19To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord. (Luke 4:16-30)
This Scripture was written prophetically by the prophet Isaiah about 650 years prior to when Jesus read it in the synagogue. It was read in Jewish synagogues thousands of times but never by the person it referred to. With this pronouncement, Jesus began the year of Jubilee.
The year of Jubilee is described in Leviticus 25. It was a year when no farmers worked in their fields and everyone kept the Sabbath. The Lord gave the people a miraculous provision the year before every Jubilee year started, and that sustained them for three years until their crops could once again be harvested.
The year of Jubilee was different than any other sabbatical year because it only occurred every fifty years and all debts were cancelled. All property was returned to its original owner, and anyone who had been sold into slavery was set free. It was a year of new beginnings.
Jesus proclaimed “the acceptable year of the Lord,” which was a spiritual jubilee. We now live in a time when all our debts to God because of sin have been cancelled, and all the things the devil stole from us have been returned. Even our slavery to the devil has come to an end through the redemptive work of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Rejoice today because you are in the time of continuous Jubilee!
