{"id":3550,"date":"2014-01-22T11:24:31","date_gmt":"2014-01-22T10:24:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.theoillamp.co.uk\/?p=3550"},"modified":"2014-05-16T09:40:37","modified_gmt":"2014-05-16T08:40:37","slug":"what-about-the-jubilee","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theoillamp.co.uk\/?p=3550","title":{"rendered":"What about the jubilee?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"JubileeDebtLogo-RGB-Web\"<\/a>What can we learn from the biblical idea of the jubilee?\u00a0 I was reminded of this over the last week by a number of things.\u00a0 First, the disappearance of Mikaeel Kular in Edinburgh.\u00a0 I went to help search for him.\u00a0 He lived in one of the poorer parts of Edinburgh and as I approached on my bicycle my apprehension increased when I saw the traffic lights were protected by grills.\u00a0 (In actual fact the estate where he lived was not as bad as I expected, with new housing).\u00a0 Second, the relevant passage was covered in my SU notes and third Will Hutton’s article on rising inequality in the Observer<\/a>.\u00a0 Lastly, inequality is a major item on the agenda at Davos this year.\u00a0 Whilst this last fact is difficult to believe as multibillionaires jet in by private helicopter – but it is.<\/p>\n

So what can we learn as move to a post oil world from the concept of the jubilee?\u00a0 In this post I will attempt to pull out some relevant points.\u00a0 In the next one we will have a look at some practical issues.\u00a0 Here is the relevant text from Leviticus 25.<\/p>\n

“The Lord<\/span> said to Moses at Mount Sinai,<\/em><\/span> 2\u00a0<\/sup>\u201cSpeak to the Israelites and say to them: \u2018When you enter the land I am going to give you, the land itself must observe a sabbath to the Lord<\/span>.<\/span> 3\u00a0<\/sup>For six years sow your fields, and for six years prune your vineyards and gather their crops.<\/span> 4\u00a0<\/sup>But in the seventh year the land is to have a year of sabbath rest, a sabbath to the Lord<\/span>. Do not sow your fields or prune your vineyards.<\/span> 5\u00a0<\/sup>Do not reap what grows of itself or harvest the grapes of your untended vines. The land is to have a year of rest.<\/span> 6\u00a0<\/sup>Whatever the land yields during the sabbath year will be food for you\u2014for yourself, your male and female servants, and the hired worker and temporary resident who live among you,<\/span> 7\u00a0<\/sup>as well as for your livestock and the wild animals in your land. Whatever the land produces may be eaten.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

The Year of Jubilee<\/span><\/em><\/h3>\n

8\u00a0<\/sup>\u201c\u2018Count off seven sabbath years\u2014seven times seven years\u2014so that the seven sabbath years amount to a period of forty-nine years.<\/span> 9\u00a0<\/sup>Then have the trumpet sounded everywhere on the tenth day of the seventh month; on the Day of Atonement sound the trumpet throughout your land.<\/span> 10\u00a0<\/sup>Consecrate the fiftieth year and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you; each of you is to return to your family property and to your own clan.<\/span> 11\u00a0<\/sup>The fiftieth year shall be a jubilee for you; do not sow and do not reap what grows of itself or harvest the untended vines.<\/span> 12\u00a0<\/sup>For it is a jubilee and is to be holy for you; eat only what is taken directly from the fields.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

13\u00a0<\/sup>\u201c\u2018In this Year of Jubilee everyone is to return to their own property.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

14\u00a0<\/sup>\u201c\u2018If you sell land to any of your own people or buy land from them, do not take advantage of each other.<\/span> 15\u00a0<\/sup>You are to buy from your own people on the basis of the number of years since the Jubilee. And they are to sell to you on the basis of the number of years left for harvesting crops.<\/span> 16\u00a0<\/sup>When the years are many, you are to increase the price, and when the years are few, you are to decrease the price, because what is really being sold to you is the number of crops.<\/span> 17\u00a0<\/sup>Do not take advantage of each other, but fear your God. I am the Lord<\/span> your God.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

18\u00a0<\/sup>\u201c\u2018Follow my decrees and be careful to obey my laws, and you will live safely in the land.<\/span> 19\u00a0<\/sup>Then the land will yield its fruit, and you will eat your fill and live there in safety.<\/span> 20\u00a0<\/sup>You may ask, \u201cWhat will we eat in the seventh year if we do not plant or harvest our crops?\u201d<\/span> 21\u00a0<\/sup>I will send you such a blessing in the sixth year that the land will yield enough for three years.<\/span> 22\u00a0<\/sup>While you plant during the eighth year, you will eat from the old crop and will continue to eat from it until the harvest of the ninth year comes in.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

23\u00a0<\/sup>\u201c\u2018The land must not be sold permanently, because the land is mine and you reside in my land as foreigners and strangers.<\/span> 24\u00a0<\/sup>Throughout the land that you hold as a possession, you must provide for the redemption of the land.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

25\u00a0<\/sup>\u201c\u2018If one of your fellow Israelites becomes poor and sells some of their property, their nearest relative is to come and redeem what they have sold.<\/span> 26\u00a0<\/sup>If, however, there is no one to redeem it for them but later on they prosper and acquire sufficient means to redeem it themselves,<\/span> 27\u00a0<\/sup>they are to determine the value for the years since they sold it and refund the balance to the one to whom they sold it; they can then go back to their own property.<\/span> 28\u00a0<\/sup>But if they do not acquire the means to repay, what was sold will remain in the possession of the buyer until the Year of Jubilee. It will be returned in the Jubilee, and they can then go back to their property.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

29\u00a0<\/sup>\u201c\u2018Anyone who sells a house in a walled city retains the right of redemption a full year after its sale. During that time the seller may redeem it.<\/span> 30\u00a0<\/sup>If it is not redeemed before a full year has passed, the house in the walled city shall belong permanently to the buyer and the buyer\u2019s descendants. It is not to be returned in the Jubilee.<\/span> 31\u00a0<\/sup>But houses in villages without walls around them are to be considered as belonging to the open country. They can be redeemed, and they are to be returned in the Jubilee.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

32\u00a0<\/sup>\u201c\u2018The Levites always have the right to redeem their houses in the Levitical towns, which they possess.<\/span> 33\u00a0<\/sup>So the property of the Levites is redeemable\u2014that is, a house sold in any town they hold\u2014and is to be returned in the Jubilee, because the houses in the towns of the Levites are their property among the Israelites.<\/span> 34\u00a0<\/sup>But the pastureland belonging to their towns must not be sold; it is their permanent possession.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

35\u00a0<\/sup>\u201c\u2018If any of your fellow Israelites become poor and are unable to support themselves among you, help them as you would a foreigner and stranger, so they can continue to live among you.<\/span> 36\u00a0<\/sup>Do not take interest or any profit from them, but fear your God, so that they may continue to live among you.<\/span> 37\u00a0<\/sup>You must not lend them money at interest or sell them food at a profit.<\/span> 38\u00a0<\/sup>I am the Lord<\/span> your God, who brought you out of Egypt to give you the land of Canaan and to be your God.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

39\u00a0<\/sup>\u201c\u2018If any of your fellow Israelites become poor and sell themselves to you, do not make them work as slaves.<\/span> 40\u00a0<\/sup>They are to be treated as hired workers or temporary residents among you; they are to work for you until the Year of Jubilee.<\/span> 41\u00a0<\/sup>Then they and their children are to be released, and they will go back to their own clans and to the property of their ancestors.<\/span> 42\u00a0<\/sup>Because the Israelites are my servants, whom I brought out of Egypt, they must not be sold as slaves.<\/span> 43\u00a0<\/sup>Do not rule over them ruthlessly, but fear your God.”<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

NIV version<\/p>\n

The first thing to say is there is no evidence that this idea was ever put into practice.\u00a0 It was just too radical and Israel fell into rebellion against God too quickly after they settled in the land.\u00a0 Second, there was a clear idea of stewardship running through the whole idea (v23\/24).\u00a0 Israel was to remember who ultimately their land and possessions belonged to.\u00a0 There was also an ecological component present (v11) in jubilee.\u00a0 This was also about trust.\u00a0 They had to trust God to provide in that year when they did not plant.\u00a0 But whilst all these aspects above are important perhaps the most important thing about jubilee was it was designed to reduce the gap between rich and poor (v14-17, 25).\u00a0 Its this idea we will explore in the next post.<\/p>\n

Neil<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What can we learn from the biblical idea of the jubilee?\u00a0 I was reminded of this over the last week by a number of things.\u00a0 First, the disappearance of Mikaeel Kular in Edinburgh.\u00a0 I went to help search for him.\u00a0 … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3550","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-economics","category-peak-oil"],"yoast_head":"\nThe jubilee what can we learn?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"What can we learn from the biblical idea of the jubilee? 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