After reading Greg Wilsons letter last week:I began to wonder more about the seven year periods for Israel.Also, the fifty year jubilee begins on the day of atonement:
Leviticus 25:9 Then shalt thou cause the trumpet of the jubile 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.10 And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof: it shall be a jubile unto you; and ye shall return every man unto his possession, and ye shall return every man unto his family.
Does the seven year of release, and also the seven year sabbath of the land, also both start on the day of atonement?
Deuteronomy 15:1 At the end of every seven years thou shalt make a release.2 And this is the manner of the release: Every creditor that lendeth ought unto his neighbour shall release it; he shall not exact it of his neighbour, or of his brother; because it is called the LORD’S release.
Leviticus 25:4 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.
What caused me to wonder, was the following scripture:
Deuteronomy 31:10 And Moses commanded them, saying, At the end of every seven years, in the solemnity of the year of release, in the feast of tabernacles,11 When all Israel is come to appear before the LORD thy God in the place which he shall choose, thou shalt read this law before all Israel in their hearing.
Does that mean the seven year of release starts on the feast of tabernacles?Or does that mean that in the the year of release, which began on the 10th day of the 7th month,in the solemnity of the year of release, that beginning 5 days later, at the of the feast of tabernacles,that the word of God was to be read to all those gathered in Jerusalem for the feast?That appeared to be what happened after the captivity returned to Jerusalem:
Nehemiah 8:17 And all the congregation of them that were come again out of the captivity made booths, and sat under the booths: for since the days of Jeshua the son of Nun unto that day had not the children of Israel done so. And there was very great gladness.18 Also day by day, from the first day unto the last day, he read in the book of the law of God. And they kept the feast seven days; and on the eighth day was a solemn assembly, according unto the manner.
So, do they all begin on the day of atonement?