I was reading a Charles Spurgeon sermon this morning, and I learned something that I hadn’t previously realized: the Day of Jubilee took place on the same day as the Day of Atonement:
[29] “And it shall be a statute to you forever that in the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, you shall afflict yourselves and shall do no work, either the native or the stranger who sojourns among you. [30] For on this day shall atonement be made for you to cleanse you. You shall be clean before the LORD from all your sins. [31] It is a Sabbath of solemn rest to you, and you shall afflict yourselves; it is a statute forever. [32] And the priest who is anointed and consecrated as priest in his father’s place shall make atonement, wearing the holy linen garments. [33] He shall make atonement for the holy sanctuary, and he shall make atonement for the tent of meeting and for the altar, and he shall make atonement for the priests and for all the people of the assembly. [34] And this shall be a statute forever for you, that atonement may be made for the people of Israel once in the year because of all their sins.” And Aaron did as the LORD commanded Moses. (Leviticus 16:29-34)
Here is Spurgeon, as masterful as always:
I have now an interesting fact to tell you, and I am sure you will think it worth mentioning. Turn to Leviticus, xxv. 9, and you will read: “Then shalt thou cause the trumpet of the jubilee to sound on the tenth day of the seventh month, in the day of atonement shall ye make the trumpet sound through out all your land.” So that one of the effects of the atonement was to set forth to us in the fact that when the year of jubilee came, it was not on the first day of the year that it was proclaimed, but “on the tenth day of the seventh month.” Ay, methinks, that was the best part of it. The scape-goat is gone, and the sins are gone; and no sooner are they gone than the silver trumpet sounds,
“The year of jubilee is come,
Return, ye ransomed sinners, home.”On that day sinners go free; on that day our poor mortgaged lands are liberated, and our poor estates which have been forever forfeited by our spiritual bankruptcy are all returned to us. So when Jesus dies, slaves win their liberty, and lost ones receive spiritual life again; when he dies, heaven, the long-lost inheritance is ours. Blessed day! Atonement and jubilee ought to go together. Have you ever had a jubilee, my friends, in your hearts? If you have not, I can tell you it is because you have not had a day of atonement.
–Charles Spurgeon, “The Day of Atonement“
