The
Sabbath Years
By Pastor F. M. Riley
September 29, 2010
Leviticus
25:1-10
“And the Lord spake unto Moses in mount
Sinai, saying,
Speak unto the children of Israel,
and say unto them, When ye come into the land which I give you, then shall the
land keep a Sabbath unto the Lord.
Six years thou shalt sow thy field,
and six years thou shalt prune thy vineyard, and gather in the fruit thereof;
But in the seventh year shall be a
Sabbath of rest unto the land, a Sabbath for the Lord: thou shalt neither sow
thy field, nor prune thy vineyard.
That which groweth of its own accord of
thy harvest thou shalt not reap, neither gather the grapes of thy vine
undressed: for it is a
year of rest unto the land.
And the Sabbath of the land shall be meat
[food] for you; for thee, and for
thy servant, and for thy maid, and for thy hired servant, and for thy stranger
that sojourneth with thee,
And for thy cattle, and for the beast that
are in thy land, shall all the
increase thereof be meat [food].
And thou shalt number seven Sabbaths of
years unto thee, seven times seven years; and the space of the seven
Sabbaths of years shall be unto thee forty and nine years.
Then shalt thou cause the trumpet of
the Jubilee to sound on the tenth day of the seventh month, in the day of atonement shall ye make the trumpet
sound throughout all your land.
And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year,
and proclaim liberty throughout all the
land unto all the inhabitants thereof: it shall be a Jubilee unto you; and ye
shall return every man unto his possession, and ye shall return every man unto
his family.”
A Brief Testimony
I AM NOT a person who is given
to or depends upon “dreams and visions” for Scriptural truth. Please understand that I am not saying this
to condemn anyone, or to make anyone feel guilty. I am simply stating it as a matter of
truth. When it comes to spiritual truth,
I go by what the inspired Word of God actually and literally says and teaches,
ONLY by God’s Word, and strictly by God’s Word.
If I can’t back up what I believe and teach with book, chapter, and
verse in the “rightly divided Word of truth,” [2 Timothy 2:15; 1 Thessalonians 5:21], then while I may be prone on occasion to believe something
not yet proven, I DO NOT teach it as spiritual truth. PERIOD!
Yet this DOES NOT mean that I am not open
and sensitive to hearing and understanding the “still small voice” of
the Lord as He speaks to His people through His Word and through His
Holy Spirit, 1 Kings 19:12; Zechariah 4:6; John 16:12-15. I
1
pray
every single day for the Lord to keep my heart and mind “open” to hearing and
being able to discern the voice of the Holy Spirit as I study and meditate upon
His Word, and live out the life that the Lord has by His wonderful saving grace
placed within me.
Therefore…….This past Thursday night,
September 23rd, I was in a sound sleep when at precisely 3 a.m. I
suddenly awakened. When I awoke the
thought was burning in my brain…..I MUST go to the Day of Atonement in 2017,
the very day the Trumpet [ram’s horn]
announcing the beginning of the Great Jubilee is blown, and COUNT BACKWARDS
from that day to determine how much time is left in this present dispensation BEFORE
the Tribulation MUST begin. I already
knew that there is a certain number of days stated in God’s Word for the length
of the Tribulation period. I also KNOW
that the Lord NEVER changes or violates His own inspired Word. Not for anyone, nor under any conditions! Therefore I knew that when I counted BACKWARDS
from the sounding of the Jubilee Trumpet on the Day of Atonement in 2017, the
exact number of days set forth in the Scriptures for the Tribulation period, it
would reveal EXACTLY how many days are left in this present dispensation before
the Tribulation MUST begin.
When I got up Friday morning, September 24th,
I immediately obeyed what I knew had to be the leadership of the Lord, counted
the days, and then wrote out my study on The
Great Jubilee and sent it out to all those on my email address list on Friday
afternoon and Saturday, September 24th and 25th.
I am relating this brief testimony because
I have had several people email me asking why I even thought of COUNTING
BACKWARDS from the beginning of the Jubilee in 2017, and why I am so certain my
count is correct. Now you know WHY I
thought of making the count. Give all
the glory to the Lord! I most certainly
do believe the Lord “woke me up” in the wee hours of the night with those
thoughts on my mind. As to the certainty
of my count, COUNT IT FOR YOURSELF just like I did. Folks, we are LITERALLY “running out of time”
for the end of this present dispensation!
We are indeed living in “the last days” of this
dispensation, and “the coming of the Lord draweth nigh,” James 5:8. People can either repent of sin and
call on the Lord for salvation, or they WILL be “left behind” when the rapture
occurs. May God grant His mercy to every
true “seeking soul” is my prayer.
Introduction
This study is a “follow up” and a
confirmation of the truths presented in my previous study on the prophetic significance
of The Great Jubilee. Many of God’s people today have not seriously
studied this subject, and have little or no idea of what the “Jubilee”
really is, nor why it is so vitally important in God’s great Plan of
the Ages. Neither do many know how a “Jubilee”
year is Scripturally calculated, leading up to the correct
year for the sounding of the Jubilee
Trumpet. To explain this to our readers,
and to encourage God’s people in holding fast “the blessed hope” [Titus 2:11-15] of our Lord’s coming is
the purpose of this present study. So let’s
get started…..
The Lord’s Instructions
2
Our text for this study sets forth explicit
instructions for how the Israelite people were to use the “promised land” to
which the Lord was leading them. This
was the wisest and most brilliant concept for the preservation and fertility of
the land which has ever been devised. If
the Jewish people had followed these commandments of the Lord, then the natural
growth of each seventh year would have fallen to the ground during that year. In the following year this fallen growth
would have been plowed under, thereby naturally enriching the soil and
providing a natural fertilizer for the seed being sown that year. In
other words, the Lord gave Israel
a method by which the land itself would be renewed every seventh year. Sadly, most of the Israelites totally ignored
this part of the Law, never putting this into practice in the use of their
land, 2 Chronicles 36:21; Ezekiel 20:12-24. Since the Jewish people never put this law
into practice, then it is obvious that the other nations to whom Israel
was supposed to be “a witness” for the Lord, never learned this practice
either. Today once productive lands all
over the earth are about worn out, and men have to use chemical fertilizers to
force the land to produce anything. So goes the consequences of disobeying
Almighty God who created us all. Sic!
What the Lord explicitly commanded the
Israelite people to do once they had entered and taken the land and were able
to begin farming, was to farm their land for six years and then allow the land
to lay idle for the seventh year. Each
seventh year in this process was to be designated as a Sabbath year,
Leviticus 25:4.
They were then to keep count of each of these sets of Sabbath years
until seven whole series of Sabbath years had been completed. This would amount to a total of 49 years,
Leviticus
25:8. Then the next year, the fiftieth year in the series of years
was to be proclaimed a “Jubilee” year, Leviticus 25:9-11.
What is meant by this term, “Jubilee”
is that the fiftieth year in the cycle of years was to be an entire
year of celebration and “rest” for the Jewish people, and
for their land. The two Hebrew words
translated as Jubilee in the Bible are “yobel”
and “teruah.” Both of these words convey the meaning of
“the blowing of the ram’s horn” and “shouting.”
The “Jubilee” year was then a year to be devoted to the worship of
the Lord, and to joy, thanksgiving, rejoicing, and celebrating, before the Lord
and before one another, while the people and the land rested.
Why shouldn’t it be this way? When the “trumpet” of the “Jubilee”
sounded on the Day of Atonement in that fiftieth year [Leviticus 25:9] “liberty” was to be proclaimed
throughout the land. All slaves were to
be set free! All debts were to be cancelled! Every man [or woman] was to be given back a clear title to his own piece of
land which had been given to him or to his ancestors before him! Every family was to be reunited! Read the entire chapter for yourself, Leviticus
25:1-55. Under such wonderful
circumstances how could the people not be filled with joy and rejoicing? Thank God for “the Jubilee.” Praise the Lord!
Yet the Jews as a nation and people NEVER
observed the Jubilee throughout their history, and they still do not observe
it today! Why? Because they are seeking to keep a Law
WRITTEN IN STONE, a type of their own “stony heart,” Ezekiel 11:19; 36:26. In the wickedness of their own “sin
nature,” they have obstinately refused to let the Lord whom they claim to be
serving, give them a soft tender “heart of flesh” and place “a
new Spirit” within them, WRITING HIS LAW IN THEIR HEART, even though it
is clearly
3
prophesied
IN THEIR OWN SCRIPTURES that their Lord and promised Messiah would do this to
them and for them, Jeremiah 31:31-34. Do the Jews then as a people pay attention
to THEIR OWN SCRIPTURES? Absolutely
not! Just like many Gentile “Christians”
[?] today, even the “religious” Jews
still just “pick and choose” what Scriptures they want to believe and follow,
and ignore or outright deny the rest.
God have mercy!
Understanding the Calendars
For those of our readers who are not
familiar with the Jewish calendars [that’s
plural], I want to make a brief explanation. The Jews have two calendars which regulate
the course of their years. The Jews
have…..
The
Civil Calendar…….The calendar governing their civil year begins on the
1st day of Tishri each
year in late summer or early fall. The month
of Tishri is then the first month of their civil year. This is the calendar they use in numbering
and celebrating a new year. In other words,
on the 1st day of Tishri [September
9th this year on our Gentile calendar] the Jewish civil year
changed from 5770 to 5771. In 2011 on
our Gentile calendar, another civil year will begin for the Jews on the
1st day of Tishri as their calendar year changes from 5771 to 5772. This is not too hard to understand if one carefully
studies the Jewish calendars.
The
Sacred Year…….However, if you are not paying close attention, it can be confusing, for the Jews also have a sacred
year. Their sacred year is based on
the calendar which the Lord Himself gave to Israel in Exodus 12. Their sacred year begins with the
month of Abib [Nisan] in the
Spring of the year, and regulates the Jewish Holy Days throughout their sacred
year which the Lord Himself gave to Israel to observe as commanded in Leviticus
23.
Both of these Jewish calendars are lunar
calendars. This simply means that
they are based on the cycles of the
Moon, in contrast to our Gentile calendar which is based on the time required
for the earth to make one orbit around the Sun.
Both of the Jewish calendars also overlap our Gentile
calendars. In other words, it requires parts
of two of our Gentile years to make up each of the Jewish years.
The
Jubilee Year…….But then every fifty years there is another year
inserted into the framework of the Jewish calendars. This special “Jubilee” year begins and
ends on the Jewish Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur, each 50th year when
a cycle of 49 years or 7 Sabbath years have been completed. This is stated in our text for this study,
and this is what I want our readers to notice in particular in this study.
The Historical & Prophetical
Significance
Historical…….I have personally
traced these “Jubilee” years back through history for several hundred years
in order to confirm that the years now being claimed as “Jubilee” years are
correct. What a blessing I found in
undertaking this study! Glory to
God! However, it IS NOT my intent in
this brief study to review all of these Jubilee years which have taken place in
Israel’s history during this present dispensation. But for the purposes of Scriptural proof
[1 Thessalonians 5:21], I will point
out only a few selected Jubilee years and the prophetically significant
events which occurred during
4
those
years. Let’s begin by going back in
history to…….
The Jubilee Year 1217……In perfect harmony
with Acts
2:17, in the Jubilee year of 1217
the Jewish Rabbi Judah Ben Samuel prophesied that the Ottoman Turks would rule
over the city of Jerusalem
for eight Jubilees. Keep in mind
that a Jubilee year only occurs every fifty years, so eight Jubilees
would be 8 x 50 or 400 years. At the
time Rabbi Judah Ben Samuel gave his
prophecy it seemed preposterous, and many did not believe him. But 300 years later in 1517 [a Jubilee year], the Ottoman Turks conquered the city
of Jerusalem and other parts of the Middle East and began their reign. They reigned from 1517 to 1917, exactly 400 years or eight Jubilees cycles.
Hello!
But
that isn’t all…..Rabbi Judah Ben Samuel also prophesied that during the
ninth Jubilee cycle, 1917 – 1967,
Jerusalem
would be a “no man’s land.”
Significantly, this is exactly what happened. When the Ottoman Turks were driven out of the
land of “Palestine” in the 1st World
War in 1917, the land was
then placed under British Mandate by the League of Nations. In other words, Great Britain became the “overseer”
of the land, but not the owner.
So in reality the holy land was indeed a “no man’s land.”
The land remained under British Mandate
until the British government turned the Mandate back to the United Nations in 1947. The United Nations immediately voted to
partition the land
of Palestine into two
separate states, one for the Arabs and the other for the Jews. The Jews rejoiced over this decision, but the
Arabs rejected it totally. The Arabs
loudly let it be known that if Israel
attempted to establish a nation, they would be attacked and destroyed by the
combined armies of the Arab nations.
Nevertheless on May 14, 1948, when the
British governor in Tel Aviv lowered the British flag from the flag pole in
front of the Hall of Justice, David Ben Gurion and his Jewish supporters
stepped up to the flag pole and ran the FLAG OF ISRAEL up the pole and read a
prepared statement declaring the NATION OF ISRAEL a reality. Glory to God!
This fulfilled so many Old Testament Scriptures that I don’t have the
time nor space in this study to list them all.
The
new nation of Israel
was immediately attacked and forced to fight their “war of independence,”
described in detail in Psalm 48.
At that time there were about 350,000 Jews in all the land of Israel, yet they were able to defeat the
combined armies of all the Arab nations that came against them. How great is the GOD OF ISRAEL! When their war of independence ended with an armistice
being signed, the city of Jerusalem was
divided between Israel
and Jordan with Israel occupying the western half of the city
and Jordan
occupying the eastern half of it. Right
through the heart of the city was a strip of land explicitly called “no
man’s land.” Coincidence…?? Or the hand of God…??
But the Jubilee cycle wasn’t
complete. Jerusalem remained a divided city until 1967. In 1967 the whole world was astounded when Israel fought
the now famous Six Day War with the Arab nations around them. In the Six Day War the Jews regained complete
control of the city of Jerusalem. At the very end of the ninth Jubilee cycle,
the beloved city of the Jews reverted to the Jewish people, exactly as the
Rabbi had prophesied hundreds of years previously in 1217. Praise the
Lord!
But the Rabbi’s prophecies were still not
complete. He had also prophesied that during
the tenth Jubilee cycle the Messianic
end-times would begin. The tenth Jubilee cycle began in 1967 and will end in 2017. Hello!
Are our readers listening? We
living
5
today
are “on
holy ground.” Let every reader
humble themselves before Almighty God!
There were many other
prophetically significant events which happened during the 450 year period [9 Jubilee cycles] from 1517 to 1967, especially on or in close proximity to the actual “Jubilee”
years. For instance…..
In 1667
[a Jubilee year] John Milton
published his book, “Paradise
Lost.” Today most Christians have never even heard of the book, but back
then the book immediately became a best seller sweeping throughout the whole
English speaking world. Literally
thousands of people, both Jews and Gentiles, came to a saving knowledge of the
Lord Jesus Christ through reading that magnificent Christian classic. Praise the Lord!
In 1717
[a Jubilee year] the Hurva Synagogue was built in Jerusalem. One of the Rabbi’s at the dedication of the
synagogue that year also gave a prophecy.
He prophesied that the Hurva Synagogue would be destroyed three times
and rebuilt three times. This
prophecy has come to pass exactly to the letter. The Hurva synagogue was rebuilt and dedicated
for the third time during this very year of 2010. Why is this
important? Because the Rabbi also
prophesied that WHEN THE HURVA SYNAGOGUE WAS DEDICATED THE THIRD TIME THE
MESSIAH OF ISRAEL
WOULD COME! Folks, all of the other
prophecies made by the Rabbi’s have been fulfilled to the letter. Then
why should not this prophecy also be fulfilled to the letter? Well…???
The
Messiah of Israel is THE LORD JESUS CHRIST, whether the stiffnecked, rebellious,
“uncircumcised
in heart” [Acts 7:51]
unbelieving Jews want to believe it or not!
And He is coming THIS YEAR “in the air” [1 Thessalonians 4:13-18] to rescue and receive His New Covenant
saints unto Himself. Glory to God! Praise the Lord! Hallelujah!
Hosanna to the King! Thank you
Lord Jesus! Let every one who names the
name of Christ lift up their voices and give Him praise and glory! Praise the Lord! The Rabbi’s prophecy will be literally
fulfilled! Glory to the Lord!
The Last Jubilee Cycle
The last “Jubilee cycle” of 50 years began
on Rosh HaShanah, Tishri 1, 5728
[1967], and it will extend to the eve
of Rosh HaShanah, Tishri 1, 5778
[2017].
Then on the 10th day of Tishri, the Day of Atonement, in the
Jewish year 5778 [September 30, 2017], the Trumpet will be blown proclaiming the beginning of “The Great Jubilee.” Any serious
student of Bible prophecy knows that the “Jubilee” is and has always been a type of the Millennial
Kingdom of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Glory to God! Hallelujah!
Praise the Lord!
Folks, we who are living today are so
close to the end of this present age and the glorious kingdom of our Lord
and Savior that we ought to be rejoicing and praising our Lord every day that
we live. What a glorious future there is
in store for God’s people.
These Final Seven Years
I would point out to our readers that at
this very moment the Feast of Tabernacles is in progress in Israel. This is a seven day festival which begins on
the 15th day of Tishri on the Jewish calendar, then the seven days
are followed by one additional special Sabbath day, making the total
festival an eight day celebration.
On our Gentile calendar the Feast
6
of
Tabernacles began on September 23rd,
which this year was also the Autumnal Equinox, the full moon, the end of the
Jewish harvest season, and the time when the great trumpet of Psalm
81:3 was to be blown.
As I write this is now September 29th and the
7th day of the Feast of Tabernacles. Tomorrow, September 30, 2010 will be the eighth day of Tabernacles
and the special Sabbath Day observance on which the Great Trumpet of Tabernacles is blown three times. I would remind our readers that “3” is the
Bible number always associated with “the
resurrection and the rapture” in God’s Word. Glory!
Praise the Lord!
Am I saying that the resurrection and
rapture of God’s people will take place tomorrow? No!
But I would point out to our readers that September 30, 2010 is exactly seven years to the day from September
30, 2017 on our Gentile calendar of 365.2422 days to the year. Folks, we are running out of time
according to the time allotted for the
seven year Tribulation period to occur in the inspired Word of God. Almighty God NEVER violates His own
Word. Praise the Lord!
So what I am saying is that there is a GREAT
POSSIBILITY that the resurrection and rapture of God’s people COULD
occur on this final eighth day of the Feast of Tabernacles TOMORROW.
But even if it doesn’t, how much “time” is
left for these final end time events [the
resurrection, rapture, Tribulation, and return of Christ] to occur BEFORE
the sounding of the trumpet on the Great Day of Atonement, September 30, 2017,
proclaiming the establishment of THE
GLORIOUS MILLENNIAL KINGDOM OF OUR LORD?
THINK ABOUT IT!
Conclusion
I wrote this study to encourage God’s
people who are seriously studying the Word, praying, watching, and waiting
eagerly for the coming of our precious Lord and Saviour to rapture His people
to glory. HIS COMING IS AT THE DOOR! Look up and rejoice “for your redemption draweth nigh,”
Luke 21:28.
I also wrote this study as A FINAL WARNING to every lost person
who reads this study. YOU are
facing imminent judgment in the coming terrible Tribulation period at the hands
of Almighty God unlike anything you have even known or even imagined in your
entire life. You may not even believe
that there is a God right now. But
you will believe God is real six months from now…….if you are still
alive! If you have doubts about God’s
existence, then ask Him in sincere prayer to reveal Himself to you. He will answer if you are honest and sincere
in asking. I am personally begging you,
if you have any fear of God whatsoever within you, then call on the Lord NOW
for salvation, for I have no desire to see you cast into the fires of eternal
damnation, Revelation 20:15. I do
care! God Himself knows this is the
truth for I am watering this plea for your lost soul with my tears even as I
write. My prayer for YOU, lost
friend, is that God may have mercy upon your poor lost soul, and bring you to a
saving knowledge of my own wonderful Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ! John 3:16 3:36 5:24 14:6 Acts 4:12 16:30-31
Romans 10:8-13.