Mon.’s Devo - Jubilee

Read: Leviticus 24:1-25:46; Mark 10:13-31; Psalm 44:9-26; Proverbs 10:20-21 In the Holy Place, the part in front of the Holy of Holies where the ark was there was a table called the Table of Shewbread. On this table were placed 12 loaves of unleavened bread for the priests to eat. It was their meal they had with the Lord and it was an expression of God’s eternal covenant with them. God calls us to come and dine with him so this was the picture of what we do when we sit and open God’s Word and eat it with the Lord. One day, a man who had an Israelite mother and an Egyptian father cursed the Name of the Lord. He was brought before Moses to be judged. Moses sought the Lord and the Lord said he must be stone by all who heard his words. He would stand for any Israelite or foreigner who did this in the future since he stood for both. This was a violation of the third Commandment. Next he dealt with the fifth Commandment: Thou shalt not murder. The penalty was death whether you were an Israelite or a foreigner. God explained the fourth Commandment and extended the Sabbath to the land. The land was to enjoy a Sabbath Year every seven years. This would give the land time to replenish its minerals and strength it had given the six years of planting. God promised to give them an abundance of crops the sixth year so it would carry them into the ninth year! They would replant the eighth year and harvest the ninth. God proved he could do this with the manna he had sent them from heaven. This would extend to years also. Every seven Sabbath Years were to be counted off. That is every fifty years. On the Day of Atonement every 50 years, they were to celebrate the Year of Jubilee. (I don’t remember ever reading where they did this. We will have to pay attention this year to see if we see that happen.) In the year of Jubilee everyone was to return to the land that belonged to their ancestors. All slaves were set free and all debt was forgiven. The price of a slave or land was determined on how far away this day was. It was God’s financial reset. The land was never sold on a permanent basis because the land was the Lord’s. We are just travelers passing through. Land in a walled city was different than land in a field. Land in a walled city represents people who live with walls enshrined in religion and man-made laws. Those who live free live under heaven’s laws. Levites, the set-apart ones always had the right to buy back a house even sold in Levite towns. They were the only ones who had permanent possessions. Selah! They were given strict instructions on how to treat people who were poor and forced into slavery. God made it clear that the people of Israel were his servants who he bought out of slavery and they were not to be sold as slaves again or treated harshly. They were only allowed to treat foreigners as slaves, but never their brothers and sisters. Foreigners represent demon spirits. They are to serve us and we are not to be enslaved by them. They have to bow because we carry the name of Christ. In Mark, once again, Jesus used the children to explain the kingdom. The disciples wanted to shoo them away but allowed a rich man to run up to him. Jesus showed that it wasn’t the rich he came to save though it was totally possible through God, it was the poor and child-like. The ones who can come into the kingdom are those who give up all this world has to offer and want something that they cannot see. Lord, help us to choose what is greatest to You. May we love what you love and hate what you hate.