Jubilee, Part 4, Return To Your Land
Leviticus 25:13 On this year of jubilee each of you shall return to his own property.
Every 50th year, the people of Israel were to return to their designated tribal land. At the time of receiving the Law, Israel was wondering around in the desert for 40 years.
Eventually, Israel entered the land and controlled with conquest in Joshua 1-12. God divided the land among the tribes of Israel in Joshua 13-24. Geographical and tribal boundaries were defined.
Below is a map of the land as divided per God’s direction in the book of Joshua.
Leviticus 25:23 The land, moreover, shall not be sold permanently, for the land is Mine; for you are but aliens and sojourners with Me.
God says the land is leased to the inhabitants, nation Israel. The tribes do not own the land, God does. The land is granted by God to His chosen nation.
People are temporary and finite. In our current state of fallen humanity, we are not eternal. When we die, we cannot take the land or other possessions with us.
God is very clear in Scripture. The earth is His. God’s ownership is stated from the beginning in Genesis to the New Testament. For starters, He created in Genesis 1.
God’s ownership extends beyond the atmosphere of planet Earth. He owns the universe.
Deuteronomy 10:14 The heavens, indeed the highest heavens, belong to the Lord your God, as does the earth and everything in it.
God transfers authority and possession according to His own choice. But He still owns everything. God chose Israel and gave them a specific, allotted land.
Exodus 19:5 Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine…
Jeremiah 27:5 By My great strength and outstretched arm, I made the earth, and the people, and animals on the face of the earth. I give it to anyone I please.
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God reminds Job that He owns everything. God does not owe anyone a single thing. He is not in debt.
Job 41:11 Who confronted Me, that I should repay him? Everything under heaven belongs to Me.
1 Corinthians 10:26 For “the earth is the Lord’s, and the fullness thereof.”
God is the landlord. He operates on a 50 year lease with His people Israel and His land. Every fiftieth year, everyone goes back to where they belong according to Him. Debts are forgiven. Everyone gets a fresh start and a clean economic slate.
In the future, He will redefine borders and geography for His chosen people. They will have significantly more land than the current situation of November 2021.
Genesis 15:18-21 On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your descendants I have given this land, From the river of Egypt as far as the great river, the river Euphrates: the Kenite and the Kenizzite and the Kadmonite and the Hittite and the Perizzite and the Rephaim and the Amorite and the Canaanite and the Girgashite and the Jebusite.”
This is the original land grant from God to Abram (later renamed Abraham by God). These are the land boundaries of Israel’s future.
This configuration has never been realized. This calls for the geography of Israel to stretch from the Nile River to Euphrates River.
One could argue rather this implies the Arabian Peninsula or not. Now this sounds impossible in today’s world and current geopolitical climate. Can you imagine the uproar if this was proposed at the United Nations?
But, there will be a land for peace deal when Jesus returns.
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