Day of Atonement & the Jubilee Year – Nathan Albright ucg.org

God’s character is revealed by His law. So it is worth noting the practical effects of His Sabbath laws, particularly as it relates to the relationship between the Jubilee and the Day of Atonement. The seventh day weekly Sabbath pictures restoration and freedom. Among its many benefits, the Sabbath limits exploitation of the poor by employers. The seventh year land Sabbath, when all debts were forgiven, would have had a similar effect when practiced nationally. An even more profound economic safety net is the law of Jubilee; Every forty-nine years (seven times seven), bond servants were released and ancestral lands were restored. Thus, even if they made their own mistakes, God’s system provided a path to restore the disenfranchised and assure freedom to the oppressed. He afforded a second chance for people to recover from their own mistakes (or those of their fathers) and be restored as landowners in good standing in Israel. While impossible to implement today (without a global revolution), we can appreciate that this system presents an elegant solution to the plague of economic inequality. Just as the Jubilee provided economic and social restoration, so the Day of Atonement pictures the future spiritual restoration of mankind to God. The Bible likens sinners to debtors, and no amount of money can repay the debt of sin. Yet God is working a plan by which all can be reconciled to His family and restored to inheritance in His Kingdom. It is a hopeful promise.