No pruning in the 7th yr. No trials in 7th period of 1,000
years? A vine, separated and left to itself, not pruned by human hands, brings
forth fruit to the glory of God!
Lev 25:9
National day of atonement marks the beginning of the Jubilee
year. Christ is our "atonement" by which we are declared free.
HAVE THE TRUMPET SOUNDED: The year of jubilee and
release are typical of the day of the resurrection: "For the trumpet will sound,
the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed" (1Co
15:52).
Lev 25:10
PROCLAIM LIBERTY THROUGHOUT THE LAND TO ALL ITS
INHABITANTS: Inscribed on the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia. Will Israel
return to her land in a Jubilee year?
Jesus proclaims himself as the means of achieving liberty for
his people (Isa 61:1); this work will have its completion at the resurrection --
cp 1Pe 3:19.
Lev 25:23
Vv 23-27: The Land belongs to God, and individual Israelites
never really owned it, though God Himself gave them the exclusive right to it so
long as they kept the law. If a man fell into debt, and had to mortgage the land
which he had inherited, it became the duty of the nearest of kin to purchase it,
so as to retain possession of it in the family. On the year of Jubilee, however,
the land which had passed out of the hands of the inheritor was, by divine
decree, caused to revert back to him. In that sense the property was treated as
being redeemed by God Himself (Lev 25:9,10). In the interim, it was the
responsibility of the kinsman (Heb "gaal") to act on behalf of God.
How will this portion of the Law of Moses be fulfilled? In the
broadest sense, the Land of Promise may be seen to have passed into the hands of
strangers when Israel was taken into captivity. But this same Land will be
redeemed by Christ the true "Gaal" (near-kinsman and redeemer) -- the Son in
whom the Father has been manifested (Psa 74:2; Isa 52:9) -- when he returns to
this earth to claim his inheritance.
Lev 25:47
Vv 47-53: If an Israelite, through poverty or any other
reason, were sold into slavery to a stranger, it was the duty of the Gaal to
redeem him, and thus restore him to freedom (Lev 25:47-53).
(NT) Through sin, man finds himself in bondage to the law of
sin and death (Rom 7:3; 8:2), and utterly unable to redeem himself (Psa 49:7,8).
But God, the Gaal of Israel, having manifested Himself in flesh in the person of
the Lord Jesus Christ, assumes the position of near kinsman, and so the price of
redemption is paid (1Pe 1:18,19; 1Co 6:20; 7:23).