In the previous message we have seen something concerning the age of the jubilee. The jubilee refers not only to a day or a year but to an entire period of time. In typology the jubilee lasted a year, but in fulfillment it refers to the entire New Testament age and the millennium. To God’s chosen people, the entire New Testament age is the age of the jubilee. In this message, we will consider another crucial point, the possession of the jubilee.
The Bible calls the fiftieth year among the Israelites the year of jubilee. In that year every owner was returned to his lost possession, and everyone who had sold himself as a slave regained his freedom. Exodus 1 shows us that when God’s elect, the Israelites, fell into Egypt, they not only lost their possession but were afflicted and enslaved by Pharaoh, king of Egypt. This is a picture depicting the condition of fallen man. A person living on the earth has two things: himself and his possessions. Whatever a person has can be put into one of these two categories. We all have ourselves; in this respect we are all equal. With regard to our possessions, however, we are not equal; some may have houses, lands, stocks, bank accounts, a wife, children, and grandchildren as their possessions. However, fallen man has lost everything and even sold himself as a slave.
The children of Israel fell from the good land into Egypt, the land of slavery, and eventually they lost everything. The land of Canaan that God had given to them was no longer theirs. It was not that the land left them but that they left the land. They left their possession, the good land of Canaan, and brought everything with them into Egypt. After losing the good land, they lost themselves; they had no freedom and became Pharaoh’s slaves. This is the fullest type in the Bible depicting fallen mankind. According to this picture, as fallen mankind we have lost our possession, and we have also sold ourselves, becoming slaves who own nothing. This was the situation of the children of Israel in the land of Egypt, and it is also the situation of the entire human race.
In the previous message, we defined the Chinese term for jubilee as everything being to our satisfaction. In the jubilee, all things are pleasant and satisfying to our heart, and we are free from anxiety, at ease, excited, and exultant. In English, the word jubilee denotes a rejoicing, a joyful shouting. The Hebrew word for jubilee is yobel, which means a joyful noise, a shouting with the blasting of a trumpet, and a proclamation. It is a proclamation not of sorrow or lamentation but of the gospel, the good news of great joy.
When the children of Israel, God’s chosen people, fell into a pitiful situation, God came to redeem them through Moses out of the land of Egypt that they might gain their freedom. When God led them out of Egypt, He performed a great miracle by separating the waters of the sea for them to pass through. Then, when they crossed the Red Sea and saw their enemies drowned and buried, they were in ecstasy, shouting and dancing for joy. Miriam led them to sing with great jubilation on the bank of the Red Sea. Fighting was the men’s job, whereas singing was the women’s specialty. We should be women in this way before God, and the more excited we are, the better. We should not remain in oldness, embracing the traditional way of Christianity, the way of having a Sunday morning service in a rigid manner. Instead, we should exult, as Psalm 100:1 says: “Make a joyful noise to Jehovah, all the earth.” In Hebrew, make a joyful noise means to shout together noisily to Jehovah. However, the Chinese translators dared not translate it in this way and therefore rendered it as “shout for joy unto the Lord.” Ezra is another book in the Bible that has a record of people making a joyful noise. When the foundation of the temple was laid, after the children of Israel had returned to Jerusalem from their captivity, all the people shouted with a loud shout. They could not discern the sound of the shout of joy from the sound of weeping, for the people shouted with a loud shout (3:11-13). Some may ask, “Doesn’t 1 Corinthians 14:40 say that in the meetings all things should be done becomingly and in order?” This is true, but the Bible has not only 1 Corinthians 14 but also the Psalms. There are many verses in the Psalms that tell us to make a joyful noise and to rejoice, and not only to rejoice but also to exult and leap for joy. When the jubilee came, millions of Israelites made a joyful noise in a loud and spontaneous way, shouting with joy, even at the same time. Today choirs are orderly because they sing in a rigid way, without any jubilation, but if we all sing with excitement, it is hard to be altogether orderly.
The jubilee is an age of ecstasy. The New Testament age is an age of ecstasy, and a Christian is a person in ecstasy. Over fifty years ago, Brother Nee said, “If, as a Christian, you have never reached the point of being beside yourself, you are not up to the standard.” He added that we should be beside ourselves before God but soberminded before men. Some seize this word and say, “See, didn’t Brother Nee say that we should be soberminded?” Yes, we need to be soberminded before men, but have we ever been beside ourselves before God? The Bible has many sides; we cannot look only at one side. Yes, we should be soberminded before men, but to be soberminded does not necessarily mean to be quiet. To shout in the meetings is not to be deranged and to yell in a frenzied way. We may shout for joy and still be soberminded. On the one hand, we rejoice and make a joyful noise, but on the other hand, we are soberminded, exercising restraint. If we, as Christians, have never reached a point of being beside ourselves or being “crazy,” if we have never been in ecstasy before God, we are not up to the standard. Rather, this shows that we do not have a sufficient enjoyment of God. If we have a sufficient enjoyment of God, we will leap for joy. Even as an old man I am often beside myself before God, yet those around me may not be aware of it. It seems that I am serious every day, coming and going according to a prescribed schedule, yet God knows the real condition. We have a real reason to be beside ourselves. If there is no joy in us, we cannot be beside ourselves, but if we are always enjoying God, we will reach a point where we cannot help but be beside ourselves. In the same way, because the children of Israel enjoyed the grace of God’s all-sufficient redemption, when they crossed the Red Sea, they shouted and leaped for joy, praising and singing with a loud voice, and cheering unceasingly.
After this, God brought them through the wilderness into Canaan and allotted the good land of Canaan to them. Each tribe received an allotment of land, and each family within each tribe also received an allotment. Furthermore, each household within each family enjoyed their portion of the allotment. Therefore, once they entered Canaan, everyone possessed a portion of land. There were no rich ones or poor ones because all the households were equal, each possessing a portion of land. There was no need for anyone to become a slave because everyone was his own landlord. There were no small landlords or big landlords; they were all the owners of their own land. Moreover, they lived a wealthy life because the land was a land flowing with milk and honey.
However, after receiving their allotted portions of the land, some of them slowly declined and became lazy. Some who were gluttonous and slothful gradually became poor. They began to sell what they owned, and even after selling their land, they eventually had to sell themselves as slaves. God, who is wise, foreknew all these things, so He set up a simple ordinance. In the forty-ninth year after the children of Israel entered Canaan, the trumpet was to be blown on the tenth day of the seventh month throughout all the land. The tenth day of the seventh month was the day of propitiation. Based on the propitiation of sins, freedom was proclaimed to all the people of Israel. Therefore, if someone had sold his land, he would be returned to his land, and if someone had sold himself as a slave, he would regain his freedom. There may have been many who had sold their land and themselves. Those who had lost their possession and had become slaves must have danced and been in ecstasy when they heard the blast of the horn, the silver trumpet, proclaiming the jubilee. This shows the significance of the jubilee. God’s wisdom is immense and incredible. At the arrival of the fiftieth year, there was no more selling of land or of persons; every household had a portion of land once more. Every fifty years there was a balance of the ownership of the land; this was the fairest way to deal with the land.