Series on Old Testament Festivals and Sacred Days – Year of Jubilee
(Click on the
link below to read the verses.)
Leviticus
25:8-13; Luke 4:14-30
[Many of the
festivals and sacred days from the Old Testament don’t seem to be relevant for
us today. They may have been significant for the Jews at the time, but not now.
In this series, we’re going to take a closer look at the festivals and sacred
days to learn what the significance was for the people of Israel at the time.
And to learn what the significance is for us today.]
Golf was never a game that I played very much. But
when I did, there was a loophole that I often took advantage of. It was called
a mulligan. The Google definition of a mulligan is “an informal second shot taken
without penalty; most famously used as a ‘do-over’ shot in casual golf”.
That was exactly what I needed. For me, a mulligan meant
getting another shot when my initial one hooked to the left into the rough or sliced to the right into a pond. I needed lots of mulligans! It was a way for
me to reset my game.
Israel had been immersed in the Egyptian culture for
430 years. Of those, 400 were as slaves oppressed by the ruling class. After
the Lord freed Israel from Egypt, they spent almost a year at Mount Sinai.
During that time, the Lord gave Moses the law and
commandments for the new nation of Israel. Included in this was the Sabbath which
set aside the seventh day as holy; the Sabbath Year which set aside the seventh
year for rest; and the Year of Jubilee.
This was to be observed after seven Sabbath Years.
In other words, seven times seven, or forty-nine years. Then in the fiftieth
year, the Year of Jubilee was to be announced when a rams’ horn was blown on
the Day of Atonement.
During the Year of Jubilee, liberty was proclaimed across
the land as Israelite slaves were to be freed; land was to be returned to the
original ancestral owners; debts were to be canceled; and the land was to rest
during the whole year.
The Year of
Jubilee was a year of redemption. It was a god-designed reset intended to restore
Israel’s economic, social and spiritual life. In effect, it was a mulligan. And
even though there is no Biblical or other historical record that the Year of
Jubilee was practiced in full, Israel had very high expectations of it.
Keeping in mind
that Israel was living under Roman rule and oppression, they believed that when
the Messiah came that he would put an end to Roman rule, restore their land and
install their own government. It would be the Year of Jubilee.
When Jesus spoke in the synagogue in Nazareth, he
read from Isaiah 61. For him, it was an announcement of his ministry as the
Messiah, as well as the “ram’s horn announcement” of the Year of Jubilee.
18 “The Spirit of
the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the
poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of
sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, 19 to
proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” NIV Luke 4
Jesus’ interpretation of Isaiah 61 was
significantly different than that of most Jews. His was a spiritual reset. It
was a spiritual mulligan. It’s a mulligan that he still offers us today. And in
turn, we are to offer it to others.
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