Goodness! Can the news be any more depressing when it comes to job loss, foreclosures, debt, bankruptcy, and the economy? We are truly experiencing uncertain times. These times are enough to make anyone fearful, anxious, and uneasy. However, I always wonder where God fits into each and every experience, including our present circumstance.
I do not believe that it is by accident that last night I read two things that run exactly with each other. First, I read Leviticus 25 as my reading for the "read the Bible in a year" and then I read a book I bought a while back that is actually the transcript of a speech by Bono (U2's lead singer) that he gave to the National Prayer Breakfast in 2006. I was surprised and then stirred that both were about Jubilee.
To sum up Leviticus 25, work your land and harvest for 6 years and let the land have a "sabbath" on the seventh year. God would provide enough for 3 years in the 6th year, so no worries about the 7th. However, every 50th year would be Jubilee. All debt cancelled and those who had lost everything, including their land, get it back. That is a very short description. Bono's speech talked about the same thing, but on a political and social level for governments to do.
Jubilee is a year of redemption for the poor, indebted, bankrupt, enslaved, and beaten down. Leviticus 25:35 says, "If your brother becomes poor and cannot maintain himself...you shall maintain him...you shall not lend him your money at interest, not give him your food for profit." Jesus, as He begins His ministry, quotes from Isaiah in Luke 4:18, "The spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He has anointed me to preach good news to the poor." Jesus ushers in the time of God's favor...the ultimate Jubilee.
Now, here is what I am left to ponder and for you to ponder with me. Our vision is "refusing to give up on God's dream for the world." So, how do we live out Jubilee in Canton? We are in an era of "Jubilee Grace" through Jesus Christ. How do we live this out and make Jubilee reality in people's lives?
Let me know what you think.
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This is my first post on any blog, and it was more complicated than I imagined to establish my ID. John, the directions first said I could use my YAHOO ID but it took me to Google, which then told me I had to update and it turned out change my ID and password on Google. It lost the message I posted in the first place so here goes again.
ReplyDeletePlease excuse spelling errors as this print is nearly unreadable to me.
I like the theme of Jubilee. I just finished reading a number of personal accounts of slaves in the USA from the early seventeen hundreds till the late eighteen fifties and early 1860s. What an eye opener. Nothing like personal testimony to change one's perspective. No excuse for "good masters" who whipped and starved their slaves there.
The old Mosaic Law's Jubilee was a great social institution to exercise mercy and to restore families and individuals who had fallen upon hard times.
We can learn much from the Old Covenant and reflect that by showing mercy and giving people a hand up when we are able.
Liberty, as I understand what Paul says. is the power to do what God says is best when He says to do it. It deals deeply with motives and with our flesh, which Paul says IS DEAD.
In Galatians 5 he says:
Gal 5:13 For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another.
Paul advises us to refuse to go back into bondage, and for the Galatians it was the Mosaic Law, which was Scripture, which had been presented to them as necessary to obey to be saved and to stay saved. They faced a choice to return to the bondage of the Law, which was given only to the Jews, and which they could not even keep themselves, or to respond to what Paul had written in Galatians.
I am glad Christ has freed us from the bondage of the Law, and that the apostle Paul was true to what God revealed to him and to him alone of all the apostles.
Furthermore, God has freed me personally from a terrible bondage to a Bible Study cult which used Scripture to enslave! I was in it for over thirty years. I bet I am not the only one who has been trapped by the misuse of the Bible.
John's theme of JUBILEE reminded me of the struggle to remain free once granted freedom in the first place.
Elsewhere John has spoken about the book he was reading, PAGAN CHRISTIANITY, which he had to quit because it was so stunning. I long to participate in a truly free group of believers who are not in bondage to tradition but who are faithful to what God means for us today to live by....the gospel He revealed to Paul and the epistles Paul wrote to the Body of Christ. We can throw off the unscriptural trappings without losing truth in the process.
What do others say?
Lucida