When we hear the word “Sabbath”, we usually think of a day that comes regularly every week. But the word “Sabbath” also can apply to an entire year—a Year of Jubilee that comes once every fiftieth year.

We don’t know the extent to which this ideal of the Law of Moses was actually implemented in Ancient Israel. The Year of Jubilee may be like the Sermon on the Mount—an aspirational teaching that was imperfectly implemented.

The Law of Moses gave Ancient Israelites “inalienable rights” to their family farm analogous to the “inalienable rights” of Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness that Americans have held sacred since the days of the Declaration of Independence in 1776.

The word “alienate” is a fancy legal term meaning “sell.” Saying that something is “unalienable” is an old-fashioned way of saying that it cannot be sold.

What God has given, let no man or woman take away—whether it’s the “family farm” in Ancient Israel or whether it’s Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness in America today.

In Ancient Israel, the land that the family inherited from generation to generation could not be sold. Even if it was “sold”, the net effect was that the family farm was merely leased until the next Year of Jubilee—a year that came once every 50 years. (Leviticus 25:23-28).

This legal prohibition forbidding permanent sale of the “family farm” protected the “middle class” in Ancient Israel.

How?

No lower class of permanently impoverished families could arise. Families could always start over again when they came back into possession of their family farm once each fifty years.

This legal structure achieved two goals that are always in tension with each other in any civilization. Out of fairness, there need to be incentives to work hard so that you and the entire civilization prosper. And out of compassion, there also need to be “safety nets” to ensure that everyone’s basic needs for food, shelter and dignity are met.

In the United States—and throughout all Humanity—we still struggle to secure the right to Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.

Our success in securing the right to Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness needs to be measured by the overall effects of our civilization on each person—not merely the effects of government actions, but also the effects of strong families, profitable businesses, compassionate faiths, and effective charities.

In the United States—and throughout all Humanity—we still struggle to strike the wisest balance between providing incentives to prosper and providing safety nets of compassion for everyone.

Our success in striking this wise balance needs to be measured by the overall effects of our entire civilization on each person—not merely the effects of government programs, but also the effects of strong families, profitable businesses, compassionate faiths, and effective charities.

It takes a civilization!

The protection of the family farm in Ancient Israel ensured that Israel’s middle class enjoyed a number of benefits that we still struggle to ensure to people today (in vastly different ways due to our vastly different economy and culture).

Education took place on the family farm. Everyone received a good education that empowered them to be gainfully employed.

Medical care was provided by family members. This “health care network” cared for everyone.

Aging family members stayed on the farm. They were not abandoned to linger in loneliness and poverty.

Instead, aging family members contributed proudly to the well-being of their families and communities for as long as their health permitted. Everyone aged with dignity—respected and honored by people who loved them for as long as they lived.

Naturally, these legal protections for the family in Ancient Israel strengthened families. You had to be a member of a family to share these benefits of a family farm.

The Liberty Bell links the Year of Jubilee in Ancient Israel (that protected their “unalienable right” to their “family farm”) with America’s Declaration of Independence (that proclaimed each person’s “unalienable rights” to Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness).

How?

The Liberty Bell rang in Philadelphia when the Declaration of Independence was signed at Independence Hall in Philadelphia.

Famous words are inscribed on the Liberty Bell. They come from the Bible. They quote the ideals of the Law of Moses that established the Year of Jubilee: “proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof” (Leviticus 25:10 KJV).

People of goodwill can—and will—differ on how government and civilization can best secure our rights to Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.

People of goodwill can—and will—differ on how to implement the ideals of the Law of Moses in our vastly different economies and cultures. After all, the Law of Moses itself envisions different rules for buildings and lands in cities than for buildings and lands in the countryside. (Leviticus 25:29-34).

Nevertheless, the challenges posed by “Years of Jubilee”—times of great change such as the American Revolution and this Pandemic—remain the same across the millennia.

The challenges to change your life so you love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your mind and with all your strength.

The challenges to change your life and your civilization so that “in everything, you do to others what you would have them do to you” (Deuteronomy 6:5).

The challenge to secure the rights to Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.

The challenge to give everyone a good education that empowers them to be gainfully employed.

The challenge to provide health care for everyone.

The challenge to empower everyone to age with dignity—respected and honored by people who love them for as long as they shall live.

The challenge to balance the incentives to work hard with the “safety nets” for food, shelter and dignity.

The challenge to bless all people.

The challenge to get all pharaohs to set all people free.

The challenge to heal all hurting people.

The challenge to encourage wise governments, strong families, profitable businesses, compassionate faiths, and effective charities.

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To read more about my Visions of the Sabbath, please read my blogs “Sabbath Creation”, “Sabbath Week”, “Sabbath Seasons”, “Sabbath Experiences”, and “Sabbath Years”.

To read more about the Year of Jubilee, please read my blogs “Pandemic Wisdom: Visions of America” and “Jezebel and Ahab: Greed, Lies and Violence”.

To read more about the ideas in this blog, please read the chapter “Ahab Takes Naboth’s Vineyard” and the related endnotes in my book Healing the Promised Land, at pages 221-233, 376-377.