Year of Jubilee (Conclusion)

THE RETURN OF JESUS AND THE YEAR OF JUBILEE

“The world will endure not less than 85 Jubilees, and on the last Jubilee the Son of David will come” (Sanh. 97b)[1]

According to the  Talmud, the return of the Messiah is expected to coincide with the Year of Jubilee.  The Kabbalah sees a parallel between the 50^th day (Shavuot/Pentecost) that follows the seven weeks after Passover and the 50^th year (Jubilee) following the seven Sabbatical year cycles.  The Feast of Pentecost brought forth the Law and the Spirit.  Jubilee will bring forth the Jesus the Messiah, the Son of David. 

Why is Jubilee a likely time for the return of the Messiah?  First, the Year of Jubilee begins with the Jewish New Year, the Feast of Rosh Hashanah (Feast of Trumpets), announced with the blowing of trumpets.  Believers who have studied the Feasts generally hold the Feast of Trumpets as the likely date for the return of Jesus “For the LORD Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and the trumpet of God” (1 Thess 4:16), “For the trumpet will sound and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed,” (1 Cor 15:52).  Rosh Hashanah is also the next feast in keeping with the pattern of Jesus’ fulfillment of the earlier springs feasts of Passover, Unleavened Bread, Firstfruits and Pentecost. 

Further, the Year of Jubilee proclaims a gathering of the nation to Israel, “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,” (Lev 25:11).  This gathering of Israelites reflects one of the greatest promises in the Hebrew text given by Moses before the nation entered the land, (Deut 30:2-5).  An allusion to the fulfillment of this promise is seen in the words Jesus proclaimed before His crucifixion, “And then He will send forth the angels, and will gather together His elect from the four winds, from the farthest end of the earth to the farthest end of heaven,” (Mark 13:27).  Jesus' words imply the close proximity of Jubilee in the days of His ministry.

The Levitical passage describing the Year of Jubilee continues with the phrase “proclaim liberty throughout the land to all the inhabitants,” (Lev 25:10, NIV).  This phrase is later referenced in the prophecy of Isaiah, “The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, because the LORD has anointed me to bring good news to the afflicted…to proclaim liberty to captives and freedom to prisoners,” (Isa 61:1, NASB).  These words of Isaiah have Messianic implications, especially for the believer since Jesus read the same passage in His hometown synagogue, concluding with the words, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing,” (Luke 4:18-21). 

When John asked Jesus “Are you the Expected One?” (Matt 11:3), some think John was alluding to the prophecy of Isaiah (Isa 61:1) and asking if Jesus was the "anointed" one who was going to set John free.  The response of Jesus to John was filled with attributes of the Kingdom, “the blind receive sight and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, the dead are raise up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them” (Matt 11:5), but concludes with the cautionary words, “blessed is he who does not take offense at Me.”  Noticeably absent from Jesus’ words is the release of the captives, which would have occurred in the Year of Jubilee.

It was not preordained that the nation of Israel would reject the Messiah.  For freewill to function, the offer of national restoration through repentance had to be legitimate.  Even though God’s foreknowledge understood that the nation would reject the Messiah, this does not mean that the outcome was predestined.  In other words, Jesus was not just going through the motions, but must have been calling the nation to repentance around the time of Jubilee, A.D. 30 plus or minus a few years.  Had the nation repented and believed, the fullness of the Kingdom would have been revealed.   

 
Although no man knows the exact day Jesus will return, we can speculate that every 50 years the opportunity arrives with the coming of the Year of Jubilee.  Following a fifty-year sequence, the 40^th Jubilee after the crucifixion will arrive sometime between 2027 to 2033 A.D.  No one knows if Jesus will return on this Jubilee, but it’s difficult to conceive that the world can last another 65 years to the Jubilee that follows.  All this is subject to at least the following qualifications:

(1)   The accuracy of the dating of Jesus’ ministry and the crucifixion by historians,

(2)   The assumption that the Year of Jubilee occurred sometime during the ministry of Jesus or in the year of His crucifixion, and

(3)   The understood fifty-year cycle of Jubilee.  Judah haNasi contended that the Year of Jubilee coincided with the Sabbatical 49^th year.  He argued this position to prevent the burden of having two consecutive Sabbath years for the land.  However, the majority of the Talmudic rabbis believed that the biblical phrase “hallow the fiftieth year” along with the promise of three years worth of fruit indicates that the Jubilee year was the 50^th year.  If the Jubilee cycle was only a 49-cycle, then the next Year of Jubilee would arrive by 2039 A.D. 

We live in interesting and prophetic times.

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[1] Encyclopaedia Judaica, Second Edition, Volume 17, page 628

Year of Jubilee (Part 3)

THE YEAR OF JUBILEE BEGINS AFTER THE SEVENTH SABBATICAL YEAR

The remembrance of the Sabbatical Year was to climax after seven Sabbatical Years (49 years) with the celebration of the Year of Jubilee (50^th year).  Jubilee was a “super sized” celebration of the Sabbatical Year.

 “You are also to count off 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. 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.

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. You shall have the fiftieth year as a jubilee; you shall not sow, nor reap its after growth, nor gather in from its untrimmed vines. For it is a jubilee; it shall be holy to you.” (Lev 25:8-12)

The rabbis saw a strong link between the precepts of the Sabbatical Year and the Year of Jubilee,

“According to the halakhah, all rules applicable to the Sabbatical Year, with regard to the prohibition of land cultivation, the renunciation of ownership of produce, and the obligation of the householder to remove all produce gathered for his needs when that species in not found in the field, apply also to the Jubilee: ‘What applies to the Sabbatical Year applies equally to the Jubilee’ (Sifra, Be-Har 3:2)”[1]

In addition to the precepts of the Sabbatical Year, the Year of Jubilee proclaimed “a release through the land to all the inhabitants…each of you shall return to his own property, and each of you shall return to his family.”  The NIV translates the passage as “proclaim liberty throughout the land to all the inhabitants,” (Lev 25:10).  Proclaiming liberty and releasing the inhabitants reminds the reader of God’s redemptive word saving the people out of Egypt and bringing them into the land of Israel.   

The Year of Jubilee restores each Israelite to his own property, and his own family, “He shall still go out in the Year of Jubilee, he and his sons with him.  For the sons of Israel are My servants; they are My servants whom I brought out from the land of Egypt, I am the LORD your God,” (Lev 25:54-55).  Key aspects of the Year of Jubilee are reflected in the popular song of Michael Card,

“The Lord provided for a time for the slaves to be set free

For the debts to all be canceled so His chosen ones could see

His deep desire was for forgiveness he longed to see their liberty

And His yearning was embodied in the Year of Jubilee” (Jubilee by Michael Card)

Israel counted seventeen Jubilees from the time they entered the land of Israel to the time they left (Ar. 12b), but according to the majority of sages, the sanctity of the Year of Jubilee was not every observed.  It was the duty of the bet din (the Sanhedrin) to count the years of the shemittah (Sabbatical Years) as one counts the days of the Omer.7   Although there is some evidence that the Sabbatical Years were observed during the second Temple period, there is no record that the Year of Jubilee was ever calculated by the Sanhedrin and celebrated by the nation of Israel throughout the whole Temple period[2].  Therefore, the exact sequence of years is unknown.

“According to the geonim, not only were the laws of the Jubilee not in force from the time of the exile of these tribes, but after the destruction of the First Temple the Jubilee Years were not even calculated only those of the Sabbatical Years”  (Enclyclopaedia Judaica, Second Edition, Volume 17, page 629)

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[1] Enclyclopaedia Judaica, Second Edition, Volume 17, page 626

[2] Encyclopaedia Judaica, Second Edition, Volume 17, page 627

Year of Jubilee (Part 2)

“The continued dwelling in the land was dependent upon the observance of the shemittah (Sabbatical Year) and Jubilee. (Shab. 33a)”2

What is the reason for the Sabbatical Year?  Some have theorized that the Sabbatical Year is an opportunity for the land to rest for all the Sabbaths that it missed during the previous six years.  One sage observed that there are 52 weekly Sabbaths and 7 Sabbaths associated with annual festivals each year.  Six years multiplied by 59 Sabbaths equals 354 days, or the number of days in a lunar year.  While mankind is afforded the opportunity to rest on every Sabbath, the fields are growing crops and are not afforded the same opportunity.  It is only in the seventh year, the Sabbatical Year, that the fields in Israel have a chance to rest.  The future Millennial Kingdom can be seen as a time for the world to rest from the 6000 years of Sabbaths that it missed.

As far as scripture conveys, the commandments associated with the Sabbatical Year were not practiced prior to the Babylonian exile.  The failure to follow the precepts of the Sabbatical Year are given as the specific reason that the nation was exiled to Babylon for seventy years, “to fulfill the word of the LORD 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,” (2 Chron 36:21).  With the return of the people back to the land of Israel came a re-commitment by the community to the application of the Torah and the laws of the Sabbatical Year.

“As for the peoples of the land who bring wares or any grain on the Sabbath day to sell, we will not buy from them on the Sabbath or a holy day; and we will forego the crops the seventh year and exaction of every debt,” (Neh 10:31)

From the time of Nehemiah until the days of Jesus, there is evidence that Israel maintained some level of observance of the Sabbatical Year. According to Josephus,

“When Alexander the Great reached Jerusalem during his march through Israel, he acceded to the high priest’s request that the Jews be exempted from paying tribute during the Sabbatical Year, when they did not work their land (Jos., Ant. 11:338).  During the Hasmonean War, the fall of Beth Zur…was attributed to a famine within the city since it was a Sabbatical Year (1 Macc. 6:49, 53-54).  Julius Caesar later reaffirmed this privilege of tax exemption during the Sabbatical Year since ‘they neither take fruit from the trees nor do they sow’ (Jos., Ant. 14:202).”[1]

In the century before Jesus, the Pharisees were concerned that Jews might harden their hearts against lending to their poorer brethren, who could not pay back in the Sabbatical Year, (Duet 15:8).  Hillel the Elder (100 B.C. – 10 A.D.), addressed this concern employing the principle of “tikkun olam” (repairing the world).  On the surface, the approach of Hillel looks like a way to circumvent the commandment.  In reality, Hillel's approach protects the well-being of the poor.

“Hillel therefore instituted the procedure know as “prozbol”. A document by which a lender transferred a debt due him into one owed to the court.  The man would bring evidence of the loan before judges who would affirm the lender’s right, as agent of the court, to collect the debt, even during and after the seventh year.  In theory, the Torah law canceling personal debts in the seventh year was still applicable; in practice, though, it was no longer observed…Hillel the Elder enacted the “prozbol…because he saw that people refrained from lending money to one another and violated what was written in the Torah, ‘lest you harbor the base thought.’” (Sifri, Re’eb 113)[2]

Since legal judgments were not negated in the Sabbatical Year, payments subject to legal judgments remained binding.  The action of Hillel supports a position that the Sabbatical Year was observed by some, if not all Jews, in the century before the coming of Jesus Christ.  “Josephus tells that in Herod’s conquest of Jerusalem in the summer of that year (i.e., 37 B.C.), the besieged in the city suffered from a food shortage because of the Sabbatical Year (Jos., Ant. 14:475).”[3]  Between the words of Josephus, the Talmud, and the actions of Hillel, we have some sense that the Sabbatical Year was kept during the days of Jesus. 

Despite evidence supporting observance of the Sabbatical Year in the first century, there is no reference to the Sabbatical Year in the Greek text, either in the gospel accounts, Acts, or the Epistles.  It would be reasonable to expect some reference if the majority of Jews had been keeping the Sabbatical Year.  At some point, Paul might have been compelled to gather support in the Diaspora for the brethren in Jerusalem, as Paul had done during the years of the world-wide famine, (Acts 11:27-30).  However, as the old saying goes, absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.  Most of Acts and the Epistles are written to believers living outside the land of Israel where the laws of the Sabbatical Year were not applicable.

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[1] Enclyclopaedia Judaica, Second Edition, Volume 17, page 629

[2] Hillel: If Not Now, When?, Joseph Telushkin, 2010 Edition, page 51

[3] Enclyclopaedia Judaica, Second Edition, Volume 17, page 627