Luke 4:19  "...to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord"

Part of what Jesus read from Isaiah in His hometown of Nazareth.  Luke 4:18-19

"The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed; to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord."

Wednesday, July 20, 2016-The phrase "acceptable year of the Lord" is a reference to the Year of Jubilee, the background of which is in Leviticus 25.  It speaks of restoration of property to families and tribes every fifty years.  How it works is that every seventh year the fields are to be left alone and the people are to trust God to provide enough food to survive.  That would be a sabbath year for the fields.  After the seventh sabbath year (the fiftieth year), all property returns to the original owners.  God instructed the people to keep the Year of Jubilee in mind when transacting business, and I think the point is that the poor need a way out of misfortune and poverty, and it probably worked better than some bankruptcy laws do today.

   How does this apply today?  There are the obvious agricultural applications, that I think are applied in some form among farms today in the form of crop rotation.  In the rotation process one field yearly is left fallow.  I do not know of a farmer, however, who plants no crops on the seventh year and trusts that the harvest from the sixth year will carry him over through the seventh and until the harvest of the eighth year.  It does give me pause to think, do I consider my food supply beyond the grocery store shelves?  The answer is "no".  Perhaps I would do well to give more thought about the food that I buy and how it gets to market? Also, I find that the Law of Jubilee is a wise law to protect against reckless riches and against poverty.  One that we could use in some version today. 
How does this affect my politics?

Saturday, July 23, 2016

I've been left with the feeling that I've not reflected enough on the Year of Jubilee and the fact that Jesus refers to it when reading the "mission statement" for Him left by the Prophet Isaiah.  I know that Old Testament instructions about agriculture have meaning that goes beyond the obvious applications.  The Apostle Paul, in 1 Corinthians 9:9, wrote "For it is written in the law of Moses, 'You shall not muzzle an ox while it treads out the grain.'  Is it oxen that God is concerned about?" His point, I surmise, is that there is much more to this verse than allowing oxen to eat when farming.  In fact, Paul used this verse to point out that he would be within his rights if he made a living off of itinerant preaching, as did Peter.  By the same token, I suspect that the Year of Jubilee has more to do than farming and giving suffering families another chance every fifty years.  Those are good applications, but I suspect there is something in this that applies to us, today, especially since it find its way into such an important passage of Scripture.

     Jesus makes this a part of His mission statement.  How does He fulfill this?  Does such restoration involve the Kingdom of God at the end of the age, or is there anything applicable to this age?  How does this affect my prayers for people who need life to be restored in some fashion?   
 

Monday, July 11, 2016

Luke 4:14 (NKJV)

¹⁴Then Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee, and news of Him went out through all the surrounding region.

Note:  The word for "power" is the root word for "dynamite", but I don't think that the power of the Holy Spirit is always demonstrated in an explosive manner.  Also, note that it remains the "power of the Holy Spirit".  We can yearn for power, but it is not our power to control.  That is to seek witchcraft.  The Holy Spirit controls the power.  According to 2 Corinthians 12:9-10, we should be glad when we are weak.  That is when we are strong.  Consider also Colossian 1:11, in which we are told that we are strengthened with power in order to patiently endure longsuffering with joy.  I suspect the joy is when the power can be discerned by others.

2 Corinthians 12:9-10 (NKJV)
⁹  And He said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness." Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
¹⁰  Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ's sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

Colossians 1:9-12 (NKJV)
⁹  For this reason we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding;
¹⁰  that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God;
¹¹  strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, for all patience and longsuffering with joy;
¹²  giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light.