UNDERSTANDING JUBILEE

UNDERSTANDING JUBILEE

“And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, Concerning the feasts of the LORD, which ye shall proclaim to be holy convocations, even these are my feasts. 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. These are the feasts of the LORD, even holy convocations, which ye shall proclaim in their seasons.” Lev 23:1-4

And the LORD spake unto Moses in mount Sinai, saying, 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 a sabbath unto the LORD. Six years thou shalt sow thy field, and six years thou shalt prune thy vineyard, and gather in the fruit thereof; 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. Lev 25:1-4

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. Lev 25:8-10

It is important to know that the Sabbath principle is a very fundamental part of human life and existence. Without it, life cannot attain its equilibrium. God created man on the sixth day, making him the crown of His creation after which He rested on the seventh day, christened, the Sabbath day. Thus, man began his life from the vantage of rest, after all work of creation was finished. This is very instructive. He was required only to sustain and multiply what God created. Man was expected to continue working in this rest.

It must be noted that the Sabbath did not just surface with the arrival of the Law, the principle and practice of the Sabbath – and by extension the Jubilee -  was a legislation and principle set by God in the beginning. It then means that for life to be worth living, there have to be principles of replenishing, restoration, restitution, and resurrection where death occurs.

Jubilee is a natural, universal law for the whole creation. It is a directive from God for the rest and rejuvenation of all creation. However it is only the regenerated person in Christ who can experience the fullness of jubilee, though all creation can enter into and enjoy the benefits of jubilee when jubilee men and women are manifested.

The word “jubilee” comes from the Latin word “jubilum” which is itself derived from another word “jubilo” which is related to the Hebrew word “Yobhel” (yeren ha-yobhel), meaning, “the blast of a ram’s horn”. In English, we have the word bawl. This has to do with a loud blast or a sound of great joy. It is a state of being intensely joyous resulting in wild shouts of delight or euphoria. Jubilee is usually characterized by widespread joy and celebration.

Throughout the history of mankind, God has always begun every dispensation and each new era with the jubilee. Right from creation in Genesis to the new heaven and the new earth in Revelation, God appropriates the values and characteristics of the jubilee at the inception of each new era.

Jubilee is not single day’s event or occasion (For Burundi is not just July 1), but a whole year’s affair in Israel where God instituted it. The jubilee season is therefore different from an anniversary marks the beginning of a new year and takes place on a specific day. In jubilee, it is an entire year between the two dates, which ushers the nation into a long season of jubilee the acceptable year of the Lord’s favour. The 50^th year is therefore a sanctified year in the life of a nation, or a person or institution.

The jubilee season is characterized by the following points, encapsulated here as 10 R’s. They reveal the expected experience and demands of the jubilee:

1.      Ram’s horn

2.      Repent

3.      Release

4.      Restitution

5.      Restore

6.      Return

7.      Rejoice

8.      Rebuild

9.      Revenge and

10.  Relationship

Ram’s horn

Every 50^th year, the nation is to celebrate jubilee. However, there is a jubilee cornet which was to be blown on the tenth day of the seventh month of the 49^th year to herald the jubilee and activate a number of key events which would run the length of one year culminating in the 50^th year. The blasting of the ram’s horn is therefore very significant both spiritually and physically. It would announce the release of captive slaves, lands, and resources in and on the land as well as restoration, recovery and restitution of all that was taken away or sold under duress. It announced revenge or vengeance, favour, redemption and rejoicing.

Repent

The first key event which the blasting of the ram’s horn ushers in is the Day of Atonement. It was a time to atone for the sins of the nation that has been committed over the past 49 years. Sin offerings, peace offerings and various other offerings were made to atone for both sins against God and against one another. Atonement was a prerequisite to the jubilee. Anyone desiring to enter into the fullness of jubilee should take first step in the right direction which is to repent from all sinful ways and lifestyle and enter into a personal relationship with Him through Jesus Christ.

A nation also ought to take this crucial step of repenting of corporate and national sins and be reconciled to God. Such sins that abound in the land include corruption, injustice, immorality, occultism, violence, murder, killing and greed. The assurance we have been given from the scripture is that when we do this, He will hear from heaven and forgive the sin and heal the land. Repentance therefore paves the way for the other characteristics to follow.

Release

Jubilee is a period when slaves are unconditionally released in Israel and allowed to return to their families. One of the cardinal purposes of the coming of Jesus Christ to the world is to set the captives free (Luke 4:17-19). Every imprisonment is let off, be it fear, abject poverty, cultural mindset or internal bondage. Jubilee also means a release from the habits and lifestyle that held us in bondage over the years. It is not only individual release but corporate release at every level: marriage institution imprisonment, governmental institution imprisonment, educational institutions captivity, agricultural captivity that hinders optimal yield etc. in the jubilee season, there is a special grace for release from debilitating bondages.

Restitution

To restore is to reinstate, recondition, renovate, repair and refurbish. All those who have lost property or inheritance one way or the other prior to the jubilee have them restored in the jubilee year. Jubilee thus, gives everybody the opportunity for a new beginning in their original role.

After God finished the work of creation and entered into the Sabbath, He continued to restore, rebuild, and repair. Another aspect of restoration has to do with replenishing, replacing that which has been used up. That is the work which man joined God to do. He was commissioned to tend, cultivate and keep the garden and all of creation by putting in mechanisms and methods that will disallow depletion and extinction as he subdued the earth. In the year of jubilee, when inheritance was restored and recovered and man reinstated to his original role, he was receiving a second change to yet it right, in subduing and replenishing his portion of the earth.

Return

Jubilee is a period for a return to those who may have departed from family and property for one reason or another. It is a time of great re-unions for family and friends. Two forms of returning happen at jubilee:

1.      The return to possessions

2.      A return to the family.

The family of God is the ultimate family in the universe. In the year of our jubilee, God expects the nation and individuals to return to His family through faith in Jesus Christ. All inheritance is connected to the family. God gives certain inheritances to families and not individuals. Unless we return to the family of God, we will have nothing to possess in the jubilee.

Only a father can give an inheritance. Whoever left an inheritance anywhere in the world leaves it in their paternal or maternal capacity. Be it the nuclear family, church family, national family, or racial family, there are inheritances to be restored and you must belong to that family in order to inherit them. There is nothing to possess outside God’s family. The spiritual, economic and technological blessings desired are only available within the family of God.

revenge

Revenge is a characteristic of the jubilee. It is God’s prerogative and sole right to avenge. He alone knows who truly deserves vengeance. We may think that a particular set of people should face God’s wrath and may even pray for it. However only God knows who deserves payment by vengeance. It therefore implies that the jubilee is a two-edged sword. As one edge brings about restoration, vindication and rejoicing for the righteous, so does another edge wrought vengeance and judgment on those who have pitched their camp against the purposes of God.

restitution

This speaks of compensating, making amends, refunding the full amount to the rightful owners. Jesus Christ first reconciled all things back to God as recorded in Col 1:15-20. The earth and all that is in it must be returned to its original purpose and ownership. The jubilee will mark a season when there will not only be repentance for inheritances taken away without consent, but a returning of the full amount owed. There will be a replacement of that which was taken away. Jubilee is a season of restitution, returning that which was from you, from your family, your institution and your nation Joel 2:25.

Rebuild

“And they shall build the old wastes, they shall raise up the former desolations, and they shall repair the waste cities, the desolations of many generations.” Isa. 61:4

Jubilee is a time to rebuild that which was broken down. The first thing God will rebuild is the people. This, HE will do through kingdom citizens who make themselves available in this season of the Lord. He reveals in Isa 61:3 that the jubilee man will give the people beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness that they may become trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord. When you become a jubilee man, every experience that you have passed through in your life, whether good or bad, will become an instrument to rebuild others, to encourage and exhort others in the way they should do.

relationship

“For I the LORD love judgment, I hate robbery for burnt offering; and I will direct their work in truth, and I will make an everlasting covenant with them. And their seed shall be known among the Gentiles, and their offspring among the people: all that see them shall acknowledge them, that they are the seed which the LORD hath blessed.” Isa 61:8-9

The jubilee is a season when relationships are to be built and rebuilt as the case may be. It is a covenant season between God and creation. When you enter your jubilee, God promises to renew His covenant with you and your nation. Jesus Christ, the ultimate Jubilee Man restored the broken relationship between a holy God and sinful men. He did this through the finished work on the cross of Calvary. He continues to advocate for the Saints at the right hand of the Father, continually ensuring that the relationship continues to thrive.

In jubilee season, relationship with God is restored and strengthened, relationship with family and neighbors made strong and that for foreigners reviewed. Relationships with men are to be strengthened. God releases healing, mending of broken hearts, and healing of relationships at all levels.

 rejoicing

The jubilee season is one in which God pours out a spirit of praise and worship. His promises for the season are enough to give you a boost in your faith, and joy beyond measure. Joy is balm that brings healing to the wounded and broken. The jubilee season is a period of massive joy in the nation.

This creates the environment for him to begin to minister to the people, their land, the institutions in the land in a way that they would never be able to do by themselves in any space of time. It is in that season of rejoicing that there is intense prophetic release at every level.

Therefore as we enter into the dawn of our jubilee, let us fully harness the potentials of new beginnings, restorations, liberty and rest for our lives, families, communities and the nation.

THE GLORY AND FRUITS OF JUBILEE

The Glory and Fruits of Jubilee

Despite our many daunting challenges, we still have many reasons to praise our merciful God as Burundi and other African countries celebrate their jubilee anniversaries next year. However, according to the Bible, for jubilee to be a living reality, we all need to send strong prayers of petition and intercession to the God of Heaven for His quick help and intervention. The year of Jubilee is a Sabbath of rest and full release from slavery back into family possessions. It marks a new start for all into the enjoyment of the fullness of God’s blessing and peaceful existence.

As our nation, Burundi and some other African nations mark their 50^th independence anniversary next year, we have to deliberately press forward to enter into the reality of Jubilee. Jubilee presupposes that before now, there has been enslavement, forfeiture of inheritance, oppression, servitude, unprofitable hard work, groaning and restlessness. All these and even more have characterized the life of our nation for long. We cannot continue to enumerate over and again the perpetual backwardness, infrastructural decay and negligence, senseless killings, injustice, ethnic skirmishes, armed robberies, ritual killings, bribery and corruption in high and low places, political thuggery and election riggings which have become the bane of our society.

Youth restiveness, kidnapping and criminal acts have added a serious and worrisome dimension to it in recent times. However, “…In all these things, we are more than conquerors through Him who loves us.” Rom. 8:37

The only two recorded instances in the Bible where and when Jesus Christ wept were at the grave of His friend Lazarus John 11:35 and over Jerusalem because she missed the period of God’s visitation unto her by not recognizing her time of Jubilee in Christ Luke 19:41-44.

If our Lord was physically present with us today, he probably would have wept over our nation, as well as other nations who have not been responsive to our/their own season(s) of Jubilee. Our own season of jubilee has come and we must blow this trumpet of jubilee loudly and clearly for it to give distinctive sound to adequately prepare the Church which is the harbinger of the jubilee.

THEOLOGY OF JUBILEE

“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.  Lev.25:8-11

The jubilee year were connected with the day of Atonement. Every 7^th Sabbath and every 50^th year was a Jubilee. After 7 sabbaths of years (7x7=49) there was Jubilee year.

The Hebrew word is “yobel” and means “the blast of a horn from its continuous sound; the signal of the silver trumpets, hence the instrument itself and the festival thus introduced jubilee, the ram’s horn or trumpet. The word trumpet has a root meaning of “to flow or to bring with pomp”. Similar words are watercourse, stream, produce, river outgrowth, also a cry of joy, joyful shout, trumpet signal, alarm.

From this scripture we see that liberty was proclaimed throughout the land to all inhabitants as men were set free and prison doors were opened. This 50^th anniversary of the independence of Burundi is so significant. I believe Burundi is entering her rest from the previous years of turmoil.

Holiness marked this jubilee year, which also a Sabbath year for the land. No sowing or reaping was to be done. The land was to rest. The release of all slaves also produced much celebration.

The jubilee first of all is prophetic of the Lord Jesus Christ, who came to deliver the Beggar, Brokenhearted, Bound, Blind and Bruised Isa 61:1-3, Luke 4:17-19 and to proclaim the acceptable year (jubilee) of the Lord. This year is also called the year of my redeemed Isa 63:1-4, the year of release Lev 25:1-7, and the year of liberty and so we decree that it is the year of God’s true redemption in Burundi, the year of the release of God’s mercy and Grace upon Burundi, the year of the release of Burundi from grip and struggle and struggle of the enemy and her year of liberty from endless toiling and struggle.

“But if he give a gift of his inheritance to one of his servants, then it shall be his to the year of Liberty; after it shall return to the prince: but his inheritance shall be his sons' for them. ” Ezek 46:17

Next year ultimately points to Burundi being delivered from any and every curse and thus returning to her Garden of Eden and her dominion and place on the planet earth.

“And the land shall yield her fruit, and ye shall eat your fill, and dwell therein in safety.” Lev 25:19 “Then I will command my blessing upon you in the sixth year, and it shall bring forth fruit for three years.” Lev 25:21

SOCIAL AND POLITICAL IMPLICATIONS OF JUBILEE

Next year is the year of our Jubilee; it is therefore the time for true liberation of our country from endless experiments in the hands of our cadaverous politicians. We must put an end to this vicious cycle of retrogression in the comity of nations by fielding best candidates; we must henceforth seek and support those who have recorded successes in their personal lives.

Governance has become a serious business and must be treated as such. In business, we must get positive results; there is no justification for failure. Until we manage to install viable democratic platforms, nothing would ever work here.

Today, the quality of leadership has nosedived. Leaders are picked from the dregs of society based on primordial sentiments. No man with blood flowing in his veins should wish Burundi other years in the hands of these clueless politicians. Burundi deserves much better. The solution is not too difficult if the current leadership is willing and ready to do what is right.

In summary, let us earnestly and fervently pray and trust God to bless us irreversibly with jubilee blessings, as He has blessed the nation of Ghana during their Jubilee 5 years ago, with the following blessings among others. A sudden discovery of crude oil in commercial quantities, electoral reforms and successful national elections, good leadership and Ghana has become an investors’ haven for people from all over the world, good security and world class infrastructures.

What God has done for others, He will also do for us amen.