“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, Because He has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted; To proclaim liberty to the captives, And sight to the blind; To set at liberty the oppressed; To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord”–Luke 4:18-19
The jubilee was one of the Jewish feasts, celebrated every fifty years. Its celebration was announced by the sound of a trumpet or horn, which is where its name comes from, from the Hebrew word yobel, which means “ram’s horn.” During it, all debts were to be canceled, every slave set free, and the lands that had been sold returned to their original owners (Lev. 25:8–55; 27:17–24; Ezek. 46:17).
The main purpose Jehovah pursued in establishing it was to prevent the total ruin of the land and to give freedom to those in debt so that everyone would have the opportunity for a fresh start. It was also to remind them that the owner and creator of all things is God, so that both the debtor and the creditor had to trust that He would provide them with what they needed in that sabbatical year. Sadly, the people of Israel did not understand and did not observe it in the way it had been established, and so they suffered impoverishment, barrenness of the land and also captivities.
In the spiritual sense, the year of jubilee is “the acceptable year of the Lord” (Luke 4:19; Isa. 61:2), which represents the salvation we have received from God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Taking up the spirit of this celebration, we have seen fit to celebrate, every fifty days or every seven Sabbaths, a special encounter with the Lord, in order to – as a community of faith – give Him worship, sanctifying ourselves in Him, and to receive from His hands His abundant and plentiful blessing.
