The year of Jubilee for you

Over the past weekend mainly, but throughout this Jubilee year - many events have been organised throughout the UK and further afield also. This weekend - we witnessed an extraordinary Jubilee party for Her Majesty - full of celebration, ceremony and celebrities.The Queen has reigned for 70 years - the longest serving head of state - fulfilling her role as our monarch - some would say selflessly.

How did you view the weekend?

Did you think the extravagance was justified?

In the times we live - was this right?

Some are choosing between heating & eating.

Most are worried about what the future holds.

What does the Bible teach us about a Jubilee year?

Leviticus 25

8 úòCount off seven sabbath yearsîseven times seven yearsîso 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 is to return to your family property and to 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 is to be holy for you; eat only what is taken directly from the fields. 13 úòIn this Year of Jubilee everyone is to return to their own property. 14 úòIf 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 on the basis of the number of years since the Jubilee. And they are to sell to you on the basis of 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. 18 úòFollow my decrees and be careful to obey my laws, and you will live safely in the land. 19 Then the land will yield its fruit, and you will eat your fill and live there in safety. 20 You may ask, úWhat will we eat in the seventh year if we do not plant or harvest our crops?ù 21 I will send you such a blessing in the sixth year that the land will yield enough for three years. 22 While you plant during the eighth year, you will eat from the old crop and will continue to eat from it until the harvest of the ninth year comes in. 23 úòThe land must not be sold permanently, because the land is mine and you reside in my land as foreigners and strangers. 24 Throughout the land that you hold as a possession, you must provide for the redemption of the land. 25 úòIf one of your fellow Israelites becomes poor and sells some of their property, their nearest relative is to come and redeem what they have sold. 26 If, however, there is no one to redeem it for them but later on they prosper and acquire sufficient means to redeem it themselves, 27 they are to determine the value for the years since they sold it and refund the balance to the one to whom they sold it; they can then go back to their own property. 28 But if they do not acquire the means to repay, what was sold will remain in the possession of the buyer until the Year of Jubilee. It will be returned in the Jubilee, and they can then go back to their property. 29 úòAnyone who sells a house in a walled city retains the right of redemption a full year after its sale. During that time the seller may redeem it. 30 If it is not redeemed before a full year has passed, the house in the walled city shall belong permanently to the buyer and the buyer's descendants. It is not to be returned in the Jubilee. 31 But houses in villages without walls around them are to be considered as belonging to the open country. They can be redeemed, and they are to be returned in the Jubilee.

This passage gives us quite clear instructions on many dimensions:

• We have timescales
• We have instructions on what to eat
• We have direction about transactions
• We have a promise for provision

In verse 10 we read úIt shall be a jubilee for youù

In Judaism the meaning of Jubilee is a year of EMANCIPATION and RESTORATION - kept every 50 years.

Emancipation meaning - the fact or process of being set free from legal, social, or political restrictions; liberation.
Restoration meaning - the action of returning something to a former owner, place, or condition

Wouldn't it be amazing at this time of Jubilee - The Lord was to send His restoration to our country, to this world!

Imagine Restoration - No more Foodbanks - no more Cost of Living crisis - no more addiction - no more war - no more trafficking - the earth restored to its perfect condition - and the inhabitants of the earth fulfilling their creation calling - worshipping their creator, above all things

We have been gifted our own jubilee - in full - through no work of ours, other than to declare our believe in the Lord Jesus and ask for forgiveness of our sins.

We can take great encouragement in the words of this song:

These are the days of Elijah
Declaring the word of the Lord
And these are the days of Your servant Moses
Righteousness being restored

And though these are days of great trial
Of famine and darkness and sword
Still, we are the voice in the desert crying
"Prepare ye the way of the Lord!"

Behold, He comes riding on the clouds
Shining like the sun at the trumpet call
Lift your voice, the year of jubilee
And out of Zion's hill, salvation comes

Karl Reece, Partnership Manager, Scotland.