The Day of Atonement: True Liberty and the Jubilee

In some parts of the world, people experience seasonal hunger. This is, of course, typically in places where people rely on the crops they grow for their food throughout the year. If the previous harvest wasn’t very good, then families will have to find a way for the few bags of grain they have left to stretch until the next harvest.

I remember hearing stories of some members in my church who were used to experiencing hunger during part of the year. Whether it was crop failure due to drought, crop diseases or locusts, the result is the same: hunger.

Land rest: a test of faith

God, in His infinite wisdom, gave His people Israel a special gift to help their land rest and be replenished with the nutrients needed for healthy crops. Just as people need to rest every seventh day on the Sabbath, the land needs rest every seventh year.

“When you come into the land which I give you, then the land shall keep a sabbath to the Lord” (Leviticus 25:2).

In that seventh year, no harvesting was to be done! Talk about a test of faith for the people of God, but that test of faith didn’t stop there.

This pattern of sevens continued—with each seventh year being a land sabbath—for 49 years (verse 8).

Then came the 50th year, another Sabbath for the land. But this year was different. It was set apart as a year of greater liberty, and it is called the Year of Jubilee.  

It appears that this would mean two years in a row of no planting or harvesting of crops to store up! Their faith would thus be tested yet again.

One of the most interesting parts about this 50th year is when it began.

“Then you shall cause the trumpet of the Jubilee to sound on the tenth day of the seventh month; on the Day of Atonement you shall make the trumpet to sound throughout all your land. And you shall consecrate the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a Jubilee for you; and each of you shall return to his possession, and each of you shall return to his family” (verse 9).

This proclamation of liberty began with the sounding of a trumpet on the Day of Atonement.

Why? Why would God begin the Jubilee on the Day of Atonement?  

The answer helps us better understand what the Day of Atonement pictures—what true liberty really is.

The Jubilee meant freedom from debt and slavery. It also meant a person could return to their own land—to their own possessions. The land itself was given rest.  

In a physical way, the Jubilee pictures something much greater, which God intends for all mankind.

The real fulfillment of the Jubilee, and what the Day of Atonement pictures, is when Satan is put away from humanity. It will be a time of true liberty, when mankind can live without the pressures and influences of the adversary.

Leviticus 16 describes two goats involved in the observance of Atonement. One was to be sacrificed as a sin offering for the people, portraying the sacrifice of Jesus Christ for the sins of all mankind (verse 15). The other goat was to “be presented alive before the Lord, to make atonement upon.” The second was the Azazel or “goat of departure.” Aaron was instructed to confess the sins of Israel over this goat and then “send it away into the wilderness” (verses 20-22).

The binding of Satan and the banished goat

The binding and removal of Satan from this earth and from mankind described in Revelation mirrors the casting out of the Azazel goat by the hand of a suitable man (Revelation 20:1-3).  

Imagine the relief! Imagine the rejoicing and jubilation of the saints who were resurrected earlier, an event pictured by the Feast of Trumpets, watching excitedly as the adversary of God and of mankind is restrained and thrown into the pit (Revelation 20:3)!

Revelation 12:9 tells us that Satan “deceives the whole world.” He is called the “god of this age” (2 Corinthians 4:4), and his influence has affected mankind from the beginning. But he will not always be allowed to exercise that influence.

The Day of Atonement pictures the time when Satan is bound, making way for liberty and peace. Mankind will be able to learn God’s ways without the constant deception of the adversary. People will be free from him and his deceptions, so they can experience true rest. The Jubilee foreshadows that future time, when the land will be at rest, possessions restored, captives released and people returning home.

This binding of Satan occurs at the beginning of the 1,000-year period called the Millennium. After the 1,000 years, pictured by the Feast of Tabernacles, he will be released again for a short time before his final punishment in the lake of fire, preventing him from causing any more harm ever again (Revelation 20:7-10).

When the rest of the dead are resurrected, the ones who had never known God or His plan, they can stand before God, free of the influence of the adversary for the first time. It is then that they will first hear the truth. This is what the final festival in God's plan pictures in the Eighth Day or Last Great Day (verses 5, 11-15).

The fast that God has proclaimed

God has revealed the meaning of His Holy Days to those He is calling today. The Day of Atonement is a day to draw close to God. It is the day that ushers in the beginning of true liberty for all. It is also the one Holy Day that God commands His people to fast or abstain from eating or drinking for 24 hours.

Isaiah 58 makes a distinction between wrong and right attitudes for fasting. God asks, “Is this not the fast that I have chosen: to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, to let the oppressed go free, and that you break every yoke?” (verse 6).

The rest of the chapter further describes restoration—both of the land and of the people.

It describes drawing close to God and relying on Him for protection.

This is what this Day of Atonement is about—drawing closer to God so we can rid ourselves of the influence of Satan, so we can hear God’s voice, not so He can hear ours. It’s about ushering in the time of liberty from evil and from sin. It’s about preparing for the time of Jubilee.

The liberty Christ proclaimed

Sin is bondage. The influence of Satan is bondage. Being free, having liberty, means being released from the bonds of slavery, being free from the bondage of sin and being saved from the consequences of sin, which is death (Romans 6:23).

This is the ultimate liberty that Jesus Christ proclaimed in Luke 4:18-19, when He quoted Isaiah 61.  

“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. 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: ‘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; to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.’”

This passage echoes the Jubilee. Christ came to proclaim liberty—not just physical freedom, but freedom from sin through reconciliation with God.

This passage in Isaiah 61 goes on to describe times of restoration: “To console those who mourn in Zion, to give them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they may be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified. And they shall rebuild the old ruins, they shall raise up the former desolations, and they shall repair the ruined cities, the desolations of many generations” (verses 3-4).

God inspired Isaiah to describe the very liberty and restoration that Christ came to preach and initiate. Liberty is one of the perfectly woven threads throughout the beautiful tapestry of the Word of God.

The Day of Atonement on the 50th year, or Year of Jubilee, was meant to usher in the beginning of liberty for those who were oppressed in the nation of Israel.

The Jubilee looks forward to the ultimate fulfillment of the Day of Atonement, a removal of Satan and the beginning of true liberty for all of mankind.