Jubilee:
2 Prophetic Aspects
by Bill
Somers
Is there not an appointed time
to man upon earth?
are not his days also like the
days of an hireling? Job 7.1
Introduction
We have written an earlier article
called The Coming Jubilee, which outlined
some interesting prophetic features of the biblical idea, "the year of
jubilee'".
In that article we stated :
The Jubilee is a celebration to take
place on the 50th year after Israel came into the Land.
The Jubilee Year for the Nation of
Israel is 1997. The state of Israel came into being in 1948, 1998 will
be the 50th anniversary but 1997 is the 50th year,
the Year of Jubilee!.
The 1996/97 jubilee year is
when Israel is celebrating Jerusalem 3000, commemorating the 3000th
year since David took the city. [David recaptured the city as Joshua had
taken it earlier.] Consider David as a type of Messiah and Jerusalem as
a type of the Church and this speaks of Christ coming to His Church. It
is a foreshadowing of revival.
Jubilee is a type of revival!
The Jubilee represents the End times, a time of revival.
The 1996/97 jubilee year is
also the 2000th anniversary of the Birth of Jesus, given the
most probable date of 5 B. C.; on the feast of tabernacles or there about.
The 1996/97 jubilee year must
also mark the beginning of the new millenium. It is the start of the 7th
thousand year period in God's creation. It is the 7th day of
his week, spoken prophetically as the 7th day and also as the
3rd day. The 3rd day since Jesus birth.
2 Aspects in the prophetic
The Jubilee has two other overlooked
prophetic aspects relating to the end times. The Holy Spirit led me to
them by raising my curiosity about a particular phrase that occurs in Isaiah
in a couple places. That phrase is 'the years of an hireling'. [also days
of an hireling or time of an hireling or hired servant]
Isaiah 21:16 For thus hath the
Lord said unto me, Within a year, according to the years of an hireling,
and all the glory of Kedar shall fail:
Isaiah 16:14 But now the LORD hath
spoken, saying, Within three years, as the years of an hireling,
and the glory of Moab shall be contemned, with all that great multitude;
and the remnant shall be very small and feeble.
As I researched this phrase, years of
an hireling, I was led to these relevant passages in Leviticus
And if thy brother that dwelleth
by thee be waxen poor, and be sold unto thee; thou shalt not compel him
to serve as a bondservant:
But as an hired servant,
and as a sojourner, he shall be with thee, and shall serve
thee unto the year of jubilee:
And then shall he depart
from thee, both he and his children with him, and shall return unto his
own family, and unto the possession of his fathers shall he return. Leviticus
25:39-41
The Hireling Will Depart
Now the prophetic element here, in
the bold text, is thus. A hired servant shall serve until the year of jubilee,
and then he shall depart. In other words the hireling will depart during
the year of jubilee.
But all this is meaningless until you
consider the New Testament context or usage of the term hireling!
But he that is an hireling,
and not the shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, seeth
the wolf coming, and leaveth the sheep, and fleeth: and the wolf catcheth
them, and scattereth the sheep.
The hireling fleeth,
because he is an hireling, and careth not for the sheep.
John
10:12-13
Here the hireling is contrasted with the
shepherd. The shepherd or pastor is such a common metaphor for the leader
of a local Church that we sometimes forget that it is a figure of speech.
Here the Lord is speaking of shepherds vs. hirelings or true vs. false
pastors. The conclusion is that the hireling refers to false pastors in
the Church. And further that the departure of the hireling then represents
the purging of the Church and the end of oppression within the Church [i.
e. the Civil War, or Judgment that begins at the house of God]
We see the false shepherds [hirelings]
spoken of in these passages:
Therefore, O ye shepherds, hear
the word of the LORD;
Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold,
I am against the shepherds; and I will require my flock at their hand,
and cause them to cease from feeding the flock; neither shall the shepherds
feed themselves any more; for I will deliver my flock from their mouth,
that they may not be meat for them. Ezekiel 34:9-10
Many pastors have destroyed my vineyard,
they have trodden my portion under foot, they have made my pleasant portion
a desolate wilderness. Jeremiah 12:10
And the true shepherds raised up in this
passage, clearly speaking of repentance and revival:
Go and proclaim these words toward
the north, and say, Return, thou backsliding Israel, saith the LORD; and
I will not cause mine anger to fall upon you: for I am merciful, saith
the LORD, and I will not keep anger for ever.
Only acknowledge thine iniquity,
that thou hast transgressed against the LORD thy God, and hast scattered
thy ways to the strangers under every green tree, and ye have not obeyed
my voice, saith the LORD.
Turn, O backsliding children, saith
the LORD; for I am married unto you: and I will take you one of a city,
and two of a family, and I will bring you to Zion:
And I will give you pastors
according to mine heart, which shall feed you with knowledge and understanding.
Jeremiah 3:12-15
The exciting conclusion to this is that
we can expect to see this to happen or begin to happen during the year
of jubilee!
The Field Shall Return …
Now while researching the phrase 'years
of an hireling' I came to this verse in Job.
Is there not an appointed time
to man upon earth? are not his days also like the days of an hireling?
Job 7.1
Here Job is lamenting his sorry condition
and wishing for death. He says that the hireling has an appointed time
to serve and man has an appointed time to live. So that eventually the
hireling will go free and mans [Job's] suffering will end.
But prophetically this is saying
is that the time of man's rule upon earth will come to an end!
The heaven, even the heavens,
are the LORD'S: but the earth hath he given to the children of men. Ps
115:16
God has given the earth to man to rule.
And he by his fall has in turn given it to Satan. But in Leviticus it says:
"The land shall not be sold for
ever: for the land is mine; for ye are strangers and sojourners with me."
(Leviticus
25:23)
There is an appointed time for the land
[or the earth or the field] to be under man's rule, but:
"In the year of the jubilee the
field shall return unto him of whom it was bought, even to him to whom
the possession of the land did belong." (Leviticus 27:24)
And Isaiah identifies the owner of the
land in this verse:
And he shall pass through Judah;
he shall overflow and go over, he shall reach even to the neck; and the
stretching out of his wings shall fill the breadth of thy land,
O Immanuel. Isaiah 8:8
The Owner of the Land is Immanuel, or
Jesus. In the year of the jubilee the field shall return unto him!
The Millennium
The time of man on the earth is the
6000 years of man's time to rule. Then the land returns to its original
owner, God. Since this takes place, or begins to take place in the year
of jubilee, the jubilee is the beginning of the Kingdom of God on
the earth. And therefore, the jubilee is the beginning of the millennial
reign of the Lord Jesus Christ. And since these events will happen before
Jesus' Second Coming, the Second Coming takes place during the millenium,
not before it. As it says in Exodus, where the third day speaks of the
millenium: [See The Third Day in Prophecy by Bill
Somers]
And be ready against the third
day: for the third day the LORD will come down in the sight of all the
people ….. Exodus 19:11
This well known verse from Hosea, indicates
that revival, and the resurrection take place 'after two days, in the third
day' that is on the third day, which means in or during the millenium.
After two days will he revive
us: in the third day he will raise us up, and we shall live in his sight.
Hosea 6:2
The common understanding is that the millenium,
the 1000 years of Jesus rule, begins after the second coming. Our understanding
is that it begins with the Jubilee. Two scriptural allegories support this
view.
Solomon vs. Adonaijah [1 Kings
1]
Kind Solomon was anointed and proclaimed
king while his half brother, Adonijah was ruling. Here Solomon is a type
of Christ and Adonijah a type of antichrist. Both begin to reign about
the same time, yet Solomon prevails and Adonijah is destroyed.
Joash vs. Athaliah [2 Kings
11:1-16]
In this story from 2nd Kings,
Joash is a type of Christ and Athaliah a type of Satan.
And when Athaliah the mother of
Ahaziah saw that her son was dead, she arose and destroyed all the seed
royal.
But Jehosheba, the daughter of
king Joram, sister of Ahaziah, took Joash the son of Ahaziah, and stole
him from among the king's sons which were slain; and they hid him, even
him and his nurse, in the bedchamber from Athaliah, so that he was not
slain.
And he was with her hid in the
house of the LORD six years. And Athaliah did reign over
the land.
And the seventh year
Jehoiada sent and fetched the rulers over hundreds, with the captains and
the guard, and brought them to him into the house of the LORD, and made
a covenant with them, and took an oath of them in the house of the LORD,
and shewed them the king's son. 2 Kings 11:1-4
And he brought forth the king's
son, and put the crown upon him, and gave him the testimony; and they made
him king, and anointed him; and they clapped their hands, and said,
God save the king. 2 Kings 11:12
Here, King Joash, a type of Christ, is
proclaimed King in the house of the Lord [the Church] while Athaliah is
still ruling the rest of the city outside. In the Jubilee, Jesus begins
His rule in the Church while antichrist takes over the outside world.
A similar case is seen in the new testament
in Revelation 11
And there was given me a reed
like unto a rod: and the angel stood, saying, Rise, and measure
the temple of God, and the altar, and them that worship
therein.
But the court which is without
the temple leave out, and measure it not; for it is given unto the
Gentiles: and the holy city shall they tread under foot forty and two months.
Revelation
11:1-2
In this case, measuring the temple and
the worshipers means judging or ruling the Church. The area outside
is left alone, and not judged. So again, this speaks of Jesus Kingdom beginning
with the Church, while the outside world remains under Satan. The same
thing is seen in Isaiah 60
Arise, shine; for thy light is
come, and the glory of the LORD is risen upon thee.
For, behold, the darkness shall
cover the earth, and gross darkness the people: but the LORD shall arise
upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee. Isaiah 60:1-2
This passage speaks of the Glory of the
Lord, [The Kingdom of God] coming upon the Church, while the great darkness
[the power of the enemy] covers those outside.
Again this takes place, or begins to
take place in the year of jubilee. It is the beginning of the thousand
year reign of Christ. Those who overcome satan as he did will join Him,
ruling and reigning in heavenly places.
And I saw thrones, and they sat
upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them
that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and
which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received
his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned
with Christ a thousand years. Revelation 20:4
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