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."
