1. Introduction

The year of jubilee and the related commandments which were to be instituted by the people of Israel as they settled on the promised land obviously deal with the ways in which God intended the socio-economic life of his people to be lived. Today, many Christians, recognizing that injustice and extreme poverty are contrary to the way in which God intends life on earth to be lived, are re-examining these ancient commandments in order to determine their meaning for practising justice and mercy in our contemporary situation. However, while it is generally recognized that these commandments indicate that God wants his people to practise social justice, it is also understood that the historical context of the year of jubilee institution is quite different from our contemporary context thereby making the form of the year of jubilee as expressed in Leviticus 25 an inappropriate expression for Christians in the twentieth century world. The following discussion will show how the meaning character of the jubilee which is expressed in cultural form for the Israelite context in Leviticus 25, speaks meaningfully to the Christian community of the twentieth century.

2. The jubilee in the context of God's covenant

The jubilee portion of the commandments was designed to actualize the liberation of those people who had become enslaved through circumstance and to restore them to their inheritance within the nation. The jubilee, its related Sabbath, and the other socio-economic commandments dealt with how the people were to treat the land and how they were to relate to each other, all within the context of being called as a people of God. Through the covenant which God made with the patriarchs and renewed with the people of Israel, God promised that He would be their God, that He would make them into a great nation, and that He would give them a land. The Deuteronomic and Levitical commandments dealt with the way the people were called to respond to this covenant promise. These commandments formed an integral part of the covenant and, consequently, an examination of the covenant's development will set the commandments, including the jubilee institution, within its intended context.

The covenant, as it was specifically developed with the nation of Israel, was first given to Abraham. Abraham was called by God to leave the land of his inheritance and to go to a land which God promised to show him. This land was the land of Canaan. God made a covenant with Abraham and promised that He would make his descendants a great nation, and that He would give them the land in which Abraham was living as the land of their inheritance (Gen. 17:3-8). This covenant was renewed with Isaac (Gen. 26:3-6) and with Jacob (Gen. 28:13-16).

The patriarchs lived in the land as strangers and sojourners. They were not one with the people of the land but they were given the right to settle there. It was only through special permission that Abraham obtained even a small plot where he could bury Sarah. For the patriarchs the land was not their own, but God allowed them to live there in peace as long as they remained obedient.

Jacob led his people into Egypt, but, even though Joseph became the highest ranking official in the land, they were still regarded as strangers and sojourners. As soon as the Egyptians forgot Joseph, his people were reduced to slavery. However, while the people were in Egypt, they became a numerous people and one of God's covenant promises became fulfilled.

The major theme from the book of Exodus to the book of Joshua is the liberation of the people of Israel from Egypt and their receiving the promised land. Even though the promise of numerous descendants had been fulfilled, these people remained enslaved in the alien country of Egypt. Exodus relates that God heard the groaning of the enslaved people and remembered the covenant which He had made with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. In commissioning Moses at the scene of the burning bush, God stated that He would deliver the Israelites from the hands of the Egyptians and bring them " ... out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey ..." (Ex. 2:35-3:22; 5:2-13). Consequently, by God's acts with the ten plagues and by his leading, the Israelites left Egypt and travelled through the desert on their way to Canaan. In the desert, at Mount Sinai, God re-established his covenant with all the people of Israel and introduced the covenant by saying, "You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles' wings and brought you to Myself. Now therefore, if you will obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my own possession among all peoples; for all the earth is mine, and you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation" (Ex. 19:3-7).

God gave a covenant code which contained detailed regulations as to how the Israelites were to live their life under the covenant in the new land so that they would be able to possess the land and be able to live a long and abundant life there. This covenant code expressed in detail what it meant to Israel to have the Lord as its God. The meaning of the covenant is summarized succinctly by the following passage:

"Yahweh your God today commands you to observe these laws and customs: you must keep and observe them with all your heart, and with all your soul. Today you have made this declaration about Yahweh: that He will be your God; but only if you follow his ways, keep his statutes, his commandments, his ordinances, and listen to his voice. And Yahweh has today made this declaration about you: that you will be his very own people as He promised you, but only if you keep all his commandments; then for praise and renown and honor He will set you high above all the nations He has made and you will be a people consecrated to the Lord as He has promised" (Deut. 26:16-19).

Even though Israel continually broke the covenant, God remained faithful to his promises. Israel's disobedience caused it much sorrow and suffering. But, through God's faithfulness, under Joshua Israel received the land. Thus the many descendants obtained their land and two essential components of God's covenant were fulfilled. At the great assembly at Shechem God renewed his covenant and Israel agreed that, "The Lord our God we will serve, and his voice we will obey" (Jos. 24:24).

At this point the liberated people had a land which they could make their own. This illustrates how God's work was directed to concrete earthly experience, for a liberated people without a land in which they could live, could not remain liberated. The numerous descendants required a land if they were to live as a people and God ensured that this requirement was met.

Being in the land was not the same as having possession and making it one's own. Israel was to possess the land by obeying the voice of God and this obedience was very concretely expressed in keeping the covenant code. This is the major theme of the book of Deuteronomy: possessing the land and living a long abundant life was dependent on obedience (cf. Deut. 4:1; 4:11; 4:40; 5:32, 33; 6:1-3; 6:4-6; 6:17-19; 6:24, 25; 7:12-15; 10:12-11:32; 27:1-28:14; 29:8-13; 30:1-14). Obedience led to the blessings summarized in Leviticus 26:4-13 and Deuteronomy 28:1-14.

The promise of blessed possession was further emphasized by the contrasting results of disobedience. Disobedience meant that the people would be removed from the land and would be scattered among alien nations (Deut. 4:26; 8:19; 28:15-60; 29:17-18). However God promised that if the people would repent and would again obey his voice, He would return them to the land and they would again be able to experience the abundant life through keeping the covenant code.

God chose the Israelites in order to fulfill the covenant promises He had made to their fathers (Deut. 7:7-10). His purpose in choosing this people was to show his greatness and power to all the nations and to glorify his Name among all the people through the obedient experience of the Israelites. When Israel broke the covenant immediately after Mount Sinai Moses appealed to God to spare the people on the basis of God's reputation among the surrounding nations (Ex. 32:11-14). Deuteronomy relates that through the great acts which God undertook on behalf of his people, and through the abundant life which they enjoyed by obeying God's voice, all the nations would learn to recognize God as the source of understanding and wisdom (Deut. 4:6-8).

When Israel kept the covenant code it would receive all the blessings leading to an abundant life and all nations would see that God is a bountiful God. However, if Israel failed to keep the covenant, it would be driven from the land and all people would learn how God deals with those who spurn his offer of the abundant life (Deut. 29:16-28).

Israel's task was to show the nations the greatness of God. Israel was to do this through obeying God's voice which was concretely expressed by keeping the covenant code. The nations would learn God's greatness when they would see the goodness experienced in Israel's daily life as it followed the voice of God.

The form of the Mount Sinai covenant followed the form of the treaties made by many of the powerful kings in the ancient Middle East with their vassal kings. These treaties would usually specify in detail the terms and conditions under which the more powerful king would grant privilege or protection to the vassal. However, unlike these covenants in which the gods were usually called upon to be witnesses to the agreement, God was the initiating partner with Israel and He remained faithful to his promises, even when Israel disobeyed. Even when the people were punished to the point of being driven from the land, God promised that if they would turn back to Him, He would remember his covenant and gather his people again in order to bring them back to the land where they would again be able to enjoy God's blessings if they would obey the voice of God (Lev. 26:40-45; Deut. 30:1-10).

Through the covenant promises, God gave the patriarchs many descendants so that they became a nation and He gave this nation a land in which it could live. These promises were an integral whole since a nation without land could only be reduced to slavery. These two promises were a concretization in the lives of the people of the central promise, that God promised that He would be the God of this nation. Having God meant that Israel would be able to experience an abundant life in the land, for this God performed great and terrible acts on behalf of his people and gave them the rules and statutes which taught the people how to possess the land and resulted in the blessings of the abundant life. Descendants, nationhood, land and life would come because God had promised to be the God of his people. This was the central promise from which all else originated.

Therefore Israel was called to " ... choose life, that you and your descendants may live, loving the Lord your God, obeying his voice, and cleaving to Him; for that means life to you and length of days, that you may dwell in the land ..." (Deut. 30:19-20). The people were required to "Fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to love Him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the commandments and statutes of the Lord which I command you this day for your good" (Deut. 10:12-13).

Therefore they were to "circumsize the foreskin of your heart and be no longer stubborn" (Deut. 10:16). Loving God with all its heart and soul, i.e. its whole being, was the ground of Israel's existence. Obedience to the covenant code was to flow from this. When God spoke of Israel's future apostasy, it was the " ... heart turns away ..." (Deut. 29:18) and the " ... root bearing poisonous and bitter fruit ..." (Deut. 29:18). But God would re-instate the covenant if the people would turn from their disobedience and return to God and obey Him with all their heart and all their soul. God would then circumsize their hearts so that they could again love God with heart and soul and in this find life (Deut. 30:1-10).

Thus Israel was called to love God with its whole being. It is also evident that keeping the covenant code could only have been done if the heart was rooted in God. In Jeremiah God went so far as to say, "For in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, I did not speak to your fathers or command them concerning burnt offerings and sacrifices. But this command I gave them, 'obey my voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be my people; and walk in all the way that I command you, that it may be well with you" (Jer. 7:22).

Previous to this passage God had instructed Jeremiah to tell the people that in following the commandments and rituals they were deceptive for in their hearts they were following Baal. Therefore they were not obeying God's voice even though they burned sacrifice. The commandments were not being kept while the people's hearts were not turned to God. Jesus made this very clear when He said, "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord', shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but He who does the will of my Father who is in heaven" (Matt. 7:21). Even prophecy, casting out demons and other mighty works done supposedly in the name of Jesus are of no account if they are not done in obedience to the will of God.

Jesus clarifies the matter further in his reply to the Pharisees concerning the greatest commandment. The greatest is, "Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one; and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.' The second is this, 'You shall love your neighbour as yourself' (Mark 12:28-34; Matt. 22:34-40; Luke 10:25-37).

This must be understood in the sense that the greatest (first) commandment is the origin from which flows the second.

For Israel, loving God with all its being was the central covenant requirement and keeping the covenant code flowed from this. The two were integrally whole. In doing this Israel would receive abundant life in the land.

Keeping the covenant was certainly possible for Israel. It was not an utopian commandment as is often assumed by commentators (DeVaux, 1961:177). Moses expressly stated, "This commandment which I command you this day is not too hard for you, neither is it far off. It is not in heaven, that you should say, 'who will go up for us to heaven, and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?' Neither is it beyond the sea, that you should say, 'Who will go over the sea for us, and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?' But the word is very near to you; it is in your mouth van in your heart, so that you can do it" (Deut. 30:11-14).

The jubilee portion of the covenant code

The jubilee institution must be understood in the light of God's covenant with his people. It was part of the covenant code which Israel was to keep faithfully if it was to experience abundant life in the land. In introducing the Sabbath and jubilee commandments, the author of Leviticus made a point of mentioning that this was the commandment which God gave to Moses on Mount Sinai. (Most of the other Leviticus legislation is introduced only as God speaking to Moses.) In the mind of Israel Mount Sinai meant the covenant. The author wanted to stress that these commandments were part of this covenant relationship.

The covenant dealt with the relationship between God and his people. The Sabbath and jubilee commandments dealt with the way in which people were to relate to each other and to the land in the context of their relationship to God. These commandments and statutes which were all rooted in a heart commitment to God must be understood as an integral set and Israel was called to walk in the path of the full set of commandments if it was to experience the blessings of obedience.

The jubilee dealt with the people and the land in their relationship to God. Two principles were enunciated which were to govern this relationship.

1. With regards to the land God states that "The land shall not be sold in perpetuity, for the land is mine; for you are strangers and sojourners with Me" (Lev. 25:23).

At Mount Sinai God elaborated on the covenant and the promise of the land which had been made to the patriarchs received further clarification. The patriarchs had been promised a land which would be their inheritance. At Mount Sinai God stated that the land belonged to Him and with Him the people were only strangers and sojourners. Man had originally been given the task of stewardship on God's earth from God and therefore he was considered to be a stranger and a sojourner.

Stranger and sojourner was the term which described Abraham in the land of Canaan. Sociologically the term stranger referred to a person who travelled through a country which was not his native land, and sojourner was used to describe a person who was a stranger and had settled down in the foreign land. The sojourner enjoyed the protection of most of the laws but was prohibited from owning a hereditary title. As a stranger and sojourner to God, Israel was allowed to live in the land if it kept God's law, i.e. the covenant code. However, God also added the promise that if Israel kept the covenant, He would again come close to his people: "I will set up my dwelling among you and I will not cast you off. I will live in your midst; I will be your God and you shall be my people" (Lev. 26:11-12). By its obedience to the covenant, Israel would no longer be a stranger and sojourner with God but would become reconciled to Him.

2. "For they (Israelites) are my servants, those whom I have brought out of Egypt, and they must not be sold like slaves. You must not be a hard taskmaster to them; but you must fear your God" (Lev. 25:42, 43), was the principle governing relationships among people. All Israelites were God's servants whom He had freed and therefore no person was to treat a fellow Israelite as a slave. Economic conditions could force an Israelite to sell himself into bondage. However, the covenant ensured that this bondage was always to be temporary.

These two principles governing the relationships among the land, the people, and God in the context of the covenant led to the Sabbath, jubilee and right-of-redemption commandments. Through these commandments the principle that the land belonged to God and that all people were servants of God was to be expressed in the day-to-day affairs of the people of Israel.

The technical operation of the year of jubilee

Leviticus 25 introduces the year of jubilee by first describing the Sabbath regulations. Every seven years the land was to enjoy a Sabbath during which the owner was not to do any work on his land for that year. The crop which grew of its own was to be left for the poor and the wild animals (Ex.23:11). God assured the owners that the sixth year would provide sufficiently for their needs from the time of harvest over the Sabbath year until the next harvest.

Related to the Sabbath year was the year of remission of debts and the obligation to set slaves at liberty. It is generally assumed that the year of remission was to coincide with the Sabbath year. All debts which had been incurred to fellow Israelites were to be cancelled during this year (Deut. 15:1-11). Both the year of remission and the Sabbath year were to be regular cyclical events. Israelites who had acquired fellow Israelites as slaves were to treat these people as hired servants and release them after six years of service (Deut 15:12-18).

After every seven Sabbaths, i.e. every fifty years, the trumpet was to be sounded on the day of atonement in order to proclaim liberation and restoration to all the inhabitants of the land. The fiftieth year was to be known as the year of jubilee and contained the following provisions:

1. Unredeemed Israelites, hired, pledged, or sold into slavery, whether to an Israelite or to an alien were to gain their complete freedom upon the sounding of the trumpet. It should be noted that the debts were already cancelled since the previous year had been a Sabbath year.

2. All lands which had been transferred to others during the previous fifty years were to return to those who held the ancestral inheritance rights.

3. No work was to be done on the fields during the jubilee year. In order to provide for the people during the three years until the next harvest became available, God promised enough during the 48th year to be sufficient until the next harvest.

4. Since the land was not to be sold outright, property transfers could only take into account the number of harvests remaining until the next jubilee year for the determination of the sale price. Effectively the land could only be "leased" since the permanent use rights remained with the ancestral family. If the land was leased the lease agreement could be terminated in one of three ways:

The person who acted as the redeemer (goel) of the ancestral user could buy back the lease on his behalf by paying a fixed rate which was determined by the number of harvests remaining form the time of redemption until the next jubilee.

The ancestral user could buy back the lease himself at a fixed price which was also determined by the number of harvests remaining until the next jubilee.

The lease would always be terminated at the next jubilee when the property would revert back to the ancestral user.

Three special property provisions were made in the jubilee commandments:

Houses in fortified cities, unlike houses in villages to which the general rule applied, were only redeemable until one year from the date of purchase. Thereafter, redemption rights expired and the house was not subject to transfer at the year of the jubilee.

The ancestral properties of the Levites, which were always in the towns, could be "leased" but the Levite retained a perpetual right of redemption, and the property would revert back to the Levite in the year of jubilee. The pastures belonging to the Levites could not be leased.

Offerings in kind which were dedicated to God could be redeemed according to their use value by calculating the number of years until the next jubilee and then adding one-fifth to the value.

The author of Leviticus set the jubilee commandment directly into the covenant code by emphasizing that the laws were given at Mount Sinai. Within the description of the commandment itself, God states the blessing resulting from keeping the law in the standard Deuteronomic form: "You shall not wrong one another, but you shall fear your God; for I am the Lord your God. Therefore you shall keep 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 dwell in it securely" (Lev. 25:17-19).

These laws are part of the covenant code and keeping them in conjunction with the rest of the covenant code would result in the blessings of the abundant life in fellowship with God. Disobedience would result in harsh punishment and eventual banishment from the land.

The jubilee was to be announced by the sounding of the trumpet. In Numbers 10:1-10 God had directed that two silver trumpets had to be made and that these trumpets were to be used for calling all the assemblies of the people, for breaking camp, for announcing battles, and for announcing feast days. The sound of the trumpet was to be a reminder to the people of their place before God. Announcing the jubilee through the sounding of the trumpet would have been a firm reminder to the people that this was a commandment instituted by God.

The fact that the requirement for observing the jubilee was a direct consequence of the people's relationship to God is very evident by the announcement of the jubilee on the day of atonement. On this day the high priest performed the annual ritual which expiated all those sins of the people which had not been atoned by the rituals through the previous year. The day of atonement was the culmination of all the laws of purification and sacrifice which all had the purpose of cleansing Israel of its sin and preparing the way for fellowship with God. Through this Israel was to know that fellowship with God came through obedience to the covenant and that directly this also meant following the jubilee provision. Thus expiation for sin and the liberation of the year of jubilee were to be closely linked to fellowship with God in the life of the new nation.

Israel could not keep the covenant and therefore true liberation did not become an integral part of its life. However, in his prophecy about the coming Christ the prophet Isaiah proclaimed: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good tidings to the afflicted; He has sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captive, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; to proclaim the year of the Lord's favour ..." (Isa.61:1-2).

Jesus, when He read this passage from the scroll while teaching in the synagogue, said, "Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing" (Luke 4:21). Israel failed to keep the commandments, but Jesus expiated sin and it is through this expiation that liberty can be proclaimed and become fulfilled. By having the year of jubilee announced on the day of atonement, Israel was to know that its sin required expiation and that only when sin was expiated could fellowship with God be attained and liberation and restoration proclaimed.

3. Socio-economic context of the year of jubilee

Cancellation of debts, and liberation of slaves by a royal decree from the king were occasionally practised among the peoples of the ancient Middle East. There is also evidence that some form of land redistribution was also occasionally proclaimed (Neufeld, 1958:58-124). However, this took place in a haphazard manner, was very infrequent, and depended largely on the political climate and the particular power relationships within the society (Westbrooke, 1971:209-226). This does indicate that these concepts were known to Israel, especially since they would probably have studied these concepts in detail during their own recent slavery.

Part of the unique and meaningful character of the jubilee and Sabbath commandments was that God took these known concepts, combined them, and instituted them to be a permanent pattern in Israelite life by making debt release, liberation of slaves, and restoration of property a cyclical occurrence in the life of the nation. In this way liberation and restoration were to become built-into the society. The poor and oppressed would have a concrete hope because their debts would be cancelled after six years, they would be slaves for no longer than six years, they were to be given food, and at least their children were to be restored to their inheritance after a maximum of fifty years. No longer would the poor have to pin their hopes on the whims of a particular king.

A further important development was introduced in these commandments; not only were the poor to be relieved from their oppression as a regular part of social life, but the liberation from oppression was tied to restoration to their former means of livelihood. The great problem with emancipation law, that freedom without restoration to an economic basis for existence is in reality only an empty freedom, was to be overcome since with the jubilee and Sabbath commandments granting freedom was tied to restoration; the freed person was to be given the economic basis for maintaining his continued freedom.

The jubilee and its associated commandments were given to a people who were changing from a semi-nomadic existence to a permanent life on the land based on cultivating crops. The patriarchs were semi-nomads who kept flocks and herds and travelled from place to place. Living a settled existence was not part of Israel's historical background as it entered the promised land.

Central to the nomad's sociological framework was his identity to the family and the clan. The clan was a group of closely related families and all clans who could trace their descent to a common ancestor considered themselves members of the same tribe.

Israel as it settled on the land still had a strong tradition of semi-nomadism and the concept of clan and tribal solidarity was very strong. A strong concept of blood solidarity was the basis for clan and tribal allegiance and honor or dishonor to one member was considered to affect the whole group. Blood vengeance, which was to be carried out by the relatives of the offended person, was an extension of the concept of blood solidarity. After years of settlement the clan's identity gradually change from being defined by ancestry to being defined by a specific geographic area, e.g. village.

God took this strong social unit, the family and the clan, and tied it directly to the land. The land was always to remain in the clan and the year of jubilee provisions ensured that the land which had become lost to the clan would be returned every fifty years. The concept of blood solidarity was redirected from an emphasis on vengeance to obligations to help those clan members who had become oppressed and destitute. The goel (the next-of-kin who had the power to redeem) was called to help his nearest kinsman if he experienced unfortunate circumstances.

In Israel the continual use of a specific piece of property by a particular family appears to have been the normal state of affairs. It is likely that the pasturage was held in common, but that cultivable land remained with one family from generation to generation. There is no evidence that Israel ever had a system of share-cropping. Those people who did amass property cultivated this through the use of managers and hired labourers (DeVaux, 1961:164-167).

Because God owned the land and gave it as an inheritance to be used by each family, the feudal concept where the king owned the land and gave out fiefs to individuals in return for obligations never became part of Israel's history (DeVaux, 1961:164-167). This feudal pattern was normal in the surrounding nations. In Israel powerful people amassed large tracts of land, but this was done by buying property from other families. However, this development was in direct violation of the jubilee commandments.

Israel's economic background

DeVaux (1961:67, 67) estimates that the maximum population Israel ever attained was about one million people who lived mainly in villages of about 400-600 people. At the time of the settlement the people were changing from semi-nomadism to a settled existence. Little economic differentiation would be evident at this stage of the people's development and it can be assumed that almost all economic activity was land-based and agricultural. Each family was probably largely self-sufficient and although it is mentioned that certain areas tended to specialize in making special hand-crafted items, this was very likely a late development.

Early Israel never had a merchant class and large commercial enterprises were not developed until late in its history. Business was on a private local pattern with no middlemen (DeVaux, 1961:78, 79).

The indications are that at the stage of the initial settlement, the people generally experienced similar life-styles. There were few people who were much richer than the general population. This would be expected of a people who had just experienced generations of slavery and certainly the forty years in the desert would have been an additional levelling factor. This general uniformity probably extended until the development of the monarchy. This is confirmed by archaeological excavation where houses in the town of the 10th century BC are of similar size and arrangement. However, by the 8th century BC on the same site some houses were bigger, better built, and located in a different quarter from the poorer houses (DeVaux, 1961: 72, 73).

Archaeological evidence, however, tells nothing of the lifestyles of the poor since they leave nothing behind. But when the more affluent did not keep the commandments in Israel, the lot of the poor was very harsh. It must be understood that when Israel is commanded to return the pledged cloak to the poor by nightfall (Ex. 22:26, 27), it meant that the man had absolutely nothing else with which to keep warm. That same person would also have had to support an entire family. Similarly, a requirement to pay wages on the same day as they are earned (Deut. 24:15) implies a meagre subsistence existence where a person earns just enough in one day to buy food for the children seized as slaves (2 Kings 4:1-7). Life in Solomon's copper mines would have been very short. The prophets were continually forced to condemn those who were " .. grinding the face of the poor ..." (Isa. 3:15; cf. also Isa. 10:2 and 11:4) or those who were selling people into slavery for their inability to pay for a pair of shoes (Amos 2:6; cf. also Amos 8:4 and 5:12). Although the lowest social position in Israel was that of the alien who was a slave, the position of the Israelite who was poor was never high above the subsistence level. He was constantly plagued by having too little to support the essentials of life and always in danger of being struck by a more major calamity. This was the group with whom the more affluent were to deal with mercy and justice and the prophets condemned those who further exploited their helpless condition.

Israel's laws and customs

During the period of Israel's nomadic existence, power to enforce the tribal customs was vested in the head of the clan whose authority extended even to imposing the death penalty. By the time of the settlement, this authority had been transferred to clan elders and over time, as the clan identity became transferred to the village or town, these elders became known as the elders of the village or town. There is no evidence of a central legal authority between the time of Joshua and the monarchy, except that some of the local elders or judges may have gained some widespread recognition. Enforcement of clan customs and settlement of local disputes was done at the clan and tribal level. The monarchy never replaced this system and for its purposes set up a complementary system. That the people readily discarded the monarchical structure after the exile indicates the clan based legal system had remained firmly established in the ways of the people.

A particular characteristic of the jubilee commandment is that no enforcement mechanism is mentioned. It could certainly not be expected that a slave who was not voluntarily released at the correct time could be released simply by applying to his owner and receiving his freedom. And it is highly unlikely that a landowner who would not voluntarily transfer his land would do so through the appeal of the former owner who had no enforcement power. How was a local judge who had no police power to enforce his ruling against a local large landowner, especially as the guilty landowner probably belonged to another clan? It is unlikely also that this commandment was to become effective through its enforcement by a central authority, since no such authority existed and since the powerful and wealthy would exert the same influence on the central authority as they would on the local judge. This commandment was never intended to be enforced through an independent legal system. It was to become embedded into the people's custom and so that following the commandments would become the natural way for an Israelite to lead his life.

"You shall therefore lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul; and you shall bind them as a sign upon your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. And you shall teach them to your children, talking of them when you are sitting in your house, and when you are walking by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. And you shall write them upon the doorposts of your house and upon your gates ..." (Deut. 11:18-20).

In this conception of the commandments, enforcement would be a matter of directing the heart of the people so that following the commandment became the proper thing to do. Fear of God, group social pressure and moral obligation would have been the main tools of the elders of the town.

4. Historical obedience to the jubilee commandment

There is no evidence that the jubilee was ever carried out in Israel. No mention of its implementation is made in the Scriptures and it is generally assumed that these commandments were never implemented (DeVaux, 1961:175-180). Although the Sabbaths were also probably never kept before the exile, the post-exiled Israelites learned the meaning of Leviticus 26 and the prophecy of Jeremiah (2 Chron. 36:21) and promised to keep the Sabbath years (Neh. 10:31). On occasion there is reference in the Scriptures to releasing slaves, although this was never done as a regular occurrence and not in the context of restoration. During the period of Jeremiah, King Zedekiah and his nobles freed all the Israelite slaves but very soon re-enslaved them again. In this context God condemns the re-enslavement and also points out that the Israelites had never kept the commandment which required that slaves be freed after six years of servitude (Jer. 32:7). Nehemiah records that after the exile he was successful in cancelling all debt and restoring the lands to the debtors (Neh. 5:1-13).

Although the year of jubilee was never kept, some of the auxiliary legal provisions did become part of Israel's customs. The obligation and the right to redeem the person and property of the next-of-kin became widely recognized. Jeremiah's buying of the land of his relative (Jer. 32:6-15) and the marriage of Boaz and Ruth (Ruth 4) illustrate the application of this custom.

Although there is no mention that the nation did observe the year of jubilee or the Sabbath years, this does not necessarily imply that they were never kept. Since the social fabric was very clan-oriented with a low level of national identity, especially during the time before the monarchy, it is quite possible that these commands were observed by groups of the people at various times. Even though there may never have been a national consensus to keep the year of jubilee, this would not have been a constraint to its observance by individual families and clans, since the obligation to carry out the commands' provisions rested on individual families and clans. It did not require a national observance before a family or clan could offer liberation to those people to whom they were obligated. It would never have required a national consensus for a landholder to release voluntarily his slaves, to cancel the indebtedness of his debtors, or to transfer the property he was using back to its ancestral owner. It is likely that these commandments were never observed by the whole nation, but this does not exclude the possibility that groups of people within the nation could have kept these provisions. However, the year of jubilee never became an integral part of Israel's national life.

Israel did not keep the law, but Jesus fulfilled the law. Although it is not specifically mentioned in Acts, the early Christians certainly operated in the spirit of the jubilee when they held all things in common and those who had possessions sold some of what they had and gave the money to help the poor (Acts 4:32-35)

5. Meaning of the year of jubilee

Through the covenant God gave his people abundant life. This life was not to be a type of other worldly reality, but was to be expressed in the here-and-now of daily creaturely existence. The covenant brought rain so that the crops would grow; it brought peace; it gave numerous descendants and long life; it provided abundance of food and it allowed God to live in the midst of his people. In the midst of a life situation which was generally hard and difficult, God's covenant would bring peace and prosperity.

Liberation from Egypt would have been meaningless for the people of Israel if they had not had a land in which this liberation could be lived. When the people despaired of conquering the land after the report of the spies, they realized that even slavery in Egypt was preferable to no place at all (Num. 14:1-4). God's mighty acts in delivering his people from slavery had to include leading his people into a land; otherwise, the liberation would have given the people no alternative but to be enslaved again.

However, their being in a land was by itself no guarantee that the people would have life. In fact, living in a land would mean hardship, difficulty, even death if the people did not know how this life was to be lived. Consequently, through the covenant God told the people how they were to lead their lives if they were to experience abundant life. They were to love their God with all their being and to love their neighbour as themselves. Since the people did not know how to love God and their neighbour, God gave them the covenant code which told them specifically how this was to be done.

For Israel, obedience to the covenant code could originate only from loving God with its whole being. Loving God and keeping the commandments were integral; the one had no meaning without the other.

An essential facet of the covenant is that God gave it to all the people, not to just a small group of elite. The covenant was made during an assembly of all the people and all the people partook in the covenant. God gave the land to each family. There was no system such as prevailed in most of the surrounding nations whereby the land was considered to have been given to the king who in turn allowed the people to use it according to his own particular whim. The land was not given to Moses or to Joshua. It was given to all the people and each family received its individual share for its own inheritance. In this way the liberation form Egypt became meaningful in the daily life of each family. It was not a case of exchanging one taskmaster for another. Each family was given its share of the promise and each was given the socio-economic basis for experiencing life under that promise.

God's covenant was not limited to one generation. It was given to all future generations and even to those foreign people who adopted Israel's God as their own (Ezek. 47:22, 23). In this the meaning of the jubilee commandment was brought into sharp focus. These commandments ensured that the liberation and restoration under the covenant would be experienced both by that present generation and also with all future generations. Debts incurred by fellow Israelites were to be cancelled every seven years, thereby lessening the likelihood that an Israelite would lose his land or even be enslaved because of non-payment of debts. When dire circumstances led to enslavement, the slave was a to be released to full freedom after six years of service. At all times the person himself or his next-of-kin could buy back his freedom and his property at a fixed price formula. Upon their release slaves were to be given liberally of the former owner's resources in order to take up an independent existence. If liberation had not taken place previously, at the year of jubilee, full liberation would be given and all property would be restored to their ancestral owners.

Life under God's covenant meant that no Israelite would be permanently enslaved, nor experience extreme hardship due to economic misfortune. Not only did the law provide for a means of liberation, it recognized that liberation without the basis for a free socio-economic existence could only lead to more hardship and slavery. Consequently the covenant code also provided the means of restoring the family to its land, recognizing that the land was the basis for economic security in that primitive cultural society.

Therefore the jubilee, in conjunction with the rest of the covenant code, ensured that liberation and restoration would be the experience of every Israelite family. It assured that the promise that the descendants of Abraham would have a land, would remain the concrete experience of every Israelite. The society was given built-in liberation and restoration through the covenant code. Keeping this code would be the basis for a long and blessed life in the land of their possession and the commandments ensured that this promise could be experienced by every Israelite.

The year of the jubilee was a very positive obligation. Through this commandment the people were required to show mercy and to practise justice (Schrotenboer, 1973:20). Whenever a person did not do this he was breaking the law. In our Western concept of law, the law only specifies what is wrong and a person is considered guilty only if he commits a specified wrong. However with the jubilee, God commanded positive action towards mercy and justice; not only not doing what was forbidden. Anyone who failed to do justice and mercy was guilty of breaking the covenant.

It was the more affluent of God's people who were specifically called to show mercy and justice under the jubilee commandments. They were the people who owned slaves, were able to give loans, could buy land, and could redeem their kinsman. These commandments were not directed to the poor since they had little opportunity to practise this specific form of mercy and justice. it was the economically privileged who were called to this responsibility.

Each Israelite was to obey the jubilee commandment because he feared the God who gave the covenant code. There was no legal mechanism for enforcing this commandment. The greatest commandment was to be the motivating factor in ensuring that the commandment was followed.

A central message of the Old Testament is that Israel's failure to keep the covenant which also included this commandment, was rooted in its failure to keep the greatest commandment. Since the people did not fear God, they did not take care of the widow, the orphan, and the poor. It was because the people's hearts were turned away from God that wickedness and injustice reigned in the land. It was only when Israel's heart became circumcized that they could love God with their whole being. When the people loved God with their whole being, the covenant code was kept since only then did it function in the full meaning of their existence. All the attempts to keep the law without being rooted in the love of God became an empty meaningless ritual which bore no fruits of true justice and mercy.

The jubilee commandments must be seen in the context of the covenant given to the people of Israel and in the context of the central covenant requirement: "Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might" (Deut. 6:4, 5). It was only when they were rooted in this that the Sabbath and the jubilee had a concrete meaning. For, it was because he feared God and trusted in Him that the Israelite could give without interest to his neighbour and could give a loan to the needy even in the sixth year knowing that there would be no obligation to repay. It was his knowledge of God that led him to treat a slave honorably and to release him with lavish gifts after six years of service. The fear of God caused him to accept the right of redemption and finally to welcome the ancestor back to his land which he returned to him on the fiftieth year. The Israelite was not to depend on a coercive state power. He was to practise justice because he knew that God takes delight in righteousness and blesses it; he also knew that God hears the cry of the oppressed, the widow, and the orphan just as he heard the cry of the Israelites in Egypt. It was his fear and love of God which motivated the Israelite to obedience. He knew that only in loving God and in obeying his voice could he experience the blessings of a long abundant life in the land and that all other ways were death.

Any reading of Leviticus 25 which sets this portion outside of the covenant relationship of God with his people loosens the text from its original meaning. Thousands of Israelites must have tried to gloss over the reference to Mount Sinai and verse 17 when the Sabbath came around and finally the great test of faith every fiftieth year. They glossed over the text to their peril for the prophets proclaimed: "Woe to those, who seizing the fields that they covet, they take over houses as well, owner and house they confiscate together, taking both man and his inheritance" (Micah 2:2) and "Woe to those who add house to house and join field to field until everywhere belongs to them and they are the sole inhabitants of the land" (Isa. 5:8). Finally it was because "They would not listen, but were stubborn, as their Fathers had been, who did not believe in the Lord their God. They despised his statutes and his covenant that He made with their Fathers" (2 Kings 17:14, 15) that all the curses of Deuteronomy 28 overcame the people and the land was laid desolate and the people led into exile even though "I said to you, 'You will not see that road again!'" (Deut. 30:68)

6. Christ's fulfillment and the contemporary meaning of jubilee

Jesus Christ fulfilled the law. What Israel could not do, He did. The Israelites could not obtain reconciliation by keeping the commandments, but through Christ's total obedience to the will of God, we can again obtain reconciliation with God to be his people and by rooting ourselves in Christ we can obtain the power to obey the voice of God.

Although the specific tenets of the Old Testament law no longer apply to our twentieth century situation, Jesus was very explicit that the root commandment, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind", and the second order commandment, "Love your neighbour as yourself", are also the root commandments in the kingdom of God (Matt.22:34-40; Mark 12:28-34; Luke 10:25-37). Therefore this is the root from which the lives of New Testament Christians must be lived and, just as the root received its expression in the Old Testament in the concrete experience of the everyday lives of the Israelites, so this root commandment is to be expressed in the concrete everyday life of New Testament Christians.

At the time of Israel's settlement on the land, God was operating at the beginning of his process of revelation to the people. As the revelation at that time was much more limited than at the time of the New Testament when the people had over a thousand years of history from which to learn, God's instructions at the time of the settlement as to how life as God's people was to be led had to be very explicit and, as a result, the covenant code was very detailed. The code laid out explicitly how the people of God in the particular cultural context of changing from a semi-nomadic life to a settled existence during the 11th century BC were to live their life before God. By the time of the New Testament when people were able to draw upon the long history of God's dealing with his people, the teachings were less explicit and more principally directed, although these teachings too were given in a particular cultural context. Jesus in his teachings pointed to the meaning of the commandments and emphasized that it is the meaning of the commandments which are important for the New Testament times, not the particular forms in which they were expressed twelve hundred years before. This meaning was to be expressed concretely in the lives of the people. Jesus stated this in Matthew 5:17-48. Although the law stated that one was not to commit murder (Ex. 20:13), it means that one must see to it that he remains reconciled with his brother; although the law stated that one may not commit adultery (Ex.20:14), it means that if a man looks lustfully at a woman he has already committed adultery in his heart; although the law stated the principle of an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth (Ex. 21:24), it means that one should be ready to give extra rather than demand restitution; and although the law stated that one was to love his neighbour (Lev. 19:18), it means that one is to love his enemy as well.

The full meaning of the law must be expressed and the responsibility to express this meaning holds for all people until the end of time. Jesus stated: "Think not that I have come to abolish the law and the prophets; I have come not to abolish them but to fulfil them. For truly I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the law until all is accomplished. Whoever then relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but he who does them and teaches them shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven" (Matt. 5:17-19; cf. also Luke 16:17).

Those who relax the meaning of the law and assume that it is no longer applicable are in danger of being considered least in the kingdom. But those who practise what the law requires and teach others to do the same are promised a place in the kingdom. It is the practice of the law which is important, for "Everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house upon sand; and the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell; and great was the fall of it" (Matt. 7:26, 27).

The meaning of the year of jubilee commandment is that God's people are called to use what they have been given by God to practise mercy and justice by ensuring that those who through various circumstances experience hardship and poverty are to be relieved in this burden and are to be restored to a situation where they can again maintain the necessities for their life as persons called to obedience to God and called to receive the blessings resulting from that obedience. Through keeping the full meaning of the commandments God's people are promised a place in the kingdom of heaven.

The New Testament church at Jerusalem recognized the meaning of the jubilee commandment, for "The whole body of believers was united in heart and soul. Not a man of them claimed any of his possessions as his own, but everything was held in common, while the apostles bore witness with great power to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. They were all held in high esteem; for they never had a needy person among them, because all who had property in land or houses sold it, brought the proceeds of the sale, and laid the money at the feet of the apostles; it was then distributed to any who stood in need" (Acts 4:32-37)

Here was the recognition in practice that the greatest commandment meant that loving your neighbour also involved expressing the meaning of jubilee.

As was the case with the year of jubilee commandment, this expression was rooted in the greatest commandment and it concretized the expression of mercy and justice by upholding the poor. The obligation of this responsibility rested on those who had, but this was not a law which was made binding on the community since those who had voluntarily exercised their responsibility and gave of what they had. It was recognized that what one particular person had been given was not his own but was entrusted to him for service and, since all were children of God, no one was to be oppressed by poverty.

It was in taking care of the poor that the Christians were held in high esteem by the people of the city. This is very similar to: "Keep them (the commandments) and do them; for that will be your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples, who, when they hear (about) all these statutes, will say 'Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people'" (Deut. 4:6). It is in the practical expression of the love of God in the believers' concern for the neighbour that the unbeliever also learns to recognize God.

The understanding of the meaning of jubilee for contemporary life must begin with the greatest commandment. It is because we love God with our whole being that we also keep the meaning of the jubilee and it is because of Jesus Christ's work that we are able to be reconciled with God and thus obtain the power to express this commandment. This all works integrally so that loving God must lead to expressing the meaning of the jubilee. Jesus taught that the meaning of jubilee is required expression for all people at all times.

The meaning of the jubilee commandments, that the people of God are called to use what they have been given by God to practise mercy and justice by ensuring that those, who through various circumstances experience hardship and poverty, are to be relieved of this burden and are to be restored to a situation where they can again maintain the necessities of life as persons called to obey the voice of God, is as valid today as it was in ancient Israel and in the time of Jesus. It obviously demands a response in a world where almost one billion people experience malnutrition, over six hundred million experience direct hunger, tens of thousands die each day due to starvation, and hundreds of thousands are imprisoned unjustly. Since it is not possible in this type of study to detail the type of response required in this broken situation, discussion will be limited to how some of the foregoing principles should guide this required response.

The principle guiding the place of land in the jubilee commandments means that everything on earth belongs to God and is to be used according to his will. That which on the earth provides the basis for socio-economic life is to be used by those who have been given the responsibility for administrating this also for the liberation and restoration of the poor and the oppressed.

The jubilee principle guiding relationships among people means that since we are all called to be servants of God and before God have an equivalent status in this respect, no one may exploit or oppress another. The development in the New Testament of this principle shows that we have the obligation to serve our fellowman and that fellowman means all of mankind.

The Israelites were strangers and sojourners with God. Through the work of Jesus Christ we are no longer strangers and sojourners but God's sons and fellow heirs with Christ (Rom. 8:14-17; Gal. 3:29-4:7). As sons and fellow heirs with Christ, it is our responsibility to obey God's Word and this includes carrying out the meaning of the jubilee. In the Old Testament the call to practise jubilee was given to God's people and those in particular who were to exercise this responsibility were those who had received more than what was required for the socio-economic necessities of life. From a global perspective at least 95% of North Americans have received an excess of the socio-economic requirements for life and consequently the meaning of jubilee leans heavily here. Furthermore, since we Christians are fellow heirs with Christ and also affluent, the responsibility for jubilee rests doubly on us.

In the differentiated stage of the present development of our society, land does not function as the basis of our socio-economic life as it did in the life of ancient Israel. The basis of our socio-economic life lies in much more than land or physical resources. It lies in our capacity to develop and use these resources for man's service. This capacity for development through which maximum service can be obtained from the earth is based on our technology, our capital, our attitudes, our power, our wealth, our access to education and information, etc., all of which we utilize in order to produce the standard of socio-economic existence which we enjoy. The use which our society has made of these factors has been profoundly perverted, but this does not negate the fact that we do have this capacity for developing the earth. Our society operates to produce this standard of living by utilizing all these factors and we all contribute our individual skills by means of which we maintain our individual socio-economic existences; skills such as technical, medical, legal, administrative, teaching, labour, parenting, financial, organizational, political, etc. In the context of our society, these skills and factors, if used in proper service to God, would function in a similar way as land was intended to function in the context of ancient Israel. These are also required for developing an extended socio-economic basis for life among the poor of the world. It is these factors and skills which are critical to restoring the poor to a liveable situation. When seen in this context, the responsibility to practise jubilee falls not only on those who have money or own capital, but also on all who have access to the skills and factors which can be used to build a restored socio-economic existence for the poor.

This responsibility to practise jubilee is required of each person both as an individual and in community. Each person is called to express jubilee on his own violation. There is no indication that some type of coercive power is to be required for ensuring the practice of jubilee. Of course communities exert some control over their members and especially the state has a responsibility in the area of justice, but lack of action by these groups can not be an excuse for individual inaction. Each person is called to exercise his own responsibility.

In the case of most forms of poverty and oppression, liberation would involve some form of economic assistance, e.g. food or financial assistance. However jubilee calls us to practise liberation with restoration and restoration to a means of socio-economic existence involves much more than straight economic assistance. It often means promoting some type of self-development skills; it usually requires changes in economic structures and power relationships and concepts; and it always involves changes in personal economic practices which support or directly exploit the poor, changes which are not relegated to only reducing consumption but changes which actually lead to positive economic development among the poor. In this connection we should critically examine the ways in which we communally support exploitation of the poor through our economic habits which support those organizations which depend for their existence on the exploitation of the helpless.

Of central significance to our expression of jubilee is that this must and can only flow from the greatest commandment. Not only are the Scriptures adamant about the fact that the expression of jubilee is integral with loving God with one's whole being, but they also emphasize that trying to express jubilee without being fully rooted in God is of little account. This has important consequences for our support and actions for liberation and restoration which do not flow from a firm rootedness in God.

In similarity to Israel's calling to be God's people and thereby to witness to the nations of God's greatness and goodness, we are also called to live lives through which the unbeliever learns to recognize God. Peter wrote, "You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's own people, that you may declare the wonderful deeds of Him who called you out of darkness into his marvellous light. Once you were no people but no you are God's people; once you had not received mercy , but now you have received mercy" (1 Pet. 2:9-10).

The lives of God's people which includes our expression of the jubilee are to proclaim to the unbelievers that Jesus Christ has triumphed over evil and that through rooting our lives in Him we can obtain life.

And just as obeying the voice of God gave Israel abundant life under God's covenant, so following the teachings of Jesus Christ and the Scriptures assures us of a place in the kingdom of heaven. The revelation to John promises: "Behold, the dwelling of God is with men. He will dwell with them and they shall be his people, and God Himself will be with them; He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there by crying or pain anymore, for the former things have passed away" (Rev. 21: 3-4).

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