Jubilee

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Call in the New Testament

Jesus and His Calls in Ministry
Live in the light of God (Isaiah 2:5) 

 

Called to Proclaim

 

Leviticus 25:8-17
New International Version

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 will return to your family property and 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 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 based on the number of years since the Jubilee. And they are to sell to you based on 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.

For Reflection

The Jewish peoples were identified as individuals, families, clans, and tribes. Their economic systems are compatible with their need to sustain the integrity of the bloodlines. The land was assigned by lot.  Therefore, the estate of the clan was restored each Jubilee.  This systematic reset ensured the economic and social survival of the cultural sustaining imperative. The land was paid in full at the purchase time, so there was no debt to be forgiven. The land ownership did not change. The properties were "leased" for a specific term. There was no redistribution of wealth (land) and it did not result in income equality.

The system preserved freedom and individual liberty.  The practice prevented one from taking unfair advantage of another.  It was systematically institutionalized redemption, the grand year of Grace.

Pray

Pray, and contemplate the potential for a systematic, institutionalized Redeeming Justice.

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