back

“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. Then shalt thou cause the trumpet of the jubile to sound on the tenth day of the seventh month, in the day of atonement shall ye make the trumpet sound throughout all your land. And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof: it shall be a jubile unto you; and ye shall return every man unto his possession, and ye shall return every man unto his family. A jubile shall that fiftieth year be unto you: ye shall not sow, neither reap that which groweth of itself in it, nor gather the grapes in it of thy vine undressed. For it is the jubile; it shall be holy unto you: ye shall eat the increase thereof out of the field. In the year of this jubile ye shall return every man unto his possession.” Leviticus 25:8-13

 

The mystery of Israel’s year of Jubilee has been a source of much amazement and bewilderment throughout the centuries. It was originally introduced by God back at Sinai when He established the national covenant with Israel.  Jubilee happens after seven sets of seven complete years and is a proclamation of a fiftieth “liberty” year occurring on one of God’s annual feast days known as the Day of Atonement.  During this cycle it is a time of great celebration as every person receives back their property and debts are forgiven

            Here is Wikipedia’s definition:

“The Jubilee (Hebrew yovel יובל) year is the year at the end of seven cycles of shmita (Sabbatical years), and according to Biblical regulations had a special impact on the ownership and management of land in the Land of Israel; there is some debate whether it was the 49th year (the last year of seven sabbatical cycles, referred to as the Sabbath’s Sabbath), or whether it was the following (50th) year. Jubilee deals largely with land, property, and property rights. According to Leviticus, slaves and prisoners would be freed, debts would be forgiven and the mercies of God would be particularly manifest.”

 

One thing you may not know is that Jesus began his ministry with a quote about Jubilee. He states in Luke 4:16-19, “He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day and stood up to read. And there was given Him the book of the prophet Isaiah . . . “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me; for this reason, He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal those who are brokenhearted, to proclaim pardon to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to send forth in deliverance those who have been crushed, To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.”  Jesus was quoting from Isaiah 61:1-2. That said, it is also possible that Jesus’ ministry could have started during a Jubilee year.

 

Another interesting fact is that the Liberty Bell–the iconic symbol of American Independence–was inscribed with Leviticus 25:10, the very Scriptures referring to the year of Jubilee. Though the U.S. has never followed the Jubilee Law I find it intriguing that the bell received its first crack in 1835, which occurred roughly fifty years after the American War of Independence ended in 1783.

Today Jubilee is not celebrated by Israel however it still holds prophetic significance. In the video below Prophecy In the News’ Dr. Kevin Clarkson and Dan Goodwin discuss the significance of the upcoming 50 year Jubilee cycle and how it pertains to end time prophecy….

 

Prophecy in the News Part One:

Prophecy in the News Part Two: