The Sabbatic Year and Year of Jubilee: Millennial Times
MILLENNIAL TIMES.
“thkke kemaineth, therefobe, a erst to the pxofle of ood.” — Hebi iv. 9.
“THE TEAB OF MT REDEEMED IS COME.” Isaiah lxiii. 4.
Vers. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7. “And the Lord spake unto Moses in Mount Sinai,* saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them. When ye come into the land which I give you, then shall the land keep a sabbath unto the Lord. Six years thou shalt sow thy field, and six years thou shalt prune thy vineyard, and gather in the fruit thereof; but in the seventh year shall be a sabbath of rest unto the land, a sabbath fur the Lord; thou shalt neither sow thy field, nor prune thy vineyard. That which groweth of its own accord of the harvest thou shalt not reap, neither gather the grapes of thy vine undressed: for it is a year of rest unto the land. And the sabbath of the land shall be meat for you; fur thee, and for thy servant, and for thy maid, and for thy hired servant, and for thy stranger that sojourneth with thee, and for thy cattle, and for the beast that are in thy land, shall all the increase Uiereof be meat.”
As soon as they should be settled in the Promised
* “In,” that is, while still at the same region as when the preceding precepts were given; for Israel was a year there. Numbers x. 11, 12, sayf they did not remove till the second month of the second year after leaving Egypt
Land, this ordinance must be kept. As each Sabbath-day was a type of the coming rest to creation after its G,000 years of woe, and as each ijear’s seventh month brought round a type of the same in the feast of tabernacles, so each seventh year also. There is a yearning in the heart of God towards this happy time. Jesus himself is he who says in the Song, “Till the day break and the shadows flee away, I will get me to the mountain of myrrh and the hill of frankincense” (Song iv. 6); and these repeated types, at every new period of time, days, months, and years, intimate the same desire. Oh! how should we long for that day of God — for what Paul calls in 2 Thess. i. 7, “rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven.”
They were to keep it “to the Lord,” even as the Sabbath-day. He delighted to see in that year a type of creation’s rest; and they were to spend that year of comparative leisure in serving him more entirely.
When it is said, “Six years thou shalt sow,” there is a precept as well as permission given. Till the seventh year comes we must work and toil; the sweat must hang on our brow, the testimony and effect of the Fall. But the seventh year wipes that away. “There shall be no more curse” was thus suggested to every keeper of the Sabbatic year. No work on that year (ver. 4), no reaping” even of what grew of itself; they might pluck the few grapes that grew on “the undressed vine”* (ver. 5),
* “iitJ the vine in the undressed state of a Nazarite -whose locks grew unrestrained. As Propertius ii. 15, speaks of the coma of the vine (RosenmuUer). Or, it may be from nt; directly, q. d, the vine in the state of consecration to God, which implied that no human hand pruned it Patrick remarks that olive-yaids, (to, were all included under these rules; Exod. xxiii. 10.
and the handfals found springing up in the corn-fields of themselves; but this they might do just as need required. There was to be none of the toils of harvest or of vintage; “the Sabbath of the land” that is, (chap, xxiii. 38,) lohai the Sabbath of the land furnishes and presents, shall be sufficient.
It was during this year also that every Israelite remitted debts due to him by his brother Israelite; and every Hebrew slave might leave his servitude (Exod. xxi., &c.), at least, if this to him were the seventh year of his bondage. There must be. a full picture of rest. For this is the type of what the earth shall be under Christ, the Prince of Peace. Of Him it is said, “His rest shall be glorious” (Isa. xi. 10); and of that final rest it is written, “There remaineth a rest for the people of God” — {aa^uxioftos, Heb. iv. 9), a time combining in itself all that was prefigured by the seventh day, and iYi the seventh month, and during the seventh year. “Walk through Israel’s land at such a time, and, lo! every one sits under his vine and under his fig-tree in peace. No sound of the oxen treading out the corn, no shouting from the vineyard; a strange stillness over all the land, while its summer-days are as bright as ever, and its people as happy as a nation on earth could be found. Amid this rest — which in a nation of agriculturists would be nearly equivalent to universal cessation from toil — how continually do the godly sing the prai.<)es of Jehovah! The whole year round, they use their leisure for God. “His servants serve him.” They rest not from this; and so they make this outward rest more truly a type of the heavenly. No sweat upon their brow (as if anticipating those days in Ezek. xliv. 18) from tilling the ground; and yet what with last year’s plentiful and superabundant supply (ver. 20), and what with the supplement yielded by this year’s self-produce, each man has sufficiency. “So giveth he his beloved sleep” — and they rest in his love. And the beasts of the field rest; “creation itself” seems- to share in this liberty of the sons of Grod, anticipating its season of deliverance from corruption. (Rom. viii. 21.) The very soil on which their harvest grew was improved by this rest, as if to shadow forth the time when it should no more yield less than it did in Paradise. And, besides all this, no man appropriated to himself anything that the land then produced; all was common, to the rich, to the poor, to the Hebrew, to the stranger, — a token of the restoration of mutual love. Rest on the ground, among the beasts of the field, in the dwellings of men with praise and worship unceasingly ascending from harp and psaltery and gracious lips, while every man partook of earth’s produce as freely as his neighbor in token of established good-will, was not all this a scene of true, real peace? Might not Israel say, “Let the heavens rejoice, and let the earth be glad, let the sea roar and the fulness thereof; let the field be joyful and all that is therein; then shall all the trees of the wood rejoice before the Lord,” (Ps. xovi. 11, 12.)
So much did God love these blessed shadows of the rest to come, that Israel’s neglect of them is reckoned one of the causes of their being carried away to Babylon. Shall not, then, the neglect of any among us to realize that “rest that remaineth,” be also displeasing to the Lord? It is true, their neglect arose rather from present eagerness about the world, than from dislike of the season of rest; but, from whatever cause, the duty was left undone. And yet, after all, a true longing for the rest would have helped much to free them from worldly attractions, and their contentedness with present scenes showed at least that they were not over fond of the future. Is it not so still? There is little of the pilgrimspirit in those who never long for “the rest that remameth.” There is too little weariness of sin — little of Brainerd’s cry, “O that my soul were holy as He is holy! O that it were pure as Christ is pure, and perfect as my Father in heaven is perfect! These arc the sweetest commands in God’s book, comprising all others. And shall I break them? Must I break them? Am I under a necessity of it as long as I live in the world? O my soul! woe, woe is me that I am a sinner There is much groaning under human misery, but there is little groaning under a sense of deep dishonor done to God. There is, too, now and then, a longing to be at rest ourselves; but rarely do you find souls who are groaning in sympathy with all creation. A Jeremiah may be found, weeping, not for himself, but for “the slain of the daughter of his people;” but where shall we find a heart so large as Paul describes, “Not they only, but we ourselves also, who have the first-fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves,” through excessive longing for a world’s deliverance! Oh, to hear earth’s hills and valleys ringing with liallelujahs that come from souls reposing with true Sabbatic rest on their God, while all creation listens in Sabbatic peace and serenity! One of our own poets has sung of this expected time, when the praise of Him who giveth rest to the weary, and who then himself enters fully on his glorious rest, shall be the daily employment of nations in every land.
“The time of rest, the promised Sabbath comes 1
Rivers of gladness water all the earth,
And clothe all climes with beauty. The reproach
Of barrenness is past. The fruitful field
Laughs with abundance; and the land, once lean,
Or fertile only in its own disgrace,
Exults to see its thirsty curse repealed.
The various seasons woven into one,.
And that one season an eternal spring.
The garden feels no blight; and needs no fence,
For there is none to covet — all are full.
The lion, and the leopard, and the bear
Graze with the fearless flocks
One song employs all nations; and all cry
‘Worthy the Lamb, for he was slain for us l’
The dwellers in the vales arid on the rocks
Shout to each other, and the mountain tops
From distant mountains catch the flying joy;
Till, nation after nation taught the strain,
Earth rolls the rapturous Hosanna round.” — CowPKa.
THE YEAR OF JUBILEE.
Vers. 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13. “And thou shalt number seven sabbaths of years unto thee, seven times seven years; and the space of the seven sabbaths of years shall be unto thee forty and nine years. Then shalt thou cause the trumpet of the jubilee to sound on the tenth day of the seventh month, in the day of atonement shall ye make the trumpet sound throughout all your land. And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof: it shall be a jubilee unto you; and ye shall return every man unto his possession, and ye shall return every man unto his family. A jubilee shall that fiftieth year be unto you: ye shall not sow, neither reap that which groweth of itself in it, nor gather the grapes in it of thy vine undressed. For it is the jubilee; it shall be holy unto you; ye shall eat the increase thereof out of the field. In the year of this jubilee ye shall return every man unto his possession.”
Like the striking of a clock from the turret of some cathedral, announcing that the season of labor for the day is closed, so sounded the notes of the silver trumpet from the sanctuary, announcing that a year of ces« sation from all toil was come, and a year of redemption from all burdens. It is this that Isaiah seems to mean when, in chap, xxvii. 13, he speaks of” The great trumpet being hlcwn’’ and instantly Israel, in all lands, hear and flow together.
This year was a most peculiar time. The very name (bai“‘), “Jobel,” seems invented for the occasion, and is used onward, from this time, whenever the trumpets were to sound joyfully. It is probable that the word is derived from the root b-^nin (Hiphil of ba), meaning “to restore or bring Z>acA:;”*. because on this day the silver trumpet proclaimed release and restoration throughout all Israel.
Does the Jubilee represent the preaching of the Gospel 1 Some argue that it does, because Isa. lxi. 1, 2, as used by Jesus, at Nazareth, seems la be clothed in the language of the jubilee. The true answer to this is, that Jesu was the High Priest who blew the jubilee trumpet throughout all the land of Israel, when he proclaimed, “The kingdom of heaven is at hand!” That kingdom which he preached brought in its train “the opening of the prison door to the bound, deliverance to the captive,” as well as “glad tidings to the poor.” But then Jesus seems to have intended to proclaim, at that time only, that the rights and privileges of the jtibilee-year should
* Some JewSh commentators derive it from the supposed signification, “a ram,” which they say it has in Arabic. But even they are evidently only throwing out conjectures. So are those who derive it from Jubal, the inventor of musical instruments. The Septuagint have “dcffif,” and Joscphus has “iXtvOcpia,” both pointing to the sense of “restoring.” Some think that “the times of the restitution of all thingt,” airoKaraiTTaait, refers to this very word. (Acts iii. 21.)
belong to all his true Israel. The true time of the actual jubilee was not yet come; for the Day of Atonement was not pastj nor had the high priest gone in within the veil with his sacrifice, far less come forth from the veil. It is clear, therefore, that our Lord’s ministry was not the fulfilment of this type, but only the prelude of it; as if the high priest of Israel had on the morning of the Day of Atonement, proclaimed to all the worshippers, that whoever was of the seed of Israel should, at the close of the day, hear the glad sound of entire deliverance, and enter on a year of rest. Christ’s first coming gives the earnest of those blessings which his second coming shall give in full. Just as a Sabbath, truly enjoyed, gives us at present that rest and refreshing of soul which we shall yet have also in body amid a universe at rest.*
The proper fulfilment of the type is found by the references in Isa. xxvii, 13, “The great trumpet blown” for Israel’s restoration; and Isa. lxiii. 4, “The year of my redeemed” C’^^’’^?’) — those to whom I acted the kinsman’s part (xii). Perhaps, also, Zech. ix. 12, where the blood of the covenant is assigned as the reason why these ‘prisoners of hope“i are to be set fre#; and where, in ver. 14, we hear “the blowing of the trumpet.” The time of fulfilment is thus indicated to be the time of Israel’s final restoration, and the time of the Lord’s glorious Appearing.
This year of Jubilee typified the same as the Sabbatical year, in some degree (see vers. 11, 12, compared with
* The jubilee which Christ’8 first coming brings us is, redemption from fiin itself. The jubilee which his second coming brings is, redemption from all the bitter- consequences of sin.
t mpFl!. expecting and looking forward to the day of deliverance with the dwoKapaSoKia of creation, Rom. viiL 19.
vers. 4, 5); but it did so with great enlargement. It exhibits some of the joy and the causes of the joy of that millennial time (vers. 10, 13), while the Sabbatical year showed merely the entire rest and peace that should prevail. Thus we find that these different types advancing upon one another, just as you draw out a telescope farther and farthep, till you find the proper focus for gazing on the yet more unperceived features of the scene. The seventh day exhibits a type of millennial peace; the seventh year, yet more; and now the seventh year of sevens is fuller than all the rest.
The Jubilee (ver. 9) always began on the evening of the Day of Atonement. There was first given to the people a fuli display of the way of pardon, by all the ceremonies of that day; nay, this had been done year after year, on seven times seven occasions, ere this glorious Jubilee was proclaimed. They were taught, and we by them are taught, that the full atonement of Jesus — his blood shed and sprinkled on the mercy-seat, his entering in himself, accepted and interceding, and his coming forth “without sin unto salvation” — is the foundation and groundwork of all other blessings. No external blessing can be ours, in that millennial day, unless previously we have been accepted in the Beloved — forgiven, sanctified, made heirs with Christ. Is it thus with thee, 0 brother? Can Christ, the Redeemer, the Vxia, say of thee this day, “Thou art one of my redeemed, one of •’bxa?” For only thus canst thou hope that he will have thee on his heart and in his eye on the day ho cries, “The year of my redeemed is come.’”
In their returning to their possession (vers. 10, 13), we see a picture of human happiness in one of its most natural and intelligible forms. You see parents rejoicing for their children’s sake, and children for their own, in being once more allowed to sit under their vine and fig-tree, and pluck the flowers and fruit of a region so sweet, and balmy, and abundant. You seem to see their happy countenances, and eyes bright with joy; and the holy look toward heaven of the man of faith and prayer, who thanks the Lord for all. They forget the past in the joy of the present. Past losses are made up. Nor is one solitary individual forgotten (ver. 13); every man (p».) has his portion. This is the picture, to the eye, of that glorious season when, “in the regeneration,* every one ^nag dang itpTjXBv”^ that has forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands,” for Christ’s sake, shall inherit everlasting life. (Matt. xix. 29.) There shall be a mansion for each; and each shall stand “in his lot,^^ or assigned portion, “at the end of the days” (Dan. xii. 13), when the Lord Jesus fulfils what is written of him as the bringer back of Eden, the restorer of Pararlise, the reverser of the Fall, “causing to inherit the desolate heritages, and restoring the earth.” (Isa. xlix. 8.)
Vers. 14, 15, 16, IT. “And if thou sell aught unto thy neighbor, or buy est aught of thy neighbor’s hand, ye shall not oppress one another: according to the number of years after the jubilee thou shaltbuy of thy neighbor, and according unto the number of years of the fruits he shall sell unto thee: according to the multitude of years thou shalt increase the price thereof, and according to the fewness of years thou shalt diminish the price of it: for according to the number of the years of the fruits doth )xe sell unto thee. Ye shall not therefore oppress one another; but thou shalt fear thy God: for I am the Lord your God.”
* The word is “TraXiyyii/eaia,” -vchich, it is remarkable, Josephus uses to express the restoration of one to his nativs country, aftqj the exile to Babylon; and which Is also used of the renewal of earth after the deluge and of the restoration of Job to his former prosperity. (Bretschneider’s Lex.)
Here are some of the abuses to which this glorious ordinance might be perverted by ungodly men. !the selfishness of men has, in every age, and under every form of truth, discovered itself as now. An ungodly, self-seeking Jew said in his heart, “I might make some gain of this Jubilee; let me see how wisely I may calculate my circumstances in reference to it. I have a garden at Engedi, which I might let at a high price. The purchaser will perhaps not remember that the jubilee is near, and so I shall let out my garden to him at a rate which a few years’ possession of the garden would more than refund. He will probably have tljis in view when he accepts rny terms; but it is now just a year to the Jubilee, and so I shall get this large rent in the meantime, and my garden also in the course of a year.” In this way, the worldly Israelite turned grace into licentiousness, “supposing that gain was godliness.’”*
Or if he did not overreach his neighbor in this manner, the ungodly Israelite sometimes tried to do it by another mode equally deceitful. He cunningly included in his estimate of the valued worth of an estate the seven Sabbatical years, although during these years no fruit was gathered; and thus a bargain made immediately after the jubilee, which reckoned on the increase oi forty-nine years yet to run, was really a defrauding the purchaser of seven whole years of fruit. This is meant by saying (vers. 15, 16), that only” the years of fruits, i. e., the productive years, and not the Sabbatical ones, are to be counted in such bargains.
1 Tim. vi. 6. Our version does not here give the real sense; for the position of t)|^ article proves that “gain” is the predicate: “Oodlineu it gain,” “nipiaiioi til/at riry tvotdciar.” Such men think that godliness is jost a system to be upheld for the sake of worldly end a.
It is thus that men abuse the doctrines of grace, deceiving their fellow-creatures and injuring their own souls. One man uses the Lord’s table as a means of establishing his character in the sight of the world. Another asks baptism for his children from the same motive. Some adopt the doctrines of free grace as their views, in order to be able to sin on, and yet have hope of running to the Ark whenever the first drops of the deluge fall. It is the doctrines of Christ’s first coming that men so abuse now; whereas it was, in the case before us, the doctrine or type of his second, that Israel abused to purposes of gain, forgetting the spiritual glory of the days of jubilee, and that “Every man that had this hope in Him (i. e., in Christ), purifieth himself even as he is pure.”
Vers. 18, 19, 20, 21, 22. ““Wherefore ye shall do my statutes, and keep my judgments, and do them; and ye shall dwell in the land in safety. And the land shall yield her fruit, and ye shall eat your fill, and dwell therein in safety. And if ye shall saj’. What shall we eat the seventh year? behold, we shall not sow, nor gather in our increase: then I will command my blessing upon you in the sixth year; and it shall bring forth fruit for three years. And ye ehall sow the eighth year, and eat yet of old fruit until the ninth year, until her fruits come in ye shall eat of the old store.”
Unbelief steps in, arising from human reason. The godly will not abuse the glorious ordinances of the Sabbatic year and the jubilee; but they may be tempted to unbelief. They maybe ready to say, “What. sJiall we eat?” Hence, our most gracious Grod anticipates such risings of distrust. Suspicion, and doubt, and fear on the part of his own people are always most grievous to him; and, therefore, he seeks to prevent them. How truly he knows our frame — our tendency to distrustful anxieties, “If ye say. What shall we eat?” Even as Jesus also, dwelling among ns in flesh, perceived too plainly when he said, “Seek not ye what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink, neither be ye of doubtful mind.” (Luke xii. 29.) The Lord pledges his providence in their behalf; and surely this should be enough for every believing man; even as now also he says, “Your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of these things.” Yet how often still is a man overcome by the fear of losing employment, place, support, friends, if he adheres to the Lord’s cause! How many fall before these temptations still! Oh, we little credit the Lord’s faithfulness! How abundant is the promised provision, reaching over the three years of which they were in doubt even until the new fruits came in. May we not leave in his hands all our difficulties as to the manner of future provision, and his mode of operation?
The blessing of the Lord, not their industry, or skill, or foresight, was to be the source of all their safety and plenty. Nothing else is in sight, to sustain faith, but the assurance given that the Lord is able and willing — his heart full of love to them, his holy arm full of strength for them. It was thus that Israel was kept looking to Jehovah himself amid the luxuriance of their land — even as when we gaze on the endless glories of the infinitely varied clouds of a summer’s sunset, we cannot fail all the time to feel that every crimson tint and every flush of beauty is dependent on the far more glorious sun. And, when the jubilee came round with its many joys, all Israel must have felt that the nether springs were fed directly from the upper springs — the gladness of their happy tribes was the immediate effect of the love of their God and King.
Ver8. 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28. “The land shall not be sold forever: for the land is mine; for ye are strangers and sojourners with me. And in all the land of your possession ye shall grant a redemption for the land. If thy brother be waxen poor, and hath sold away some of his possession, and if any of his kin come to redeem it, then shall he redeem that which his brother sold. And if the man have none to redeem it, and himself be able to redeem it; then let him count the year of the sale thereof, and restore the overplus unto the man to whom he sold it; that he may return unto his possession. But if he be not able to restore it to him, then that which is sold shall remain in the hand of him that hath bought it until the year of jubilee: and in the jubilee it shall go out, and he shall return unto his possession.”
Here appears God’s intention to preserve Israel’s land for them, as well as them for it. The Lord, in allusion to Egyptian affairs, says, “The land is mine.” The land in Egypt was properly the king’s; and all others were his tenants,* since the days of Joseph. (Gen. xlvii. 13 -26.) On the other hand, Israel’s land belonged to Jehovah; and the people were his guests, or tenants, “sojourners with him.” On this account, no man had a right to sell any portion of it “forever.” The Lord wished each tribe, and each family of a tribe, to retain its original possessions for the sake of, 1, preserving genealogies unmixed, till Messiah came; 2, preventing the covetous and ambitious from “adding field to field:” 3, cherishing family associations with places, as thereby domestic feelings and the ties of kindred are strengthened.
Hence, “a right of redemption” belonged to every one whose portion of land had been sold for a time, a right to redeem it whenever he was able. If the man grew richer after his poverty, and was able to pay the value of the
* Except the priests, who received their support from the king, also, as part of the Government. See Hengstenberg’s Egypt.
income for the years still remaining tit! the jubilee (” Jhe overplus,” ver. 27), he may at once enter again on |>ossession. If not able “to restore the overplus” (vcr. 28), still his portion of land shall be his at the next jubil<n Thus, for example, if Elimelech’s land (Ruth iv. 3, 4) had actually been alienated, still it would have returned to Naomi’s family at the jubilee. But if some Boaz slip in — if the poor Jew have a relative — “any of his kiri’^ (‘ii<5 iix 3’iiti) — able and willing to pay the price and restore him back his possession, this kinsman shall have the liberty to do so. The expression, “If any of his kin come to redeem it,” implies the necessity for willingness on the friend’s part; and it points at the same time very naturally forward to him who is so often spoken of as “coming’ to redeem” us. “The Redeemer shall come to Zion,” says Isa. lix. 20, using the name Goel. Himself said in eternity, “Lo! I cornel” The shout, the hosanna-shout is yet to be raised when he comes again to redeem earth itself and not its people only; “Blessed is He that cometh” — the kinsman, the Goel, that cometh to restore our possession. And Job’s hope becomes fruition, “I know that my Redeemer ‘’^5, liveth, and shall stand on the earth at the latter day.” (Job xix. 25.)
Our Saviour needed to be our “kinsman” in order to possess a right to offer the price of redemption. Hence, he took our very nature, and was “bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh.” (Eph. v. 30.) “Forasmuch as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same.” (Heb. ii. 14.) And by becoming thus related to us, he has the right, and will enforce it, of redeeming not only the persons of his own, but the very earth on which they dwell. They are from all ‘’ kindreds and tongues and people;” and so he shall claim a right to entire pessession of the earth; and Satan shall be driven forth from his long-usurped throne. Howjoyful for us to traverse the plains, or stand on the hills, or trace the winding rivers of this earth, and to remember that “the Redeemer’’’’ of this decayed inheritance is living now and soon to come again; and that he is one who has all the affections, as well as ties of relationship. How glorious our prospect — how sure our redemption, body, soul, and spirit, as well as inheritance, when our Redeemer is such an one as would become our kinsman in very love to us! He loved “the children;” and since they had flesh and blood, lo I therefore, he must out of love insist on taking the same I And.it is done. He is born of Mary’s substance, yet continuing holy, harmless, undefilod.* He is feeble, and needs to be swaddled in swaddling-clothes, and to lean on a mother’s breast; and now so evidently and truly is Grod manifest in flesh, that Luther could write —
“There is no God but He,
“Who lay upon his niotliei’s knee,
And sucked the Virgin’s breasts.”
“He increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with Grod.” His human faculties expand; and even as a lily, as it grows and unfolds its leaves, receives moro and more of the sunshine into its bosom, so he receives more and more of the favor of his father, has fuller manifestations of his Father’s love poured into him, according as his faculties expand and enlarge. He lives on the creature’s, not on angelic food. He takes for his food
* “Nam ilia quae Deceptor intulit, et home deceptus admisit, nullumhabuere in salvatore vestigium.” Leo’s Epistle, quoted by Marcus Dod<la on Incarnat the bread that disciples bring him from Sychar, or the barley-loaves and small fishes of the lake that the young man of Galilee happens to have in his basket; or plucks a fig from the tree, and is refreshed by a piece of a honey-comb. He drinks the wine of the grape at Cana, and pure water from the well of Jacob. If no food from earth is at hand, he hungers; if heat beat on him, he grows weary and thirsty. He is glad of a pillow whereon to place his head on board the ship, and is revived by the sound slumber of a few hours. And his human soul puts forth its powers upon the objects upon which man ought to exercise his mind and feeling. His soul lives by faith — upheld “by the Father’s testimony. For, hearken; “The Lord God will help me; therefore, shall I not be confounded: therefore have I set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be ashamed” (Isa. 1. 7); or, again, when sense says, “I have labored in vain, I have spent my strength for naught and in vain,” faith responds, “Yet surely my judgment is with the Lord, and my work with my God.” (Isa. xlix. 4.) And hope, too, enlivened his dark sorrow; “For the joy that was set before him, he endured the cross” (Heb. xiii. 3); even from his birth it shed its cheerful rays over his marred countenance; “Thou didst make me hope when I was on ray mother’s breasts.” (Ps. xxii. 9.) He sang, “Thou art my hope, 0 Lord God; thou art my trust from my youth.” (Ps. lxxii. 5.) And after the fear, and sore amazement, and heaviness of Gethsemane, and that expression of most affectionate human feeling toward his mother in the very hour of infinite woe (John xix. 26), his assured faith, reposing on his Father’s bosom of love even in the hour of darkness, shone forth with a brightness that casts into the shade all other acts of faith ever manifested on this earth, “Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit I”
Truly he is our kinsman! Nay, like one who is nearest of kin; for his feelings are most vehement toward us. He will not, like the nearest friend of Naomi (Ruth iv. 4-6), refuse to redeem either our persons, or our inheritance, for he has all Boaz’s desire toward us, in thousandfold strength, with the undoubted 7’ioht to appear for us. Nay, Rev. v. 5-7 declares, that not only has he already, by his blood, paid the price for our persons* as the Lamb slain, but has also claimed the right to enter for us on possession of the inheritance. He took the seven-sealed book; thereby claiming to be heir of the property ( Jer. xxxii. 8, 10, 11), and all heaven rejoiced, and the Father acknowledged his claim. Already, then, by hope may we anticipate our return to our lost estate. We may, like the Church above, use our harps to praise him who cometh to put us in possession; and we may, like them also, hold up our vials of prayer — that is, all our prayers ever sent up in faith, which now are filling those vials mentioned in Rev. v. 8. For these prayers are turned by our Priest into sweet incense, and shall not fail to be acknowledged by him then; and we shall sing with the Psalmist, “Our prayers are ended!” (Ps. lxxii. 20,) since every desire of our heart shall then be satisfied. Meanwhile, he “puts our tears into his bottle” (Ps. lvi. 8), and we wait for his Appearing.
Ver. 29, 30, 81, 82, 33, 34.” And if a man sell a dwelling-house in a walled city, then he may redeem it within a whole year after it is sold; within a full year may lie redeem it. And if it be not re-
* The redemption of our persons is referred to afterwards (ver. 48), but of course only in connection with the redemption of the land. For the re» demption of oui’ souls has been detailed thioughout this book.
deemed within the space of a full year, then the hoase that ia in tb« walled city shall be established forever to him that bought it, throughout his generations: it shall not go out in the jubilee. But the houses of the villages which have no walls round about them ehall be counted as the fields of the country: they may be redeemed, and they shall go out in the jubilee. Notwithstanding, the cities of the Levites, and the houses of the cities of their possession, may the Levites redeem at any time. And if a man purchase of the Levites, then the house that was sold, and the city of his possession, shall go out in the year of jubilee: for the houses of the cities of the Levites are their possession among the children of Israel. But the field of the suburbs of their cities may not be sold; for it is their perpetual possession.”
It is the land, and Grod’s allotment of the land, that is to continue; not man’s work in it. Even as it is the earth itself that is to abide forever as the theatre of redemption, and not man’s works on it, which are to be burnt up. Hence, houses in towns might be perpetually alienated, these being the invention of man. And while the type was kept entire in regard to the land, this rule enabled proselytes and strangers to take up permanent abode in Israel.
Next (ver. 31); the villages being properly the country, built as they were amid the olive, and fig, and pomegranate, and palm, with the vine entwining its boughs by the sides of their houses, must fall under the rule of redemption, and must never be alienated. And thus, while the type in regard to the land is preserved entire here also, there is a provision against the tyranny of the princes, who might have tried, from their baronial residences, to subject the people of a poor village to their domination.
But as to the Levites’ possessions (vers. 32-34), these must never be alienated; for they are the Lord’s gift to them. Hence, even their walled cities may be redeem-
, CHAPTER XXY. 461
ed; for these are properly the Lord’s provision for them, not man’s provision for himself. Also, ver. 33 ought to be rendered more literally thus: “And should any one redeem 0’^^’^) from the Levites, then the house that was sold, and the city of his possession, shall go out in the year of jubilee.” That is, if one, not of the tribe of Levi, but a relative and kinsman by marriage, probably, redeem one of these houses of the Levites: in other words, if he buy the house on account of his relationship, and to give the use of it to his friend, yet still it shall in no way be removed from the tribe of Levi, It must return as a Levitical possession to the Levite himself at the time of the jubilee. So jealously does the Lord guard his gifts to his people. “They are without repentance.”
Vers. 35, 36, Si, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46. “And if thy brother be waxen poor, and fallen in decay with thee, then thou shalt relieve him: yea, though he be a stranger, or a sojourner; that he may live with thee. Take thou no usury of him, or increase: but fear thy God; that thy brother may live with thee. Thou shalt not give him thy money upon usury, nor lend him thy victuals for increase. I am the Lord your God, which brought you forth out of the land of Egypt, to give you the land of Canaan, and to be your God. And if thy brother that dwelleth by thee be waxen poor, and be sold unto thee, thou shalt not compel him to serve as a bondservant: but as an hired servant, and as a sojourner, he shall be with thee, and shall serve thee unto the year of jubilee: and then shall he depart from thee, both he and his children with him, and shall return unto his own family, and unto the possession of his fathers shall he return. For they are my servants, which I brought forth out of the land of Egypt: they shall not be sold as bondmen. Thou shalt not rule over him with rigor: but shalt fear thy God. Both thy bondmen and thy bondmaids, which thou shalt have, shall be of the Heathen that are round about you; of them shall ye buy bondmen and bondmaids. Moreover, of the children of the strangers that do sojourn among you, of them fhall ye buy, and of their families that are with you, which they begat in your land: and they shall be your possession. And ye shall take them aa an inheritance for your chiliiren after you, to inherit them for a possession: they shall be your bondmen forever; but over your brethren, the children of Israel, ye shall not rule one over anothef with rigor.”
Here begins a statement of our duties in prospect of “That Blessed Hope.” The glorious prospect of jubilee is not to supersede present duty. Nay, rather, like Matt. XXV. 34, 35, it enforces present duty by exhibiting to us what is the mind of God, and what his feelings would be in our situation.
You are not to say, “Let me leave my poor brother as he is; he will soon get relief better than I could give; for the jubilee is coming on.” No, saith the Lord, you in the mean time must do what is in your power to help him, even though he be no relative of yours, nor acquaintance, but a mere sojourner. Let him “live with thee,” i. c, live prosperously, or lead what may be called a life. Be generous to him. You must not relieve him in the hope of recompense (except that at the resurrection of the just, Luke xiv. 14); no usury for the loan, far less any “increase” (or interest on his very victuals) must be ever thought of. “Fear thy God;” do all from holy love and regard to his will. “I brought you from Egypt;” let redemption open your hearts to others. “/ g’ave thee Canaan;” and may I not ask thee to give of its produce to the poor? “I am thy God;” and so thou hadst all things in me, and art never poor. How easily may you part with all things, since I am your God. See Acts ii. 43 to the end, for a New Testament proof that redeemed men estimate fully all these arguments, and are easily led to obey.
Further: an Israelite must show his brotherly feelings if (vers. 39-41) one of his countrymen be reduced so low in poverty as to be sold for debt, like the widow’s two sons, 2 Kings iv. 1. He must treat him as only a hired servant, and even as such detain him no longer than the jubilee. The reason is very precious, ver. 42; “for they are my servants The Lord will not leave any of his purchased ones to the cruelty of others. Woe to those who use a believer harshly! They touch the “apple of his eye.” Have the workers of iniquity no knowledge? Why persecute ye Jesus 1 “The year of his redeemed” is near.
Once more: an Israelite may have slaves and bondmaids from the Heathen, and these he may retain as slaves forever. In this there lies a type. It is not that Moses, or the Lord speaking by Moses, sanctions slavery. He gives no right to one man over another’s person, except where there is sin and crime to be punished, as in the case of criminals. But here, the Lord wished to punish the Canaanites and other Heathen nations, because of their Heathenism; and of course the Lord has a right so to do. His decree, therefore, is this: that Heathens shall be exposed to bondage, and Israel shall take them as their slaves. Slavery here is evidently altogether another thing from modern slavery; for — 1. It proceeds on the Lord’s permission and command. 2. It is the consequence of sin in the enslaved. And while it is a penalty paid by rebellious ones, who cleaved to idols, it exhibits in type the future exaltation of the sons of God in the time of the Jubilee of earth. It shows “the liberty of the sons of God” (Rom. viii. 21), and their dominion. Israel, in those days, shall have “strangers to feed their flocks, and sons of the aliens to be their ploughmen and vine-dressers” (Isa. lxi. 5); and the risen, glorified saints shall “execute vengeance on the Heathen, and punishments upon the people” (Ps. cxlix. 7); and all men shall know that the Lord has loved them, when “they have power over the nations.” (Rev. ii. 26.)
Vers. 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55. “And if a sojourner or stranger wax rich by thee, and thy brother that dwelleth by him wax poor, and sell himself unto the stranger or sojourner by thee, or to the stock of th stranger’s family: after that he is sold he may be redeemed again; one of his brethren may redeem him: either his uncle, or his uncle’s son, may redeem him, or any that is nigh of kin unto him of his family may redeem him; or. if he be able, he may redeem himself. And he shall reckon with him that bought him from the year that he Wiis sold to him unto the year of jubilee: and the price of his sale shall be according unto the number of years, according to the time of an hired servant shall it be with him. there be yet many j’cars behind, according unto them he shall give again the price of his redemption out of the money that he was bought for. And if there remain but few years unto the year of jubilee, then he shall count with him, and according unto his years shall he give Iiim again the price of his redemption. And as a yearly hired servant shall he be with him: and the other sh.all not rule with rigor over him in thy sight. And if he be not redeemed in these years, then he shall go out in the year of jubilee, both he, and his children with him. For unto me the children of Israel are servants; they are my servants, whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.”
Here is comfort for all Israel in hope of the jubilee.
The case is supposed of a rich foreigner purchasing for his bondman one of the poor of Israel who had fallen int decay. The Lord states the case, and shows his desire that this Israelite should not so continue. It is the duty of friends to redeem them (vrs. 48, 49). At all events, no stranger shall hold him in bondage beyond the jubilee. ’
Here is the Lord’s determination to exalt his peculiar people, saving them from all oppressors, even when they have, through their own sin, fallen into decay. The times of the Gentiles shall end; and Israel shall “return and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads.” But here, also, is the Lord’s determination regarding Christ’s own, whom he redeems, to deliver them from external oppression and sorrow. The whole family of God shall be freed from weeping and sorrow; for their Redeemer is mighty.
God’s Israel have no room left for despair. All is bright hope for the future, if there is not present joy (ver. 54); for the jubilee is near. Each believer must, meanwhile, wipe away the other’s tears and bear his brother’s burdens (ver. 48); while all fix an eager eye on the coming day of God — “the year of the redeemed.”
“Make haste, my beloved, and be thou like to a roe, Or to a young hart, upon the mountain of spices.”
Song viii. 14.
We may here stay a little to observe the fact, that in the description of millennial days given in this chapter, the negative nature of the blessedness is chiefly insisted on: that is, that there shall be no toil, no hard labor, no regrets for lost possessions, no bondage, no oppression, no poverty, no want.
Now, somewhat of the blessedness of these times is spoken of under the typical history of Israel in chap. xxvi. But, distinct from historical types, we conjecture that the positive nature of the blessedness of these days is reserved for description in the types exhibited by Solomons temple. It appears that the tabernacle worship was intended chiefly to exhibit Christ’s person and his work, in dying, rising, ascending, interceding. The temple,* besides exhibiting the same, adds Christ coming again and reigning.
Let us glance at this difference. The ark, from tho days of Moses till it was fixed on Mount Zion by David, represents Christ, weary, wandering among men, until he ascended to his Father’s right hand. The ark, removed from its rest on Zion to the magnificent temple, represents Christ leaving the Father’s right hand to take his abode in the new earth-r-his temple and kingdom — when he appears as Solomon, “Prince of Peace.” And then in that temple every type receives some expansion, or some change to a more splendid shape — all done by express Divine direction, as we find declared in 2 Chron. ’ iii. 3, and other places. The brazen altar was greatly enlarged. Instead of one laver, there were ten. Instead of one candlestick, there were ten; and also there were ten tables for the show-bread, as we saw above. The golden altar he made of cedar and covered it with gold. (1 Kings vi. 20.) He made two additional cherubim, very large and beautiful; and put figures of cherubim oa the great veil. Besides all this, there was added to this temple two pillars, of finest workmanship, and the sea of brass, with its ten bases that wheeled along the temple floor, conveying the watr easily to any spot. (See p. 154.) Many chambers, too, were built and occupied, all around the courts; and the floor of The Holy and Most Holy was of pure gold, like the streets of new Jerusalem.
The temple was finished in the seventh year, and ia the seventh month, at harvest-time — the titne of joy. Ts there not here a shadowing forth of millennial ftilness
* Sec 1 Kings vi., vit., and 2 Chron. iJL, iw.
CHAPTER XXV. 4d7
of glory? Is not the scene different in many respects from that of the tabernacle? 1. These tall palm-like pillars, with their rich and various ornaments. Do not the names “Jachin and Boaz” declare that Jehovah’s strength shall establish this place forever? (Compare Psalm lxxxvii. 1, 5.) And are they not placed in these courts as trophies of victory? They may be reckoned to be trophies erected to show that all war is ended, and the Prince of Peace is triumphant. 2. That gold, shining everywhere, and these precious stones, and these harps and psalteries, made of the algum-trees, such as were never seen before in the land of Judah. Is not this an indication of new Jerusalem times? “For brass, he has brought gold, and for iron silver.” (Isa. Ix. 17.) And these instruments of music send forth bursts of joy, such as are heard only from Zion’s “harpers, harping with their harps.” (Rev. xiv. 2.) 3. Yonder sea of brass, full to the brim, standing on oxen that look north, and south, and east, and west; its full water, clear and pure, laving a border that is set with lilies. Is this not the emblem of the Holy Spirit, showing Christ to north, south, east, and west, filling the earth “as the waters cover the sea?” (Isa. xi. 9.) Here are flowers and oxen; and the ten bases that stand by are bordered with lions, oxen, palm-trees, and cherubim. Is this not an emblem of redeemed men, amid the trees of Eden restored, with lions and oxen in harmonious fellowship at their feet, as Isa. xi. 6, 7, 8, foretells? 4. These cherubim on the walls, and on the great veil. Is this not the type of the redeemed Church dwelling in the Lord’s presence, revelling, so to speak, in the mysteries of God? There were, it appears, cherubim on the veil on its inward side, to indicate redeemed men freely entering into the holiest of all.* 5. These chambers all around. The “many mansions” are here. 6. These ten candlesticks, ten lavers, ten show-bread tables, ten tables for the slain sacrifices. All these intimate that in those days of millennial glory, much that is new shall be discovered, tenfold light will be cast on many a truth. Yet still, the present truths are the elements of those discoveries to be made then. Truth revealed now shall then be opened more fully on the view; grace given now shall then be given in far, far richer measure. Oh! blessed times! and “the Greater than Solomon” in the midst, “telling plainly of the Father” (John xvi. 25), and declaring to his redeemed, “Thou art all fair; there is no spot in thee. Thou hast ravished my heart, my sister, my spouse.” Who shall be able to stand under the weight of such bliss? The Queen of Sheba represents some of the overwhelming effects; not one remnant of self-complacency left, not one thought of self at all, except in the form of shame and abasement.
“Come quickly, Lord Jesus.” Prepare these eyes for seeing the King in his beauty; these ears for hearing the sound of blessed voices and golden harps; these feet for the golden streets, these hands for the palms of victory,
* We fully agree with those who consider the cherubim everywhere to be symbols of the redeemed Church. They stand on the ark, i. e., Christ; their feet touching the blood sprinkled; while the glory of Ood is over them, and they see it reflected in the golden mercy-seat, as they bend under the glory. See Oandlish on Genesis; and Fairbairn’s Typology. So again; there were cherubim on the veil (Ezod. xxvi. 31; 2 Chron. iii. 14); and the veil represented Chriat’s body ( Heb. x. 20), to typify, “He that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one.” And when the veil was rent, the cherubim were rent, thereby showing that when Christ died, all he stood for also died (2 Cor. v. 14). They were “crucified with Chriat.”
this brow (often wet with the sweat of the curse) for the crown of righteousness; and above all, this heart for loving thee who lovedst me and gavest thyself for me! In that day, “the tongue of the stammerers shall be ready to speak plainly,” while with all saints they ever speak of the King, on whom they gaze, and into whose imago they are changed. And only then shall every faculty find itself satisfied always, and yet ever bewildered in the blessed attempt to understand the “breadth and length, and depth and height, and to know the love of Christ that passeth knowledge.” Hallelujah!