True Liberty

   "Proclaim LIBERTY throughout all the Land unto all the inhabitants thereof" - what does that really mean. Today's post is in *"Sunday Sermonette" form. 

*This is a private blog, and does not necessarily always reflect the views of the Lehigh Valley Project 9/12 Tea Party Group. For more about the nature of this blog please read "What is this?"

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The Liberty Bell, in Philadelphia, has become an Independence Day symbol and tradition says the ringing of it summoned the populace to hear the first public reading of the Declaration of Independence.

The bell was not actually called the Liberty Bell until the 1830's when it then became a symbol for the abolitionist movement. Before that it was simply referred to as the State House bell.

The bell has the following inscribed on it, "Proclaim LIBERTY throughout all the Land unto all the inhabitants thereof". That is a fragment of a verse from Leviticus 25 verse 10 which reads:

And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof: it shall be a jubile unto you; and ye shall return every man unto his possession, and ye shall return every man unto his family.

It is certainly easy to see how a bell with a verse proclaiming a “Jubilee”, a year where every man that is enslaved is returned to his family can become a symbol for the freeing of the slaves. What is harder to understand is the concept of Jubilee year where land that was sold would revert back to it's original owner after 50 years. In verse 23 we read:

The land shall not be sold for ever: for the land is mine, for ye are strangers and sojourners with me.

To us that sounds like a system where nothing could ever be accomplished with every property sale being a futile endeavor. To the contrary though, if you read the entire chapter you will see how the land was supposed to be valued in proportion to it's closeness to the next Jubilee year. You were in effect leasing the property while at the same time maintaining its continuity within it's particular Hebrew tribe. There were even rules that allowed for what we would consider normal property ownership within the bounds of walled cities. In this way the foreigner or proselyte without a tribe could live and function in the land of the chosen people.

What we would like to concern ourselves with is the concept of liberty and how it could be granted to those in bondage to slavery. Waiting for the Jubilee year was not the only option for being set at liberty, in the same chapter verses 47 and 48 we read:

47And if a sojourner or stranger wax rich by thee, and thy brother that dwelleth by him wax poor, and sell himself unto the stranger or sojourner by thee, or to the stock of the stranger's family:

48After that he is sold he may be redeemed again; one of his brethren may redeem him:

Here we have the concept of the kinsman redeemer able to secure liberty for the kin who is in bondage to an outsider. It is here that we learn that our redeemer must share our humanity if we are to be redeemed. Job spoke about this redeemer in the passage where he says:

Job chapter 19

25For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth:

26And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God:

We know this redeemer to be Jesus Christ, yet future for Job and there to be the kinsman to redeem him in the flesh.

What is the nature of this liberty? The Hebrew word for liberty found in Leviticus is also found in the beginning of Isaiah 61:

1The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound;

2To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD...

You may recognize these as the words that Jesus read in the synagogue in Nazareth, at the beginning of his ministry. After reading from the Isaiah scroll Jesus then said:

Luke 4:21b ...This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.

True Liberty is to be found in Christ.

The same Hebrew word translated as liberty is also found many times in Jeremiah 34. When the city of Jerusalem was besieged by the Chaldean army the prophets had made known God's displeasure in the people's failure to observe the sabbath year by not setting to liberty the Hebrews who were in bondage to their fellow Hebrew masters. The people then repented with King Zedekiah, making a covenant with the Lord to proclaim liberty and free all their servants, but the liberty was short lived and the people had repented of their repentance and re-enslaved their own people.

Jeremiah 34 verses 15-17:

15And ye were now turned, and had done right in my sight, in proclaiming liberty every man to his neighbour; and ye had made a covenant before me in the house which is called by my name:

16But ye turned and polluted my name, and caused every man his servant, and every man his handmaid, whom he had set at liberty at their pleasure, to return, and brought them into subjection, to be unto you for servants and for handmaids.

17Therefore thus saith the LORD; Ye have not hearkened unto me, in proclaiming liberty, every one to his brother, and every man to his neighbour: behold, I proclaim a liberty for you, saith the LORD, to the sword, to the pestilence, and to the famine; and I will make you to be removed into all the kingdoms of the earth.

“I proclaim a liberty for you” - in other words God has emancipated them from His care and they are at liberty to suffer at the sword, pestilence, and famine. Liberty outside of the word of God, outside of Christ, the liberty of the world is not true freedom, but a snare.

John 8:36
If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.