The legal basis for the Jubilee
And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof: it shall be a jubilee unto you; and ye shall return every man unto his possession, and ye shall return every man unto his family. (Leviticus 25:10)
The legal principle on which the Jubilee is based is that the earth and its fullness belong to God. The earth is the Lord’s, and the fullness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein. (Psalms 24:1)
The land shall not be sold for ever: for the land is Mine, for ye are strangers and sojourners with Me. (Leviticus 25:23)
The first of the above two verses informs us that the earth and all the peoples who dwell on it belong to God. The second verse points out that Israel belongs to God in a special way and is more closely identified with God than is true of the other nations of the earth.
The earth and all its resources belong to the Lord. He assigns the riches of the earth to whomever He will. This is true of every cubic inch of the earth and for all time. God created the earth and it belongs to Him. He has not sold it to anyone.
Men trade the things of earth back and forth without reference to the Spirit of God. God puts material possessions where He wants them. He always provides for His saints.
The resources of the earth belong to God, to no one else. When God appoints a piece of land to a person or gives him any other form of material wealth, it belongs to that person until he sells it or forfeits it in God’s sight. Any person or spirit who takes something from the lawful owner is a thief and comes under the judgment of God.
All wicked spirits, and people who are moved by them, are thieves because they continually are attempting to steal from God what belongs to Him. Only Christ and those who are living in Christ are free from thievery. They give back to God everything that belongs to Him.
The Kingdom-age Jubilee will be a time of restoring spiritual and material goods to the lawful owners.
If an Israelite through foolishness, difficult circumstances, laziness or some other reason, lost his freedom and his possessions, he and his family regained them during the Jubilee because they were given to him and to his descendants permanently by the God of all the earth.
Today the governments of the world utilize various devices, such as taxes, to attempt to prevent the accumulation of material wealth by individuals. God’s device, which was the Year of Jubilee, is infinitely wiser and more compassionate than is true of the inventions of men.
Notice the expression, "ye are strangers and sojourners with me" (Leviticus 25:23). God’s hand is on every true Israelite because God has appointed Israel, His elect, to represent Himself among the peoples of the earth. Israel is a stranger and temporary resident of the earth, his true home being with God. Therefore, God chooses with care the worldly possessions of each of His servants.
Every member of the Body of Christ is a priest and prophet. He bears in himself or herself the name of God. He is God’s representative on the earth. Every Christian is an ambassador of the Kingdom of Christ, a living stone in the eternal Temple of God, a stranger and temporary resident of the earth.
In the time before Christ, God would permit one of His chosen to endure for a season a condition of servitude and loss of possessions. After a while his goods must be restored so the identity of his family as a priest of God would be maintained.