Year of Jubilee

I taught Sunday school today. It was based on the Adult Bible Studies lesson for the day -- Leviticus 25. We spent some time talking about the Year of Jubilee. This chapter describes the instructions God gave the Israelites to allow the land to lie fallow each seventh year (Sabbath year) and each 50th year, to allow slaves to go free and land to return to the original owner.

The idea is foreign to us, and actually, there is no evidence that the instructions were ever put into action. To do this, we must accept that all that we have been "given" belongs to God; not to us.

I linked the idea of a Year of Jubilee to stewardship and freedom. Not a very big leap, and in fact, part of what the lesson book discusses.

At the end of the time, I talked about how the year of Jubilee relates to forgiveness. We had already gotten into the idea of forgiveness of debt and how the scripture discusses the Day of Atonement.

I presented the idea of God's salvation through Christ as Jubilee. We live in the Year of Jubilee every day -- giving all of our gifts to the service of God.

Is that a strange leap? Does that make any sense?