The Year of the Jubilee

When Moses received the Law, part of it included both environmental and economic sanctions placed by God upon his people. The environmental part was called the Sabbatical year. That law stated the Israelites were to let the land lay fallow (unplowed) every seven years so that it could renew itself. Back in the 1960s I lived in southern Illinois. While there I was given the chance to learn how to farm. A godly man, one of the elders in the church where I preached, took the time to train me how to farm. I learned how to harvest, plow, and cultivate. For some reason Frank Shepard never let me plant. That part he always handled. 

Farmers in that era practiced crop rotation. Part of the rotation was to leave a section of the land fallow every seven years. They would plant alfalfa on it and the next fall plow the alfalfa under. They were using artificial fertilizers by that time, but they still practiced crop rotation.  I'm not sure if this practice is observed anymore. 

The next part of the Law of Moses we want to consider is the year of Jubilee. This law stated that every 50 years all debts were to be forgiven and the land was to be restored to its original owners. This meant ever person had the opportunity to start over with a clean slate every fifty years. Certainly such a practice would not be popular with bankers, but it was the law of God. 

It is my own unhumble opinion that the Israelites never observed the year of Jubilee and it is possible that they were also careless about the sabbatical year as well. 

But, Praise the Lord, we are observing the year of Jubilee in 2008. Billions of dollars are being given to bankers and automobile manufacturers who are going broke. This is all being done on the premise that the little guy about to lose his home will be able to save it. So far I have yet to hear of one little guy getting so much as a nickel of the $700 billion. But the bankers and industrialists are all standing in line for their handout. It is almost a comedy to watch the auto makers pleading with Congress for billions. 

Here is my concern. I have debts--mortgage on my house, a credit card or two, an automobile.  Is there some way that I could get a small portion of that $700 billion? Now if I were making $22 million a year or more I would have a better chance. But my income is a bit less than that. I have friends that deserve a portion of that money since it is the year of Jubilee, but I doubt that they will get any either. I work for a non-profit institution that could use a bit of this bailout money and we work across from a major university that needs a minimum of $56 million to simply do the maintenance needed that has been delayed for years. Let me know if I am wrong, but I bet neither we nor the university will see a red cent from the big bailout. We have done nothing dishonest nor have we taken advantage of the foolishness of people. But that's not the way the bailout will work. Those who made financial fools of others will receive the reward. 

I'm sure that Moses would see this as an odd way to observe the Jubilee.