Tues.’s Devo - The Year of Jubilee

Read: Leviticus 24:1-25:46; Mark 10:13-31; Psalm 44:9-26; Proverbs 10:20-21 The menorah in the Holy Place was to be lit all the time from pure olive oil brought by the people. Twelve flat loaves of unleavened bread were to be laid out every week on the Table of Shewbread. These loaves were to be eaten by the priests every day. They were made of two quarts of flour each so they were big enough to last all week. They were stacked six to a stack each loaf representing a tribe. Eating from this bread represented them living by the law. An incident happened where a man was fighting with another man and one of them cursed the name of the Lord. The guilty man had an Egyptian father and an Israelite mother. They put the man in custody till they could hear what God had to say about it. He told Moses to take the man outside the camp and have all that heard the man’s blasphemy put their hands on his head, sending his curse back to him. Then the whole community was to stone him. God gave other instructions about murderers of men and animals and consequences for harming another person. The general rule was an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. When they got to the land that the Lord was giving them they were to let the land rest in the seventh year. They were to not plant or prune their vineyards during that year. During that Sabbath year they were to eat what the land produced on its own. They were to count seven of these Sabbath years and when it got to the fiftieth year they were to have a special celebration on the Day of Atonement. A ram’s horn was to be blown and that year would be called a jubilee year. In the Year of Jubilee, all the land would be returned to the original owner. This was to be taken into account when selling land. It was worth more if it was bought many years from a jubilee year and worth less the closer it got to that year. Land was never sold on a permanent basis because God was the owner of the land and they were only tenant farmers for him. If they did need to sell their land they were to first ask a family member to buy it. If he couldn’t then he could sell it to another but his goal was always to buy it back. It would return to him at the Year of Jubilee. The only exception was if you bought a house in a walled city. Then the transaction was permanent. The exception to that rule only applied to the Levites who always had the right to buy back land that had been allotted to them. The land around Levitical cities could never be sold it was their permanent land. God promised to bless the sixth year so much that they would have enough for the seventh year. If an Israelite had to sell himself as a slave, he was to be treated as family if another Israelite bought him. At the Year of Jubilee he was free to go home. If a foreigner was bought as a slave he was considered property that would stay in the family forever. These laws are still in effect. I wonder how our lives would be different if we observed them? In Mark, a man came running up to Jesus asking what he could do to inherit eternal life. Jesus perceived that he was a man of the law so he told him to follow the law. He told Jesus he did. Jesus felt compassion for him because here was a man who perceived that it took more than just following the law to have eternal life. So Jesus gave him something to do that he knew he wouldn’t do. He told him to sell all he had and take up the cross and follow him. The man left sad and grieved. Jesus told his disciples that it was hard for a man that had riches here on earth to enter the kingdom of God. He wasn’t sayin it was hard for a wealthy man to enter the kingdom but it was hard for a man who put his trust in his riches to enter into the kingdom. Then he gave the secret the man had really asked but he left too soon for him to hear it. He said with man it is impossible but with God all things are possible. It wasn’t something we can do to enter eternity with God it is who we are. If we are dead to ourselves and have taken up the cross of Christ then it is easy to enter the kingdom. The reward for giving up everything on this earth is a hundredfold in the world to come. Lord, may we freely give all for your kingdom. May we enter into your Jubilee.