“Then you shall sound the loud trumpet on the tenth day of the seventh month. On the day of atonement, you shall sound the trumpet throughout all your land and you shall consecrate the fiftieth year and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you, when each of you shall return to his property and each of you shall return to his clan.”
-Leviticus 25:9-10
So Leviticus 25:9-10 describes one of the most powerful celebrations in all of the Old Testament, the year of jubilee. I wish we had time to go into all the details of this but just picture this. Every 50th year on the day of atonement. So this day when people of God celebrate how their sins have been covered. The goat taken away out in the wilderness, a picture of their sins being removed from them completely.
There’s a trumpet blast that is sounded throughout all the people of God, and what happens is there’s a restoration of people’s property in such a way that the poor who may have lost property along the way in the previous 50 years, it’s restored all of a sudden. This is a good day for those who are poor, for those who are in need, for those who are struggling. It’s a good day for everybody. They’re celebrating the forgiveness of their sins, the atonement of their sins before God, and they’re celebrating basically a new start for everybody in the community and so it’s just this day of joy and freedom being proclaimed through a trumpet blast all throughout the people.
Jesus has covered our sins and brought us from death to life. In Him we have freedom and joy. May we spread this jubilee to the ends of the earth.
Leviticus 25:9-10 Can be Compared to Luke 4
So what’s really awesome is when you look at this picture in Leviticus 25:9-10. And then you turn over to the New Testament and Jesus, when he’s beginning his ministry in Luke 4. If you remember, he was in a synagogue on the Sabbath day. And he finds in the scroll of Isaiah. He unrolls it, begins to read it and he says, “The spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he’s anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives, recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor. That’s a direct allusion to the year of jubilee.
Basically, Jesus comes on the scene at the beginning of his ministry and says, “I am jubilee. I bring forgiveness of sins and I bring freedom to the captive, good news to the poor, new starts for everybody. Jesus is jubilee so Leviticus 25:9-10 just beckons us to praise God, to pray, oh God, thank you. Moreover, Lord Jesus, we praise you for the freedom, for the joy that you bring, for the new start you give. Oh God, I think about it in my own life, all my sin, all my rebellion against you. The fact that Jesus came to remove it all, to cover over all that sin and to give me a new start.
Spreading the Good News
I praise you for a fresh start in my life. I praise you for that in other’s lives, God, for the new start you give. You’ve made us new creations. The old has gone and the new has come. We are new people in Christ. New identities in Christ. That will last forever. Oh God, the freedom and the joy that are found in you, we praise you, we glorify you and we pray you help us to proclaim it. So God, we pray that you would cause that trumpet blast to resound from our lives and our families and our churches. God, help us to proclaim the good news of salvation to those who are in sin. We pray for that this week.
God, help us to share this good news with somebody else, how they can be free from their sin, how they can have a new life, a new start. Help us to share that with somebody this week. God, help us to make this known among the nations. We pray for the spread of jubilee. Of joy and freedom through our lives, families and churches. Even as we enjoy this new life and joy and freedom that you have given to us. All glory be to your name Lord Jesus. You are jubilee. So it’s in your name we pray. Amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
