PRESSING THE RESET BUTTON
Opening Prayer
“My chains are gone; I’ve been set free. My God, my Savior has ransomed me” (Chris Tomlin).
Read Leviticus 25:8–17
The Year of Jubilee
8 “‘Count off seven sabbath years—seven times seven years—so that the seven sabbath years amount to a period of forty-nine years. 9 Then have the trumpet sounded everywhere on the tenth day of the seventh month; on the Day of Atonement sound the trumpet throughout your land. 10 Consecrate the fiftieth year and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you; each of you is to return to your family property and to your own clan. 11 The fiftieth year shall be a jubilee for you; do not sow and do not reap what grows of itself or harvest the untended vines. 12 For it is a jubilee and is to be holy for you; eat only what is taken directly from the fields.
13 “‘In this Year of Jubilee everyone is to return to their own property.
14 “‘If you sell land to any of your own people or buy land from them, do not take advantage of each other. 15 You are to buy from your own people on the basis of the number of years since the Jubilee. And they are to sell to you on the basis of the number of years left for harvesting crops. 16 When the years are many, you are to increase the price, and when the years are few, you are to decrease the price, because what is really being sold to you is the number of crops. 17 Do not take advantage of each other, but fear your God. I am the Lord your God.
New International Version (NIV)
Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Reflect
What would it feel like to be free, forgiven, and have all your debts cancelled?The Year of Jubilee was a remarkable year in the life of God’s people. It was a year where the economy was reset, a year where debts were forgiven, property was returned and the land rested from farming. It was a year of liberty, redemption and restoration.
The Year of Jubilee was to be a very special year indeed. In Luke 4, in Jesus’ first recorded sermon, Jesus quotes from Isaiah 61, and at the end of that quote declares himself to be the fulfillment of the year of Jubilee, the year of the Lord’s favor.
It is now ultimately in Jesus that we will be forgiven of our debts forever and be fully restored.
Apply
Think about how you would feel as an Israelite: someone who had sold yourself into slavery and had no hope of getting back on your feet. Think about how you would feel for the Year of Jubilee!
Closing prayer
Thank God that in Jesus you have been given and forgiven so much more than even those affected by the Year of Jubilee.
Click here to sign up to receive the EXTRAs via email each quarter.
© 2024 Scripture Union U.S.A. All rights reserved. Reproduction of the whole or any part of the contents without written permission is prohibited.
Discovery is published in the USA under license from Scripture Union England and Wales, Trinity House, Opal Court, Opal Drive, Fox Milne, Milton Keynes, MK15 0DF.