B’har

On the mount
“The Faithful Jubilee”

Leviticus 25:1-26:2
Jeremiah 32:6-27

excerpted from TorahScope, Volume I

In our short parashah for this week, various commandments are given about the Sabbatical years for the Promised Land, the jubilee,[1] and more instruction about how God’s people are to treat their neighbors.[2] As you read and reflect upon this selection, you can readily conclude that the Lord was very serious about molding a faithful people who would depend upon Him for His provision. B’har opens by detailing the main instruction about Sabbatical years:

“The LORD said to Moses on Mount Sinai, ‘Speak to the children of Israel, and tell them, “When you come into the land which I give you, then the land shall keep a Sabbath to the LORD. You shall sow your field six years, and you shall prune your vineyard six years, and gather in its fruits; but in the seventh year there shall be a Sabbath of solemn rest for the land, a Sabbath to the LORD. You shall not sow your field or prune your vineyard”’” (Leviticus 25:1-4, WMB).

The commandment to take one day in seven, to rest and remember the weekly Shabbat—was now mirrored on an annual cycle. Every seventh year all of the arable land was to have a rest from crop production. Furthermore, after seven sets of seven weeks of years (or forty-nine years), a fiftieth year of jubilee was to be proclaimed (Leviticus 25:8). On the fiftieth year or year of jubilee, the land was again to remain fallow and have its rest from crop production:

“That fiftieth year shall be a jubilee to you. In it you shall not sow, neither reap that which grows of itself, nor gather from the undressed vines. For it is a jubilee; it shall be holy to you. You shall eat of its increase out of the field” (Leviticus 25:11-12, WMB).

During the season of jubilee it would be almost three years before a crop could be harvested (years 49 and 50 with fallow land, and year 51 for the growing season). These commandments were obviously designed to develop a faithful people who would trust and depend upon God for their provision and well being (cf. Leviticus 25:20-22).

After watching the Most High provide for His people for seven consecutive Sabbatical years, the year of jubilee (Heb. yoveil) was to be proclaimed (Leviticus 25:10). But what was this year of jubilee to be? Beyond simply letting the land remain fallow on this year, the entire economic system would go through a significant adjustment (Leviticus 25:23-34). Once every fifty years, the restoration of Israel to its original tribal boundaries, coupled with the annulment of labor contracts, is commanded:

“You shall make the fiftieth year holy, and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee to you; and each of you shall return to his own property, and each of you shall return to his family” (Leviticus 25:10, WMB).

The Lord obviously knew the propensity of many in Ancient Israel to take advantage of weaker or less-gifted people, and every fifty years it was His intention to restore the Promised Land and its inhabitants to a degree of the way it was when they originally took possession. By restoring property to their original families, and releasing people from debt or indentured servitude, proper relationships could be restored between the Land and the people of Israel. The proclamation of the year of jubilee, in essence, would level the playing field for successive generations of Israelites. The human tendency to want to control and accumulate power by possession would be minimized, if not periodically eliminated.

The Lord instituted these directions because He knew, that in their own strength, the exact opposite of what He required for a nation of priests—who were supposed to serve others—would likely be prevailing. He knew that fallen humanity’s predisposition was to wrong neighbor rather than to love neighbor.[3] A secular humanist or Darwinist would conclude that people just have a tendency to gravitate toward a “survival of the fittest” mentality. However, in God’s goodness to Ancient Israel, these cyclical ordinances were enacted so that His people could return a kind of normalcy every fifty years and during each future generation, with much concern for the poor and destitute (Leviticus 25:35-55). To further insure proper relationships among the Israelites’ neighbors, the instruction following speaks against various kinds of wrongdoing (cf. Leviticus 26).

Do No Wrong

Two times in B’har, admonitions against wrongdoing are strongly asserted. The Hebrew verb yanah, meaning “to oppress, to treat violently” (AMG),[4] suggests that this was a part of the reason why the jubilee year was instituted:

“If you sell anything to your neighbor, or buy from your neighbor, you shall not wrong [yanah] one another. According to the number of years after the Jubilee you shall buy from your neighbor. According to the number of years of the crops he shall sell to you. According to the length of the years you shall increase its price, and according to the shortness of the years you shall diminish its price; for he is selling the number of the crops to you. You shall not wrong [yanah] one another, but you shall fear your God; for I am the LORD your God” (Leviticus 25:14-17, WMB).

Elsewhere in the Torah, the verb yanah is employed to refer to the treatment which was not to be done to the sojourner or stranger within the midst of Israel:

“You shall not wrong [yanah] an alien or oppress him, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt” (Exodus 22:21, WMB).

“If a stranger lives as a foreigner with you in your land, you shall not do him wrong [yanah]” (Leviticus 19:33, WMB).

“He shall dwell with you, among you, in the place which he shall choose within one of your gates, where it pleases him best. You shall not oppress [yanah] him” (Deuteronomy 23:16, WMB).

As you read a little further in B’har, you will detect that the Israelites were not only told to do no wrong, but they were also specifically commanded to help or assist others who were less fortunate. In other words, we might say, instead of wronging their neighbors, they were to love their neighbors:

“If your brother becomes poor, and sells some of his possessions, then his kinsman who is next to him shall come, and redeem that which his brother has sold…If your brother has become poor, and his hand can’t support himself among you, then you shall uphold him. He shall live with you like an alien and a temporary resident. Take no interest from him or profit; but fear your God, that your brother may live among you. You shall not lend him your money at interest, nor give him your food for profit…You shall not rule over him with harshness, but shall fear your God” (Leviticus 25:25, 35-37, 43, WMB).

The legal principles of setting aside contracts for various time periods, redemption rights, forgoing interest on loans or debts, bankruptcy codes, and a variety of other business activities in modern times—may be able to trace their roots to some of the commandments in B’har which were to regulate Ancient Israel’s economy. In various respects, you can even see links between these verses and the original creation of some welfare states in the West. In fact, when you study the history of the Jewish people and the Jewish tendency to often be “liberal” on many social issues, these positions have some of their roots in this very Torah portion.[5]

Lack of Faith

Even though Bible readers can make various links and comparisons between modern-day legal and economic systems, and Israel’s legal and economic system in the Ancient Near East, one thing is quite clear: Ancient Israel had a difficult time following the basic tenets of the Sabbatical year and the year of jubilee. When you examine the history of Israel as recorded in the Tanakh, noticeably absent is the record that the Sabbatical years or jubilee years were ever remembered. Something must have been misunderstood for these commandments to not be followed. Was the faith required to let the ground remain fallow for a Sabbatical year just missing? Were the positions of agricultural influence too valuable for some to give up? It cannot be avoided that God declared how the Promised Land was His to give the Israelites, and how He definitely had the right to tell them how to administer it:

“The land shall not be sold in perpetuity, for the land is mine; for you are strangers and live as foreigners with me. In all the land of your possession you shall grant a redemption for the land” (Leviticus 25:23-24, WMB).

God owned the Land, and simply allowed Israel to occupy it in order to produce crops or tend their livestock. If this principle had been understood and complied with, then many of the problems about owning and controlling land—and much of the oppression of the poor spoken against in the Prophets—could have been minimized. The problem was that the Ancient Israelites largely did not have the faith or confidence to follow these precepts. They may have believed the Word of God, but for some reason or another, found it difficult to implement following many of the directions, which we are considering this week in B’har.

We need to remember how the God of Israel desires a people who will manifest faith and trust in Him. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were all figures of faith who modeled the appropriate actions which pleased Him. And, we know that without faith, it is impossible to please Him:

“Without faith it is impossible to be well pleasing to him, for he who comes to God must believe that he exists, and that he is a rewarder of those who seek him” (Hebrews 11:6, WMB; cf. 11:8-16).

The Faithful Jubilee

As you ponder the instructions described in B’har, you can consider how many of our spiritual forbearers seemed to lack the faith to keep these commands. You should be reminded that it was because of a longstanding disobedience to them that Jeremiah’s warning, about the required punishment for not obeying the Sabbatical year, was fulfilled by the exile of the Southern Kingdom to Babylon for seventy years:

“This whole land will be a desolation, and an astonishment; and these nations will serve the king of Babylon seventy years… For the LORD says, ‘After seventy years are accomplished for Babylon, I will visit you and perform my good word toward you, in causing you to return to this place’” (Jeremiah 25:11; 29:10, WMB).

“He carried those who had escaped from the sword away to Babylon, and they were servants to him and his sons until the reign of the kingdom of Persia, to fulfill the LORD’s word by Jeremiah’s mouth, until the land had enjoyed its Sabbaths. As long as it lay desolate, it kept Sabbath, to fulfill seventy years” (2 Chronicles 36:20-21, WMB).

While the Southern Kingdom was punished for not observing the statutes of the Lord, consider how He must have been quite patient in allowing the people to ignore the command to let the Promised Land rest, for many centuries. Even though He had to issue judgment, Jeremiah’s words continued with the promise of restoration: “‘For I know the thoughts that I think toward you,’ says the LORD, ‘thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you hope and a future’” (Jeremiah 29:11, WMB). The theme of Israel’s restoration from captivity, and a return to the favor of God, is a consistent one seen throughout the Prophets.

The concept of a year of jubilee is one which resonates quite well with people of faith, hearing that all debts will be paid in full, and that those in bondage or captivity will be released. The announcement of the year of jubilee was to be delivered to Ancient Israel on Yom Kippur. It would symbolize that all debts to the Lord and one’s fellow were completely gone. Just as the corporate sins of Israel were being dealt with, so every fifty years was it God’s intention for the people to experience various physical releases and a fresh start:

“You shall count off seven Sabbaths of years, seven times seven years; and there shall be to you the days of seven Sabbaths of years, even forty-nine years. Then you shall sound the loud shofar on the tenth day of the seventh month. On the Day of Atonement you shall sound the shofar throughout all your land. You shall make the fiftieth year holy, and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee to you; and each of you shall return to his own property, and each of you shall return to his family” (Leviticus 25:8-10, WMB).

The concept of a jubilee was expounded upon by the Prophet Isaiah, who declared that a sh’nat-ratzon l’ADONAI would come, along with considerable restoration to the downtrodden:

“The Lord GOD’s Spirit is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to proclaim good news to the humble. He has sent me to bind up the broken hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and release to those who are bound, to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, to provide for those who mourn in Zion, to give to them a garland for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness, that they may be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that he may be glorified. They will rebuild the old ruins. They will raise up the former devastated places. They will repair the ruined cities that have been devastated for many generations” (Isaiah 61:1-4, WMB).

This prophecy is highly important, because when Yeshua stood up in the synagogue at Nazareth, and quoted from this text, He made an affirmative declaration of how He was indeed the Messiah of Israel:

“He came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up. He entered, as was his custom, into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up to read. The scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. He opened the scroll, and found the place where it was written, ‘The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to heal the broken hearted, to proclaim release to the captives, recovering of sight to the blind, to deliver those who are crushed, and to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.’ He closed the scroll, gave it back to the shammash, and sat down. The eyes of all in the synagogue were fastened on him. He began to tell them, ‘Today, this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing’” (Luke 4:16-21, WMB).

As is quite frequent with Messianic fulfillment of prophecy, the essential reality of the year of jubilee—only here regarding a great release of the debt of sins—is now present in the lives of Believers. More by far is yet to come, as we do await Yeshua’s Second Coming, His return to judge the world, and the establishment of His Kingdom from Zion. But in order to be a part of His coming Kingdom, we have to be those who have had the good news of salvation proclaimed to us, and the release from bondage to sin enacted within our lives!

Many questions arise in my heart as I meditate on B’har. I think the key to evaluating these questions is whether we each have greater faith than those who preceded us. Would we have honored the Sabbatical years and the jubilee, had we been one of the Ancient Israelites?

More importantly, has a release from the penalty of sins been declared over us (cf. Colossians 2:14)? Can we rejoice in that the Lord has given us a new life of communion and fellowship with Him? Can we declare with confidence what He has done within us, and how Yeshua’s work at Golgotha (Calvary) has transformed us? Are we at all committed to making sure that people are not consumed by that future day of vengeance foretold in the Scriptures?

If your faith in the Holy One of Israel is real, then your personal jubilee has been secured by the sacrificial death of the Messiah. Your thankfulness can be exemplified by leading others to their own personal faithful jubilee!

NOTES

[1] Leviticus 25:1-22.

[2] Leviticus 25:35-55.

[3] Cf. Leviticus 19:18.

[4] Baker and Carpenter, 451.

[5] Cf. Levine, in Etz Hayim, pp 742-746.