Jesus, Your Jubilee
/Hebrews 4:1-12 NASB
CHAPTER 4
The Believer’s Rest
1 Therefore, let us fear if, while a promise remains of entering His rest, any one of you may seem to have come short of it. 2 For indeed we have had good news preached to us, just as they also; but the word they heard did not profit them, because it was not united by faith in those who heard. 3 For we who have believed enter that rest, just as He has said,
“AS I SWORE IN MY WRATH,
THEY SHALL NOT ENTER MY REST,”
although His works were finished from the foundation of the world.
God did the work of creation and then rested
Jesus, did the work of the new creation and then sat down
4 For He has said somewhere concerning the seventh day: “AND GOD RESTED ON THE SEVENTH DAY FROM ALL HIS WORKS”; 5 and again in this passage, “THEY SHALL NOT ENTER MY REST.” 6 Therefore, since it remains for some to enter it, and those who formerly had good news preached to them failed to enter because of disobedience, 7 He again fixes a certain day, “Today,” saying through David [Psalm 95] after so long a time just as has been said before,
“TODAY IF YOU HEAR HIS VOICE,
DO NOT HARDEN YOUR HEARTS.”
8 For if Joshua had given them rest, He would not have spoken of another day after that. 9 So there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God. 10 For the one who has entered His rest has himself also rested from his works, as God did from His. 11 Therefore let us be diligent to enter that rest, so that no one will fall, through following the same example of disobedience. 12 For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
There is a release in the rest of God, a liberty that comes from faith in the work of God!
Psalms 122:1
PSALM 122
Prayer for the Peace of Jerusalem.
A SONG OF ASCENTS, OF DAVID.
I was glad when they said to me,
“Let us go to the house of the LORD.”
Leviticus 25:1-13
CHAPTER 25
The Sabbatic Year and Year of Jubilee
1 The LORD then spoke to Moses at Mount Sinai, saying, 2 “Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them, ‘When you come into the land which I shall give you, then the land shall have a sabbath to the LORD. 3 Six years you shall sow your field, and six years you shall prune your vineyard and gather in its crop, 4 but during the seventh year the land shall have a sabbath rest, a sabbath to the LORD; you shall not sow your field nor prune your vineyard. 5 Your harvest’s aftergrowth you shall not reap, and your grapes of untrimmed vines you shall not gather; the land shall have a sabbatical year. 6 All of you shall have the sabbath products of the land for food; yourself, and your male and female slaves, and your hired man and your foreign resident, those who live as aliens with you. 7 Even your cattle and the animals that are in your land shall have all its crops to eat. He is saying, “Trust Me! I will take care of you!”
8 ‘You are also to count off seven sabbaths of years for yourself, seven times seven years, so that you have the time of the seven sabbaths of years, namely, forty-nine years. 9 You shall then sound a ram’s horn abroad on the tenth day of the seventh month; on the day of atonement you shall sound a horn all through your land. 10 You shall thus consecrate the fiftieth year and proclaim a release through the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you, and each of you shall return to his own property, and each of you shall return to his family. 11 You shall have the fiftieth year as a jubilee; you shall not sow, nor reap its aftergrowth, nor gather in from its untrimmed vines. 12 For it is a jubilee; it shall be holy to you. You shall eat its crops out of the field. 13 ‘On this year of jubilee each of you shall return to his own property.
A return home. Have you ever been on a long trip away from home, and you were just ready to get back home? Have you ever been away from the Lord spiritually for some length of time, during which you felt far away and couldn’t get back home, and then the Lord came for you and rescued you and brought you home? It was in those moments that we were excited to hear them say:
Psalms 122:1
I was glad when they said to me,
“Let us go to the house of the LORD.”
We should find rest in the house of the Lord because the presence of rest is in the house of the Lord! His name is Jesus. And He has come to give us rest. If church is a chore, something is wrong. Something is either wrong with your church, or something is wrong with your heart. If someone thinks it’s their church, they should find a place where church isn’t a chore, a place where they can worship and serve the Lord, because the people of God are supposed to want to be in the house of the Lord!
What happens many times is that people are in a condition of spiritual slavery and they bring that with them to church. They think it’s the church, but it’s really their spiritual condition. In this spiritual condition, they carry around with them a spirit of division. Division breeds confusion. God is not the author of confusion or chaos. God’s presence brings unity. God reconciles, brings unity and releases from spiritual bondage. You are supposed to be in the house of God. God’s people are not intended to live separate from one another. We are spiritual, lively stones being built up to be a house of praise. [brick illustration]. Some people will even say to themselves, “I just want to go to church somewhere where no one knows me and I can stay to myself.” That’s not how the body of Christ is supposed to function. Does it matter to us that it is God’s will for us to love one another?
1 John 2:9-11
9 The one who says he is in the Light and yet hates his brother is in the darkness until now. 10 The one who loves his brother abides in the Light and there is no cause for stumbling in him. 11 But the one who hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going because the darkness has blinded his eyes.
25:8-13
Every seventh sabbatical year (i.e., every 49th year) was to be followed by a Year of Jubilee (yoveil, perhaps originally meaning “ram” or “ram’s horn,” taken from the horn blown to announce the year, but the LXX took it to mean “release”) which (though apparently begun on the first day of the seventh month) was officially announced by a trumpet blast on the 10th day (i.e., the Day of Atonement,
When you receive a spiritual jubilee, you get to go back home into the loving arms of the Father. You can feel again His presence and His love. Communion through the Day of Atonement— the blood of Jesus restores us into the presence of God.
Interesting, bad decisions whether morally or financially resulted in the loss of property and family. Isn’t this true today in reference to moral decisions that we make towards sin. When we transgress God and His ways, it opens the door to the power of sin and allows the intrusion of Satan’s power into our lives?
I just need to say this right now—Satan has no power over you! If you are a true believer tonight, you have been purchased by the blood of Jesus. The “old man” you used to be, died with Jesus, was buried with Jesus, and a “new man” has been raised to a new life in Christ!
There has been a Jubilee proclaimed over your life. The Lord has announced a release!
The motto for the year was to proclaim liberty (i.e., release) throughout the land with the primary purpose of getting family property and the family back together again (vv. 10, 13). This meant that all property (except in walled cities, cf. vv. 29-30) was to be restored to its original owners (i.e., tenants, cf. v. 23), and all Hebrew slaves were to be released to return to their family property. Also, as during the preceding sabbatical year, the land was to enjoy a second straight year of rest (vv. 11-12; cf. vv. 4-7)
25:18-22.
God’s blessing in the land was promised for obedience to His laws, both freedom from want and freedom from war (v. 19; cf. 26:3-13; Deut. 28:1-14). This was particularly applied to the obvious fear an Israelite would have in the face of two successive years of neither planting nor harvesting his crops (Lev. 25:20). God promised an abundant harvest in the sixth year, sufficient to carry over until the harvest of the ninth year comes in
This would require faith…
Can we believe God by faith to take care of you? Or do we have to practice business like the world? Do we have to sue people?
Do we have to lie on our taxes to get ahead?
Do we have to get vengeance against people that have done us wrong?
Do we read the words of Jesus?
Jeremiah 29:10-14 NASB
10 “For thus says the LORD, ‘When seventy years have been completed for Babylon, I will visit you and fulfill My good word to you, to bring you back to this place. 11 For I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the LORD, ‘plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope. 12 Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. 13 You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart. 14 I will be found by you,’ declares the LORD, ‘and I will restore your fortunes and will gather you from all the nations and from all the places where I have driven you,’ declares the LORD, ‘and I will bring you back to the place from where I sent you into exile.’
There is a principle here that is alive and ongoing. God is a promise keeper. He has good plans and thoughts towards His people. He is a God of restoration. It’s His people that repeatedly, through the years venture outside of His will and go their own way in an attempt to fulfill the desires of their own hearts, but in so doing, they forget who is sovereign, they forget who is God and who is man. They attempt to take matters into their own hands, and when they do that, they take their matters out of the hands of God, and it’s these decisions that result in the loss of blessings that result in the times of bondage and lack of freedom.
2 Chronicles 36:20-21 NASB
20 Those who had escaped from the sword he carried away to Babylon; and they were servants to him and to his sons until the rule of the kingdom of Persia, 21 to fulfill the word of the LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed its sabbaths. All the days of its desolation it kept sabbath until seventy years were complete.
What we see here is the fact that the Babylonian captivity was more about God’s people not respecting His land than it was their spiritual adultery with false gods. Please don’t misunderstand what I’m saying… God is not okay with us living in the world and living like the world. God’s purpose for His people is that they would live a separated life towards Him. This exalts Him and allows the world around US to know that He is real. It brings glory to His name and gives the lost an opportunity to know the truth and also be saved.
Lying, lying on our taxes, not giving God His tithes and offerings. Cussing around others who cuss. Drinking around others who drink. When in Rome, do what the Romans do. What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas. No, those are lies! Its just an overall disregard for the things of God and living life in such a way that God and His word is not preeminent or the most important thing.
We can agree to disagree that tithing in the New Testament is not biblical. Some people are convinced of that and that is their position. That is not my position and that is not what I believe the word of God says. Abraham paid the first tithe to Melchizedek before the nation of Israel ever existed, before there ever was a law, Abraham was given a problem that His seed, Jesus would be a blessing to all nations, and when Abraham was blessed by Melchizedek the king of peace, king of righteousness, he paid a tithe to him. Levi, the father of the Levitical priesthood paid tithes to Melchizedek when he was in the loins of his grandfather Abraham. Take some time with that and get back with me.
The reason that I took a little time with tithing is because it’s similar to the Jubilee
We can disagree that it’s not New Testament, and if that’s your position, I will never convince you otherwise, but don’t tell me that it’s because you can’t afford it, because that’s like Israel not letting the land rest.
Going back to the cause of the captivity being a result of not resting the land.
Leviticus 25:23
The Law of Redemption
‘The land, moreover, shall not be sold permanently, for the land is Mine; for you are but aliens and sojourners with Me.
God had a reminder towards Israel that the land was not theirs, their belongings were not theirs, their lives were not theirs. All that they were and all that they had belonged to God. God reminded them that they were strangers with Him in the land. Isn’t that an amazing thought?
Q: What do you think that He meant by that? That He was an alien on the very earth that He had created? What does that mean?
A: humanity in Adam delivering his authority over this domain to Satan and that God works within the free will of man.
That is really what I wanted to focus on is the Jubilee and the freedom of the people and their “property”…
Exodus 21:1-5 NASB
CHAPTER 21
Ordinances for the People
1 “Now these are the ordinances which you are to set before them:
2 “If you buy a Hebrew slave, he shall serve for six years; but on the seventh he shall go out as a free man without payment. 3 If he comes alone, he shall go out alone; if he is the husband of a wife, then his wife shall go out with him. 4 If his master gives him a wife, and she bears him sons or daughters, the wife and her children shall belong to her master, and he shall go out alone. 5 But if the slave plainly says, ‘I love my master, my wife and my children; I will not go out as a free man,’
Exodus 21:6
then his master shall bring him to God, then he shall bring him to the door or the doorpost. And his master shall pierce his ear with an awl; and he shall serve him permanently.
True submission to God says that I will not live my life according to my own will and my own desires. My Master Jesus purchased me with His own blood. I am His property. What I have actually belongs to Him. My time, my money, my family, my desires, my plans…
Lord, you have been too good to me, I cannot leave. In the words of Peter:
John 6:67-69
67 So Jesus said to the twelve, “You do not want to go away also, do you?” 68 Simon Peter answered Him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have words of eternal life. 69 We have believed and have come to know that You are the Holy One of God.”