From Eternity Past

Preventing Extremes of Wealth or Poverty

After “seven times seven years” came the great year of release—the jubilee. “Then shalt thou cause the trumpet of the jubilee to sound ... throughout all your land. And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof: ... and ye shall return every man unto his family.” Leviticus 25:9, 10. EP 383.2

“On the tenth day of the seventh month, in the Day of Atonement,” the trumpet of jubilee was sounded, calling upon all the children of Jacob to welcome the year of release. EP 383.3

As in the sabbatical year, the land was not to be sown or reaped, and all that it produced was to be regarded as the rightful property of the poor. Hebrew slaves who did not receive their liberty in the sabbatical year were now set free. EP 383.4

But that which especially distinguished the year of jubilee was the reversion of all landed property to the family of the original possessor. No one was at liberty to trade his estate. Neither was he to sell his land unless poverty compelled him to do so. Whenever he or any of his kindred might desire to redeem it, the purchaser must not refuse to sell it. If unredeemed, it would revert to its possessor or his heirs in the year of jubilee. EP 383.5

The Lord declared to Israel: “The land shall not be sold forever: for the land is Mine; for ye are strangers and sojourners with Me.” Leviticus 25:23. God was the rightful owner, the original proprietor. It was to be impressed upon the minds of all that the poor and unfortunate have as much right to a place in God's world as the wealthy. EP 383.6

Such were the provisions made by our merciful Creator, to lessen suffering, to bring some ray of hope, to flash some gleam of sunshine into the life of the destitute and distressed. EP 384.1

Great evils result from the continued accumulation of wealth by one class, and the poverty of another. The sense of this oppression would arouse the passions of the poorer class. There would be a feeling of despair and desperation which would tend to demoralize society and open the door to crimes of every description. The regulations that God established were to promote social equality. The sabbatical year and the jubilee would in a great measure set right that which had gone wrong in the social and political economy of the nation. EP 384.2

These regulations, designed to bless the rich no less than the poor, would restrain avarice and cultivate a noble spirit of benevolence. By fostering goodwill between all classes, they would promote stability of government. EP 384.3

We are all woven together in the great web of humanity. Whatever we can do to benefit others will reflect in blessing on ourselves. The law of mutual dependence runs through all classes of society. The poor are not more dependent upon the rich than are the rich upon the poor. While the one class ask a share in the blessings God has bestowed upon their wealthier neighbors, the other need the faithful service, the strength of brain and bone and muscle, that are the capital of the poor. EP 384.4