This was the Lord’s commandment to Moses for God’s covenant community, the nation of Israel.  Jubilee - the year following seven sabbatical or forty-nine years - would be a holy year.  It would be a year of freedom, a time of restoration, and a season of preparation.  In the year of Jubilee, debts would be forgiven and lands returned to their rightful owners.  In the year of Jubilee, any Jew enslaved by another would be set free.  During this holy year, injustice would be righted, oppression would cease, and the people would experience safety and fruitfulness in their land.

 

THE YEAR OF JUBILEE.  What news for the poor!  What hope for those burdened by debt!  What liberating news for every person in captivity!

 

The Jubilee Scripture, Leviticus 25, is often linked with passages in Isaiah 61 and Luke 4:18-19.