The Year of Jubilee

1. Blow ye the trumpet, blow
The gladly solemn sound,
Let all the nations know,
To earth's remotest bound:
The year of Jubilee has come,
Returning ransomed sinners home,
Returning ransomed sinners home.
2. Jesus, our great High Priest,
Hath full atonement made;
Ye weary spirits rest,
Ye mournful souls be glad!
The year of Jubilee has come,
Returning ransomed sinners home,
Returning ransomed sinners home.
3. Extol the Lamb of God,
The all atoning Lamb,
Redemption through his blood
To all the world proclaim.:
The year of Jubilee has come,
Returning ransomed sinners home,
Returning ransomed sinners home.
4. Ye who were sold for naught,
Whose heritage was lost,
May have it back unbought,
A gift at Jesus' cost:
The year of Jubilee has come,
Returning ransomed sinners home,
Returning ransomed sinners home.
5. The seventh trumpet here,
The news of heavenly grace;
Salvation now is near,
Seek ye the Savior's face:
The year of Jubilee has come,
Returning ransomed sinners home,
Returning ransomed sinners home.

Blowing the Jubilee Trumpet

God gave to Israel through the Mosaic law a jubilee arrangement which operated much like our present-day bankruptcy law, only its provisions were more sweeping. The Mosaic law provided for the cancellation of all debts in the year of jubilee—every fiftieth year. The family inheritance might be sold, but only until the jubilee year; all bondage in service to others ended with this year. In the jubilee year all debts were cancelled (Lev. 25:8-10).

This beneficent arrangement was a special picture, or type, representing the ultimate outworkings of God's great plan of the ages. The man in debt represented the sinner—Adam and his race. The sale of his property represented the forfeiture of all rights to the blessings of earth, which came upon man as a result of sin. The slavery of the family in service represented the slavery to sin and death through human weakness. Thus God shows that he never designed that man should always continue a slave to imperfection and ignorance, shackled by his great adversary, Satan. He never purposed that man's heritage should be lost to him forever through death. God purposed, from before the foundation of the world, the bringing in of the jubilee time by Messiah's kingdom, during which man might return to the liberties, blessings, and favors of God originally his portion. The times, or years, of Messiah's kingdom are in the Bible styled "the times of restitution." The basis of restitution was laid in the death of Jesus, who died "the just for the unjust," a willing sacrifice. The times of restitution are to follow the second coming of Christ, when he shall establish his kingdom and restore to the willing and obedient what was lost in Eden (Acts 3:19-21).

Thus Israel's year of jubilee represented the great thousand-year epoch of Messiah's Kingdom, in which the reign of sin and death shall be forever broken, and as St. Paul declares, "the creature [mankind] shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of sons of God. " - Romans 8:21

The church will not share in the jubilee with the world, but now, by faith, receives a still better portion—joint-heirship with Christ. With him, as his bride, the church will be God's agency for giving restitution to the world. If Bible students are correct, we are just on the eve of these restitution times, and the silver trumpet is now proclaiming the new dispensation. As Israel's priests blew the silver trumpet, so here, the royal priesthood make known in advance the truth respecting restitution.