It is customary for religiously practicing Jews to read from an annual cycle of weekly Old Testament readings called Torah Portions. This is said to be the same reading schedule that was taught every Sabbath in the Synagogues during the times of Jesus in the first century.

As Christians exploring the Torah portion cycle we must maintain a balance of including the Old Testament, the prophets, and the gospels in our weekly bible study.

Torah Portion Name and Readings-

Behar is the Hebrew words for “on the mountain” and is the name for the weekly Torah Portion reading for the Book of Leviticus starting in chapter 25 verse 1 and going through chapter 26 verse 2.

Prophets and New Testament-

It is also important to point out that along with the Torah portion readings and teachings, there are what are called Haftarah portions which are readings from the Bible in the books of the prophets. This week’s haftarah readings come from the book of Jeremiah in chapter 32 verse 6 through verse 27.

The gospel readings incorporated with the weekly Torah portion readings come from the book of Luke in chapter 4 with verses 14 through 22.

Torah Portion Overview-

This Torah Portion we get the laws of the Jubilee year. There are three basic laws around the jubilee year in Leviticus 25:

1. Proclaim liberty to captives (verse 10)

2. Property is returned to original owning family (verse 10)

3. Do not sow or reap (verse 11) (just as a 7th Sabbatical year).

The Jubilee was announced on the Day of Atonement by blowing a loud horn on the tenth day of the seventh month. This restoration of liberty, debtlessness, and repossession of the inherited land, was a restoration of order. “It seems that in Leviticus 25, the proclamation of liberty is closely related to the careful maintenance of the order that YHWH established between his people and the land. That is to say, “liberty” is the restoration of the proper order among the covenant people, the covenant land, and the covenant God.” (Bruno, 2010). Order restored, chaos held off, the Jubilee was to be a type of recreation!

Isaiah prophesied about a coming Jubilee.

Isaiah 61:1-2 (ESV)

The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, because the LORD has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favor, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn;

This verse was quoted by Jesus (Yeshua) about His ministry.

Luke 4:16-21 (ESV)

And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up. And as was his custom, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and he stood up to read. And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” And he rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. And he began to say to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”

Let’s compare the verses in Isaiah and Luke and see how Jesus used them.

Isaiah 61:1-2 (massoretic)

1. bring good news to the poor

2. bind up the brokenhearted

3. to proclaim liberty (deror) to the captives

4. and the opening of the prison to those who are bound

5. to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favor

6. and the day of vengeance of our God

7. to comfort all who mourn

Isaiah 61:1-2 (Septuagint)

1. Bring good news to the poor

2. To heal those crushed in the heart

3. To announce to the captives release

4. And to the blind recovery of sight

5. To proclaim the year of the Lord the acceptable

6. And the day of recompense

7. To comfort all who mourn

Luke 4:16-21

1. Good news to the poor

2. proclaim liberty to the captives

3. and recovering of sight to the blind,

4. to set at liberty those who are oppressed

5. to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor

It is interesting that Yeshua left out the part of the verse about the vengeance of God, the Day of the Lord. Looking back we know why, He had come not to bring judgment but to bring salvation. Yet Jesus said that the verse was fulfilled! This shows us that a verse can have two fulfillments; one at His first coming and another at His second coming, yet both are valid. The point Jesus is making is not that some parts of Isaiah won’t be fulfilled, but that they are not to be fulfilled yet. So how does He fulfill this prophecy about the Jubilee?

Good news to the poor

Yeshua did not come to the rich, the healthy, and the powerful. He came for the poor, the sick, the lame, the broken and the lowly. It was to the poor, both spiritually poor and financially poor that He spread His message of hope.

Matthew 11:5 (ESV)

the blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them.

Proclaim liberty to the captives

Who are these captives that He came to proclaim liberty to? We were the captives! We were enslaved to sin (John 8:34). He came to set us free from our sins (Matthew 26:28, Luke 1:77, Acts 2:38). This is the core message of the good news, Jesus came to set us free! His message of pardon and forgiveness has gone out into the whole world!

Recovering of sight to the blind

Yeshua healed the blind while He was here on earth (Matthew 9:27-30, 12:22, 15:30, 20:29-34, 21:14). There were so many healings of the blind, it must be understood that this was an obvious claim of Messiahship, a direct fulfillment of Isaiah 61:1-2!

Yet He also confronted the blind leaders of His time (Matthew 15:14, 23:16-17, 19, 24, 26). Often times the healing of the blind also pointed at the blindness of the leadership (John 9). Thus He came to heal the blind but also to reveal spiritual blindness!

Set at liberty those who are oppressed

The careful reader will notice that Luke adds an element to the list of actions Yeshua came to do, “to set at liberty those who are oppressed”.

Where did this come from? It actually comes from another verse in Isaiah.

Isaiah 58:6 (ESV)

“Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the straps of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke?

This is a brilliant combination because the Year of Jubilee was announced on the Day of Atonement, the day called “the fast”. And so Jesus is combining the freedom of the oppressed into His mission! But what will this freedom look like?

The words to “set at” can mean to “set free”, or to “send off or away”. Liberty is the act of setting free. The word for oppressed means “to cause to be oppressed, break, weaken, oppress” or “break in pieces; shatter”. Thus we can see that the basic idea here is that Christ will set free those who are broken or oppressed!

One way He did this was to set people free from unclean spirits.

Luke 13:10-13 (ESV)

Now he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath. And behold, there was a woman who had had a disabling spirit for eighteen years. She was bent over and could not fully straighten herself. When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said to her, “Woman, you are freed from your disability.” And he laid his hands on her, and immediately she was made straight, and she glorified God.

See also Matthew 8:28-34, Luke 11:14-26

Part of Jesus’ mission was to remove the power of the rebellious ones; Satan (Matthew 25:41, John 16:11), those of the divine council that rebelled (Psalm 82:1, 6-8), the fallen angels (Matthew 25:41), and lastly demons (Matthew 8:28-34, Luke 11:14-26, 13:10-13). In Leviticus 25:10 the Hebrew word for liberty is the word deror, which “is a cognate with the Akkadian anduraru. This word was often associated with the edict of a newly crowned Babylonian king proclaiming a suspension of debt and indentured servitude (see Levine, Leviticus 17)” (Bruno, 2010). As King, He came to execute judgment against the gods (Exodus 12:12) and to proclaim liberty!

Proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor

What does it mean to proclaim the “year of Yahweh’s favor? As Christopher R. Bruno explains:

“As Sloan has demonstrated, the proclamation of Isaiah 61 probably reflects YHWH’s kingly ascension in the day of Israel’s restoration. While the “year of YHWH’s favor” probably refers to the Jubilee year, it does not seem to be confined to one year out of every fifty; rather, the “year of YHWH’s favor” refers to the entire new age, when Israel and her covenant are restored.” (Bruno, 2010)

Thus Yeshua is using this verse to show that He is the Messiah, the King of Israel, and that He has come to restore Israel (the second exodus)!

How can we apply this to our lives?

• Firstly we can work to live debt free.

• Secondly we can worship Jesus for setting us free from our sins!

• Lastly we wait for His return when He completes the second exodus, judges the gods and whole earth, and restores the kingdom!

Blessed is Yahweh Yeshua our Messiah and King!

Torah Portion Scriptural Highlights-

• Leviticus 25:1 The Sabbath year

• Leviticus 25:8 The Jubilee year

• Leviticus 25:23 The land reverts to original family

• Leviticus 25:35 Taking care of the poor

• Leviticus 26:1 No idolatry and keep the Sabbath

Haftarah (Prophets) Scriptural Highlights-

• Jeremiah 32:6-27 Jeremiah buys a field in prophecy that they will be bought again one day.

Brit (Gospel) Scriptural Highlights-

• Luke 4:14-15 Jesus (Yeshua) begins to teach

• Luke 4:16-22 Yeshua (Jesus) fulfills the Jubilee!

Bibliography

• The Lexham Greek-English Interlinear Septuagint: H.B. Swete Edition

• Anchor Yale Bible Commentary: Luke I-IX

• A Greek–English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, 3rd ed. (BDAG)

• Lexham Research Lexicon of the Septuagint

• Bruno, Christopher R. “‘JESUS IS OUR JUBILEE’ . . . BUT HOW? THE OT BACKGROUND AND LUKAN FULFILLMENT OF THE ETHICS OF JUBILEE” Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 53, no.1 (2010): 81-101.

Further Reading

• Evidence for Inerrancy from a Second Unexpected Source: The Jubilee and Sabbatical Cycles

  https://biblearchaeology.org/research/exodus-from-egypt/2662-evidence-for-inerrancy-from-a-second-unexpected-source-the-jubilee-and-sabbatical-cycles

• CHRONOMESSIANISM: THE TIMING OF MESSIANIC MOVEMENTS AND THE CALENDAR OF SABBATICAL CYCLES, by BEN ZION WACHOLDER

  https://nakedbiblepodcast.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/Wacholder-Chronomessianism-The-Timing-of-Messianic-Movements-and-Calendar-of-Sabbatical-Cycles.pdf

The Book of Leviticus “Vayikra” which means “He called Out.”

The Old Testament is commonly referred to as the Torah. It is considered the most sacred of all of Israel’s Scriptures. Most of our modern Bibles include the Old Testament “Torah” as the first five books in the Bible. The name for the third book of the Bible, Leviticus, is called Vayikra in the Hebrew. The name “Vayikra” comes from the opening phrases in the book of Leviticus which means “He Called Out.”

Leviticus flows directly out of the stories in the previous book of Exodus and continues the story of their gathering by God to enter into a covenant relationship with the Hebrew God known as Adonai, Yahweh, Hashem, and many other titles. The book gives an telling of instructions and testimonies of how the Hebrew people wrestled to become bond servants while shaking off the slave mentality.

As Christians, we find the book of Leviticus and the stories therein, as a historical account of how we as believers are grafted into the covenants and promises of God with our forefathers and how we can learn to walk and learn from their actions as God establishes His people and nation by teaching them how to be bond servants not slaves.

To Watch an overview of this week’s Torah Portion CLICK HERE