The Significance of the Year of Jubilee
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When the Israelites were delivered from slavery in Egypt God promised them possession of the land He gave in a covenant to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. One of the laws God gave to Israel was the law of Jubilee.
“And you shall count seven sabbaths of years for yourself, seven times seven years; and the time of the seven sabbaths of years shall be to you forty-nine years. Then you shall cause the trumpet of the Jubilee to sound on the tenth day of the seventh month; on the Day of Atonement you shall make the trumpet to sound throughout all your land. And you shall consecrate the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a Jubilee for you; and each of you shall return to his possession, and each of you shall return to his family. That fiftieth year shall be a Jubilee to you; in it you shall neither sow nor reap what grows of its own accord, nor gather the grapes of your untended vine. For it is the Jubilee; it shall be holy to you; you shall eat its produce from the field” (Leviticus 25:8-12 NKJV).
In keeping with the law of Jubilee, if a family member lost part or all of the family property through indebtedness; on the Day of Atonement of the forty-ninth year, when the shofar was sounded and the Year of Jubilee declared, the debt was to forgiven and the property restored the family.
God also promised the nation of Israel they would live with great favor and blessing if they faithfully walked with the Lord.
“Now it shall come to pass, if you diligently obey the voice of the Lord your God, to observe carefully all His commandments which I command you today, that the Lord your God will set you high above all nations of the earth. And all these blessing shall come upon you and overtake you, because you obey the voice of the Lord your God” (Deuteronomy 28:1-2 NKJV).
The Lord promised they would be blessed in their fields, their houses, their children, and they would be the lender not the borrower.
They would be above only and not beneath, the head and not the tail.
When the enemy came against them one way he would flee from them seven ways.
Almighty God also gave them a solemn warning, if they depart from the Lord and did not obey His commandments and laws and turned to other gods.
“If you do not carefully observe all the words of this law that are written in this book, that you may fear this glorious and awesome name, THE LORD YOUR GOD, then the Lord will bring upon you and your descendants extraordinary plagues – great and prolonged plagues… Then the Lord will scatter you among all peoples, from one end of the earth to the other, and there you shall serve other gods… These are the words of the covenant which the Lord commanded Moses to make with the children of Israel in the land of Moab, beside the covenant which He made with them in Horeb” (Deuteronomy 28:58-29:1 NKJV).
Israel did rebel against the Lord God and He did scatter them among the nations. 70AD the Roman Legion under the leadership of Titus laid siege the city of Jerusalem, destroying the city, the temple and killing over a million Jewish people.
The rebellion of the Jewish people continued until the Bar Kokhba Rebellion was finally put down by Emperor Hadrian in 135 AD.
He changed the name of land from Judea to Palaestina and the city of Jerusalem to Aelia Capitolina. The Jewish people were slowly scattered throughout the world.
What about God’s promise of Jubilee?
Has it ceased to matter or does it no longer exist?
It is important to remember God’s covenant with Israel is forever. Therefore, a restoration of the Land of Israel to the Jewish people must take place.
Actually, the first step took place before the destruction of Jerusalem in 70AD. Jesus Christ was at His home town of Nazareth and served as the reader of the Scroll for that Sabbath.
He read from Isaiah 61:1-2.
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me. Because He has anointed Me to preach the Gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set a liberty those who are oppressed; to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord” (NKJV).
Jesus then closed the scroll, returned it to the attendant, and sat down.
But, that was not all.
He told the men gathered at the synagogue, “Today, this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” That is significant because “to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord” is a direct reference to the Year of Jubilee.
Jesus was declaring, there will be a time when Eretz Yisrael will be restored to the Jewish people. At that time Judah was a vassal state of Rome and would soon be completely destroyed and cease to exist.
The next major step took place November 2, 1917 (a Jubilee year on the Hebrew calendar) when the Balfour Declaration promised the restoration of the homeland of Israel.
This promise took a significant step forward June 28, 1919 with the signing of the Treaty of Versailles. However, the actual establishment of the nation of Israel would not happen until May 14, 1948.
Who could have imagined fifty years after the Balfour Declaration promised the restoration of Eretz Yisrael, Israel gained control of the entire capitol city.
Jewish paratroopers gathered at the Western Wall in prayers of thanksgiving and Chief Rabbi Shlomo Goren, blew the shofar on June 7, 1967 (a year of Jubilee on the Hebrew calendar).
The United Nations and the nations of the world refused to accept Jerusalem as the rightful capitol of the Nation of Israel; even though history reveals it to be so and God in the Holy Bible clearly declares Jerusalem the Capitol of Israel.
December 6, 2017, President Donald Trump formally announced the recognition of Jerusalem as the Capitol of Israel and ordered preparation be started for moving the United States Embassy to the City of Jerusalem.
Fifty years the United Nations and the world refused to accept Jerusalem as the Capitol. The new United States embassy in Jerusalem was dedicated on May 14, 2018.
Are these fifty year time spans just a coincidence or are they the divine Jubilee?
Do they have specific meaning for the Christian and Messianic believers?
Jesus answered this question in His prophetic word, “And they will fall by the edge of the sword, and be led away captive into all the nations. And Jerusalem will be trampled by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled… Now when these things begin to happen, look up and life up your heads, because your redemption draws near” (Luke 21:24-28 NKJV).
Truly, “these things” are happening.
We are seeing them fulfilled before our very eyes.
Look up child of God.
Lift up your heads.
Do not live in fear and anxiety.
The coming of our Lord is nearer than you may imagine.
Take my course on how to discern where we are on God’s Timeclock. Learn more here
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Learn how you can read the signs of the times through the prism of history in this powerful course Where Are We At On God’s Timeclock
