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The Jubilee

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Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Sep 23, 1902

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 79, No. 38.

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The Jubilee

By L. D. Santee

L. D. SANTEE
“A JUBILEE shall that fiftieth year be unto you:” “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: 11, 10.
In that typical dispensation the year of jubilee was doubtless a type of the great ingathering and reunion of the people of God when their probation is past, and their crowns are given. In the type it was a year of gladness. Fancy cannot picture the glories of the antitype.
A few years ago the British nation held a jubilee to celebrate the fiftieth year of Victoria’s reign. Still later a papal jubilee was held in honor of the fiftieth year of the priesthood of Leo XIII. But the jubilee of which we speak is brought in by the coming of the Lord. Students of prophecy know full well that the time is drawing near for the celebration of this glorious event. Our jubilee trumpet by and by will sound long and loud, accompanied by a shout from heaven and the voice of the Archangel, and at that signal the sleeping saints and the holy living will immediately respond to the bugle call. The air will reverberate with the joyful acclamations of myriads of the redeemed, whose shout will be, “O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?” Angels and archangels will take up their part of the hallelujah chorus, saying, “Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honor, and glory, and blessing.” Again they shout, “Hallelujah: for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth. Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honor to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready.”
Our jubilee will be celebrated with the rapture of joy, and with no minor chord of sadness. Sorrow and sighing will then “flee away,” and in their place will be fullness of joy, and pleasures forevermore. Those who have passed through heartache, and sorrow, and affliction, will then know these things no more forever. The new song will be sung by them with immortal tongues. No earthly lips could ever sing it. The body that they then have, will never grow old, will know neither weakness nor weariness, and with its robe of righteousness it will shine forever and ever. To live and reign with Christ will be our honor and our glory.
I read in the type, in Leviticus, “And ye shall return every man unto his family.” This brings in the reunions in the antitype, when we are caught up “together with them.” How this gilds with the sunshine of hope the pillow of the dying! How it softens the separations at the edge of the dark valley! How that promised reunion in the jubilee softens the “good-bys” of earth!
“O, how sweet it will be in that beautiful land, So free from all sorrow and pain; With songs on our lips and with harps in our hands, To meet one another again!”
Our jubilee is to be followed by the jubilee of the world. In the crucible of fire, every offending element is to be burned away, and again the earth will be a diadem of beauty in the hand of an approving God. The glory of God will cover the earth, as the waters cover the sea. The kingdoms of the world will then become “the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ.” The earth “under the whole heaven” will then be loyal to her King. Her jubilee song has already been written: “O sing unto the Lord a new song: sing unto the Lord, all the earth. . . . Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all ye lands. Serve the Lord with gladness: come before his presence with singing.” And again, “Let the heavens rejoice, and let the earth be glad.”
How little the type showed of the wondrous antitype, and yet it was an object lesson that opened a prophetic vision to the eye of faith.