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T H E K I N G ' S B U S I N E S S
August, 1936
The YEAR of JUBILEE B y LOUIS.S. BAUMAN* Long Beach, California
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The Prophecy of the Old Liberty Bell N ine years o f the writer’s life were spent in a pastorate in Philadelphia. Many a time have we stood beside the old Liberty Bell in Independence Hall and meditated upon the inscription that, in raised letters, encircles it : P roclaim L iberty T hroughout A ll the L and U nto A ll the I nhabitants T hereof .®-L ev . X X V , 10. W e have never doubted but that God Himself put it into the mind and heart of the bell-founder to place those words there when this bell was cast, twenty-three years before it proclaimed its message o f freedom on July 4, 1776. The
upon this fact, the International Standard Bible Encyclo paedia says: Perhaps they signally failed in it, and if so, we should not be surprised at all. Not that the institution in itself was cumbered with any obstacles that could not have been overcome, but what is more common than unbelief and unwillingness to trust absolutely in Jehovah? It is expressly declared that Israel “ could not enter in [to rest] because o f unbelief” (Heb. 3 :19 ). Centuries upon centuries, they have wandered helplessly and almost hope lessly, in sorrow and tears, hated and despised in lands where they have been and are strangers. Is it because they, through unbelief, failed to enter into their jubilee ? “ Let us
prophecy engraved by man on the copper o f that old bell failed not. Verily, that same prophecy engraved by God in His immutable Word shall not fail. The year o f jubilee shall com e! T he Y ear of J ubilee No careful reader o f God’s Word can fail to observe therein the con tinual use o f the number “ 7.” With God every seventh day was a holy day. Every seventh year was a holy year. When seven sevens o f years passed— then came the greatest of all sabbatic years — the year o f jubilee. There was to be neither sowing nor reaping nor pruning of vines during a sabbatic year. That year the people were to live on that which the fields volun tarily produced. There was to be no storing up. Then, when the seventh sabbatic year came, they were to do the same for the year that followed— even the year o f jubilee. Two years thus were to pass, the forty-ninth and the fiftieth, when the people were to live by faith in Him who had prom ised. “ What shall we eat the seventh year ?” (Lev. 25:20) was the question that went forth. The answer of Je hovah was simple: “ Then w ill I com mand my blessing upon you.” And in this year o f jubilee they were to re lease their slaves and restore all alien ated property— no easy command ment with which the carnal nature was to comply.
labor therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example o f unbelief” (Heb. 4 :11 ). Israel failed, but the purpose o f God shall not fail. There shall yet arise an earthly people who shall walk in faith, and shall glorify Him by entering into the year o f jubilee. The jubilean prophecy o f our God shall not fail. Inquiring into the meaning o f this word “ jubilee,” we find that Webster says that our English word originates from the Hebrew, “yobel,” meaning a ram’s horn, or a trumpet. This is significant, for it is written that when the seventh angel shall sound the seventh and last trumpet, then shall the scripture be fulfilled: “ The king doms o f this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and o f his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever” (Rev. 11:15). Then shall the great year o f jubilee come, and the weary world shall enter into its millen nial rest. In that day, the shackles will be struck from every slave in all the world. Even thus it was written: “ Y e shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim, lib e r ty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof . . . he shall go out in the year o f jubilee, both he, and his children with him" (Lev. 25:10, 54). T he C oming and the R ejection of the G reat E mancipator Human slavery has been one of
The city of Jerusalem, here viewed from the Mount of Olives, is to be the center of mighty changes, for when the risen Son of David reigns in Jerusalem, "Jacob shall return, and shall be in rest, and be quiet, and none shall make him afraid" (Jer. 30:10; cf. 46:27).
The question may be asked: Did the Jewish people ever really observe this sabbatic year? They may have done so in pre-exilic times. There is a tradition, however, that it was never observed, neither in the days o f Ezra nor o f Nehemiah nor at any later period. It is worthy of note that Josephus, while often referring to the sabbatic year, never once mentions the year o f jubilee. Commenting *Pastor, First Brethren Church.
the most terrible curses mankind has known throughout all the ages. Two millenniums ago, a slave was not regarded as a human being. He had no freedom o f will, no claim to justice, and no endowment o f virtue. He was utterly without rights, and his master could flog or crucify him for any trivial offence. When dead, he was cast into a pit with dead animals. Even women, in the heyday o f man’s boasted Greek and Roman civilization, found pleasure in torturing
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