Saturday, October 24, 2015

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 50th day (Shavuot/Pentecost) that follows the seven weeks after Passover and the 50th 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 phraseproclaim 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 40th 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 49th 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 50th 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.



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

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