In the Bible, the year of Jubilee occurs after seven sets of seven intervals (49 total) are completed. This special period is proclaimed on one of God's annual feast days known as the Day of Atonement. Because God owns everything, he set up a special, regularly occurring time period called the Jubilee when a man's possessions would be returned to him.
Then you shall cause the trumpet of the jubilee to sound on the tenth day of the seventh month; in the Day of Atonement, the trumpet shall sound throughout all your land.
And you shall make the fiftieth year holy, and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee to you, and you shall return each man to his possession, and you shall return each man to his family (Leviticus 25:9 - 10, HBFV).
This extra-special year was also a time when Israel's land was to remain uncultivated.
That fiftieth year shall be a jubilee to you. You shall not sow, neither reap that which grows of itself in it, nor gather the grapes of your undressed vine in it (Leviticus 25:11, HBFV),
How serious was God that his people keep the Jubilee? He warned ancient Israel of the consequences of disobeying him.
And if you will not for all of this hearken to Me, but will walk contrary to Me . . .
And I will scatter you among the nations, and will draw out a sword after you. And your land shall be a desolation, and your cities waste. Then shall the land enjoy its Sabbaths, as long as it lies waste, and you are in your enemies’ land; then shall the land rest and enjoy its Sabbaths (Leviticus 26:27, 33 - 34, HBFV).
One of the main reasons why Israel, especially the Kingdom of Judah, went into captivity was that they did not keep Jubilee or the Sabbatical years which mandated the land rest.
Then the ones who had escaped from the sword, he carried away to Babylon where they were servants to him and his sons until the reign of the kingdom of Persia, to fulfill the Word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah until the land had enjoyed its Sabbaths. All the days of the desolation it kept the Sabbath to the full measure of seventy years (2Chronicles 36:20 - 21, HBFV).
The Jubilee in America
The U.S. Liberty Bell, an iconic symbol of American independence, was initially cast in 1752 A.D. The first line etched on the bell, which weighs 2,080 pounds (940 kg), quotes part of Leviticus 25:10 which references the Jubilee.
"proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof" (Leviticus 25:10, KJV).
The bell was rung on July 8th, 1776 to summon the people to hear the reading of the Declaration of Independence. It is widely believed the bell received its famous crack in the early 1840s (Wikipedia).
Meaning
The designating of a Jubilee is not just for allowing the land to rest. It is a reminder, just like the weekly seventh-day Bible Sabbath, that God has created everything. It is also a reminder that humans are not the only owners of the land and are not to hold onto property forever. Because we are thankful to God for liberating us, we should also liberate others from debt to us.
Any nation would receive a tremendous blessing if they observed the Jubilee (and the corresponding Sabbatical years)! People would not ring up huge debt and there would be no great imbalance between the wealthy and the poorest. The value of land would stabilize and the usual giant ups and downs of the economy would not happen. God's laws would be taught every seventh year. Sadly, we will have to hold on until the Millennial reign of Jesus Christ before the world in willing to obey him.
When Does Jubilee Occur Next?
Jesus, in 27 A.D., attended synagogue in Nazareth on the Day of Pentecost. Asked to read from Scripture, he selects the first two verses of Isaiah 61 which is normally read on the Day of Atonement concerning Jubilee.
"The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me; for this reason, He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal those who are brokenhearted . . . TO PROCLAIM THE ACCEPTABLE YEAR OF THE LORD." . . .
Then He began to say to them, "Today, this scripture is being fulfilled in your ears." (Luke 4:18 - 19, 21, HBFV).
The Lord's quoting of Isaiah 61 proves he was proclaiming that a Jubilee year was taking place (Apppointed Times of Jesus the Messiah, pages 23 - 24 and Appendix C)! The Jubilee Jesus declared had begun at sunset on September 10 in 26 A.D., the exact day his public ministry began. It ran until Atonement in 27 A.D. which ended at sunset on September 29.
The Bible also reveals that this special period is declared after seven sets of seven years has completed (Leviticus 25). The following year, the 50th, is proclaimed a Jubilee (and is year 1 in a new count of seven years).
With the above information it can be determined that the next Jubilee will take place from sunset October 12, 2035 to sunset October 1, 2036 (Atonement to Atonement).
Why is the year of Jubilee important? It is because it offers a warning to the modern-day children of Israel (Amos 3:7, Daniel 12:4, John 7:17) not to commit the same mistakes as their ancestors in the Bible.