19To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord. [simple_tooltip content=’16 So He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up. And as His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up to read.
17 And He was handed the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when He had opened the book, He found the place where it was written:
18 “The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed;
19 To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD.”
20 Then He closed the book, and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all who were in the synagogue were fixed on Him.
21 And He began to say to them, “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”
22 So all bore witness to Him, and marveled at the gracious words which proceeded out of His mouth. And they said, “Is this not Joseph’s son?”
23 He said to them, “You will surely say this proverb to Me, ‘Physician, heal yourself! Whatever we have heard done in Capernaum, do also here in Your country.’”
24 Then He said, “Assuredly, I say to you, no prophet is accepted in his own country.
25 But I tell you truly, many widows were in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, and there was a great famine throughout all the land;
26 but to none of them was Elijah sent except to Zarephath, in the region of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow.
27 And many lepers were in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet, and none of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian.”
28 So all those in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath,
29 and rose up and thrust Him out of the city; and they led Him to the brow of the hill on which their city was built, that they might throw Him down over the cliff.
30 Then passing through the midst of them, He went His way.’](Luke 4:16-30)[/simple_tooltip]
This Scripture was written prophetically by the prophet Isaiah about 650 years prior to when Jesus read it in the synagogue. It was read in Jewish synagogues thousands of times but never by the person it referred to. With this pronouncement, Jesus began the year of Jubilee.
The year of Jubilee is described in Leviticus 25. It was a year when no farmers worked in their fields and everyone kept the Sabbath. The Lord gave the people a miraculous provision the year before every Jubilee year started, and that sustained them for three years until their crops could once again be harvested.
The year of Jubilee was different than any other sabbatical year because it only occurred every fifty years and all debts were cancelled. All property was returned to its original owner, and anyone who had been sold into slavery was set free. It was a year of new beginnings.
Jesus proclaimed “the acceptable year of the Lord,” which was a spiritual jubilee. We now live in a time when all our debts to God because of sin have been cancelled, and all the things the devil stole from us have been returned. Even our slavery to the devil has come to an end through the redemptive work of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Rejoice today because you are in the time of continuous Jubilee!
