Lesson#26

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Leviticus

September 21, 2015

Introduction

May 13, 2010

Leviticus Lesson #02

May 13, 2010

RETURN TO THE LIST OF LESSONS

LEVITICUS 25
Lesson #26
THE SABBATIC SYSTEM AND JUBILEE

• Memory Verse: Lev 25:12
• We have seen in the book of Leviticus that through the Law of Moses, God proved his love for his people by his concern over every aspect of their lives.
• Background:
  • The concern of God was not related only to the people but also to the land God gave to His people.
    • This concept of land is something the world does not understand. Other nations see land as a geographic dimensional piece of property that a society happens to inhabit at any given moment.
    • This is not the Biblical aspect of the Promised Land that God gave to the Jews.
    • In the mind of God, the Jews are connected to the land in the same way as God is connected to His people. It is an unbreakable bond tied to the agriculture of the land and directly related to how God would provide for His people.
      • We have already seen that the feast days on the calendar were tied to the passing of seasons in regards to rain, planting, and harvesting.
      • Therefore, because God loved His chosen people, he gave them the Promised Land so that He could provide for their material needs through the productivity of the land.
        • The true worship of God would reap God’s blessings by means of the productivity of the land.
        • A failure to worship God by an indulgence in idolatry or an indulgence in sexual sins would result in God’s removal of His people from the land. Removal from the land meant no agricultural provision from God.
  • Eventually this link between the Jews and the Promised Land was forged by God. They came to know that God would provide for them if they were in the land. If, because of unbelief, they left the Promised Land, they knew that they were forsaking the God who would provide for them.
  • The Jews learned this lesson by experience:
    • Abraham left the Promised Land because of a lack of faith and a famine and went to Egypt. (Gen 12:10 Gen 26:1-3)
    • Jacob’s family left the Promised Land and went to Egypt because of a famine. (Gen 42:3)
    • God removed the Israelites from the land in the Babylonian Captivity for 70 years.
    • God removed the Israelites from the land in 70 AD when the Romans destroyed the temple and scattered the Israelites.
  • Therefore, faith, the worship of God, His people, and His land are uniquely tied together in the Jewish economy around the Sabbatic system.
    • We already know that the number 7 in the Bible is symbolic and means perfection or completeness.
    • The Jewish calendar was designed by God around cycles of sevens and functioned like moving wheels.
      • Usually we think of the Sabbath as every seventh day, but we have already learned that there was more to the Sabbatic system than one day of rest a week.
      • We need to get a complete picture of the Sabbath system.

 

• The Intricate Sabbatic System:

 

• Read Col 2:16-17
• The Sabbatic System is a shadow of things to come.
  • The number 7 is the basic unit of the measurement of time to complete all things.
  • The week of Days = Creation week that established a seven day week.
    • The Sabbatic day = Every seven days was a Sabbath day of rest.
  • The week of Weeks = From the Feast of First Fruits counting seven weeks brings us to the Feast of Pentecost. (7 X 7 = 49 days) The Feast of Pentecost is also called the Feast of Weeks.
    • The Sabbatic week occurred in the 7th month of the civil calendar when they celebrated the first three feast days, the Passover, the Feast of Unleavened Bread, and the Feast of First Fruits within one week.
  • The week of Months = The first month and the seventh month of the religious calendar contained three feast days each.
    • The Sabbatic month occurred in the 7th month of the religious calendar when they celebrated the last three feast days, the Feast of Trumpets, the Day of Atonement, and the Feast of Tabernacles.
  • The week of Years = Every seven years was a Sabbath year.
    • The Sabbatic year was designated as a rest for the land when they were not to plant crops.
  • The week of weeks of Years = After counting seven Sabbatic years, the following year is the year of Jubilee (7years X 7 = 49 years)
  • The week of Millenniums = From the first creation to the creation of a new heaven and a new earth are 7 millenniums (7 X 1,000 = 7,000 years of human history)
  • The week of Ages = From the Alpha to the Omega there are 7 ages (Eph 2:7):
    • =1= The Past age
      • The creation of earth
    • =2= The Antediluvian Age
      • The flood of Noah
    • =3= The Present Age
      • Including the first and the second coming of Christ.
    • =4= The Millennial Age
      • Christ reigning on earth for 1,000 years.
    • =5= The New Heaven and New Earth Creation (Eternity begins)
    • =6= An Age to Come
    • =7= An Age to Come
• The word Sabbath means = rest.
  • Read Heb 4:1
  • The Sabbath is a symbolic construction of time begun by God and established for His people, the Israelites, to act out by way of their calendar year after year to teach us a spiritual truth.
    • What is the spiritual truth that the Sabbath teaches us?
    • Through the New Testament we learn that we must cease (rest) from our own works and enter by faith into the “rest” that redemption in Jesus Christ gives us.
• Read Lev 25:1-7 The Sabbatic Year

• Laws to let the land rest for a year:
  • They must not plant in the seventh year.
  • They must not prune the vineyards in the seventh year.
  • They must not harvest anything the seventh year even if it produced a crop naturally.
  • They could eat whatever grew naturally but they could not harvest to take a crop to market
• God’s purpose:
  • Physical benefits:
    • Letting the land lie fallow every seven years is a good agricultural practice.
    • The land will produce better and stronger crops the eighth year.
      • Modern agricultural science has discovered that it is possible to wear out the land if planted with the same crop year after year.
      • Modern agriculture uses crop rotation to avoid wearing out the land.
  • Spiritual benefits:
    • This practice of a Sabbatic year was to deter the Israelites from greed.
    • The Sabbatic year was also to encourage the Israelites to faith in God to provide for them during the seventh year.
• Israel’s failure to keep the Sabbatic Year caused God to judge them.
  • Read 2Chr 36:21
  • In 490 years of time, the Israelites failed to keep 70 Sabbatic years.
  • Therefore, God removed them from the land for 70 years in the Babylonian captivity to make up for their failure.
• Read Lev 25:8-14 The Year of Jubilee

• There were two years of Jubilee in every century.
• The year of jubilee began on the Day of Atonement in the seventh month of the religious calendar and began with the sound of a trumpet.
• This year was the year of liberty.
  • Land that was sold or mortgaged was sold or mortgaged for only 49 years. In the fiftieth year the land was RETURN ed to its original owner. Why?
    • This was God’s provision for keeping the possession of the land within the tribal unit that originally received the land when Joshua cast lots and divided the land.
    • In this way, no one became a wealthy land baron while others became poor. In other societies and nations of the world, the dividing of land was usually done by bloody revolution when one class of people became land wealthy at the expense of others.
    • God considered that He was the owner of the land and the Israelites were stewards of it.
      • Read Lev 25:23-24
      • The Israelites paid a redemption price of silver for the land to keep it free from perpetual land ownership as we know it.
  • If a person had sold himself as a bond servant because of poverty, his servitude came to an end in the year of Jubilee.
    • This was God’s provision for maintaining a middle class in society.
    • Also this was God’s provision for avoiding the hopelessness of a permanent institution of slavery for life.
  • If a person had borrowed money, the debt was cancelled in the year of Jubilee.
    • This was God’s provision to make sure that his people were not continually in debt.
    • Read Pro 22:7
  • If a person had borrowed possessions, they must all be RETURN ed to their owner.
    • This was God’s provision for an economic balance in society.
    • The year of Jubilee applied to the Israelite and to the stranger in the land.
  • The year of Jubilee followed a Sabbatic year where they were not to plant anything or harvest anything for market.
    • Notice that they were also not to plant or harvest in the year of Jubilee.
    • Therefore, it took double faith to trust God to supply for their needs for two years without planting crops.
      • Read Lev 25:20-21
• The spiritual lesson for us today:
  • Read Luk 4:17-21
    • The “acceptable year of the Lord” is the year of Jubilee.
    • Jesus said that this scripture was fulfilled by Him in that day. Therefore, Jesus Christ is our Jubilee.
  • The Old Testament year of jubilee was God’s way of having the Israelites act out the spiritual liberty that the believer has in Jesus Christ.
    • Read Joh 8:32 and 36
    • Read Gal 5:1
    • The final and ultimate fulfillment of the year of Jubilee will be the millennial reign of Jesus Christ on earth for 1,000 years.
• Israel’s failure:
  • The Israelites never kept the year of Jubilee because of greed and a lack of faith in God’s provision.
  • However, the spiritual lessons for us are valid and fulfilled by Christ.
• Read Lev 25:25-27 Redemption of the land

• The law of the kinsman redeemer:
  • Because of the length of time between the years of Jubilee, it was possible that the original land owner would die before he could recover the land.
  • God provided a contingency plan. A kinsman redeemer could pay a redemption price and obtain the land for the family.
    • This is the practice that we see in the book of Ruth.
    • Ruth and Naomi were widows. Naomi’s husband had lost the land and then died.
    • Boaz was the kinsman redeemer that purchased the land and was required to marry the widow.
    • In this way the property remained within the extended family.
• In Lev 25:28-34 there are small details regarding the redemption of land as to whether it is in a city or not, or if it had a wall or not. There were also special details for land belonging to the priests in the tribe of Levi.
• In Lev 25:35-37 are details about the redemption of people sold into slavery. These details show God’s love and concern for the poor so that they receive help in society and are not to be repressed and degraded.

• The bond servant was to be treated as a hired servant and not as a perpetual slave.
• The Israelites were permitted to have foreigners as slaves. This was God’s concession to the economy of that day.
• The kinsman redeemer could also redeem bond servants.
• The requirements and obligations of a kinsman redeemer:

• He had to be a close blood relative.
• He had to be able to fulfill the obligations. (He had to have money.)
• He had to be willing to fulfill the obligations.
• He had to assume all the obligations. What were the obligations:
  • He had to pay the redemption price for lost land.
  • He had to pay the redemption price for a bond servant.
  • He had to marry the widow whose husband originally owned the land.
  • He had to exact vengeance on a criminal that killed his relative. (The avenger of blood).
• Jesus Christ is our kinsman redeemer.
  • He came in the flesh to identify himself with us.
  • He has the power, the authority, and the wealth of heaven to redeem us from sin.
  • He was willing to die to purchase our redemption.
  • He is willing to assume all our obligations to meet all of our needs.
  • He will take vengeance on our enemy, Satan.

HOMEWORK
Leviticus 26 and 27
This is a self-study. Please do not send homework answers to the teacher forcorrection.

• Application of Lev 25
  • As you consider the spiritual lessons regarding the Sabbatic Year, in what ways have you not been resting from your own works to trust in Christ for your provision?
  • As you consider the spiritual lessons regarding the year of Jubilee and the kinsman redeemer, in what ways do you see Christ come to your aid when you need him?
• Preparation for Lev 26 and 27
  • Read Lev 26:1-46
    • What would bring God’s judgment on the people? (26:14-15)

• Read Lev 27:1-34
  • Read Mat 5:23-27
  • What is the New Testament principle for making and keeping vows?

• Memory Verse: Lev 26:12