God's ways of working in history are utterly fascinating. He is not given to displays of great power and force, or light-shows in the sky. He prefers a low profile, the path of weakness and obscurity. One can't retrace His footsteps even when it is clear that He has just acted--"how unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out."

"...the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.  For you see your calling, brothers, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called.  But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty;  and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, that no flesh should glory in His presence." (1 Corinthians 1:25-29)

People who expect the Bible to be a detailed scientific document, or a complete study of all aspects of human history, on earth will be sorely disappointed. God is not obligated to explain Himself to anyone. Beginning with Genesis the Biblical accounts are instead a "scarlet thread of redemption"--the account of how God is rescuing our race from itself and quietly building a restored new creation.

Starting in Genesis, after a brief account of creation and some notes about the rapid expansion of mankind after the fall of man, the Flood of Noah is covered, and then a short sketch follows on how the world was to be repopulated by Noah's three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. By Chapter 12 of Genesis the "line of redemption" narrows to the Semite Abram who lived with his family in Southern Iraq. His family had forgotten the God of their fathers (Joshua 24:2) but God had not forgotten His promises and His plans. God called Abraham as a man of 70 to journey on foot many hundreds of miles West to what is now the holy land. In response to Abraham's obedience, step by step, God made a great set of promises to him, some of which involved a plot of land. Down through history God has made promises to several groups of people as well as to Israel, but all respondents are called to exercise the same kind faith as Abraham did, and to place their faith in the same God--in Abraham's God, Yahweh (See Romans 4).

The God of the Bible is a personal God who enters into covenants with individuals and with groups of individuals. In fact we know God by His "covenant name" Yahweh (YHWH)--"I am who I am" from the verb "to be." Most of God's covenants are unconditional in that the failure of one party to perform does not nullify the covenant. An example of a conditional covenant is our bank loan for a new car. We can keep the car as long as we make the payments. But if we fail to make payments we forfeit the car. Thankfully our many failures to not cause Him to withdraw his covenantal love and mercy from us, or to cut us off altogether even when that is what we often deserve.

"For you [Israel] are a holy people to the LORD your God; the LORD your God has chosen you to be a people for Himself, a special treasure above all the peoples on the face of the earth. "The LORD did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any other people, for you were the least of all peoples; "but because the LORD loves you, and because He would keep the oath which He swore to your fathers, the LORD has brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you from the house of bondage, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.

"Therefore know that the LORD your God, He is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and mercy for a thousand generations with those who love Him and keep His commandments; "and He repays those who hate Him to their face, to destroy them. He will not be slack with him who hates Him; He will repay him to his face. "Therefore you shall keep the commandment, the statutes, and the judgments which I command you today, to observe them.

"Then it shall come to pass, because you listen to these judgments, and keep and do them, that the LORD your God will keep with you the covenant and the mercy which He swore to your fathers. "And He will love you and bless you and multiply you; He will also bless the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your land, your grain and your new wine and your oil, the increase of your cattle and the offspring of your flock, in the land of which He swore to your fathers to give you.

"You shall be blessed above all peoples; there shall not be a male or female barren among you or among your livestock. "And the LORD will take away from you all sickness, and will afflict you with none of the terrible diseases of Egypt which you have known, but will lay them on all those who hate you." (Deuteronomy 7:6-15)

The covenant with Abraham is only part of the reason for Israel's existence today, and for her assured permanent place among the nations. At the time of the Exodus from Egypt, God brought them as a nation into a special covenant (considered by some scholars to be very much like a marriage covenant). During the year they spent at Mount Sinai after they left Egypt, Yahweh explained what He was like. He outlined for them all the provisions He had made for them to live in harmony with Him so they could enjoy His full blessings forever. This covenant at Sinai is usually called the Mosaic Covenant or the "Old Covenant." ["Testament" is another name for Covenant by the way].

Just prior to their entry into the promised land, Yahweh added an additional covenant which said in effect that the right of the Jews to live in land was conditioned upon their obedience to God who was the perpetual Owner of the land. That covenant, described in the latter chapters of Deuteronomy, has everything to due with the current and ongoing crisis in the middle east between Jew and Arab.

Ray Stedman wrote,

...as an aside, this ought to settle the question now being debated in the United Nations: Who owns the land of Palestine -- the Arabs or the Jews? God says, 'Neither. It's mine. I'll put there whomever I want to put there, and I'm not waiting for the United Nations to decide. The land is mine.' (Leviticus)

The land of Israel was not rich in natural resources. Much of the land is rocky and not well suited for growing things. God intended to make it clear that He was the one who brought the winter rains, and blessed the herds and flocks--prospering his people far beyond any natural explanation. Anyone who has visited Israel in recent years will be amazed at the bountiful productivity and richness of that tiny country since the Jews have returned there in the past hundred years.

Israel was not to be noted for its great wealth, mighty army, or large,  impressive cities. Individuals families made their living from the land, raising grains crops, fruits, vegetables, olive oil. Herds of sheep and goats and cattle could graze on the hillsides. Abundant fish were to be found in the Mediterranean and the Sea of Galilee. Those Israelites who chose to live "in town" could be merchants engaging in commerce and trade of all kinds, in arts and crafts. light manufacturing, and so on. They could serve both foreign and local buyers and sellers.

Israel was to be noticed and emulated by foreigners because of the God she served. Jewish family life and culture were to stand in radical contrast with the way the surrounding nations lived in their lawlessness,  immorality, and idolatry. A wonderful example of Israel's intended attractiveness to the rest of the nations can be seen in the visit of the Queen of Sheba to meet King Solomon (1 Kings 10, 2 Chronicles 9). But, sadly, Israel did not often live up to God's calling for them to be an example to all other nations.

During their time in the Sinai--a very dry desert--God provided an all-purpose daily supply of manna, a kind of bread from heaven. Water was called forth from the rocks by Moses. The people stayed in good health and their clothes did not wear out for the entire 40 year sojourn. Perpetual statutes and annual festivals were prescribed as part of the Covenant of the Law. All of these were teaching examples--shadows--symbolically pointing to the future coming of a Jewish Messiah who would rule the nations in righteousness and truth. Messiah would fulfill all the demands of the Law and by the sacrifice of Himself for sin, fully resolve all alienation between God and man.

Central to the Old Covenant was the sabbath. During the Sinai sojourn, extra manna was given on Day Six of the week (Friday), but none fell on Saturday. No work was to be done from Friday sundown till Saturday down--symbolic of God's having rested on the seventh day from his work of creating the universe in six days. "He who has entered God's rest has ceased from his own labors as God did from his," the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews reminds us. (4:10)

To drive home the entire principle of God's provisions for all of man's needs and our need to "rest" in His sufficiency in all areas of life, Yahweh further commanded that the land was to remain uncultivated and fallow every seventh year. In turn, God would provide extra provisions during the preceding year so that there was no lack of food at all for an entire year of letting the land "rest." Again the lesson being taught is that man can really do nothing of lasting importance or value on his own. In every area of his life God is to be our sufficiency.

The LORD said to Moses on Mount Sinai, "Say to the people of Israel, When you come into the land which I give you, the land shall keep a sabbath to the LORD. Six years you shall sow your field, and six years you shall prune your vineyard, and gather in its fruits; but in the seventh year there shall be a sabbath of solemn rest for the land a sabbath to the LORD, you shall not sow your field or prune your vineyard. What grows of itself in your harvest you shall not reap, and the grapes of your undressed vine you shall not gather; it shall be a year of solemn rest for the land. The sabbath of the land shall provide food for you, for yourself and for your male and female slaves and for your hired servant and the sojourner who lives with you; for your cattle also and for the beasts that are in your land all its yield shall be for food." (Leviticus 25:1-7 RSV)

Something even more radical was to take place at the end of seven sabbatical years, that is, every fifty years. Debts were canceled and land was returned to its original owners. The economy was reset to zero giving everyone a fresh new start. The poor had a chance to recover, the rich could not continue to exploit others for selfish purposes. The year of Jubilee was a time of liberty and freedom--a fresh new start to erase all accumulated debts and inequities in the culture.

"And you shall count seven weeks of years, seven times seven years, so that the time of the seven weeks of years shall be to you forty-nine years. Then you shall send abroad the loud trumpet on the tenth day of the seventh month; on the day of atonement you shall send abroad the trumpet throughout all your land. And you shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants; it shall be a jubilee for you, when each of you shall return to his property and each of you shall return to his family. A jubilee shall that fiftieth year be to you; in it you shall neither sow, nor reap what grows of itself, nor gather the grapes from the undressed vines. For it is a jubilee, it shall be holy to you, you shall eat what it yields out of the field." (Leviticus 25:8-12 RSV)

In his superb commentary on Leviticus, Ray Stedman comments on these great events, the Sabbatical years and the year of Jubilee,

Liberty, God says, is being freed from inner bondage, inner shackles of guilt and fear and anxiety and hostility. And it begins with redemption, with the atoning work of Jesus Christ. It consists, you notice, of two wonderful elements. Liberty, God says, is for each person to regain his lost inheritance, and to have his broken relationships restored. It is to get back what God intended you to have, to return to your property, to be able to be and act as God intended men to be and act when he made them in the beginning, to gain back all that was lost in the fall of Adam. It is to have all the broken, fragmented relationships restored, have all the middle walls of partition which have separated men and kept them apart broken down, to have all the differences of skin color and culture and class evaporated, and to return to your family. That is the beauty of this picture. And it is to be a sabbath, a year of rest. Verses 13-17 indicate more about this and are very significant:

"In this year of jubilee each of you shall return to his property. And if you sell to your neighbor or buy from your neighbor, you shall not wrong one another. According to the number of years after the jubilee, you shall buy from your neighbor, and according to the number of years for crops he shall sell to you. If the years are many you shall increase the price, and if the years are few you shall diminish the price, for it is the number of the crops that he is selling to you. You shall not wrong one another, but you shall fear your God; for I am the LORD your God." (Leviticus 25:13-17 RSV)

There is the meaning of the year of jubilee. It was to be the center of all commercial enterprise. Everything looked toward this liberation, this freeing of individuals. And according to the number of years left before the year of jubilee the price of land was established. A buyer paid a reduced price if the year of jubilee were near because in that year the land had to revert to its original owner, no matter to whom it belonged at the time. But if there were a long period ensuing, up to fifty years, a much heavier price was paid because, as God underscored in Verse 16, it was the number of crops which was being sold. "You are not buying the land," he says, "you are buying the use of the land, that's all." God is trying to teach a great truth by this fact.

This is a paramount principle which will be developed further in the next few verses, for in Verses 18-22 you have the heart of this chapter. Here are gathered up the great principles involved in the year of jubilee, which is itself an intensification of the sabbath year. This is God's effort to teach us that he is at work in government and society, as well as in an individual's heart. We must make room for him and expect him to work there too, and if we do, it will make a fantastic difference!

"Therefore you shall do my statutes, and keep my ordinances and perform them; so you will dwell in the land securely. The land will yield its fruit, and you will eat your fill, and d well in it securely. And if you say, 'What shall we eat in the seventh year, if we may not sow or gather in our crop?' I will command my blessing upon you in the sixth year, so that it will bring forth fruit for three years. When you sow in the eighth year, you will be eating old produce; until the ninth year, when its produce comes in, you shall eat the old." (Leviticus 25:18-22 RSV)

So God makes a beautiful three-fold promise: First, security:  "Keep my ordinances and perform them, so you will dwell in the land securely. The land will yield its fruit, and you will eat your fill, and dwell in it securely." This forms a parenthesis. At the beginning and the end of this great promise he emphasizes that no one will attack you, no enemy will come against you, you'll be safe and secure if you learn this principle of rest at work in government. Second, you will be able to produce the crop without struggle:  "The land will yield its fruit." With relative ease you can grow this crop. Arduous toil and sweat and pain and trouble and tears won't be necessary. The land will readily produce its crop. Third, there will be a sufficiency of supply:  "You will eat your fill." All you can eat! Every seventh year, and every fiftieth year, you will have all you want, because God is at work.

Now, that is what God wants us to learn. But how sadly we have forgotten it! Once this American nation had strong glimpses of this truth. We even stamped it on our coins: "In God We Trust." We wrote it on the Liberty Bell. But then we forgot it. We thought it all depended upon us. We no longer made any allowance for God to work. We failed to carry out the rest of the requirements of this chapter, as we will see, and our land began to fall apart -- as any land does. Remember that Israel is a sample nation. It was given to us as an example of how God wants to act toward any nation. That is why these words are so important to us...

The sad thing is that Israel never experienced this. Never once did they ever have a sabbatical year! In all their history they never trusted God enough to try it out and see what he would do. And so they never saw God's supply. They never learned that he would keep his word. And this is the reason why, after 490 years of living in the land, the nation had degenerated to become a moral cancer. So God allowed the Babylonians to sweep them off the land and remove them to captivity. Jeremiah was told that they would be captives in the land of Babylon for 70 years because that is the number of sabbatical years they had failed to observe. You see how this underscores the truth that God always gets his way, despite man's rebellion. You can never cheat God. He had been counting up all the years Israel had forgotten. The end of the sixth year came and Israel didn't have the faith to trust in God's promise and so they planted their crop in the seventh year. And God let them go ahead. He doesn't stop people if they insist on doing wrong. But he kept a record for 490 years, 70 of which were sabbatical years. At the end of that time he said, "Now we'll give the land its rest, while you're in captivity in Babylon." And it did rest. Nobody used it. Nobody farmed it for 70 years because God wanted to impress this great truth upon his people.

Now the purpose of the jubilee year is given to us in three great principles, beginning with Verse 23:

"The land shall not be sold in perpetuity, for the land is mine; for you are strangers and sojourners with me. And in all the country you possess, you shall grant a redemption of the land." (Leviticus 25:23-24 RSV)

Here is the reason God has instituted the year of jubilee: It is, first of all, to teach this great fact:  The land is God's. It doesn't belong to anyone else. "The land shall never be sold in perpetuity. It cannot be possessed forever. It belongs to me." This is still true, is it not? You and I know that. We don't really own our land. In fact, if we don't pay taxes on it we will lose the right to it that we do have. We don't own it as individuals, the government owns it. But even the government doesn't own it...

The second great principle, deriving from the first, is:  "You are strangers and sojourners with me." That is, "This earth is not the end. The reason I want you to know that the land is not yours is that I want you to remember that this life is not all there is. You are only passing through, you are pilgrims, heading on to an infinitely vaster arena of life. What you are doing here is of great importance in connection with that, true, but this is not the end. This life is schooling you for the life which lies ahead, so don't wrap yourself in the material things around you and live only for them. I want you to know that you are strangers and sojourners with me."

And, finally, and even now this is a great and important, point, the third principle is:  "And in all the country you possess, you shall grant a redemption of the land." In the ideal situation, with God living and ruling among his people, he intended for them to live in this way: every seventh year they would let the land rest, and every fiftieth year they would grant a jubilee, when everyone would return to their own land, when all personal property would be restored, when slaves would be set free, etc. And this is a very graphic representation of the fact that God knows that even in such a condition there would still be inequities and injustices. So he says that they must allow the right to recover from injury and damage and loss of personal property. This is an indispensable principle in government. Governments must face up to the fact that they have the responsibility to grant the right to recover from a low economic state.

As you examine the rest of this passage you can see that is dealing with the problem of economic distress, with poverty: Verse 25: "If your brother becomes poor..." Verse 35: "And if your brother becomes poor, and cannot maintain himself..." Verse 39: "And if your brother becomes poor beside you..." Verse 47: "If a stranger or sojourner with you becomes rich, and your brother beside him becomes poor..."

What are you going to do? These are God's instructions on how to deal with poverty. We are not going to take time to read them now. You can study them through for yourself. But all the way through, this section is merely an amplification of the great statement in Verse 24: "And in all the country you possess, you shall grant a redemption of the land." You must give an opportunity to recover from this situation. You must not merely shrug your shoulders and say, "Well, the poor are poor because they are too lazy to work," or something like that. You've got to give them a chance to recover! You must not lock them into a condition which makes it impossible for them to recover. Recovery from poverty is a fundamental right which governments must learn to respect.

This is the great issue which seethes and throbs beneath the surface in every land on earth today. What is causing the sense of distress and injustice and inequity among peoples all over the world? It is the fact that they face a system which, at least in their view, does not permit them to recover out of poverty. They have no way of breaking the stranglehold upon them and of improving their economic lot. And God says, "You must do something about that. You must help your brother." This is a word that governments must face. (The Way to Wholeness, Lessons in Leviticus).

We can not ignore the way God set up His model nation Israel since He intends to raise Israel to the place of headship among the nations when Jesus the Messiah returns the second time.

When Jesus began His public teaching ministry the first time He was here, He spoke in the synagogue in his home town of Nazareth.

So Jesus came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up. And as His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up to read. And He was handed the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when He had opened the book, He found the place where it was written: "The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me, Because He has anointed Me To preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives And recovery of sight to the blind, To set at liberty those who are oppressed; To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD." Then He closed the book, and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all who were in the synagogue were fixed on Him. And He began to say to them, "Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing." (Luke 4:16-21)

Notice the connection in these words of Jesus taken by Isaiah originally from Leviticus 25:10. Jesus is the One who will bring our weary world its final Jubilee of peace and liberty.

As Jesus read from the scroll of Isaiah in that synagogue in Nazareth he stopped in the middle of a verse. The passage in Isaiah reads as follows.

"The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon Me, Because the LORD has anointed Me To preach good tidings to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives, And the opening of the prison to those who are bound; To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD, [Jesus stopped here. What follows hasn't happened yet in history.]

And the day of vengeance of our God; To comfort all who mourn, To console those who mourn in Zion, To give them beauty for ashes, The oil of joy for mourning, The garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; That they may be called trees of righteousness, The planting of the LORD, that He may be glorified."

And they [Israel] shall rebuild the old ruins, They shall raise up the former desolations, And they shall repair the ruined cities, The desolations of many generations. Strangers shall stand and feed your flocks, And the sons of the foreigner Shall be your plowmen and your vinedressers. But you shall be named the priests of the LORD, They shall call you the servants of our God. You shall eat the riches of the Gentiles, And in their glory you shall boast. Instead of your shame you shall have double honor, And instead of confusion they shall rejoice in their portion. Therefore in their land they shall possess double; Everlasting joy shall be theirs.

"For I, the LORD, love justice; I hate robbery for burnt offering; I will direct their work in truth, And will make with them an everlasting covenant. Their descendants shall be known among the Gentiles, And their offspring among the people. All who see them shall acknowledge them, That they are the posterity whom the LORD has blessed." I will greatly rejoice in the LORD, My soul shall be joyful in my God; For He has clothed me with the garments of salvation, He has covered me with the robe of righteousness, As a bridegroom decks himself with ornaments, And as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.

For as the earth brings forth its bud, As the garden causes the things that are sown in it to spring forth, So the Lord GOD will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all the nations.

For Zion’s sake I will not hold My peace, And for Jerusalem’s sake I will not rest, Until her righteousness goes forth as brightness, And her salvation as a lamp that burns. The Gentiles shall see your righteousness, And all kings your glory. You shall be called by a new name, Which the mouth of the LORD will name. You shall also be a crown of glory In the hand of the LORD, And a royal diadem In the hand of your God. You shall no longer be termed Forsaken, Nor shall your land any more be termed Desolate; But you shall be called Hephzibah, and your land Beulah; For the LORD delights in you, And your land shall be married. For as a young man marries a virgin, So shall your sons marry you; And as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, So shall your God rejoice over you.

I have set watchmen on your walls, O Jerusalem; They shall never hold their peace day or night. You who make mention of the LORD, do not keep silent, And give Him no rest till He establishes And till He makes Jerusalem a praise in the earth. The LORD has sworn by His right hand And by the arm of His strength: "Surely I will no longer give your grain As food for your enemies; And the sons of the foreigner shall not drink your new wine, For which you have labored. But those who have gathered it shall eat it, And praise the LORD; Those who have brought it together shall drink it in My holy courts." Go through, Go through the gates! Prepare the way for the people; Build up, Build up the highway! Take out the stones, Lift up a banner for the peoples! Indeed the LORD has proclaimed To the end of the world: "Say to the daughter of Zion, ‘Surely your salvation is coming; Behold, His reward is with Him, And His work before Him.’" And they shall call them The Holy People, The Redeemed of the LORD; And you shall be called Sought Out, A City Not Forsaken." (Isaiah 61:1-62:12)

I have quoted a long section of what Isaiah wrote. Jesus merely gave Nazareth a small taste of what was to come. The relevant text as far as the future of Israel is concerned continues right through to the end of Isaiah.

The historical record of Israel's history shows constant failure, indifference and disobedience towards Yahweh down to the present day--but always God's faithfulness to His covenants, His loyal-love, mercy and grace endure.

The track record of the church--birthed under the New Covenant with a better priesthood and greater promises--has not been much better.  In spite of all manner of human failure, it is good to see what the Bible says lies ahead for our world. History will not end in mankind's oblivion or some horrible war of MAD (mutually-assured-destruction). There is soon coming a great golden age of peace on earth to be accomplished by Israel's God. No one needs to be left out of Yahweh's grand plan for world peace and prosperity, but joining in with the family of the Lord of lords and King of kings is definitely required. 

The prophet Amos spoke clearly of Israel's future blessing under Messiah's rule:

"On that day I will raise up The tabernacle of David, which has fallen down, And repair its damages; I will raise up its ruins, And rebuild it as in the days of old; That they may possess the remnant of Edom, And all the Gentiles who are called by My name," Says the LORD who does this thing. "Behold, the days are coming," says the LORD, "When the plowman shall overtake the reaper, And the treader of grapes him who sows seed; The mountains shall drip with sweet wine, And all the hills shall flow with it. I will bring back the captives of My people Israel; They shall build the waste cities and inhabit them; They shall plant vineyards and drink wine from them; They shall also make gardens and eat fruit from them. I will plant them in their land, And no longer shall they be pulled up From the land I have given them," Says the LORD your God." (Amos 9:11-15)

On the Day of Pentecost the Jewish Apostle Peter spoke plainly about the reality of Yahweh, Israel and the identity of their true Messiah:

Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, "Rulers of the people and elders of Israel: "If we this day are judged for a good deed done to a helpless man, by what means he has been made well, "let it be known to you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, by Him this man stands here before you whole. "This is the ‘stone which was rejected by you builders, which has become the chief cornerstone.’ "Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved." (Acts 4:81-2)

Ray Stedman concludes in regard to the year of Jubilee,

God is at work in human history. He is at work in your life as an individual, and in the life of your nation and your world. He wants to give you a Sabbath rest. He wants you to learn to live and work and minister in a state of rest, of total reliance and dependence upon His wisdom and power.

God wants every person and every nation to find His rest. He wants to break down the walls that divide Jew and Gentile, black and white, Democrat and Republican, liberal and conservative, Northerner and Southerner, Easterner and Westerner. He wants to bring rest and peace to all nations, so that they will operate out of a dependence upon Him instead of operating out of racial tension and political hostility.

God has given us the gifts of the Sabbath rest, the sabbatical year, and the Year of Jubilee. Let us receive His gifts with joy and gratitude--and let's rest in them. "Come to me," Jesus said, "all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest" (Matthew 11:28). That is the message of Leviticus 25. That is the message of the gospel.