The Israelites had several different festivals – each celebrating different things. 

The Festival of the Booths sounds like quite an adventure.  They would all go live in tents for a week as a reminder of the time all of the Israelites wandered in the wilderness.

The Year of the Jubilee was especially interesting.  Every 50 years, they were supposed to take a whole year off – that sounds like a great idea.  The land was supposed to lie fallow as well so it got a year off.

The Year of Jubilee was about redemption.  Slave and servants were set free, property that had been sold was given back to the original owner, houses were given back and inheritances restored.

Every 50 years.

Does it surprise anyone that there is no historical evidence that the Year of Jubilee was ever observed?

I’m not surprised.  Not at all.  Most of us are just too self-centered and greedy for that.  Many of us have trouble giving away stuff  out in our garage that we haven’t used for 10 years.  Give back the stuff, the garage AND the house?

That’s not happening this side of heaven.

But maybe one step towards celebrating some sort of Jubilee is if we can soften our hold on ‘things’ and give more away.  Give it away so other people can actually use it.  Clean out our closets and make some room for our cars in our garages.

Let’s all call THIS the Year of Jubilee and start giving away the things that we’ve been piling up because we think we might need them ‘some day’.  Let’s celebrate as other people get to benefit from our generosity.

Dear Father, Please help us loosen our hold on our ‘stuff’ so that this can be a year of increased freedom for us – our Jubilee.