Isaiah 61:2

To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord

The year of Jubilee

It may be profitable to trace out the analogies between the year of jubilee which rejoiced the hearts of Israel, and that more comprehensive era of which it was broadly typical, and which was to bring gladness to all peoples unto the end of the dispensation, when the loving ministry of God is finished.

1. The Jewish jubilee commenced at the close of the day of atonement. Is not this a very true type of the way in which spiritual blessings are exclusively introduced to mankind? There can be no jubilee for us, a race of lost and guilty rebels taken in arms, traitors convicted of treason, unless an all-prevalent atonement had previously purchased our pardon.

2. There was rest from exhausting labour. By a providential arrangement similar to that which secured a double supply of manna on the sixth day, the land had unusual fertility in the sixth year, so that in the seventh, which was the ordinary, and in the fiftieth, which was the special sabbatical year, there was a suspension of the common duties of husbandry. Both the land and labourers had rest, and yet the supply did not fail, for there was plenty in every barn, and there was gladness in every heart. And, in a spiritual sense, is not rest for the weary just what our spirits so fervently require--just what the Gospel has been itself inspired to provide

3. The next blessing pertaining to the year of jubilee was the restoration of alienated property. When a man, through misfortune or extravagance, had contracted liabilities that were beyond his means, and had sold his possessions to discharge them, if he were not himself able to redeem them, and if none of his kindred were at once wealthy and willing, these possessions remained as the property of the creditor until the year of jubilee, and then it was provided by the law that they should return to him who had parted from them for a season. We, the whole race of us, had a bright inheritance once--God’s favour, God’s fellowship, God’s image, all were ours by birth--but, alas! we alienated it by sin. We are not ourselves able to redeem it. But, through infinite compassion, this our inheritance has not been suffered to pass out of the family. Christ our kinsman, our elder brother, has paid down the price, and has rescued this our heritage from the fangs of the harpies who would fain have usurped it for their own. We had sold our birthright as a common thing, but it has been redeemed, and it is offered to us without a price by a love that is surely without parallel. The acceptable year did dawn upon the world indeed when it witnessed the birth of the Messiah, and that sun, like that of Gideon, stood still at His bidding, and hasted not to go down until now.

4. Another blessing which is mentioned in the history is the restoration of freedom. It seems to have been a custom among the Hebrews, as among other Eastern nations, for a debtor who had become hopelessly involved to sell himself to his creditors, in order that by his personal service he might discharge the debt that he was otherwise unable to pay. Of course, it was provided that for the amelioration of his condition, and for its termination in the year of jubilee, the man was not to be a slave, but a hired servant and a soldier, and he was to remain until the year of jubilee, and then he and his children should all go out and return unto their possession. All sinners are in bondage, bound with the chain of their sins, led captive by the devil at his will. How I delight to proclaim it in your hearing, “The year of jubilee is come.” If the Son make you free, ye shall be free indeed. (W. M. Punshon.)

No light without a shadow

There is a tremendous alternative before men--acceptation or vengeance. When we speak of vengeance in this connection, and as a Divine act, it must be understood not in a malignant and revengeful sense, but in a judicial. It must be regarded as an act of eternal justice. We propose to interrogate Nature and ask her what she has to tell us of this alternative. We would greatly prefer to present Christ as the light of the world, but we know of no light without a shadow. Observe, however, the terms in which the light and the shadow are expressed in the prophet’s language. It is the “year” of acceptation, and only the “day” of vengeance. This is a very natural description. The light always attracts us most: we scarcely think of the shadow. The idea of hell is in accordance with the laws of nature, and cannot be eliminated from thought.

I. ANTITHESES BELONG TO THE FUNDAMENTAL NATURE OF THINGS; HENCE, ARE TO BE FOUND EVEN IN FINALITIES. All positive things involve a corresponding negative; and are comprehensible only by contrast with their negative. If you paint a picture all white, you have nothing but a white washed canvas and no picture; it is only by contrast between lights and shadows that you can give it expression and form. What is there in the world that has not its corresponding negative? If there is light there is also darkness; if there is height there is also depth; if there is joy there is also sorrow; if there is perfection there is also deformity; if there is beauty there is also ugliness; if there is upward there is also downward; if there is heat there is also cold; if there is good tilers is also bad; if there is reward there is also punishment; if there is heaven there is also hell.

II. ALTERNATIVES ARE NECESSARY TO MORAL BEINGS. A moral being is one who has power of choice; and there can be no choice except as between alternatives. Our whole life is a choosing between alternatives. It would then, indeed, be singular if this choice was only possible in matters of secondary importance, but eliminated from matters of the highest importance. If there is no alternative over against heaven, then heaven is not a matter of choice; if not matter of choice, then it must be arbitrarily conferred, and, there being no alternative, it must of necessity be conferred arbitrarily upon good and bad alike.

III. THE LAW OF CONSEQUENCES REVEALS A HELL. Who can compute the consequences of an act? It may be but momentary, yet consequences of the most momentous character are entailed upon the world.

IV. THE LAW OF GROWTH REVEALS A HELL. Growth is of two kinds: by assimilation of things without, and by development from within: the first, scientific people call by involution; the second, by evolution. Sin grows, and grows by this double process. It assimilates with itself the elements of evil around it. This is the law of its existence, which forecloses any prospect of remedy from within. Moreover, sin grows by evolution. Sin propagates, and it propagates nothing but itself. Hence it cannot become extinct. It must propagate itself in the soul for ever unless some external power shall eliminate it. It cannot outgrow itself. The soul, therefore, which is identified with sin, must partake of this eternal process. That there is an external remedy we will confess: but we can readily perceive that the growing processes of sin must more and more repel this remedy. The history of a sinning soul, then, unfolds an ever-diminishing hope of reclamation.

V. THE EVIDENT TENDENCY OF CHARACTER TO ASSUME STABILITY IS INDICATIVE OF A HELL. This final stability is what we call second nature--the outcome and ultimate form of the plastic powers of the soul. Hence the welfare of the creature demands a limited probation. Man’s happiness demands that he should be able to work towards an assured future: but the laws which facilitate stability in goodness must also facilitate stability in evil. Hence it will be seen why it is that the ambassadors of God are for ever proclaiming: “Now is the day of salvation,” and warning you to “seek the Lord while He may be found.” Hence it is we are telling you that the fittest time for giving yourselves to God is in your youth.

VI. CONCLUSION. Nature has told us there is a hell. Thus nature is a school-master to bring us to Christ. (Southern Pulpit.)

Proclamation of acceptance and vengeance

Notice well the expression, “to proclaim, because a proclamation is the message of a king, and where the word of a king is there is power. The Lord Jesus Christ came into the world to announce the will of the King of kings. Nor let it be forgotten that a proclamation must be treated with profound respect, not merely by receiving attention to its contents, but by gaining obedience to its demands. There are three points in the proclamation worthy of our best attention.

I. JESUS PROCLAIMS THE ACCEPTABLE YEAR OF THE LORD. There can be very little question that this relates to the jubilee year. The reason for all the jubilee blessings was found in the Lord.

II. THE DAY OF VENGEANCE OF OUR GOD.

1. Whenever there is a day of mercy to those who believe, it is always a day of responsibility to those who reject it, and if they continue in that state it is a day of increased wrath to unbelievers.

2. Another meaning of the text comes out in the fact that there is appointed a day of vengeance for all the enemies of Christ, and this will happen in that bright future day for which we are looking.

3. However, I consider that the chief meaning of the text lies in this--that “the day of vengeance of our God” was that day when He made all the trangressions of His people to meet upon the head of our great Surety.

Look at the instructive type by which this truth was taught to Israel of old. The year of jubilee began with the day of atonement.

4. The day of vengeance, then, is intimately connected with the year of acceptance; and mark, they must be so connected experimentally in the heart of all God’s people by the teaching of the Holy Ghost, for whenever Christ comes to make us live, the law comes first to kill us.

III. THE COMFORT FOR MOURNERS DERIVABLE FROM BOTH THESE THINGS. “To comfort all that mourn.” Oh, ye mourners, what joy is here, joy because this is the year of acceptance, and in the year of acceptance, or jubilee, men were set free and their lands were restored without money. No man ever paid a penny of redemption money on the jubilee morning: every man was free simply because jubilee was proclaimed: no merit was demanded, no demur was offered, no delay allowed, no dispute permitted. Jubilee came, and the bondman was free. And now, to-day, whosoever believeth in Jesus is saved, pardoned, freed, without money, without merit, without preparation, simply because believeth. An equal joy-note rings out from the other sentence concerning the day of vengeance. I f the day of vengeance took place when our Lord died, then it is over. (C. H.Spurgeon.)

Preaching God’s judgment on sin

A member of the congregation, at the close of a sermon that lasted for an hour, and had been preached amid a stillness most painful, nothing heard but the tones of the preacher, and during the pauses the ticking of the clock--a sermon on the sad and awful issues of a sinful life, and the glory and the joy of a life lived in Christ--and, if Dr. Dale intends to preach like that I shall not come and hear him, for I cannot stand it; it goes through me.” I spoke to Dr. Dale afterwards about the stillness and said it was simply awful. “Ah! yes, he said; “but it was more awful to me; it is hard to preach like that, but it must be done.” (Gee. Barber, in Dr. Dale’s Life.)

To comfort all that mourn

Tears dried

Some seek to comfort by telling us that sorrow is wrong. They say that we should be brave and not allow our feelings to become so deep. It is true there may be excessive grief, and so grief may become sinful. But to say that we must not sorrow is to try to induce us to outrage our nature and to deprive us of one of the most effectual means whereby God educates and purifies. Christ is not come to deliver us from suffering, but to enable us to derive good from the suffering. How does Christ “comfort all that mourn”?

I. BY HIMSELF BECOMING THE SUFFERER FOR US, TO TAKE AWAY SIN. Christ bore the curse of it for us, and in doing this He removed the root of our mourning.

II. BY HIS SYMPATHY. He feels with us and for us, and by oneness with us in sorrow gives us comfort. Sympathy means suffering along with another. Job spoke of it when he said, “Did I not weep for him that was in trouble? was not my soul grieved for the poor?”

III. By showing us THE ORIGIN AND PURPOSE OF SUFFERING. Nowhere except in God’s revelation in Christ do we learn how and why affliction and sorrow come upon us. Our Lord Jesus Christ explains all. And His explanation goes down to the very root of the matter. Suffering is necessary in order that we enter into the fulness of God’s love in the gift of His Son. He who has received Christ as his Saviour is instructed, sanctified, made more meet for the Master’s use, becomes more heavenly minded, by means of all the affliction through which his Heavenly Father causes him to pass. To suffer in Christ is to live more deeply. “Love and sorrow are the two conditions of a profound life.”

IV. BY ASSURING THOSE WHO BELIEVE THAT THEY SHALL BE EVERLASTINGLY WITH HIM TO BEHOLD HIS GLORY. We learn--

1. That the comfort Christ imparts is effectual. It is not limited or partial. See how fully this is set forth in the passage with which the text is connected. What variety of imagery is used to picture to us the fulness and perfection of the remedy Christ brings for human guilt and misery. The healing He effects is for our whole nature, for heart, mind and conscience. He completely redeems and blesses.

2. The comfort Christ gives is enduring. It is no momentary or temporary assuaging of grief. It will never fail, it will increase in its influence and power.

3. The comfort Christ bestows is offered to all and is adapted to all. “To comfort all that mourn.” “All ye that labour,” etc. Whatever burden, whatever sorrow, there is in Him comfort for all. (G. W.Humphreys, B. A.)