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📖 Check Your Understanding
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The Story
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Rest years. Every seventh year was “a sabbath of solemn rest for the land” (25:4). Farmers did not plant or prune.
Counting. “You shall count seven sabbaths of years for yourself, seven times seven years… forty-nine years” (25:8).
The trumpet. “Then you shall cause the trumpet of the Jubilee to sound on the tenth day of the seventh month” (25:9). The ICB says it was “the horn of a male sheep.”
A special day. “On the Day of Atonement you shall make the trumpet to sound throughout all your land” (25:9).
Atonement first. The freedom of Jubilee began on the day God dealt with Israel's sin. Forgiveness came first, then freedom.
For everyone. The trumpet was blown “throughout all your land.” No one was left out of the good news.
What we learn. God's freedom always starts with forgiveness. That is how Jesus sets us free too.
The sabbath year (25:1-7). Every seventh year the land rested. What grew by itself was food for owners, servants, hired workers, strangers and even animals (25:6-7).
The count (25:8). Seven sabbath years make forty-nine years. The following year, the fiftieth, was the Jubilee. Many Israelites would see it only once or twice in their lives.
The name. Jubilee comes from the Hebrew yovel (say: yoh-VEL), a ram's horn. The year is named after the trumpet that announced it.
The timing (25:9). The trumpet sounded “on the Day of Atonement,” the tenth day of the seventh month. The day Israel was cleansed from “all your sins” (16:30) was the day liberty was announced.
Freedom through forgiveness. Release from debt and return to the land rested on atonement. The gospel works the same way: freedom comes from forgiveness. “In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins” (Ephesians 1:7).
The reach. The trumpet sounded “throughout all your land,” not only at the sanctuary. The good news was for the whole nation.
God gave Israel a special rest year every seventh year. The land did not get planted that year. Then God told them to count seven of those rest years. That made forty-nine years. After that came a big day. On the Day of Cleansing, a horn was blown. It was the horn of a ram. Its loud sound went through the whole country. Everyone could hear it. Remember what the Day of Cleansing was about? God made His people clean from their sins. Right after that, the horn announced freedom. First God took away sin. Then He set His people free.
Every fifty years they blew a big horn. It was on the Day of Atonement. First God made His people clean. Then He made them free!
👨👩👧 Parent Prompt
Why do you think the horn came after the Day of Atonement?
A holy year. “You shall consecrate the fiftieth year” (25:10). Consecrate means set apart as holy.
Liberty. “And proclaim liberty throughout all the land to all its inhabitants” (25:10). Liberty means freedom.
Back to the land. “Each of you shall return to his possession” (25:10). A possession was a family's land.
Back to the family. “And each of you shall return to his family” (25:10). Families who had been split up were together again.
A year of rest. “In it you shall neither sow nor reap” (25:11). Like the sabbath year, the land rested.
Holy. “For it is the Jubilee; it shall be holy to you” (25:12).
A fresh start. No family would be poor forever. Every fifty years, God gave everyone a new beginning.
What we learn. God cares about people who are stuck and poor. He loves to set people free and bring them home.
Consecration (25:10). “You shall consecrate the fiftieth year.” The year itself was set apart, as the seventh day was.
Liberty. The Hebrew deror (say: deh-ROHR) means release or freedom. It is the same word Isaiah 61:1 uses, “to proclaim liberty to the captives,” and Jeremiah 34:8 uses for releasing servants.
Two returns. “Each of you shall return to his possession, and each of you shall return to his family.” The Jubilee restored both property and people. Debt-servants went home (see 25:40-41).
Protecting the poor. In Israel, land meant food and a living. The Jubilee kept families from staying poor forever and kept all the land from ending up in a few hands.
Rest and trust (25:11-12). As in the sabbath year, the people neither sowed nor reaped. They ate “its produce from the field,” trusting God's provision.
Was it kept? The Old Testament gives no clear record of a Jubilee being celebrated, and Jeremiah 34 records Judah breaking a promise to release servants. God's people did not keep His good law. That failure points us to Jesus, who brings the true Jubilee (Luke 4:18-21).
The fiftieth year was the Year of Jubilee. God told them to make it a special year. They would announce freedom for all! In those days, some people became very poor. They sometimes had to sell their family's land. Some even had to work for other families to pay debts. But in Jubilee, everything changed. Families got their land back. People who had to work for others went home. Moms, dads and children were together again. No one stayed poor forever. No family lost its land forever. God wanted everyone to have a fresh start. Jubilee was God's big reset button!
God said everyone was free! They could go home to their land. Families could be together again. Jubilee was a happy year!
👨👩👧 Parent Prompt
What would you be happy to get back?
No cheating. “If you sell anything to your neighbor or buy from your neighbor's hand, you shall not oppress one another” (25:14). To oppress is to treat someone unfairly.
A fair price. “According to the number of years after the Jubilee you shall buy from your neighbor” (25:15).
Selling harvests. “He sells to you according to the number of the years of the crops” (25:16). The land itself would go home at Jubilee.
Respect God. “Therefore you shall not oppress one another, but you shall fear your God; for I am the Lord your God” (25:17).
God's land. “The land shall not be sold permanently, for the land is Mine” (25:23). “The earth is the Lord's” (Psalm 24:1).
Enough. God promised, “I will command My blessing on you in the sixth year, and it will bring forth produce enough for three years” (25:21).
What we learn. Everything belongs to God. We can be fair and generous because God provides.
Pricing (25:14-16). Land was valued by the number of harvests left before the Jubilee. A sale was really a lease of crops: “he sells to you according to the number of the years of the crops.”
No oppression (25:14, 17). God gives the command not to “oppress one another” twice. Business was a place for holiness, “for I am the Lord your God.”
The worry answered (25:20-22). “What shall we eat in the seventh year?” God promised a triple harvest in the sixth year. The Jubilee required faith in God's provision, and Jesus taught the same trust: “do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’” (Matthew 6:31).
God owns the land (25:23). “The land is Mine; for you are strangers and sojourners with Me.” Israel were tenants on God's land, not absolute owners.
Redemption (25:24-28). A poor man's “redeeming relative” could buy back his land. The Hebrew go'el (say: go-ELL) is a kinsman-redeemer, the role Boaz takes in Ruth 4. If no redeemer came, the Jubilee itself released the land (25:28).
A picture of Christ. Many Christians see Jesus as the true kinsman-redeemer: He became our relative by taking on flesh (Hebrews 2:14) and came “to redeem those who were under the law” (Galatians 4:4-5).
In the Year of Jubilee, people got their land back. So God gave rules about buying and selling land. God said not to cheat a neighbor. If Jubilee was many years away, the price was high. When Jubilee was soon, the price was low. A buyer was only buying some harvests, not the land forever. God told them why. The land really belonged to Him. They were like travelers living on His land. Everything we have belongs to God. God also promised to give enough food. In the sixth year He sent a big harvest. It was enough for three years! God's people did not need to worry. God always takes care of His people.
God said the land was His. People had to buy and sell fairly. They must not cheat each other. God takes care of His people.
👨👩👧 Parent Prompt
What does it mean that everything belongs to God?
In Nazareth. Jesus “went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up to read” (Luke 4:16).
Isaiah's words. He read, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, Because He has anointed Me To preach the gospel to the poor” (Luke 4:18).
Liberty again. He was sent “to proclaim liberty to the captives… To set at liberty those who are oppressed” (Luke 4:18). This is the Jubilee word.
The year. He came “to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord” (Luke 4:19). These are Jubilee words: a year of freedom from the Lord.
Fulfilled. “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing” (Luke 4:21).
Free indeed. Jesus said, “Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed” (John 8:36).
Our Redeemer. “You were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold… but with the precious blood of Christ” (1 Peter 1:18-19).
What we learn. Jesus is the one who brings the true Jubilee: freedom from sin and a way home to God.
The setting (Luke 4:16-17). In the Nazareth synagogue Jesus was handed Isaiah and “found the place” of Isaiah 61:1-2.
Jubilee language. Isaiah 61 uses the Jubilee words: “to proclaim liberty to the captives” and “the acceptable year of the Lord.” Through Isaiah, God promised that a great Jubilee was coming.
Where He stopped. Jesus stopped reading before Isaiah's next phrase, “And the day of vengeance of our God” (Isaiah 61:2). His first coming announced the year of favor; Scripture elsewhere speaks of judgment at His return.
The claim (Luke 4:21). “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” Jesus was saying that He Himself is the anointed one who brings the liberty the Jubilee pictured.
Spiritual and practical. The release Jesus brings is first from sin (John 8:34-36; Romans 6:18), but His ministry also healed the sick and lifted the poor. The early church shared so that there was no one in need among them (Acts 4:34).
Redemption. 1 Peter 1:18-19 and Ephesians 1:7 describe a purchase price: “the precious blood of Christ.” What the kinsman-redeemer did for land, Christ does for people.
The final Jubilee. Romans 8:21 speaks of creation itself being “delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.”
Many years after Moses, Jesus went to His hometown. On the Sabbath He stood up in the synagogue to read. Someone handed Him the book of Isaiah. Jesus read about good news for poor people. The words promised freedom for people who were stuck. They spoke of the year of the Lord's favor. That sounded like Jubilee! Then Jesus sat down. Everyone was looking at Him. Jesus said this Scripture had come true that day. He is the One who brings freedom. Sin is like being stuck and far from home. Jesus came to set us free. He brings us home to God.
One day Jesus read from God's Word. He read about freedom. Jesus said those words were about Him! Jesus sets us free from sin.
👨👩👧 Parent Prompt
How does Jesus set people free?
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📚 Story Questions
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The Gospel Connection
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The problem. “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). Jesus said, “Whoever commits sin is a slave of sin” (John 8:34). Sin leaves us stuck, like a family that has lost its land and cannot buy it back. It pulls us away from God, the way debt pulled families away from their homes.
No way out alone. We cannot redeem ourselves. Salvation is “not of works, lest anyone should boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9). Like the poor man of Leviticus 25, we need a redeemer.
Jesus brings liberty. Jesus read, “He has sent Me… To proclaim liberty to the captives,” and said, “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing” (Luke 4:18, 21).
The price paid. Jesus came “to give His life a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45). We were redeemed “with the precious blood of Christ” (1 Peter 1:19). He died, was buried, and rose again the third day (1 Corinthians 15:3-4).
The response. Trust Him: “If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved” (Romans 10:9). Then “stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free” (Galatians 5:1). Free people can help others find freedom too.
Bondage. The Jubilee existed because people fell into debt, lost land and sold themselves into service. Scripture describes sin the same way: “whoever commits sin is a slave of sin” (John 8:34), and “the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23). Humanity's condition is not merely poverty but captivity. Sin is a debt we cannot repay and a master we cannot escape on our own.
No self-release. Leviticus 25:26-28 allows that a poor man might redeem his own land, but only if he gains the means; otherwise he waits for a redeemer or the Jubilee. Spiritually no one has the means. We are saved “by grace… through faith, and that not of yourselves” (Ephesians 2:8-9). Every human strategy, from moral effort to religious ritual, is like a poor man trying to buy back land with empty hands.
Christ the Redeemer. God sent His Son, “born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law” (Galatians 4:4-5). Sharing our flesh and blood, He came to “release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage” (Hebrews 2:14-15). At Nazareth He announced that Isaiah's Jubilee was “fulfilled in your hearing” (Luke 4:21). The announcer of the Jubilee and the Redeemer who pays its price are the same person.
Atonement before liberty. The Jubilee trumpet sounded on the Day of Atonement (25:9). Freedom came through cleansing. Christ gave “His life a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45) and rose again the third day (1 Corinthians 15:3-4). “In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins” (Ephesians 1:7).
The response. Faith in the risen Christ (Romans 10:9) brings a person out of slavery: “having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness” (Romans 6:18). The call is to live as free people (Galatians 5:1), and to share that liberty with others in word and deed. The early church did this when it shared possessions so that no one lacked (Acts 4:34), a living picture of Jubilee in the community of the risen Lord.
Everyone sins. The Bible says sin is like being a slave. It keeps us stuck and far from God.
We cannot set ourselves free. Trying harder does not break sin's chains. We need someone to rescue us.
In Jubilee, a horn blew on the Day of Atonement. First sins were forgiven. Then people were set free.
Jesus died on the cross to forgive our sins. He paid the price to buy us back. On the third day He rose from the dead!
Jesus promised that anyone He sets free is truly free. When we trust Jesus, He sets us free from sin. He brings us home to God forever.
Sin makes us stuck, like people far from home.
We cannot set ourselves free.
Jesus came to bring freedom.
He died on the cross for our sins.
He rose again to give us new life.
Jesus brings us home to God!
👨👩👧 Parent Prompt
What does it mean to be set free by Jesus?
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✝️ Gospel Questions
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Memory Verse
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“And you shall consecrate the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land to all its inhabitants.”
— Leviticus 25:10 (NKJV)
💡 What This Verse Means
This verse announces the Year of Jubilee. “You shall consecrate the fiftieth year”: consecrate means set apart as holy. After forty-nine years, the next year belonged to God in a special way. “And proclaim liberty”: to proclaim is to announce out loud. Liberty means freedom. People who were stuck in debt or working for others could go home. “Throughout all the land”: not just in one town, but everywhere. “To all its inhabitants”: inhabitants are the people who live in a place. Everyone was included. Hundreds of years later Jesus stood up in His hometown and read about proclaiming liberty to the captives. Then He said, “Today this Scripture is fulfilled.” When you learn this verse, remember that Jesus is the one who sets people free from sin and brings them home to God.
Leviticus 25:10 is the heart of the Jubilee law. It has two verbs: “consecrate” and “proclaim.” The year is first set apart to God, then announced to the people. Holiness comes before liberty, just as the Day of Atonement came before the trumpet (25:9). The key noun is deror, liberty or release, the same word Isaiah 61:1 uses and Jesus reads in Luke 4:18. The reach is “throughout all the land to all its inhabitants.” No region and no family was left out. The rest of the verse, “each of you shall return to his possession, and each of you shall return to his family,” shows that liberty meant restoration, not just release. When you memorize this verse, you will be ready to understand Luke 4 and the gospel's language of freedom. It also calls you to act: everyone Christ has set free gets to tell others about His freedom. The verse is famous outside the church too: its words were engraved on the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia. But the deepest liberty this verse points to is not political but spiritual. It is the freedom Christ gives from sin, which no government can grant or take away.
This verse is about the Year of Jubilee. God told the people to set the fiftieth year apart. It was a holy year. They had to announce freedom everywhere. Everyone in the land would hear it. People could go back home. Families could be together again. Jesus said He came to bring freedom. He sets us free from sin. He brings us home to God.
God planned a special year. Everyone heard they were free! Jesus sets us free from sin. Jesus brings us home!
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