What do you think? THE JUBILEE TODAY



The Jubilee on the Old Testament
  • Meaning of Jubile
Jubilee means the trumpet made from the horn of sheep. A trumpet is blown throughout the country announcing the year. Liberty and freedom will be proclaim every Jubilee year.

  • The time of Jubile
            “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 jubile 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.
And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof: it shall be a jubile unto you; and ye shall return every man unto his possession,” (Lev 25:8-10)

  • The provision for the Jubilee
Jubilee described as a time to canceled the debts, liberation of slaves, and indentured servants; land returned to original family owner[1].  The purpose of Jubilee year is to help the poor and stabilize the society[2].  There are four main provision found in Leviticus 25:8-55 about Jubilee : land return, release of Israelite slave, cancellation of debts and fallow land.

Jubilee Today
Destitution through crop failure and consequent indebtedness is still a big problem in third world countries. Slum dwellers are often destitute peasants forced off their ancestral land. How could the principle of the Jubilee be applied in their situation?

Virginia Fabella in Dictionaries of Third World Theologies states that the Third World debt refers to the massive borrowing, which has remain largely unpaid, undertaken by Third World government in the 1970's.
Indonesia for example, during the last five years, the Government of Indonesia's foreign debt has been increased. According to the data of Bank Indonesia, in 2006 the total of foreign debt of Indonesia is 132,63 billion US dollar. In 2011, foreign debt has been increased to 221,60 billion US dollars.  Indonesia has population of 230 million people, one of the five largest number of population of the world. In line with the population growth, poverty and indebtedness still become one of main development issue in Indonesia.
How to deal with poverty? The crop failure and destitution cause the poor farmers urged to sell their ancestral land rights. Poor people live in  the population increased inhabitant in slums area. The prices of land continued to rise and become unaffordable to poor farmers.
The principle of  Jubilee can inspired the church to think about their roles in reduce poverty and indebtness in the community. The church should actively participate against social problems on the society as: poverty, the problem of work and unemployment, injustice and unrighteousness in the the world.

The land is God's.
Derek Tidball in his book “the message of Leviticus” states that Jubilee speaks about[3]:
  1. Our relation to the environment: the need for rest and renewal
  2. Our mission in the world: the need for liberty and justice
  3. Our worship in the church: the need for authenticity and charity
  4. Our relations in the family: the need for compassion and support
  5. Our growth in the Spirit: the need for mercy and forgiveness
  6. Our faith in the Saviour : the need to trust Jesus
  7. Our hope in the future: the need to look forward to his coming again

Some basic principles in Jubilee regulations that repeated on Lev 25:
  • Fear God, for He is the LORD our GOD.
  • He is the LORD who brought Israelite out of Egypt to give them land of Canaan
  • Not to take advantage of each other and not to rule over our fellow brother ruthlessly

May be it is  too difficult to apply overall the principle of the year of Jubilee in the modern world. But the principles about social justice, worshipping God and pursue merciful living are a very important things to be attempted by the Christians. Christians role as salt and light to the world
The act of redemption by God to redeem the Israel from the bondage of Egypt describing about His character of love and forgiveness. Christ came into the world to save sinners and set them free from bondages of disease, all weakness, the devil, and sin. To day, it is the task of Christians to preach the good news concerning of liberty, justice, love compassion and forgiveness to those who are bound and brought them to liberty in Christ against all forms of slavery and injustice.



[1]    William S Lasor, David A Hubbard, Frederic W Bush, Old Testament Survey ( Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co,1996) p 92-93
[2]    William S Lasor et al., Old Testament Survey, p 93
[3]    Derek Tidball, BST The Message of Leviticus (Leicester: Inter-Varsity Press, 2005) p 304

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