373 What is the significance of Sabbatic

What is the significance of the Sabbatical and Jubilee years?

The number seven in Judaism is a symbolic division of time, and is sacred to Elohim. The creation week consisted of seven days, ending in the weekly Sabbath. The Feast of Weeks or Shavuot is so called because it occurs seven weeks after the First Day of Unleavened Bread, the fiftieth day being Pentecost. These days are parallel to the Sabbatical and Jubilee years, transliterated as ‘shemittah’ and ‘yobel’ in Hebrew. YHVH is dealing with humanity over a 7000-year period. Since Adam and Eve, induced by the lies and temptation of Satan, sinned,they were expelled from the Garden of Eden, where they were destined to live forever. For that reason all have sinned and fall short of the glory of Elohim; causing death to spread to all humankind through sin[1]. YHVH has allowed all of mankind to be led into sin by Satan, thus allowing us to see for ourselves where sin leads us.

During the first 6000 years after our original parents were banished from the Garden of Eden, YHVH has allowed humanity to experiment with different forms of government, culture, education and religion. In factHe is allowing us to learn that by living life free of His leadership only leads to failure. We are very close to the end of the 6000 years and because there are both good and evil in the world today, some have been living in a fool’s paradise thinking that things cannot go better. However, times have changed and even the well to do is beginning to feel the pinch. I believe that Jacob’s trouble has already started, and we are soon going to see troubles that we have never seen before, as we read in Matthew 24: 21, in this way: “for then there will be a great tribulation, such as has not occurred since the beginning of the world until now, nor ever shall.”. We are a few minutes from mid-night, when the bridegroom Yahshua is about to return for His bride. However, before He returns we are in for a very bumpy ride. The great tribulation will precede His return to come and rule the world from Jerusalem for a thousand years. The seven thousandth year, being the millennium, the Great Sabbath of the YHVH our Elohim.

From the Torah portions that we studied recently, we learnt that after wandering in the wilderness for forty years, Israel was ready to cross over the Jordan River. Moses told the Israelites in Deuteronomy 7, that YHVH will deliver them from the wicked people living in the land, and that the Israelites should utterly destroy these peoples before them, and not make a covenant with them at all. The Israelites were also not to intermarry with these nations;instead they were to smash down the altars and sacred pillars of these people. YHVH wanted the Israelites to utterly destroy these nations before them. However, we know that Israel did not do as YHVH commanded them and because of their disobedience their punishment were to eventually become slaves to these nations. The fact is that Israel did not believe that YHVH would allow them to be taken captive by foreign powers.

We see that the northern ten tribes were taken captive first during the years 718 – 721 BCE and remained captive until the present day. The southern two tribes, consisting of Judah and Benjamin, as well as the priests and Levites among them, were taken captive in the year 586 BCE. Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon attacked Jerusalem, breaking down its walls, destroying the city and the Temple that Solomon built. The Babylonians then took the nation of Judah captive to Babylon, where they remained for 70 years. However, the Babylonians did not try to take away the identity of the Jews. They retained their language, culture and Laws. After 70 years, the king of Persia, named Cyrus, allowed them to return to their homeland, to rebuild the Temple. The Israelites were removed from the Promised Land because of their refusal to obey YHVH and His Torah, and specifically the land Sabbath. We read accordingly in 2 Chronicles 36: 20 & 21, as follows: ‘And those who had escaped from the sword he carried away to Babylon; and they were servants to him and to his sons until the rule of the kingdom of Persia, (21) to fulfill the word of YHVH by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed its Sabbaths. All the days of its desolation it kept Sabbath until seventy years were complete.’ Whilst Judah was captive in Babylon the Promised Land lay idle in order to make up for the 70 cycles of sabbatical years that they neglected to keep. Jeremiah prophesied that YHVH will let the nation return from Babylon after 70 years, in Jeremiah 29: 10, saying: ‘When seventy years have been completed for Babylon, I will visit you and fulfill My good word to you, to bring you back to this place.’

Our Father YHVH never changes His mind, as we read in Malachi 3: 6, like this: “For I, YHVH, do not change; therefore you, O sons of Jacob, are not consumed.” The first time the concept of the Sabbatical year is mentionedis in Exodus 21, where mention is made of the release of a Hebrew slave in the seventh year, after serving his master for six years. We read in Exodus 23: 10 – 12 about the Land Sabbath for the first time. It is therefore clear that the Land Sabbath was part and parcel of the covenant that YHVH established with Moses in Exodus 24. Both the Land Sabbath and the Jubilee, start on the Day of Atonement: The Day of Atonement falls on the tenth day of the seventh month. The land had to lay fallow on every seventh year, as well as on the fiftieth year. Therefore both the 49th and 50th years were years during which the land had to lay fallow. We have seen in the final few chapters of Numbers that YHVH told Moses that women may inherit their father’s land; they had to marry one of the tribe of her father, so that the sons of Israel each may possess the inheritance of his fathers. This prevented the transfer of the inheritance of one tribe to another. So the land would always remain the property of the proper tribe when it is released to its original family during the Jubilee. The year of the Jubilee, also known as the year of liberty, will also be kept during the millennium rule of Yahshua our Messiah, as we read in Ezekiel 46: 17, like this: “But if he gives a gift from his inheritance to one of his servants, it shall be his until the year of liberty; then it shall return to the prince. His inheritance shall be only his sons’; it shall belong to them.”

We read about the command regarding the Land Sabbath and the Jubilee in Leviticus 25: 1 – 13 as follows: ‘YHVH then spoke to Moses at Mount Sinai, saying, (2) “Speak to the sons of Israel, and say to them, ‘When you come into the land which I shall give you, then the land shall have a Sabbath to YHVH. (3) Six years you shall sow your field, and six years you shall prune your vineyard and gather in its crop, (4) but during the seventh year the land shall have a Sabbath rest a Sabbath to YHVH; you shall not sow your field nor prune your vineyard. (5)Your harvest’s aftergrowth you shall not reap, and your grapes of untrimmed vines you shall not gather; the land shall have a sabbatical year. (6) And all of you shall have the Sabbath products of the land for food; yourself, and your male and female slaves, and your hired man and your foreign resident, those who live as aliens with you. (7)Even your cattle and the animals that are in your land shall have all its crops to eat. (8) You are also to count of seven Sabbaths of years for yourself, seven times seven years, so that you have the time of the seven Sabbaths of years, namely forty-nine years. (9) You shall then sound a ram’s horn abroad on the tenth day of the seventh month; on the Day of Atonement you shall sound a horn all through your land. (10) You shall thus consecrate the fiftieth year and proclaim a release through the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you, and each of you shall return to his own property, and each of you shall return to his family. (11) You shall have the fiftieth year as a Jubilee; you shall not sow, nor reap its aftergrowth, nor gather in from its untrimmed vines. (12) For it is a jubilee; it shall be holy to you. You shall eat its crops out of the field. (13)On this year of the jubilee each of you shall return to his own property.’ Whereas during the Land Sabbath, the land, the animals and the vineyards rest and all debts are cancelled, during the Jubilee year, the land rests and reverts to its original owner and all slaves are freed. The Israelites therefore looked forward to the year of the Jubilee in eager anticipation.The slaves were freed during the Sabbatical and Jubilee years, thus leveling the Israelite society. This ensured that all were equal before YHVH.

There is a very good reason whyYHVH made Atonement, the year of the Jubilee and the seventh year Land Sabbath to interconnect. They are all about the subject of oppression, lack of forgiveness and greed. Once we understand why the Sabbatical year and the year of the Jubilee were necessary for the people of Israel, then we will understand what true fasting is. Both the Sabbatical year and the Jubilee year have to do with release and restoration: Release of debt, release of slaves, and the restoration of property to its rightful owners. The land Sabbath was necessary because people were enslaving other people less fortunate than themselves. They were doing this because of debt owed and taken out in forced labor. Why was this allowed? For the same reason that Moses allowed divorce: Because of the hardness of the people’s hearts. This brings us to poverty!! There have always been poor people in the world, including in Israel. Has our Father failed to provide for the poor? No!!

YHVH is providing for the poor through their fellow human beings. YHVH gives to some in excess and He expects that those who have in excess to share their excess with the poor. The following tells us how YHVH has provided for the poor. Let us start in Deuteronomy 24: 19 ”When you reap your harvest in your field and have forgotten a sheaf in the field, you shall not go back to get it; it shall be for the alien, for the orphan, and for the widow, in order that YHVH your Elohim may bless you in all the work of your hands.” We continue on in Leviticus 19: 9 – 10: “Now when you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap to the very corners of your field, neither shall you gather the gleanings of your harvest. (10) Nor shall you glean your vineyard, nor shall you gather the fallen fruit of your vineyard; you shall leave them for the needy and for the stranger. I am YHVH your Elohim.”We read further in James 2: 15 – 16: “If a brother or sister is without clothing and in need of daily food, and one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace, be warmed and be filled,’ and yet you do not give them what is necessary for their body, what use is that?”And finally in 1 John 3: 17 we read: “But whoever has the world’s goods, and beholds his brother in need and closes his heart against him, how does the love of Elohim abide in him?”YHVH wants us to live like this; and because of the hardness of the hearts of mankind, the year of release and the leveling of society are required. Without this leveling the rich will get richer and the poor will get poorer. People are unwilling to share with those less fortunate than themselves. In YHVH’s perfect society all people will take care of one another, but we are a long way from such a perfect society.

The Jubilee and Land Sabbaths were Holy or Set-apart times in Israeland as a result of these commandments, the Promised Land became known as the Holy Land. However, we know that the Israelites did not continue to keep the Land Sabbaths and Jubilee years and were eventually enslaved as a result. We have major problems with especially the poor in the world today, because industrialization and modernization of civilization made obedience to the Laws of Elohim increasingly more difficult and less popular. The canceling of a borrower’s debt is something totally unheard of, yet this is what Yahshua taught in the sample prayer that He taught His disciples and by extension us His modern day disciples to follow. In fact He taught in Matthew 6: 14 & 15, “(For) if you forgive men for their transgressions, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. (15) But if you do not forgive men, then your Father will not forgive your transgressions.” Thinkabout it - the ultra rich will not become more so, if they had to return legally procured property after every fifty years. Nobody is obeying these commandments any longer today and this is perhaps the reason why, we have recessions and even depressions, to assist in the much needed leveling of society. Not even farmers are obeying these commandments of YHVH any longer and because of difficult economic conditions and pressures laid upon them by the banks,they cannot even think of letting the land lay fallow for a whole year.

Everything that YHVH does, He does with a purpose. He gave the Israelites the Passover to remind them how He discredited and destroyed the pagan g-ds of the Egyptians. The Days of Unleavened Breadreminded the Israelites that they left leaven behind in Egypt, and as a result became a new creation as they travailed towards Mount Sinai to enter into a marriage covenant with YHVH. The Feast of Tabernacles similarly reminded the Israelites as well as us, that they lived in temporary dwellings in the wilderness, for forty years, before they finally entered the Promised Land. We dwell in temporary dwellings during the Feast of Tabernacles, to remind us that life is temporary and it is only at the return of Messiah, when we are resurrected as spirit beings, that we will live forever (or permanently), if we overcome, the self, Satan and the world, during this temporary existence.

After Yahshua’s return, Satan will be bound for a thousand years and the people who will live on into the millennium, will not have to worry about his influence any longer. The Day of Atonement was anciently the only day upon which the High Priest could enter the Holy of holies, to approach the throne of YHVH with blood offerings, for the forgiveness of the sins of the nation of Israel. The Day of Atonement is known as Yom Kippur, indicating that it was the day upon which the sins of the nation was covered. Obviously, this was supposed to point them to Messiah, the Lamb of YHVH who came to take away (not only cover) the sins of the whole world. When the shofar was sounded on the Day of Atonement in the Sabbatical year, it ushered in a year long Sabbath. It also marked the cancellation of all debt. After seven Sabbatical years came the year of the Jubilee, on the fiftieth year, another year during which the land lay fallow. However, the distinction being, that on the Jubilee the land was restored to the original owners. All the land given to the Israelite families when they first settled the land was again returned to the original families. Tribal and family registers were required to be kept in order to protect the original owners of the land. It was because of these records that were kept, that it was possible to confirm that Yahshua came from the tribe of Judah.

Can you imagine how the sound of the shofar on the Day of Atonement anciently must have inspired the children of Israel? It must have been a sure cure for ailments like depression and anxiety because of debts or loosing ones property. Can you imagine how much more joyful we are going to be on the Day of Atonement, after Yahshua’s returned one day on the Feast of Trumpets. Those who are brokenhearted will be comforted; the poor and hungry will be filled. All tears will be dried and the world will be liberated from the influences of Satan. The Shofar will be blown specifically on the Feast of Trumpets, on the New Moon and the dead in Messiah will be raised, as we read in verses 51 – 53 of 1 Corinthians 15, as follows: ‘Behold, I tell you a mystery; we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, (52) in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. (53) For this perishable must put on the imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality.”

The Sabbatical year remains important to YHVH, as the very first teaching that Yahshua gave after He was immersed and overcame Satan’s temptation was from Isaiah 61: 1 & 2. We read accordingly in Luke 4: 16 – 21, ‘And He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up; and as was His custom, He entered the synagogue on the Sabbath, and stood up to read. (17) And the book of the prophet Isaiah was handed to Him. And He opened the book, and found the place where it was written, (18) “THE SPIRIT OF YHVH IS UPON ME, BECAUSE HE ANNOINTED ME TO PREACH THE GOSPEL TO THE POOR. HE HAS SENT ME TO PROCLAIM RELEASE TO THE CAPTIVES, AND RECOVERY OF SIGHT TO THE BLIND, TO SET FREE THOSE WHO ARE DOWNTRODDEN, (19) TO PROCLAIM THE FAVORABLE YEAR OF YHVH.” (20) And He closed the book, and gave it back to the attendant, and sat down; and the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed upon Him. (21) And He began to say to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”’ In reading this Scripture Yahshua only read to the first half of verse 2, showing undoubtedly that He was beginning to call people out of the world to become His disciples. He came to preach to those who were teachable and continued building His congregation of called out ones to become His body of believers.

He told Kepha (Peter) in Matthew 16: 18 that His body of believers would never die out, but would exist until He returns to earth one day. Yahshua was cut off in the middle of the week, as Daniel prophesied in Daniel 9: 27, and similarly He stopped reading the remainder of verse 2 of Isaiah 61. Yahshua started His Ministry during a Sabbatical year, or ‘the favorable year of YHVH’ (27-28 CE)and will return one day on “(And) the day of vengeance of our Elohim; to comfort all who mourn”,as per the second part of Isaiah 61: 2, which corresponds with the message in Revelation 19: 11 – 16, as follows: ‘And I saw heaven opened; and behold, a white horse, and He who sat upon it is called Faithful and True; and in righteousness He judges and wages war. (12) And His eyes are a flame of fire, and upon His head are many diadems; and He has a name written upon Him which no one knows except Himself. (13) And He is clothed with a robe dripped in blood; and His name is called The Word of Elohim. (14) And the armies which are in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, were following Him on white horses. (15) And from His mouth comes a sharp sword, so that with it He may smite the nations; and He will rule them with a rod of iron; and He treads the wine press of the fierce wrath of Elohim, the almighty. (16)And on His robe and on His thigh He has a name written, “KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.”’ This is when the kingdoms of the world, will become the kingdom of Elohim, which will be an everlasting kingdom.

The Sabbatical and Jubilee years set the captives free, cancelled debt, restored the land to its rightful owners and reunited families. It is therefore also a picture of when Yahshua will return at the end of the 6000 year misrule of man, to come and restore everything to what it used to be like in the Garden of Eden. However, we need to be obedient to the commandments of Elohim and hold to the testimony of Yahshua, if we are going to be the ones to jubilate at His return. We therefore conclude with the words of warning from Yahshua in Luke 21: 34 - 36, as follows: “Be on guard, that your hearts may not be weighted down with dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of life, and that day come on you suddenly like a trap; (35) for it will come upon all those who dwell on the face of all the earth. (36) But keep on the alert at all times, praying in order that you may have strength to escape all these things that are about to take place, and to stand before the Son of Man.”

[1]As we read in the first part of Romans 6: 23, ‘For the wages of sin is death.’