Proclaim Liberty

KEY VERSE: “Ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof; it shall be a jubilee unto you; and ye shall return every man unto his possession, and ye shall return every man unto his family.” —Leviticus 25:10

SELECTED SCRIPTURE: Leviticus 25:1, 2, 8-12, 23, 24, 39-43

IN THE Law Covenant the Lord gave to the nation of Israel, he specified that they should observe the Sabbath. We read these instructions, in part, “Six days shall work be done: but the seventh day is the Sabbath of rest, an holy convocation; ye shall do no work therein: it is the Sabbath of the Lord in all your dwellings.” (Lev. 23:3) They were further instructed that every seventh year they were to observe the Sabbath of the land. We read, “When ye come into the land which I give you, then shall the land keep a Sabbath unto the Lord.”—Lev. 25:2

Because the land was idle the seventh year, it was necessary that the Israelites reap enough the sixth year to sustain them until a crop could be harvested the ninth year. But the Lord promised to increase the harvest on the sixth year, amply for that purpose.—Lev. 25:20-22

Then extending the picture of the Sabbath, the Lord instructed the Israelites to count seven Sabbaths of years, or forty-nine Sabbaths, and on the next Sabbath, or the fiftieth, they were to declare that year to be a Jubilee. This year was to be a time of rejoicing and restitution, in which broken families were reunited and lost lands were restored. The instructions were, in part, “In the year of this Jubilee ye shall return every man unto his possession.”—Lev. 25:13

The subsequent instructions describe in detail how the restoration was to take place with justice and equity to all. This arrangement provided by God through their leader and mediator, Moses, was to be in itself a blessing to the children of Israel, but we believe it pictured a still greater blessing that God has in store for the world of mankind in his future kingdom. It is then that all men will be released from the debt of sin and its bondage and servitude, through Christ, our Lord and his church—the greater Mediator of the New Covenant.

The Lord, revealing something of his plan to Moses in a prophecy recorded in Deuteronomy 18:15-19, spoke of the raising up of a future prophet like Moses. This is quoted by the Apostle Peter in Acts 3:20-24, and interpreted by him as follows: “He shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you: whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began.” The restitution of all things involves the restoring of mankind to life, and dominion, and communion with God. These things were lost when Adam was disobedient in the Garden of Eden.

God, speaking through the Prophet Jeremiah and repeated by the Apostle Paul, tells us in more detail how restitution will be accomplished, saying: “For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people: and they shall not teach every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest. For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.”—Jer. 31:31-34; Heb. 8:10-12

The essence of God’s law that will be written in the hearts of the people is well stated by Jesus, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.” (Matt. 22:37-39) There are many things that will assist the Mediator to accomplish the work of writing God’s law in the hearts of the people. We are told in Revelation 20:2,3 that Satan will be bound so that he can deceive the nations no more. Then in Ezekiel 36:25-27 the Lord said, “I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I give you, and a new Spirit will I put within you and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments and do them.

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