Redeemed

  "The earth is the LORD's, and all its fullness (melo/mala - that which fills, entire contents, multitude, full length/fill, fulfill, consecrate, confirm, complete, accomplish, replenish, gather, overflow, abundance), the world and those who dwell therein. For He has founded (yasad - founded, foundation, ordain, appointed, established) it upon the seas, and established (kun - establish, prepare, fixed in place, set, directed, provide, confirmed, be secure, be enduring, be securely determined, be ready) it upon the waters (nahar - a flowing, river, stream, to flow together, to sparkle, be cheerful, to shine, give light, be glad, rejoice, brightness)." (Psalm 24:1-2).

And

     "And He (Lord of heaven and earth) has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings, so that they should seek the Lord...though He is not far from each one of us; for in Him we live and move and have our being..." (Acts 17:26-28, and Deut. 32:8).

     From Deuteronomy 32:8, cited above, we find out that the LORD set the boundaries of all of the people of the nations "according to the number of the children of Israel." Deuteronomy 32 continues: "For the LORD's portion is His people; Jacob is the place of His inheritance." (v. 9).

     The Psalms narrow down the ownership of the earth: "I will declare the decree: The LORD has said to Me, 'You are My Son, today I have begotten You. Ask of Me and I will give You the nations for Your inheritance, and the ends of the earth for Your possession." (Ps. 2:7-8). The Creator has given all of the nations to His Son, the Messiah/Christ, Jesus, a descendant of His people, Jacob (see above). They are His to rule and to judge (see. v. 9).

     The LORD goes on to say: "Kiss the Son, lest He be angry, and You perish in the way, when His wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are those who put their trust in Him." (v. 12).

     These excerpts above from the scriptures completely refute the understanding that most of us have of the world, its economics, and the true ownership rights to it. However, as this week's double Sabbath reading portion shows us, it is better to have things the LORD's way. In fact, the LORD's way is more to our benefit or advantage than our own understanding, as we will see.

     The double reading portion for this week's Sabbath are B'har, meaning "on the Mount," and B'chukkotai, meaning "In My statutes".

     The reading begins in Leviticus 25:1: "And the LORD spoke to Moses on Mount (see B'har above) Sinai, saying, 'Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: 'When you come into the land which I give you, then 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 *aleph-tav/Alpha and Omega) fruit; but 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. 25:1-4). Everything concerning the land falls under the authority of the LORD. Even the fruit of the land which they gather still belongs to the *Aleph-tav/Alpha and Omega Lord, as noted in the written Hebrew. The seventh year sabbath of the land belongs to the LORD. They will not do with the land as they see fit, but as the LORD commanded.

     We can see in the verses above that the LORD was not speaking from heaven but speaking His statutes on the mount, a physical place on the earth, as our two combined Sabbath portion titles reflect. The LORD retains His possession of the physical earth, and His authority over the land which He gives to Israel. His statutes are to rule the land. Of this land given to Israel, the LORD commanded: "The land shall not be sold permanently, for the land is Mine; for you are strangers and sojourners with Me. And in all the land of your possession you shall grant redemption of the land. If one of your brethren becomes poor, and has sold some of his possession, and if his redeeming relative comes to redeem it, then he may redeem what his brother sold." (Lev. 25:23-25).

     From this foundation of ownership and authority of the physical earth and everything in it, especially the land of Israel, the LORD establishes something called "the year of Jubilee". 

     The year of Jubilee is directly connected to the Sabbath and to the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur), which is one of the Feasts of the LORD. This feast is also important to us because we understand that the blood shed by Jesus Christ in His suffering and death was for the atonement (kapar - covering) or propitiation of our sins. Every seven sabbath years, or a total of forty-nine years, on the Day of Atonement the trumpet of the Jubilee is sounded throughout all of the land to announce the fiftieth year, which is the year of Jubilee. In this fiftieth year, the LORD again announces His ownership and statutes of authority of the earth and everything in it, by turning upside down everything that man has bought, sold, traded, bartered, enslaved. The unredeemed house or land that was taken or purchased, the unredeemed debt owed, the unredeemed servitude/slavery are all overturned. Land or house goes back to the original family who received it from the LORD, as He originally divided the land among the tribes of Israel. Those who sold themselves into servitude are repaid the (*aleph-tav/Alpha and Omega) price of his redemption. Those whose debts remain unredeemed by a family member are set free anyway at the year of Jubilee: "For the children of Israel are servants to Me; they are My servants whom I brought out of the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God." (see Lev. 25:47-55).

     Today's thinking might declare that this is economically unfair and even disastrous, but it is the year of Jubilee by which the LORD retains authority by His statute to set His people free. These Torah statutes of the LORD, which are contrary to the thinking and ways of the world, paved the way prophetically for our spiritual redemption as we will see.

      The obedience to the statutes of the LORD affected the land: "If you walk in My statutes (see B'chukkotai above) and keep My commandments, and perform them, then I will give you rain in its season, the land shall yield its produce, and the trees of the field shall yield its fruit...I will give you peace in the land, and you shall lie down, and none will make you afraid; I will rid the land of evil (ra - evil, wickedness, trouble, affliction, grievous, malignant, vicious) beasts (hay - living, beast, creature, animal, appetite), and the sword will not go through your land." (Lev. 26:3-6). If the statutes of the LORD are not kept, then the land is affected in the opposite manner. (v. 19-20).

     The statutes of the LORD, including the statute of redemption, in the hand of the prophet Jeremiah assured that Israel would return from their prophesied captivity in Babylon. Jeremiah redeemed the field of his cousin, Hanamel (meaning "God is gracious"), as his cousin said to him: "...for the right of inheritance is yours, and the redemption yours; buy it for yourself." Jeremiah wrote of this request: "Then I knew that this was the word of the LORD. So I bought the field from Hanamel...weighed out to him the money - seventeen shekels of silver. And I signed the deed and sealed it...according to the law and custom..." (Jer. 32:6-11). The LORD then instructed Jeremiah: "Take these deeds...and put them in an earthen vessel that they may last many days (yom - day, time, year, continually, yesterday, today and tomorrow)...Houses and fields and vineyards shall be possessed again in this land." Jeremiah then praised the LORD who has "made the heavens and the earth by Your great power and outstretched arm. There is nothing too hard for You." (v. 13-17).

     The verses from Jeremiah, above, contain eleven instances of the use of *aleph-tav/Alpha and Omega, including its connection to "the price of redemption", "the field" of Hanamel, "the money", "the purchase deed", "that which was sealed", "deed/deeds", "the heaven", "the earth".

     Earlier, the LORD had given Jeremiah this prophetic Word: "Thus speaks the LORD God of Israel, saying: 'Write in a book for yourself all the words that I have spoken to you. For behold, the days are coming,' says the LORD, 'that I will bring back from captivity My people Israel and Judah,' says the LORD. 'And I will cause them to return to the land that I gave to their forefathers, and they shall possess it." (Jer. 30:2-3).

     Even though Jeremiah completed this prophetic redemption of the land of Israel while being detained in the king of Judah's prison dungeon, and even though the most powerful kingdom (Babylon) was about to lay siege to Jerusalem, Jeremiah knew, based upon the previous spoken Word of the LORD, and confirmed by the use of the written statutes given from the LORD from on the mount, that the LORD had just assured Israel that they would return to the land which He had given them.

     The captivity in Babylon and the Babylonian command over the land of Israel lasted for seventy years. Then, as the LORD promised Jeremiah, the Israelites were freed from captivity and allowed to return to their land...and the ruling king at that time paid the restoration money needed to rebuild the wall around Jerusalem that had been destroyed during the siege, and for the re-building of the temple of God that had been ruined. 

      But wait! We're not done yet with Jeremiah's fulfilling of the statute of the LORD in regard to the redemption of the land. The LORD had told Jeremiah to place the (*aleph-tav/Alpha and Omega) deeds into an earthen vessel so that the deeds could last many days. (v. 14). The Hebrew word for "days" is yom, as we see above, meaning: "day, time, year, continually, today, yesterday and tomorrow." These (*aleph-tav/Alpha and Omega) deeds of redemption were to last not only for the seventy years of Babylonian captivity, but "continually". I believe that these same (*aleph-tav/Alpha and Omega) deeds hidden in earthen vessels not only provided the way back home from Babylonian captivity, but provided for the return of the Jewish people to the land again in 1948, after Israel had ceased to be a nation approximately two thousand years ago when Rome destroyed it. I don't know if even Jeremiah foresaw what the LORD would accomplish by Jeremiah's obedience to His statutes.

     Not only did this prophetic action of Jeremiah guarantee the land of Israel to the descendants of Abraham through his son, Isaac, but it also became part of our spiritual guarantee and covenant with the Lord Jesus. Our covenant with God through Jesus is not a covenant regarding possession of the physical land of Israel, but the new covenant which assures us of life forever in Christ, who rose from the dead, and our inheritance through Him in the Kingdom of God on earth as it is in heaven. Our inheritance is not limited to a physical city on earth, but even greater, to the City not made with human hands, but whose Maker and Builder is God. This inheritance was always promised as Abraham also waited for this City. (see Heb. 11:8-10, Rev. 21:1-4, Jn. 14:1-6, Eph. 2:4-7). Jeremiah also had a prophetic understanding of this as he received the Word of the LORD related to this. In our Sabbath reading, we see: "A glorious high throne from the beginning is the place (maqom - locality, standing place, home, country) of our sanctuary. O LORD, the hope of Israel, all who forsake You shall be ashamed...." (Jer. 17:12-13).

      The apostle Paul refers to our guarantee of this spiritual redemption in the New Testament: "...But we have this treasure (thesauros - a casket or coffer in which valuables are kept) in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not ourselves...always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body." (2 Cor. 4:6-10, excerpt). Paul also wrote elsewhere: "...you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the guarantee (arrabon - earnest money, purchase money) of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory." (Eph. 1:13-14). And: "Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption." (Eph. 4:30).

      We can hear the echo of Jeremiah's prophetic Word, faith and obedience in these revelations of Paul, above. When Jeremiah had the *aleph-tav/Alpha and Omega deeds to the field belonging to "God is gracious" (Hanamel) sealed in earthen vessels for many days to come, he also prophetically sealed our guarantee, the Holy Spirit, to all of the riches in Jesus Messiah/Christ in these earthen vessels - us. 

     If you would like to learn more about the gracious redemption commanded by the LORD on the mount, you can pray with me: "Heavenly Father, the whole earth belongs to You, and You have not only redeemed the land of Israel for Your people, but You alone have also provided our Redeemer Kinsman, Jesus Messiah/Christ, to redeem and retore what was lost - our souls. What a great inheritance You have given and guaranteed to me through Your Son. I had lost all, but Your statutes of redemption and Jubilee in the flesh, Jesus, guaranteed my restoration, my life, and my salvation. I give You all thanks and praise in Jesus' name for Your eternal promises to me and to all who will receive them. AMEN."

*NOTE: aleph-tav written in Hebrew as אֶת, are the first and last letters of the Hebrew alphabet. The meaning of the two pictographic Hebrew letters can also be interpreted "Adonai (Lord) of the Cross/Covenant". In the New Testament, these letters are translated as Alpha and Omega written as ΑΩ , the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet. These letters are those by which Jesus Christ identifies Himself in the Book of Revelation: see Rev. 1:8, Rev. 21:6, Rev. 22:13.

     

SabbathTiming

           The title of this week’s Sabbath reading portion is B’har, or “On the Mount”. This reading portion comes from Leviticus 25, and the title is taken from verse 1: “And the LORD spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai (meaning "thorny"), saying, ‘Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: ‘When you come into the land which I give you, then the land shall keep a sabbath to the LORD…in the seventh year there shall be a sabbath of solemn rest for the land, a sabbath to the LORD…” (Lev. 25:1-2, 4).  Why is it important to know that these words were spoken to Moses “on the mount”? One reason may be that it was on Mount Sinai, one of three summits in this range, that the LORD established the foundational precepts for His people to know and follow including the Ten Commandments. It is from the high place that the LORD delivers His truth with power.

  Last week, we saw the LORD reveal the secrets of the sabbath day. This week, the LORD again begins His discourse about the sabbath. This time, the sabbath becomes the foundation for a longer time period and those longer time periods provide specific works, blessings, benefits, miracles, and far-reaching prophetic implications. The Sabbath has now been incorporated into a group of seven years. The seventh year of rest for the land was to restore and strengthen the fields and vineyards so that they would yield even greater produce, but also even more. In the Spirit, we see other things associated with the seven-year grouping of time. There is fruit that is produced during the six years before the seventh year sabbath rest for the land (v. 3). However, the Hebrew root word for sabbath year, sabat, also contains the meaning “produce of the sabbath year.”. There is a kind of produce that is associated only with the seventh or sabbath year that is different from the fruit of the six years before. This seventh-year produce, or increase (v. 7) is called tebua/bo in Hebrew, and means: “income, gain, revenue, profits, result, gain resulting from wisdom/enter into, come in, bring near, gather, place of entrance, of a bride entering the house of a husband, intimacy, to be brought into the barn, entering future times.” As we can see in the root meaning, the “produce” of the seventh year has a prophetic meaning for a time in the future, and also refers to the bride entering the house of her husband. Believers in Messiah/Christ are called “the Bride of Christ” and are waiting to be joined to Him for the marriage supper of the Lamb of God, who is Jesus (Rev. 19:7-9, Rev. 21:1-2). This is connected to the meaning of sabat Sabbath as we see above. We will see more about this later.

We can also see the prophetic importance of Israel keeping this seventh year sabbath rest for the land. In Hebrew, the word for “land” is eres (see above), which can mean a local field, or extend to nations, and then extend further to the land of all living, and then extend even further to encompass the world. This seven-year sabbath that some consign to a religious ritual, and others ignore completely, when obediently observed by the people of God, can have world-wide impact. The seventh-year sabbath is so important to the LORD that, in order to counter the doubts and reservations of His people, He made this promise: “And if you say, ‘What shall we eat in the seventh year, since we shall not sow nor gather in our produce?’ Then I will command My blessing on you in the sixth year, and it will bring forth produce enough for three years.” Lev. 25:20-21).

Can we begin to see why the sabbath is such an important foundational principle to God that He commands us to keep it holy?      

In this same chapter of Leviticus, the LORD reveals another spiritually powerful block of time based upon the Sabbath and the Sabbath year described above: “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 (sopar/sapar - trumpet, ram’s horn, clear sharp sound/to be pleasing, be beautiful, goodly, comely, be bright, glisten, shine forth as the dawn) of Jubilee (yobel/yabal - ram’s horn, trumpet, cornet, the signal of silver trumpets, loud noise, joyful sound/to lead away, to be brought, to carry away, to flow)  to sound (abar - pass over or through, pass beyond, to emigrate, to leave one’s territory, to die, to depart, to go over to someone’s side)…on the Day of Atonement…throughout all your land (eres - see above, includes “the world”. And you shall consecrate the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a Jubilee (see above) for you;  and each of you shall return (sub - turn back, return, go back, come back, restore, refresh, renew, repair, out of a place, to anyone or place) to his possession (ahuzza - includes the meaning of a possession by inheritance), and each of you shall return to his family (mispaha - family, tribe, nation, clan, kind, genus)…For it is the Jubilee; it shall be holy to you; you shall eat its produce (see the meaning of tebua/bo above) from the field.” (Lev. 25:8-10, 12). We who know Jesus Christ as Savior have an inheritance in Him, and we have been made part of the family of God (Jn. 1:12, Gal. 3:26-29).

The idea of Jubilee in the fiftieth year, based on multiplications of the sabbath, is to cancel debt, and to return/restore all property that was sold in debt back to the debtor. If one of the brethren sells himself to another brother because of a debt obligation, he cannot be treated as a slave, but as a paid servant. He can only serve the owner until the year of Jubilee when he then can return to his own family and his property which he inherited from his fathers. (Lev. 25:39-43). Jubilee sets free, cancels debt obligations, and restores inheritances and families that money/debt has encumbered. Jesus taught us to pray a prayer to our Father that included the idea of Jubilee: “And forgive us our debts (opheilema/opheilo - that which is owed, justly or legally due as a debt, offense, sin/owe, be bound, be guilty, be indebted, to fail in duty), as we forgive our debtors (opheiletes - one who owes another, a debtor, held by some obligation, one who has not made amends to an injured party, penalty, punishment, a sinner, a transgressor).” (Mt. 6:12). The idea of monetary debt and forgiveness of debt extends to spiritual debt, or sin, as well. So we should not be ignoring the Jubilee.

As the spiritual stronghold of Mammon (mamonas - of Chaldee origin, the personification (idol) of riches, wealth and the confidence in them in opposition to God - see Mt. 6:24) began to rule the economy of the world, the command of a Jubilee Year faded away from practice (we are a people of debt, greed and unforgiveness), although men have tried to restore the idea of a Jubilee year according to scripture. In another reading portion from this sabbath, the prophet Jeremiah prophesied the Word of the LORD against this Mammon idol: “Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart departs from the LORD…Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, and whose hope is the LORD.” (Jer. 17:5, 7). The sins or debts of Judah had been engraved deeply with a pen of iron with the point of a diamond on their hearts, the LORD said, and the LORD promised to give their wealth and all of their treasures in which they trusted as plunder to others, and His people would “let go of your inheritance (nahala - possession, property, inheritance) which I gave you.” (v. 1, 3-4). The idea of Jubilee also carries a deep prophetic meaning according to the Hebrew words used above, and we will begin to seek out that prophecy.

The numbers involved in the Day of Atonement announcement of the coming Jubilee Year, have a meaning to reveal to us. In the 49th year, when the announcement is made, the Hebrew letters that represent the number 40 + 9 are the letters mem (“chaos, massive waters”) + teth (“a snake, to surround, to twist, to coil”). By the 49th year God's people have become wrapped in the chaos and destruction of the coiled snake of debt/sin and the bondage to debt/sin and unforgiveness. That snake is constricting us more and more tightly. Then, on the Day of Atonement a mighty sound rings out, a trumpet blast in that 49th year that announces the liberty of Jubilee to come in the 50th year. That atoning blood (of the sacrificed Messiah/Christ) sprinkled on the heavenly mercy seat achieves the redemption of our debt to God and to each other. The Day of Atonement, which is treated as a Sabbath, in this case in the 7 X 7th Sabbath Year, brings the warfare that is part of the meaning of “sabbath/sabat which includes the meaning “put an end to, exterminate, destroy, remove, cease to be”. The number 50 connected to the Jubilee year is represented by the Hebrew letter nun, which means “offspring, multiplying life, descendants, the Heir to the Throne”.

In another portion from this Sabbath’s reading from Jeremiah 32, the prophet Jeremiah, knowing that the LORD has already prophesied that the Babylonians would conquer Jerusalem, which had been under siege for 18 years, and take its inhabitants captive, became the kinsman redeemer of his cousin’s land. The LORD promised Jeremiah that this would not be a waste of his money, but would be part of a prophetic restoration. The inhabitants of Jerusalem would be returned to the land from captivity (this would be according to a timetable based upon the Sabbath), and the land that Jeremiah had paid to redeem would once again be returned to the possession of his family, and all of the land would be inhabited again. He placed the redeemed deed in an earthen vessel to be preserved until that future time (see 2 Cor. 4:7-10).

 

This was a Jubilee prophetic promise. Paul wrote of our Jubilee promise in Christ: “The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs - heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together.” (Rom. 8:16-17). Here is the Jubilee assurance of our eternal inheritance with the Heir to the Throne, Jesus, the Son of God. It is vital to us that Jesus is both the Son, and the Heir because our inheritance comes through Him. He is also our kinsman Redeemer, like Jeremiah, Who bought back with His own body and blood our lost inheritance, which we lost to debt/sin. The debts were canceled in the Jubilee of the Messiah/Christ, and the inheritance was restored as in Jubilee. That coiled snake of chaos that binds us has been exterminated in this extension of the power of the Sabbath.

Before we leave the prophetic meaning of the Jubilee of God, we saw above in Lev. 25, that on the Day of Atonement, which is a sabbath, the trumpet is to sound in order to announce the coming Jubilee. As we saw above, "sound" is the Hebrew word abar, which includes in its meaning "pass beyond, to emigrate, to leave one's territory, to depart, to go over to someone's side." Those who are in Jesus Christ know of another great departure from our present territory to go over to Another's side. Paul wrote: "For this we say to you by the word of the Lord...the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words." (1 Thess. 4:15-18). In another place, Paul wrote: "...we shall all be changed...for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed." (1 Cor. 15:51-52). The sound of the trumpet signals the change of our form and our location in order to join Christ's side. This is also a Jubilee for us as we are liberated from the bonds of earth and flesh and into an incorruptible form.

There is more that could be said about the meaning of the Sabbath year, and multiplications of the Sabbath year that impact the fulfilment of the prophetic word of the LORD, particularly in Daniel's timetable of the Messiah/Christ. However, let this be a call to return to the true meaning of the Sabbath and its importance to us in every way. To reduce this powerful tool of God, used to restore His people, to a set of religious rules, or to ignore its meaning altogether in order to substitute our own thoughts and desires is a great shame. Isaiah wrote: "If you turn away your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on My holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy day of the LORD honorable, and shall honor Him, not doing your own ways, nor finding your own pleasure, nor speaking your own words, then you shall delight yourself in the LORD; and I will cause you to ride on the high hills of the earth, and feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father. The mouth of the LORD has spoken." (Isa. 58:13-14).

If you would like to know more about the sabbath day, sabbath year and Jubilee year, you can join with me in prayer: "Our Father, I want to have a deeper and true understanding of Your Sabbath, which you gave as a blessing to us. Forgive me when I have chosen my own pleasures to pursue on Your Sabbath instead of praying, believing and standing in the miraculous promises of the Sabbath not just for myself and my family but for the eres world. Your prophetic timeline and end time events, including the return of Christ, revolve around the Sabbath. Fill me with Your Spirit and teach me Your Word so I can walk in Your ways. Jesus, You are Lord of the Sabbath, and Your Lordship is of great and mighty things. Show me, great Lord, the great things of the Sabbath, in Jesus' name I pray. AMEN."

Restoration

Do you need restoration from God? We live in an age that cries out day and night for the restoration work of God. As the priesthood of Christ, we are to know that there is a pathway to restoration, which we will read about in this week's Sabbath reading portion. Again we see a double title for this week. The two titles are B'har, meaning "on the mount" and B'chukkotai, meaning "In My statutes". Both of these titles have the addition of the Hebrew letter Beth placed before the words of the titles. The letter Beth, means house or family. The picture that this creates for me is of God building a house. That house is being built on the highest mountain of God, and it is a house built out of His Word (which is Jesus), which includes His statutes (see also Isa. 2:1-3). Jesus said: "In My Father's house are many mansions (mone/meno - dwellings, Holy Spirit indwelling believers/abide, endure, to continue, not to perish) ...I go to prepare a place (topos - space marked off from surrounding space, inhabited place, a passage in a book) for you." (Jn. 14:1-4). Jesus said that this truth that He was revealing also served as a guarantee that He would "come again, and receive you to Myself; that where I am , there you may be also." This house is a dwelling place for the Father, the Son, and His people filled with His Holy Spirit of Truth. This house that the Father is building is further described by Paul: "...you are...members of the household of God, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit." (Eph. 2:19-22). So, as we study this Sabbath's reading portion, we can keep in mind that a dwelling in the Spirit is being constructed. Both of these titles include readings from Leviticus, the Book of the priesthood, in chapters 25 and 26. These chapters deal with a very powerful form of restoration called the Jubilee. During the Jubilee year, all losses are cancelled, and all is restored back to the original owner. It is the year of liberty. The foundation for the year of liberty, or the Jubilee, is the Sabbath: "And you shall count seven sabbaths of years for yourself, seven tmes seven years...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 its inhabitants. It shall be a Jubilee for you; and each of you shall return to your possession, and each of you shall return to his family. That fiftieth year shall be a Jubilee to you." (Lev. 25:8-11). Jesus, as the Messiah of Israel, identified Himself in the Sabbath and the Jubilee. First of all, He told us that He is the Lord of the Sabbath, the building block of Jubilee, as He added: "The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath." (Mk. 2:27). The Sabbath is not a legalistic or religious obligation, but a powerful blessing provided by God for His miraculous ways, as Jesus explained to a people who only knew the religious burden of the Sabbath (Jn. 5:17-18). The Word of the LORD to Isaiah was to reveal the truth of the Sabbath: "...call the Sabbath a delight (oneg/anag - pleasant, exquisite delight/delicate, dainty, soft, to be pampered, luxurious, be glad), the holy day of the LORD honorable...Then you shall delight yourself in the LORD; And I will cause you to ride on the high hills of the earth, and feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father The mouth of the LORD has spoken." (Isa. 58:13-14). The Sabbath is to be an exquisite delight - what a concept! That delight multiplies times itself (7 x 7) into liberty and total restoration (Jubilee). Jesus announced Himself as the fulfillment of the Jubilee while reading scripture aloud in the synagogue on a Sabbath (Lk. 4:15-19, Isa. 61:1-2a). The year of Jubilee is announced on the Day of Atonement, as mentioned in the above verses. Again we have the connection to Jesus, who is the fulfillment of our atonement (1 Jn. 2:2, 4:10). The Jubilee is a year of return - return to our possession, and return to our family, according to the above verses. To what possession do we return in Jubilee? God says that we are His possession, His treasured possession (Deut, 7:6-7, Ex. 19:1-8, 1 Pet. 2:9). To what family are we to return? God has told us that we belong to His family, and are named by His name (Jn. 1:12, Eph. 3:14-15, Rom. 8:14-17, Rev. 22:4). In the promise of Jubilee, we are guaranteed to return to our possession and family, which is God, not only after our death, but while we are alive, and also when we are changed and caught up to Him at the sound of the trumpet (1 Thess. 4:15-18, 1 Cor. 15:50-57). This last is the ultimate fulfillment of Jubilee. If God can open up heaven for our sake, caught up to Him in this amazing way, there is nothing that is impossible for Him to restore to us. The law of redemption is also given in Lev. 25, by which a loss of land to debt may be redeemed by a kinsman on behalf of the debtor, again bringing restoration. The LORD will use this concept of restoration provided by the law in the Book of the priests in order to restore a devastating loss to His people. First, here is the law as the LORD gave it to Moses: "The land shall not be sold permanently, for the land is Mine...and in all the land of your possession you shall grant redemption of the land. If one of your brethren becomes poor (muk - poor, low, depressed, sink down, pine away as in poverty), and has sold some of his possession, and if his redeeming relative comes to redeem it, then he may redeem what his brother sold." (Lev. 25:23-25). This is the law of the Kinsman Redeemer. The LORD used this law to establish the line of David as was told in the Book of Ruth, and ultimately the line of the Messiah, the Son of David, Jesus, who would be born centuries later. Jesus is our Redeemer as well, paying the price to buy back what we sold away, which was our souls, to darkness, sin and resulting death (1 Cor. 7:23, Gal. 4:4-5, Eph. 1:7, Titus 2:11-14, Heb. 9:12). In this week's Sabbath portion, the LORD used the law of the kinsman redeemer to make a prophetic promise of mercy to His people. Jeremiah, whose name means "whom Jehovah has appointed", was not only a prophet, but he was also a priest, born into the priestly line of his father, Hilkiah (meaning "my portion is Jehovah"). They came from one of the cities designated as belonging to the priests, which was Anathoth, meaning "answer to prayer" (see Jer. 1:1). Because the sins of God's people had polluted the land, God sent a mighty enemy, King Nebuchadnezzar of Assyria/Babylon, to lay siege to Jerusalem. This foreign king would eventually conquer Jerusalem and take its inhabitants a thousand miles away back to Babylon. He would also loot and destroy the temple of God. Jeremiah had been warning and prophesying that God would not give Judah the victory over this enemy. The people and their king would go into exile in a foreign land, according to the prophetic Word brought by Jeremiah (Jer. 32:1-5, Jer. 17:4). While Jeremiah was imprisoned by his king because of the prophetic Word that he spoke, his cousin, Hanamel (meaning "God is gracious"/mercy, favor), the son of Jeremiah's uncle, Shallum (meaning recompense, restore, repay, peace, covenant of peace), asked him to redeem his aleph-tav field (see Mt. 13:44) in Anathoth: "...for the rght of inheritance is yours, and the redemption yours; buy it for yourself." (v. 6-12). Jeremiah did exercise his right of redemption under the law, and bought the field. He redeemed the field even knowing, by the prophetic Word which the LORD had given him, that Judah and Jerusalem were about to fall to the Babylonian king. After Jeremiah redeemed the field, the LORD told him the prophetic significance of what he had just done: "Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: 'Take these deeds...and put them in an earthen vessel (see 2 Cor. 4:6-7), that they may last many days.' For thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: 'Houses and fields and vineyards shall be possessed again in this land." (Jer. 32:13-15). The redemption of the priest's field became the prophetic promise of the redemption of the land of Israel. Although the people would be exiled, and the land forced into a Sabbath rest of seventy years, the LORD did not leave His people without a promise of restoration. In another of our Sabbath readings, the prophet Amos spoke of the widespread destruction and death that would come upon Israel. Amos was not a priest like Jeremiah, but, instead, was of humble status. He was a herdsman of sheep (noqed - marked with identifying punctures) from Tekoa (root meaning - drive a nail, strike, smite, thrust a weapon), which was near Bethlehem (see Amos 1:1). Although he was from the southern kingdom of Judah, Amos was called by the LORD to prophesy to the northern kingdom of Israel. A priest went before the king of Israel and accused Amos of being a conspirator because he prophesied that the king would be killed, and the people would be led away into captivity (Amos 7:10-11). One of the reasons that the LORD was bringing this catastrophe upon the land and people was because they resented His Sabbaths, His exquisite delights of restoration. They resented the Sabbaths because the Sabbaths interfered with their buying and selling (Amos 8:5-6). Leviticus 26 from this week's Sabbath reading recorded the blessings that would be received for forsaking idols, and observing and honoring the Sabbath, concluding: "I have broken the bands of your yoke and made you walk upright (qommiyut/qum - uprightness, elevation, as a freeman/raise up, arise, establish)." (v. 1-13). The LORD is building a house, and it is a house that inhabits the highest mountain in the Spirit, and is established in His Word (statutes), Jesus. If you would like to know more about what the LORD is building, you can pray with me: "Father in heaven, You are full of grace and mercy to those who love You, and seek You. You call me into Your house, where Jesus, my Kinsman Redeemer, has prepared a place for me. I praise and thank You for Your Sabbaths, made for man, and full of Your restoration glory. Teach me Your Word, and fill me with Your Holy Spirit, so that I can learn and understand Your paths (Ps. 25:4-5). They are paths that will lead me to green pastures of Your righteousness in order to restore my soul (Ps. 23:1-3). I ask this in Jesus' name. AMEN."

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.

Hope

In this week's Sabbath reading portion, which is titled, B'har - B'chukkotai, meaning "On the Mount", and "In My Statutes", there is a guaranteed hope given to God's people. Last week, we read about the 49 + 1 days, or 50 days between the Feast of Unleavened Bread and Pentecost, and the meaning of those days, especially the 50th day (see previous post "Counting"). This week, there is a promise given regarding 49 years (seven Sabbaths of years) + 1 year, or 50 years total: "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 (yobal/yabal- ram's horn, the signal of the silver trumpets, joyful sound, loud noise/bring forth, lead forth, carry away, to flow copiously, to bear or to carry gifts) to sound on the tenth day of the seventh month; on the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur) you shall make the trumpet to sound throughout all your land. And you shall consecrate the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty (deror- liberty, freedom, a flowing, a free run, to move rapidly, spontaneity of outflow) throughout all the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a Jubilee for you; and each of you shall return to his possession (ahuzza- inheritance property that was seized), and each of you shall return to his family...For it is the Jubilee; it shall be holy to you; you shall eat its produce from the field. In this year of Jubilee each of you shall return to his possession." (Lev. 25:8-13). In Israel, this meant that any property or personal service entered into to pay debt, had to be released or given back in the Jubilee year. It is no coincidence that the coming Jubilee year was announced on the Day of Atonement, which we connect directly to Jesus, who is our atonement (Rom. 5:11). As we learned last week, the number 50 in Hebrew, used again for counting to the year of Jubilee, is the Hebrew letter nun. The meaning of the letter nun relates directly to Messiah, Jesus. Nun means: "seed/sprouting seed, fish, son, heir to the throne, faithfulness". We see another interesting connection between Jesus and the Jubilee: As Jesus began His ministry, He read from Isa. 61 in the synagogue (Lk. 4:18-19). He read of the anointing of the Spirit of the LORD that Isaiah prophesied allowed One to "...proclaim liberty to the captives...to proclaim the acceptable (ratsone/ratsaw- delight, favor, goodwill/satisfy a debt, pardon, to pay off) year of the LORD...". It sounds very much like Isaiah was prophesying a spiritual Jubilee (see meaning above), and Jesus announced that He was fulfilling that prophesy that day. Also, Paul described Jesus as having fulfilled Ps. 68:18 writing, "Therefore He says: When He ascended on high, He led captivity (prisoners) captive (bring away, carry away, lead away), and gave gifts to men." (Eph. 4:8). Again, the language used here relates to the Hebrew word for Jubilee (see above). The promise in the Law of Jubilee allowed Jesus to lead the captives of death out of Sheol. In the next portion of this week's Sabbath reading, the LORD gives hope to His people in the form of the kinsman redeemer: "...if...one of your brethren who dwells by (a rich sojourner or stranger) becomes poor and sells himself to the stranger or sojourner...after he is sold he may be redeemed again. One of his brothers may redeem him...And if he is not redeemed in these years, then he shall be released in the Year of Jubilee - he and his children with him. For the children of Israel are servants to Me; they are My servants whom I brought out of the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God." (Lev. 25:47-55, excerpt). Imagine being in such desperate straits that one not only sold himself into service, but his children with him, to pay debts. However, the hope found in the principle of the kinsman redeemer provided the only hope for many who found themselves in a pressing situation of debt or poverty. In another example from the Book of Ruth, we see an impoverished Naomi, who has lost both her husband and her two sons, return to her homeland, Israel, from Moab. She has nothing except the hope that lays in the Law of Moses. She, and her daughter-in-law, Ruth, will rely on the fact that the Law of Moses commands that the edges of the fields remain unharvested so the poor and the traveler can glean from them in order to eat. In addition, Naomi, knowing the principle of the kinsman redeemer, will regain her land and a husband for Ruth when Boaz becomes their kinsman redeemer. Boaz and Ruth will have a child who will be the grandfather of David, and part of the line of the Messiah (Ruth 4:21-22). Where there was no hope for Naomi in Moab, she found hope and more in her home nation, Israel, and in the provisions of the Law of Moses. In another instance, the LORD will use the principle of the kinsman redeemer to prophetically give hope to His people that they would return from a prophesied captivity. Jeremiah has already prophesied that Judah will be conquered by the Chaldeans, and go into captivity to them. The Lord confirmed His promise to Jeremiah that He would bring Judah back from captivity by using the hope found in the kinsman redeemer. In Jer. 32, from the haftarah portion of this week's Sabbath reading, Jeremiah's cousin comes to Jeremiah while he is in the king's prison to request that Jeremiah redeem the cousin's property: "Please buy my field that is in Anathoth ("answers to prayers"), which is in the country of Benjamin; for the right of inheritance is yours; buy it for yourself. Then (Jeremiah) knew that this was the word of the LORD." (Jer. 32:6-8). Jeremiah understood that this deeded land that he redeemed confirmed God's promise to return the people to their own land, otherwise there would be no purpose in it if the people were being taken into captivity forever: "Then I charged Baruch before them saying, 'Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: "Take these deeds...and put them in an earthen vessel, that they may last many days." 'For thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: "Houses and fields and vineyards shall be possessed again in this land."' "... I prayed to the LORD, saying,: 'Ah, LORD God! Behold, You have made the heavens and the earth by Your great power and outstretched arm. There is nothing too hard for You...' (Jer. 32:13-17). The LORD used the kinsman redeemer of the Law as a sign of His guarantee of the people's return, which seemed to have been an impossibility, but now hope had come. Job, who had lost everything, knew the power of the kinsman redeemer, and he knew Who his personal Redeemer was: "For I know that my Redeemer lives, and He shall stand at last on the earth; and after my skin is destroyed, this I know, that in my flesh, I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another. How my heart yearns within me!" (Job 19:25-27). The Kinsman Redeemer was a source of hope to a destroyed Job. Although Jewish tradition holds that Job lived before Moses, the rabbis believe that Moses wrote the Book of Job. We do not know for sure, but from the above verses, we can see that Job knew the principle of the kinsman redeemer by revelation even before the Law was received on Sinai. The world's understanding would give no hope to Naomi, Jeremiah and Job, but the Jubilee and the kinsman redeemer are from eternity, not the world, and give hope and promise where there is no hope. May we understand the deliverance blessing and the Deliverer of God guaranteed in His Jubilee and kinsman redeemer. Our Father's Jubilee promises bring His people hope. If you would like to know our Jubilee and our Kinsman Redeemer, you can pray: "Lord Jesus, I know my Redeemer lives. You have become my Kinsman Redeemer, and my Jubilee deliverance. You died for my sins, and You rose again from the dead. You redeemed my soul from Hell, and ascended into heaven, leading me with You. I was in captivity, but You gave me liberty as a gift. You redeemed the inheritance of God's people before the foundations of the world. Nothing is impossible with You! As the Holy Spirit anointed You, anoint me also, so that I may understand and live in Your miraculous redemption. I believe and receive these things in your holy name. AMEN."