Episode Transcript
Speaker 0 00:00:06 Hello, come to village shirts, sermon Q and a. We're excited to have you here. I'm pastor Craig Jarvis with pastor Michael and pastor Alex. And we are here to talk about a topic that we covered actually yesterday on mother's day. And we talked about the vulnerable in society. One of the topics we came across was the lender and the year of Jubilee in Hebrew society. And so this question is for you, pastor Michael, the question is in the year of Jubilee, isn't it unjust for the lender in some way to let these debts, all these debts, all, all of a sudden go free. So
Speaker 1 00:00:40 Let's define the year of Jubilee, I guess, and then, um, kind of put it in its context. So the year of Jubilee, uh, every 50th year was a free from debt. Uh, property was returned back to their original owners. Uh, every slave was released in Hebrew society. And so this is, this is an incredible year. Uh, this is a year
Speaker 2 00:00:59 You were supposed to look forward to.
Speaker 1 00:01:02 And so, you know, the, the right question is, is this it's okay if I'm lending you money and it's the 48th year, right? If, if, if I'm a bank and I want to give you a loan run by, I know, right? So like, so why isn't this unfair for me? Because all of a sudden I've put my equity on the line to help you do whatever you want to do. And then I get stuck with all the, all the payments. So, um, Jubilee is actually part of a, uh, a Sabbath tradition. So when God created the world, it was six days of work, one day rest. And then in the Israelite structure they had, uh, for slaves, for example, they had a, every seventh year, they were all freed. So nobody would ever be paying off debt for more than six years. And then it was this huge, like awesome, wonderful year of Jubilee, the land rest, the people rest, uh, everyone's set free, you know?
Speaker 1 00:01:51 And so, um, so when people don't see on the front end is that when this whole system is put into the structure of society, um, people make different decisions when the year of Jubilee is getting closer, right? So if you're a lender and Alex, if you come to me and you're like, Hey, am I going to borrow a hundred thousand dollars? I don't have it, but like, if I did, and here's your Jubilee, but I only had to pay back a thousand dollars. I'm going to look at you and say, no, no way. I'm actually not going to do that. In fact, if, if you're going to, I'm going to probably lend you 5,000 or whatever, it could be paid off. What a matter
Speaker 3 00:02:29 Of reasonable, like one year. So what actually,
Speaker 1 00:02:31 What it did is as the year of Jubilee got closer, people made less dumb decisions. Right? Right. And so it's the year after the Jubilee that people are probably inclined to make some of the worst decisions possible. And, uh, and that's where as the year of Jubilee functioned as this great gift of God, for the society for biblical justice, where no one loses, if you are going to lend somebody money and you're going to lend them more than they can pay back before the Jubilee, well, then you are a fool and you deserve to lose the money and you will never make that mistake ever again because you'll be dead by the time the next year that's, you know, um, but we talked about biblical justice and in biblical justice, um, everybody is taken care of. Nobody loses in social justice. There is always a winner and a loser, and the winner always wins off the back of the loser.
Speaker 1 00:03:24 And this is why social justice as admirable of a solution and the secular world as they could come up with God's version of justice is always more beautiful and, and better. And so really the lender, um, knew this was coming. And so the lender had time to prepare. He had time to establish, you know, just right relationships between him and his lenders. And then also you also had to really prepare, and there's a little confusion on, on, so on the seventh year, the land rests, right? That's the 49th year. And then the 50th years of the year of Jubilee, where there is rest right. The extra day. So it actually seems to have to happen is you have to prepare your crops and your savings to get you through. It seems two years of actual letting the land rest, letting the people rest. It's a very interesting social dynamic. Like, could you imagine, I mean, I'm just, I'm totally curious if president Biden said in seven years, we're going to have a year of Jubilee. Like, how do you think the church I should respond
Speaker 0 00:04:26 To that? Yeah, no kidding. Save up a little bit more. Right. But it's interesting that Joseph built started building this nation of Israel on this very principle, right? Because as Joseph went to Pharaoh and told him that a famine was coming in seven years, uh, Pharaoh did just this thing, this very thing. And because of that, Egypt had lots when the rest of the world was in famine. So everybody ended up coming to coming
Speaker 4 00:04:52 To Egypt, right? Because of what Joseph and Joseph
Speaker 0 00:04:54 Saved his family because of his decision to basically Institute this principle inside the Egyptian nation already. So Egypt only thrived even more, but the nation of Israel was saved from dying because people were dying in this fam and that, that Joseph saved Egypt from the need to begin the provider. Yeah,
Speaker 4 00:05:14 It's incredible. To me, just the, the social reality that the year of Jubilee creates, because it, it is like this layer of protection for everybody, for the, those who have a lot of wealth for those who don't have any wealth. And it makes sure that nobody can get taken advantage of, right. It makes sure that, uh, people are, nobody makes dumb decisions. Like we don't have this in our society today. And how much weight do families bear for crippling debt that somebody goes into, like how much weight do individuals bear for a long years and years, and years and years because of debt. And this made sure that that kind of system there. Yeah.
Speaker 1 00:05:53 No person would be drowned by death for more than 16 hours.
Speaker 0 00:05:57 It needs to be said that we're talking about a, a system where slaves are either ordered by the court, or they voluntarily go into slavery in order to pay back a debt in case people are just catching up with our conversation. That's awesome. Um, and also the heart we have yet to figure out how bad the heart of an individuals actually are. Because as you progress forward in, in Israel's history, you'll find people taking advantage of everything, slaves. Yeah. And
Speaker 1 00:06:25 Then you're in trouble. They this the way they were supposed to and to their detriment. Yeah.
Speaker 0 00:06:28 The actually one of the reasons they ended up going into Babylonian captivity is because of the abuse of this year of Jubilee, they would let their slaves go for the year. And then they'd all Colt. They'd collect them all. Yeah. Then next year we're supposed to do, that's
Speaker 2 00:06:41 Not the point of the law. So,
Speaker 1 00:06:44 Uh, playing off that when Isaiah chimes in Isaiah chimes in and basically says, God is going to bring, and this is implication with the coming of the Messiah and a new covenant, he's going to bring in the year of Jubilee for the people of God, where they're released from slavery and Jesus chimes in it's interesting, Luke chapter four, Jesus launches his ministry on the Sabbath. Uh, there's an implication that he is the Sabbath rest, but then, uh, his passage of scripture, he reads is very interesting. It's from the book of Isaiah and it says the spirit of the Lord is upon me because he's anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim Liberty, to the captives, the recovering of sight to the blind, to set at Liberty. Those who are oppressed to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor, which is the Jubilee. And so Jesus brings this whole principle together and says, listen, I am the year of Jubilee. And I have come to set people free and to heal you and to bring life and to bring peace and to bring justice. And I love this and God's system of justice, uh, no one loses, but God himself. And it said, Jesus is sacrificed that while humanity is able to have freedom, uh, healing. Right? Yeah. So good. It's amazing.
Speaker 0 00:07:52 Yeah. Yesterday I said, the only victim in the biblical standard of justice is Jesus Christ. He's the only one that didn't deserve to pay a debt. And then he paid the ultimate debt that we all owed. The other thing I find interesting about that Isaiah passage that Jesus chose to read from, which is, I mean, there's so much good theology in there is that passage. He picks the Isaiah passage, but he stops. He stops at a comma. And so I did a message on this. We're living in the comma because this is still what we proclaim today. Jesus has come to set the captives free
Speaker 3 00:08:23 To proclaim, still setting people free, still doing
Speaker 0 00:08:26 It, still doing it. Yeah. But the rest of that verse, what comes next is the wrath of God. So there is a debt that, that, that Jesus has paid if you accept it. And if you don't accept that debt being paid by the only victim, real victim in this world, the one who live righteously, um, if you don't accept that payment from him, then there will come a day. When your bill
Speaker 2 00:08:51 Dude, you need to preach that sermon perfectly. Yeah. When you come to Bartlett, I, you to preach that that's good. It's good.
Speaker 0 00:08:57 That's like magical. Wow. The best I've ever
Speaker 1 00:08:58 Done the best you've ever done. Craig, every sermon you preach is the best you've
Speaker 5 00:09:03 Ever done. Yeah. Awesome.
Speaker 1 00:09:06 All right. Well, we would love to invite you back because we've got more sermon Q Q and A's coming up and we've got a really exciting time and Exodus 21 to 24 more laws to talk about, to unpack and to see how they apply to today. So thank you for joining us.
