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Scripture Reading: Lev. 25:8-10, 39-41; Luke 4:16-19; 2 Cor. 6:2; Gal. 5:1; Matt. 11:28; John 8:34, 36; Acts 26:18; Rom. 8:1-2, 19-23
In these messages we will consider the year of jubilee. The Chinese term for jubilee is not found in traditional Chinese writings; it was invented by the translators of the Chinese Bible, which is one of the best translations in the world. In the early days some of the Western missionaries who came to China knew the Bible in its original Hebrew and Greek languages. After their arrival in China, they learned the Chinese language and desired to translate the Bible into Chinese. As they were translating the Bible, each of the missionaries would retain a top Chinese scholar as his assistant. According to their knowledge of the original languages of the Bible, the missionaries would first use spoken Chinese to express the meaning in the original languages and then ask their assistants to compose into proper writing what they had expressed in spoken Chinese. Whenever they encountered a word or phrase that did not exist in Chinese, they had to invent a new word or phrase. Many of these uniquely created terms are popularly used today and are exceptionally valuable, such as the Chinese equivalents for Jesus, Christ, justification, redemption, sanctification, and jubilee. We truly thank and praise the Lord for the newly invented vocabulary in the Chinese Bible.
Many people do not realize the difficulties encountered in translating the Bible into Chinese in the early days. Many phrases in the original languages of the Bible do not exist in Chinese. For example, certain phrases in the original text of the Bible have the meaning of in, such as in God, in love, in the light, in life, and in Christ. However, such expressions using in do not exist in Chinese phraseology. Instead, Chinese expressions use by, through, upon, and other such words. In Chinese we say “walk by love” instead of “walk in love.” We do not say that one person is in another. Rather, we say that one is by or through another person or that one depends upon another. Yet, in is a crucial word in the Bible. Therefore, the missionaries found it very difficult to translate the Bible into Chinese. Nevertheless, after much consideration they began to adopt expressions using in. Thus, we can see expressions such as in Christ and in love in the Chinese Bible. Still, many times the Chinese Bible does not use in but by. In the Chinese Bible walk by love, for example, equals walk in love. Nevertheless, walk in love has a deeper denotation. We are saved in Christ, not merely by Christ, that is, not merely by depending upon Christ. For example, when taking a steamboat, we sail on the sea not by depending upon or hanging on to the boat. We would soon lose our strength to hang on to the boat, especially if a strong wave came along. Rather, we sail on the sea by staying in the boat. In the same way we are saved not merely by depending upon Christ but by being in Christ.
In the Chinese Bible the term hsi-nien for the year of jubilee is a new invention. Hsi-nien is a good term, yet most people do not understand what it means. Since this particular term was invented during the translation of the Bible into Chinese, we need to go back to the Bible for its original meaning. In the Bible this term is complicated. The first time it is mentioned is in Leviticus 25. At that time the children of Israel had been redeemed and delivered by God out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Formerly, they had fallen into the land of Egypt and were serving as slaves under Pharaoh, having neither freedom nor an inheritance. This typifies that, as the descendants of Adam, we fell into the world and became captives of Satan and slaves of sin. Egypt typifies the world; Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, typifies Satan; and the children of Israel typify God’s people enslaved in the world. Today people in the world have fallen into the hands of Satan to be slaves of sin. They have no freedom or rest; instead, they are toiling every day. Today not only peddlers and porters but even prominent officials and distinguished persons are toiling. Everyone is toiling; the only difference is how they toil. However, the Lord Jesus as our real Moses was sent by God to deliver us out of the land of slavery into Canaan, a land flowing with milk and honey. This good land, the land of Canaan, is Christ Himself.
Through Moses God told His people that He would bring them into a land flowing with milk and honey. Both milk and honey are produced by a combination of two kinds of lives — the animal life and the vegetable life. Milk is produced by cattle, which are of the animal life. However, milk cannot be produced by the animal life alone; it also needs the vegetable life — grass. Thus, milk is a product of the animal life nourished by the vegetable life. The principle is the same with honey. Bees are animals, but without flowers, the plant life, they would not be able to produce honey. Therefore, the phrase milk and honey indicates that the good land is full of cattle, bees, grass, and flowers, not snakes and beasts. The good land flowing with milk and honey indicates that this land is full of the animal life and the plant life. In type, Christ is the issue of these two kinds of lives. When John the Baptist saw the Lord Jesus, he said, “Behold, the Lamb of God” (John 1:29); this speaks of the animal life. The Lord referred to Himself as a grain of wheat that died (12:24); this speaks of the plant life. He is the mingling of two kinds of lives to produce milk and honey. All this signifies that Christ as the good land is full of life, rich to the uttermost, to be our supply for our enjoyment.
God brought His redeemed people out of Egypt, through their wandering in the wilderness, into the good land of Canaan, the land flowing with milk and honey. After the children of Israel had conquered the land, God, through Joshua and the high priest, divided the good land of Canaan into twelve different portions, and each tribe was allotted a portion. The descendants of Joseph received a double portion through Manasseh and Ephraim, whereas the tribe of Levi received no inheritance of land. The land allotted to each tribe was not according to each one’s own idea; it was altogether God’s decision as to which tribe would be in the north, which tribe would be in the south, and which tribe would be in the middle. Moreover, the allotment to each tribe was according to families. Thus, each family was allotted a piece of land, and each one in the household enjoyed the inheritance of the land. Therefore, when the Israelites entered into Canaan, everyone had their own portion. There were no landlords or capitalists, and neither were there paupers, beggars, or debtors.
The Israelites were redeemed and blessed by God and eventually were brought into the good land of Canaan, and each family was allotted their portion of the land. Under God’s care, not only were the Israelites blessed, but even their land was blessed. Every seventh year the land did not have to yield its produce. In that year the Israelites and the land were to rest. In the seventh year no one sowed his field, because this was the year ordained by God as the Sabbath year. Then after seven Sabbath years there was the Pentecostal year, the fiftieth year. The Pentecostal year was not just a Sabbath year; it was beyond human description. Because of this, the translators of the Chinese Bible struggled to invent the Chinese term hsi-nien for the year of jubilee to describe it. After the Israelites entered the land of Canaan, every fiftieth year was a year of jubilee to them. Fifty years signifies the entire course of fallen human life. The year of jubilee, which is the fiftieth year, signifies the conclusion of our fallen human life.
As we have seen, the Israelites were redeemed by God; they left Egypt, journeyed through the wilderness, and entered into Canaan. After entering into the land of Canaan, each family received a portion of the good land flowing with milk and honey for their rich enjoyment. However, some of the people were lazy and gluttonous. Lazy people like to eat, but they do not like to work. To be sure, one who is lazy and gluttonous becomes poor. In ancient times the people did not have much to sell, so when they became poor, they sold their land. However, if the land had been sold permanently, in just a few generations there would have been an extreme disparity between the rich and the poor. Therefore, God told the Israelites, “The land shall not be sold in perpetuity, because the land is Mine; for you are strangers and sojourners with Me” (Lev. 25:23). They were not to sell their portion of land, the possession that they had received from God, into permanent ownership. This is unlike the sale of land today, in which once land is sold, it is sold forever. The longest duration for which a piece of land could be sold was fifty years. After a man sold his land, in the fiftieth year, the year of jubilee, he as the original owner would receive back his land.
Furthermore, some of the people were so gluttonous and lazy that even after selling their land they were still in poverty, and they had no alternative but to sell themselves as slaves. Nevertheless, when the year of jubilee arrived, they no longer remained slaves but obtained their release. In the year of jubilee, which the Israelites were to sanctify, they proclaimed release throughout the land to all its inhabitants, and each one returned to his possession and to his family (vv. 9-10). No one needed to pay for redemption; everyone freely recovered his possession and his freedom. Therefore, in the fiftieth year no one was without land, and no one was in slavery. Therefore, the year of jubilee was a grace to them.
Isaiah 61:2 calls the year of jubilee “the acceptable year of Jehovah.” This can also be translated as “the year of Jehovah’s grace.” This verse is included in the Scripture that the Lord Jesus read in Luke 4:17-19, where the above phrase reads, “the acceptable year of the Lord, the year of jubilee.” In Isaiah it is the year of grace, whereas in the New Testament it is the year of jubilee. Therefore, the year of jubilee is the year of grace. Man became a vile sinner, not only lazy and gluttonous but also reckless and lawless. Laziness and gluttony made him so poor that he had to sell his possession, and recklessness and lawlessness caused him to become so destitute that he had to sell himself. Consequently, he fell into a situation in which he had neither his possession nor his freedom. However, in the year of jubilee every owner is returned to what he has sold, and everyone regains his freedom.
Politicians and philosophers have been trying their best to find ways to meet the needs of people, but the more “isms” they invent, the more people suffer. What the Bible teaches is far better than any theory or “ism.” What we need is not a theory or an “ism” but the coming of the Lord Jesus into mankind. In His coming He was anointed by Jehovah to announce the gospel to the poor, and He was sent to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to send away in release those who are oppressed, and to proclaim the year of God’s acceptance of man, the year of jubilee, which is the year of grace. The year of jubilee is the time when God forgives and accepts man.
As a type in the Old Testament, the year of jubilee is recorded in Leviticus 25, and as a prophecy it is found in Isaiah 61. The type was given about fifteen hundred years before the coming of the Lord Jesus, and the prophecy was given about seven hundred years before His coming. During this time, however, the Jews were altogether ignorant of the significance of the year of jubilee in Leviticus 25 and the year of grace in Isaiah 61. Over the years they simply kept the regulations of the law according to their tradition, worshipping on every Sabbath day and going to the synagogues to listen to teaching. But one day the Lord Jesus came, and on a particular Sabbath day He entered the synagogue, picked up the scroll, and opened it to Isaiah 61, which prophesies that God would anoint the Lord Jesus with His Spirit to announce the gospel to the poor and to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, the year of jubilee. Then Jesus said, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing” (Luke 4:21). The Jews bore witness to Him and marveled at the words of grace proceeding out of His mouth (v. 22). However, to this day they still do not understand the true meaning of these words of grace.
Today we understand the true significance of the words of grace spoken by the Lord. God created man with the purpose that man would be a vessel to contain Him for His expression. Hence, immediately after man was created, God gave Himself to man to be man’s possession. The inheritance that God has given to us is God Himself. He has not given us anything other than Himself because, in God’s view, everything else is dung. The inheritance spoken of in the Bible is the inheritance among the saints to be received by all those who believe into the Lord (Acts 26:18). This is God Himself. We are those who inherit God. Therefore, after God created Adam, He did not say much to him; He simply indicated that He wanted Adam to receive Him to be his real possession. However, due to his fall, man forsook God, lost God as his possession, and fell into the world. Consequently, man sold not only his own possession but also himself.
When considering human society, we may divide human beings into three categories: optimists, pessimists, and those in between. Many optimists are dreamers and persons without sobriety, and they are filled with imaginations about everything. In the eyes of pessimists, however, nothing is good. To them, China is not good, and America is also not good. When they are in one place, they say that another place is better, and when they are in the other place, they say that the first one was better after all. Those in between are neither overly optimistic nor overly pessimistic; they are very clearheaded. They teach their children to study hard, to endeavor, to be sure to graduate from college, and to pass the English language test so that they can go to the United States to study. If they do not obtain a Ph.D., at least they receive a master’s degree. Then after getting their degree, they work even harder so that they can get married, have a family, and build up a career. However, regardless of whether they are optimists, pessimists, or in between, they have all lost God as their possession and have sold themselves to be slaves of Satan.
Ephesians 2:12 says that people living in the world today have no hope and are without God. Whether rich or poor, noble or base, civilized or barbaric, everyone is the same; all have no hope and are without God. Not only so, people today have fallen to such an extent that they have sold themselves to sin and Satan. Some people have sold themselves to sinful things, such as extravagant eating and drinking, sexual indulgence, gambling, and drug addiction. With others it may not be as obvious; nevertheless, they also have sold themselves and are therefore without freedom, having no control over their own will. Those who are unmarried think that marriage is the way to be freed from problems. After marriage, however, they discover that instead of obtaining freedom they have entered a new kind of slavery. The basic problem is that man has sold himself and lost God; thus, he has completely lost his freedom and his own possession and has become a slave. Paul says in Romans 7:14, “I am fleshy, sold under sin.” Not only the unbelievers but even many believers are still not wholly delivered from the slavery under Pharaoh.
Therefore, in the year of jubilee there are two main blessings: the returning of every man to his lost possession and the liberation from slavery. If we want to be truly free and able to enjoy God as our possession, we must receive the Lord Jesus as the real jubilee in us. If we have Him, our possession is recovered, and our freedom is returned to us. The Lord Jesus has released us so that we may have God as our possession and be delivered from the bondage of sin and Satan in order that we may have real freedom. Every one of us who has experienced the grace of the Lord can testify that before we were saved, we had no freedom and no control over ourselves. Now that we have been saved, the Lord has released us from within so that we are no longer slaves. Not only so, we have been brought back to God as our possession. The Lord Jesus said in Matthew 11:28, “Come to Me all who toil and are burdened, and I will give you rest.” We are no longer those who toil and are burdened; we are those who have freedom and enjoy rest. Furthermore, we are no longer poor; instead, we have God as our inheritance (Acts 26:18; Eph. 1:14; Col. 1:12). This is the meaning of the year of jubilee.
The Lord told Paul, “I send you, to open their eyes, to turn them from darkness to light and from the authority of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who have been sanctified by faith in Me” (Acts 26:17b-18). As we have seen, the inheritance referred to in this verse is God Himself. In 2 Corinthians 6:2 Paul says, “Behold, now is the well-acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation.” Paul exhorts us to receive the Lord right away because now is the acceptable year of the Lord, the year of jubilee. The year of jubilee is a holy year, a year of grace. If we have jubilee, we have God; if we have God, we have grace.
The Chinese word for jubilee means “everything being to one’s satisfaction.” When everything is to our satisfaction, we are in the jubilee. Jubilee means having no worry or anxiety, no concern or care, no lack or shortage, no sickness or calamity, and no problems whatsoever, but rather having all benefits; hence, everything is to our satisfaction. How is it possible today for a person to have everything to his satisfaction? Every day not everything in our human life is to the satisfaction of our heart’s desire. Perhaps things are satisfactory today, but tomorrow they may not be. Therefore, our human life is not always satisfying, and our environment is not always gratifying. Everything can be satisfying to us only after we have gained the all-inclusive Christ as our enjoyment. In Philippians 4 Paul indicates that he knew Christ and experienced Him to such an extent that everything was to his satisfaction. He says, “I have learned, in whatever circumstances I am, to be content. I know also how to be abased, and I know how to abound; in everything and in all things I have learned the secret both to be filled and to hunger, both to abound and to lack. I am able to do all things in Him who empowers me” (vv. 11b-13). It is not outward persons, matters, or things but Christ within who enables us to be calm and free of worries as we face all kinds of situations.
In the age of the Old Testament, which was the age of law before the coming of Christ, man was in the position of a slave. It was not until Christ came that He proclaimed the coming of the year of jubilee (Luke 4:16-21). It is easy to understand the year of jubilee as lasting only for a year. However, the word year implies an age. We may say that the year of jubilee refers to the age of the jubilee, not just to one year, the fiftieth year. The fiftieth year typifies an age, an era. Dispensationally, the age of jubilee is divided into two periods. One period is the New Testament age, which is the age of grace today; the other period is the age of the millennium, which is the fullness of the jubilee.
According to the dispensation, Christ has already come, so the age of jubilee is here, but we do not have the jubilee in us unless we have allowed the Lord Jesus to come into us. Thus, according to experience, Christ must come into us to be our jubilee. Not only so, even if we have believed into Christ and have allowed Him to come into us, unless we allow Him to live in us and unless we live by Him, we are not practically living in the jubilee. If we live by Christ in a certain matter and allow Him to live in us, we enjoy jubilee in that matter. In this way everything pertaining to that particular matter is to our satisfaction. In our married life, for example, if we allow Christ to live in us and we also live by Christ, then everything in our marriage will be to our satisfaction. Whatever is unpleasant becomes pleasant, and whatever is not satisfying becomes satisfying. The same is true in going to school, in teaching school, and in doing business. If we allow Christ to live in us and if we live by Him, everything is to our satisfaction. Otherwise, everything is a problem, and nothing is a jubilee. In other words, when Christ comes into us, jubilee comes into us. Do not think that just because we are saved, we have the jubilee. Christ is our jubilee whenever we live by Him, but He is not our jubilee when we do not live by Him.
The year of jubilee is Christ; therefore, the year of jubilee is the year of grace, because grace is God Himself in Christ to be our enjoyment. When we hear the gospel, we hear the jubilee. Once we repent and believe into the Lord, jubilee enters into us. From then on, at any time and in any matter, in dealing with anyone or anything, if we live by Christ, Christ is our jubilee. Sometimes we may have the painful experience of putting Christ aside and thus losing God temporarily. Once we have lost God, we have sold ourselves and become slaves again. However, once we begin anew to enjoy the Lord Jesus, we have God and we enjoy freedom. At this time, within us everything is to our heart’s satisfaction, and the jubilee is in us. We are happy and rejoicing, we prosper, and we live long. This is the meaning of the jubilee.
