The benefit of freedom – Part 1

Every so often, nations go through years of historical landmarks.

For many countries, the most significant is the year of independence from external control or subjugation, when a nation attains freedom and assumes self-rule.

For Israel, a significant year is the year of jubilee. They were specifically commanded to “hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof: it shall be a jubilee unto you”.

The Lord had been giving them years of rest for forty-nine years. The fiftieth year is the year of jubilee. As our nation celebrates the 60th independence anniversary in four days’ time, our equivalent of the Jewish jubilee, there is a need to understand what Jubilee means for individuals and families. The passage reveals that the year of jubilee was a year of celebration of freedom, unlike all other years. Those who have cried under servitude all through the years before the jubilee had their tears wiped away as they experience and enjoy the blessings of jubilee.

There are several blessings to expect from the Lord as individuals and families in the year of jubilee. Therefore, it is a time to forget the past and focus on the future; it is a time of fulness of God’s blessings. Fulness is the same thing as perfection or completeness.

The year of jubilee is a year of (i) Rest. When Jesus brought jubilee unto the weary He said, “Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavily laden, I will give you rest.”

For those who have come to know the Lord, their jubilee has begun. All the heavy yokes are taken away. (ii) Return and reunion for families that have been scattered by winds of adversity. The year of jubilee is not a time to be looking down or looking back and be sorrowful because a new day of a reunion has begun. (iii) Restoration of all that has been taken away unlawfully. In the year of jubilee, the people of the Lord shall possess their possession. “I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten, the cankerworm, and the caterpillar, and the palmerworm … and ye shall eat in plenty, and be satisfied”. (iv) Redemption.

Jesus, the Redeemer, came to establish the fulness of the proclamation and to grant redemption to everyone who comes to Him from oppression, sin, sickness, and curse of the law. (v) Relief from heavyweight, yokes, burdens of heart, sickness, pain, problem, anxiety. (vi) Reckoning of all blessings which have accrued to your account but have not been claimed. Claim your inheritance because they are yours in this year of jubilee. (vii) Release. Jesus Christ came to set prisoners free and to release those who had been in the bondage of sin, and to take their place by making Himself a ransom for them.

Further Reading (King James Version): Leviticus 25:8-13; Leviticus 25:11-13,4,5,10; Isaiah 60:4; Leviticus 25:13,27,28; Joel 2:25,26; Leviticus 25:24; Romans 3:24; Hebrews 9:12,14; Leviticus 25:35; Psalm 146:7-9; Leviticus 25:50; Romans 4:7-10; Leviticus 25:54,55; Matthew 27:17,20,21,26.