Atonement
Leviticus 25:10 “And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim dliberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof: it shall be a jubile unto you; eand ye shall return every man unto his possession, and ye shall return every man unto his family.” [1]
I. Consecrate
A. Revere
B. Respond
II. Celebrate
A. Revel
B. Relay
III. Reciprocate
A. Return
B. Replace
Introduction: Last week we discovered some of the Jewish customs that God communicated through Moses concerning sin and retribution. The Jews were to carry on with their certain laws which would insure their relationship to God even after they arrived in the Promised Land,
We Christians are not under those laws today. Not so many goats are dying in sacrifice anymore. There are orthodox Jews who would be terribly offended if someone were to make light of their practices because that is what they were told by their redeemer, Moses. Moses died. Jesus lives.
Today we will to continue in Leviticus with the reparation of another broken relationship. This time though it is not between man and God but man to man; human to human actually. We have heard about this thing of reparation lately that one particular race owes repayment to another race. While the reasoning may not be right, there is Biblical background to the past.
We might not understand the idea of Jubilee but the Jews do. There are many who look at the frequency of things and they are waiting for the pendulum to swing back the other way. Many now don’t even understand about a pendulum.
There are several pendulum clocks in our house. They count the minutes which turn into hours. The old mantle clock in our living room was my Grandfather Brady’s. It has been swinging back and forth for over 130 years. If I forget to wind it each week it will finally stop until I wind the mainspring again. You see that’s truly the way creation is. God wound the spring and it is still going back and forth. One day it will stop when He decides to stop winding it. There is a certain time that He decides to rewind and all we can do is watch time move on.
Whether we accept this to be true or not; God will set things back in order when things get out of bounds. He has done it many time and until He quits winding that clock, He will right things again when He decides it’s time. This is My Father’s World! Do you remember that old song? He might allow us to have our way for a while but when the time comes He will put things back like He wants them to be. All we can do is watch and wonder.
We see things going on in other parts of the world that we think are beyond anybody’s control. People are blaming one man. Not everybody is blaming the same man though. What can we do to stop him! Who is Him? Just like the last headache that the world still has, nobody is asking God. He can stop anyone He wants to if they are not in His will. And we can’t stop anybody we want to if they are in God’s will. So what can we do? It’s the thing that most people are not doing! Pray! I don’t have His timeline. If it is fifty years how long since it began? When is fifty years? God’s speed John Glenn! Alan Shepherd was right! God’s speed! Not Putin, not Biden, not anyone but God’s timing. Why are we not praying? How long will we wait to start?
Today we will look into this idea of the Jewish Jubilee. My prayer is that it will bring home the idea that we must trust God’s timing and accept His decision on how long. How long?
Scripture: The scripture today is Leviticus 25:10. Please stand for the hearing of God’s Word.
Prayer: Please be seated
Message: Keep in mind that these things were set in place while the Israelites were not; in place that is. They wandered in the wilderness without a home for forty years while Moses explained God’s purpose. There were certain things that were temporary like manna but there were other things that the Jews held after they were established in their promised land.
Some of the ideas that God expected them to follow have spiritual reasons that we Christians don’t understand because those were finished on the cross. Some of the physical or tangible things that you can touch and feel still apply. The idea of the seven years of tending a field and then letting it rest is one that some farmers still use. Follow as we hear Leviticus 25:1-9, “And the Lord spake unto Moses in mount Sinai, saying, 2 Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye come into the land which I give you, then shall the land †keep aa sabbath unto the Lord. 3 Six years thou shalt sow thy field, and six years thou shalt prune thy vineyard, and gather in the fruit thereof; 4 But in the seventh year shall be a sabbath of rest unto the land, a sabbath for the Lord: thou shalt neither sow thy field, nor prune thy vineyard. 5 bThat which groweth of its own accord of thy harvest thou shalt not reap, neither gather the grapes †of thy vine undressed: for it is a year of rest unto the land. 6 And the sabbath of the land shall be meat for you; for thee, and for thy servant, and for thy maid, and for thy hired servant, and for thy stranger that sojourneth with thee, 7 And for thy cattle, and for the beast that are in thy land, shall all the increase thereof be meat.
8 And thou shalt number seven sabbaths of years unto thee, seven times seven years; and the space of the seven sabbaths of years shall be unto thee forty and nine years.” [2]
This idea goes all the way back to the creation of things. Genesis 1:31 “And qGod saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.
2:1 Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and aall the host of them. 2 And bon the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. 3 And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God †created and made.” [3]
So now we are finally at our focal verse. Ye shall hallow; that word means to consecrate or make holy. God is holy. He is set aside from sin and He will not be tarnished by sin. When something is hallowed there is that reference to the Lord’s Prayer. Hallowed be thy name!
Something special is supposed to happen every fiftieth year. Respond to the trumpet! Revere the event! It is hard to know where we do start the fifty year period. If we don’t know when year one was we might miss the fiftieth year. You can rest assured in this, the orthodox Jews know. Orthodox by the way means established. So-called Orthodox Jews actually do not follow the BC and AD way of keeping the calendar. To them 2022 years after the advent of Jesus doesn’t carry much importance because they don’t believe Jesus was their Messiah.
The lesson that we can learn from them is that there is a definite frequency of times. The books “The Harbinger” and “The Harbinger II” written by Jonathan Cahn pay great attention to the frequency of times from the Jewish point of view. His books serve as a reminder of what was and what may come if a reversal is not done to bring about change. That is what the word harbinger actually means; herald, forerunner, portent, omen, indication. The books are an education in Old Testament prophecy and similarities to the current events.
How many really understand that word jubilee. For those who are receiving their possessions back, this fiftieth year would certainly be a cause to celebrate. Everyone who has been in debt would revel in the awesome news that your debt has been cleared. It certainly wouldn’t be a time to keep quiet about the thing. Relay the news on Facebook! Let everybody know!
It shall be a jubilee for you! Jubilee; anniversary, celebration, commemoration, festival. Have you ever been in a service when a true revival broke out? There have been times when great numbers of people have fed off the energy of the mob and it felt like a revival but I’m not talking about that. If you have ever truly been in a revival two things happen. There are some who feel the power of the Holy Spirit and they are changed. There is another group that strongly rebukes those affected by the Holy Spirit and they will not be moved. Many times this causes the Spirit to be quenched and the group splits. The disbursed are never the same but they go and learn to trust only in God. This idea of fifty year jubilee sounds like a revival.
Some of the newer translations refer to this year of Jubilee as the year of restoration. That is not a bad translation but it misses the mark of excitement somehow. The idea that we have this feeling of gratitude within us is of more importance than just getting your stuff back. The feeling of that which is rightfully yours to have has come back feels like a secondary response. There is no giving spirit in wanting what you have lost to be returned. There have been news articles of those who lost loved ones at the hands of a murderer and later forgiving the one who took their family member. What did they get back? Their loved on is still gone?
That brings us to the last point. Ye shall return every man (and woman) their possessions. Every man will be returned to his family. That happened to me in 1997. It took me another seven years to finally realize what had been returned to me. Now I know what to cherish.
Not only are you to get back your stuff; you are to return the stuff of others to them. Everybody is to reciprocate so that things return to where they are supposed to be. If something was moved from where it is supposed to be, it is to be replaced.
Not everybody is so willing to return what they have purchased. Most people actually don’t believe that this is God’s world and we are only temporary residents here. Most people feel that whoever wins with the most stuff wins so what it theirs is theirs.
All this brings on a question; when God takes back that which he gave you for the time that you are here, are you happy that you kept it as long as you did or are you angry that you can’t keep it anymore? We’re not only talking about stuff? We’re also talking about people.
Are we talking physical reciprocation or spiritual atonement? What do you think? To return property and possessions at a set time is a unique idea that the orthodox Jews still do. To return ourselves to Jesus after a certain time of doing that which is against God is spiritual atonement. That is revival! Are you ready to thank God?
Prayer:
Invitation: John 11:32 “Then when Mary was come where Jesus was, and saw him, she nfell down at his feet, saying unto him, oLord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died. 33 When Jesus therefore saw her weeping, and the Jews also weeping which came with her, he pgroaned in the spirit, and †was troubled, 34 And said, Where have ye laid him? They said unto him, Lord, come and see. 35 qJesus wept.” [4]
Mary wanted her brother. She was so upset over losing her brother that she berated Jesus over Lazarus’ death. She didn’t show satisfaction that Jesus was there with her. She didn’t show appreciation that Jesus as God gave her Lazarus in the first place. All she did was to blame God over what she had to return back to God. Not only was Mary upset but the other Jews who were created in the image of Jesus; they were weeping too.
Is there any doubt why Jesus wept? There were many reasons for Jesus to cry that day. Are we still giving Jesus reason to weep? When are we going to finally cherish what we have here while there is time? The only thing that we will never lose is love. Are you ready to return to that? Are you ready for atonement? Consider as the pastor sings "I'd Rather Have Jesus."
d Isai. 61:1. Jer. 34:8, 15, 17. Ezek. 46:17. Comp. Isai. 61:2. & 63:4. Luke 4:19.
e ver. 13. ch. 27:24. Num. 36:4.
[1] The Holy Bible: King James Version (Electronic Edition of the 1900 Authorized Version., Le 25:10). (2009). Logos Research Systems, Inc.
† Heb. rest. So ch. 23:32.
a Ex. 23:10, 11. Comp. ch. 26:34, 35. 2 Chr. 36:21.
b ver. 11. 2 Kin. 19:29. Isai. 37:30.
† Heb. of thy separation. So ver. 11.
[2] The Holy Bible: King James Version (Electronic Edition of the 1900 Authorized Version., Le 25). (2009). Logos Research Systems, Inc.
q Eccles. 7:29. Ecclus. 39:16. 1 Tim. 4:4.
a Deut. 4:19. Ps. 33:6.
b Ex. 20:11. & 31:17. Deut. 5:14. Heb. 4:4.
† Heb. created to make.
[3] The Holy Bible: King James Version (Electronic Edition of the 1900 Authorized Version., Ge 1:31–2:3). (2009). Logos Research Systems, Inc.
n So Mark 5:22, 33. & 7:25. Luke 5:8. & 8:28, 47.
o ver. 21.
p ver. 38. So Mark 14:5 (Gk.). See Matt. 9:30. Comp. Mark 7:34. & 8:12.
† Gr. he troubled himself. So ch. 12:27. & 13:21. Comp. ch. 14:1, 27.
q Heb. 5:7. So Luke 19:41.
[4] The Holy Bible: King James Version (Electronic Edition of the 1900 Authorized Version., Jn 11:32–35). (2009). Logos Research Systems, Inc.
