Daily Devotions
The Year of Jubilee
Reading for February 5th: Leviticus 24-25
“And you shall consecrate the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you, when each of you shall return to his property and each of you shall return to his clan.”
Leviticus 25:10
The year of jubilee was when all of the land was to be returned to its original owners. Also, anyone who was sold as a slave would be set free in this year. The idea was that everything (both the land and the people) belonged to God and Jubilee was when things were to return back to the way they should be (25:17, 38, 43, 55).
When Jesus came to His hometown of Nazareth He entered the synagogue and read from the prophet Isaiah:
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim the good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” (Lk 4:18-19)
Jesus then proceeded to announce that this Scripture was being fulfilled in Himself (Lk 4:21). What Jesus did for us on the cross is fulfill the year of jubilee. He returned things to their rightful place. He restored and delivered us from our captivity to sin (Rom 6:6-7; 8:11, 15).
Our duty is to go forth and announce to the captives that there is freedom. Evangelism is essentially an announcement of Jubilee.
“All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.” (2 Cor 5:20)
Father, thank you for setting us free in Christ Jesus. Give us opportunities to tell this good news to others!
