The Year Of Jubilee

“Then shalt thou cause the trumpet of the jubilee to sound on the tenth day of the seventh month, in the day of atonement shall ye make the trumpet sounds throughout all your land. And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof; it shall be a jubilee unto you; and ye shall return every man unto his possession, and ye shall return every man unto his family.” —Leviticus 25:9–10

We know that Jesus did not come to dwell among men until four thousand years of human history had been written; but Christianity began with creation and before it, for He was the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. Throughout all the centuries before Christ, God was preparing the human mind to comprehend the meaning of the great atonement that He would make in the sacrifice of His own Son on the cross of Calvary. Every offering, every sacrifice upon those Jewish altars portrayed in symbol the great Offering that would be made once for all and forever by Christ Himself when He came in the flesh. I think all these offerings were pointing forward to the place called Calvary.

It is a good thing to keep in mind that the Old and New Testaments of the Bible constitute the complete revelation of God to man , and they are necessary to each other. Someone has aptly expressed it: “The New (the New Testament) is in the Old contained; and the Old is in the New explained.” If we would keep that in mind, I am sure the Bible would be of greater value and of deeper interest to us.

Important Typology

Some weeks ago, I preached from the sixteenth chapter of Leviticus on the day of atonement. In that sermon, I tried to show how the offerings on that particular day and the especial duty of the great high priest showed forth the complete and finished work of Jesus Christ for us upon the cross. You will remember that just at the close of that sermon, we reminded you of the fact that the application is directly and literally to Israel as a whole; that on the great day of atonement the sins of the people were not carried away by the scapegoat until after the high priest came out from behind the veil in the holy place. It took the two goats to give us both aspects of Christ’s atoning work. When the one was slain to make atonement the high priest went in behind the veil with the blood, and not until he came out from behind the veil could he, in symbol, place the sins of the people on the head of the other goat. But when he did this, their sins were borne away into that trackless, wayless desert to come back no more forever.

The sins of Israel still remain as when Jesus ascended. The atonement has been made, but the Great High Priest is still within the veil. When He comes forth, they are going to look upon Him and a nation will be born in a day. Will not that be glorious? I will be glad when that day dawns.

I want you to see that the typology of that sixteenth chapter is of importance. Probably you have observed the remarkable way in which the figure seven is inwrought in things sacred. The most casual reader of the Bible cannot but observe that from the beginning of the Bible to the end of it special emphasis is placed upon the number seven. If you will bear with me, I will call your attention to something that is significant and sacred.

Significance Of The Number Seven

In the very beginning of the revelation, we read that God rested on the seventh day which was called the Sabbath. Noah was given seven days in which he was to get all the clean animals into the ark and there were to be seven of each kind. After all were in the ark, there were seven days before the flood came. The occupants of the ark—Noah and seven others—were there for seven days. It was on the seventeenth day of the seventh month that the ark rested on Mount Ararat and the dove was let out, and, finding no place to rest, returned to Noah. At the end of seven more days, the dove was sent out again and came back with an olive branch in its mouth.

In Pharaoh’s dream, he saw seven fat kine (or cattle) and seven lean kine. When he asked Joseph for an interpretation, Joseph told him that the seven fat cattle represented seven years of plenty and the seven lean cattle that ate up the seven fat cattle represented seven years of famine. Joseph warned Pharaoh in the seven years of plenty to make preparation for the years of famine.

In many of the Jewish feasts, seven animals were slain and many of the feasts lasted seven days.

The temple of Solomon was seven years in building and they took seven days to dedicate it.

The Jews were to be in captivity in Babylon for seventy sevens of years.

In the prayer which Jesus taught His disciples, beginning, “Our Father which art in heaven,” there are seven petitions.

When He was crucified, He hung on the cross just seven hours.

Christ’s seven letters to the churches, which set before us church history from its beginning at Pentecost until it shall be completed at the coming of Christ, were sent to seven churches in Asia. The “book” referred to in Revelation was sealed with seven seals and there were seven vials of wrath poured out. Seven angels sounded seven trumpets.

If God did not write this Book, evolution has never produced a man that can write one like it. I think the evolutionary theory is contradicted by that very fact. If God did not write it, where is a genius like God? This record confirms the fact that God has a plan and a pattern to which He is working.

The Sabbatic system is also remarkable. The seventh day was to be the Sabbath. The seventh month of the year was to be the great day of atonement; and the seventh year was to be a Sabbatic year. Following the seventh-seventh of years (the forty-ninth year), the fiftieth was to be the year of jubilee.

If you will take the trouble to read this book of Leviticus (although some friends tell us there is nothing of interest in reading these Old Testament books) you will surely receive divine illumination and blessing. Wonderful books are these Old Testament Scriptures!

And if you will read chapters twenty-four and twenty-five especially, you will find a strong moral link between them. Indeed, we have before us in symbol in these two chapters a great truth that no power on Earth or hell can obliterate. How any man can read these stories and doubt the inspiration of the Bible is a puzzling thing to me.

What do we find in the twenty-fourth chapter? Here is the presented in symbol the truth that the whole house of Israel was being preserved for the land of Canaan. In the twenty-fifth chapter we read that the whole land of Canaan is being preserved for Israel. “All Israel shall be saved”; and the counterpart is also true: “The land is mine and it shall not be sold forever.” It is a great thing to keep those truths before us. Where will you find a people or a nation like the Jews? Where will you find a land under the sun that has the history and the distinction that the land of Palestine has had? These things stand as a testimony to the authenticity of God’s Holy Book.

The Specific Meaning

What does it mean when Jehovah says, “The land is mine and shall not be sold forever”? Does not the Bible say also that “the earth is the Lord’s and the fulness thereof”? When He says, “The land is mine and shall not be sold forever,” it means that God has taken possession of the land of Canaan and He has marked it off in a most remarkable way. Indeed, it is thrilling to contemplate the history of that wonderful land. Let us keep in mind that even before there was a Hebrew, before God gave Abraham a son, God said to Abraham, “I am going to give you this land and I am going to give it to you FOREVER.” God made a covenant that that land should be Abraham’s and Abraham’s seed forever. And God gave them all of it.

Israel never possessed all of their inheritance. The boundaries of that land were about five times greater than they ever realized. The Nile and the Euphrates were to bound it. God gave them this land forever, but they never possessed it all. Time and again, they went in only to be driven out and carried into captivity. Now for nineteen hundred years they have been out of that land. Where have they been? Scattered and peeled, cursed, despised, and persecuted, but ever standing as witnesses, as monuments to the authenticity of God’s Word!

God Is True To His Word

Read the twenty-sixth chapter and see how God states what will happen if they do not obey, if they turn to idolatry. Their safety, security, and strength was in walking with God; and while they walked with Him, no weapon formed against them prospered. He would have subdued their enemies. The haters of the Lord would have scattered themselves and He would have fed His people with the finest of the wheat and satisfied them with honey out of the rock. “But,” He says, “ye would not hear, so I gave you up to the ways of your own heart.”

That is the history of Israel—but listen. The great truth that I am trying to bring to you is that He is going to regather them again and they shall be brought from all parts of the earth to the land of their fathers. Is it anything to you? Is it not wonderful to know that you and I are living in the hour when Jehovah is regathering His people that have been out of their possession for nineteen hundred years? If it does not signify anything else it signifies that the Jewish fig tree is putting forth its shoots again.

A man who had just returned from a trip in the East said to me a few years ago in Canada, “I was over in Palestine and I can’t see what folks want to go over there for. They call it the Holy Land. Goodness, it is the most God-forsaken hole I ever saw in my life!”

God said He would make it barren for the land, as well as the people, would be under a great curse. And it is so.

Sacred Soil

But, beloved friends, God is regathering the people to the land. In spite of what that man said, there is no bit of earth on the face of the globe that is so sacred to Almighty God as the land of Palestine or the land of Canaan. Why do I say that? First of all, it was in that little land that He deigned to come and dwell among His people. He put His throne there and dwelt among that people. It was in that land His Son was born. It was in that land He lived and wrought for thirty-three years. It was there He was crucified. It was there God’s Son died on the cross of Calvary. It was there He was buried in a tomb and there He arose again from the dead. And from Mount Olivet in that land He ascended and went back to heaven. To that very mount, Zechariah tells us, He is going to come again and His feet shall stand upon its soil once more. Wonderful! Oh when I think of it, beloved friends, I say, “Blessed be God for evermore!”

I know that seas of trouble will flow over the Holy Land. I know there is coming a dark night for Palestine, but in the midst of that dense darkness He will suddenly appear and they will look on Him and ask Him for an explanation of the nail prints in His hands. He will reply, “I received these in the house of my friends.” And they shall mourn for Him as one mourned for an only son. And a fountain shall be opened in the house of David for sin and uncleanness, and a nation shall be born in a day. He will rebuild, according to Acts fifteen, the throne of David that is fallen down and they will crown Christ King.

You say, “I don’t believe it.” You don’t have to. But God Almighty has revealed that He has a definite purpose and a plan in all this darkness and sin, and the knowledge of that fact gives one courage to go on. A brighter morning is coming. The golden day for which the world is waiting—and I believe the world IS waiting for a golden day—will dawn full soon. I believe the yearnings of socialists and bolshevists and others are really longing for a better day. I am not saying they are right. They are wrong. Every man who, by force, tries to bring a better day in any other way than by bringing Jesus Christ back to Earth to reign, is on the wrong track.

What a Redeemer we have in Jesus Christ; what a Restorer; what a Uniter of human hearts!

The Joy Of Reunion

Thinking of the jubilee, I can almost imagine mothers whose boys had gotten into trouble, sold into serfdom, away for five, ten, twenty years; mothers who were living in poverty because their homes were sold for debt. I can see those Hebrews, especially the mothers among them, looking down the road and saying, “He will be here today. He will have heard the jubilee trumpet; he will come home today.” I see captives and slaves set at liberty, gathered in their mothers’ arms. I look again and I see them sitting about the home fires—a picture of that great Home gathering bye and bye.

I was in Canada during the war [World War I]. I do not like to talk about the war for it was a great nightmare to me. Every time the telephone rang, no matter what the message was, it seemed as though our hearts would break. We were afraid of that terrible telegram: “A son is seriously wounded. Will you go and tell the wife or mother?”

But one morning, on the eleventh day of the month, at the eleventh hour (and isn’t that a significant thing?” an armistice was signed. In our delight, we acted like fools. We saw bankers and judges and lawyers shouting for joy. Then very soon, our boys began to come home and every day we searched the steamship lists for familiar names. I cannot tell you the joyous hours and the great scenes we saw. I cannot tell you the wonderful thrills we had. We saw our brave lads get off the train. Some were carried in. Some were without arms; some were without eyes. But they were home!

The clasping of our boys to our hearts and in our arms—those boys who have faced danger and sorrow and death—that is great joy. Thank God, there is a Home beyond this vale of tears where many of our loved ones dwell and some of these days we will go there too. If I, as a father, am concerned about my soldier boy and wonder when he is coming home, surely God in heaven feels that way about us. I will want to know if my boys are following me there. And oh, to see them—even though “saved as by fire,” even though they come maimed in the great battle of life—when they get Home they will never go out any more! Jesus Christ has made it possible for us all to be together in the home beyond the skies.

To me, heaven is a very real place and salvation is the most practical thing under the sun.