Jubilee

Following on from the instructions on Sabbath in Leviticus 25, God gives instructions on The Year of Jubilee. This event was supposed to take place every 50 years in Israel - after 7 x 7 years. Essentially it was the year when debts were cancelled. If at any point you had fallen on hard times and had been forced to sell either your land or yourself, as a slave, then the Year of Jubilee was the year when you got your land back or you were freed from slavery. Future generations of your family were not saddled with the consequences of your misfortune.

Now depending on your perspective this is either a really good or a really bad idea. For those at the bottom, clearly it is a good thing - a year to look forward to. But for the rich and the wealthy clearly it would not be looked on in the same way - how are you supposed to build up a property portfolio if every 50 years you're supposed to give everything back?

It is perhaps no surprise that there is little or no evidence in the Old Testament that the Year of Jubilee was ever celebrated as God intended. We do find a possible reference in Jeremiah 34:8-11. Here it seems as if the people become aware that they have not been doing what they're supposed to do, and so they let their slaves go - but afterwards they changed their minds, and enslaved them all again.

What we think about the Year of Jubilee very much depends on the perspective from which we read. But we should never forget that God is concerned for the poor and the powerless, and his disciples we are called to that love and concern too.