Leviticus 25:9
Then shalt thou cause the trumpet of the jubile 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. Then shalt thou cause the trumpet of the jubile 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.
The trumpet blast commanded here announces the jubilee, the great year of release, which came in the fiftieth year after seven sabbaths of years, seven times seven years. On the tenth day of the seventh month, in the day of atonement, the trumpet of the jubilee was to sound throughout all the land, wherever the Jewish people dwelt, calling upon all the children of Jacob to welcome the year of release. Because satisfaction was made for the sins of Israel on that great day of atonement, the people would welcome the jubilee with gladness of heart.
The command teaches that the land belongs to the Lord, who is over the whole earth and is its owner, Householder, and caretaker, while the people are His tenants. He makes the land productive and blesses it when obeyed, and its produce and its abundance under His blessing serve as lessons of His ownership and care. In this the Lord shows that He cares for the poor and provides for them, making special provision for them by His own interposition.
As part of the laws governing land and property, the command embodies principles that would restrain oppression of the poor and the concentration of great wealth, and help prevent the ignorance and degradation caused by ill-paid servitude. It gives practical directions for duties to one another, the gospel of the Old Testament to be worked out intelligently in actual missionary work. It teaches liberality and requires overcoming stinginess and selfishness, opening the heart to help brethren working in hard, poverty-stricken fields instead of closing the door of the heart and saying No.
The command does teach a jubilee rest for the land, but it is error to use it to say that it is a sin to labor, that the time of jubilee has come so work must cease and the land must rest, and that possessions must be sold so the poor can be supported without labor. Such teaching is dishonest, confuses and distracts, deceives some, cannot prosper, and will be brought down and left in darkness while truth triumphs in the end.