This day has many aspects to it: Atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ; Removal of Satan Leviticus 16; A day to afflict our souls through fasting.
Leviticus 23:24 “Speak to the children of Israel, saying: ‘In the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you shall have a sabbath-rest, a memorial of blowing of trumpets [teruah], a holy convocation. [Feast of Trumpets]
Leviticus 23:25 You shall do no customary work on it; and you shall offer an offering made by fire to the LORD.’ ”
Leviticus 23:26 And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying:
Leviticus 23:27 “Also the tenth day of this seventh month shall be the Day of Atonement. It shall be a holy convocation for you; you shall afflict your souls, and offer an offering made by fire to the LORD.
Leviticus 23:28 And you shall do no work on that same day, for it is the Day of Atonement, to make atonement for you before the LORD your God.
Leviticus 23:29 For any person who is not afflicted in soul on that same day shall be cut off from his people.
Leviticus 23:30 And any person who does any work on that same day,
Ezra 8:21 Then I proclaimed a fast there, at the river of Ahava, that we might afflict ourselves before our God, to seek of him a right way for us, and for our little ones, and for all our substance.
Today let’s look at the Feast of Atonement in a joyous way
The Jubilee
Jubilee it’s a direct link to Atonement and what we are to learn from it
Doesn’t seem like something that we would be doing on this day
Land Sabbaths
Let’s talk about the seven year land Sabbath cycle by way of introduction which is necessary for understanding the Jubilee year and cycle.
Leviticus 25:1 And the LORD spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai, saying,
Leviticus 25:2 “Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: ‘When you come into the land which I give you, then the land shall keep a sabbath to the LORD.
Leviticus 25:3 Six years you shall sow your field, and six years you shall prune your vineyard, and gather its fruit;
Leviticus 25:4 but in the seventh year there shall be a sabbath of solemn rest for the land, a sabbath to the LORD. You shall neither sow your field nor prune your vineyard.
Leviticus 25:5 What grows of its own accord of your harvest you shall not reap, nor gather the grapes of your untended vine, for it is a year of rest for the land.
In much the same way that they were to take off a day in every seven to rest, they were to take off a year in every seven to do something similar. Man, if given the opportunity. would work the ground every year so that he could profit and gain from it in much the same way he would work every day of the week throughout the year. But that is not the way that man was designed and what we have here is God telling us that this is not the way that He designed the earth.
Leviticus 25:6 And the sabbath produce of the land shall be food for you: for you, your male and female servants, your hired man, and the stranger who dwells with you,
Leviticus 25:7 for your livestock and the beasts that are in your land—all its produce shall be for food.
Wouldn’t that be awesome! The Israelites worked the land and it was their means of sustaining life, but now God is saying, “Take off a year and the land will still provide for you.” Who wouldn’t want to do that? Perhaps it would take a little faith, like it sometime does to not work on the Sabbath day, but it does work.
Not only that but can you imagine everyone else around you doing the same and having the year off with you? It could almost be like the Feast of Tabernacles all year round. What a truly wonderful time it will be when the world gets back to this way of life.
Now notice this, it even gets better!
The 50th Year
Leviticus 25:8 ‘And you shall count seven sabbaths of years for yourself, seven times seven years; and the time of the seven sabbaths of years shall be to you forty-nine years.
So now after going through this seven year cycle seven times we come to the Jubilee year – an extra Sabbath year. And notice when it begins:
Leviticus 25:9 Then you shall cause the trumpet [shofar] of the Jubilee [teruah] to sound on the tenth day of the seventh month; on the Day of Atonement you shall make the trumpet [shofar] to sound throughout all your land.
The trumpet [shofar] of the Jubilee [teruah] to sound – tied into and gives it a connection and continuation from the previous holy day and the actions of it.
Leviticus 25:10 And you shall consecrate the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a Jubilee [yobel] for you; and each of you shall return to his possession, and each of you shall return to his family.
H3104 yôbêl yôbêl yo-bale’, yo-bale’ Apparently from H2986; the blast of a horn (from its continuous sound); hence the instrument itself and the festival thus introduced: – jubile, rams horn, trumpet.
H2986 yaw-bal’
A primitive root; properly to flow; causatively to bring (especially with pomp): – bring (forth), carry, lead (forth).
This blast or teruah of the shofar was to sound and bring a message of liberty and freedom to all the people! Everyone was to get his inheritance back and be reunited with family.
Most all of us have debts. We all get a reminder of that every month – if not two or more reminders because we have several debts. Can you imagine having all your debts wiped away? Some of the Israelites had to leave land, home and extended family to go and work off a debt that they had accrued. God put into place a system by which the land that He had given them would not be forever lost and also gave them the means by which they could be family once again. This is what happened during this double Sabbath year that we call the Jubilee. Not only that but they didn’t have to get back to work right away:
The Land Will Produce without Working It
Leviticus 25:11 That fiftieth year shall be a Jubilee [yobel] to you; in it you shall neither sow nor reap what grows of its own accord, nor gather the grapes of your untended vine.
Leviticus 25:12 For it is the Jubilee; it shall be holy to you; you shall eat its produce from the field.
There was no tilling the ground or going out and harvesting the crop to store it up, but it seems that the connotation is that you go out and get what you need at that time. Can you imagine going into a store and getting what you need for the day and walking out without paying….
And you get to have this kind of shopping spree for the whole Jubilee year?
Notice what else this time was about:
Leviticus 25:13 ‘In this Year of Jubilee, each of you shall return to his possession.
Leviticus 25:14 And if you sell anything to your neighbor or buy from your neighbor’s hand, you shall not oppress one another. [don’t take advantage of the situation]
Leviticus 25:15 According to the number of years after the Jubilee you shall buy from your neighbor, and according to the number of years of crops he shall sell to you.
What we are to understand here is that they were not actually selling the land, and we will see why a little bit later, but they were more or less leasing or its ability to grow crops for a period of time.
Leviticus 25:16 According to the multitude of years you shall increase its price, and according to the fewer number of years you shall diminish its price; for he sells to you according to the number of the years of the crops.
So the more years left until the Jubilee the more money that you would get for giving up your land.
Leviticus 25:17 Therefore you shall not oppress one another, but you shall fear your God; for I am the LORD your God.
One of the first things that came to my mind, got them over a barrel.
God’s Hand in It
Now notice the correlation between all of the instructions and obedience:
Leviticus 25:18 ‘So you shall observe My statutes and keep My judgments, and perform them; and you will dwell in the land in safety.
Leviticus 25:19 Then [because you have the law] the land will yield its fruit, and you will eat your fill, and dwell there in safety.
But maybe you have some concerns about this as I would because I have never seen anything like this – remember the sixth year of the cycle was the last time you planted anything and now you, God, are saying that not only do I need food for the seventh year, but also for the Jubilee year, and don’t forget that once the seven year cycle begins and I start planting I still don’t get to eat until that sown field is ready to reap. That’s a little bit scary!
Well God knew I would say that:
Leviticus 25:20 ‘And if you say, “What shall we eat in the seventh year, since we shall not sow nor gather in our produce?”
Leviticus 25:21 Then I will command My blessing on you in the sixth year, and it will bring forth produce enough for three years.
Leviticus 25:22 And you shall sow in the eighth year, and eat old produce until the ninth year; until its produce comes in, you shall eat of the old harvest.
Wow! This is what the Israelites got to see and be a part of this blessing and seeing God’s hand it in it all. This was a day to look forward to.
Next we get to why the land is “leased” and not sold
Leviticus 25:23 ‘The land shall not be sold permanently, for the land is Mine; for you are strangers and sojourners with Me.
God created the universe and all that there is in it. It is His: the stars, the planets, this Earth and all that there is in it. He created all the lands too, the lands that He set aside for those that He chooses. So this land was not for those that inhabited it before the Israelites got there, but it was set aside as a promise for them. And now that they were there it was not theirs to do with as they wish — it was God’s so they couldn’t sell it.
Servants and Slaves
Leviticus 25:39 ‘And if one of your brethren who dwells by you becomes poor, and sells himself to you, you shall not compel him to serve as a slave [ebed].
Leviticus 25:40 As a hired servant and a sojourner he shall be with you, and shall serve you until the Year of Jubilee.
Leviticus 25:41 And then he shall depart from you—he and his children with him—and shall return to his own family. He shall return to the possession of his fathers.
Leviicus 25:42 For they are My servants [ebed], whom I brought out of the land of Egypt; they shall not be sold as slaves [ebed].
Leviticus 25:43 You shall not rule over him with rigor, but you shall fear your God.
Leviticus 25:44 And as for your male and female slaves whom you may have—from the nations that are around you, from them you may buy male and female slaves.
Can you imagine the joy of this day for those who were displaced or were forced to work for others? Perhaps there was a stigma associated with it.
Summary of Leviticus 25
The Jubilee was a year of release from bondage and debt (forgiveness) and a return to the blessings of the inheritance from God. It was a time of rest – for the land and for the people. It was a marvelous system that God put into place for the salvation of Israel. It saved them from losing their land and losing their freedom.
The world does not currently have these things; it is in a state of oppression imposed by Satan society and even ourselves to a large degree
World Held Captive
1 John 5:19 We know that we are of God, and the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one.
There is a release from the bondage of Satan and the sway he has over us and the sin that he causes us to do by which we incur a debt – the penalty of sin that can only be paid by the atoning/covering sacrifice of our High Priest.
2 Timothy 2:24 And a servant of the Lord must not quarrel but be gentle to all, able to teach, patient,
2 Timothy 2:25 in humility correcting those who are in opposition, if God perhaps will grant them repentance, so that they may know the truth,
2 Timothy 2:26 and that they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil, having been taken captive by him to do his will.
Hebrews 2:14 Inasmuch then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, He Himself likewise shared in the same, that through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil,
Hebrews 2:15 and release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.
We are slaves to sin, and we are supposed to be slaves to God as we read before in Leviticus 25
Romans 6:5 For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection,
Romans 6:6 knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin.
Romans 6:7 For he who has died has been freed from sin.
Part of the understanding of the Jubilee is that you aren’t to become a slave again because God brought you out of Egypt which is sin. We aren’t to return to this.
We are to continually make sure that we do not fall back into his grip
1 Peter 5:8 Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.
1 Peter 5:9 Resist him, steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world.
Debt
Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
1 John 2:2 And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world.
John 1:29 The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!
Rest in Christ
Matthew 11:28 Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
Matthew 11:29 Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
Matthew 11:30 For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”
Because of Jesus Christ there is a different time coming:
Acts 3:19 Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord,
Act 3:20 and that He may send Jesus Christ, who was preached to you before,
Act 3:21 whom heaven must receive until the times of restoration of all things, which God has spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began.
This is what God wants for us and for all mankind
How Jesus Christ began His ministry
Luke 4:13 Now when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from Him until an opportune time.
Luke 4:14 Then Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee, and news of Him went out through all the surrounding region.
Luke 4:15 And He taught in their synagogues, being glorified by all.
Luke 4:16 So He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up. And as His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up to read.
Luke 4:17 And He was handed the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when He had opened the book, He found the place where it was written:
Luke 4:18 “THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD IS UPON ME, BECAUSE HE HAS ANOINTED ME TO PREACH THE GOSPEL TO THE POOR; HE HAS SENT ME TO HEAL THE BROKENHEARTED, TO PROCLAIM LIBERTY TO THE CAPTIVES AND RECOVERY OF SIGHT TO THE BLIND, TO SET AT LIBERTY THOSE WHO ARE OPPRESSED;
Luke 4:19 TO PROCLAIM THE ACCEPTABLE YEAR OF THE LORD.”
Luke 4:20 Then He closed the book, and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all who were in the synagogue were fixed on Him.
Luke 4:21 And He began to say to them, “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”
Some believe that this statement was made on the Day of Atonement in a Jubilee year
This is what He came to do for ALL:
TO HEAL THE BROKENHEARTED, TO PROCLAIM LIBERTY TO THE CAPTIVES AND RECOVERY OF SIGHT TO THE BLIND, TO SET AT LIBERTY THOSE WHO ARE OPPRESSED
He showed the physical Israelites; showing spiritual Israel now and will show the rest of the world soon!
Ephesians 4:7 But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ’s gift.
Ephesians 4:8 Therefore He says: “WHEN HE ASCENDED ON HIGH, HE LED CAPTIVITY CAPTIVE, AND GAVE GIFTS TO MEN.”
Psalm 68 Salvation comes from God
That is what this day is about
Leviticus 16 followed by Leviticus 25
Leviticus 16:6 “Aaron shall offer the bull as a sin offering, which is for himself, and make atonement for himself and for his house.
Leviticus 16:7 He shall take the two goats and present them before the LORD at the door of the tabernacle of meeting.
Leviticus 16:8 Then Aaron shall cast lots for the two goats: one lot for the LORD and the other lot for the scapegoat.
Leviticus 16:9 And Aaron shall bring the goat on which the LORD’s lot fell, and offer it as a sin offering.
Leviticus 16:10 But the goat on which the lot fell to be the scapegoat shall be presented alive before the LORD, to make atonement upon it, and to let it go as the scapegoat into the wilderness.
Leviticus 16:15 “Then he shall kill the goat of the sin offering, which is for the people….
Leviticus 16:16 So he shall make atonement for the Holy Place, because of the uncleanness of the children of Israel, and because of their transgressions, for all their sins; ….
Leviticus 16:20 “And when he has made an end of atoning for the Holy Place, the tabernacle of meeting, and the altar, he shall bring the live goat.
Leviticus 16:21 Aaron shall lay both his hands on the head of the live goat, confess over it all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions, concerning all their sins, putting them on the head of the goat, and shall send it away into the wilderness by the hand of a suitable man. [Revelation 20:1-3]
Leviticus 16:22 The goat shall bear on itself all their iniquities to an uninhabited land; and he shall release the goat in the wilderness.
After this (during the Jubilee year) the events of Leviticus 25 (the Jubilee and the release from bondage and debt) would transpire. After the doing away of with Satan, mankind can and will be freed from the bondage and captivity that the devil has put us in and our debt forgiven by the atoning sacrifice of Christ.
Conclusion
Now imagine a time when people will get their inheritance back and no longer be slaves
There is a freedom coming
Freedom from:
- sin and the grasp it has on us
- the pain and suffering it brings
- the ills that the world around us is experiencing
Freedom to:
- learn and live a better way
- live a liberal and full and enjoyable life.
This a day to look forward to and be joyous about!