Jubilee

It is a special Sabbath this week because it is also the Second Passover* for those who had been unable to participate in the Passover - those who were unclean from handling the dead, those who had been far away on a journey. This aldo applies to the stranger in the midst of God's people. The Second Passover is to be observed exactly one month after the Passover (Num. 9:6-12, 2 Chron. 30:1-3). This weekend will also show unusual signs in the heavens as we have a special blood moon/lunar eclipse event. The Sabbath reading for this week is titled B'har, or "On the mount", because it starts with the LORD giving commands to Moses while he was on Mount Sinai with God (Leviticus 25). The individual Hebrew letters that make up the word B'har have the meaning "the house of the revelation of the Highest". What is this revelation of the Highest in this reading portion? This chapter opens with the spiritual power and blessing of the Sabbath. Throughout the Books of the Torah, the LORD repeatedly gave commands regarding the Sabbath. We can see in this chapter of Leviticus that the Sabbath is a beginning or foundational step leading up to something. There is a progression that leads to one of the great promises of God: the promise of Jubilee. Before discussing the LORD's Jubilee, we need to look at the progression of Sabbaths that lead to it. The Sabbath refers to the number seven, and is assigned to the seventh day. We first see a reference to the Sabbath as God completed His creation in Genesis Chaapter 1, and it is written: "Thus the heavens and the earth, and all the host (saba/i> - war, battle, appointed time, warfare, soldiers, go out to war, a campaign of war, organized for a war, waiting upon war) of them, were finished (kala - accomplished, done, determined, ended, fulfilled, prepared, made ready for; also meaning to destroy, exterminate, perish). And on the seventh day God ended (kala - same as above) His work which He had done, and He rested (sabat - cease, celebrate, put an end to, to exterminate, destroy, remove) on the seventh day from all His work (melaka/malak - labor, work prescribed, service; messenger, dispatch as a deputy, representative, embassador, angel (incl. prophet, priest, teacher), king, one sent) which He had done. Then God blessed (barak - praised, kneel down, adored, kneel as an act of adoration, thank) the seventh day and sanctified it (qadas - sanctify, hallow, appointed, purified, honored, sacred, conecrated, observed as holy), because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made." (Gen. 2:1-3). In verse four, we see that all history, or generations (toldot/yalad - generations, birth, descendants, geneologies, course of history; beget, travail, labor, midwife, to show lineage, declare pedigree), was encapsulated in this completion of creation before man was made. As we can see from the meanings in the above verses, before man and religion got a hold of the Sabbath, it was God's very powerful provision and plan. The concept of the Sabbath is not just about a day of rest, and the religious rules that accompany it. God had not only completed everything pertaining to creation, but had set up a pre-planned military campaign of extermination, destruction and removal (of enemies) within that creation process. Within this period of creation as we can see from the meanings above, He also designated messengers, deputies, angels, prophets, priests, teachers, and kings. We can also say that included in these deputies to generations not yet born the ordination of the ultimate Deputy-Prophet-Priest-King, Jesus, was also accomplished. It is revealed that Christ was the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world (Rev. 13:8, 1 Peter 1:20). The Sabbath was so fundamentally important to God, man, and all creation, that God declared it blessed and sanctified. It is so glorious that it deserved to be honored and observed by kneeling in adoration. In the midst of His commandments to Israel, God said, "Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy." It is, He said, "...the Sabbath of the LORD your God..." (Ex. 20:8-11). Before commanding all of the Feasts of the LORD, the LORD said this first: "The feasts of the LORD, which you shall proclaim to be holy convocations. these are My feasts. Six days shall work be done, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest, a holy convocation. You shall do no work on it; it is the Sabbath of the LORD in all your dwellings." (Lev. 23:1-3). Before any of the other feasts were introduced, the Sabbath was announced as a holy convocation, just as the feasts were (v. 4), and the Sabbath is incorporated in some way into every feast. Jesus brought revelation regarding the meaning of the Sabbath, and scripture describes seven miracle works of mercy and healing that Jesus performed on Sabbaths. Each time He did so, He was criticised and condemned for these works, because, to the religious mind, no work was to be done on the Sabbath, even if they are miracles! However, Jesus revealed that the works that He was doing were the works that His Father was also doing (Jn. 5:16-20). Jesus even included the resurrection of the dead as one of His Father's Sabbath works (v. 21). Jesus said that as a result of the Sabbath work of His Father, and the Son, Himself: "Most assuredly I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life." (v. 24). This last statement was part of the Sabbath discourse which Jesus gave in John 5. Jesus said that the Sabbath is very much a part of His identity, and ours also, as He revealed that the Sabbath was made for man, and He is Lord of the Sabbath (Mt. 12:1-8, Mk. 2:23-28, Lk. 6:1-5). We must understand what the creation of the Sabbath encompassed in order to understand the progression to Jubilee. In the next step in the progression of the plan of God found in the Sabbath, the LORD commanded not just a Sabbath day in each week, but Sabbath years. A Sabbath year was to be observed every seventh year. This seventh year Sabbath was called the Shemitah: "...the land shall keep a sabbath to the LORD. Six years you shall sow your field, and six years you shall prune your vineyard, and gather its fruit; but in the seventh year there shall be a sabbath of solemn rest for the land, a sabbath to the LORD. You shall neither sow your field nor prune your vineyard." (Lev. 25:2-4). Now we have received the command that time in the land was to be marked in seven year increments, with the seventh year being separated from the rest as the Shemitah year. Many world-impacting events have occurred in Shemitah years, including the attack on the World Trade Center, and various economic and political upheavals. One prophecy in scripture that would determine the length of exile in Babylon for God's people was measured in multiples of Shemitah years that had not been observed in the land, seven years times ten in this case, or seventy years (see 2 Chron. 36:20-21, Jer. 25:11-12, Jer. 29:10). This measurement of Shemitah years prophesied by Jeremiah led to one of the most important Messianic prophecies in scripture. The ten Shemitah years of Jeremiah were further revealed later by God to the prophet Daniel as a timetable concerning the death of the Messiah and End Time events that would follow. This timetable also included warfare to come, as shown in the meaning of Gen. 2:1, above. Daniel was given the timetable of seventy prophetic weeks, The Messiah would be "cut off" or killed after 62 "weeks" of the timetable (see Daniel 9:1-3, 21-27). The revelation of the prophetic timetable was brought to Daniel by a deputy or messenger of the LORD in the form of an angel, as we saw in the meaning of "work" in the Genesis verses above. So now we have been given a timetable of events based on the principle of the Sabbath and the progression to the Shemitah (Sabbath year). From the introduction of the principle of Sabbath or Shemitah years, we progress to the Jubilee. The Jubilee year is the 50th year that begins after the completion of seven Shemitah or Sabbath years, which total 49 years: "And you shall count seven sabbaths of years, seven times seven years for yourselves...forty-nine years. Then you shall cause the trumpet (sopar - as incising: to cut or divide the surface of anything, to carve, engrave; beautiful, glisten, bright) of Jubilee to sound...on the Day of Atonement you shall make the trumpet to sound throughout all your land." (Lev. 25:8-9). It is a shout and a trumpet call that acts to cut and divide something open, like the heavens, to cause to be beautiful and to glisten. The shout and voice of an archangel, and the trumpet blast found in the meanings above are also found in scripture regarding the resurrection of the dead in Christ, and the catching away of the living believers which is known to some as The Rapture (1 Thess. 4:14-18). Because it is a vital moment in the plan of God, could the resurrection and Rapture of the believers also be embedded in the nature of the Sabbath? There is a divine "work" built into creation, and timed to be accomplished and completed through the forty-nine years, and upon its completion, the Jubilee is accomplished in the fiftieth year. The Jubilee is an event by which economics, including debt and servitude, is turned upside down. All debt is forgiven and all properties are restored to their original owners. Imagine the overturning of circumstances and finances this entails! No wonder Israel stopped observing Jubilees, but the LORD hasn't stopped observing them. In the Book of Revelation, the corrupt world economic system of great riches is overturned in a day, even in an hour. All of the merchants and kings of the earth at that time will weep at what seems to be a terrible calamity to them (Rev. 18:8-19). However, while viewed by those who were enriched by this corrupt and bloodthirsty system as a tragedy, in heaven, there will be great rejoicing as apostles and prophets, who were persecuted to death by this world system, are avenged by God (v. 20). It wouldn't surprise me to find out in the future fulfillment of this prophetic Word from Revelation, that this great overturning and destruction was fulfilled in a Jubilee year. The word Jubilee is terua in Hebrew, and it means "to shout, sound, alarm, blast and clangor of trumpets, clamor, loud noise, battle cry, joy, shout in triumph over enemies". The Jubilee is revolution and victory in spiritual and natural warfare, and against unjust worldly systems that will persecute the people of God in the End Times before Christ's return. It is restoration and justice for those who have lost all. The individual Hebrew letters that make up terua, or Jubilee, could also shout: "Behold the cross and nail of the Highest". It is no surprise then that this fiftieth victory year of the Jubilee begins on the Day of Atonement, also which our High Priest, Jesus, fulfilled with His own blood poured upon the Mercy Seat in heaven on our behalf (Heb. 9:11-12). Both Jewish and Gentile worshippers need to understand that the Sabbath means more than a weekly religious observance, especially as we see the prophetic "seventy weeks" of Daniel's timetable playing out. The Sabbath means more than "rest". As Jesus told us, His Father is still working, so He is working, doing the healing and deliverance works of His Father especially on the Sabbath. The Sabbath is one of the important building blocks of the Kingdom of God. The progression and timetable created from Sabbaths, Shemitahs, multiple Shemitahs, and Jubilees is irrevocable, commanded by God to all generations, and has been set into place since the creation, if not before creation (see Rev.13:8). If you would like to know more about the Lord of the Sabbath, you can pray with me: "Father, You established Your law of the Sabbath in Your plan for man and all of creation. You blessed and sanctified it, and it endures throughout all generations. Generations and history follow the timetable of the Sabbath, the Shemitah, and the Jubilee. Your Son, the Messiah, Jesus, is the Lord of the Sabbath, and taught us that the Sabbath is more than religious rules, but it is the manifestation of the Father's works of deliverance. I accept the Lord of the Sabbath as my Lord. Your Atonement blood cleansed me of sin, and restored me in Jubilee restoration. Fill me with Your Holy Spirit so that I can learn, understand, and walk in Your ways. I ask this in Jesus' name, AMEN." *Special thanks to JP and FB for contributing information on the Second Passover and upcoming celestial signs.