, 20, 21, 23, 24, 25, 27, 29, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 53, 54, 55 1.) Their peculiar relationship to Jehovah; 2.) Their deliverance…
1.) Their peculiar relationship to Jehovah; 2.) Their deliverance from Egypt; 3.) The promise of Canaan; and 4.) The continued future regards of God.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 13, 14, 15, 17, 18, 23, 24, 25, 27, 29, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 39, 47, 48, 53, 55 1–7. The rest year was a transference to the…
1–7. The rest year was a transference to the land of the sabbatical idea emphasized each week for living creatures, the year being now taken as the unit instead of the day. See App. I, pp. 172 f. for the difference in standpoint between this and the parallel ordinances elsewhere in the Hexateucb, as indicating modifications of the same law in successive periods.
The seventh year is to bear the same relation to the six preceding years as the sabbath to the six preceding days of the week. The parallel between the land and the bondman was close. The divinely appointed seventh day of rest is to be kept holy by abstaining from work, so the land shall keep every seventh year holy to the Lord by resting from all work. It cannot be wholly inactive, but nothing is to be done which will cause the land to put forth its full strength. By a curtailment of the full powers bestowed upon man and land by their Creator both were to keep holy a season to the Lord. In Exo_23:10-11 the fallow year is regarded as a provision for the poor and part of the animal creation, while the religious idea underlies the injunctions of the passage in Leviticus.
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In pre-exilic times the law seems to have been, at any rate to a large extent, disregarded (see ch.Lev_26:35; Lev_26:43; 2Ch_36:21).
It is true that the custom of letting land lie fallow prevails in so many countries and can be traced back so far that it is certain that the Hebrews must have observed something of the kind from the time of their being settled. If the fallow time were different for different fields there would be nothing to call for special note, and it is not surprising that no reference is found to the practice in the historical Books. But a fixed fallow year for all the land would cause an interruption of social life of which some traces would be found in the history.
Later on, in Nehemiah’s time (Neh_10:31), the people bound themselves to carry out the Law. According to Josephus (Ant. xi. 8. 6) both Jews and Samaritans observed it in the time of Alexander the Great, and so later in the days of the Hasmonean dynasty (1Ma_6:49; 1Ma_6:53; Ant. xiii. 8. 1) and the Herods (ib. xiv. 16. 2). Tacitus (Hist. Lev_25:4), however, attributes the Jews’ observance of it to laziness.
The sabbatical year concluded with the Feast of Tabernacles (Deu_31:10), and the old reckoning, by which the year began in autumn, not in spring (see on Lev_23:23-25), was necessarily applied in this case. The year’s circle of agricultural operations naturally would begin as soon as harvest and vine-gathering were finished. Had it begun in the first month (after the sowing of spring time) the harvests of both sixth and seventh years would have been lost.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 53, 54, 55 (1) And the Lord spake unto Moses.—This chapter should…
XXV.
(1) And the Lord spake unto Moses.—This chapter should properly have followed Leviticus 23, since the institutions of the sabbatical year, and the jubile which it discusses, are closely connected with the regulations about the festivals laid down in that chapter. The isolation of these ordinances from the rest of the festivals cannot be satisfactorily explained on any other principle than that which the authorities during the second Temple laid down, viz., that many of the sections are transposed, and that “there is no strict sequence in the Law.”
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In Mount Sinai.—That is, in the mountainous regions of Sinai. The expression “mountain” is often used to denote a mountainous tract of country (Num_12:9; Deu_1:2; Jos_14:12, &c.). Accordingly, this divine communication was made to Moses when the Israelites were encamped in the neighbourhood of Sinai, where they remained in the wilderness for twelve months after their exodus from Egypt (Num_10:11-12).
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. H. Mackintosh 1880 · Public Domain On v1 Leviticus 25
Leviticus 25
The intelligent reader will discern a strong moral link between this and the preceding chapter. In Lev. 24 we learn that the house of Israel is preserved for the land of Canaan. In chapter 25 we learn that the land of Canaan is preserved for the house of Israel. Taking both together, we have the record of a truth which no power of earth or hell can obliterate. "All Israel shall be saved," and "the land shall not be sold forever." The former of these statements enunciates a principle which has stood like a rock amid the ocean of conflicting interpretations; while the latter declares a fact which many nations of the uncircumcised have sought in vain to ignore.
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The reader will, I doubt not, observe the peculiar way in which our chapter opens. "And! the Lord spake unto Moses in Mount Sinai." The principal part of the communications contained in the Book of Leviticus is characterised by the fact of its emanating "from the tabernacle of the congregation." This is easily accounted for. Those communications have special reference to the service, communion, and worship of the priests, or to the moral condition of the people, and hence they are issued, as might be expected, from "the tabernacle of the congregation," that grand centre of all that appertained, in any way, to priestly service. Here, however, the communication is made from quite a different point. "The Lord spake unto Moses in Mount Sinai." Now, we know that every expression in Scripture has its own special meaning, and we are justified in expecting a different line of communication from "mount Sinai" from that which reaches us from "the tabernacle of the congregation." And so it is. The chapter at which we have now arrived treats of Jehovah’s claims as Lord of all the earth. It is not the worship and communion of a priestly house, or the internal ordering of the nation; but the claims of God in government, His right to give a certain portion of the earth to a certain people to hold as tenants under Him. In a word, it is not to Jehovah in "the tabernacle" - the place of worship; but Jehovah in "Mount Sinai" - the place of government.
"And the Lord spake unto Moses in Mount Sinai, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye come into the land which I give you, then shall the land keep a Sabbath unto the Lord. Six years thou shalt sow thy field, and six years thou shalt prune thy vineyard, and gather in the fruit thereof; but in the seventh year shall be a Sabbath of rest unto the land, a Sabbath for the Lord: thou shalt neither sow thy field, nor prune thy vineyard. That which groweth of its own accord of thy harvest thou shalt not reap, neither gather the grapes of thy vine undressed: for it is a year of rest unto the land. And the Sabbath of the land shall be meat for you; for thee and for thy servant, and for thy maid, and for thy hired servant, and for thy stranger that sojourneth with thee, and for thy cattle, and for the beast that are in thy land, shall all the increase thereof be meat." (Ver. 1-7)
Here, then, we have the special feature of the Lord’s land. He would have it to enjoy a sabbatical year, and in that year there was to be the evidence of the rich profusion with which He would bless those who held as tenants under Him. Happy, highly privileged tenantry! What an honour to hold immediately under Jehovah! No rent! No taxes! No burdens! Well might it be said, "Happy is the people that is in such a case; yea, happy is the nation whose God is Jehovah." We know, alas! that Israel failed to take full possession of that wealthy land of which Jehovah made them a present, He had given it all. He had given it forever. They took but a part, and that for a time. Still, there it is, The property is there, though the tenants are ejected for the present. "the land shall not be sold for ever: for the land is mine; for ye are strangers and sojourners with me." What does this mean, but that Canaan belongs specially to Jehovah, and that He will hold it through the tribes of Israel? True, "the earth is the Lord’s," but that is quite another thing. It is plain that He has been pleased, for His own unsearchable purposes, to take special possession of the land of Canaan, and to submit that land to a peculiar line of treatment, to mark it off from all other lands, by calling it His own, and to distinguish it by judgements, and ordinances, and periodical solemnities, the mere contemplation of which enlightens the understanding: and affects the heart. Where, throughout all the earth, do we read of a land enjoying a year of unbroken repose - a year of richest abundance? The rationalist may ask, "How can these things be" The sceptic may doubt if they could be; but faith finds a satisfying answer from the lips of Jehovah: "And if ye shall say, What shall we eat the seventh year? behold, we shall not sow, nor gather in our increase: then I will command my blessing upon you in the sixth year, and it shall bring forth fruit for three years. And ye shall sow the eighth year, and eat yet of old fruit until the ninth year; until her fruits come in ye shall eat of the old store." (Ver. 20-22) Nature might say, "What shall we do for our sowing?" Gods answer is, "I will command My blessing." God’s "blessing" is better far than man’s "sowing." He was not going to let them starve in His sabbatic year. They were to feed upon the fruits of His blessing, while they celebrated His year of rest - a year which pointed forward to that eternal Sabbath that remains for the people of God.
"And thou shalt number seven Sabbaths of years unto thee, seven times seven years; and the space of the seven Sabbaths of years shall be unto thee forty and nine years. Then shalt thou cause the trumpet of the jubilee to sound on the tenth day of the seventh month; in the day of atonement shall ye make the trumpet sound throughout all your land." (Ver. 8, 9) It is peculiarly interesting to note the various methods in which the millennial rest was held up to view, in the Jewish economy. Every seventh day was a sabbatical day; every seventh year was a sabbatical year; and every seven times seven years there was a jubilee. Each and all of these typical solemnities held up to the vision of faith the blessed prospect of a time when labour and sorrow should cease; when "the sweat of the brow" would no longer be needed to satisfy the cravings of hunger; but when a millennial earth, enriched by the copious showers of divine grace, and fertilised by the bright beams of the Sun of righteousness, should pour its abundance into the storehouse and winepress of the people of God. Happy time! Happy people! How blessed to be assured that these things are not the pencillings of immagination, or the flights of fancy, but the substantial verities of divine revelation, to be enjoyed by faith which is "the substance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen."
Of all the Jewish solemnities the jubilee would seem to have been the most soul-stirring and enrapturing. It stood immediately connected with the great day of atonement. It was when the blood of the victim was shed, that the emancipating sound of the jubilee trump was heard through the hills and valleys of the land of Canaan. That longed-for note was designed to wake up the nation from the very centre of its moral being, to stir the deepest depths of the soul, and to send a shining river of divine and ineffable joy through the length and breadth of the land. "In the day of atonement shall ye make the trumpet sound throughout all your land. Not a corner was to remain unvisited by "the joyful sound." The aspect of the jubilee was as wide as the aspect of the atonement on which the jubilee was based.
"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. A jubilee shall that fiftieth year be unto you: ye shall not sow, neither reap that which groweth of itself in it, nor gather the grapes in it of thy vine undressed. For it is the jubilee; it shall be holy unto you: ye shall eat the increase thereof out of the field. In the year of this jubilee ye shall return every man unto his possession." (Ver. 8-13) All estates and conditions of the people were permitted to feel the hallowed and refreshing influence of this most noble institution. The exile returned; the captive was emancipated; the debtor set free; each family opened its bosom to receive once more its long-lost members; each inheritance received back its exiled owner. The sound of the trumpet was the welcome and soul-stirring signal for the captive to escape; for the slave to cast aside the chains of his bondage; for the manslayer to return to his home; for the ruined and poverty-stricken to rise to the possession of their forfeited inheritance. No sooner had the trumpet’s thrice-welcome sound fallen upon the ear, than the mighty tide of blessing rose majestically, and sent its refreshing undulations into the most remote corners of Jehovah’s highly-favoured land.
"And if thou sell ought unto thy neighbour, or buyest ought of thy neighbour’s hand, ye shall not oppress one another: according to the number of years after the jubilee thou shalt buy of thy neighbour, and according unto the number of years of the fruits he shall sell unto thee. According to the multitude of years thou shalt increase the price thereof, and according to the fewness of years thou shalt diminish the price of it: for according to the number of the years of the fruits doth he sell unto thee. Ye shall not therefore oppress one another; but thou shalt fear thy God: for I am "the Lord your God." (Ver. 14-17) The year of jubilee reminded both buyer and seller that the land belonged to Jehovah, and was not to be sold. "The fruits" might be sold, but that was all - Jehovah could never give up the land to any one. It is important to get this point well fixed in the mind. It may open up a very extensive line of truth. If the land of Canaan is not to be sold - if Jehovah declares it to be His for ever, then for whom does He want it? Who is to hold under Him? Those to whom He gave it by an everlasting covenant, that they might have it in possession as long as the moon endureth - even to all generations.
There is no spot in all the earth like unto the land of Canaan in the divine estimation. There Jehovah set up His throne and His sanctuary; there His priests stood to minister continually before Him; there the voices of His prophets were heard testifying of present ruin and future restoration and glory; there the Baptist began, continued, and ended his career as the forerunner of the Messiah; there the Blessed One was born of a woman; there He was baptised; there He preached and taught; there He laboured and died; from there He ascended in triumph to the right hand of God; thither God the Holy Ghost descended, in Pentecostal power; from thence the overflowing tide of gospel testimony emanated to the ends of the earth; thither the Lord of glory will descend, ere long, and plant His foot "on the mount of Olives;" there His throne will be re-established and His worship restored. In a word, His eyes and His heart are there continually; its dust is precious in His sight; it is the centre of all His thoughts and operations, as touching this earth; and it is His purpose to make it an eternal excellency, the joy of many generations.
It is, then, I repeat, immensely important to get a firm hold of this interesting line of truth with respect to the land of Canaan. Of that land Jehovah hath said, "IT IS MINE." Who shall take it from Him? Where is the king or the emperor, where the power, human or diabolical, that can wrest "the pleasant land out of Jehovah’s omnipotent grasp? True, it has been a bone of contention, an apple of discord to the nations. It has been, and it will yet be, the scene and centre of cruel war and bloodshed. But far above all the din of battle and the strife of nations, these words fall with divine clearness, fullness, and power, upon the ear of faith - "the land is mine!" Jehovah can never give up that land, nor those "twelve tribes," through whom He is to inherit it for ever. Let my reader think of this. Let him ponder it deeply. Let him guard against all looseness of thought and vagueness of interpretation, as to this subject. God hath not cast away His people, or the land which He sware to give unto them for an everlasting possession. "The twelve loaves" of Leviticus 24 bear witness to the former; and "the jubilee" of Leviticus 25 bears witness to the latter. The memorial of the "twelve tribes of Israel" is ever before the Lord; and the moment is rapidly approaching when the trump of jubilee shall be heard upon the mountains of Palestine. Then, in reality, the captive shall cast off the ignominious chain which, for ages, has bound him. Then shall the exile return to that happy home from which he has so long been banished. Then shall every debt be cancelled, every burden removed, and every tear wiped away. "For thus saith the Lord, Behold, I will extend peace to her (Jerusalem) like a river, and the glory of the Gentiles like a flowing stream: then shall ye suck, ye shall be borne upon her sides, and be dandled upon her knees. As one whom his mother comforteth, so will I comfort you; and ye shall be comforted in Jerusalem. And when ye see this, your heart shall rejoice, and your bones shall flourish like an herb; and the hand of the Lord shall be known toward his servants, and his indignation toward his enemies. For, behold, the Lord will come with fire, and with his chariots like a whirlwind, to render his anger with fury, and his rebuke with flames of fire. For by fire and by his sword will the Lord plead with all flesh: and the slain of the Lord shall be many . . . . . . . . For I know their works and their thoughts; it shall come, that I will gather all nations and tongues; and they shall come and see my glory, And I will set a sign among them, and I will send those that escape of them unto the nations, to Tarshish, Pul, and Lud, that draw the bow; to Tubal and Javan, to the isles afar off, that have not heard my fame, neither have seen My glory; and they shall declare my glory among the Gentiles. And they shall bring all your brethren for an offering unto the Lord, out of all nations, upon horses, and in chariots, and in litters, and upon mules, and upon swift beasts, to my holy mountain Jerusalem, saith the Lord, as the children of Israel bring an offering in a clean vessel into the house of the Lord. And I will also take of them for priests and for Levites, saith the Lord. For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before me, saith the Lord, so shall your seed and your name remain. And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another, and from one Sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, saith the Lord." (Isaiah 66: 12-23)
And, now, let us look for a moment at the practical effect of the jubilee - its influence upon the transactions between man and man. "And if thou sell ought unto thy neighbour, or buyest ought of thy neighbour’s hand, ye shall not oppress one another. according to the number of years after the jubilee thou shalt buy of thy neighbour, and according to the number of years of the fruits he shall sell unto thee." The scale of prices was to be regulated by the jubilee. If that glorious event were at hand, the price was low; if far off, the price was high. All human compacts as to land were broken up the moment the trump of jubilee was heard, for the land was Jehovah’s; and the jubilee brought all back to its normal condition.
This teaches us a fine lesson. If our hearts are cherishing the abiding hope of the Lord’s return, we shall set light by all earthly things. It is morally impossible that we can be in the attitude of waiting for the Son from heaven, and not be detached from this present world. "Let your moderation be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand." (Phil. 4) A person may hold "the doctrine of the millennium," as it is called, or the doctrine of "the second advent," and be a thorough man of the world; but one who lives in the habitual expectation of Christ’s appearing must be separated from that which will be judged and broken up when He comes. It is not a question of the shortness and uncertainty of human life, which is quite true; or of the transitory and unsatisfying character of the things of time, which is equally true. It is far more potent and influential than either or both of these. It is this, "The Lord is at hand. May our hearts be affected and our conduct in all things influenced by this most precious and sanctifying truth!
C. H. Mackintosh, Notes on the Pentateuch — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 8, 10, 11, 13, 18, 19, 23, 25, 29, 32, 35, 39, 42, 43, 44, 47 The subject of the sacred seasons is taken up…
The subject of the sacred seasons is taken up again in this chapter, after the parenthetical insertion of chapter 24. There remain the septennial festive season and that of the half-century the sabbatical year and the jubilee.
The sabbatical year was instituted not for any supposed physical benefit accruing from it to the land, but, first, as serving for a link between the sabbath and the jubilee by means of the sacred number seven the sabbatical year being the seventh year, and the jubilee being the year following the seven-times-seventh year; and secondly, and chiefly, as enforcing the lesson of the weekly sabbath in a manner that could not be overlooked, and symbolically, teaching the universal application of the sabbatical law, even where physical needs were not concerned, and in that way suggesting the expectation of a rest to be hereafter attained by all God"s creatures. The sabbatical year began with the commencement of the civil year, the 1st of Tisri, just before the autumn sewings, which were intermitted for one year. The ground was not tilled during this year (verse 4). There was a release of debts, (Deu_15:1-11) and there was to be public reading of God"s Law. (Deu_31:10-13) During the previous six years the husbandmen had been well aware of the coming sabbatical year, and would have laid by in store accordingly, so as to support themselves and their families during that year. The release of debts inculcated mercy. The command that the Law should be publicly read showed that the intention of the institution was not that the year should be spent in idleness, but that the time saved from ordinary labour was to be given to devotional pursuits. The law of the sabbatical year was so hard of observance by an agricultural people, that it was seldom or never acted upon until the Captivity. (see 2Ch_36:21) But after that time it seems to have been religiously kept (see Josephus, "Ant.," 11:8, 6; 14:10, 6; 14:16, 2; 15:1, 2; 1 Macc. 6:49; Gal_4:10; Tacit., "Hist.," 5:2, 4).
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The jubilee was a joyous year appointed to be observed every fifty years. The cycle of the sabbatical year and the jubilee touched without coalescing. The forty-ninth year was necessarily a sabbatical year, and the following year was the jubilee. It has appeared to some so difficult to believe that two years in which it was not allowable to engage in agricultural work should come together, that they have assumed that the sabbatical year itself, that is, the forty-ninth year, was the year of the jubilee. But this was clearly not the case. Twice in the century the laud was to lie fallow for two years running from September to the second September following special preparations having, of course, been made by laying up a store of grain from the abundant harvest promised in the previous year (verse 21), and foreign crops being, no doubt, imported to take the place of the usual home crops. In matter of fact, however, these two blank years seldom, if ever, occurred together; for as the sabbatical year was not observed before the Captivity, while there are indications of the existence of the jubilee, (1Ki_21:3 Isa_61:1-3) so probably the jubilee ceased to be observed after the Captivity, when the sabbatical year was carefully kept. Supposing that they did come together, the second year in which labour was prohibited would end just in time for the seed to be sown for the next summer"s harvest.
The jubilee affected both land and men. Land could only be sold for fifty years, its value immediately after a jubilee had passed being that of fifty harvests, or rather, deducting the sabbatical years and the fiftieth year, of forty-two harvests. If it were sold, it might be bought back by the original owner or any of his relations, counting the number of harvests remaining before the next jubilee, and buying out the previous purchaser with the sum of money thus estimated. No more effective plan could be well devised for preserving the various properties in the families to which they were at first assigned.
The other point chiefly affected by the law of the jubilee was slavery. In ease a brother Israelite became poor, it was the duty of his richer brethren to help him, and to lend him money without interest, to set him up in the world again. But if this did not succeed, the poor man might sell himself as a slave, either to an Israelite or to a foreigner living in the land. In the former ease it had been already enacted that his slavery was not to last beyond six years. (Exo_21:2) To this enactment it was now added that he must be also set free whenever the year of jubilee occurred.
If he became the slave of a non-Israelite, he must be set free, not as before on the seventh year of his slavery, but still at the jubilee. He had also preserved for him the right of being redeemed by any kinsman, the price paid for him being the wages which would be paid up to the next jubilee. In either case, he was to be treated without rigour, and it was the duty of the Israelite magistrate to see that no undue harshness was used by the foreign master. The principle is, as before, that as the land is God"s land, not man"s, so the Israelites were the slaves of God, not of man, and that if the position in which God placed them was allowed to be interfered with for a time, it was to be recovered every seventh, or at furthest every fiftieth, year. The possession of slaves was not forbidden the world was not yet ready for such a prohibition. The Hebrews might purchase and own slaves of alien blood, but between Hebrew and Hebrew the institution of master and slave was practically abolished, and superseded (in most respects) by the relationship of master and servant.
And the Lord spake unto Moses in mount Sinai. The purpose of the words, in Mount Sinai, is not to distinguish the place in which the sabbatical law and the law of the jubilee were given from that in which the preceding laws were delivered. The words mean only, "in the Sinai district;" and they are employed because these laws form the conclusion of the series of laws given while tile people were en-camped under Mount Sinai. The law on vows is, it is true, added to them, but it is by way of appendix.
HOMILIES BY J.A. MACDONALD Vers. 1-7, 18-22. The sabbatic year.
At the close of the original week the sabbath of the seventh day was given; that of the seventh year, on the entrance of the Hebrews into Canaan. The former was a memorial of creation; the latter, of redemption. These are intimately related. There are correspondences between the old creation and the new the material and the spiritual. The grand effect of redemption will be the constitution of a new creation, in which the mundane system will participate.
I THE SEVENTH YEAR WAS A "SABBATH OF THE LAND." Then:
1. The soil remained untilled.
(1) In other years it was customary to sow the grain after the Feast of Ingathering, and the vines were pruned in the spring. While we are in this world the greater portion of our time should be occupied in its concerns. This is God"s order. The thing in hand should be done with might.
(2) In this year no seed was sown, and there was no dressing of vines. The affairs of this world must not engross all our time and care.
(3) The sentiment of religion must be with us in our earthly business. Religion must limit the time it claims the intensity with which it is pursued. Thus:
2. The people were taught to trust God.
(1) They lived upon the natural productiveness of the soil. But not without the blessing of God upon it. Natural productiveness without the blessing of God is a poor dependence.
(2) With that blessing, such was the bounty of the sixth year that it carried the nation on to the harvest of the eighth (see verses 21, 22). Thus miraculously was the fruit of three years brought forth in one. This was in perpetuity the miracle of the manna. (Exo_16:22; see also Mat_4:4)
(3) What reply to this institution can those give who would convict Moses as an impostor? (see Exo_23:10, Exo_23:11) No sensible man would have made such a law as this, unless he acted under Divine direction; for the sixth year would have refuted his pretensions. Thus also:
3. The people were taught to hope in God.
(1) Every recurrence of the sabbatic year reminded them of the period before sin entered, in which the earth of its natural strength brought forth plenty.
(2) In it too they anticipated the period when, through the redemption of the gospel, the curse shall be lifted from the earth, and men shall be released from the burden of labour. (see also Gen_3:17 Gen_4:11, 12 5:29 Isa_65:17-25 Rom_8:18-23 Rev_22:3)
II TURN THE FRUIT OF THE LORD"S LAND WAS FREE.
1. The land is the Lord"s.
(1) In this law he asserted his right as Landlord to impose conditions upon his people when he gave them possession of Canaan. All God"s gifts carry conditions. This should ever be remembered.
(2) God"s laws will regulate the new heavens and earth. They will not then be contravened. Happy will that state be. By loyalty to the laws of God we should now anticipate that state as much as in us lies.
2. This year the tenant shared his benefits with all comers.
(1) What fruit came spontaneously was free to the poor free to the stranger free to the cattle free even to the wild animal. What a lesson of generosity! of public spirit! of kindness to animals! Consider here also the Divine philosophy of rights in property.
(2) Note that the resolution of the primitive Christian Church to have all things in common was not without precedent. (see Act_2:44) Also that in the light of this precedent we may discern their purpose; and learn that when the Spirit shall be poured out upon all flesh, of which the baptism of the Pentecost was but an installment, the consummation will be happy.
(3) But how different are the theories of our socialists! Satan is an adept at setting up counterfeits. The idle vagabond has no objection to be the subject of love from others, if he can thereby live on their property. He would eat without working, in contravention of the apostolic rule. (see 1Th_4:11, 12 2Th_3:10) He has no conception of those spiritual blessings in connection with which alone communism is a happy possibility.
(4) The feeding together of the cattle and wild animals points to the universality of the blessings of the gospel. (see Isa_11:6-9 Isa_56:7-9 Hos_2:18 Act_10:11, Act_10:12) The feeding together of the stranger and poor Hebrew on the holding of the rich sets forth the spirituality of the gospel. These things will be blessedly realized in the sabbaths, viz. of the millennium, and of the heavenly world.
3. There was a release from debts. (see Deu_15:1, Deu_15:2)
(1) The gospel truly is "the Lord"s release.
(2) This release will be perfected in the heavenly state.
III THE LEISURE OF THIS YEAR WAS RELIGIOUSLY SPENT.
1. The Law was publicly read. (see Deu_31:10, Deu_31:11)
a. Our leisure should be largely given to the study of the Word of God.
b. Leisure should be made for this important duty.
2. If not religiously used, leisure is fruitful in mischief.
(1) The want of a worthy aim is in itself a great mischief. The faculties suffer.
(2) The want of a worthy aim implies the pursuit of that which demoralizes. We are constitutionally active. We cannot sleep away existence.
(3) The curse of labour is a blessing in disguise. All God"s curses crop up as blessings somewhere. This must be so, for he is essentially and everlastingly Good. Men who retire from business should give their leisure to Church work. J.A.M.
HOMILIES BY W. CLARKSON Vers. 1-7. Divine discipline.
This was certainly one of the most striking institutions which God gave to Israel. It was, in a high degree, disciplinary. Rightly taken, it would engrave sacred truth on their minds more deeply and effectually than either word or rite. It was calculated
I TO TEACH THEM THE TRUTH AS TO THE DIVINE OWNERSHIP. God claimed to be the One Proprietor of the land. He had given it to the nation by his direct guidance, and by his interposing power. To him it belonged, and those who occupied were to feel that they held everything at his good pleasure. What could more effectually and impressively teach this than the right which God reserved, to require them to do what he thought was best with the soil to cultivate it or to leave it untilled? How difficult we find it to realize as we should that we hold everything as tenants at the Divine will; that we must be ready at his word to lay down that which we most regard as "our own;" that we are but "strangers and sojourners with God" (verse 23)!
II TO INCULCATE MODERATION IN TEE USE OF THAT WHICH THEY POSSESSED. Making haste to be rich, men too often exhaust themselves and the objects on which they work. How often is land impoverished by the incessant demand the agriculturist makes upon it! God demanded that the rich land he gave Israel should not be rendered infertile by their drawing immoderately on its virtue. He would have us use prudently, as those who look forward, the things which he puts in our power. The lesson particularly applies, in our time, to the use we make of our physical and mental powers; we should give these full measure of rest, a restorative sabbath, that they may serve us the better and the longer.
III TO ENCOURAGE A SENSE OF BROTHERHOOD AND KINDNESS OF HEART. (Verses 6, 7) Of that which was spontaneously produced all might freely partake. The land was for the nation, and not merely for those whose names were enrolled as proprietors. The husbandman was to be trained to see his neighbours, whatever their condition or relation to himself, gathering the fruits of his land. This sabbatic institution said practically to him, and says to us, "God has given the earth and all it bears to the many and not to the few, to all classes of the people: cause all to rejoice in the abundance of his gifts.
IV TO TEST THEIR MORAL AND RELIGIOUS DISPOSITION.
1. It would test their obedience. They would be under some temptation to make the ordinary use of their opportunity, and to secure a harvest by tillage. This word of the Lord tried them; the obedient regarded, the disobedient disregarded, his will.
2. It would also test their industrial virtues. Perhaps there was more room left for daily activity than some have imagined. "Each day would still present certain calls for labour in the management of household affairs, the superintendence or care of the cattle, the husbanding of the provisions laid up from preceding years, and the execution, perhaps, of improvements and repairs." Nevertheless, there must have been some temptation to abuse the long holiday. A wise man has said that nothing is so certain a criterion of character as the way in which men spend their leisure hours. The idle are tempted to vacancy or folly; the wise find an opportunity for
1. real recreation, for
2. self-improvement, for
3. service of others, for
4. the worship of God. C. (see Deu_31:9-13)
HOMILIES BY R.A. REDFORD Vers. 1-7. The sabbatical year.
Rest of the land, as the physical source of blessings, as the consecrated portion of God"s people.
I THE NATURAL BASIS OF RELIGION. Creation. Providence. Moral government. "Man is one world, and hath another to attend him" (George Herbert). The ascent of the higher nature from the lower. The subordination of the material and temporary to the immaterial and eternal. Care of all life involved in the covenant of God with his people. The life of the vegetable world, the life of the animal world, viewed in their relation to higher purposes of God. Art is perfected only in the atmosphere of religion. Science, both theoretic and applied, requires to be pervaded with religious spirit, or becomes atheistic, worldly, and corrupt.
II THE BLESSING OF GOD ON HIS PEOPLE. "A sabbath for the Lord," that he may rejoice with his children.
1. Material blessings promised: "All these things shall be added unto you;" "he careth for you; godliness hath the promise of the world which now is.
2. Rest in the Lord, over all the land, in all states and conditions, eventually in all men. The resting land typical of the Divine promise of a restored earth and regained paradise. The weekly sabbath enlarged. Time expanding to eternity. Special opportunities granted for the larger spiritual culture. R.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On vv2, 35, 39 A Sabbath of rest unto the land.
Lev_25:2-55
A Sabbath of rest unto the land.
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The sabbatic year and jubilee
1. I do not suppose that these sabbatic regulations referred severally to separate and distinct things. The seventh day, the seventh month, the seventh year, and the year of jubilee, as I take them, all express the same great thought, and are related to each other in signification as the different sections of a telescope. They fold into each other. The one is only a repetition of the other on a larger scale. And they all range in the same line to give a focus for gazing the further into the depths and minuter details of one and the same scene. We have sabbaths of days, and sabbaths of months, and sabbaths of years, and septenaries of years, all multiplied in each other with augmenting interest, to indicate the approach of some one great seventh of time when all Gods gracious dealings with man shall come to their culmination, and to point the eye of hope to some one grand ultimate sabbath, in which the weary world shall repose from its long turmoil and all its inhabitants keep jubilee.
2. The word Jubilee is of doubtful origin and signification. Some derive it from a verb which means to recall, restore, bring back; which would very appropriately designate an arrangement which recalled the absent, restored the captive, and brought back alienated estates. Some trace it to Jubal, the inventor of musical instruments, and suppose that this year was named after him from its being a year of mirth and joy, of which music is a common attendant and expression. Our English word jovial may perhaps be traceable to this origin. Others think it a word meant to denote the extraordinary sounding of trumpets with which this particular year was always introduced, some making it refer to the kind of instruments used, and others to the particular kind of note produced. But, after all, it may have been a name invented for the occasion, and intended to, carry its meaning in its sound, or to get it from the nature of the period which it was thenceforward to designate. It is a word which, if not in sound, yet in its associations, connects with the sublimest joys, ushered in with thrilling and triumphant proclamations.
I. First of all, it is to be A sabbath--a consecrated and holy rest. The year of jubilee was the intensest and sublimest of the sabbatic periods. The Sabbath is the jewel of days. It is the marked and hallowed seventh, in which God saw creation finished, and the great Maker sat down complacently to view the admirable products of His wisdom, love, and power--blessed type of a still more blessed rest, when He shall sit down to view redemption finished, the years brought to their perfect consummation, and the life of the world in its full and peaceful bloom. The jubilee is therefore to be the crown of dispensations, and the ultimate glory of the ages, when the Son of God shall rest from the long work of the new creation, and sit down with His saints to enjoy it for ever and ever.
II. In the next place it is to be the period of restitution. Everything seemed to go back to the happy condition in which God had originally arranged things. Man, in this present world, is a dispossessed proprietor. God gave him possessions and prerogatives which have been wrested from him. God made him but a little lower than the angels, crowned him with glory and honour, and set him over the works of His hands. All creatures were given to him for his service, and he was to have dominion over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. But where is all that glory and dominion now? How has the gold faded and the power waned How much are we now at the mercy of what was meant to serve and obey us! Gone, are our once glorious estates. Gone, the high freedom which once encompassed man. Gone, all the sublime dignity which once crowned him. But we shall not always remain in this poverty and disgrace. Those old estates have not gone from us for ever. When the great joyous trump of jubilee shall sound, the homesteads of our fathers shall return to us again, nor strangers more traverse those patrimonial halls.
III. Again, it shall be A time of release for all that are oppressed, imprisoned, or round. The year of jubilee struck off the bonds of every Jewish captive, and threw open the prison doors to all who had lost their liberty. We are all prisoners now. Though the chains of sin be broken, the chains of flesh and remaining corruption still confine us and abridge our freedom. Even those pious ones who have passed away from earth are still held in the power of death. Their souls may be at rest, but their bodies are still shut up in the pit of the grave. There still is groaning and waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body. But when the great trump of jubilee shall sound these groanings shall cease and these fetters all dissolve.
IV. Another feature of that happy time is, that it shall be a time of regathering for the scattered household. It is not possible in this world for families to keep together. A thousand necessities are ever pressing upon us to scatter us out from our homes. The common wants of life, to say nothing of aims and enterprises for good, honour, or distinction, operate to drive asunder the most tenderly attached of households. And if we should even succeed in overcoming dividing forces of this kind, there are others which do their work in a way which we cannot hinder. Death comes, and, one by one, the whole circle is mowed down, and sleep in separate graves, mostly far apart. But there cometh a day when all the households of the virtuous and good shall be complete. The year of jubilee shall bring back the absent one. For when the Son of man shall come, He shall send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together His elect from the four winds, from the one end of heaven to the other. Not one shall be overlooked or forgotten.
V. But there is still another feature of this blessed time to come to which I will refer. The sounding of that trump shall be the summons to a sacred feast upon the stores laid up by the industry of preceding years. Though no sowing or gathering was to be done in the year of jubilee, Israel was to have plenty. The bountiful hand of Heaven was to supply them. Years going before were to furnish abundance for all the period of rest. The Sabbath of the land was to be meat for them. Now is our harvest-time. The fields are waving with beautiful golden products which God means that we shall gather and store for our jubilee. Industry and toil are required. We must thrust in the sickle, and gather the blessed sheaves, and lay up for ourselves treasures in heaven. It will not do to play the sluggard while that ripe vintage is inviting us to gather. We must work while we may, and lay up while it is within reach. When once the trumpet sounds it will be too late to begin to lay up for the year of rest. (J. A. Seiss, D. D.)
The year sabbath
The great year-sabbath carried with it many important advantages and benefits that belonged to no other period; and it is interesting to observe how accurately they all symbolised the blessings conferred by the redemptive work of our Emmanuel.
I. One of these was the universal extinction of debt. Here is a man who has inherited from his ancestors a narrow strip of land on the rocky slopes of Mount Ephraim. He cultivates a small vineyard on the hillside, sows a few patches of wheat and barley, and has a few cows and bullocks grazing in his little meadow. With health and good seasons he could supply the modest wants of his household, and escape the necessity of debt. But calamities have befallen him. Under the pressure of his needs he has been compelled to contract debts, hoping that more auspicious days would enable him to discharge them. But those days come not. His creditors grow stern and exacting, demand immediate payment, and threaten to eject him from his heritage, cast him into prison, and sell his children into slavery. Still he struggles on. Yet, toil as he may, he cannot master the difficulties that environ him. The encumbrance is too heavy, the danger too near and too pressing. But just as he is on the point of giving up all further effort and resigning himself to despair, the morning of the jubilee breaks over the land. The joyful acclamations that welcome its coming swell out on the air and reach him among the hills. Blessed sounds are they to him! They tell him that his trials are ended, his home secure; and that, by the benign decree of Israels God, he may now go forth to his daily labour, safe from the peril that has menaced him so long. Go with me to the debtors gaol in Jerusalem, and look at another on whom adversity has dealt blows still more terrible. Liable to claims which he could not meet, he was stripped of all that he possessed. There was no kinsman rich enough, or generous enough, to redeem his property or become surety for his person, and his creditors, having the power, shut him up in prison. Many years have passed since then. He has lost all reckoning of time--has forgotten to note the slow years, as they drag wearily by him--forgotten that the hour of deliverance is drawing nigh. The Day of Atonement dawns in the heavens, but he knows it not. He hears the loud trumpets proclaiming the year-sabbath without any thought of their meaning. The door of his cell is thrown open; he is told that the jubilee has come, and that he is free. Rising listlessly from his bed of straw, he looks round amazed and stupefied. The truth at last flashes upon him, and with a low, trembling cry of thanksgiving, he goes forth to tread the green earth once more, to feel the soft breath of spring, and exult in the bright sun and sky. Call to mind how many cases, analogous to those now supposed, there must have been in Israel at each recurrence of the year of release, and you will be able to form some conception of the blessings connected with that sacred season. Nor can you fail to perceive with what force and beauty the feature which we have considered illustrates the grace of the gospel. By our numerous and aggravated sins we have come under tremendous liabilities to the justice of God, and have incurred an amount of obligation which no human arithmetic can compute, and no human efforts can liquidate. Judgment has been entered against us in the court of heaven, execution issued; and the stern messenger, Death, only awaits the Divine signal to bear us away to the dungeons of hell. But in this fearful exigency the Saviour has interposed for our rescue. By faith in His atoning sacrifice our mighty debt is cancelled; the uttermost farthing is paid; the demands of the law are satisfied; and through the suretyship of Him who died for us, we stand exonerated before the tribunal of Infinite Holiness.
II. In the year-sabbath there was an end of bondage. See that slave delving and sweltering in the hot cane-fields of Jericho, condemned to toil through the long summer day under a burning summer sun, without rest, and without reward. His childhood was passed on the breezy heights of Carmel, among babbling brooks, the singing of birds, and the odour of flowers. There he grew up, a bold, free-hearted youth, erect and tall, with an eye keen as a falcons and a foot fleet as the roe which he chased on the mountain-side. But misfortune, swifter still, overtook him. A ruthless claimant, to whom his parents were indebted, seized him, and doomed him to bondage. Look at him now. Slavery has bowed his strong frame, and stiffened his elastic limbs, and on the brow, once so joyous, sits hopeless gloom. As he bends to his task, what sad memories are busy within him! He thinks of the dear ones far away--of his happy boyhood--of all that he might have been--of the hard lot that has been his instead--and tears, bitter tears, are on his bronzed cheek. But while he thus muses and weeps his ear catches the distant note of a trumpet. Now it is nearer, louder. It comes rolling down the gorges of the wilderness in the way toward Jerusalem, bounding from cliff to cliff, and pouring its jocund waves upon the plain below. Others take up the strain, and send it from wall and housetop, from crag and valley, till the very air seems alive with it. For a moment he listens uncertain; then shouting, The jubilee, the jubilee! tears off the badge of his servitude--stands up a freeman--and with the stride of a giant, journeys back to the scenes where his heart has ever been. By nature we are all the subjects of a moral thraldom as grinding as it is criminal. We are the slaves of our own depravity, sold under sin, and led by the devil at his will. But the Cross of Christ touches our chains, and they are shivered into fragments; His grace rends the serf-livery from our spirits, and we walk forth in the joy of a blessed emancipation.
III. The jubilee brought with it the restoration of property. Picture to yourselves an Israelite thrust out by adversity from the inheritance of his ancestors. He has struggled hard to keep the old home; but losses have fallen heavily upon him and he must depart. The roof beneath which he was born, the streams by which he has walked, the fields he has tilled, the trees in whose shade he has reclined, the graves where his fathers sleep, all must be left, and left, alas I in the keeping of strangers. He casts one long, farewell look on the scene which he loves so well, and then, with wife and little ones, goes forth an exile. Years pass on. Farther and farther he wanders, finding no resting-place, and dragging at each remove a lengthening chain. But, hark I a trumpet-blast breaks upon the air. It is caught up and repeated from city and hamlet, from hill-top and glen, from highways and byways, till the whole land rings with the joyous echo. The wanderer hears it. His heart knows and feels it. It is the jubilee signal. Oh, with what rapture does he now hasten back to the home once more his own! Old friends greet his return; old familiar faces smile upon him; hands that he grasped in youth now grasp his in happy welcome. The days of his exile are over. He is among his kindred again. And what an image is there here of our own restoration by the gospel to the heritage which we have lost! Our condition, as fallen creatures, resembles that of the beggared Jew driven out from his birthright. Our sins have stripped us of cur all. The original holiness of our nature, the likeness and favour of God, our kindred with angels, our title to a blessed immortality, are gone, and gone beyond our power to recover. But the mercy of God has provided for us a jubilee. By believing in His only-begotten Son we receive back, aye, more than receive back, our alienated inheritance. We are again invested with a glorious property, and made rich with a wealth which empires could not bestow.
IV. The year-sabbath was intended to be a season of harmony and repose. During its continuance the land was to rest, the implements of husbandry to be put away, and labour to cease, that social intercourse and kindly feeling might be cultivated without restraint. There was to be no strife, no oppression; all disputes were to be laid aside, all contentions abandoned; and society in every rank was to present one unbroken scene of brotherhood and peace. How beautifully does this feature of the sacred year prefigure the results which Christianity contemplates. Its design is to impart to all who truly embrace it a peace which comes from heaven, and is the earnest of heaven, and then to unite them to each other in one harmonious and holy fraternity. All its elements, all its tendencies, are those of union and love. Mankind shall become one great family. Public and private animosities, the jar of conflicting interests, the opposition of classes, the insolence of the rich, the overbearing of the strong, shall be remembered only to excite wonder that they could ever have been. Then will be the jubilee of the creation, the great Sabbath of the world. Over the face of humanity, long agitated by wrong, and struggle, and sin, shall come a holy calm; like the quiet of a still eventide after the turmoil of a tempestuous day, when the winds have gone down, and the clouds disappear, and the blue sky breaks forth, and the setting sun sprinkles gold over the smiling land and the sleeping waters. And this universal peace on earth will be the prelude of everlasting peace in heaven.
V. One more evangelic analogy of the year-sabbath may be traced in the extent and fulness given to its proclamation. Ye shall make the trumpet sound throughout all your land. The manner in which this was done was very interesting and suggestive. As the time for proclaiming the jubilee drew on a company of priests was stationed at the door of the Tabernacle or Temple, each with a silver trumpet in his hand. The Levites in the cities and towns, and every householder in the nation, were also furnished with silver trumpets. When the hour had arrived, the company of priests sounded the appointed signal. Those in their immediate neighbourhood repeated it. It was answered by the Levites and the inhabitants of the next town. And thus it was sent on from dwelling to dwelling, from city to city, from mountain to mountain, from tribe to tribe, till the farthest borders of the land echoed and re-echoed with the glad music. The sounding of the silver trumpets was unquestionably a symbol of the proclamation of the gospel. The ministers of Christ are commanded to publish redemption by His blood, and to invite the disinherited and the ruined to return to their Fathers house. And in the work of spreading this message all the people of God are to bear part. The tidings of mercy announced by the priests and Levites are to be taken up by private Christians and carried out into all the walks of life. At the fireside, in the Sabbath-school class, in the social circle, in the resorts of business, the trumpet is to be sounded. Neighbour should sound it to neighbour, village to village, city to city, land to land, until the most distant and secluded spot on the globe has been penetrated by the joyful summons. And the hour is at hand when this blessed consummation shall be realised. Peal out, O trumpet of redemption l along our storm-swept skies, ringing over land and sea, proclaiming the end of sin, the end of travail, and heralding the birth of the new spiritual creation in which dwelleth righteousness. (Dr. Ide.)
The purpose of the sabbatical year
The principal object of the sabbatical year, at least in the eyes of the Levitical legislator, was not its economic usefulness in invigorating the soil, or any other of the many material advantages which have been attributed to it, but its spiritual significance as a general Sabbath devoted to God; for as the week is a complete cycle for the labour of man, so is the year for the cultivation and produce of the land; and man was to rest every seventh day, and the land every seventh year, in order that, by sacrificing one days labour and one years produce, the Israelite might express his gratitude to the mercy of God who blesses his works, and who sustains him during the temporary suspension of his efforts. He was to be reminded that the treasures of the earth were indeed created for the benefit of man, but that he should not use them selfishly and greedily; and on the other hand, that the soil had indeed been laden with Gods curse, but that His bounty gives abundance and grants respite from wearying toil. Who will assert that these and similar abstract ideas, which underlie the laws of the sabbatical year were conceived in the early Mosaic age, or could be profitably conveyed to the untutored people who meant to worship their Deliverer by dancing round the golden image of a calf? The views of Philo, who gives the oldest comment on our laws, may be briefly stated. Moses thought the number seven, he observes, worthy of such reverence, being the pure and ever virgin number, that he ordained in every seventh year the remission of debts in order to assist the poor, and train the rich to humanity; he commanded that then the people should leave the land fallow and untilled, and deliberately let slip out of their hands certain and valuable revenues, in order to teach them not to be wholly devoted to gain, but even willingly to submit to some loss, and thus to prepare them to bear patiently any mischance or calamity; he desired, moreover, to intimate that it was sinful to weigh down and oppress man with burdens, since even the earth, which has no feelings of pleasure or of pain, was to enjoy a period of relaxation; and that all benefits bestowed upon our fellow-men are sure to meet with reward and requital, since even the inanimate earth, after having been allowed to rest for one year, gratefully returns this favour by producing in the next year much larger crops than usual; just as athletes, by alternating recreation and exertion as with a well-regulated harmony, greatly enhance their strength, and are at last able to perform wonders of endurance; or as nature has wisely ordained man to work and to sleep by turns, that he may not be worn oat by toil. But the lawgivers chief object was humanity, which he thought fit to weave in with every part of his legislation, stamping on all who study the Holy Scriptures a sociable and humane disposition. With this view he raised the poor from their apparent lowly condition, and freed them from the reproach of being beggars, by appointing times when, as if they bad been deriving a revenue from their own properties, they found themselves in the possession of plenty, being suddenly enriched by the gift of God, who had invited them to share with the possessors themselves in the number of the sacred seven. In these remarks the charitable and moral motives of the sabbatical year are admirably, but its theocratic tendencies imperfectly, unfolded; nor can Philo be expected to appreciate the gradual development manifest in the various Books of the Pentateuch: in the law of Leviticus charity is no more than an incidental and subordinate object. (M. M. Kalisch, Ph. D.)
A sabbath of rest unto the land
I. Divine ownership in the soil
II. Mans highest interests are not material and earthly.
III. Neighbourliness and benevolence should be cultivated.
IV. Reliance on God, in implicit obedience to his will. To desist from effort to provide for their own maintenance would--
1. Elicit their faith in the fatherly care of God.
2. Summon them to a religious use of the time which God had set free from secular toils.
3. Incite them to grateful thoughts of Gods dealings with them as His people, and win them to a renewed recognition that they were not their own, but His, who had redeemed and still cared for them.
V. Sabbatic rest: heavens gracious law for earthly toilers, Man needs the Sabbath pause, in order to realise--
1. That higher possibilities are opened to him by Gods grace, than to be a servant of the soil on which he dwells.
2. That God desires of men the devotion of fixed seasons, and leisurely hours for sacred meditation and fellowship with the skies. (W. H. Jellie.)
The Sabbath of the fields
1. Palestine was designed and arranged by God, when He laid the foundations of the earth and divided to the nations their inheritance, to be a natural fortress for the preservation of religious truth and purity; a home in which a covenant people might be trained and educated, in the household of God and directly under His eye, to be zealous of good works themselves, and to be a royal priesthood to mankind--to carry out in their history Gods promise to the founder of their race, that in him should all the families of the earth be blessed. And therefore God surrounded it with natural fortifications which kept it separate and secluded--even although placed in the very midst of the most concentrated populations of the world, in the very focus towards which their intercourse with one another radiated--until the objects of the hermit training and discipline of its inhabitants were accomplished.
2. The Jews could not help being a nation of farmers. As a new seed of Adam, subjected to a new trial of obedience, they were placed in this new garden of Eden, to dress and keep it, in order that through their tilling of the ground the wilderness and the solitary place might be made glad, and the desert to rejoice and blossom as the rose. Their thoughts, bounded on every side by impassable walls, were turned inward upon their own country for the development of patriotism and the formation of a more compact and concentrated national life. Their energies were employed exclusively in the cultivation of the soil, and in developing to the utmost the resources of the land. And very rich and varied were these resources. No other country in the world presented, within a similar limited area, such diversities of soil and climate.
3. It was in beautiful accordance with all these natural provisions of the country for the isolation of the people during the ages of their discipline under Gods special care to be the benefactors of mankind, that the remarkable arrangements of the seventh or sabbatical year were Divinely instituted. Every seventh year was holy unto the Lord, as well as every seventh day. During that whole year the entire nation kept holiday. The people were not, indeed, absolutely idle; for that would have proved demoralising, and neutralised the beneficent nature of the whole arrangement. Much of their time was spent in religious observances, and in hearing and studying the law of God. Their attention was directed from their ordinary material affairs to their spiritual concerns. And although all cultivation of arable land was strictly forbidden, they had still to look after their sheep and cattle, and to tend with more or less care their gardens anti orchards; while, doubtless, a good portion of their leisure would be occupied with the repair of their houses, implements of husbandry and domestic furniture, and in weaving and the various other economical arts. At the end of a week, or seven of these sabbaths of the years--or after the lapse of forty-nine years--the sabbatical scale, beginning with the seventh day and going on to the seventh month and the seventh year, received its completion in the year of jubilee. This was the great political sabbath of the people and of the land. The sabbath day was the rest of the individual; the sabbath year was the rest of each farm and household; while the jubilee was the rest of the whole commonwealth, for it was only as a member of the state that each Israelite could participate in its provisions.
4. What was the design of these remarkable sabbatical years, confining our attention solely to their agricultural relations, and leaving out of sight their other provisions? Why were these sabbaths of the fields instituted? The first reason must obviously have reference to the soil itself; for the ladder of all the human relations, social, political, and religious, necessarily rests upon the tilling of the ground. It was to benefit the land itself in the first instance, that the sabbaths of the fields were ordained. The whole arable land of the country was to lie fallow a whole year at fixed recurring intervals, so that during these long periods of rest it might acquire, from the atmosphere, from the operations of the elements and of animal life, and from the decay of the plants which it spontaneously produced, the fertile substances which it had lost. More than most soils, that of Palestine needed this complete periodical rest. Being principally composed of disintegrated limestone, and very loose, light, and dry in its texture, it parted, under the influence of an arid climate, very easily with its phosphates and other fertilising materials. But upon this physical reason there were based very important moral reasons for the sabbaths of the fields. It was required that the whole land should rest periodically, not only that its fertility might be preserved, but also in order to limit the rights and check the sense of property in it. The earth and all the fulness thereof are indeed the Lords, as the Creator and Preserver of all things; but, in a very special sense, the Land of Promise was His property. He let out His vineyard to husbandmen who should render unto Him the spiritual fruits thereof; and the rent which He required as Superior was that one year in seven, and one year in forty-nine years, the land should lie fallow--should pass from the yoke of man to the liberty of God--should be offered up a sacrifice, as it were, unto Him upon the great mountain-altar of Palestine. The very abstinence from agricultural work during the sabbaths of the fields--the self-denial in refraining periodically for a whole year to till the ground--the trustfulness needed in looking to God for bread during so long a period of enforced rest--the confidence that He would in previous years secure from the land an increase adequate to meet the strain which the law of the sabbatical year laid upon its productive energies--all this was but a repetition of the conditions annexed to the possession of Eden, namely, that Adam should abstain from eating the forbidden fruit. The sabbaths of the fields were a trial of the faith of the Israelites, a test of their obedience. Only so long as they kept these sabbaths, abstained from eating the forbidden fruit of their fields, did the land yield to them its abundance, and nourish them with its fruits of life. The land is Mine, said God, when enacting this sabbatical law; for ye are strangers and sojourners with Me. The Israelites were living as truly a tent life--a life of pilgrims and strangers on earth amid their settled possessions in Canaan--as they had been in their wanderings in the wilderness. But, further still, the sabbaths of the fields connected, in a most beautiful and interesting manner, the agriculture of the Israelites with the institutions of their religion. The law enacting them was given in words corresponding to those of the fourth commandment: the one was only an extension of the other. The natural, social, and spiritual uses of the sabbath day suggested those of the sabbath year. The same sacredness and Divine obligation attached to the one as to the other. Under the theocratic government of Israel, the sanctuary and the farm lay within the same circle of holy influences. But perhaps the most interesting of all the aspects of the sabbaths of the fields was their relation to the future--their prophetic character. As the sabbath day pointed forward to the true and final rest that remaineth to the people of God, so the sabbatical year and the year of jubilee pointed forward to the jubilee of the world--the times of refreshing and the restitution of all things spoken of by all the prophets--the regeneration and the glorious kingdom to be inherited by the true Israel of God when they shall receive back an hundredfold all that they have lost. The sabbath day commemorated the relief of man from the burden of toil imposed upon him because of his sin; the sabbaths of the fields the relief of nature from the curse on the ground for mans sake. The year of rest for worn-out nature was a prefiguration of the change which is in store for the outward world, when every wilderness shall become a fruitful field, and instead of the thorn shall come up the fir-tree, and out of which it shall issue as a new heaven and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness.
5. But, alas! beneficient as it was, a law so peculiar, and requiring so much faith and self-denial, was not thoroughly and uninterruptedly observed. After four centuries of obedience, during which the land preserved its primitive fertility, and there were no famines arising from impoverishment of the soil, but only from unusual droughts and other atmospheric causes, the people ceased to keep the fallow year, not only through want of trust in Gods providence amid so peculiar a mode of living, but also through the moral corruption of the times. Then the land, originally the most fertile in the world, became one of the most capricious and uncertain; the store of fertilising materials was rapidly used up by incessant cultivation; and that state of things which Moses foretold took place--And your strength shall be spent in vain, for your land shall not yield its increase. Famine after famine, some of them of excessive severity and long continuance, arising from the overdriving and exhaustion of the soil, swept over the land and decimated the people. Henceforth the disregard of the sabbatical year became the burden of every prophetical denunciation, and the voice of historian and prophet was one continual wail of famine. In this painful extremity of the countrys fortunes, the judgment threatened by Moses against the violation of the fallow year was inflicted--And I will scatter you among the heathen, and will draw out a sword after you, and your land shall be desolate and your cities waste. Then shall the land enjoy her sabbaths as long as it lieth desolate, and ye be in your enemies land; even then shall the land rest and enjoy her sabbaths. As long as it lieth desolate it shall rest, because it did not rest in your sabbaths when ye dwelt upon it. Throughout the Babylonish captivity there was a continuous fallow of seventy years. During all that long period the fields of Palestine lay desolate, were neither sown nor reaped; and by this timely and much-needed rest the land recovered a large portion of its old fertility. And thus God graciously mingled mercy and judgment; combined the punishment of His people with the renovation of their inheritance. Weary, footsore, in tears, the saddened exiles returned to their native land, taught by their own experience that it is an evil and a bitter thing to sin against God. (H. Macmillan, D. D.)
Lessons from the sabbatical year
I. That the lord was the sole proprietor of the land.
II. That the land had resting upon it, continually, the favour of the lord.
III. That the divine favour provides for the well-being of every living thing.
IV. That of every living thing, man is the nearest and dearest to the great creator.
V. That the great creator teaches moral truths to man by means of works of nature. (F. W. Brown.)
The year of jubilee.--
The jubilee year: its fourfold significance
I. The christian dispensation of gospel liberty and rest (see Luk_4:18-21).
II. The believers privileged life of sacred release and joy (cf. Eph_1:13-14; Heb_4:9; Heb_8:12)
.
III. The millennial age, of established righteousness and peace (see Isa_66:18-23; Rev_20:2-5).
IV. The heavenly state of eternal security and serenity (see 2Pe_3:13; Rev_14:13; Rev_21:4). In the application of the jubilee incidents to each of these grand fulfilments of its symbolism, the following facts stand out clearly:--
1. Bounty. God gave a supernatural abundance the year preceding the jubilee, that in the enjoyment of vast supplies there should be no necessity for toil, no occasion for care {see Lev_25:21). And assuredly there is
(1) Bounty in the provisions of the gospel (1Ti_1:14).
(2) Fulness of grace for the believer in Jesus (2Co_4:15; Tit_3:6).
(3) Abundance of good to be enjoyed in the millennial age (Psa_72:7).
(4) Limitless bliss in the heavenly land (Psa_16:2),
2. Rest. That sabbatic year was to be consecrated to repose; the land was to be allowed to rest; the toiler was to cease from toil. Every want was supplied without the weariness of labour. Equally true of the--
(1) Gospel rest which Christianity announces (Mat_11:29).
(2) Believers rest which faith secures (Heb_4:3).
(3) Millennial rest for a wearied Church (Rev_20:2-3).
(4) Heavenly rest for Christs redeemed followers (Rev_14:13).
3. Liberty. All bondservants were set free the moment the jubilee trumpet sounded (Lev_25:39-44). And assuredly this finds verification in the--
(1) Liberty which Christ proclaimed to souls enslaved in sin and fear (Luk_4:18; Heb_2:15).
(2) Spiritual freedom realised by faith (Rom_8:15; Joh_8:36).
(3) Emancipation from thraldom which shall distinguish the millennial reign (Isa_49:8-9).
(4) Glorious liberty of the children of God in heaven (Rom_8:21; Rev_21:24-25).
4. Restitution. If the Israelite had parted with his inheritance, its possession was restored to him in the year of jubilee, and that without payment (Lev_25:25-37). So--
(1) The redemption of Christ recovers for man all that sin had forfeited.
(2) Believers in Jesus regain all the virtue, happiness, and hopes which the fall had ruined.
(3) The weary and wronged world would enjoy paradisal gladness through Christs millennial sway.
(4) Heaven will realise all which on earth had been desired, and restore all which death had desolated.
V. Let it be marked that the jubilee, with all its blessings, was consequent upon atonement. Not till the blood of expiation had been shed, and the living goat had borne into the land of oblivion the sins which (ceremonially) had been transferred to it, did the silver trumpets peal forth their exultant notes, proclaiming liberty and rest, restitution and rectitude for the people. And it is because of Christs atonement that--
(1) Christianity has come to sinful man, with all its tidings of good and wealth of salvation (Joh_1:29; Eph_1:6).
(2) Spiritual blessings are inherited by the believer in Jesus (Rom_5:11).
(3) The Church will enjoy the sabbatic millennial glory (Rev_19:11-14).
(4) Heaven will be the eternal possession of the redeemed (Rev_8:14-17 Rev_14:3 ?). (W. H. Jellie.)
The year of jubilee
I. Let us look at the gospel age as the worlds jubilee. And notice particularly that the jubilee year was ushered in on the Day of Atonement. Now, how is it with our jubilee? Was it not also ushered in by atonement? The prophets foretold the coming of the acceptable year, but there was no jubilee Until Christ came, and there was no true trump of jubilee until after Christ had died. Three clays He lay in the grave, and the third day He rose again, and then after forty days He ascended, the Great High Priest, and entered into the Holiest Place, bearing there His own blood. Then, the atonement having been made, He sends down the Spirit on the day of Pentecost, and His servants go forth everywhere preaching the jubilee that had come in--a jubilee based upon an infinite atonement. Now, it is equally true that the atonement of Christ must usher in all gospel proclamations. There is no gospel without the atonement, any more than there was any trump of jubilee without first the atonement day. A bloodless gospel is no gospel, but hells choicest weapon. A gospel that ignores the Lamb slain is worse than no gospel at all, for it not merely leaves men in their original ignorance, but stupefies and chloroforms them with a fresh lie. Let us look for a moment at a few of the chief things included in gospel preaching, and see how they are all connected with the great day of Christs atonement.
1. Certainly, peace must be classed among the first and chiefest notes. The gospel, like an angel, flies through the world, crying, Peace!--Peace!--Peace! Methinks, this is one of the sweetest notes in the whole of gospel harmony. But what kind of peace is the gospel peace? It is peace that is based on blood!
2. If peace be one of the chief notes in the gospel, surely we may place by its side remission of sins. Oh, let us tell it out that God can forgive all sin, though He cannot overlook one. By all means tell it out that God can remit all iniquity--that there is no sinner so wicked that God cannot forgive him, no sin so heinous that it cannot be pardoned; but remember, remission of sins, like peace, is based on the blood.
3. Cleansing is also one of the most sounded notes of the gospel, and it is a blessed thing to be able to tell a sinner that however sin-stained he is he can yet be purified, and that the soul that is black as perdition can be made as white as wool, and that the soul that is crimson dyed with iniquity may yet be so cleansed that even the driven snow shall look black in comparison. But remember that it is the blood that cleanses. Now, notice next, that the jubilee was proclaimed with trumpet-note.
The atonement has been made, and from every hill-top the note is heard.
1. And who blows the trumpet? Why, man. It must have been joyous work to him. No angel but would have coveted the honour, but it is man that receives the commission for the work, and surely, he will blow it best, for as he blows he says, I am blowing good news unto myself. Perhaps the man on yonder hill-top owed a debt and knew not how to pay. Oh, with what right good will would that man blow the trumpet! Says he, I am blowing my own debt away. Or perhaps that other man had a boy that was in prison. Says he, I will blow a blast that shall be heard far and wide, for I am blowing a note that will open the prison doors to my own boy. He had got an exile, perhaps, afar off, and for family reasons that boy had been unable to return home. The moment this note is heard, says the trumpeter, the exiled one will be able to come back again. So the man blows, ay, as no angel or seraph could have blown. So no angel could preach the gospel like the man who is himself saved by the gospel. When we preach Christ we may well preach Him with a holy ecstacy, for we preach that which saves us; and when me are telling the tale of atonement made we may tell it out with all the whole soul. The trumpets were blown by man.
2. And then observe, they were blown everywhere. This is what you and I have to do. We have to help to sound the trumpet throughout all the land. Go, blow it amongst the great ones of the earth, and tell kings and potentates that they must be born again. Go and blow the note amongst the humblest and the poorest that fill our mission halls and theatres and tell how Christ can save the vilest. Go and be Christ-like, and proclaim to the perishing everywhere that the acceptable year of the Lord is come, and that He is willing to bind up broken-hearted ones, and to open the prison-doors unto all captives.
3. We notice further that the notes of the jubilee trumpet and the notes of the gospel are identical. What was it that that trumpet proclaimed? First and foremost it proclaimed a return to all exiles and to all who were banished from their homes. I think I see the father when that trumpet sounds; he pulls the bolt back and takes the chain down and says, My boy will be back soon. For years he has been shut out of the home. We did not care to have him in. That boy perhaps had offended in something, and did not care to show his face in the neighbourhood, so for many a long year the father had sighed to see his face again. But the moment he heard that note he says, See that the door is not fastened till he comes back. My boy has heard the note as quickly as I have. Depend upon it that by this time his face is turned homeward. The trumpet sounded home sweet home, to all banished ones. There was a pale captive in a dungeon; but the trumpet note found its way between the iron bars, and I think I see him as he says, Now jailor, off with these fetters I and off with them quickly! You have no power to keep me in durance vile a moment longer. See how he flings the shackles down on the floor and stretches his unfettered arms with ecstacy! That trump said to him the one glorious word Liberty! These were some of the notes that the trumpet of jubilee sounded; but, oh, does not the gospel trumpet sound not merely the same notes, but the same notes pitched to a higher Selah, still.
II. now when does the soul receive its jubilee? I can imagine one saying, Well, my case is a very bad one indeed. It is all very well to be talking about a jubilee age, but that and a jubilee heart are two different things. I know it, and I think I can understand you. Do I not express your feelings when I put the matter thus:--I am everything that you have spoken about, I am an exile far from my Fathers house, I am a captive, and the iron eats into my soul. I am a debtor, and I feel that I owe that which I can never pay. I am over head and ears; I am drowned in debt. I am a miserable bankrupt. I cannot pay a farthing in the pound. I am a lost man. How am I ever to have a jubilee? Why, I tell thee, thou wilt have a jubilee the very moment thou believest the report of the jubilee trumpet. Thank God, the jubilee of the soul can come any day. It is not once in fifty years, or once in fifty days, or once in fifty hours, or once in fifty minutes. God is willing to give salvation any moment. The moment thou acceptest Christ, the moment thou believest the report of the gospel, that moment shall thy jubilee come. Remember, that it is not enough to have the gospel preached all round about you. It is not enough to live in a gospel age. There must be a personal reception of the truth. (A. G. Brown.)
The jubilee
I. The tendency of society to go wrong. The evils remedied by the jubilee were--
1. Debt.
2. Slavery.
3. Destitution.
4. Exhausting toil.
II. The constant interposition of god to put society right. (Homilist.)
The year of jubilee
I. Mans need of occasional best from toil. The Hebrew system was remarkable for the number and variety of its provisions for this. By the emphasis thus given to rest, God hallowed it as being both a duty and privilege. It is needful in this age of excessive labour, when the struggle for wealth consumes mens energies so fast, and makes them so weary and prematurely old and broken. We can think of many who ought to take a sabbatic year of rest, and then add to it a year of jubilee.
II. All men are entitled to a share of gods bounty. Men were not allowed in the jubilee year to store up aught of what grew in the fields. God was manifestly the sole author of it. It was to be distributed, therefore, like the other pure bounties of His hand, like the rain and the sunshine, to all alike. This happened every sabbatic year, as well as in the jubilee. Christian faith endorses this. The fact of holding a title to a piece of land does not warrant one in engrossing to himself all that it yields. Christian charity says, Distribute the benefit of it.
III. The welfare of society is imperilled by the acquisition of great landed estates. The operation of the jubilee was to prevent the accumulation of land in the hands of a few. If in the course of fifty years such an accumulation occurred, the jubilee redistributed it. The public good demanded its general division among the people. Great Britain suffers greatly from excessive concentration in the ownership of land. The principle of charity, if given full operation, would restrain excessive accumulation.
IV. The dignity of man viewed as a ransomed child of God is another idea embodied in the jubilee (Lev_25:42). (A. H. Currier.)
The year of jubilee
I. Its origin. It stands connected with two of the leading Jewish institutions.
1. With the weekly sabbath. It comes from the sabbath by two steps; first, by the institution of a sabbath for the land, falling on every seventh year; and secondly, by the conferring of a special sanctity on the seventh of these land sabbaths.
2. With the Day of Atonement.
II. Its provisions. Restoration--
1. Debtor released from debts.
2. Slave released from bondage.
3. Exile restored to inheritance.
III. Its lessons for ourselves.
1. The coming of Christ was the inauguration of a greater jubilee, bringing world-wide and lasting blessings. We too are debtors, debtors to the law in the whole round of its requirements; we are slaves to sin and Satan; we have forfeited our fair inheritance of innocence and heaven. But hear how Christ ushers in His ministry (Luk_4:16-21).
2. With us as with the Jews it is still on the Day of Atonement that the jubilee trumpet sounds. Our liberty and restoration have been dearly won (1Pe_1:18-19). With the Jews the neglect of the Day of Atonement led to the loss of the jubilee. And if the atonement of which we speak so much has never yet been anything to us, in our sense of the need of it, in our quest after the blessing of it, to us there has been no jubilee--we are yet in our sins. Will we be less in earnest than the debtor or the slave when we have so much more need to be in earnest? (Walter Roberts, M. A.)
The year of jubilee
I. Its peculiar features.
1. It was a great boon to all sorrowing ones.
(1) Every captive was liberated.
(2) The exiled wanderer returned.
(3) The oppressed debtor was released from his debts.
(4) The unfortunate poor were restored to their ancestral heritage.
(5) Families that had been separated were now reunited.
(6) Every estate reverted to the families to whom they were originally allotted in the conquest of Canaan.
2. All this was intimately connected with the Day of Atonement.
3. It was to be a year of perfect freedom from toil.
4. Every business transaction had reference to the year of jubilee.
II. Its typical meaning.
1. It has special reference to the millennial glory of Israel in the land which Jehovah keeps for them through all generations.
(1) God claims Canaan as He does no other.
(2) God has honoured Canaan as He has no other.
(a) There His throne and sanctuary were.
(b) There His priests ministered, and His prophets spoke.
(c) There His own Son was born, grew up, worked, wept, suffered, died, and rose again.
(d) When Jesus returns, His feet shall stand on the Mount of Olives.
2. It is a beautiful and correct type of heaven.
(1) Where every believer will enter upon his inheritance, and enter into his perfect rest.
(2) Where all exile, captivity, separation, poverty and oppression will for ever cease. (D. C. Hughes, M. A.)
The jubilee; or, The degenerative and corrective forces of society
I. The degenerative forces of society are in itself. Debt. Slavery. Poverty. Materialism.
II. The corrective forces of society are from God.
1. Man is superior to property. The violation of this truth is the ruin of society, and it is violated every day.
2. God is the disposer of property. The earth is the Lords, and the fulness thereof.
3. Society has higher wants than property. Spiritual services. (Homilist.)
The resemblance between the year of jubilee and the gospel
I. In the blessings imparted.
1. Remission of debts (see Act_13:38).
2. Liberation from bondage (see Rom_6:22).
3. Restoration of forfeited possessions (see 1Pe_1:4).
4. Freedom from toil (see Heb_4:3).
5. Abundant provisions and universal joy (see 1Pe_1:8).
II. The jubilee was to be proclaimed on a particular day and in a peculiar way.
1. On the Day of Atonement (Lev_25:9; see Luk_24:46-47).
2. It was announced by the sound of trumpets (Lev_25:9; see Rom_10:14-15). The proclamation was to be to all (see Mar_16:15).
III. The blessedness of the gospel dispensation as experienced by believers,
1. The personal enjoyment of liberty (see Rom_8:21; Gal_5:1).
(1) Liberty from Satan.
(2) From the world.
(3) From mental darkness and sin.
2. The realisation of rest (see Isa_14:3).
(1) Rest in Christ.
(2) From works.
(3) In labour.
(4) In prospect.
3. The possession of abundance (see Rom_5:20-21).
(1) The word.
(2) The sacraments.
(3) Joy.
(4) Holy Ghost.
(5) Glory.
4. The enjoyment of salvation (see Isa_12:2).
(1) Present salvation.
(2) Perfect and complete salvation.
(3) Everlasting and infinite salvation. (T. B. Baker.)
The joyful sound
One interpretation of the word jubilee connects it, in a wild sort of way, with a rabbinical legend concerning the ram caught in the thicket, at the time when Abraham was tempted to sacrifice his son Isaac. It was fabled in the foolish tradition that the body of this animal was burned to ashes, but God raised it to life again afterwards by miracle. Then out of its skin was made the mantle that Elijah wore in the wilderness; out of its entrails were fashioned strings for the harp which David played upon. From one of its horns was constructed the trumpet which was blown upon Mount Sinai; from the other, the trumpet which remained to be blown at the coming of the Messiah. So some of the early commentators said that the term jubilee was derived from an Arabic word that signified a ram. But the latter and better interpretation is referred to an expression in the Book of Joshua (Jos_6:5). There the verse would read, rendered literally, as they draw out with the horn of jubilee. The meaning seems to be, that this name of jubilee was not given to the instrument exactly, but to the note it uttered--the peculiar clanging, continuous, vibrating sound of a horn. The word most likely represents the prolonged, quick-rushing, far-reaching, deeply penetrating blast of the trumpet as it swept across the whole land. As we press into the investigation of this most interesting portion of Hebrew history, we must pause long enough at the beginning to insist on the connection of the great Day of Atonement with the great Day of Jubilee. It came right after it in date. It appears right after it in the record of institution; and in spiritual teaching it is indispensably associated with it. There can be no jubilee in Gods universe till atonement for sin is completed.
I. The type.
1. What was the design of the jubilee year as God gave it? A necessary question this is, but the answer will not be difficult if we take into consideration the entire story of the institution. In general, it appears to have been placed in the midst of human life as a barrier against the three greatest ills humanity is heir to. It insisted on relief from overwork. One grand idea of the ordinance was rest--rest to the soil, rest to the toilers upon it. The jubilee also demanded deliverance from oppression. There will be found reward for the closest study in just searching out in detail the skilful provisions made to relieve the weight of every kind of bond-service permitted in those times. A consideration for such exigency is inserted in the commandment. There is one for the brother, and one for the stranger, and one for the sojourner. All servants are here declared to be Gods servants, as the whole land is declared to be Gods land. And in this great year of grace the time has come for all slaves to go free--free for ever. The jubilee likewise ordered release from obligation. Among all the weights and worries of human life surely one of the cruellest is debt. Do not rich men oppress you, and draw you before the judgment seats? It is only natural that they should; for human nature knows little change. The wisest man in the world once said plainly: The rich ruleth over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the lender. Here again is an intervention from heaven in behalf of distressed debtors. The law made provision for the restoration of estates, and clearance from usury at the end of the fiftieth year.
2. What was the welcome of the jubilee as the people gave it reception? There can be but one answer: A great glad day of universal rejoicing it was through the length and breadth of the land.
II. The antitype. In general, it may be said that the sound of those trumpets was the symbol of the proclamation of Christs gospel over all the earth. The purpose of this gospel was to check the deteriorating forces in human society; to set up principles which would deliver men from all weights and oppressions of sin and sinners.
1. So there is such a thing as a jubilee in the heart. When the bondage of corruption is broken, the debt of transgression paid, the handwriting that was against us (Col_2:14) taken away and nailed to the Cross, the soul freed indeed because freed by the truth, our Redeemer surely coming (Job_19:25) and certain to stand on the earth--then it is that there seems to sound a great joy of deliverance through all the nature of the regenerate man I
2. There is such a thing as a jubilee in the Church. Times have been in history when piety was low, and godly men failed; the ways of Zion mourned, the city sat solitary, the fires on the altars were dim in the ashes. Then came a rushing sound of spiritual presence, almost like a pressure, and a blast of silver trumpets, calling to activity, to penitence, to singing, and to religious life again. The Redeemer came to Zion (Isa_59:20), and unto them that turned from transgression in Jacob.
3. There is such a thing as a jubilee in the state. Poets are singing about, the good time coming; but it has not yet arrived. Still, it is promised (Isa_61:1-2).
4. There is such a thing as a jubilee in the world. This is the final restitution, the day of all days on the earth. Of course, the blessing will come through the Church; but the whole race will share something of its vast benediction. (C. S. Robinson, D. D.)
The jubilee a type of the gospel
--
I. Its primary purpose.
1. Kind and benevolent.
2. Wise and politic.
3. Good and beneficial.
II. Its typical reference.
1. The jubilee of grace.
2. The jubilee of glory.
III. Its joyful commencement (Psa_89:15). (Wm. Sleigh.)
Jubilee gladness
The Old Testament jubilee was meant to be a type of the entire New Testament dispensation in three points, imaging by its sabbatic character the gospel rest in Christ, by its unreserved deliverance of captives and slaves the Christian redemption from guilt and spiritual bondage, and by its universal restitution of property to the poor and needy the fulness of that inheritance which is treasured up for all the faithful in Christ, whose unsearchable riches, like the national possessions, opened up by the jubilee, enrich all, without impoverishing any who make good their title.
I. The first element of jubilee gladness, common to the Jew of old and the Christian amid the celebrations of the gospel age, is the joy of distinction or of privilege. There was not a single memorial of blessing or promise, temporal or spiritual, which the jubilee did not recall, and hold up before the eyes of that most favoured nation, so that it was on Gods part an impressive reiteration of His covenant, and on their part a grateful recognition that they were indeed a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a peculiar people. The Christian Church, and we as members of it, are privileged--
1. As to safety.
2. As to character.
3. As to work.
4. As to suffering.
II. The second great element of the gladness of jubilee is the joy of stability and progression. Traces of progress are to be found in every leading country of the Christian world. The last half century has seen the cause of missions pass through all its phases, and encounter all its perils from ridicule, neglect, hope deferred, till now it ranks perhaps as the most distinctive and glorious feature of our age.
III. The third element in the jubilee gladness is the joy of anticipation or consummation. We believe that faith and hope shall in Gods own time effect a marvellous conquest of this long-revolted earth, and that love, working in a united and purified Church, shall through great periods gather up and treasure the spoils of victory. But it is to Christs coming that we look forward and hasten, as the crown and consummation of Christian hope. (J. Cairns.)
Land tenure
All men ultimately get their living out of the soil. There never will be a process by which the original elements that enter into food will be manufactured into food. We may fly in the air, or travel around the earth with the sun; but we shall never take the unorganised substances that form grass and grain and the flesh of animals, and directly convert them into food; they must first be organised into vital forms. Hence, questions pertaining to land are the most imperative that come before men. To get man rightly related to the soil, in such a way that he shall most easily get his food from it, this is the underlying question of all history, its keynote and largest achievement. The chief struggles in all ages and nations have turned upon this relation. There are two forces at work in the matter, both proceeding out of what seems almost an instinct for ownership of the soil. The earth is our mother, and she woos us perpetually to herself. To own some spot of land, and be able to say, This is mine, is one of the sweetest of personal feelings; it declares our kinship with this natural world that nurses our life and upholds our feet. These two forces that draw men to the soil are, first, a natural, almost instinctive sense of keeping close to the source of life, as a wise general does not allow himself to be separated from his supplies. The other force is the pride and greed and love of power of the strong. Here is a triple-woven force out of which has sprung by far the greater part of the injustice and oppression that have afflicted the race. The possession of the soil is the surest exponent and standing-ground of worldly force. Everything else may fail: the hearts of men, coined treasures, ships and houses, bonds and promises to pay, but so long as society keeps a man in the possession of land he is so far forth strong; he has a place to stand in, the fortifications built by nature, and the arms and defences that spring perpetually out of the earth; he realises the fable of Antaeus. The remarkable feature of the Jewish Commonwealth is its anticipatory legislation against probable, and otherwise certain abuses. The struggles of other nations, and the skill of statesmanship, have been to correct abuses; in the Jewish Commonwealth they were foreseen and provided against. There are no words to express the wonder felt by the student of social science as he first measures the significance of that feature of the Jewish state known as the year of jubilee. It is little understood, hidden away in an uninteresting book, stated in ancient and blind phraseology, a thing of long past ages, nevertheless it remains the most exalted piece of statesmanship the world has known--an example of social sagacity, and broad, far-reaching wisdom, such as we look for in vain in the annals of any other nation. It settled at the outset the problem that no other people ever solved except through ages of struggle and revolution. The Hebrew nation existed under the consciousness of a covenant with Jehovah. It would be petty criticism that pried into the origin of this belief, moved by contempt at the seeming presumption of this little nation of fugitive slaves--petty and narrow indeed! It were wiser and more scientific to regard every nation as under covenant with God, if it but had the wisdom to know it. That this nation discerned the eternal fact, and wrought it into the foundations of their State, only shows its insight into the nature of the State, and its receptivity of inspired truth. It does not lessen the wisdom of this legislation that it probably did not meet the exigencies of the later development of the nation, nor even that its details may have become a hindrance in the more complex state of society that followed the captivity when it probably ceased to be enforced. Its wisdom is to be found in its previsionary features, in its reversal of ordinary history, that is, it planted the nation on equal rights at the outset instead of leaving them to be achieved by struggle, and in its assertion of the general principle that it is wise to keep the body of the people as near the source of their subsistence as possible. It was not given up until it had educated and grounded the nation in those conceptions of practical righteousness that are found in the pages of the prophets, through whom they have become the inspiration of the world. Its design and effect are evident. It was a bar to monopoly of the land. All greed and pride in this direction were limited. One might add field to field for a series of years, but after a time the process ceased and the lands went back to their original owners. The purpose was to make such a habit unprofitable, to keep the resources of society evenly distributed, to prevent the rich from becoming too rich and the poor hopelessly poor, to undo misfortune, to give those who had erred through sloth or improvidence an opportunity to improve the lessons of poverty, to prevent children from reaping the faults of their parents; one generation might squander its portion but the next was not forced to inherit the consequences. Though a political measure, it is informed with spiritual significance. It is throughout instinct with mercy. It taught humanity. It rebuked and repressed the great sins. It was in keeping with the underlying fact of the national history which was deliverance, and, as well, with the central idea of the world, which is redemption, redemption from evil however caused and of whatever kind. It was an assertion of perpetual hope, hope which, though long delayed, comes at last to all, and every man returns to the possessions his Creator gave him. It was in its profoundest meaning a prophecy wrought into the practical economy of a nation. It shadows forth the recovery from evil, the undoing of all burdens that weigh down humanity, the eternal inheritance awaiting Gods children when his cycle is complete. This ancient piece of statesmanship is full of pointed lessons for these modern times. It cannot be reproduced in form, but it still teaches the ever necessary lesson, float nations and corporations and individuals are always forgetting, that the world belongs to all men by the gift of God. It teaches the wisdom of showing mercy to the poor and unfortunate, and the unwisdom of permitting endless monopolies and limitless increase of wealth. It is the business of the State to see that these things are restricted, as both right and safe, as necessary for the rich as for the poor. The methods employed may sometimes seem to lack in technical justice, but there is a righteousness that lies back of formal justice. As the world goes, the forms of justice are apt to become the instruments of oppression in the hands of the avaricious, the proud, and the strong. These three always lie in wait to oppress the poor, the humble, and the weak; and their choicest instruments are those legal forms and institutions that are necessary to society. But they have their limits by a law which is above all such laws and formal institutions. When wealth oppresses the poor, or keeps them at the mere living point, when monopolies tax the people, whenever a few own the soil, however legal the form of possession, when there is any process going on by which the rich are growing richer and the poor poorer, there is a Divine justice above all formal justice, that steps in and declares that such processes must stop. (T. T. Munger.)
The year of jubilee
The principal and distinguishing point in the jubilee year was, that all landed property reverted to its original possessors. The institution was this: the people coming as a whole people, consisting of distinct tribes and families, and settling down upon the territory, God says, This land is Mine; I give it to you, in distinct portions for your distinct families, never to be alienated. So that the, proper way of putting it, in our modern language, would be that the land, the freehold of any estate never could be sold, but only the produce of it for so many years. It never could go entirely out of the family to whom it belonged. But the price to be given would vary according to the nearness or the distance of the jubilee year; according to the number of years till that time, less or more would be paid for the produce of the land; for when that time came the lands were given up by those who had bought the produce of them till then, and everybody went back to his original paternal possession. Houses that were built in villages, and connected with the open field, were subject also to that law; and they went back. But houses that were built in cities were not subject to that law. At any time during the years that preceded the jubilee, any portion of land, any field or farm, could be redeemed; if the man that had parted with it could go and offer the money it was worth, he could demand it; any of his relatives could redeem it in the same way. They could only do this for one year with a house in a city; after that it went from them entirely. But the principal point in the jubilee year was this liberty, this remission of debts, this return of everybody to their original inheritance, which might have been parted with by vice, by improvidence, by indiscretion, or which might have gone from them by misfortune and unavoidable vicissitude. The objects of this very peculiar institution, I think it is fair to suppose, might be such as these. It was intended to produce a recollection in the mind of the people, of the manner in which God had brought them in, and settled them there, and given them their possessions; and of course, of their peculiar covenant relation to Him. It would have a tendency also to prevent the rise of a large landed power, that might become an oppressive and tyrannical aristocracy. It would certainly have a tendency also to make the people very careful about their genealogies, in order that they might easily establish their claim to such and such property. And that, we think--the distinctness and clearness of the genealogy with respect to the tribes and families--had also a bearing upon the prophecies respecting the Messiah and His coming through a particular tribe and family. It was intended, perhaps, or at least it would have that tendency, even to mitigate the evils that men by their indiscretion and improvidence might bring upon themselves and upon their families; give to them, as it were, another chance of recovering themselves, or at least to their descendants, of recovering possessions that ought to have been kept. And altogether, the influence of it would be, I think, to diffuse a very humanising and kind and happy feeling throughout the whole community. (T. Binney.)
Results of jubilee year
It was in ancient Israel, as in the heavens above us, whose luminaries, after a certain period of time has elapsed, always return to the same place in the firmament, and the same relative position to each other. The sun, for instance, although changing his place daily, shall rise and set, twelve months from this date, at the same hour, and appear at his meridian in the same spot as to-day. Corresponding to that, or like the revolution of a wheel, which restores every spoke to its former place, society, whatever change meanwhile took place in personal liberty or hereditary property, returned, among the old Hebrews, to the very same state in which it was at the commencement of those fifty years whose close brought in the jubilee. (T. Guthrie, D. D.)
Liberty through Christ
It is a sad sight to see men bound with chains, so that they cannot use their limbs. And if they arc shut up in prison, as well as bound with chains, this is still more sad. But there are chains and prisons for the souls of men, as well as for their bodies. If we give way to any sin, that sin binds our souls so that they can have no more freedom of action than our bodies would have if they were bound in chains of iron. This is what is meant in one of the beautiful collects of our Church, in which we pray that we may be delivered from the bands of those sins which by our frailty we have committed. And this is the reason why the Bible speaks of men as being taken captive by Satan at his will (2Ti_2:26). He tempts men to commit sins, and then binds them in the chains of those sins; and in this way they are made his prisoners or captives. And when Jesus seeks a poor sinner, and converts him by His grace; when He delivers him from the power of his sins, changes his heart, and helps him to lead a new life, then it is that He is blessing that man by giving liberty to the captive. But there are no chains that Satan makes for men so strong as those which he fastens on the soul of the poor drunkard. He is bound hand and foot. The prison in which he is made captive has walls so thick, and doors so strongly bolted and barred, that he never can get out by any efforts of his own. But Jesus is able to break the strongest chain by which any poor drunkard was ever bound, and to open the prison door in spite of all the bolts and bars that may secure it. Here is an illustration of this statement, which I know to be true. One day, while Mr. Moody was preaching in our city, I received a letter written by a person who signed himself A Reformed Drunkard. He wished me to read this letter in the noonday meeting for the encouragement of those who were trying to break loose from the chains by which the drunkard is bound. And I did read it there. The writer of this letter called to see me before I read it in public, that I might be sure it was all right. I was surprised at his appearance when I saw him. He was as fine-looking, gentlemanly a man as I had ever seen. He was intelligent and well educated. This was his story, as briefly as I can give it. My family, he said, is one of the most respectable in Philadelphia. They belong to the Society of Friends. My mother, now in heaven, was formerly a preacher in the Society. For seven years I had been a confirmed drunkard. By this terrible evil I had lost my money, my business, my character, my health, my friends, and my self-respect. It had even separated me from my wife and family, and made me an outcast from society. I was lost to all that was good. I had tried again and again to stop drinking, but in vain. I had taken different medicines, and had signed the temperance pledge a number of times, but without any benefit. Everybody said my case was hopeless. At last, when I was in a public hospital, sick with that dreadful disease which drunkenness causes, called delirium tremens, and was given up to die; then, as I believe, in answer to the prayers of my sainted mother, I was led to look to Jesus. I called on Him for help. He heard my cry, and helped me. By the power of His grace He broke the strong chains of that dreadful sin by which I had been bound, and which nothing but the grace of God can break. I rose from my sick bed a changed man. By the help which Jesus gave me I was able to stop drinking. And now for months I have been a sober man. I am restored to health, to happiness, and usefulness, to my friends and to my family, and am on the way to heaven, where I hope to meet that beloved mother through whose prayers I have been saved. Such was this mans story. Here we see how Jesus gives deliverance to the captives. And what He did for this poor prisoner of sin and Satan He is able and willing to do for all who call upon Him. And if He has power to help men in this way, then it may well be said that He was sent to bless them. (Richard Newton, D. D.)
The sinners chains are self forged
It is told of a famous smith of mediaeval times, that having been taken prisoner and immured in a dungeon, he conceived the idea of escaping, and began to examine the chain that bound him, with a view to discover some flaw that might make it easier to be broken. His hope was vain, for he found, from marks upon it, that it was one of his own workmanship, and it had always been his boast that none could ever break a chain that he had forged. And now it was his own chain that bound him. It is thus with the sinner. His own hands have forged the chain that binds him, a chain which in endless and evermultiplying coils is around his soul, and which no human hand can break. Yet is there a hand can break it--the hand of Him who brings liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound. (Preachers Lantern.)
Freedom through Christ
It is stated on good authority that when the old Emperor of Russia died, he made the present Emperor promise to set all those serfs free. So the present emperor called the Imperial Council together, and said, I want to see if you can make some plan by which we can set these men free. They were the proprietors of these serfs, and, of course, they didnt want to free them. The Imperial Council was in session for six long months, and one evening they sent in their decision, sealed, that it was not right, and it is said that he went down to the Greek Church, partook of the sacrament, and went to his palace; and the next morning there was a great commotion, and people could not understand it. Great cannons were brought up around his palace, and in a little while 65,000 soldiers were gathered around the royal palace; and just at twelve oclock at midnight there came out what we call a proclamation, but what they call a ukase, to the serfs of Russia, that they were free for ever. It spread through the empire, and a shout went through the nation, The men born in slavery are set free! They had found one that had set them free. Wasnt that good news? But here is the news of the gospel, that every man born in sin, and taken captive by Satan, can be set free through the power of the Lord Jesus.(T. De Witt Talmage.)
Deliverance from sin
Sin is the great evil of the world. It has infected all hearts, and there is none righteous--no, not one. This is the witness of Scripture: All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. But it needs no revelation to tell men this. The wise ones of the heathen world before Christ came to bear the same testimony, l learned Greek, called Xenophon, said, It is clear that I have two souls; when the good one gets the upper hand it does right; when the evil it enters on wicked courses. A still wiser man, named Plato, used the image of a good and bad horse, yoked to a chariot, and driven by the same charioteer. There are two powers at work in human nature, dragging in different directions. And Crates, another great man of olden times, said that it was impossible to find a man who had not fallen; just as every pomegranate had a bad grain in it, so every character had some flaw, some seed of corruption. So we find that men of heathen lands to-day, who have never heard the name of Christ, echo the cry of the Apostle Paul, O wretched man that I Am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? They feel their bondage to evil; they feel their need of a deliverance. Now Jesus is the Saviour of men. Only Christ has borne this great name. Mohammed is prophet; Buddha is teacher only; Jesus is Saviour. He can deliver us from the bondage of sin. One of my friends, who is a missionary in China, told me the other day that the creed of many a Christian convert may be summed up in a sentence: I believe that Jesus Christ is able to deliver me from the opium habit. The gospel wins them by the promise of deliverance from that frightful vice. They begin with that. They put the saving power of Jesus to the proof. I am given up to every sin you can imagine, said Liu Kisa Shan; I am an opium smoker, a libertine, a gambler, a drunkard, an unfilial man, and everything that is bad. Can Christ Jesus save me? He had strolled into the chapel at Hankow, and the preachers words had stirred the hope of deliverance in his heart. Can Christ Jesus save me? Yes; He can, and He will, said the preacher. And they knelt down together and cried to Him for salvation. And the new heart was given of which we were talking last week. And Liu went home to his friends, to show them how great things the Lord had done for him; and is to-day the centre of a gospel work where once he was notorious for evil living. Jesus saves men to-day. He can save you, for He is able to save unto the uttermost all that come unto God through Him. (Howard James.)
Released from debt
The great Henry Clay was once placed in a position where he could not refuse a favorer, and yet where he would not have credited himself with doing anything to earn the release he received. He owed £2,000 at the Northern Bank of Kentucky, and his note for that amount had been renewed from time to time, in spite of all his efforts to contrive a way to meet it--until the debt became a source of almost hopeless anxiety to him. The thought of it intruded upon him everywhere, and embarrassed his work, and worried his rest. The day for payment would come again, and find him as helpless as ever. He chafed like a lion in a net. Whether or not he ever betrayed his uneasiness, there were at least a few who came to know its secret--and with results such as he was the last man to expect. He went into the bank one morning on the old errand. I have called to see about my debt. The cashier replied, It has been paid; you dont owe us anything. He was struck with amazement, and, under strong emotion, he turned and went out. Those men who paid the embarrassed statesmans debt did it because they loved him. Christ Jesus loved us so well that He died to release us from the sins of the past, and became Surety Himself for our debt to Gods broken law which we never could pay. We never earned such a boon. It was only His love that gave it. (Christian Age.)
Ye shall not therefore oppress one another.
The oppressor rebuked and the oppression removed
I. The oppression which now exists, and which it is our duty to remove. There can be no doubt that there is a fierce spirit of competition abroad--a spirit which pervades every trade, which enters every profession, which stalks about our exchange, sits by the merchant and the banker at their desks, opens the shop early and closes it late, excites angry feeling and envy, makes the man of business anxious and excited abroad, sullen or fretful at home, which unfastens the restraints of religion and honour, interposes between neighbour and neighbour, friend and friend, relation and relation: it suggests enterprises which are rash, bargains which are hard, speculations of doubtful morality, and acts which once would have made the honest cheek to glow with the blush of shame. This spirit it is which leads to fearful embarrassments, unlawful expedients, a wretched parsimony, a false appearance, a costly display, a feverish existence, an untimely end. Oh! if there be a people to whom it is a duty to sound this warning, Take heed and beware of covetousness, that nation is our own. It has been most truly said, that the desire of accumulation is the source of all our greatness and all our baseness. It is at once our glory and our shame. It is the cause of our commerce, of our navy, of our military triumphs, of our enormous wealth, and our marvellous inventions; and it is the cause of our factions and animosities, of our squalid pauperism, and the worse than heathen degradation of our population. This spirit has burst forth with such a fearful wide-spreading influence that men begin to look aghast, and wonder what it will lead to. Poets have sung of such a time; the Word of God has warned us against it; statesmen are meditating upon it; the press is thundering against it; and very late--alas! too late!-the pulpit is giving utterance to the wise, loving counsels of One who said, A mans life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesses. Now, before I proceed to place before you the oppression which prevails, and the serious consequences which are resulting from it, let me ask, however this question may affect yourself, whether you would wish such a state of things to go on unchecked and unrebuked? Would you wish the fever of speculation, of competition, to increase? Would you wish the spirit of dissatisfaction amongst the working classes to strengthen? There can be no question that whilst many schemes of Christian benevolence and piety have been started and carried out, having reference to other lands, there has prevailed amongst ourselves a wretchedness and depth of suffering which ought long ago to have been investigated and relieved. This misery has been unheeded, not because other objects have enlisted sympathy and received attention--for that would be a foul libel upon that charity which never faileth, and can alike stretch forth its arms to succour the African slave and bend down to whisper comfort and advice to the miserable at home--but there has grown up so silently and gradually a monster evil, that even the victims themselves have been slow to discern its character, and slower still to suggest a remedy. The human frame is limited in its power of enduring fatigue; and when we consider that there are thousands who are employed in constant labour for more than twelve hours, often, too, in an unwholesome atmosphere and in a constrained position, you will be prepared for the statement, made upon medical testimony, that impaired, exhausted frames, and often an untimely death, are the fruits of this system. Oh! think, I pray, of these bitter wrongs; think of the agony of spirit, the long-protracted hopeless effort, the attenuated frame, the hollow cheek, the chilled eye, the tottering limbs, the constant heart weight, the cheerless room, the sleepless night, the voiceless, gnawing feeling of despair; yes, think of this occurring in London, with its churches, and Houses of Parliament, and Exeter Hall meetings, and greetings to Crimean heroes, and running to help some sturdy vagabond beggar, and then remember, with shame and confusion of face, that it has been written, Ye shall not therefore oppress one another; but thou shalt fear thy God: for I am the Lord your God.
II. It would not be of any use if we were to content ourselves with sighing over all these miseries, instead of inquiring what steps may be taken to alleviate and redress them. I have, therefore, drawn your attention to that painful subject in the hope of inducing you to sympathise with the efforts which are now made, especially by the Early Closing Association, to ameliorate the condition of the working classes. It is very satisfactory, then, and encouraging to feel, that the interests of the employer and the employed are in this respect identical; for it is evident that it cannot be for the advantage of the employer that, the health, and energy, and spirit, and moral principle of those he employs should be undermined. The manufacturer would soon suffer if the quality of his raw material became deteriorated; and if the stamina of Englands working men became weakened, her producing power would necessarily become less. Now it is encouraging to find that the employers of labour are themselves becoming more alive to the necessity of something being done. I could easily multiply instances of employers who are alive to the duty as well as advantage of taking steps to improve the condition of the employed. And what are these steps? The closing earlier every day, the payment of wages on Thursday or Friday, or, at all events, at an early hour on Saturday, and the Saturday half-holiday. Are these inconsistent with the interests of employers? Far from it. We have ample testimony to prove that the labourers so relieved will apply themselves with increased alacrity to their work, animated with gratitude to their employers, and stimulated by a new-found hope. Then will the English home resume its cheerfulness; then will the husband and father taste the delights which purify and soften, and then, too, will the Sabbath dawn on many who will spring forth to perform its hallowed duties, to feel its soothing influence, and to worship in the courts of Him who hath said--Ye shall not oppress one another; but thou shalt fear thy God: for I am the Lord your God. (C. F. S. Money, M. A.)
Laws of trade-wages
It is said that John Wanamaker, when a girl told him that she could not possibly live on the three and a half dollars a week that he offered her, replied: I know it, but the fact is that I am overrun with applications from girls, daughters of mechanics, tradesmen, &c., who have their homes already, and use their wages merely for dress, and they set the scale. The story of the employer who coolly told a girl who came with the same complaint: Most of our girls have gentlemen friends who provide for them; you had better do the same, has been not only widely told, but widely believed. A gentleman went to a wealthy importer on Broadway to ask for a situation for a friend, and received the reply: He had better not come here. The fact is, all our men are underpaid, but we can get all we want at present wages. Why should we pay any more? It is notorious that an immense amount of the piecework done by women for the great stores and manufactories is done by those who merely wish to provide themselves with some additional comforts. So instances innumerable might be given of the fact that the wage-earners suffer most from the competition of those who are, at least in a measure, independent. That this is wrong and unjust will be acknowledged at once by all right-minded people. The remedy, however, is not so easily recognised. As a rule, it has been supposed to lie with the employed themselves. It is said that these others have no right to work at such low terms. Undoubtedly, if all were unselfish, there would result much alleviation of the difficulty. There is, however, another phase of the case to which we would call attention, and that is the responsibility of the employer. How far is it right for a man to accept of service for which he does not pay a fair price--i.e., a price such that the one who receives it can live upon it fairly and comfortably? There are, of course, limitations. No iron rule can be laid down. Inexperience cannot claim the same as experience, extravagance should not lay down the law for economy. Yet, after all, every employer knows perfectly well whether or not he is paying what are called living wages. It is much the fashion to decry the Mosaic laws as belonging to a period and state of society entirely foreign to modern needs. No one, however, who carefully studies those laws can fail to recognise the fact that they touch very closely upon the demands that we hear on every side for a more equal distribution of property, a more just relation between employer and employed. The German Empire has already endorsed the same principle in stating clearly the obligation of the community to provide for its individual members. The Occident is not the Orient. Anglo-Saxons are not Semites; but the fundamental law that one man shall not oppress another, by taking advantage of his necessities is just as true now and here as it was in the desert of Arabia many centuries ago. (Hom. Review.)
What shall we eat the seventh year?--
I. Let us first listen to the question. What shall we eat the seventh year? Now this was a question of mere nature. Grace had nothing to do with it. It is man trusting in his own native strength, man who judges all things by his own reason, man who goes no further in his belief than what he can see and what he can understand. Human nature can understand ploughing and reaping. Nature can comprehend scattering the seed. Nature can believe in a self-dependent life, but nature cannot understand renouncing all human activity and living absolutely on Jehovahs blessing, and, therefore, in a spirit of querulous unbelief, it asks, But what shall we eat? Asking this question is virtually to arraign God at the bar of Reason, and say, It is all very well to tell us that we are not to plough, and not to gather, and not to reap; but what shall we eat? We shall starve if we are only to feed on what Thou givest us. If we do this thing we shall have empty barns, and empty barns will mean empty mouths, and empty mouths will mean national ruin and death. Thus blinded nature always argues, and will not trust for more than it can see. A plough that can be beheld is valued far before a God that can only be believed. Now is not this a question continually being asked in the present day? Is it not being put by some here this morning? There is one yonder asking it in this wise: If I do all that God tells me, how shall I get on in life or make my way? If I conduct my business according to high Christian principles, if I give absolute and complete obedience to all the commands of Scripture, if I keep my fingers clean of those things that defile the worlds hands, and if I maintain my integrity, and refuse to stoop to all the petty little meannesses that I find common in the business of the world, well, then, what shall I eat? May I not as well put up the shutters at once? This very matter was brought before me only yesterday by a professing Christian. Said he, Sir, it is all very well for you to talk as you do, and right you should, but if we dont do these little things, our children will have to suffer for it. We are living in the world, and we have to do in a measure as the world does, for if we dont, what shall we eat? Thus unbelief steps in, and says, Perfect obedience to God means starvation. Whilst on the other hand faith replies, Perfect obedience means a feast on blessing. Faith cares not from whence the supply may come; faith troubles not about probable results; it obeys Gods commands, asks no questions, and raises no objections. Let us not, however, be too hard on these persons, for this question is often asked more in a spirit of anxiety than a disposition to cavil. A timid believer, with no thought of limiting the Holy One of Israel, may put the question in some such form as this: Well, sir, it is all very true what you say, and God forbid I should doubt His providence, but supposing I should be sick during this year--supposing I should have a long, weary illness, that keeps me from work for weeks! What should I do? Facts are stubborn things, and if I cannot earn a penny, how am I to purchase anything for the family? If there is to be a long cessation from employment, what shall we eat? Or, it may be, there are some already in this position, who are saying, It is easy, sir, for you to stand up on that platform and talk, but you would alter your language if you were in my place. Look! When I scan the horizon, I cannot see one harvest-field that I am likely to reap this year. If I go to all my barns I find them empty; if I go to my trees I find them stripped. Humanly speaking, I can see no hope of anything but hardship and privation, and the question of my heart this morning is, What shall we eat this year? and though I have asked it a hundred times, I seem no nearer the solution of the problem. Well, dear friend, you have my hearts truest sympathy, and I would that I could help you, and all like you, but yet I must say, Trust in God and do the right. I will command My blessing, is Gods answer to your question of anxiety. Sometimes, however, the question is asked more from curiosity than even anxiety. It is in such spirit that we ask the question this morning, What shall we eat? It is not a question whether God will give us food or not; we know He will; but we should like to know what manner of food it is He will put into our mouths this seventh year. Will it be the same as last year or better? Will there be a new flavour about it, or a repetition of the old savour? Shall it be fruit from a new tree, or new fruit from an old tree? What shall be our kind of experience during this year? Shall we, during its months, eat of the fruit of Canaan, or shall we be satisfied with the manna of the wilderness?
II. Well, we will try now to give you the answer as you have it in the text. We shall live on the blessing of our God. Israel had to learn one truth, and that one truth was this--that Gods blessing was worth more than all their own efforts; that if God spake a word of commanding blessing, it was worth more to them than all their ploughs and agricultural labour. Beloved, is not this true for you? Have not you in three ways to learn the lesson that the Lord will provide? It will be true this year in your life as far as temporal matters are concerned. It is not the expenditure of brain power, or the employment of arm muscle that will win you your bread; it is the blessing of God resting on you. There is nought apart from that; and we pray that you may acknowledge the precious truth, and at the end of this year say, concerning your gettings, It is because Jehovah has commanded His blessing. But there is a higher life you and I have to live, and that is soul life. How will that be maintained this year? I answer--By the blessing of God. No man has power to keep the fire within his own soul aglow; no man has might sufficient to keep his own faith from staggering; no one has self-contained ability to keep his own heart from wandering. And how true will it be in reference to us as a Church! The preacher this year must look to God for his texts. The Lord will provide must be recognised even in that. It is not the service, it is the blessing on the service. It is not the word, it is the blessing on the word. It is the dew that is on the manna that makes it so refreshing; it is Jehovahs benediction that alone satisfies; and though we may drive our own plough, and though we may try and scatter the seed broadcast on every hand, yet if you obtain one spiritual feast this year, the speaker steps back and says it is not of him. If God makes him a means of blessing unto one soul, it is neither he nor his sermon, it is the Lords commanded blessing that has refreshed the heart. Had we time, we might show you how this applies to everything in connection with the Church. Our schools will prosper just as Heavens blessing is their portion. There is one other thought which arises naturally out of the subject; it is this, that the answer to the question, What shall we eat the seventh year is Exactly the same as you had on the sixth year, because you will observe, if you look at the context, that God gave them a double blessing on the sixth year, so that the trees yielded twice their wont--treble rather--and the fields a threefold harvest. So that on the seventh and eighth years they had no new kind of fruit to that they had on the sixth. It was the same fruit, and of the same flavour. (A. G. Brown.)
Man need not despair of--Providence
See, then, and sink it into your heart soundly, what God is able to do for you touching all worldly necessaries, if you will obey Him and trust in Him. Such a promise in Exodus He made also, to keep all things in safety for them at home, while they were at Jerusalem serving Him according to this law. And what loss had the shepherds when they left their flocks in the fields and went to the child Jesus, according as the angel had told them? Let this place again strengthen your faith against all objections of flesh and blood, made from natural reasons and causes as they seem to men. For if the Lord be able, even then when the earth is weakest, having been worn out with continual tillage, five years together, to make the sixth year bring forth a triple blessing, enough for that year, for the seventh year, and for the eighth year, till harvest were ready; what unseasonable weather, what barrenness of land, what this, what that, shall make a man despair of Gods providence for things needful? Leave God to Himself, and to His almighty power: do you your duty, fear Him, love Him, serve Him, obey Him with a true heart, call upon your children and servants to do the like, and you shall see the lovingkindness of the Lord to your comfort. These things shall be cast upon you, and He that knoweth your charge, and gave you that charge, will never fail you nor them of what is fit. You see here what He can do, and let it profit you. I will tell you the feeling of my heart further in this point, and thus I reason: Can God be thus strong when the land is weak, and will He be thus strong to the comfort of His servants? Why, then, cannot He be, or why will He not be, strong in my weakness, in your weakness, and in every man and womans weakness that believe in Him? Away, Fear, away, I may not hearken unto thee! when I am weakest He will be strongest. For His power is best seen in weakness, and I will put my whole trust and confidence in Him, drawing an argument with David from my weakness to move Him, and not to discomfort me. Heal me, O Lord, for I am weak. My weakness shall drive me unto Thee, not from Thee, and I will tarry Thy good leisure. Lord strengthen me, Lord comfort me, and under the covering of Thy wings let me be safe from all temptations displeasing Thee and hurting me! (Bp. Babington.)
Practical reliance upon God
A faithful and zealous Methodist minister in North Carolina writes to a friend in Calcutta: There are two cotton factories here, and my charge consists chiefly of the proprietors, operatives, and others connected with the factories. The proprietors are Christians and Methodists, and stand ready to do what they can for the cause of Christ. The leading man takes a lively interest in our Church work, and teaches a large class of little boys in our Sabbath School, although weighed down by the cares of an immense business all the week. When the new factory was built, the building, with all its machinery, was solemnly dedicated, by a public religious service, to be used for the glory of God. Two years ago a great revival was in progress here. Mr.--stopped the factory that all hands might attend the meetings. He received an urgent order from New York for goods. He replied that the goods could not be furnished. They telegraphed from New York that they must have the goods. Then the wires flashed back the message: The Lord is at work; the factories will not run this week. Would that we had more such men! Christ requires that money as well as intellect and heart, be consecrated to Him. The silver is Mine, and the gold is Mine, saith the Lord of hosts. Surely the Lord would say to that millowner, as He said to the Canaanitish woman, Great is thy faith! (Indian Witness.)
The land is Mine; for ye are strangers and sojourners with Me.--
The Hebrew system of land tenure
I. The first and fundamental principle of the land system prescribed to the chosen people who were to inhabit this typical land was, that the land belonged to Jehovah, and was to be held by the people immediately of and under him, as their sovereign and paramount superior and lord.
II. Flowing naturally--indeed, one might say logically--from the principle of the Divine ownership of the soil, and its possession by the Israelites as the Lords chosen people, is the next feature of the Israelitish land system--viz., The equal partition of the land among the whole families constituting the nation (see Num_26:1-65.). It is to be noticed that, in the actual division of the land, each tribe was to receive its allotment in proportion to its numerical extent, distinct from the others; and that the tribal allotment was thereafter to be apportioned among the whole families composing the tribe, so that each should have its own definite share. Besides, it was subsequently provided that an allotment in the territory of one tribe should never become the possession of any member of a different tribe, so that heiresses or heiress-portioners, could marry only in the family of the tribe of their father. These subsidiary enactments, doubtless, had reference specially to the peculiar character and aims of the Israelitish constitution. They tended to preserve and perpetuate family and tribal traditions and sentiments; they facilitated the keeping of accurate genealogical records; they provided a basis for the practical operation of the law of jubilee; they promoted the self-government of the people by the graduated judicatories of the family and the tribe; and they, at the same time, welded the people into one compact commonwealth, by the bonds of an equal interest in the soil. It is, of course, impossible here even to glance at the much-discussed question of the relative merits of an aristocratic or a peasant proprietory, of large or small landowners, of extensive or limited farms. But it is interesting to notice that, in the Israelitish land legislation, we have precisely and practically that system of peasant proprietory which we find existing and flourishing in many countries, and to which not a few of those who have given the most independent and thoughtful and earnest attention to the matter, look for the solution of the difficulties which are gathering around the subject in our own land.
III. The next feature of the Israelitish land system is, that the return to be made by the people for their lands was precisely the same as that which Joseph fixed to be paid by the Egyptian crown tenantry--viz., One-fifth of the gross annual produce. In the case of the Israelites, however, this fifth was divided into two-tenths, and its payment was prescribed in a form breathing the spirit rather of grateful religious acknowledgment than of strict legal exaction.
IV. The next characteristic of the Israelitish land system is, that the land thus allotted to the people, and held by them as the vassals of the Lord, was inalienable. The land shall not be sold for ever, for the land is Mine, saith the Lord. It was clearly requisite, for the maintenance of the essential characteristics of the Israelitish constitution, and for the realisation of the national destiny, that the land should be inalienable. A system which permitted of the aggregation, more or less rapidly, of the land of the country into the hands of the few; and of the consequent detachment, more or less extensively, of the population from the soil, would have been fatal to the preservation of the national existence and to the realisation of the national destiny. The law distinctly and absolutely forbade the sale or alienation of the land, and fortified the prohibition by the enactments against usury or interest. The successive landholders had, therefore, in reality, only a different interest in it; and it was equitable and conceivably beneficial that they should possess the power of disposing of this limited interest. Innocent misfortune might compel, or other causes might induce, them to part with it. And this the law of jubilee enabled them to do. By that law the landholder was enabled to dispose of the usufruct--the right to the fruits--of the land for a period not exceeding, at its ultimate possible limit, the interval between the age of twenty, when a male Israelite attained full majority, and seventy, the estimated end of a normal human life. All that the landholder was empowered to dispose of was his own liferent interest. But neither the seller nor the purchaser knew what would be the certain duration of that interest; and in these days actuarial tables, exhibiting the average expectation of human life, did not exist. The law of jubilee therefore stepped in and converted each liferent interest into an interest terminating at the next jubilee; and the purchaser paid for it a price corresponding to the number of years intervening between the sale and the jubilee, under deduction of the sabbatic or fallow years. But the disposal even of this limited interest in the soil was not an absolute or irredeemable one. The power to sell it at all was a concession to human frailty or necessity. It was not to be presumed that a true-hearted Israelite would alienate his interest in the soil of the covenanted land except under the severe pressure of adverse circumstances. Indeed, so strong do we find this attachment to the soil that even in the troublous times of Ahab, Naboth repels the overtures of the king for his land with the exclamation, The Lord forbid it me that I should give the inheritance of my fathers unto thee (1Ki_21:3). And so, to afford an opportunity for the redemption of the land, if the circumstances of the seller should improve, or a kinsman be willing to take his place, the law of jubilee provided that the seller or his kinsman should at any time be entitled to redeem the liferent by paying to the purchaser the value of the usufruct for the period still to elapse between the redemption and the jubilee, calculated on the basis of the original price. It is only to be noticed further that the prohibition to alienate did not extend to dwelling-houses in walled cities. As these were not in any way connected with the agricultural occupancy of the land they might be sold in perpetuity; but to prevent coercion, or thoughtless disposal, or hardship from other causes, the law provided a species of annus deliberandi, so that the house could be redeemed at the stipulated price at any time before the expiry of a year from the day of sale, after which it became irredeemable. The law of jubilee had, of course, a national as well as an individual purpose, a religious as well as a secular significance. It was part of that great system of types which ran through the whole of Mosaism. It made provision for the periodical removal or modification of the inequalities which sprang up among the people in the course of years. It prevented families being permanently impoverished through the incapacity, the profligacy, or the misfortune of an individual member. It periodically restored all diverted lands to their true owners, freed of all encumbrances and trammels. It was a national rejuvenescence, a periodical restoration and renewal of the original constitution of the commonwealth, and an infusion of fresh life and spirit into the whole community!
V. The only other portion of the Israelitish land system that remains to be noticed is the law of succession. The Israelitish law of inheritance is expressed in Num_27:8-11. The Mosaic law makes no provision regarding the testamentary disposal of property; and the idea of such a power is excluded both by its fundamental principle, to which we have adverted, and by the system of heritable succession which it expressly prescribes. The principle that the land was the Lords and that the successive generations of Israelites were merely strangers temporarily sojourning upon it, necessarily excluded the power of posthumous settlement no less than that of alienation during life. (R. Reid.)
Sojourners with God
The institution of the jubilee year had more than one purpose. As a social arrangement it tended to prevent extremes of wealth and poverty. As a ceremonial institution it was the completion of the law of the sabbath. It was appointed to enforce, and to make the whole fabric of the national wealth rest upon, this thought contained in the text. The land was not theirs to sell--they had only a beneficial occupation. They were only like a band of wanderers settling for a while, by permission of the Owner, on His estate.
I. Here is the lesson of gods proprietorship and our stewardship. The land is Mine.
1. This thought should nurture thankfulness. The darkest night is filled with light, and the loneliest place blazes with angel faces, and the stoniest pillow is soft to him who sees everywhere the ladder that knits earth with heaven, and to whom all his blessings are as the messengers that descend it on errands of mercy and lead up the heart to the God from whom they come.
2. This thought should bring submission. We should not murmur, however we may regret, if the Landowner takes back a bit of the land which He has let us occupy. He does not take it away for His advantage, but for our profit--that we may be driven to claim a better inheritance in Himself than we can find even in the best of His gifts.
3. This thought should produce a sense of responsibility in the use of all we have.
II. Here is the lesson of the transiency of our stay on earth. Ye are strangers and sojourners.
1. The contrast between the external world and our stay in it
2. The constant change and progression of life.
3. The true and only permanent home. Use the transient as preparation for the eternal.
III. Here is the lesson of trust. With Me. We have companionship even when most solitary. Whoever goes, God abides. (Homilist.)
Land laws among other nations
Some knowledge of our ordinance reached heathen authors; thus Diodor of Sicily writes: Moses divided the land by lot, giving equal portions to the private citizens, but larger ones to the priests; and he forbade the former to sell their lands, lest some greedily buy up many allotments, eject the less prosperous, and thus cause a decrease of the population. Among other ancient nations we find some arrangements slightly analogous to the Biblical laws. Lycurgus, after having distributed the land essentially in equal parts, made it infamous for any one either to buy anothers possession or to sell his own; yet by permitting the citizens to give their property away or to bequeath it, he paved the way for that which eventually happened that some had far too much, others too little, by which means the land came into few hands. Solon enacted a law restraining persons from acquiring land beyond a given limit. Plato believed that no one ought to possess more than four times as much as the lowest income or as a single lot. The Locrians were forbidden to sell their ancient patrimony or their original lots of land unless notoriously compelled by distress; and in some other countries it was unlawful to sell such lands on any account. The Dalmatae made a partition of their land every eighth year. With a view of equalising the property of the citizens Phaleas of Chalcedon ordained that the rich should give marriage portions, but never receive any, while the poor should always receive but never give them. Yet even these and similar measures, imperfect and desultory compared with the complete and well-balanced law of the Pentateuch, were found impracticable, and for the most part remained a dead letter. Aristotle thus comments on equality of property: It is possible that an equality of goods is established, and yet that this may be either too great, when it leads to a luxurious living, or too little when it obliges the people to live hard. Hence it is evident that the legislator must aim at a proper medium or a moderate sufficiency for all. And yet it is even of more consequence that the citizens should entertain a similarity of feelings than an equality of property; but this can only be if they are properly educated under the direction of the laws. Would the great philosopher, had he known the legislation of the Pentateach, have found in it the realisation of his ideal? He certainly describes with precision its main features. (M. M. Kalisch, Ph. D.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Expositor's Bible 1887 · Public Domain On vv1, 8, 13, 29, 39 THE system of annually recurring sabbatic times, as given…
THE SABBATIC YEAR AND THE JUBILEE
Lev_25:1-55
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THE system of annually recurring sabbatic times, as given in chapter 23, culminated in the sabbatic seventh month. But this remarkable system of sabbatisms extended still further, and besides the sacred seventh day, the seventh week, and seventh month, included also a sabbatic seventh year; and beyond that, as the, ultimate expression of the sabbatic idea, following the seventh seven of years, came the hallowed fiftieth year, known as the jubilee. And the law concerning these two last-named periods is recorded in this twenty-fifth chapter of Leviticus.
First (Lev_25:1-5), is given the ordinance of the sabbatic seventh year, in the following words: "When ye come into the land which I give you, then shall the land keep a sabbath unto the Lord. Six years thou shalt sow thy field, and six years thou shalt prune thy vineyard, and gather in the fruits thereof; but in the seventh year shall be a sabbath of solemn rest for the land, a sabbath unto the Lord: thou shalt neither sow thy field, nor prune thy vineyard. That which groweth of itself of thy harvest thou shalt not reap, and the grapes of thy undressed vine thou shalt not gather: it shall be a year of solemn rest for the land."
This sacred year is thus here described as a sabbath for the land unto the Lord, -a sabbath shabbathon; that is, a sabbath in a special and eminent sense. No public religious gatherings were ordered, however, neither was labour of every kind prohibited. It was strictly a year of rest for the land, and for the people in so far as this was involved in that fact. There was to be no sowing or reaping, even of what might grow of itself; no pruning of vineyard or fruit trees, nor gathering of their fruit. These regulations thus involved the total suspension of agricultural labour for this entire period.
It was further ordered (Lev_25:6-7) that during this year the spontaneous produce of the land should be equally free to all, both man and beast:
"The sabbath of the land shall be for food for you; for thee, and for thy servant and for thy maid, and for thy hired servant and for thy stranger that sojourn with thee; and for thy cattle, and for the beasts that are in thy land, shall all the increase thereof be for food."
That this cannot be regarded as merely a regulation of a communistic character, designed simply to affirm the absolute equality of all men in right to the product of the soil, is evident from the fact that the beasts also are included in the terms of the law. The object was quite different, as we shall shortly see.
That it should be regarded as possible for a whole people thus to live off the spontaneous produce of self-sowed grain may seem incredible to us who dwell in less propitious lands; and yet travellers tell us that in the Palestine of today, with its rich soil and kindly climate, the various food grains continuously propagate themselves without cultivation; and that in Albania, also, two and three successive harvests are sometimes reaped as the result of one sowing. So, even apart from the special blessing from the Lord promised to them if they would obey this command, the supply of at least the necessities of life was possible from the spontaneous product of the sabbath of the land. Though less than usual, it might easily be sufficient. Deu_15:1-11, it is ordered also that the seventh year should be "a year of release" to the debtor; not indeed as regards all debts, but loans only; nor, apparently, that even these should be released absolutely, but that throughout the seventh year the claim of the creditor was to be in abeyance. The regulation may naturally be regarded as consequent upon this fundamental law regarding the sabbath of the land. The income of the year being much less than usual, the debtor, presumably, might often find it difficult to pay; whence this restriction on collection of debt during this period.
The central thought of this ordinance then is this, that mans right in the soil and its product, originally granted from God, during this sabbatic year reverted to the Giver; who, again, by ordering that all exclusive rights of individuals in the produce of their estates should be suspended for this year, placed, for so long, the rich and the poor on an absolute equality as regards means of sustenance.
William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On v1 The Fear of Jubilee
The Fear of Jubilee
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Lev_25:1-7.—Then shall the land keep a Sabbath unto the Lord. For a whole year the land ceased to be the property of the owner; he might not till the soil, neither gather its spontaneous produce; God asserted His ownership by this enactment, and manifested His providential sufficiency for His people by the guarantee of plenty in the harvest preceding. The fallow land acquired new productive powers by this year of rest, as man and beast gather fresh energy by the weekly sabbath. The sabbatic law is a boon to the whole word. They who would secularise the holy day are “madmen, casting firebrands, arrows, and death.” The Heaven given day’s rest is a solace to man’s fretting life: a quiet interval amid earth’s clamour for thought of his sacred interests; and a gentle admonition of his need of that spiritual rest which burdened souls should seek in Christ Jesus.
Lev_25:8-22.—Thou shalt number seven sabbaths of years. On the great day of Atonement, the tenth day of the seventh month, the sound of trumpets proclaimed the dawn of a Jubilee year of universal restitution and redemption. Prisoners were liberated, slaves were set free, debtors were absolved, ancestral heritages were restored, the land enjoyed rest from tillage, and its produce was the common lot of all. Beautiful symbolism: of the joyous proclamation of the gospel liberty and salvation following upon the sacrifice of the Redeemer; and of man’s emancipation by Christ from the tyranny of sin and Satan, and restoration to the glad liberty of a spiritual life. The restoration of inheritances effected the sharp distinction of the tribes, keeping the families intact. It also neutralised over-reaching and land greed. God’s promise of abundance (Lev_25:22-23) to compensate for the Jubilee year’s cessation of agricultural processes carries with it still the lesson that none are losers who serve God even in the face of seeming sacrifice; for “the blessing of the Lord it maketh rich” “ ’Tis mine to obey, ′tis His to provide.” The questioning spirit of distrust (Lev_25:20) is arrested by God’s assurance of prosperity following upon obedience. We may dismiss fear if intent on duty. The path of righteousness is always safe to tread, and none that trust in the Lord shall be desolate.
Let this supernatural fact in history be pondered. A miraculous year of super-abundance was guaranteed every fiftieth year, as a provision for the Jubilee Sabbath. If it had failed, what would have ensued? Moses would have been proved a deceiver. Pretending to divine inspiration as Israel’s legislator, the Jewish religion would have received utter refutation. The pledge of Lev_25:22-23 were a supernatural attestation every fifty years—easily verified or refuted—of the reality of the true religion, and of Jehovah’s personal superintendence over the order of nature and the experiences of man.
A whole nation, age after age, acted on the command to keep Jubilee because satisfied by the preceding sign that the ordinance was indeed divine.
Lev_25:23-34.—The land shall not be sold for ever, &c. The twelve tribes held the land of Canaan of Jehovah as His tenants at will, having no right or permision to barter with the soil, which was not their’s but His. It were well if all dwellers on the earth would consider that no sure or extended tenancy can be maintained by man in this transient abode. Though it is true “that the earth hath He given to the children of men,” yet “the earth is the Lord’s”: even as He gave Canaan by lots to the tribes, yet declared “the land is Mine” (Lev_25:23). Here we have no continuing city; men can call nothing their own; the day of restitution will reverse our possessions; the hour of relinquishment hastens for us all. Death will end all occupancy here. But there is “a better and more enduring substance” for us to inherit, by faith in Christ: and he only is truly rich in Heritages who “lays up for himself treasures in Heaven.”
Lev_25:35-38.—If thy brother be waxen poor. The poor always ye have with you: and the near of kin who have been unfortunate, “fallen in decay,” claim special commiseration and leniency. What have we that we have not received? Should we not, therefore, show generosity and kindness?
Lev_25:39-55.—Not compel him to serve as a bondman. An Israelite must be treated as became his dignity, however penurious and helpless he might be, for he was God’s ransomed and chosen child, a “son of Abraham.” Full redemption came with the Jubilee, from every contract and claim. And the day of our redemption draweth nigh: when “the creature itself shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God” (Rom_8:21).
SECTIONAL HOMILIES
Topic: A SABBATH OF REST UNTO THE LAND (Lev_25:1-7)
Agriculturists still recognize the value of this law of one year’s rest in seven for the land. Violation of this regulation will exhaust the richest soil, and bring sterility. [See Addenda to chapter, Sabbath.] This law proclaimed,
I. DIVINE OWNERSHIP IN THE SOIL,
Just as the reservation of the “seventh day” as a Sabbath asserted God’s claim upon man’s time, so this law affirmed His right to the soil man occupies and utilizes.
II. MAN’S HIGHEST INTERESTS ARE NOT MATERIAL AND EARTHLY.
He is here for nobler pursuits and more solemn concerns than to dig and toil, to buy and sell and get gain. For a man’s life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth.
III. NEIGHBOURLINESS AND BENEVOLENCE SHOULD BE CULTIVATED.
A common interest in all relationships of life (Lev_25:6-7), and a helpful regard one for another would be promoted. Release from the stern occupancies of life would also awaken those social instincts and foster those healthy friendships which render intercourse cheering and elevating. Men were designed for fellowship and affection; not for exacting from each other what each can be forced to produce. Cultivate brotherliness. [See Addenda to chapter, Benevolence.]
IV. RELIANCE ON GOD, IN IMPLICIT OBEDIENCE TO HIS WILL.
To desist from effort to provide for their own maintenance would
1. Elicit their faith in the fatherly care of God
2. Summon them to a religious use of the time which God had set free from secular toils.
3. Incite them to grateful thoughts of God’s dealings with them as His people, and win them to a renewed recognition that they were “not their own,” but His, who had redeemed and still cared for them.
V. SABBATIC REST: HEAVEN’S GRACIOUS LAW FOR EARTHLY, TOILERS.
Human life becomes a toilsome drudgery, unless God interposes restraints. He would save men from grinding degradation, from absorbing labours; and give them respite and rest. Man needs the Sabbath pause, in order to realise—
That higher possibilities are opened to him by God’s grace than to be a servant of the soil on which he dwells. He may live for a “better country, even a heavenly.”
That God desires of men the devotion of fixed seasons, and leisurely hours for sacred meditation and fellowship with the skies.
Topic: THE JUBILEE YEAR: ITS FOURFOLD SIGNIFICANCE (Lev_25:8-13.)
To the Hebrew the blessings of the jubilee year were local and literal; it was a year of rest and of restitution for the land; a year of release and rejoicing to every inhabitant. Liberty was regained by the slave; possessions in the soil reverted to their owners; agricultural toils were suspended that a whole year of relaxation and repose might be enjoyed. Every home was in enjoyment of plenty, every hand ceased from weary labours, and both man and beast dwelt in quietude and peace.
Glad, indeed, was the hour when the silver trumpet tones announced the arrival of the year of rest. It was like the prelude to a joyous anthem, and that anthem was the angels’ song over Bethlehem fields—“Peace on earth, goodwill among men.”
It was a richly symbolic institute, that Year of Jubilee, whose suggestiveness finds fulfilment in three distinct directions. It points to
I. THE CHRISTIAN DISPENSATION OF GOSPEL LIBERTY AND BEST. [See Luk_4:18-21].
II. THE BELIEVER’S PRIVILEGED LIFE OF SACRED RELEASE AND JOY. [Comp. Eph_1:13-14; Heb_4:9; Heb_8:12].
III. THE MILLENNIAL AGE, OF ESTABLISHED RIGHTEOUSNESS AND PEACE. [See Isa_66:18-23; Rev_20:2-4].
IV. THE HEAVENLY STATE OF ETERNAL SECURITY AND SERENITY. [See 2Pe_3:13; Rev_14:13; Rev_21:4].
In the application of the Jubilee incidents to each of these grand fulfilments of its symbolism, the following facts stand out clearly:—
i. BOUNTY. God gave a supernatural abundance the year preceding the Jubilee, that in the enjoyment of vast supplies there should be no necessity for toil, no occasion for care—[See Lev_25:21]. And assuredly there is
1. Bounty in the provisions of the Gospel (1Ti_1:14).
2. Fulness of grace for the believer in Jesus (2Co_4:15; Tit_3:6).
3. Abundance of good to be enjoyed in the Millennial Age (Psa_72:7).
4. Limitless bliss in the Heavenly land (Psa_16:2).
ii. REST. That Sabbatic year was to be consecrated to repose; the land was to be allowed to rest; the toiler was to cease from toil. Every want was supplied without the weariness of labour. Equally true of the
1. Gospel rest which Christianity announces (Mat_11:29),
2. Believer’s rest which faith secures (Heb_4:3).
3. Millennial rest for a wearied Church (Rev_20:2-3).
4. Heavenly rest for Christ’s redeemed followers (Rev_14:13). [See Addenda to chapter, Rest].
iii. LIBERTY. All bondservants were set free the moment the Jubilee trumpet sounded (Lev_25:39-44). And assuredly, this finds verification in the
1. Liberty which Christ proclaimed to souls enslaved in sin and fear (Luk_4:18; Heb_2:15).
2. Spiritual freedom realized by faith (Rom_8:15; Joh_8:36).
3. Emancipation from thraldom which shall distinguish the Millennial reign (Isa_49:8-9).
4. Glorious liberty of the children of God in Heaven (Rom_8:21; Rev_21:24-25). [See Addenda to chapter, Liberty].
iv. RESTITUTION. If the Israelite had parted with his inheritance, its possession was restored to him in the Year of Jubilee, and that without payment (Lev_25:25-37). So
1. The redemption of Christ recovers for man all that sin had forfeited.
2. Believers in Jesus regain all the virtue, happiness, and hopes which the fall had ruined.
3. The weary and wronged world would enjoy paradisal gladness through Christ’s millennial sway.
4. Heaven will realize all which on earth had been desired, and restore all which death had desolated. [See Addenda to chapter, Possessions].
V. Let it be marked that the Jubilee, with all its blessings, was CONSQUENT UPON ATONEMENT. Not till the blood of Expiation had been shed, and the living goat had borne into the land of oblivion the sins which (ceremonially) had been transferred to it, did the silver trumpets peal forth their exultant notes, proclaiming liberty and rest, restitution and rectitude for the people. And it is because of Christ’s atonement that
1. Christianity has come to sinful man, with all its tidings of good and wealth of salvation (Joh_1:29; Eph_1:6).
2. Spiritual blessings are inherited by the believer in Jesus (Rom_5:11).
3. The Church will enjoy the Sabbatic millennial glory (Rev_19:11-14).
4. Heaven will be the eternal possession of the redeemed (Rev_8:4-7).
The cross is the source of all human good. All things are ours, because Christ has died. As the blood on the doorposts freed Israel from the plague of death in Egypt, so it is to us now and for ever the Blood of Christ which ensures all sacred good (Rev_1:5-6; Rev_5:9-10).
Topic: GLAD FACTS OF THE JUBILEE
I. GOD’S SOVEREIGN RIGHT TO THE EARTH. He determines when and whether its fields should be tilled and reaped. Man, in his pride, calls the lands his own; thinks and acts as if he were Creation’s lord. His fancy rears a throne and crowns himself the king. But this decree establishes God’s rule. We are dependant tenants of His fields. “The earth is the Lord’s, and the fulness thereof.”
II. GOD’S POWER TO PROVIDE. He wills, and crops abound. Thus through this year of rest no want is known. The marvel grows when it is considered that the Jubilee Year succeeds a Sabbath Year, in which no seeding or reaping had gone on. But God gave forth a treble harvest in each forty-eighth year. And, as the poor widow’s meal and oil, it proved an unexhausted feast. As Joseph’s well replenished store, it fed the hungry and never failed.
None can succeed without the Lord, and none shall want who truly follow Him. Faith works when God says, Work; it rests when God says, Rest; and thrives in obedience.
III. UNIVERSAL BEST ENJOINED AND ENJOYED. No hand should toil. Tillage and harvest sleeps. Repese is the one law—for man, beast, and soil. A Year long Sabbath reigns.
Emblem of soul rest in Christ.
IV. ATONEMENT USHERS IN THIS CONSECRATED YEAR. When the scapegoat has borne sins out of sight, when the High Priest has sprinkled the mercy-seat, this holy season begins. A light here shines upon the path which leads to rest—through penitence for sin, and reliance on the Victim.
V. THE TRUMPET SOUNDS THROUGHOUT THE LAND. In every place, by every year, the long-expected notes are heard. They tell no doubtful tale. “Glad tidings” are yours to proclaim, ye ministers of Christ. O, see that your lips publish rest in Christ. “Comfort ye, comfort ye, my people, saith your God.”
VI. CAUSES FOR ISRAEL’S DELIGHT. The downcast debtor was now free. The bondman cast away his yoke. All forfeited estates returned. The oppressor might no more oppress. No servant trembled at his stern lord’s voice. The former owner claimed his father’s fields. The ancient landmarks were rebuilt, and liberty resumed its sway. In every house and heart there was consciousness of relief. Sorrow and mourning fled away. So there is all-deliverance in Christ.
1. We are poor debtors. Our debts exceed the moments of our lives; But Justice must have reckoning. There is no trifling with God. But hark! the Jubilee is come! Christ avails to pay. His ransomed ones are all free. No debt remains.
2. The Jubilee relaxes the ties of bondage. Each soul, apart from Christ, is a poor slave. Tyrants are many, and their yoke is hard. But Christ liberates from fetters (Joh_8:36).
(a) Satan enchains the soul. But Jesus vanquishes this despot, and the Jubilee sets free from Satan’s power.
(b) Sin rules the captive race of men. Till expelled by Christ, it must reign. But a new passion gains the throne when Christ comes in, and shews His dying love, His blood to attone.
(c) This world is a foul tyrant. Its smiles allure, its frowns deter, its fashions force compliance, its laws exact submission: it drives its millions to a slavish toil. But the grace of Christ emancipates from the world’s enthralling snares.
(d) Death, too, is a fearful tyrant. Its chilly features terrify. The stoutest quails. None can relieve but Christ.
3. The Jubilee restores inheritance. Sin drove man from a fair abode; forced him to a wilderness of desolation. God’s smile was lost; the blessing of communion ceased. But Christ re-instates with more than Eden heritage. He places us in a land of peace, where God is our joy for ever. More is found than was lost by sin.
Christ came, lived, died, reigns, to grant this Jubilee to souls. Hear His own words (Luk_4:18-19). He becomes His people’s life, their liberty, their ransom, their peace, their joy, their hope, their glory. The trustful soul reposes in a jubilee of joy. (Arranged from Dean Law’s “Christ is All”).
Topic: THE YEAR OF JUBILEE (Lev_25:8-14.)
This was the last and most remarkable of the Hebrew festivals. It bears unmistakable marks of Divine origin, of wise and benevolent design. The trumpet of jubilee sounded on the tenth day of Tisri, immediately after the great atonement had been made by the High Priest, and the sound of it went forth throughout the whole land. Every valley and mountain resounded with the soul-stirring notes, and the people knew that the acceptable year of the Lord had come. The Jubilee taught—(a) The dependence of Israel upon the bounty of Heaven. (b) The duty of mutual kindness, forbearance, and forgiveness. (c) The unique position Israel occupied among the nations. (d) The unity of their race. By its advent was proclaimed—
I. REST FROM MANUAL LABOUR.
The ordinary law with respect to physical subsistence was, “In the sweat of thy brow thou shalt eat bread,” but in the eighth and fiftieth years the law was suspended, for no agricultural work of any kind was to be performed, the land was to lie fallow, and have perfect rest. Labour suspended for such a protracted period would restore the wasted energies of man, and secure renewed vitality to the soil. Such an arrest of the tide of busy life would suggest to the Hebrews the necessity of seeking the meat that endureth to everlasting life.
II. DELIVERANCE FROM CIVIL BONDAGE.
Liberty was to be proclaimed throughout the land, every slave was to be set free. In exceptional cases, where full freedom was not given, the condition of the most abject was ameliorated. Thus the common brotherhood of man was emphatically proclaimed, during the period of the jubilee all were on a level. This was an invaluable boon to men, and gave the dependent and downtrodden a fair and new start in secular life.
III. FORGIVENESS OF DEBTS.
Pecuniary liabilities that had been contracted in the transaction of business, and which debtors were unable to discharge, were remitted. No usury or increase was to be taken from the poor, the millstone of debt was to be removed from their necks. Thus the inequalities of social and secular life were readjusted, and society started afresh upon a reformed and revived basis.
IV. RESTITUTION OF LOST PROPERTY.
Of course, there would necessarily be inequalities in the social circumstances of the people; some would accumulate property that others would lose through misfortune or negligence, and wide gaps would be thus created between classes of the community. Those gaps would be filled up at the Jubilee, where all wicked or undue accumulation of possessions would be rectified, and a period put to boundless ambition and lawless aggression. Selfishness and greed would thus be cut up root and branch, and all men taught to be reasonable in their aims and claims.
V. REJOICING FOR THE PEOPLE.
The sounding of the trumpet, immediately upon the atonement being made, would inform the people that an acceptable offering had been presented for their sins; and that all the blessings promised in connection with the Jubilee might be enjoyed. A full tide of gladness would flow through the land, for the great national holiday had begun, and innumerable and inestimable blessings were available for all. The trumpet sound would set the joy bells in every devout Hebrew heart ringing with gladsome melody.
VI. EXEMPTION FROM CARE.
During the previous year the horn of plenty, with twofold richness, was poured into the nation’s lap, and as the people beheld the super-abundant stores provided in anticipation of their manifold wants, they would be relieved from care and anxiety while the land had the long rest. They would not need to watch the clouds, their well-filled barns and overflowing presses would calm all their anxieties and fears. In these arrangements would be seen the kind thoughtfulness of Israel’s gracious Father, the sovereignty of their eternal King.
VII. HOMECOMING OF FAMILIES.
However scattered through adverse circumstances from the old homestead, or exiled through debt, all could now return, domestic devotion and social love could now be completely restored. All this would tend to socialize and humanize the people, and foster home and national piety.
VIII. REGENERATION OF THE NATION.
Every Jubilee year the people started afresh with a renewed consciousness of the presence of the Lord in their midst, and of their intimate relationship to Him. He brought them out of Egypt, gave them the goodly fertile land; and every Jubilee they were reminded that the land was His, that it was not to be impoverished and exhausted, that the nation was not to decay or become disintegrated. The divinely appointed conditions upon which the people took possession of the land were restored, and they looked up to Jehovah as their merciful and bountiful Benefactor.
Regarding the year of Jubilee as a type of the gospel age which Christ came to proclaim, and of the latter day glory such reflections as these are suggested:—The gospel brings rest of heart for all who hear and obey its joyful sound. Deliverance from bondage of Satan, sin, and self. Recovery of our lost inheritance. Forgiveness of the debt we owe to God. Rejoicing because of good news and glad tidings of reconciliation and peace. Exemption from care about guilt of past, events of present, revelations of the future. Complete restoration to God.
It is man’s highest honour and joy to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord. The day shall come when a weary world and longing Church shall be fully blest in enjoyment a Jubilee universal and perpetual.—F. W. B.
Topic: IMPORTANT PRINCIPLES CONTAINED IN THE JUBILEE REGULATIONS (Lev_25:8-28)
Not till God uttered His voice in Christ could men understand the Jewish institutions. We who have heard the voice of Christ and His apostles have come plainly to see that “the acceptable year of the Lord,” and “the times for the restitution of all things”—by which terms, and others, the year of Jubilee was described—have their fulfilment in the Gospel.
(1). The Jubilee began on the Day of Atonement, announced by trumpet blasts Following upon the expiatory services of the day, the gladness occasioned by the “joyful sound” was in accord with the truths symbolized in those expiatory services.
(2). The Jubilee was marked by a complete suspension of agricultural labour. Fear was quieted by God’s promise (Lev_25:21). God’s blessing upon the obedient is better than the sowing of the disobedient.
(3). The spontaneous fruits that grew during the suspension of agricultural operations were open to all. No man had the right to appropriate them. Thus the common dependence of all classes upon God’s bounty, and His equal regard for all was declared.
(4). The Jubilee restored to men their lost liberties (Lev_25:10). Every Hebrew whom poverty, or misfortune, or misconduct had deprived of freedom, regained all the rights and privileges of a free man.
(5). It brought back to their original or hereditary owners the family estates which had been alienated from them (Lev_25:10). Thus the consolation of misfortune, or the joy of old age, might be that one recovered at the Jubilee the home of his childhood from which he had been driven by sore stress of poverty.
Macaulay tells how Warren Hastings, “when under a tropical sun he ruled fifty millions of Asiatics,” was haunted with the wish to recover the ancestral manor of Daylesford. “He would be Hastings of Daylesford.” This purpose, formed in infancy and poverty, was steadfastly cherished. “And when his long public life, so chequered with good and evil, with glory and obloquy, had at length closed for ever, it was to Daylesford that he retired to die.”
The Jubilee recalled to the remembrance of the nation the fact that the land was God’s, and they but “strangers and sojourners” therein (Lev_25:23); and that institution gave back, as with the hand of God, to every man from whom it had been alienated the inheritance of his fathers. By the two great blessings it gave him—the recovery of his freedom and of his family inheritance—every one was given a new start in life, and the nation as a whole made a fresh beginning on an equal footing, as if they entered anew the promised land, and experienced afresh in all their fulness the privilege of the original covenant of grace.
Important principles, in their germs, were contained in this institution:—
I. MAN’S NEED OF OCCASIONAL REST FROM TOIL.
By the emphasis given to rest, God hallowed it as being a duty and a privilege. Man was not to give himself to a ceaseless course of grinding toil, or to unrelaxing endeavours to keep up riches. Such confinement to labour is deadening to the best faculties of the soul. It destroys the elasticity of the heart and the sweetness of the spirit.
Christianity repeats the old lesson. Mary pausing from her work to listen to Jesus is a better model than Martha ceaselessly toiling. “Come ye apart and est awhile.”
II. ALL MEN ARE ENTITLED TO A SHARE OF GOD’S BOUNTY.
What grew in the fields in the Jubilee year was God’s harvest, free to all. It as to be distributed, like other pure bounties of His hand, the rain and sunshine, all alike. This happened every Sabbatic year as well as in the Jubilee. It asserted that man’s share in producing any harvests is very small, that God is its chief agent, and therefore that it rightly belongs in great part to Him, and ought to be largely employed for the general weal.
Christianity endorses it. The early believers “had all things common.” christian charity urges that we contribute to the happiness of the community.
III. THE WELFARE OF SOCIETY IS IMPERILLED BY THE ACQUISITION OF LANDED ESTATES.
The operation of the Jubilee was to prevent the accumulation of land in the hands of a few. The public good demanded its general division among the people. Great Britain may be said to be suffering because of the absence of such a rule. Ireland is rocking as with an earthquake because the land is held in the grasp of a few rich landowners, while the mass of the people, stripped of their ancestral fields, are sunken in extreme poverty. Because of a similar evil the French Revolution overturned the government of France.
The doctrines of Communism find no support in the reasonings of a wise statesmanship, or in the teachings of Christianity. But Christianity suggests a remedy for the evil. Let property be held and administered on Christian principles: “Be rich in good works, ready to distribute, willing to communicate.”
IV. THE DIGNITY OF MAN VIEWED AS A RANSOMED CHILD OF GOD.
The Jubilee proclaimed the equality of men in the sight of Jehovah, and forbade their tyrannizing over or holding another in slavery. The ground of the prohibition was the same as that which forbade the absolute sale of land—God’s ownership of them. “They are My servants,” etc. (Lev_25:42). The Jubilee made the slave a freeman, and the poor man a property owner.
How Christianity emphasizes this truth! It forbids contempt or oppression of any man for whom Christ died. He may be poor, ignorant, or even wicked. But for him also the scheme of redemption was planned. For his sake Christ laid aside the regalia of heaven and came down to earth. For him He made atonement for sin. For his regeneration He shed forth His Holy Spirit. There is joy in heaven when he repents; and when he dies, if he dies in faith and submission to God, he is carried by angels to the realm of the blessed.
By these things the dignity of man as man is proclaimed. He is to be treated, therefore, with consideration and kindness, with love and forbearance; and in the judgment Christ will say, “Inasmuch as ye did it to one of the least of these my brethren, ye did it unto me.”—ALBERT H. CURRIER.
Topic: CANAAN, THE LORD’S LAND FOR EVER (Lev_25:23-24)
“The land is mine!” How decisive this claim by Jehovah on the soil, to the possessions which He secured for Israel and settled upon His people for ever! It is to be marked that the land is never called theirs; always called His; for though God gave it into their occupancy He claimed it as His peculiar possession. “He will be merciful unto His land” (Deu_33:23); “I will pluck them (Israel) up by the roots out of My land” (2Ch_7:20); “Lord, Thou hast been favourable unto (well pleased with; margin) Thy land” (Psa_85:1); “Then will the Lord be jealous for His land, and pity His people” (Joe_2:18; Psa_3:2).
I. IN THE LAND OF CANAAN JEHOVAH’S MOST WONDROUS DEEDS ALL CENTRED.
“There He set up His throne and sanctuary; there His priests stood to minister continually before Him. There the voices of His prophets were heard testifying of present ruin and future restoration and glory; there the Baptist began, continued, and ended his career as the forerunner of the Messiah; there the Blessed One was born of a woman; there He was baptised; there He preached and taught; there He laboured and died; and thence He ascended in triumph to the right hand of God; thither God the Holy Ghost descended, in Pentecostal power; and thence the overflowing tide of gospel testimony emanated to the ends of the earth; thither the Lord of glory will descend, ere long, and plant His feet “on the Mount of Olives”; there “His throne will be re-established and His worship restored.”—C. H. M.
II. OVER THE LAND OF CANAAN JEHOVAH’S MOST JEALOUS WATCHFULNESS IS EXTENDED.
There is no spot in all the earth like unto the land of Canaan in the divine estimation. His eyes and His heart are there continually; it’s dust is precious in His sight; it is the centre of all His thoughts and operations, as touching the earth; and it is His purpose to make it an eternal excellency, the joy of many generations.
III. UPON THE LAND OF CANAAN JEHOVAH’S MOST EMPHATIC CLAIM IS SEALED.
“The land is Mine.” It might not be sold for ever. It dwells in the keeping of the Omnipotent. It has been a coveted object through many ages, and by many earthly dynasties; and will yet be, if prophecy is rightly read, the scene of cruel war and sanguinary strife. But Jehovah maintains, and will perpetuate His claim. Inalienably, “the land is Mine.”
For what purpose, and for whom, does God claim and keep that land? It is to be the inheritance of His covenant people; to be re-occupied by those to whom He entrusted it by an everlasting covenant; and when “the fulness of the Gentiles” ends, and its present era of downtrodden abuse, which symbolises also the oppressed and outlawed lot of “lost” Israel and “dispersed” Judah is closed, then He who hath “not cast away His people” will require the land for Israel’s re-possession. [See Isa_66:12-23.].
Topic: EXALTED PHILANTHROPY
“Ye shall not oppress one another,” etc.”—(Lev_25:14; Lev_25:35-38).
In the Jubilee year the ambitious and affluent among the Israelites were to surrender their possessions on terms that would lift up the unfortunate, and better the condition of the poor. All overreaching and oppression were to be abandoned. What faith in God, obedience to His commands, time for thoughtful meditations, incentives to human kindness, etc., the year of Jubilee would inspire! The spontaneous produce of the land became public property, the poorest Israelite, even the stranger and the slave, enjoyed liberty and fared liberally. The poor have always been the objects of divine concern, and attention has been called to the amelioration of their condition. Let us consider.
I. SOME OF THE CAUSES OF POVERTY. Hereditary or acquired weakness, obscure origin, ignorance, extravagance, idleness, incompetencey, misfortune, calamity, or sometimes divine chastisement, as in case of Job.
II. SOME OF THE MISERIES OF POVERTY. Exacting, unremunerative labour; degrading surroundings; deficiencies in necessaries of life; indisposition for physical, mental, and moral improvement. Poverty has a bitter cry, hunger a sharp thorn. Under such circumstances life scarcely seems worth living.
III. SOME OF THE AMELIORATIONS OF POVERTY. Industry; economy; cleanliness; sobriety; sympathy; charity; above all, the uplifting, cheering influences of the gospel, which are peculiarly adapted and specially intended for the poor. The gospel will fire men with a landable ambition, which will lift them in the social scale, or will make them happy in their unavoidable, lowly circumstances. On the basis of common brotherhood, and the universal Fatherhood of God, the temporal as well as spiritual interests of the poor should be cared for and ministered unto, not by patronising indiscriminate charity which fosters idleness and begets hypocrisy, but under the guidance of sanctified intelligence and Christly charity.—F. W. B.
OUTLINES ON VERSES OF CHAPTER 25
Lev_25:3.—Theme: THE SABBATICAL YEAR.
The institution of the sabbath of the seventh year taught that the Lord was the sovereign King of the people, and the sole Proprietor of the land; very appropriate that the law concerning it should be pronounced amid all the solemn scenes and sanctions of Sinai. The Sabbatic year inculcated the lessons:
I. THAT THE LORD WAS THE SOLE PROPRIATOR OF THE LAND.
In all the promises made respecting Canaan, it was constantly kept before the people that the land was the Lord’s; and that He would give it to the people—give it as He gives all His other gifts, to be used according to His good pleasure and revealed will. The people were tenants, and must obey the Lord of the land; for, while “the earth is the Lord’s and the fulness thereof,” Canaan was to Him the most holy place. The land would be as His most gracious land, which He would open or shut as He saw fit; and the people would see that they were in His land, and dependent upon Him, as the seasons rolled in their annual round.
II. THAT THE LAND HAD RESTING UPON IT, CONTINUALLY, THE FAVOUR OF THE LORD.
The land was to be ordinarily fertile every year; but, the sixth year was to be exceptionally fruitful, yielding enough for the seventh; so that, in it, the land, as well as the people might repose. Each sixth year would exhibit in an extraordinary manner the unfailing and inexhaustible resources of God, and show how His smile and blessing rested on the soil. Canaan would look like a second Eden, as she appeared decked in her rich and beautiful garments. When the waters of the flood subsided, God said to Noah, “I will no more curse the ground for man’s sake,” and the fertile earth shows that the Almighty crowns the year with His goodness and that His paths drop fatness.
III. THAT THE DIVINE FAVOUR PROVIDES FOR THE WELL-BEING OF EVERY LIVING THING.
This is a general and world-wide truth; but it was especially seen in the Sabbatic year. During its months, every stranger in the land, and every beast, had abundant provision in the stores laid up, and the spontaneous growth of the soil. The great God of Nature pays respect to the wants of the minutest creatures His hands have made; and the directions given about brute creation would show that He was kind to them, and would suggest to men to treat them kindly. He “is good to all and His tender mercies are over all His works”
IV. THAT OF EVERY LIVING THING, MAN IS THE NEAREST AND DEAREST TO THE GREAT CREATOR.
During the seventh year the poor were to be fed, and the bound set at liberty; thus lessons of kindness and forgiveness were taught. The year was not to be passed in luxury and idleness, but time was to be spent in reading the whole Law; it was a Sabbath to the Lord, when He could be pleased and glorified with the prayers and praises of His people. To man alone are directions given for worship—He is the offspring of God, made in His image and capable of worshipping Him. Not only one day in seven, but one year in seven, was to be kept as a sabbath, showing how God looked for man’s devoted service.
V. THAT THE GREAT CREATOR TEACHES MORAL TRUTHS TO MAN BY MEANS OF WORKS OF NATURE.
All the processes and phenomena of nature are intended to illustrate and enforce spiritual things. Hence the Bible is full of references to correspondences and analogies between the kingdoms of nature and grace. The extraordinary provision made for the Sabbatic year would inculcate lessons of faith, obedience, reverence, love. In the fulness of time the great Teacher by His inimitable parables threw a flood of light upon similitudes between the outer and inner courts of divine revelation. To devoutly study and practice these lessons will ensure exquisite pleasure and eternal profit.—F. W. B.
Lev_25:9—Theme: LESSONS OF THE JUBILEE
I. ITS PECULIAR FEATURES
1. It was a great boon to all sorrowing ones.
(1.) Every captive was liberated.
(2.) The exiled wanderer returned.
(3.) The oppressed debtor was released from his debts.
(4.) The unfortunate poor were restored to their ancestral heritage.
(5) Families that bad been separated were now re-united.
(6.) Every estate reverted to the families to whom they were originally allotted in the conquest of Canaan.
2. All this was intimately connected with the DAY OF ATONEMENT. It was on the day of atonement, every year, that the trumpet was sounded in every corner of the land, reminding the people of the year of Jubilee (Lev_25:9).
3. It was to be a year of perfect freedom from toil (Lev_25:11-12).
4. Every business transaction had reference to the year of jubilee (Lev_25:16). Prices were regulated by its nearness or distance.
II. ITS TYPICAL MEANING.
1. It had special reference to the millennial glory of Israel in the land which Jehovah keeps for them through all generations.
(1.) God claims Canaan as He does no other.
(2.) God has honoured Canaan as He has no other.
2. It is a beautiful and correct type of heaven.
(1.) Where every believer will enter upon his inheritance, and enter into his rest.
(2.) Where all exile, captivity, separation, poverty and oppression will for ever cease, and God will wipe away all tears from our eyes.
III. ITS PRACTICAL LESSONS.
1. That which the Jubilee year restores, and the rest and joy and plenty it brings, prove the graciousness of God.
(1). The sorrow, poverty, oppression, exile, etc., which occurred between two Jubilee years show the workings of human selfishness and sin.
(2). That which the Jubilee restores shows the workings of divine grace.
2. The unspeakable blessedness of the world’s Jubilee in the millennial period (Isa_25:6-12; Isa_33:23-24; Isa_35:1-10; Isa_55:13; Rom_11:25; Rom_8:18-22.).
3. The more glorious and more enduring bliss of heaven (Rev_21:1-27; Rev_22:1-15).—D. C. Hughes.
Lev_25:9-11.—Theme: THE JUBILEE A TYPE OF THE GOSPEL.
I. ITS PRIMARY PURPOSE.
1. It was kind and benevolent: showing that, by remedying the evils the Israelites entailed on themselves, God took an interest in their welfare.
2. It was wise and politic. A people thus regulated would be kept distinct as to their various tribes and families, while an affectionate and dependant spirit would be promoted
3. It was good and beneficial. The insolvent debtor delivered, &c.
II. ITS TYPICAL REFERENCE.
1. The Jubilee of grace. This finds us deeply in arrears to divine justice, and fully remits all our debt. It reverses our state of spiritual bondage, restoring to us the rights and blessings of freedom. And it invests us with a new title to our forfeited inheritance opening to us the kingdom of heaven (Act_10:43; Rom_6:14; Joh_8:36; Eph_2:12).
2. The Jubilee of glory.
III. ITS JOYFUL COMMENCEMENT.
This was announced by the sound of trumpets throughout the land on the day of atonement. Our jubilee also, which begins in the great atonement, is now proclaimed among us, and is the joyful season of God’s grace, mercy and salvation.
“Blessed are the people that know the joyful sound” (Psa_89:15).—Wm. Sleigh
Lev_25:18 Theme: THE DUTY OF OBEDIENCE.
“Wherefore ye shall do My statutes, and keep My judgments, and do them; and ye shall dwell on the land in safety.”
Man not a machine, but a responsible, free agent; therefore conditioned on obedience. Herein, seen the dignity of man, the righteousness and holiness of God. God had right to command Israel under obligation to obey, for
I. HE WAS THEIR SOVEREIGN RULER. Lord, King, Almighty, Absolute, Eternal.
II. THEY WERE HIS DEPENDENT CREATURES They derived all from Him, were defended, delivered, by Him.
III. THE PATH OF OBEDIENCE WAS SAFE. Whatever might befal them when doing the will of God would be overruled for their real good. No weapon formed against them could prosper, while they enjoyed the approving smile of the Lord.
IV. THE ONLY CRITERION OF CHARACTER IS OBEDIENCE. Faith, love, loyalty, sincerity, consecration, evinced and vindicated by unquestioning, cheerful, self-forgetful, constant obedience. The law of Christ confirms this test, “If ye love me, keep my commandments.” Revelation closes with declaration of same truth. “Blessed are they that do His commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city.”—F. W. B.
Lev_25:25.—Theme: THE KINSMAN’S RIGHTS.
The tale is simple. One of Israel a sons in destitute His goods, his lands are torn away. The creditor demands, the claim is just, all must be yielded.
But is there some kinsman whose heart feels pity, and whose means abound? Then he has right to pay the price and buy back the forfeited estate. He may not be denied. Redeeming privilege is his.
Such is the statute of the Jewish realm. But it shows far more than civil remedy for helpless debt. It is a bright transcript of the work of Christ.
I. NO ONE BUT A KINSMAN COULD REDEEM US.
The needy ones are offspring of earth; dust is their origin, the worm their brother, the clod their home.
But to redeem requires a kindred birth.
Yet Jesus is God; an infinite distance divides Him from men. One sits enthroned in highest glory, the other grovels in earth’s lowest mire. Jesus may love, but, as God, He cannot redeem, cannot claim a kinsman’s right Are then the destitute beyond relief?
Since the Redeemer must be Man, Jesus connects Himself with human ties. A human form is marvellously framed; and the virgin mother bears the heavenly child. The God-Man becomes a kinsman to redeem.
II. THE KINSMAN ALSO NEEDS WEALTH BY WHICH TO PAY THE PRICE.
Family ties are not enough. Much is required for the redemption of souls. But His deity imparts sufficiency. The price is boundless; the payment far exceeds. “In whom we have redemption through His blood the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace” (Eph_1:7).
The sinner, appalled at his debts, may approach the Saviour, and plead His near kindred, may tell Him that He is one of our family, and remind Him that He alone has the redeeming right and redeeming might.
Then, being redeemed, let your life proclaim that you are no more your own but “bought with a price.” The kinsman claims your heart, your love, your all.—Dean Law.
Lev_25:55.—Theme: ROYAL SERVICE.
“For unto me the children of Israel are servants.”
All things serve the Lord, but there are gradations of service. Man occupies a sphere only second to angels. Israel chosen to cooperate with Jehovah in communicating His will to the world, in winning back a prodigal race to Himself.
I. THE SERVICE HE EXPECTS. (a) Intelligent, higher than that rendered by inanimate and irrational things. Thoughtful, reasonable, conscientious. (b) Spontaneous. The outcome of free and deliberate choice, of preference for Him above all others. (c) Grateful. Remembering deliverances vouchsafed, benedictions bestowed. (d) Lifelong. Not spasmodic service, nor a course marked by withholdings, backslidings, shortcomings, or apostacy. He demands fidelity unto death.
II. THE REWARD HE BESTOWS. (a) His gracious approval; (b) improvement in holiness; (c) promotion to higher service here; (d) admission to perfect blessed service hereafter. In heaven His servants shall see and serve Him. Service there will be ineffable rapture and rest, because not beyond the strength, nor against the will, but in complete harmony with the renewed and immortal faculties.—F. W. B.
ILLUSTRATIVE ADDENDA TO CHAPTER 25
BENEVOLENCE
“Then none was for a party;
Then all were for the state;
Then the great man helped the poor,
And the poor man loved the great.
Then lands were fairly portioned;
Then spoils were fairly sold;
The Romans were like brothers
In the brave days of old.”
—Macaulay.
“Beneficence is a duty. He who frequently practises it, and sees his benevolent intentions realised, at length comes to love him to whom he has done good. When, therefore, it is said, ‘Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself, it is not meant, Thou shalt love him first and do good in consequence of that love, but thou shalt do good to thy neighbour, and this thy beneficence will engender in thee that love to mankind which is the fullness and consummation of the inclination to do good.”—Kant.
SABBATH. “Sin keeps no Sabbaths.”—
Brooks.
“Yes, child of suffering, thou might well be sure,
He who ordained the Sabbath loves the poor.’
—Holmes, Urania.
“A world without a Sabbath would be like a man without a smile, like a summer without flowers, and like a homestead without a garden. It is the joyous day of the whole week.”—H. W. Beecher.
“We never knew a man work seven days in a week who did not kill himself or kill his mind.”—Anon.
REST:
“No lamkin by its shepherd borne,
No dove its mate caressing,
No bondman freed, no pilgrim worn
The grateful shade possessing;
No child clasped to its mother’s heart,
No sick man when his pains depart,
No warrior home returning;
No man can know such perfect rest
As that which ends our weary quest,
Our gracious Lord discerning.”
—Hillier
LIBERTY
“A man, till he be in Christ, is a slave; and the more free a man thinks himself to be and labours to be, the more slave he is. Why? Because the more he sins the more he is enthralled to sin.”—Sibbes.
“The end of Christian liberty is, that being delivered from the hands of our enemies, we might serve the Lord without fear,”—Westminster Catechism
He is the freeman, whom the truth makes free,
And all are slaves besides.”
—Cowper.
POSSESSIONS
“How shocking must thy summons be. O Death!
To him that is at ease in his possessions:
Who, counting on long years of pleasure here,
Is quite unfurnished for that world to come.”
—Blair.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Sermon Bible 1900 · Public Domain On v1 Lev 25:10-13
Lev 25:10-13
The Old Testament jubilee was meant to be a type of the entire New Testament dispensation in three points, imaging by its Sabbatic character the Gospel rest in Christ, by its unreserved deliverance of captives and slaves the Christian redemption from guilt and spiritual bondage, and by its universal restitution of property to the poor and needy the fulness of that inheritance which is treasured up for all the faithful in Christ, whose unsearchable riches, like the national possessions, opened up by the jubilee, enrich all, without impoverishing any who make good their title.
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I. The first element of jubilee gladness, common to the Jew of old and the Christian amid the celebrations of the Gospel age, is the joy of distinction or of privilege. There was not a single memorial of blessing or promise, temporal or spiritual, which the jubilee did not recall, and hold up before the eyes of that most favoured nation, so that it was on God’s part an impressive reiteration of His covenant, and on their part a grateful recognition that they were indeed a "chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a peculiar people." The Christian Church, and we as members of it, are privileged (1) as to safety; (2) as to character; (3) as to work; (4) as to suffering.
II. The second great element of the gladness of jubilee is the joy of stability and progression. Traces of progress are to be found in every leading country of the Christian world. The last half-century has seen the cause of missions pass through all its phases, and encounter all its perils from ridicule, neglect, hope deferred, till now it ranks perhaps as the most distinctive and glorious feature of our age.
III. The third element in the jubilee gladness is the joy of anticipation or consummation. We believe that faith and hope shall in God’s own time effect a marvellous conquest of this long-revolted earth, and that love, working in a united and purified Church, shall through great periods gather up and treasure the spoils of victory. But it is to Christ’s coming that we look forward and hasten, as the crown and consummation of Christian hope.
J. Cairns, Jubilee Services, 1856.
All men ultimately get their living out of the soil. There is a recognition of this in the first chapters of Genesis. Man is placed in a garden to till it, and to eat its fruits. He has no other way of living, and will never have any other. Every human being must have some real relation, direct or indirect, to a certain extent of soil. To get man rightly related to the soil, in such a way that he shall most easily get his food from it, this is the underlying question of all history, its key-note and largest achievement.
I. There are two forces which draw men to the soil: (1) a natural, almost instinctive, sense of keeping close to the source of life, as a wise general does not allow himself to be separated from his supplies; (2) the pride, and greed, and love of power of the strong. In all ages the relation of man to the soil has been characterised by deep and cruel injustice. The main oppression in the world has been a denial of man’s natural rights in the soil.
II. The remarkable feature of the Jewish commonwealth is its anticipatory legislation against probable and otherwise certain abuses. The struggles of other nations and the skill of statesmanship have been to correct abuses; in the Jewish commonwealth they were foreseen and provided against. The Jewish theocracy had for one of its main features a system of Sabbaths curiously and profoundly arranged for the interpenetration of Divine and political principles. Every half-century formed a grand Sabbatical circle. The fiftieth year, or year of jubilee, settled at the outset the problem that no other people ever solved except through ages of struggle and revolution.
III. Its design and effect are evident. (1) It was a bar to monopoly of the land. (2) It was a perpetual lesson in hope and encouragement. It was a constant assertion of equality. (3) It fostered patriotism, a virtue that thrives best on the soil. It kept alive in every man a sense of ownership in his country. (4) It was an inwrought education of the family, fostering a sense of its dignity, and guarding the sanctity of marriage and legitimacy of birth.
IV. Though a political measure, it is informed with spiritual significance. It shadows forth the recovery from evil, the undoing of all burdens that weigh down humanity, the eternal inheritance awaiting God’s children when His cycle is complete.
T. T. Munger, The Freedom of Faith, p. 171.
References: Lev 25:11—Homiletic Magazine, vol. vi., p. 86. Lev 25:55.—Parker, vol. iii., p. 138. Lev 25—Old Testament Outlines, p. 32; Preacher’s Monthly, vol. ii., p. 379.
The Sermon Bible, ed. William Robertson Nicoll (1888–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Alexander MacLaren 1905 · Public Domain On vv23, 42, 48
Leviticus
SOJOURNERS WITH GOD
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Lev 25:23.
The singular institution of the Jubilee year had more than one purpose. As a social and economical arrangement it tended to prevent the extremes of wealth and poverty. Every fiftieth year the land was to revert to its original owners, the lineal descendants of those who had ‘come in with the conqueror,’ Joshua. Debts were to be remitted, slaves emancipated, and so the mountains of wealth and the valleys of poverty were to be somewhat levelled, and the nation carried back to its original framework of a simple agricultural community of small owners, each ‘sitting under his own vine and fig-tree’ and, like Naboth, sturdily holding the paternal acres.
As a ceremonial institution it was the completion of the law of the Sabbath. The seventh day proclaimed the need for weekly rest from labour, and as was the sabbath in the week, so was the seventh year among the years-a time of quiet, when the land lay fallow and much of the ordinary labour was suspended. Nor were these all; when seven weeks of years had passed, came the great Jubilee year, charged with the same blessed message of Rest, and doubtless showing dimly to many wearied and tearful eyes some gleams of a better repose beyond.
Besides these purposes, it was appointed to enforce, and to make the whole fabric of the national wealth consciously rest upon, this thought contained in our text. The reason why the land was not to pass out of the hauls of the representatives of those to whom God had originally given it, was that He had not really given it to them at all. It was not theirs to sell-they had only a beneficiary occupation. While they held it, it was still His, and neither they, nor any one to whom they might sell the use of it for a time, were anything more than tenants at will. The land was His, and they were only like a band of wanderers, squatting for a while by permission of the owner, on his estate. Their camp-fires were here today, but to-morrow they would be gone. They were ‘strangers and sojourners.’ That may sound sad, but all the sadness goes when we read on-’with Me.’ They are God’s guests, so though they do not own a foot of soil, they need not fear want.
All this is as true for us. We can have no better New Year’s thoughts than those which were taught by the blast of the silver trumpets that proclaimed liberty to the slaves, and restored to the landless pauper his alienated heritage.
I. Here is the lesson of God’s proprietorship and our stewardship.
‘The land is Mine’ was of course true in a special sense of the territory which God gave by promise and miracle, which was kept by obedience, and lost by rebellion. But it is as really true about our possessions, and that not only because of our transient stay here. It would be as true if we were to live in this world for ever. It will be as true in heaven. Length of time makes no difference in this tenure. Undisturbed possession for ever so long does not constitute ownership here. God is possessor of all, by virtue of His very nature, by His creation and preservation of us and of all things. So that when we talk about ‘mine’ and ‘thine,’ we are only speaking a half truth. There is a great sovereign ‘His’ behind both. So then let us take that thought with us for use, as we pass into another year. What lessons does it give?
It should nurture constant thankfulness. To-day looking back over whatever dark, dreary, sunless days, we all have bright ones too. Does any thought of God as the Fountain of all our joys and goods rise in our souls? Have we learned to associate a divine hand and a Father’s will with them? Do we congratulate ourselves on our own cleverness, tact, and skill, saying, ‘mine hand hath done it,’ or do we hug ourselves on our own good fortune, and burn incense to chance and ‘circumstances’? -or, sadder still, are we generously grateful to every human friend that helps us, and unthankful only to God-or does the glad thought come, to gild the finest gold of our possessions with new brilliance and worth, and to paint and perfume the whitest lily of our joys with new delightsomeness, ‘All things come of Thee’; ‘Thou makest us drink of the river of Thy pleasures’?
Blessed are they who, by the magic glass of a thankful heart, see all things in God, and God in all things. To them life is tenfold brighter, as a light plunged in oxygen flames more intensely than in common air. The darkest night is filled with light, and the loneliest place blazes with angel faces, and the stoniest pillar is soft, to him who sees everywhere the ladder that knits earth with heaven, and to whom all His blessings are as the messengers that descend by it on errands of mercy, whose long shining ranks lead up the eye and the heart to the loving God from whom they come.
Here too is the ground for constant thankful submission. ‘The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away.’ We have no right to murmur, however we may regret, if the Landowner takes back a bit of the land which He has let us occupy. It was the condition of our occupation that He should be at liberty to do so whenever He saw that it would be best for us. He does not give us our little patches for His advantage, but for ours, nor does He take them away at His own whim, but ‘for our profit.’ We get more than full value for all the work and capital we have expended, and His only reason for ever disturbing us is that we may be driven to claim a better inheritance in Himself than we can find even in the best of His gifts. So He sometimes gives, that we may be led by our possessions to think lovingly of Him; and He sometimes takes, that we may be led, in the hour of emptiness and loss, to recognise whose hand it was that pulled up the props round which our poor tendrils clung. But the opposite actions have the same purpose, and like the up-and-down stroke of a piston, or the contrary motion of two cogged wheels that play into each other, are meant to impel us in one direction, even to the heart of God who is our home. A landowner stops up a private road one day in a year, in order to assert his right, and to remind the neighbourhood that he could stop it altogether if he liked. So God reminds us by our losses and sorrows, of what we are so apt to forget, and what it is such a joy to us to remember-His possession of them all. Blessed be God! He teaches us in that fashion far seldomer than in the other. Let joy teach us the lesson, and we shall the less need ‘the sternest’ teacher ‘and the best,’ even sorrow. Better to learn it by gladness than by tears; better to see it written in ‘laughing flowers’ than in desolate gardens and killing frost.
So, too, there should be a constant sense of responsibility in the use of all which we have. All is His, and He has given all to us, for a purpose. So, plainly, we are but stewards, or trustees, and are bound to employ everything, not according to our own inclination or notion of what is right, but according to what, in the exercise of our best and most impartial judgment, we believe to be the owner’s will. Trusteeship means that we take directions as to the employment of the property from its owner. It means too that we employ it not for our own satisfaction and well-being alone, though that is included, and is a part of His purpose who ‘delights in the prosperity of His servants.’ Thoughts of others, thoughts of the owner’s claims, and of bringing back to Him all that He has given to us, increased by our diligence, must be uppermost in our minds, if we are to live nobly or happily here. ‘It is required in stewards that a man be found faithful.’ And this applies to all we have in mind, body, and estate. A thoughtful expenditure and use of all His gifts, on principles drawn from our knowledge of His will, and for objects not terminating with self, is the duty that corresponds to the great fact of God’s ownership of all. If we use His gifts to minister to our own vanity or frivolity, or love of ease, or display; if an ‘intolerable deal’ of all we have is used for ourselves, and a poor ha’ porth’ for others; if our gifts are grudging; if we possess without sense of responsibility, and enjoy without thankfulness, and lose with murmuring; if our hearts are more set on material prosperity than on love and peace, knowledge and purity, noble lives and a Father God; if higher desires and hopes are dying out as we ‘get on’ in the world, and religious occupations which used to be pleasant are stale; then for all our outward Christianity the stern old woe applies, ‘Your riches are corrupted, and the rust of them shall be a witness against you,’ and we need the shrill note of the trumpet of Jubilee to be blown in our ears, ‘The land is Mine.’
II. We have the teaching of the transiency of our stay here.
‘Ye are strangers and sojourners’-pilgrims who make a brief halt in a foreign country. The image has in it an allusion to the nomad life of Abraham and his son and grandson, as well as to the desert-wanderings of the people, and suggests the thought, ‘You are homeless wanderers, not having where to lay your heads, as truly when you have been settled for generations on your ancestral lands, as when you plodded wearily in the wilderness.’ It is a universal truth, ever acknowledged and forgotten, wholesome though sometimes sad to feel, and preached to even frivolous natures by the change in our calendar which a New Year brings.
How vividly this word of our text brings out the contrast between the permanence of the external world and our brief stay in it!
In Israel there would be few vineyards or olive-grounds held by the same man at two, and none at three, successive jubilees. The hoary twisted olives yielded their black berries, say, to Simeon, the son of Joseph, to-day, as they did fifty years ago to Joseph, the son of Reuben, and as they will do fifty years hence to Judas, the son of Simeon. So is it with us all. There is nothing more pathetic than the thought of how generations come and go, and empires rise and fall, while the scene on which they play their brief parts remains the same.
‘The mountains look on Marathon,
And Marathon looks on the sea.’
to-day as they did more than two millenniums ago, only the grass was for a while a little ranker on the plain. Olivet lifts the same outline against the pale morning twilight as when David went up its slope a weeping exile. The pebble that we kick out of our path had thousands of years of existence ere we were born, and may lie there unaltered to all appearance for centuries after we are dead. ‘One generation cometh and another goeth, but the earth abideth for ever.’
And how much more lasting our possessions are than their possessors! Where are the strong hands that clutched the rude weapons that lie now quietly ticketed in our museums? How dim and dark the bright brave eyes that once flashed through the bars of these helmets, hanging just a little rusted, over the tombs in Westminster Abbey! Other men will live in our houses, read our books, own our mills, use our furniture, preach in our pulpits, sit in our pews: we are but lodgers in this abiding nature, ‘like a wayfaring man that turneth aside to tarry for a night,’ and to-morrow morning vacates his rooms for a new arrival, and goes away unregretted and is forgotten in an hour.
The constant change and progression of life are enforced, too, in this metaphor.
The old threadbare emblem of a journey which is implied in the text suggests how, moment by moment, we hurry on and how everything is slipping past us, as fields and towns do to a traveller in a train. Only our journey is smooth and noiseless, like the old-fashioned canal boat travelling, where, if you shut your eyes, you could not tell that you were moving. We glide on and never know it, and so gradually and silently is the scene ‘changed by still degrees,’ that it is only now and then that men have any vivid consciousness that the ‘fashion of this world is’ ever ‘in the act of passing,’ like the canvas of a panorama ever winding and unwinding on its twin rollers with slow, equable motion. It needs an effort of attention and will to discern the movement, and it is worth while to make the effort, for that clear and poignant sense of the constant flux and mutation of all things around us, and of the ebbing away of our own lives, is fundamental to all elevation of thought, to all nobleness of deed, to all worthy conception of duty and of joy. Everything that is, stands poised, like Fortune, on a rolling ball. The solid earth is a movable sphere, for ever spinning on its axis and rushing on its path among the stars. Ever some star is sinking in mist, or dipping below the horizon; ever new constellations are climbing to the zenith. A long, patient discipline is needed to keep fresh in our hearts the sense of this transiency. Let us set ourselves consciously to deepen our convictions of it, and amidst all the illusions of these solid-seeming shows of things, keep firm hold of the assurance that they are but fleeting shadows that sweep across the solemn mountain’s side, and that only God and the doing of His will lasts. So shall our life pierce down with its seeking roots to the abiding ground of all Being, and, looking to the ‘things that are eternal,’ we shall be able to make what is but for a moment contribute to the everlasting ennobling of our character and enrichment of our life yonder.
Surely these words, too, tell of the true home.
‘Ye are strangers’-because your native land is elsewhere. It is not merely the physical facts of death and change that make us strangers here, but the direction of our desires, and the true affinities of our nature. If by these we belong to heaven and God, then here we shall feel that we have not where to lay our heads, and shall ‘dwell in tabernacles’ because ‘we look for the city.’
What a contrast between the perishable tents of the wilderness and the rock-built mansions of that city. And how short this phase of being must look when seen from above! You remember how long a year, a week, seemed to you when a child-what do the first ten years of your life look to you now? What must the earthly life of Abel, the first who died, look to him even now, when he contrasts its short twenty or thirty years with the thousands since? and, after thousands and thousands more, how it will dwindle! So to us, if we reach that safe shore, and look back upon the sea that brought us thither, as it stretches to the horizon, miles of billows once so terrible will seem shrunken to a line of white foam.
Cherish, then, constant consciousness of that solemn eternity, and let your eyes be ever directed to it, like a man who sees some great flush of light on the horizon, and is ever turning from his work to look. Use the transient as preparation for the eternal, the fleeting days as those which determine the undying ‘Day’ and its character. Keep your cares and interests in the present rigidly limited to necessary things. Why should travellers burden themselves? The less luggage, the easier marching. The accommodation and equipment in the desert do not matter much. The wise man will say, ‘Oh, it will do. I shall soon be home.’ ‘Ye are strangers and sojourners.’
III. We have here also the teaching of trust.
Some of us think that such thoughts as the preceding are sad. Why should they be so? They need not be. Our text adds a little word which takes all the sadness out of them. ‘With Me’; that gives the true notion of our earthly life. We are strangers indeed, passing through a country which is not ours, but whilst we are sojourners, we are ‘sojourners’ with the king of the land. In the antique hospitable times, the chief of the tribe would take the travellers to his own tent, and charge himself with their safety and comfort. So we are God’s guests on our travels. He will take care of us. The visitor has no need to trouble himself about the housekeeping, he may safely leave that with the master of the house. If the king has taken us in charge, we may be quite sure that no harm will come to us in his country. So for ourselves and for those we love, and for all the wide interests of church and world, there are peace and strength in the thought that we are the guests of God here, ‘strangers and sojourners with Him.’ Will He invite us to His table and let us hunger? Will He call us to be His guests, and then, like some traitorous Arab sheikh, break the laws of hospitality and harm His too-confiding guests? Impossible for evermore. So we are safe, and our bread shall be given us, for we are sojourners with God.
True, we are strangers, and in our constant movement we lose many of the companions of our march, and the track of the caravan may be traced by the graves on either side. But, since we are ‘with Him,’ we have companionship even when most solitary, and even in a strange land shall not be lonely. Seek then to cultivate as a joy and strength that consciousness that the Lord of all the land is ever with you, Whoever goes, He abides. Whatever rushes past us like a phantasmagoria, He passes not. Whatever and whoever change, He changes never. Where thou goest, He will go. He will be ‘thy shield at thy right hand,’ and thy ‘keeper from all evil.’ So, looking forward to the unknown days of another New Year, we may be of good cheer.
So will it be while we live; and if this year we should die-well, the King of this land, where we are strangers, is the King of the other land beyond the sea, where we are at home. So we shall only be the nearer to Him for the change. Death the separator shall but unite us to the King, whose presence indeed fills this subject-province of His empire with all its good, but who dwells in more resplendent ‘beauty,’ and is felt in greater nearness in the other ‘land that is very far off.’ Whether here or there, we may have God with us, if we will. With Him for our Host and companion, let us peacefully go on our road, while the life of strangers and sojourners shall last. It will bring us to the fatherland where we shall be at home with the King, and find in Him our ‘sure dwelling, and quiet resting-place, and peaceful habitation for ever.’
Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. R. Dummelow 1909 · Public Domain On v1 The Sabbatical Year. The Year of Jubilee
The Sabbatical Year. The Year of Jubilee
The matters treated in this chapter are closely related to those in Leviticus 23, and their separation is another indication that we are dealing with a book made up of different elements. Observe again the change of number in Lev_25:14, Lev_25:17 and the interruption caused by Lev_25:18-22. Cp. what is said above in intro. to Leviticus 21.
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1-7. The law of the Sabbatical Year: see also Exo_23:10-11; Deu_15:1-11; Deu_31:9-13. This law rests on the principle that the land inhabited by the Israelites is not theirs in absolute possession. It really belongs to God; 'the land is mine; for ye are strangers and sojourners with me' (Lev_25:23). To keep the people in mind of this, it is enacted that every seventh year the land has to lie fallow. Only the spontaneous produce of that year is to be enjoyed, and that not selfishly or for profit; it is to be shared with the poor and strangers (Exo_23:11). Everything is to be common. Slaves are to be set free if they desire their freedom (Exo_21:2-6), and debts are to be remitted to Israelites (Deu_15:1-3;). It is promised that the harvest of the sixth year will be sufficiently abundant to provide for the wants of the people till they reap again (Lev_25:20-22). The Sabbatical Year began with the first day of Tishri: see on Lev_23:28. How far these enactments were actually carried out it is difficult to say. There is no mention of their observance during preexilic times, so that they may have been allowed to become a dead letter, a supposition confirmed by what is said in 2Ch_36:21. They were renewed under Nehemiah (Neh_10:31;).
5. This v. is interesting as containing the only example of the word 'its' in AV Elsewhere the word 'his' is used as the possessive of the neuter pronoun. In the AV of 1611 it is printed 'it'; 'that which groweth of it owne accorde.'
Year of rest unto the land] As customs similar to this are found in other countries, it is probable that it is a survival of a communistic age. At the same time, it was a benefit to the land. Thus we have another example here of the Lawgiver adopting a primitive custom and investing it with the sanctity of religion. Cp. what is said in intro. to Leviticus 11-15, and see also Intro, to Exodus.
8-55. The Year of Jubilee. Thisrestsonthe same principle as the Sabbatical Year: see above. In the fiftieth year, i.e. after a period of 7 × 7 years, the land is to lie fallow, and Hebrew slaves with their families are to be emancipated without price, as in the Sabbatical Year (Lev_25:39-55). A new and distinctive feature, however, makes its appearance. In the Year of Jubilee all property reverts naturally to the original owner, who through poverty may have been obliged to sell it at some time during the previous period (Lev_25:13-28). The freehold of agricultural land could never, therefore, be sold in perpetuity (Lev_25:23), and in cases of sale the purchase price was regulated according to the number of years still to run till the Year of Jubilee (Lev_25:14-16). The only exception was house property in a walled city (Lev_25:29.). The case of the Levitical cities is specially dealt with (Lev_25:32-34).
The Year of Jubilee was thus, as it were, the 'new birth' of the whole nation, when property was redistributed, and the inequalities arising in the previous period were removed. It was a remarkable social law, putting a check upon ambition and covetousness, preventing the acquisition of huge estates, and adjusting the distribution of wealth in the various classes of the community. The incidents of Ruth (Leviticus 4) and of Naboth (1 Kings 21) show that the law against the alienation of land was in force in early times: cp. Jer_32:6. That it was not unnecessary in later times appears from such passages as Isa_5:8; Mic_2:2.
9. The Year of Jubilee began on the Day of Atonement, and was ushered in with the blowing of trumpets; hence its name (Heb. johel = a ram's horn trumpet).
23. Forever] RV 'in perpetuity.'
25. A kinsman could redeem his relative's property at any time at a price calculated according to the years still to elapse before the Jubilee.
26. And himself..] RV 'and he be waxen rich and find sufficient to redeem it.'
28. Restore it to him] RV 'get it back for himself.'
32. The Levites were granted forty-eight cities to dwell in, with suburbs for their cattle: see Numbers 35.
35-38. See on Exo_22:25.
39-46. See on Exo_21:1-6. Only foreigners could be bought as slaves for ever.
47-54. The converse case of a Hebrew sold to a foreigner.
J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (Macmillan, 1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On vv9, 17, 25, 30, 36, 43, 48, 49, 54 seventh month
seventh month
i.e. October.
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atonement (See Scofield "Exo 29:33").
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Arno C. Gaebelein 1922 · Public Domain On v1 4. The Sabbatic Year and the Year of Jubilee
4. The Sabbatic Year and the Year of Jubilee
CHAPTER 25
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1. The Sabbatic year (Lev 25:1-7)
2. The jubilee (Lev 25:8-12)
3. The jubilee and the land (Lev 25:13-28)
4. The jubilee and the dwelling houses (Lev 25:29-34)
5. The jubilee, the poor and the bondmen (Lev 25:35-55)
This is the great restoration chapter in Leviticus. All is connected preeminently with Israel’s land. The application, which has been made, that this chapter foreshadows a universal restitution of all things, including the wicked dead and Satan as well, is unscriptural. If such a restitution were true the Bible would contradict itself. The Sabbatic year could only be kept after Israel came into the land. “When ye come into the land which I give you, then shall the land keep a Sabbath unto the Lord.” And Jehovah uttered these words from Mount Sinai and not from the tabernacle (Lev 1:1). Every seventh year, the land which belongs to Jehovah, and which was not to be sold, had to enjoy complete rest. See what gracious promises Jehovah had given in connection with the Sabbatic year (Lev 25:20-22). Jehovah was the Lord of the land, the owner of the land, and Israel received the land as a gift; they were the tenants. Beautifully the Lord said: “Ye are strangers and sojourners with Me.” When Israel sinned and broke the laws of Jehovah, when they did not give the land its rest, the Lord drove the people out of the land. Read here 26:32-35. “And I will bring the land into desolation and your enemies which dwelt therein shall be astonished at it. And I will scatter you among the nations, and will draw out a sword after you, and your land shall be desolate, and your cities waste. Then shall the land enjoy her Sabbaths, as long as it lieth desolate, and ye be in your enemies’ land; even then shall the land rest, and enjoy her Sabbaths. As long as it lieth desolate it shall rest; because it did not rest in your Sabbaths, when ye dwelt upon it.” This prediction has been fulfilled. Israel is scattered among the nations of the earth and the land is desolate, a witness for the Word of God. Jehovah in giving the law concerning the Sabbatic year, gave to His people a picture of that coming rest, and the assurance of joy and blessing. But they failed.
The year of jubilee shows clearly the restoration which is in store for Israel and Israel’s land. It points once more to the millennial times of blessing and glory. How blessedly is that coming age of restoration and of glory seen in the year of jubilee! Without entering into details we give a few of the divine statements. What did the jubilee year mean to Israel? Liberty was proclaimed; every man returned to his possession; every man to his family; all wrongs were righted and the redemption of the bondmen took place. Seven times the word “return” is used; and oftener the word “redeem.” It was the time of returning, the blessed time of restoration and redemption.
And how was this year of jubilee ushered in? By the sound of the trumpet of the jubilee on the tenth day of the seventh month, in the day of atonement. This great year of returning and redemption began with the day of atonement. Most likely after the high priest had returned from his holy office work and sprinkling of blood; after he had put the sins of the people upon the scapegoat and that sacrificial animal bearing upon its head Israel’s sin had vanished in the wilderness, the trumpet sounded. What all this means we have seen in the annotations of the “day of atonement” chapter. The year of jubilee begins, when our Lord comes back from the Holiest and appears in the midst of His people. And this time of restoration, blessing and glory is not confined to Israel’s land. It means more than the promised blessings for that land. We have the year of jubilee in Rom 8:19-23.
We must not forget the significance of the time, the fiftieth year. The day of Pentecost came fifty days after the resurrection of Christ from among the dead. And the fiftieth day brought, as the result of the death and resurrection of Christ, the gift of the Holy Spirit, and the formation of the church began. It came on the eighth day, the first day of the week. The year of jubilee may well be termed another Pentecost. On that day a great outpouring of the Spirit of God will take place (Joe 2:28). The kingdom with all its glories and blessings will be established upon the earth. And how much more might be added to these blessed foreshadowings of the good things to come!
Arno C. Gaebelein, The Annotated Bible (1913–1922) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On vv1, 8, 25 The Seventh Year
The Seventh Year
v. 1. And the Lord spake unto Moses in Mount Sinai, while the children of Israel were still encamped in its vicinity, saying,
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v. 2. Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye come in to the land which I give you, the certainty of this event being set forth time and again, then shall the land keep a Sabbath unto the Lord, the soil should be given periods of rest, in which the land should lie fallow.
v. 3. Six years thou shalt sow thy field, and six years thou shalt prune thy vineyard, and gather in the fruit thereof;
v. 4. but in the seventh year shall be a Sabbath of rest unto the land, a Sabbath for the Lord; thou shalt neither sow thy field, nor prune thy vineyard. The earth was to be saved from the hand of man, lest its strength be exhausted for earthly purposes, and man was to be saved from the uninterrupted drudgery which tended to chain his thoughts to the soil and to the bitter labor in the sweat of his brow which was connected therewith.
v. 5. That which groweth of its own accord of thy harvest, the volunteer grain from the kernels that had dropped out at the last harvest, thou shalt not reap, neither gather the grapes of thy vine undressed, the grapes which grew in the vineyard without the attention of the husbandman; for it is a year of rest unto the land.
v. 6. And the Sabbath of the land shall be meat for you; for thee and for thy servant and for thy maid, both male and female slaves being named, and for thy hired servant, and for thy stranger that sojourneth with thee. So all the volunteer grain and the volunteer fruit was not to be harvested, but was to be eaten out of the field, as the need for food arose, this rule applying not only to men, but also to animals, both domestic and wild;
v. 7. and for thy cattle, and for the beast that are in thy land shall all the increase thereof be meat, be used as food. The Sabbatical Pear was a civil year, which began after the harvest, in the late fall, for in the next fall, at the beginning of the eighth year, the cultivation of the land was resumed. God wanted to signify to the people of His covenant that He was well able to keep them, even without the labor of their hands, if they would strive to keep His covenant and he satisfied with His mercy.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv1, 3, 5, 8, 10, 11, 13, 15, 18, 20, 23, 26, 29, 31, 33, 35, 39, 42, 45, 47, 49, 51, 53 the land must be made to keep a Sabbath…
the land must be made to keep a Sabbath for Yahweh
The land is spoken of as if it were a person that could obey the Sabbath by resting. Just as the people had to rest every seventh day, people were to honor God by not farming the land every seventh year. AT: "you must obey the Sabbath law by letting the land rest every seventh year for Yahweh" or "you must obey Yahweh's Sabbath by not farming the land every seventh year" (See: Personification and Metaphor)
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translationWords
Yahweh
Moses
Sinai
people group
Israel
Sabbath
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv1, 2, 4, 8, 10, 11, 15, 23, 25, 29, 32, 35, 36, 38, 40, 42, 43, 44, 47 25:1-55 Just as seven days equaled a week ending…
25:1-55 Just as seven days equaled a week ending in a Sabbath day, each seven years ended with a Sabbath year. Likewise, after seven Sabbath years (i.e., 49 years total) came a special year, the Year of Jubilee. Like so many holidays, these occasions were times of reflection on Israel’s corporate identity and how they were shaped by their relationship with God. Because every Israelite, bond or free, had a part in God’s kingdom, those bound in servitude were freed in the Year of Jubilee (25:39-43). In order to curb economic hardship and foster well-being, land sales were limited to a maximum term of fifty years. The land was then to be returned to the original owner’s family or clan. The land belonged to the Lord; the Israelites were merely tenants (25:23). It is unlikely, however, that these laws saw much use; the best land fell into the hands of rich landowners (Isa 5:8-10; cp. Amos 5:11).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.