Week 4, Day 26 - You Can Go Home Again

"He and his children are to be released, and he will go back to his own clan and to the property of his forefathers. Because the Israelites are my servants, whom I brought out of Egypt, they must not be sold as slaves."  Leviticus 25: 41, 42

REFLECT

Everybody must have looked forward to the Year of Jubilee. In some way, everybody experienced freedom in a new way. Probably nobody was more dramatically affected, however, then the slave. Imagine being told one day that a new season has come - you can go home again.

Slavery was a simple fact of life in the ancient world. It was virtually universal. Although it may seem like the Bible in some way endorses slavery, the truth is God gradually picked away at the underpinnings of slavery - just not all at once. Step-by-step Yahweh retrained the human race.

The Old Testament, for instance, holds that people living as slaves were still valued human beings created in the image of God. They were not property and could not be treated as such. That was not so in the surrounding cultures. Jubilee was a time when the Israelites who had to sell themselves into bonded servitude were freed. They could go home again. These were people who were so poor that the only way they could survive was to throw themselves in complete dependence on a wealthier family. And there they survived - sort of. They were trapped.

So God made a provision that every fifty years the people were to review this simple truth: no one is, in fact hopelessly trapped. Slave owners need to release their servants, even though it would disrupt the economic structure of their lives. The Year of Jubilee was a time when dignity was restored.

Thomas Wolfe may have concluded his famous poem with the words, "You can't go home again," meaning you can't turn back the hands of time and you can't gain back when you've grown beyond. But praise God that is not true spiritually. You can go back. Forgiveness is about complete restoration, you can return to a simpler life, a more innocent day. You can regain lost vows of the marriage covenant even if you've strayed. You can get out of debt. You can grow past anger, resentment, and remorse. You can remove yourself from someone's oppressive voice in your life. God wants you and me back home. Praise the true Lord Jesus that is true.

MAKE IT REAL

Today, whenever you leave your house or come back to it, take a few moments to thank God that life can change, that there are second chances and fresh starts every day. Thank him that you can go home again.

Day 27