Weekly scriptures: Leviticus 25:1–26:2; Jeremiah 32:6-27; Luke 4:16-21
Our 'thought' this week is based on God's covenant promises to His people Israel at two special times in their walk with Him, which challenge us also in our response to trust Him to fulfil His word. This week's Torah portion - Behar ('on the mountain') - deals with two themes related to the covenant that God made with His people at Mount Sinai: one concerning the sabbatical year (the sh'mittah) - every 7th year; and the other concerning the Jubilee year (the yovel) - every 50th year.
Sh'mittah Year
The sh'mittah was to be a year of complete rest for the land which God required of His people and a year of freedom for slaves (both after six years of work), and it included the remittance of all debts. The word means 'release'. This demonstrated God's care for His land, and for the poor who could collect food from the land during this year, and it was also to prevent the accumulation of wealth to the detriment of the poor.
The freedom for the land every seven years was important for crop production, but also for God's people: to establish a deep trust in His provision and to see the blessings for hearing and obeying His teaching. Failure to observe this law over 70 sh'mittah years resulted in the exile of Israel in Babylon (Lev 26:33-35), but their return was also promised (2 Chron 36:21, Jer 25:12, 29:10).
Jeremiah foresaw this exile and, in faith, prophetically witnessed to God's faithfulness in Israel's restoration by buying a field in his home town for use after their return. This might have seemed impossible to Jeremiah (and to us?) but he proclaimed:
Sovereign Lord, you have made the heavens and the earth by Your great power – nothing is too hard for you. (Jer 32:17)
God replied, as He had done to Sarah, aged 90, in promising a son for her in a year's time: "I am the Lord, the God of all mankind. Is anything too hard for Me?" (Jer 32:27; Gen 18:14). God is worthy of our obedience too, precisely because He always fulfils His covenant promises. That encourages us to obey His word and it is His Sh'ma to us: Hear and obey.
Jubilee Year
The yovel (Jubilee) was also a year of freedom every 49 (7x7) years, and was announced by blowing the shofar on Yom Kippur (yovel is the Hebrew word for the sound or blast of the shofar). This 50th year was to be separated from other years as holy, and God reminded the people that "the Land is Mine and you are but aliens, and My tenants" (Lev 25:23). The land must not be sold permanently, or divided (Joel 3:2) – which has serious implications for today - because He is their Sovereign King, their 'Landlord', and as His people they were to dwell in His Kingdom and be a witness to the nations around them – "that all the peoples of the earth may know that the Lord is God and that there is no other" (1 Ki 8:60).
To do this, their hearts had to be fully committed to the Lord, for they were in the land as "strangers and sojourners with Me" (Lev 25:23). Note the "with Me". He brought them out of Egypt specifically "to bring you to Myself" (Ex 19:4). Though given to them by covenant, the land was His and it was the one place that God chose to dwell – with His people (Deut 12:11).
Do we consider ourselves as sojourners in this life? And are we also fully committed to our Lord so that we too can be the witnesses He calls us to be (Acts 1:8)?
The Renewed Covenant
For all people today, this is a call to 'whosoever will come' from all the nations, to enter into the freedom of His Kingdom through belief in the Son of God, Jesus (Yeshua), the Jewish Messiah.
For Israel, the Kingdom was established through three foundational covenants: first, the Abrahamic covenant, given by grace, to live in trust and faith in His land, where He would dwell with them; second, through the Mosaic covenant given on the mountain (Behar) at Sinai as a ketubah (a marriage document), given in love, securing protection through their obedience to His teaching and instruction (Torah), with God as their King.
Then, on another mountain (Mt Moriah), in the city in which He chose to dwell (the city of Yeshua the Great King - Jerusalem - Ps 48:2), God again entered human history in His Son, and fulfilled His promise to restore:
I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you. I will remove from you your heart of stone...I will put My spirit in you and move you to follow My decrees. You will live in the land I gave your forefathers, and you will be My people and I will be your God. (Ezek 36:26-27)
To fulfil this promise, Jesus renewed and expanded God's covenant with the House of Israel and the House of Judah (Jer 31:31-33) to include all who would believe in Him and enter into the spiritual freedom of Jubilee, both Jew and Gentile. Through His Name, they will receive forgiveness of sins and the gift of His Holy Spirit (Acts 10:43-48).
The Final Jubilee
On the final Day of the Lord, a Jubilee will be proclaimed by another yovel, a shofar gadol (a great shofar), "with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet call of God". Then Jesus Himself will descend from heaven "with a shout of Jubilee" to raise the dead in Christ and to catch up (rapture) all believers who are alive, to meet the Lord in the air and to be with Him for ever (1 Thess 4:16-18). What words of comfort and encouragement these are!
Jesus' ministry to preach the Gospel, heal the sick and proclaim the year of the Lord's favour (Isa 61:1-2a, Luke 4:16-17) alludes to the Kingdom Jubilee that He established on the Cross, by the sacrifice of Himself, once for all people. This offering, fulfilled perfectly and completely, gives for all who believe in Him, redemption through His Blood, freedom from sin and death, and the gift of eternal life with Him and the Father by His Spirit. Through Jesus, the Father has adopted us as His sons "to the praise of His glorious Grace, which the Father has freely given us in the One He loves" (Eph 1:6).
This is the really Good News – Messiah has given us a foretaste (in the mountain at Sinai and at Mount Moriah in Jerusalem) of the freedom that will take place when He comes to gather in all who choose to hear and receive His offer. But for those who choose not to hear, and wilfully reject Him in unbelief, this will provoke God's judgment (John 3:36 - the day of vengeance of our God – Isa 61:2b).
The hour is late, beloved - it is decision time. The thought for this week is: TODAY, if you will hear His voice, do not harden your heart, but let His love work in you for the freedom and joy in salvation that He offers.
Author: Greg Stevenson