To preach the acceptable year of the Lord.
20 And if ye shall say, What shall we eat the seventh year? behold, we shall not sow, nor gather in our increase:
21 Then I will command my blessing upon you in the sixth year, and it shall bring forth fruit for three years.
22 And ye shall sow the eighth year, and eat yet of old fruit until the ninth year; until her fruits come in ye shall eat of the old store.
Under the Law, in the covenant that God cut with Israel by the hands of Moses, the Bible tells us that it was a shadow of better things to come. The substance of that shadow being the New Testament. Therefore, the New Testament is a better testament which is established on better promises. In the Old Testament, God’s blessing upon the people of Israel was not the fulness of what He actually wanted to pour upon them. He couldn’t pour the full blessing on them because it was an imperfect testament. There was a festival that God commanded them to celebrate every 50th year – the Jubilee. Before this, every 7th year, the land must rest, and it was called the sabbath of the land (no sowing and reaping). In the 49th year (7×7=49), the land must also rest while the 50th year is Jubilee. Jubilee simply means a year of joy and rejoicing and settlement; a year of return, the year of pardon, the year of forgiveness. It is called the year of the Lord under the Old Testament. The blessing that the children of Israel enjoyed under the Old Testament was the blessing which God commanded seasonally. So, in the Jubilee, they won’t sow in the 49th and 50th year but will not go hungry or experience lack of any sort. Then they will only sow in the 51st year which will now give its yield for them to eat in the 52nd year. So, what that means is that for 3 years they will not harvest crops. So, how will they sustain their families in those three years? The Lord said that He will command His blessing in the 48th year and the harvest of that year will be three times the usual annual harvest.
When Jesus came, He announced in His mandate as the Christ, as a proclaimer of the acceptable year of the Lord. Every Jew and Israelite understood what He meant by that proclamation and they were shocked. He declared Jubilee and the year of the free favour of God (Luke 4:16-19 AMP; Isaiah 61:1-3). So, what the Lord Jesus brought to us is the acceptable year of the Lord being our everyday experience in Him, instead of it happening every 50th year as it was under the Old Testament. For them, it was a year, as in 365 days (a 365-day experience of the blessing of 3-fold increase); but for us in Christ, it is a perpetual dispensation of God’s blessing upon us, in unimaginable folds of increase and fruitfulness. God spoke to Abraham regarding this blessing in Genesis 17. He spoke of exceeding fruitfulness and multiplication. In Christ, we have entered into the free favours of God. We are swimming in the favour of God. Favour is magnetic of all good things. In Christ, we have the favour of God, which means things will begin to come to you on the bill of favour. Jesus our Lord has declared the acceptable year of the Lord, the Jubilee of the Lord. In Christ, you are now in the jubilee of the Lord. That means that you have entered into the dispensation of the commanded blessing.
My Solid Front (Confession):
In the Name of Jesus, I declare that I am highly favoured of God. The favour of God is upon me. I am in the Jubilee of God in Jesus’ Name, Amen.
Further Meditation:
Luke 4:16-19; 2 Corinthians 5:17.