OUR SAVIOUR'S CHAPEL, DELSU, ABRAKA.
Our Motto: Towards Maturity in Christ (Eph 4.13)
It is on Mount Sinai that God instructed Moses to notify the children of Israel otherwise known as the covenanted people of God that when they enter the Promised Land, they are to keep a Sabbath for the land. They were instructed to only sow, prune and reap their fields for six years. In the seventh year the people must let the land lie dormant and untilled. They were to remember with joy therefore God’s supernatural provision alongside reconciliation to their loved ones who for one reason or the other were enslaved. They were to celebrate total freedom as well.
A. Day of Atonement (Leviticus 25:8-9)
The Day of Atonement or Yom Kippur is the highest Holy day of the Jewish calendar. In the Old Testament the High Priest made an atoning sacrifice for the sins of the people and for his own sins as well on the Day of Atonement. God instructed the Israelites to sound the trumpet throughout their lands. This act of paying the penalty for sin brought reconciliation between the people of God signifying a consecration of the 50th year and proclaiming freedom.
1. How does a person atone for sin in Christianity and how did Jesus atone for our sins?
B. Year of Jubilee (Leviticus 25:9-12)
The Jubilee is the year at the end of seven cycles of sabbatical year (SHMITA) being announced by a Priest blowing a ram’s horn on the Day of Atonement. The year of jubilee for the Jewish people meant a time of liberty, restitution and simple living. It was a year of releasing people from their debts, releasing all salves and returning properties to their original owner. In addition, the jubilee year was to be observed after the manner of the sabbatical year- there should be neither sowing nor reaping nor pruning of vines and everybody was expected to live on what the fields and the vineyard produced as no attempt should be made at storing up the products of the land.
1. What steps can we take to help fellow Christian to live more fully as beneficiaries of Jesus Jubilee? Luke 4:18.
Points to Note from the Lesson
* As believers, we should know that the earth is of the Lord and the fullness thereof – God is the ultimate owner of everything.
* Christians should know that the year of rest typified the spiritual rest which all believers enter into through Jesus Christ.
Consecrate the fiftieth year and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you; each one of you is to return to his family property and each to his own clan. (Leviticus 25:10).