(Continuation from the Book of Revelation Series #11 podcast)
Jesus was sent to earth to redeem the world back to His Father. To do so, Jesus had to pay the price to repurchase the Deed to Earth—His creation—according to the Levitical laws of the Year of Jubilee. And while there are other requirements written on the outside of the scroll that Jesus must fulfill, it’s interesting to note that the Year of Jubilee timeframe offers some insight as to WHEN earth’s redemption might take place.
Of course, care should always be taken regarding the fact that God alone determines this moment in time. However, His ‘future plan promises’ are sprinkled throughout the Tanakh—and New Testament—and learning about His promises and patterns brings joy, and hope, and peace to those who wish to comprehend.
So, what is the Year of Jubilee?
Seven, and the powerful pattern thereof, was created by the Lord.
Take a week, for example, seven days—six to work—one to rest. Repeat. In Leviticus chapter 25, one plants a field for six years, and rests that field on the seventh year. Repeat. Grapes are reaped from a vineyard for six years and on the seventh the vines are rested. Repeat. A slave is indebted for six years, and set free on the seventh.
Then, the Lord counted out seven-times-seven years, for a total of 49. On the 50th Year of Jubilee all sorts of wondrous things occur. Liberty for all inhabitants is declared throughout the land. Every person returns to the land they inherited and reclaims it. Every person returns to their tribe for celebrations. No work is conducted during the Year of Jubilee. And God promised in Leviticus 25:18 that if His people maintained His seven-year patterning, “then the land will yield its fruit and you’ll eat to your satisfaction and live securely.”
There’s more. In Leviticus 25:23 God tells His people they are not to sell their land with any finality because all the land actually belongs to Him. God reminds the people that they are but sojourners and travelers until they are returned to Him. God gave them the land as an inheritance; therefore, they cannot permanently sell to anyone, land that they do not own. They are to redeem the land at the Year of Jubilee. They have to pay and they must meet the other requirements, but the land will be redeemed unless they absolutely cannot meet the payment and requirements. If they cannot, then the redemption for the land falls upon their family. This man is called a Kinsman Redeemer. If this man, or any man within the family, cannot meet the payment and requirements, then the person who bought the land keeps the land forever.
Well, it gets more interesting. Six thousand years ago in the Garden of Eden Satan deceived the original couple, and they forfeited their inheritance—the Deed to Earth—over to him. Mankind was sold into Satan’s control and his slavery of sin. For Satan knows that God cannot have sin anywhere near Him. After all, Satan was called Lucifer once—and he was God’s highest created angel—who lived constantly within God’s presence until he declared himself above God. When God kicked Lucifer out of His presence, Satan vowed to take as many people as he could away from God. And that means, if Satan can keep humanity wallowing in sin, he keeps them from God. And if he can keep mankind from God, he can keep them out of the possession of his arch enemy, the Son of God. Now extend that out. If Satan keeps people in sin, he removes them from eternal salvation.
And that is—and has always been—Satan’s plan. He desires to take down as many people as he possibly can into the bowls of hell, where they stand zero chance of making it out and living forever with their Creator.
Now granted, Adam and Eve could have obeyed God’s one command and not eaten from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. We’d be in a much different situation right now if they had! But God granted mankind this wonderful and amazing thing called free will, and the original couple expressed it according to their desires—they chose AGAINST GOD.
And that’s why God granted free will, because what God wants most is for every single person to DESIRE Him. He wants people to desire Him so that He can grant them eternal life in perfection with Him. When a person desires Him so much that they commit themselves to Him, the Father turns this person over to His Son to receive redemption, because Jesus bought them WITH HIS LIFE.
In doing so, they become a member of the people group that will regain possession to the Deed to Earth. So, back to six thousand years ago and the correlation to the Year of Jubilee.
The great Pastor Chuck Smith said, “Interesting to me that just six millennia ago, man was sold into the slavery of sin and the world was sold to Satan and he took control and has had control for six thousand years. Adam forfeited the earth just about 4000 years B.C. and we are coming out to the 2000 years AD. I believe that God has established the six in one pattern, and that it will be fulfilled when Satan will have had his reign for six thousand years…and earth is now coming up for redemption.”
According to the pattern of sevens, what happens at the end of the 6000 years?
In the Book of Revelation, at the Second Coming of the Lord Jesus Christ—the instant King Jesus dismounts off of His white horse—His Millennial Kingdom reign begins! He takes the throne of David in the holy city Jerusalem just as the archangel Gabriel promised Mary in Luke 1:26. Then King Jesus will restore His creation back to what it was in the Garden of Eden and believers experience abundance, peace, joy, hope, love and freedom as it was originally intended.
Amen and Amen.