Keeping the jubilee year with both crops and servants were an act of faith on the part of the people of Israel. It is difficult to live in freedom of liberty and it is so easy to fall into bondage and slavery. God set up a safety net to protect the people from permanent bondage and slavery and to protect the land from being over consumed and dried up.
God commands His people to observe the seventh and last day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread with a “holy convocation.” The day has connections to Israel’s crossing of the Red Sea after the Exodus and baptism in the name of Messiah Yeshua.
Judges 19-20 is a disturbing account of a Levite, from the tribe God picked to be His closest ambassadors to Israel and the world, who not only had a concubine but also callously let her get raped to death by a Sodom-like mob. The Bible’s detractors and defenders of liberal morality hold this account up as a key exhibit, but what does God really want us to learn in this no-holds-barred account?