My redeemed'.  Isaiah 35

refers to the same event.  There we have the close

association of vengeance

and the salvation of Israel.  If the acceptable year

is called the year of My

redeemed in Isaiah 63, they who participate in it

are called 'the ransomed

of the Lord' (Isa. 35:10).

Whatever our appreciation of the LXX may be, we can have no reserve

with regard to the inspiration of the Hebrew of Ezekiel.  There we have the

Greek aphesis translating the Hebrew deror, 'then it shall be his to the year

of liberty' (Ezek. 46:17), which is a direct reference to the jubilee, 'to

proclaim liberty throughout the land' (Lev. 25:10).

These passages present one solid unassailable front, and he who rejects

them rejects the Word of God.  To complete our survey we must observe the way

in which the word aphesis is used in the New Testament:

Forgiveness --

Mark 3:29; Acts 5:31; 13:38; 26:18; Eph. 1:7;

Col. 1:14.

Deliverance --

Luke 4:18 (confirming Isa. 61 LXX.).

Liberty --

Luke 4:18 (confirming Isa. 61 LXX.).

Remission --

Matt. 26:28; Mark 1:4; Luke 1:77; 3:3; 24:47;

Acts 2:38; 10:43; Heb. 9:22; 10:18.

The institution of the jubilee follows immediately upon the law

concerning the sabbatic year recorded in Leviticus 25, and is indeed an

extension of the principle of the sabbath:

'And thou shalt number seven sabbaths of years unto thee, seven times

seven years; and the space of the seven sabbaths of years shall be unto

thee forty and nine years.  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 throughout all your land.

And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout

all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof: it shall be a jubilee

unto you; and ye shall return every man unto his possession, and ye

shall return every man unto his family' (Lev. 25:8 -10).

There is a designed stress upon the number seven.  The trumpet of the

jubilee sounds at the end of the forty -ninth (7 x 7) year, in the seventh

month.  The tenth day of the seventh month is the Day of Atonement.  The

jubilee is most closely associated with that day.  It comes into effect in

the fiftieth year, but it has its roots in the tenth day of the seventh month

of the forty -ninth year.  The jubilee is the year of the Lord's redeemed.

The selfsame redemption that formed a basis for the forgiveness (aphesis) of

sin, purchased the possession into which the redeemed shall yet enter (Eph.

1:7 and 14), but there were not two sacrifices offered for this twofold

redemption.  What we must remember when dealing with Israel is that they were

a redeemed people.  The jubilee and the Day of Atonement belong to Israel as

a redeemed people and not otherwise.

Seeing moreover that their redemption, their sacrificial system, their

land, were typical of the future reality, we must trace this progression of

sabbaths up to its climax.  We have the seventh day, the seventh month, the

seventh year, the seven times seven years, and lastly as a fulfilment of all,

the seventy times seven of Daniel 9: