Prophecies and Patterns – Book III

The Jubilee Code:
Prophetic Milestones in Yahweh’s Redemptive Plan

Published by

PalmoniQuest LLC

Copyright © 2017 by William Struse

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed form without permission.

ISBN - 978-0-9979609-1-4

www.the13thenumeration.com

This book is dedicated to allthose who love to search the pages of the Bible for the treasure it contains.

Acknowledgments

YHWH, thank You for another adventure in Your Word. May these words honor You.

Win, once again I thank you for helping to make this book a reality. It has been a joy to rediscover this together.

Maranatha, Hope, Hannah, Zane, and Noah, you inspire me! Never forget how much YHWH loves you.

Rachel, once again I am indebted to your editing skill and knowledge of the Scripture. You helped make this book better than it would have been. Thank you.

Introduction

Part I:Defining the Bible’s Sabbath and Jubilee Cycles

1. Setting the Captives Free

2. The First Jubilee

3. The Biblical Sabbath Cycle

4. The Biblical JubileeCycle

5. From the Patriarchs to the Kings

6. Synchronizing the Second Temple Era

7. The 10th Year of Zedekiah

8. Ezra and Nehemiah Keep the Shemitah

9. Ezekiel’s 30th year

10. Ezekiel’s Jubilee

Part II:The Jubilee Code

11. Adam and the First Jubilee

12. 70 Years and the 70thJubilee

13. 70 Weeks and the Jubilee

14. YHWH Dwells with Mankind

15. Bible History by 10s

16. The 39thJubilee and the Promised Seed

17. The Times of the Covenant People and the Times of the Gentiles

18. National Israel and the Jubilee Code

19. Yeshua’s Lineage and the 41stJubilee

20. The 144thJubilee and the Millennium

21. History and the Hand of YHWH

Afterword: Prophecies and Patterns

Appendix

1. 7000 Years of Chronology

Important Notice

I believe the information in this book is far too important to limit its message to those who can afford it. Various digital versions of this book and my other books in the Prophecy and Patterns are available for free to my blog subscribers. It’s free to subscribe and I will never share your email address. The only thing I will share with you is my love for all things Biblical. To become a subscriber to my blog, Where History and the Bible Meet go here: http://www.the13thenumeration.com/Blog13/subscribe/

If you are not sure whether you are a subscriber feel free to email me at: wstruse@the13thenumeration.com

Introduction

What if I could show you reasonable evidence for YHWH’s guiding hand through the biblical ages? I’m not talking about proving a single biblical story or event, but offering real, hard evidence of YHWH’s intervening in the history of mankind at specific junctures. What if we were able to step back and look at the big picture, placing these events within a biblical framework that showed beyond a reasonable doubt that they were part of an amazing redemptive plan set in motion by YHWH at creation? Would you be willing to explore the pages of YHWH’s Word with me to uncover evidence of such a plan?

Here is the bottom line: the pages of this book will develop reasonable evidence showing that many of the pivotal events in biblical history happened according to a pattern.Just as the created world around us shows purposeful design, we find this same creative genius marking the pages of the biblical record as it relates to mankind’s history from the first sin to the final restoration when YHWH will once more dwell with mankind following the Messianic Age.

But before we begin the hard work of uncovering the evidence of this redemptive plan from the pages of the biblical record, let me first give you a glimpse of what we will be discovering together. If you read Book II in this series, Daniel’s 70 Weeks: The Keystone of Bible Prophecy, you probably recognize the Prophetic Milestone marker below.

In Book II, I used this marker to identify specific junctures in YHWH’s covenantal plan to restore mankind through Yeshua, the promised messianic “seed.”(Gen.22:18) Over the course of this book we will be looking again at each of these prophetic markers,and several others as well,in the big-picture context of biblical history. Right now, though, let’s briefly look at a few of these milestones so that you have an idea of the thrilling nature of the subject we will be discovering in the coming pages.

Our first milestoneis found in Eden, with YHWH’s first allusion to the coming of the promised “seed.” Our second milestone falls at the birth of Abraham, the father of the Hebrew people, the first person in the Bible to whom YHWH swore (shaba) an oath. This “oath of sevens,” as we learned in Book II, was the very “covenant and mercy” of which Daniel reminded YHWH in Daniel 9:4 and the same “covenant and mercy”that found its fulfillment in Yeshua, the promised Messiah of Daniel 9.

For our third milestone we will briefly look at the second year of Darius “the Great” Artaxerxes (circa 520 BC). This was the year YHWH’s divine anger ended and He “returned to Jerusalem with mercies”(Zech. 1:16).In Book II we learned that this date marked the year when YHWH gave His divine word (dabar) to restore and build Jerusalem. It was this word (dabar) that began the most famous countdown in the Bible, which we know as the prophecy of 70 weeks.

Remember the former things of old: for I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure.(Isaiah 46:9–10)

Do you remember our famous list of Yeshua’s generations from Matthew 1—that compelling enigma of 41 names thatwe explored in Books I and II of this series? Well,once again, we willtake a good look at this list which has so baffled scholars for the past two thousand years. In this book we will be focusing on the list’s arrangement into 41 “generations” from Abraham to Yeshua. As we explore this list, keep in mind its purposeful division into three biblical epics.

In the coming pages I will make a reasonable biblical case that this list is a key to understanding the Bible’s prophetic framework, upon which YHWH’s redemptive plan for mankind has been worked out through the biblical ages. The intriguing facts of the matter are that Matthew left out four of Yeshua’s lineage so that this list would equal exactly 41 generations. Over the course of this book,I will provide real biblical evidence to show that those 41 generations, in real biblical chronology, represent 41 jubilee cycles between Abraham and Yeshua. I will also show,using a straightforward summation of early biblical patriarchal lineages, that there were 41 jubilee cycles between Abraham and Adam. Further, we will look at the possible implications of the fact that, like Abraham’s and Yeshua’s generations, ours is living at a pivotal time in biblical history,when the prophetic clock once again marks a 41stjubilee cycle in YHWH’s redemptive plan.

Countdown to the Messiah
Now let’s briefly look at the year 520 BC. This date was pivotal for YHWH’s plan to reconcile mankind. In Book II we saw the importance of this date to the prophecy of 70 weeks and the countdown to the Messiah. Remember, 520 BC was the year YHWH’s divine anger ended and His word (dabar) went forth to restore and build Jerusalem. This auspicious date began the 70 weeks countdown to the promised Messiah, Yeshua. But it’s only when we take a step back and look at this date in the bigger picture that we see its real implications.

Consider the implications of this big picture. If we place YHWH’s divine word to restore and build Jerusalem inside the context of jubilee cycles that begins with Adam, we find that it came at the start of the 72ndjubilee. Using a reasonable reckoning of the biblical chronology andjubilee cycles as described in this book,we find that the 72ndjubilee is the midpoint in a 7000-year period from Adam.

Further insight is added when we consider that the book of Revelation associates the New Jerusalem with the number 144 and that the 144thjubilee begins in the 8th year of the 8thmillennium.

Coincidence or design?

In the coming pages, we will look at the evidence. Can we build a reasonable biblical case for the jubilee cycles as the prophetic backbone of the Bible? I think we can, but it will take some serious effort. If you are up for the adventure, I believe you’ll not be disappointed by the time we are finished.

This subject has the potential to fundamentallychange how we understand the Bible’s chronological recordas it relates to YHWH’s dealings with mankind. But there is more. I believe you will be thrilled to realize that many more important biblical events find contextual relevance within the framework of the jubilee cycles.Here are a few more examples that provide us additional insights into YHWH’s redemptive plan for mankind:

1. Enoch and the 13thjubilee

2. The flood

3. The birth and call of Abraham

4. The birth of Isaac

5. The times of the Hebrew people relative to the times of the Gentiles

6. The 70-year captivity of Judah

7. Daniel 9 and the divine word to return and build Jerusalem

8. The death and resurrection of Yeshua

9. The destruction of Jerusalem and the temple

10. The 123rdjubilee cycle (3x41) as it relates to the millennium

11. The 144thjubilee cycle as it relates to the New Jerusalem and the restitution of all things

You see, it is my belief that by looking back at how YHWH has worked his redemptive plan through the biblical ages, we will see that these events have happened at specific and identifiable junctures according to apurposed pattern. Ultimately, this evidence then allows us to look to the future with confidence in the knowledge that YHWH is in control. He does indeed have a plan to restore mankind.

We should note here that this prophetic plan didn’t end in 70 AD with the destruction of Jerusalem, as many of our historicist brethren have proposed over the years. YHWH’s plan marches on to the day when mankind and this earth are restored totheir originally intended state.

Before we proceed with this adventure, let me be clear about the intent of this book. The focus of this book,when looking at the Bible’s prophetic record,will not be about trying to predict the future but rather showing how YHWH’s redemptive plan has been fulfilled in the past so that we may have confidence about his plan for the future. Yes, we will be looking at larger cyclical patterns and their place in the past and the future. But it is imperative that we not become overconfident in any conclusions about the future that we may be tempted to draw from this evidence. While hindsight may be 20/20, our notions about the future are notoriously foggy. So let’s explore this subject with humility and wonder.

My fellow followers of Yeshua, the Bible is clear that we should be aware of the season in which we live. I have no doubt that by the time you are done this book, you will be able to see this subject from an entirely new perspective. But let me again be clear: this book is not about predicting the day and hour of the rapture or the second coming. My goal in this book is not to predict the future, but to give you the confidence that the future, whatever YHWH has in mind, will play out according to his plan, which he set in motion long before his first creative act.

The secondary goal of this book is to make you aware of the season in which we live. As you will see in the coming pages, a compelling case can be made that the age in which we live is drawing to a close. It is time for those who love the appearing of the Messiah to awake so that we are not caught unaware when our Bridegroom returns. But hand in hand with this awaking is the obligation to share with others the glorious future that awaits those who put their trust in Yeshua.

I won’t pretend this quest to discover the prophetic pattern of Scripture will be easy. In order to see these patterns in the Bible’s chronological record, we will need to work.If you’ve read Books I and II in this series, you have probably already guessed that by now. It’s my belief that nearly everything in life is more valuable to those who work for it, and this subject is no exception. By the time you are finished this book, I want you to grasp the significance of this amazing subject, but I also want you to understand the scriptural basis upon which it stands. In order to do that we will have to take several initial steps. They will include:

1. Defining the Sabbath and jubilee cycles in fact and theory

2. Organizing a reasonable and defendable chronology of the Old Testament

3. Overlaying the jubilee and Sabbath cycles on the Bible’s chronology

As we work through the details, I encourage you not to lose sight of our goal. Often the greatest treasures in this world lie at the bottom of the ocean or deep in the heart of the earth. In this case, our treasureis buried deep in the pages of the Bible.

As has been our call for the previous books in this series, let’s roll up our sleeves and get to work.

Part I

Defining the Bible’s Sabbath and Jubilee Cycles

Chapter 1

Setting the Captives Free

“Wherefore have we fasted, say they, and thou seest not? wherefore have we afflicted our soul, and thou takest no knowledge? . . .Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke?”
—Isaiah 58:3 and 6

One of the greatthemes of the Bible is deliverance from the oppressor. In the Old Testament we find many compelling stories of YHWH’s deliverance, but by far one of the most memorable is Israel’s deliverance from Egyptian bondage.

The Exodus!

Now that is a story that stirs the emotions and imagination! A people once favored and free find that after several generationsthey have become slaves.

But the story doesn’t end there, because YHWH had a plan. He delivered Israel from their slavery to Pharaoh and brought them forth from bondage in Egypt. This deliverance became a defining moment in biblical history. The Exodus story not only profoundly influenced Israel and the identity of the Jewish people, but it provided the ultimate biblical model for YHWH’s promised deliverance of mankind from servitude to sin and the unjust tyranny of Satan, the god of this world.

I’ll let the apostles explain:

I have seen, I have seen the affliction of my people which is in Egypt, and I have heard their groaning, and am come down to deliver them. And now come, I will send thee into Egypt. This Moses whom they refused, saying, Who made thee a ruler and a judge? the same did God send to be a ruler and a deliverer. (Acts 7:34–35)

Moreover, brethren, I would not that ye should be ignorant, how that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea;and were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea;and did all eat the same spiritual meat;and did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ . . . Now these things were our examples . . . (1 Corinthians 10:1–6)

For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in. And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob: for this ismy covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins. (Romans 11:25–27)

The Jubilee and Deliverance

This theme of mankind’s deliverance from bondage, both physical and spiritual, is exemplified in many ways in the biblical record. I believe that one of the most thrilling prophetic examples is the found in the biblicaljubilee cycles. You see, the jubilee law was given to Israel as an example of how to live their lives so that they would not oppress each other as they were once oppressed in Egypt. In fact, Moses says this very thing when giving the jubilee instructions:

In the year of this jubile ye shall return every man unto his possession . . . Ye shall not therefore oppress one another; but thou shalt fear thy God: for I am YHWH your God.(Leviticus 25:13and17)

This idea of release from bondage and returning of possessions to whom they belong is the very essence of the biblicaljubilee. As we explore this subject together, we will see that the jubilee law is another thrilling example of what the apostle Paul describes as “shadows” of the Messiah, which are woven into the very fabric of the biblical record. But first let’s look a little closer at the termjubilee.

Bring Forth the Yow’bel

The term jubilee comes from the Hebrew yow’bel which means ram’s horn or a ram’s horn trumpet. Yow’bel in turn comes from the root yabal, which means to lead or bring forth.

It is interesting and illuminating to note that the yabal is first used in Job 10:19 in relation to the length of a man’s life from the birth to the grave.

I should have been as though I had not been; I should have been carried [yabal] from the womb to the grave.(Job 10:19)

As we will see in the coming chapters,the underlying subtlety of “bringing forth” in a prophetic sense of time is the very essence of the jubilee cycle as it relates to the history of mankind from Genesis to Revelation. Let’stake a look at a couple more examples of yabal. The first refers to the bringing forth of the Messiah as a suffering servant, and the second comes from a passage which speaks of the bringing of peace during the coming Messianic Age:

He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought[yabal] as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth.He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? (Isaiah 53:7–8)

Behold, thou shalt call a nation that thou knowest not, and nations that knew not thee shall run unto thee because of YHWH thy God, and for the Holy One of Israel; for he hath glorified thee.

Seek ye YHWH while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near:Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto YHWH, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon . . .

For ye shall go out with joy, and be led forth[yabal] with peace: the mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands. (Isaiah 55:5–12)

Setting the Captives Free

In Book II,Daniel’s 70 Weeks: The Keystone of Bible Prophecy, we looked at YHWH’s redemptive purpose from creation to the coming of Yeshua the Messiah asprophesied by Daniel 9.Ultimately, the messianic promise is about setting you and me free from our sins and the coming day when Yeshua will rule this earth in righteousness. The final act of this planis the restitution of all things, when YHWH permanently dwells with mankind after the thousand years of Yeshua’s reign on earth.

The previous passages illustrate two of those three events. The first looks back to the cross and the substitutionary atonement made by the blood of Yeshua; the other looks forward to a time when he will rule the earth in righteousness during the millennium.

This idea of redemption and release is what we find codified in the jubilee law found in Leviticus 25. As you read these jubilee instructions, keep in mind the words of Hebrews 10:1 concerning the law: “For the law [had] a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image. . . ”

And thou shalt number seven sabbaths of years unto thee, seven times seven years; and the space of the seven sabbaths of years shall be unto thee forty and nine years.Then shalt thou cause the trumpet of the jubile to sound on the tenth day of the seventh month, in the day of atonement shall ye make the trumpet sound throughout all your land.

And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof: it shall be a jubile unto you; and ye shall return every man unto his possession, and ye shall return every man unto his family. (Leviticus 25:8–10)

In the year of this jubile ye shall return every man unto his possession. (Leviticus 25:13)

Did you know there is not one definitive statement in the Old Testament that tells us that Israel ever kept the jubilee instructions above? It’s true. As important and compelling as these laws were for the way Israel was instructed to deal with each other, they are an enigma in the biblical record. In fact, as we will see in the next chapter, the first discernable “jubilee” in the Bible was not even a jubilee of years but rather a jubilee of days. This jubilee of days, as we will learn, sets the precedent for how we are to count this cycle and also offers us an insight into the jubilee law and its purpose.

The Spirit of the Jubilee

At the beginning of this chapter I quoted a passage from Isaiah 58 that talks about YHWH’s expectation for the Day of Atonement. Keep in mind as you read this next passage that it was on the Day of Atonement, when Israel was commanded to afflict their souls, that the jubilee trumpet was to sound and the instruction for jubilee law be carried out.

Wherefore have we fasted, say they, and thou seest not? wherefore have we afflicted our soul, and thou takest no knowledge? Behold, in the day of your fast ye find pleasure, and exact all your labours.Behold, ye fast for strife and debate, and to smite with the fist of wickedness: ye shall not fast as ye do this day, to make your voice to be heard on high.Is it such a fast that I have chosen? a day for a man to afflict his soul? is it to bow down his head as a bulrush, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? wilt thou call this a fast, and an acceptable day to YHWH?

Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke?Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house? when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him; and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh?(Isaiah 58:3–12)

You see, YHWH, through the prophet Isaiah, made it clear that the true spirit of the jubilee law was for Israel to deal with each other in love. The day was not just to be a canceling of debts and calculations of what was owed. It was meant to be a day when mankind was released from bondage and the oppressed set free. While all of these things dorelate to the physicalworld (the letter of the law), you get the sense by reading the above passage that a spiritual component is implied here as well. After all, it is spiritual bondage thatis usually a precursor to some form of physical oppression.

Verse 7shows YHWH’s real intent by explaining that the true spirit of this day was exemplified by feeding the hungry, providing them clothing, and ensuring they have a place to stay. Surely, we should be living the spirit of the law by doing these things throughout the year, but on the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur), we have a clear biblicalreminder that the spirit of the law is really about loving our neighbor, our fellow man.

The Acceptable Year of YHWH

As we wrap up this introductory chapter, let’sfast-forward to a very special Sabbath day at the very start of Yeshua’s ministry, where He directs our attention to the spirit of the jubilee law. As Luke describes the events, they took place on the Sabbath in a synagogue of Nazareth.As was thecustom at the time, a man would stand up and read a portion of the Scripture, which was then often followed by the reader’sfurther elucidation of the passage.

Yeshua on the day in question stood up and read a portion of Isaiah 61. As you read these verses, keep in mind both the letter and the spirit of the jubilee law we just explored.

And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Esaias. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written,

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised,to preach the acceptable year of the Lord . . .

And he began to say unto them, This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.(Luke 4:17–19, 21)

After Yeshua made this statement in the synagogue,his brethren waited for him to explain himself. You see, the passage Yeshua read from was a quintessential prophetic passage. This wonderful passage not only describes a type of jubilee release, which is the portion Yeshua read, but it goes on to describe YHWH’s righteous wrath and the prophesied restoration of Israel.

In Yeshua’s day Israel was under Roman rule. Jewish messianic expectations were high in anticipation of a leader who would set them free from the Roman yoke. We know from the gospel accounts that Yeshua didn’t come in the first century to break the Roman yoke and set up a messianic kingdom; instead he came first to set all mankind free from a far more brutal taskmaster. He came to free them from slavery to sin.

For the next two years of his ministry, Yeshua lived out the spirit of the jubilee law. He fed the hungry and healed the sick. He opened the sight of the blind and brought the dead back to life. Finally, that fateful day came when he laid down his life for all mankind and once and for all broke the hold sin and death held over us. Thus he fulfilled the spirit of the jubilee law.

The Spirit of the Lord YHWH is upon me; because YHWH hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound; to proclaim the acceptable year of YHWH . . .

and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn;to appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of YHWH, that he might be glorified.

And they shall build the old wastes, they shall raise up the former desolations, and they shall repair the waste cities, the desolations of many generations . . . all that see them shall acknowledge them that they are the seed which YHWH hath blessed.(Isaiah 61:1–10)

Make no mistake, Yeshua will return and fulfill the rest of Isaiah 61, but in the coming pages as we explore the jubileeand its prophetic significance, never forget the spirit of the jubilee law,becauseit is a principle that should drive our day-to-day existence as we wait for the return of Yeshua.

For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. Andnot only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body. (Romans 8:22–23)

Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. (1 Corinthians 15:50–53)

Chapter 2

The First Jubilee

“And be ready against the third day: for the third day YHWH will come down in the sight of all the people upon mount Sinai.”

—Exodus 19:11

In our quest to understand the jubilee and its significance, let’s look at the first jubilee mentioned in the Bible. To do this, we go back to the Exodus of Israel from Egypt and a fascinating bit of biblical history. It may come as a surprise to some, but the first recorded jubilee (yow’bel) in the Bible is not a jubilee of years, but rather ajubilee of days. It is to this most auspicious jubilee that we now turn our attention.

And YHWH said unto Moses, Go unto the people, and sanctify them to day and to morrow, and let them wash their clothes, and be ready against the third day: for the third day YHWH will come down in the sight of all the people upon mount Sinai . . . when the trumpet [yow’bel]soundeth long, they shall come up to the mount.(Exodus 19:10–13)

As I’ve stated more than once in the Prophecies and Patterns series, the congruency of the Bible’s redemptive message is truly amazing. Here in Exodus 19 we find one more evidence of that congruency. The passage above describes the events surrounding the giving of the law to Israel at Mount Sinai. YHWH is telling Moses to have the children of Israel to be ready “against the third day.” We learn in the subsequent verses that it wason this “third day” when the “trumpet soundeth long” that YHWH verbally gave Israel the law.

What is so neat about this passage is that the word “trumpet” in Exodus 19:13 is the Hebrewyow’bel.As we saw in the last chapter, it is from this Hebrew word that we get our English word jubilee. This instance of yow’bel (jubilee) is the first time the word is used in the Old Testament. The next thirteen occurrences of the word in the Old Testament all reference the jubilee year instructions as given to Moses in Leviticus 25.

And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof: it shall be a jubilee[yow’bel]unto you; and ye shall return every man unto his possession, and ye shall return every man unto his family.(Leviticus 25:10)

Declaring the Jubilee at Sinai

As we learned in the previous chapter,yow’bel or jubilee literally means a ram’s horn or trumpet, which was used to announce important events. We also learned that yow’bel has the underlying root meaning of bringing forth or to lead (yabal). In the Bible we find the first instance of yow’bel being used to describe the signal which announces the coming of YHWH to give Israel the law at Sinai on the “third day.”As we will see, this usage wasintentional. It was the word specifically chosen to emphasize the very day YHWH personally brought forth (yabal) the law to the children of Israel.

Picture for a moment what Israel saw and heard.

And it came to pass on the third day in the morning, that there were thunders and lightnings, and a thick cloud upon the mount, and the voice of the trumpet exceeding loud; so that all the people that was in the camp trembled.And Moses brought forth the people out of the camp to meet with God; and they stood at the nether part of the mount.

And mount Sinai was altogether on a smoke, because YHWH descended upon it in fire: and the smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mount quaked greatly.And when the voice of the trumpet sounded long, and waxed louder and louder, Moses spake, and God answered him by a voice.(Exodus 19:16–19)

50 Days After

By now you are probably wondering how any of these events could be related to the biblicaljubilee. Sure the word yow’bel (jubilee) was used to describe the announcing of YHWH’s presence at the mount, buthow might this be connected to the yearly jubilee cycles as described in Leviticus 25?

We get a hint of the answer from Jewish traditions. According to rabbinicsources, the giving of the law at Sinai is traditionally called Z’man Mattan Torateinu. This commemoration is celebrated on Shavuot. Shavuot, as many of you know, is celebrated (generally speaking) 50 days after the Passover. In other words, Shavuot could be considered a mini jubilee of days.

Here, take a look at the instruction for Shavuot as found in Leviticus 23. Notice especially how the days are counted:

And ye shall count unto you from the morrow after the Sabbath [the 7th day Sabbath of Unleavened Bread], from the day that ye brought the sheaf of the wave offering; seven sabbaths shall be complete:even unto the morrow after the seventh sabbath shall ye number fifty days; and ye shall offer a new meat offering unto YHWH.(Leviticus 23:15–16)

The chart below explains the count to Shavuot. According to Leviticus 23, you start the count on the day after the first Sabbath after Passover. Or in other words, on the first day of the week following the Passover.

Okay, so we have Jewish rabbinic traditions which indicate the giving of the law at Sinai took place on the 50th day from the Exodus, but let’s see what biblical evidence this tradition might be based upon. Our goal here is to see if a reasonable case can be made for the law being given to Israel fifty days after the Exodus.

And they departed from Rameses in the first month, on the fifteenth day of the first month; on the morrow after the passover the children of Israel went out with an high hand in the sight of all the Egyptians.(Numbers 33:3)

In the third month, when the children of Israel were gone forth out of the land of Egypt, the same day came they into the wilderness of Sinai.(Exodus 19:1)

The above verses give us a reasonable timeline of events upon which to base our 50-day count. Numbers 33:3 tells us Israel departed Egypt on the 15th day of the first month. Exodus 19:1 tells us Israel came into the wilderness of Sinai in the third month on “the same day” they went forth out of the land of Eygpt. YHWH toldMoses that he was to prepare the people “today and to morrow” so that on the “third day” YHWHcould come and speak with them. This “third day” was the day YHWH verbally gave the law, and it was announced by the yow’bel or jubilee trumpet.

The question here is what did the “same day” of Exodus 19:1 refer to? Clearly, if this “same day” referred to the day of the month, i.e. the 15th day of the first month, then our investigation into the law being given on the fiftieth day after the Exodus is at an end. From the 15th day of the first month until the 15th day of the third month is nearly 60 days (2 lunar cycles of 29.53 days each).

But there is another possibility. Clearly, Exodus 19:1 is a history written in retrospect. Moses, in this case, is looking backward from some time after those events. Is it possible then that the “same day” of Exodus 19:1 is a reference to the day of the week? Let’s see if this is a possibility. Keep in mind that we, like Moses, are looking at this in retrospect. The law that required Israel to keep the Sabbath was not given until the 15th day of the second month.

And they took their journey from Elim, and all the congregation of the children of Israel came unto the wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after their departing out of the land of Egypt.And the whole congregation of the children of Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness. (Exodus 16:1–2)

And it came to pass, that at even the quails came up, and covered the camp: and in the morning the dew lay round about the host.And when the dew that lay was gone up, behold, upon the face of the wilderness there lay a small round thing, as small as the hoar frost on the ground.(Exodus 16:13–14)

And it came to pass, that on the sixth day they gathered twice as much bread, two omers for one man: and all the rulers of the congregation came and told Moses.And he said unto them, This is that which YHWH hath said, To morrow is the rest of the holy sabbath unto YHWH: bake that which ye will bake to day, and seethe that ye will seethe; and that which remaineth over lay up for you to be kept until the morning.(Exodus 16:22–23)

Six days ye shall gather it; but on the seventh day, which is the sabbath, in it there shall be none. (Exodus 16:26)

Here in Exodus 16,Israel is given the Sabbath law for the first time. Israel came into the wilderness on the 15th day of the second month, and the manna started the following morning. They were instructed to only gather manna for six days and rest on the seventh. So this means that the 16th day of the second month was the first day of the week. Now, if we wind this backward to the Exodus on the 15th day of the first month, we find that this very special day was (retrospectively) the sixth day of the week.

If Israel left Egypt on the sixth day of the week, a case could be made that Israel came to Mount Sinai on the fifth or sixth day of the third month, which was the sixth day of the week. In the charts below I’ve described the chronology of the Exodus leading up to the “same day” of Exodus 19:1. Both ways of counting the date are provided.

In the third month, when the children of Israel were gone forth out of the land of Egypt, the same day came they into the wilderness of Sinai. (Exodus 19:1)

Intable A, the chart shows the number of days between the Exodus and the giving of the law at Sinai if the “same day” of Exodus 19:1 referred to the 15th day of thefirst month. By this count, the law was given by YHWH on the 60th day after the Exodus.

In table B, the chart counts the number of days between the Exodus and the giving of the law based upon the idea that the “same day” might refer retrospectively to the day of the week Israel departed Egypt. By this count, indeed a case can be made that the law was given by YHWH on the 50th day after the Exodus, thus making it the first jubilee in the biblical record.

Sanctify the People

We would miss a great opportunity here if we did not at least consider the parallels between the giving of the law and the death and resurrection of Yeshua nearly 1500 years later. According to our jubilee count timeline, Moses was instructed to sanctify the people on the sixth day of the week. Then on the third day YHWH came to the mountain and spoke to Moses,thus giving Israel the law.

And YHWH said unto Moses, Go unto the people, and sanctify them to day [the sixthday]and to morrow, and let them wash their clothes, and be ready against the third day: for the third day YHWH will come down in the sight of all the people upon mount Sinai. (Exodus 19:10–11)

By many counts, Yeshua, nearly a millennium and a half later, sanctified mankind by His death on the sixth day of the week and his subsequent resurrection on “the third day.” The phrase “third day” is used to refer to these events no less than fourteen times in the New Testament.

Then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second. By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.(Hebrews 10:9–10)

Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace?(Hebrews 10:29)

In Summary

In this chapter, we looked at the first occurrenceof the term yow’bel (jubilee) in the Bible and its possible intentional usage to refer to a jubilee of days otherwise known as Shavuot. We learned that this special day, from ancient times, has been associated by Jewish sources with the giving of the law at Sinai fifty days after the Exodus. Also, not to be ignored is the messianic foreshadowing of sanctification on the third day, which is a clear theme found in the New Testament.

Granted, the evidence for a jubilee of days is not conclusive but by my estimation, it at the very least, is intriguing. In any event this little bit of biblical history provides us with a unique perspective on the jubilee and its usage in the earliest biblical texts.

As we develop the biblical evidence for the jubilee in the coming chapters, keep this first jubilee in mind. I believe you will see it is another example of the amazing congruency of the biblical record.

In the next chapter we will explore theSabbath cycle in the Bible. It is thesesix days (or years) of labor and one day (or year) of rest which are the very building blocks upon which the jubilee cycle is built.

Chapter 3

The Biblical Sabbath Cycle

“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.”

—Exodus 20:8

Because a jubilee is built upon a cycle of six days or years of labor and one of rest, we would be remiss if we did not briefly explore this basic building block of the jubilee cycle. Like the first jubilee mentioned in the Bible, the Sabbathcycle is also first associated with a day.It is in the first pages of the Bible that we see YHWH, our Creator,give mankind an example of labor and rest:

And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made.And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.(Genesis 2:2–3)

Have you ever thought about the purpose of YHWH’s resting on the seventh day? After all,he created the world, and the very existence of work stems from that series of creative acts. Why then did he rest? Did he need to, or did he want to? A few reasons come to mind:

- He rested so that mankind would have a pattern to follow. He created the material world to function in a specific way. This pattern not only drives the material world, but it offers a prophetic pattern or shadow that gives us a glimpse of YHWH’s plan for mankind and the future.

- He rested to remind us that effort without meaningful appreciation is just wasted energy.

- He rested that we might learn to keep a balance. There is a saying that “all work and no play makes Johnny a dull boy.”

If YHWH created mankind in his image, then we like him get a thrill out of making and doing. But there is a limit to every good thing, and periodically we need to step out of the doing mode and step into resting, reflective appreciation mode. What kind of gardener has a beautiful garden full of roses but never stops to appreciate their beauty or scent?

Are we better than the master gardener? Remember, long before any legalism was associated with the seventh day, we have YHWH showing us how he intended for this world to function. I can’t help but wonder how different out lives would be if we followed his example. I’m not talking about resting one day in seven out of some perceived legalistic bondage, but rather taking a day off to rest and reflect in honor and acknowledgement of the idea that this was how YHWH intended for his material world to function.

I find it ironic that of all people, we Christians of the twenty-first century are most sensitive to the idea of legalism and any perceived bondage to the law, yet we give little thought to our modern lifestyle, which makes us doubly slaves to uninterrupted activity. Could it be that by ignoring YHWH’s example, we have lost something meant to protect us from ourselves?

A World without Rest

Many Bible commentators over the years have explained Israel’s sojourning in Egypt as an example of God’s people in bondage to the world system. It should come as little surprise then that one of the chief characteristics of slavery is that it does not provide for adequate physical or spiritual rest.

And Pharaoh said, Behold, the people of the land now are many, and ye make them rest from their burdens. And Pharaoh commanded the same day the taskmasters of the people, and their officers, saying, Ye shall no more give the people straw to make brick, as heretofore: let them go and gather straw for themselves . . .

Let there more work be laid upon the men, that they may labour therein; and let them not regard vain words . . .And the taskmasters hasted them, saying, Fulfil your works, your daily tasks, as when there was straw . . .

But he said, Ye are idle, ye are idle: therefore ye say, Let us go and do sacrifice to YHWH. Go therefore now, and work; for there shall no straw be given you, yet shall ye deliver the tale of bricks.(Exodus 5:6–18)

Interesting, isn’t it, that the labor Pharaoh demanded of Israel kept them from offering sacrifices to YHWH? You have to admit, in the world we now live in, it is becoming increasingly difficult to escape from our ceaseless labors and take time to appreciate the world YHWH created for us to enjoy. Pausing to reflect and appreciate the world YHWH has created for us to enjoy is itself an act of worship.

The Letter of the Law

Now that we’ve had a glimpse of the principle behind labor and rest, let’s look at the first time the Sabbath “law” was codified.

Six days ye shall gather it [manna]; but on the seventh day, which is the sabbath, in it there shall be none. (Exodus 16:26)

Israel, not long after Pharaoh increaseed their labor, finally made their break from slavery andthe Egyptian world system. This prison break, if you will, was led by Moses and guided by the shekinah of YHWH. Exactly one month later in the wilderness of Sin, YHWH reinstitutedhis principle of labor and rest, which he first exemplified at creation.

There in the desert vastness, YHWH explained the principles of labor and rest to Israel. Keep in mind, they were used to ceaseless labor. YHWH provided theSabbath instructions to bless and protect them.

Notice, right away some of the people refused to follow the instructions. Whether out of greed, habit, or some other reason, they gathered manna on the seventh day as well. Left unchecked, these actions would have brought the labor of slavery back into the camp of Israel. Human nature hasn’t changed much, has it? What is the saying . . . “We have met the enemy and he is us”? The bottom line,whether corporate or personal, mankind needs a tether on our actions. It’s how we are made.

In the same way that the daily cycle of labor and rest was meant to protect Israel from blind ambition and ceaseless labor, the yearly sabbath cycle takes those principles and applies them to the land itself, as well as to corporate endeavors.

And YHWH spake unto Moses in mount Sinai, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye come into the land which I give you, then shall the land keep a sabbath unto YHWH.Six years thou shalt sow thy field, and six years thou shalt prune thy vineyard, and gather in the fruit thereof; but in the seventh year shall be a sabbath of rest unto the land, a sabbath for YHWH: thou shalt neither sow thy field, nor prune thy vineyard.

That which groweth of its own accord of thy harvest thou shalt not reap, neither gather the grapes of thy vine undressed: for it is a year of rest unto the land.And the sabbath of the land shall be meat for you; for thee, and for thy servant, and for thy maid, and for thy hired servant, and for thy stranger that sojourneth with thee,and for thy cattle, and for the beast that are in thy land, shall all the increase thereof be meat. (Leviticus 25:1–7)

A Rest for the Land

Here in Leviticus 25:1–7, we learn that the yearly Sabbath cycle was meant to be a rest for the land. Like the daily Sabbath cycle of labor and rest that protected the people, the yearly cycle was also given to protect an aspect of YHWH’s creation, namely the land, and by extension the people of the land.

Here again we can look at these instructions as a tether or hedge against mankind’stendency, through ambition or fear, to overdo it. YHWH made the world for his creation, and in order for that relationship to function properly, the land must be cared for. The yearly Sabbath does just that. It slows down mankind’s efforts, allows the land to rest, and requires a mandatory reset.

In summary, the daily and yearly Sabbaths run according to a cycle of 6 units of labor and 1 unit of rest. This pattern of 6 and 7 was instituted by YHWH at creation and then codified for Israel after they had escaped the slavery of Egypt. We have provided reasonable grounds to see that the Sabbath cycle in fact and principle acts as a natural hedge against mankind’s tendency to go too far. This hedge was given by YHWH to protect his creation. In the next chapter, we will look at the jubilee and how the cyclical nature of the Sabbath cycle is incorporated into the larger cycle. Here too we will find an underlying principle at work, the spirit of the law if you will, which was meant to provide a template to protect and nurture mankind.

Chapter 4

The BiblicalJubilee Cycle

“Then shalt thou cause the trumpet of the jubile to sound on the tenth day of the seventh month, in the day of atonement shall ye make the trumpet sound throughout all your land.And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof: it shall be a jubile unto you; and ye shall return every man unto his possession, and ye shall return every man unto his family.”

—Leviticus 25:9–10

In many ways, one could say that Israel was a model for mankind. It was a nation ruled directly by YHWH with instructions that set an example of how mankind was to carry out their affairs. Looking back at Israel’s history, we see that more often than not,they failed to live up to the standard set by God. Like the daily and yearly Sabbath cycles, the jubilee cycle was meant to be a mandatory reset, a check on the propensity of mankind to abuse ourselves and others. But Scripture seems to indicate it was rarely observed.

Essentially, the jubilee is about redemption and restoration. It is a period of time when captives are set free, the land reverts back to its original owners, and accounts are settled. One can’t help but look at the world around us and see how desperately we all need such a reset. And it’s not just a physical reset that mankind desperately needs. It is spiritual rest and renewal as well.

Counting the Jubilee

But before we look at the possible prophetic implications of the jubilee, let’s see if we can build a reasonable case for how the jubilee should be counted. There are two schools of thought on counting the jubilee. One school believes the jubilee should supersede the yearly Sabbath cycle.In this count, after every 49 years the Sabbath cycle is interrupted by the jubilee. The other school of thought believes the jubilee cycle is synchronized with the yearly Sabbath cycle; thus, they complement each other.

One point both sides agree on is that the jubilee is to be celebrated in the 10th day of the 7th month of the 50th year. Leviticus 25 makes that rather clear. It is in verse 8 where the seeds of confusion arise as far as counting the jubilee cycle. Let’s take a look:

And thou shalt number seven sabbaths of years unto thee, seven times seven years; and the space of the seven sabbaths of years shall be unto thee forty and nine years.

Then shalt thou cause the trumpet of the jubile to sound on the tenth day of the seventh month, in the day of atonement shall ye make the trumpet sound throughout all your land.(Leviticus 25:8–9)

As you can see, verse 8 makes it clear the jubilee is tied directly to the yearly Sabbath cycles. Left out of the text is what is supposed to happen to the yearly Sabbath cycle once the seven cycles of seven are complete. Should the jubilee interrupt the Sabbath cycle, or should it be counted on the first year of the new cycle?The following chart shows both ways of counting the cycle.

Precedence

Let me give you several reasons I think the synchronized cycle is the preferable jubilee count.

- First of all, we have precedence. The daily Sabbath cycle was given first, before the yearly cycle, and it runs uninterrupted. None of the seven biblical feast days are allowed to interrupt this cycle of six daysof labor and one day of rest. Even though many of the feast days are themselves considered Sabbaths, they do not stop the cycle. Instead they are overlaid on top of it.

- Shavuot, the little jubilee, is synchronized with the daily Sabbath cycle. The 50th day does not interrupt the Sabbath cycle. In our chapter on the first jubilee, we found reasonable biblical evidence to show that the law was given on the 50th day from the Exodus, that momentous day when the yow’bel trumpet sounded from Mount Sinai and YHWH verbally gave Israel the law.That day was the first day of a new week.

- The yearly Sabbath cycle is clearly patterned after the daily Sabbath cycle. The instructions for these six years of labor and one year of rest were given before the jubilee count, and since there are no clear jubilee instructions that countermand the yearly Sabbath cycle, the Sabbath cycle must be given precedence over the jubilee cycle. In practical application, this means the jubilee count must be incorporated into the Sabbath cycle, not the other way around.

In summary, we simply do not have enough biblical evidence to overturn the continuous and uninterrupted nature of the biblical Sabbath cycle.Therefore, the most natural reading of the text demands we consider the jubilee cycle as part of an ongoing and continuous Sabbath cycle.

The Great Restoration

A final aspect of the jubilee I want to look at in this chapter is its prophetic foreshadowing. Like all the law given to Israel, the jubilee points us to the ideal way mankind is expected to treat one another. In its ultimate fulfillment the jubilee is a prophetic picture of the reign of Yeshua. Indeed, Yeshua claimed that he was a fulfillment of the famous jubilee passage from Isaiah.

The Spirit of the Lord YHWH is upon me; because YHWH hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound;to proclaim the acceptable year of YHWH, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn. (Isaiah 61:1–2)

We know from Luke 4 that Yeshua did not read the entire passage from Isaiah. Part of that prophecy is yet to be fulfilled. That coming day will be fulfilled by the Messiah when he reigns during the millennium. Keep in mind that one of the chief requirements of the jubilee year is that the land return to its rightful owners:

In the year of the jubile 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)

YHWH created this earth and all its wonders and beauty and then made mankind to enjoy and care for it. Sadly, mankind no longer consider themselves faithful stewards of this earth for YHWH, but rather, in our arrogance, we think the earth belongs to us. Yeshua illustrated this attitude in the famous parable of Matthew 21 when speaking to his people:

Hear another parable: There was a certain householder, which planted a vineyard, and hedged it round about, and digged a winepress in it, and built a tower, and let it out to husbandmen, and went into a far country:and when the time of the fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the husbandmen, that they might receive the fruits of it. And the husbandmen took his servants, and beat one, and killed another, and stoned another.

Again, he sent other servants more than the first: and they did unto them likewise. But last of all he sent unto them his son, saying, They will reverence my son. But when the husbandmen saw the son, they said among themselves, This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and let us seize on his inheritance. (Matthew 21:33–38)

On the Day of Atonement in a jubilee year, the land returns to the person to whom it belongs.“The earth is mine,” says YHWH in the famous passage from Exodus 19:5. Someday YHWH will be sending his Son, Yeshua, back to take ownership and fix the mess that mankind has made of things. If the jubilee law given to Israel is part of what Paul describes as a “shadow of good things to come,” then someday when the jubilee trumpet sounds, the earth will once again be ruled by YHWH through Yeshua.

Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine:and ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation. These are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel. (Exodus 19:5–6, emphasis mine)

Chapter 5

From the Patriarchs to the Kings

“Remember the days of old, consider the years of many generations: ask thy father, and he will shew thee; thy elders, and they will tell thee. When the most High divided to the nations their inheritance, when he separated the sons of Adam, he set the bounds of the people according to the number of the children of Israel.”

—Deuteronomy 32:7–8

Remember the days of old . . .In this chapter, I’m asking you to bear with me as we look back at the days of old and consider the years of many generations.To some of you this chapter may seem a little dry, but it is essential to understand in order for us to develop the bigger picture of the jubilee pattern. If there is an order and redemptive pattern to the history of the Bible as I propose,we must develop an accurate understanding of the chronology of the Old Testament patriarchs, because it is through them that the promised seed, the Messiah, came.

I have condensed this information as best I can, but nevertheless it is critical to the overall thesis of this book. In the appendix, I have included links to an exhaustive Excel and PDF file, upon which this chronology is based. These files represent years of my personal research as well as the work of many of history’s most respected chronologists. For those of you who really want to work this out for yourselves,in that chart you’ll find the vast majority of the Bible’s chronological references, from Adam up to the first century and beyond. Also included in the charts are many secular dates from Josephus, the books of the Maccabees, and Jewish rabbinic tradition. As an added help, the Excel version of the chart has references quoted in full. Just hold your mouse over the little red triangles next to the reference and a new window with the quotation will pop up.

Looking into the Past
To get a glimpse of YHWH’s plan for mankind, we must look into the past so that we can establish our understanding upon a solid foundation. So here we go.

This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made he him;male and female created he them; and blessed them, and called their name Adam, in the day when they were created.And Adam lived an hundred and thirty years, and begat a son in his own likeness, after his image; and called his name Seth.(Genesis 5:1–3)

Our exploration of the lineage of the promised seed begins with Adam. After the murder of Abelby his brother Cain, it wasn’t until Adam’s 130th year that the line of the promised seed was realized in Seth.

For those of you who have read the first two books of this series, you’ll appreciate the symbolism of Seth’s being born in Adam’s 130th year. Seth was the first descendant of Adam through whom the future Messiah, the 13thenumeration, would come. After Seth, Genesis tells us that Adam lived another 800 years and begat sons and daughters.

The chronological details of Adam’s descendants are rather straightforward up to Genesis 5. It’s in Genesis 5:32that we get our first chronological challenge, which requires us to dig deeper in order to determine the birth dates and genealogical order of Noah and his sons.We will tackle this conundrum shortly, but before we do, let’s look ata quick summary of the generations between Adam and Noah.

Bridging the Centuries
In the Old Testament there are two chronological synchronisms thatallowus to bridge the period of time between the call of Abraham, the completion of the first temple in the 11th year of Solomon, and the kings of Judah and Israel. This is a span of nearly 1500 years.

First, let’s back up for a moment and look at an interesting aspect of Noah’s lineage, because it will help guide us through one of the more controversial sections of Bible chronology related to Terah and Abraham. In Genesis 3:32,we read a summary statement of Noah and his sons:

And Noah was five hundred years old: and Noah begat Shem, Ham, and Japheth.(Genesis 5:32)

From the statement above one might be led to believe that Shem, Ham, and Japheth were triplets and that Shem was the eldest, but this is not the case. Genesis 11:10 tells us that Shem was 100 years old two years after the flood.We also learn in Genesis 9:24 that Ham was the younger son and in Genesis 10:21 that Japheth was the eldest. Shem was in fact the middle son.The bottom line is that when a chronological text needs clarification, more often than not, that clarification is providedin other places in the Scripture if we are willing to look.

These are the generations of Shem: Shem was an hundred years old, and begat Arphaxad two years after the flood. (Genesis 11:10)

Unto Shem also, the father of all the children of Eber, the brother of Japheth the elder, even to him were children born. (Genesis 10:21)

Abraham and His Generations

In Genesis 11:26, we find a similar statement regarding Terah, the father of Abraham, and his three sons: Abram, Nahor, and Haran.

And Terah lived seventy years, and begat Abram, Nahor, and Haran. (Genesis 11:26)

Over the years, many have used this statement to conclude that Abram was born in the 70th year of Terah. The reason this is important is that in Genesis 12:4, we have a very important event tied to Abraham’s age which lets us bridge the years between Abraham and the Exodus. This synchronism is YHWH’s call for Abram to depart Haran and the promise that through him all nations of the earth will be blessed.

Now YHWH had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will shew thee:and I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing:and I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.

So Abram departed, as YHWH had spoken unto him; and Lot went with him: and Abram was seventy and five years old when he departed out of Haran.(Genesis 12:1–4)

The Challenge of Abram’s Age

Many Christian and rabbinic chronologists use the statement of Genesis 11:26 to conclude that Abraham was born in the 70th year of Terah. From this they then conclude that Genesis 12:4, when speaking of Abram’s departure from Haran at the age of 75, must have taken placein the 145th year of Terah, his father. (Abram’s supposed birth in the 70th year of Terah is added to the 75-year departure date from Haran.) But as we have seen with the chronology of Noah and his sons, the summary in Genesis 11:36 doesn’t necessarily mean that Terah’s three sons were born in his 70th year, nor does it have to mean that Abram was the eldest.

It is only when reading Acts 7:2–4 that we learn that Abraham departed Haran at the death of his father. So instead of Abraham’s departure from Haran being in the 145th year of Terah, Abraham’s departure took place in the 205th year of Terah. With this evidence, we can finally fix the age of Abraham at 75 years old in the 205th year of Terah, or 2083years from Adam. Also note that Abram’s birth took place in the 130th year of Terah. Once again,this associates the line of the promised Messiah with the number 13.

And he said, Men, brethren, and fathers, hearken; The God of glory appeared unto our father Abraham, when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Charran,and said unto him, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and come into the land which I shall shew thee. Then came he out of the land of the Chaldaeans, and dwelt in Charran: and from thence, when his father was dead, he removed him into this land, wherein ye now dwell. (Acts 7:2–4, emphasis mine)

And the days of Terah were two hundred and five years: and Terah died in Haran. (Genesis 11:32)

So Abram departed, as YHWH had spoken unto him; and Lot went with him: and Abram was seventy and five years old when he departed out of Haran. (Genesis 12:4)

Israel’s Sojourning in Egypt

With the above information, we now have a reasonable foundation upon which to calculate two important 430-year periods of time mentioned in the Bible. One comes from the Old Testament and the other from the New Testament.Let’s take a look:

Now the sojourning of the children of Israel, who dwelt in Egypt, was four hundred and thirty years. And it came to pass at the end of the four hundred and thirty years, even the selfsame day it came to pass, that all the hosts of YHWH went out from the land of Egypt. (Exodus 12:40–41)

That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith . . . He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ.And this I say, that the covenant, that was confirmed before of God in Christ, the law, which was four hundred and thirty years after, cannot disannul, that it should make the promise of none effect. (Galatians 3:14–17)

As you can see, both of these periods of time end in the year of the Exodus of Israel from Egypt, and thus both periods of time must also begin during the same year. This means that the start of “Israel’s” sojourning in Egypt (that is, the sojourning of Abraham and his seed) mentioned in Exodus 12 was an event which took place the same year YHWH confirmed a covenant with Abraham, as mentioned by Paul in Galatians 3.

In order to find the year of the Exodus, then, we need tofirst find the year in which YHWH made a covenant with Abraham and in which Abraham (and by extension his promised seed) began his sojourning in Egypt. For that evidence, we turn to Genesis 12.

Now YHWH had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will shew thee:And I will make of thee a great nation . . . and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.

So Abram departed, as YHWH had spoken unto him; and Lot went with him: and Abram was seventy and five years old when he departed out of Haran . . .

And YHWH appeared unto Abram, and said, Unto thy seed will I give this land: and there builded he an altar unto YHWH, who appeared unto him . . .

And there was a famine in the land: and Abram went down into Egypt to sojourn there; for the famine was grievous in the land.(Genesis 12:1–10)

Here in Genesis 12 we have YHWH’s first covenant or promise to Abram (Abraham) that in his seed all the nations of the earth would be blessed. In this account we also have the first account of Abraham’s, Sarah’s, and their family’s “sojourn” in Egypt. From this point, a 430-year countdown begins that ends with the Exodus of Israel from Egypt.

It is important to note here that while this 430-year period was continuous, Abraham and his descendants did not spend all of that 430 years living in Egypt. This statement is simply a summary of the time from Abraham and Sarah’s visit until the Exodus.

Later, in Genesis 15,we have another chronological summary of the coming four-centurysojourn of Israel in Egypt. This time, YHWH personally tellsAbram that his seed will be strangers in a land that is not theirs for four hundred years and then, in their fourth generation, they will once again return to the land.

Incidentally, this bit of chronological information is valuable to those who have wondered about the length of a biblical generation. If this statement is exclusive of Abraham, a generation would then be one hundred years in length. If inclusive of Abraham, a generation would be eighty years.The eighty-year generation confirms the length of a man’s life, as expressed by King David.

In the following chart I’ve summarized the chronology discussed above. It shows the birth of Abram in the 2008th year from Adam and then Abram’s subsequent departure from Haran at the death of his father Terah, when Abram was75 years old. This then brings us to the Exodus of Israel from Egypt in the 2513th year from Adam.

Abram and the 41stJubilee

Before we move on to the chronology following the Exodus, let’s look at this chronology of Abraham in terms of the jubilee cycles. In the following chart you can see that Abram was born in the 2008th year from Adam (YC = Year of Adam’s Creation). For the sake of argument, let’s assume for a moment that the jubilee cycles are synchronized with the yearly Sabbath cycles and that both commenced with Adam. Later in this book we will provide reasonable evidence for these points, but for right now let’s just test the theory.

According to this working assumption, the year following Abram’s birth (2009 YC) was the 287th Sabbath cycle from Adam. It follows then that 2010 YC was the end of the 41stjubilee cycle, which fell just two years after Abram’s birth. In other words, Abram was born at the very end of the 41stjubilee cycle from Adam.

Now, taken by itself, Abram’s birth during the 41stjubilee cycle is just a curiosity, but when we consider this fact in light of Yeshua’s lineage in Matthew 1, we get a hint that there may be a deeper significance. Remember, in Book I, The 13th Enumeration: Key to the Bible’s Messianic Symbolism, we learned that the apostle Matthew purposely arranged Yeshua’s lineage to show that not only was Yeshua the 13th enumeration, but he was also the 41st generation from Abraham. To make this point, Matthew had to remove four Old Testament kings from his list. So here we get our first glimpse that the arrangement of Yeshua’s lineage in Matthew 1 may have much deeper significance than many have realized. Keep this intriguing possibility in mind as we develop this chronology from the Exodus to the first century.

Bridging the Next 480 Years

With the above chronology reasonably established upon solid footing, we turn to our next chronological synchronism, found in 1 Kings 6. This chronological gem allows us to calculate the year that Solomon’s temple was completed. First Kings summarizes it this way:

And it came to pass in the four hundred and eightieth year after the children of Israel were come out of the land of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon's reign over Israel, in the month Zif, which is the second month, that he began to build the house of YHWH.(1 Kings 6:1)

480 years from the Exodus of Israel brings us to the 2993rdyear from Adam and the start of construction of the first temple in the fourth year of Solomon’s reign. Seven years later, in the 3000th year from Adam, the first temple was completed.

Our Goal Is Within Sight

Believe it or not, we are almost there. Our final goal of establishing a reasonable chronology of the Old Testament is now within sight. From Solomon’s era, all we now have to do is make it through the kings of Judah and Israel to the Persian King Darius “the Great” Artaxerxes. As we learned in Book II,Daniel’s 70 Weeks: The Keystone of Bible Prophecy, the reign of Darius not only gives us a solid secular date upon which to build our chronology, but we can alsouse it to calculate the birth year of the Messiah Yeshua.

Keep in mind the purpose of this section of the book is to develop as accurate apicture of Old Testament chronology as possible so that we may see when YHWH acted in the affairs of mankind to bring to fruition his redemptive plan through the Messiah Yeshua.It is the thesis of this book that when this redemptive plan is seen within the context of the Bible’s jubilee and Sabbath cycles, it takes on a peculiar order which clearly demonstrates the hand of YHWH intervening in the affairs of mankind at specific junctures in our past. Further, it gives us additional confirmation that he does indeed have a plan for our future.

The Kings of Judah and Israel

Anyone familiar with the chronology associated with the kings of Israel and Judah understands that defining it is a rather challenging proposition. There are several places in the biblical text where the chronology is difficult to calculate, and reasonable arguments can be made for dates which sometimes differ by several years. It is only when we step back and look at the entire chronological picture as a whole that we are able to tighten up the record and provide a reasonable framework which we can then use with some confidence.

For the sake of brevity, I will only be giving an overviewin the following paragraphs. For those interested in a comprehensive elucidation of the subject,please see the chronological charts linked to in the appendix.

The Kings of Israel and Judah

In the following chart I’ve summarized the reigns of the kings of Israel and Judah. There are at least two ways to go about working these dates out. One way is by calculating the reigns from David and Solomon forward. Then any challenges can be refined further by working the chronology backward from Hosea and Zedekiah. By working from both ends of this period,we can refine the reigns of these kings to a reasonable and congruent chronological rendering.

Using the preceding chronology, we now have a basis upon which to calculate the biblical dates of the kings of Israel and Judah. In the next chapter we will need to further synchronize this chronology with secular dates so that we canrelate it to our current calendar.

We will do this by synchronizing this chronology with 520 BC, one of the most important dates of the second temple era. Those who have read Book II in this series, Daniel’s 70 Weeks: The Keystone of Bible Prophecy, already know about this date because it was the year YHWH, the living God of the Bible, gave his divine word to restore and build Jerusalem, thus beginning the Bible’s countdown to the Messiah. This date also ended a period of 70 years of divine anger, which we followed back in time to the departure of YHWH’s presence from the temple and Jerusalem. In the next chapter, these important events will be our focal point.

Chapter 6

Synchronizing the Second Temple Era

“Upon the four and twentieth day of the eleventh month, which is the month Sebat, in the second year of Darius, came the word of YHWH unto Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo the prophet.

Then the angel of YHWH answered and said, O YHWH of hosts, how long wilt thou not have mercy on Jerusalem and on the cities of Judah, against which thou hast had indignation these threescore and ten years? . . .

Therefore thus saith YHWH; I am returned to Jerusalem with mercies: my house shall be built in it, saith YHWH of hosts, and a line shall be stretched forth upon Jerusalem.”

—Zechariah 1:7–16

The importance of the above passage cannot be overstated. Here in Zechariah 1 we have one of the most important synchronisms in the entire Bible, because it is in this second year of Darius, son of Hyastaspes (also known as Darius the Great in secular fame or by the title of “Artaxerxes” in the Bible and the Antiquities of the Jews,that we are able to synchronize the Bible’s chronology with a datable secular event.

70 Years of Divine Anger
As we learned in chapter 5 of Book II inthe Prophecy and Patterns series, Daniel’s 70 Weeks: The Keystone of Bible Prophecy, this period of 70 years of divine anger,spoken of in Zechariah1, began in 589 BC when YHWH’s shekinah left the temple and Jerusalem. This date, as we learned, can reasonably be synchronized with the chronology of the kings of Israel and Judah. Specifically, it can be dated to the 5th day of the 6th month of the 6th year of Jehoiachin’scaptivity. This day, one of the darkest of the second temple era, was when YHWH’s presence left Solomon’s temple and then departed Jerusalem. The prophet Ezekiel, also in captivity as this time, tells us the story:

And it came to pass in the sixth year, in the sixth month, in the fifth day of the month [589 BC], as I sat in mine house, and the elders of Judah sat before me, that the hand of the Lord YHWH fell there upon me . . .

And the glory of the God of Israel was gone up from the cherub, whereupon he was, to the threshold of the house . . . And it came to pass, while they were slaying them [those committing the abominations in the temple], and I was left, that I fell upon my face, and cried, and said, Ah Lord YHWH! wilt thou destroy all the residue of Israel in thy pouring out of thy fury upon Jerusalem? . . .

Then the glory of YHWH went up from the cherub, and stood over the threshold of the house; and the house was filled with the cloud, and the court was full of the brightness of the YHWH’s glory . . .

Then the glory of YHWH departed from off the threshold of the house, and stood over the cherubims. And the cherubims lifted up their wings, and mounted up from the earth in my sight: when they went out, the wheels also were beside them, and every one stood at the door of the east gate of YHWH’s house; and the glory of the God of Israel was over them above.(Ezekiel 8:1, 9:3–8, 10:4, 10:18–19)

Some of you are probably familiar with the following chart from Book II in the Prophecies and Patterns series. This chart shows the start of the 70-year captivity of Judah as well as the start of YHWH’s 70 years of divine anger. Take a moment to pursue the chart, especially considering the starting and ending points of the yellow and red bars.

Israel, Nebuchadnezzar, and Daniel

So we’ve dated the departure of the shekinah to the sixth year of Jehoiachin’scaptivity.Briefly, let’s look at the events which led to this captivity so that we can place them in the context of the kings of Israel,the reign of Nebuchadnezzar,and Daniel’s captivity, thus further synchronizing this chronology with the secular record as well as connecting it to the context of Books I and II in this series.

First, let’s look at the captivity of Jehoiachin and the 70 years of divine anger, because this is our first and most important synchronism to help us connect the secular Persian record with the second-temple-era kings of Israel and of Babylon. Also keep in mind that it was between the two dates given below that Ezekiel performed that famous object lesson for Israel and Judah by lying on his side for 430 days (40 for Judah and 390 for Israel). For more on this, see “The Elusive 13thMonth” in Book II,Daniel’s 70 Weeks: The Keystone of Bible Prophecy, or read my blog article about the subject here: Ezekiel’s 13th Month.

590 BC : - The Year Before YHWH’s 70 Years ofDivine Anger Begins :

Now it came to pass in the thirtieth year, in the fourth month, in the fifth day of the month, as I was among the captives by the river of Chebar, that the heavens were opened, and I saw visions of God. In the fifth day of the month, which was the fifth year of king Jehoiachin’s captivity . . . (Ezekiel 1:1–2, emphasis mine)

589 BC:The Start of YHWH’s 70 Years of Divine Anger

And it came to pass in the sixth year, in the sixth month, in the fifth dayof the month, asI sat in mine house, and the elders of Judah sat before me, that the hand of the Lord YHWH fell there upon me . . .

And the glory of the God of Israel was gone up from the cherub, whereupon he was, to the threshold of the house . . . (Ezekiel 8:1 and 9:3, emphasis mine)

Let’s flesh this out a bit more. With the above dates we now have a basis from which we can date the reigns of the other important kings of Judah as well as the reign of Nebuchadnezzar.

In 2 Kings 24:8 it tells us that Jehoiachin ruled for only three months. Second Chronicles 36:10–11 confirms this, but it also tells us that Jehoiachin was not taken captive to Babylon until the “year had expired.” At this time Jehoiachin’s brother Zedekiah was made king over Judah, and he ruled for eleven years. Finally, in 2 Kings 24:12, we learn that Jehoiachin was taken in the eighth year of Nebuchadnezzar’s reign. Here is what that looks like in actual chronology:

With the chronological information in this chart, we can now date the reigns of Nebuchadnezzar and King Zedekiah. I’d encourage you to take a few minutes to really peruse this chart so that you get a good grasp of the chronology. As we move forward in our investigation, we will be building upon this foundation. As you will soon see these synchronisms provide a reasonable basis upon which we will be able to date the jubilee and Sabbath cycles of the Bible.

Jehoiachin was eighteen years old when he began to reign, and he reigned in Jerusalem three months.(2 Kings 24:8)

And Jehoiachin the king of Judah went out to the king of Babylon [Nebuchadnezzar], he, and his mother, and his servants, and his princes, and his officers: and the king of Babylon took him in the eighth year of his reign.(2 Kings 24:12)

And when the year was expired, king Nebuchadnezzar sent, and brought him [Jehoiachin]to Babylon, with the goodly vessels of the house of YHWH, and made Zedekiah his brother king over Judah and Jerusalem.Zedekiah was one and twenty years old when he began to reign, and reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. (2 Chronicles 36:10–11, emphasis mine)

Matthew’s Missing King

As a final synchronism, I think it only appropriate to synchronize this chronology with Matthew’s famous enumeration of Yeshua’s lineage,as described in Books I and II of this series. We learned in Books I and II that Matthew arranged Yeshua’s lineage to show that he was both the 13th and 14th generation, the suffering servant and the future king. We also learned that Matthew’s list of kings makes the inescapable connection between the messianic symbolism found in the Bible’s calendar and the festivals of YHWH and Yeshua as the ultimate fulfillment of that symbolism.

Now let me give you some further context so that you understand exactly where Matthew’s lineage of Yeshua fits into the chronology of the second temple era. The following chartis the second of three 14 generation groupings as given by the apostle Matthew in chapter 1 of his gospel account.The chart should be familiar to readers of Books I and II in the Prophecies and Patterns series.

The 14th generation below is our famous Jehoiachin, also known as Jechonias and Coniah. It was in this 14th generation from Solomon that YHWH’s 70 years of divine anger began. Between the 13thand 14th generation is our famous missing king, Jehoiakim. It is during Jehoiakim’s 3rd year that Daniel 1:1 records Nebuchadnezzar’s first conquest of Judah and Jerusalem and the start of Daniel’s captivity. Take a moment to review the charts below.

In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah came Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon unto Jerusalem, and besieged it.(Daniel 1:1)

Dating the Creation of Adam

So now that we have established a reasonable secular date for the reigns of Jehoiakim, Zedekiah, and Jehoiachin, we can work these dates backward into the chronology of patriarchs and kings that we calculated in the previous chapter. This then allows us to establish a reasonable and defensible date for the creation of Adam in roughly 4000 BC. I want to stress here once again that reasonable arguments be can offered for shifting these dates by +- a year. My intention here is not to be dogmatic but simply to provide my best understanding of the chronology. I encourage each of you to do your own diligence when pursuing this information.

As you will see in coming chapters,when we overlay the jubilee and Sabbath cycles on top of this chronology,a picture begins to take shape. What is fascinating to me is that this picture is a bit flexible, and exact dates are not required to see YHWH’s hand working his will through the biblical ages—the pattern is clear regardless.

We conclude this aspect of our study of the Old Testament chronology with our two previous charts, only this time I’ve added the secular dates calculated relative to the 70 years of divine anger and thesecond year of Darius “the Great” Artaxerxes.

In the next few chapters we will look for evidence of the Sabbath and jubilee cycles mentioned in the biblical record. With the chronology we have developed here, we will then have a chronological basis upon which to calculate these dates, thus giving us a way to see the bigger chronological picture.

To a Sabbath celebration in the tenth year of the evil king Zedekiah, we turn our attention in the next chapter.

Chapter 7

The 10th Year of Zedekiah

Jerusalem faced a series of sieges and conquests during the reign of Nebuchadnezzarthat ultimately resulted in the complete destruction of the city. As was the case many times in biblical history, YHWH used secular rulers to punish his people because they had strayed from his will. In Daniel 1, we learn that the prophet Daniel and his companions Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were taken captive in the third year of Jehoiakim, which datesthe story to the first year of Nebuchanezzar. This date marked the beginning of Judah’s first captivity period. This captivity saw Nebuchanezzar take many of the most skillful and comely young men and women of Jerusalem to become servants to him in Babylon.

According to 2 Chronicles 35–36 and 2 Kings 23, at the time of Nebuchadnezzar’s first siege, Judah and Jerusalemwere actually vassals of Necho Pharaoh of Egypt. It was King Necho who installed Eliakim, the brother of Jehoahaz, as king. As an aside, it is interesting to note that Necho changed Eliakim’s name from “God sets up” to “YHWH raises up”(Jehoiakim).

It is apparent from 2 Chronicles 35 that Necho came against Jerusalem by some specific mandate given to him by YHWH. Years later King Cyrus of Persia would receive another such divine mandate. We often think of YHWH as only speaking to the prophets and apostles, but here are two good examples in Necho and Cyrus of YHWH speaking directly to secular rulers when it serves to accomplish his purposes.

In any case, by the eleventh year of Jehoiakim, Pharaoh Necho’s power and influence over Jerusalem and Judah had given way to King Nebuchadnezzar. Once again Nebuchadnezzar swept through the land and took plunder and captives. It was during this second captivity period that Jehoiachin and Ezekiel were taken captive. The following chart summarizes these events. The captivity periods are numbered to the right of the chart.

three months Jehoiachin reigned in place of his father Jehoiakim; then, when the year “expired,” Nebuchadnezzar brought him to Babylon and made Zedekiah, Jehoiakim’s brother, king over Judah and Jerusalem. Zedekiah ruled for eleven years, but he did what was evil in the sight of YHWH.

Zedekiah’s Year of Release

The above chronology brings us to Zedekiah and our first evidence for the keeping of a Sabbath year release.Remember, in the book of Leviticus chapter 25 we are told that at the end of six years of labor the children of Israel were to let the land rest. In Deuteronomy 15 Israel was further instructed to release their fellow Hebrews from any servitude they had become obligated to during the previous six years.

But in the seventh year shall be a sabbath of rest unto the land, a sabbath for YHWH: thou shalt neither sow thy field, nor prune thy vineyard. (Leviticus 25:4)

And if thy brother, an Hebrew man, or an Hebrew woman, be sold unto thee, and serve thee six years; then in the seventh year thou shalt let him go free from thee. (Deuteronomy 15:12)

According to Jeremiah 34, King Zedekiah had committed himself and Israel to releasing their fellow Hebrews from servitude. The year of this release is not mentioned, but we can ascertain its date from the information provided in the text.

You see, the text of Jeremiah 34 indicates that Zedekiah entered into this covenant with the people of Jerusalem sometime during Nebuchadnezzar’s siege of Jerusalem. Jeremiah 39 tells us that the siege of Jerusalem began in the tenth month and ninth year of Zedekiah and lasted until the fourth month of the eleventh year of Zedekiah. So this means that Zedekiah’s year of release fell within an eighteen-month period of time between his ninth and eleventh year.

From the instructions given in Leviticus 25, we know that the jubilee year of release was to take place in the 7th month, and since the Sabbath and jubilee cycles are synchronized, we can reasonably conclude that the 7th year release of Hebrew slaves also took place in the 7th month.

This then allows us to conclude that it was in the10th year of Zedekiah, when the siege of Jerusalem was at its height, that Zedekiah made this covenant with the people. When the 7thmonth came,Zedekiah and the Hebrew slave owners did release their slaves, but then they changed their minds and brought them back into servitude.This angered YHWH,and he gave them over to the hand of Nebuchadnezzar for complete destruction. Just a few months later, in thefourth month of the11th year of Zedekiah on the ninth of Av, one of the most dreadful days in Israel’s history, the temple and Jerusalem were destroyed. Take a moment to read Jeremiah’s account of these events:

The word which came unto Jeremiah from YHWH, when Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and all his army, and all the kingdoms of the earth of his dominion, and all the people, fought against Jerusalem, and against all the cities thereof, saying . . .

This is the word that came unto Jeremiah from YHWH, after that the king Zedekiah had made a covenant with all the people which were at Jerusalem, to proclaim liberty unto them;That every man should let his manservant, and every man his maidservant, being an Hebrew or an Hebrewess, go free; that none should serve himself of them, to wit, of a Jew his brother.

Now when all the princes, and all the people, which had entered into the covenant, heard that every one should let his manservant, and every one his maidservant, go free, that none should serve themselves of them any more, then they obeyed, and let them go.But afterward they turned, and caused the servants and the handmaids, whom they had let go free, to return, and brought them into subjection for servants and for handmaids.

Therefore the word of YHWH came to Jeremiah from YHWH, saying, Thus saith YHWH, the God of Israel; I made a covenant with your fathers in the day that I brought them forth out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondmen, saying,At the end of seven years let ye go every man his brother an Hebrew, which hath been sold unto thee; and when he hath served thee six years, thou shalt let him go free from thee: but your fathers hearkened not unto me, neither inclined their ear.

And ye were now turned, and had done right in my sight, in proclaiming liberty every man to his neighbour; and ye had made a covenant before me in the house which is called by my name:but ye turned and polluted my name, and caused every man his servant, and every man his handmaid, whom ye had set at liberty at their pleasure, to return, and brought them into subjection, to be unto you for servants and for handmaids.(Jeremiah 34:1, 8-16)

The word that came to Jeremiah from YHWH in the tenth year of Zedekiah king of Judah, which was the eighteenth year of Nebuchadrezzar.(Jeremiah 32:1)

In the ninth year of Zedekiah king of Judah, in the tenth month, came Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon and all his army against Jerusalem, and they besieged it.And in the eleventh year of Zedekiah, in the fourth month, the ninth day of the month, the city was broken up.(Jeremiah 39:1–2)

In summary then, we have a good biblical basis to conclude that the 10th year of Zedekiah began the 7th year of a Sabbath cycle. This fantastic information gives us our first waypoint in determining a biblical basis for the Sabbath and jubilee cycles in the Bible.

Next, we will turn our attention to the second temple era and an event that took place when Ezra and Nehemiah were reestablishing the temple service at the dedication of the new temple during the reign of Darius “the Great” Artaxerxes.

Chapter 8

Ezra and Nehemiah Keep the Shemitah

“When all Israel is come to appear before YHWH thy God in the place which he shall choose, thou shalt read this law before all Israel in their hearing.”

—Deuteronomy 31:11

The time of Ezra and Nehemiah was a rich, thrilling, and challenging period for the children of Israel. Thanks in large part to Daniel 9 and the prophecy of 70 weeks, this second temple era and its chronology has had an overweighing influence on most common interpretations of Bible prophecy. But in Book II of the Prophecies and Patterns series, Daniel’s 70 Weeks: The Keystone of Bible Prophecy ,we learned that the second temple era of Ezra and Nehemiah has been misplaced by biblical scholarship in a well-intentioned effort to fulfill the prophecy of 70 weeks. That effort, though it had the best intentions, has resulted in the unintended consequence of obscuring the second temple era chronology as well as our understanding of many of the Bible’s most important prophecies.

Today, we once again turn our attention to the chronology of the second temple era and the efforts of the Jewish people to rebuild the temple and Jerusalem. This time, the focus of our investigation will be on determining the timing of a very important event that took place after the completion of the wall of Jerusalem during the governorship of Nehemiah. That event was Ezra’s reading of the law to the Jewish people at the Feast of Tabernacles in the 21st year of Artaxerxes.

Reading the law during the Feast of Tabernacles wasa requirement during the 7th year of the Sabbath cycle, otherwise known as the shemitah. If we can determine the year this mandate was performed, we have another reasonable waypoint we can use to further establish and synchronize the Sabbath and jubilee cycles in the biblical record.

Rebuilding the Temple

It started with a decree by Cyrus of Persia in 536 BC. This decree allowed the Jewish people to return and rebuild the temple of Jerusalem, thus ending the 70-year Babylonian captivity period prophesied by Jeremiah (Jeremiah 25 and Daniel 9). As we learned in Book II,Daniel’s 70 Weeks: The Keystone of Bible Prophecy, after the decree by Cyrus, the repatriated Jewish people, instead of working on the house of YHWH, spent the next sixteen years working on their own homes to the neglect of YHWH’s house.

But then when the time was right in YHWH’s eternal plan,he once again took events in hand. In 520 BC in the second year of Darius, YHWH, through the prophets Haggai and Zechariah, commanded the Jewish people to return and build his house in Jerusalem. This was the very command that was recorded by Ezra 6:13–15. It was this commandment, one which biblical scholars have all but ignored, which began Daniel’s 70-week countdown to the coming Messiah.

Four years later, in the 6th year of Darius “the Great” Artaxerxes (515 BC), the second temple was completed. The following year in (the 7th year of Darius) Ezra the priest and scribe returned to Jerusalem to teach the people the Torah.Fourteen years later, in the 21styear of Darius, Nehemiah was sent to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem, which were still in disrepair. Nehemiah was appointed governor of Jerusalem by Darius, and he served in that capacity for the next twelve years.

The 20th or 21st Year of Artaxerxes

In Book II,Daniel’s 70 Weeks: The Keystone of Bible Prophecy, we established the place of Ezra and Nehemiah in the second temple era upon a solid biblical chronological foundation in the reign of Darius “the Great” Artaxerxes.That investigation concluded that the “Artaxerxes” of the latter half of the book of Ezra, the “Artaxerxes” of the book of Nehemiah, and the “Ahasuerus” of the book of Esther, were in fact Darius the son of Hystaspes, also known as “the Great.”

Before we can continue, we must deal with another challenging chronological puzzle regarding the timing of Nehemiah’s departure from the Persian palace at Shushan during the reignof Darius “the Great” Artaxerxes.

Nehemiah 1 tells us that Nehemiah heard of the deplorable conditions of Jerusalem in the 9th month of the 20th year of Artaxerxes. Nehemiah 2 then tells us that Nehemiah, after learning of the terrible news from Jerusalem, came before the king’s presence with a sad countenance in the 1stmonth (Nisan) of the 20th year of Artaxerxes.

The words of Nehemiah the son of Hachaliah. And it came to pass in the month Chisleu, in the twentieth year, as I was in Shushan the palace . . .(Nehemiah 1:1)

And it came to pass in the month Nisan, in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes the king, that wine was before him: and I took up the wine, and gave it unto the king. Now I had not been beforetime sad in his presence. (Nehemiah 2:1)

As you can see, the dates here appear to be in conflict. Clearly Nehemiah couldn’t have come before the presence of King Darius with the sad news of Jerusalem weighing on his mind before he had even heard of the news.

I believe there are two ways to deal with this apparent discrepancy. One way is to assume, like the great Sir Robert Anderson, that the first date refers to the ascension year of Darius while the date of Nehemiah 2 refers to his first year of sole rule.

The other way to deal with this discrepancy is to consider the possibility of a scribal error. Chronologically, if Nehemiah heard about the status of Jerusalem in the 9th month of the 20th year, then the 1st month of the following year would be the 21st year of Artaxerxes.

Though I’m unwilling to be dogmatic about it, this appears to be the more likely solution when Nehemiah 5:14 is taken into consideration as well.

Moreover from the time that I was appointed to be their governor in the land of Judah, from the twentieth year even unto the two and thirtieth year of Artaxerxes the king, that is, twelve years, I and my brethren have not eaten the bread of the governor. (Nehemiah 5:14)

Here Nehemiah tells us that he was governor of Jerusalem for 12 years, from the 20th to the 32nd year of Darius Artaxerxes. The challenge of this statement is that there are 13 years from the 20th to the 32nd year of Artaxerxes. If Nehemiah’s governorship instead began in the 21st year of Artaxerxes as Nehemiah 1 and 2 seem to suggest, then his governorship would have indeed been 12 years. For the purposes of our investigation, we will use the 21st year of Darius as the reference point for our calculation of the 7th year or shemitah. The following chart provides a visual on the pertinent details.

Reading the Law during the Shemitah

Now let’s briefly turn our attention back in time to Moses’s instructions concerning the celebration of the shemitah year so we can compare them with what took place when Ezra read the law to the people assembled in Jerusalem in the 21st year of Darius.

And Moses commanded them, saying, At the end of every seven years, in the solemnity of the year of release, in the feast of tabernacles,when all Israel is come to appear before YHWH thy God in the place which he shall choose, thou shalt read this law before all Israel in their hearing. (Deuteronomy 31:10–11)

Here is the account of events from the 21st year of Darius “the Great” Artaxerxes in the year 501 BC:

And they[repatriated Jewish people]found written in the law which YHWH had commanded by Moses, that the children of Israel should dwell in booths in the feast of the seventh month . . .

And all the congregation of them that were come again out of the captivity made booths, and sat under the booths: for since the days of Jeshua the son of Nun unto that day had not the children of Israel done so.

And there was very great gladness.Also day by day, from the first day unto the last day, he read in the book of the law of God. And they kept the feast seven days; and on the eighth day wasa solemn assembly, according unto the manner. (Nehemiah 8:14–18)

Tying It All Together

Here is a brief recap of the events leading up to the reading of the law by Ezra:

1. In the 9th month of the 20th year of Darius Artaxerxes, Nehemiah hears of the deplorable conditions in Jerusalem.

2. In the 1st month of the 21st year of Darius Artaxerxes (just three months later),Nehemiah comes before Darius and petitions for permission to return to Jerusalem to build the walls.

3. Nehemiah makes his journey to Jerusalem and construction of the walls begin shortly thereafter.

4. The wall is completed in fifty-two days. (Nehemiah 6:15).

5. The people from all over Judea assemble in Jerusalem to dedicate the wall in the 7th month of the 21st year of Darius (Nehemiah 8 and 11–13).

6. The law is read “day by day, from the first day unto the last day” during the Feast of Tabernacles.

Now that we have a reasonable sense of the chronology leading up to the reading of the law during the Feast of Tabernacles in the 21st year of Artaxerxes, the following chart shows how this proposed shemitah year falls relative to the shemitah year that fell in the 10thyear of Zedekiah:

As can be seen in the chart,the shemitah in the 10th year of Zedekiah coincides with the shemitah in the 21st year of Darius “the Great” Artaxerxes of Ezra and Nehemiah. These two synchronisms make a reasonably strong starting point for seeing the yearly Sabbath cycles as they relate to the chronology of the Old Testament. Next we will turn our attention to the book of Ezekiel and what may be one of the only pieces of chronological evidence related to the jubilee cycle found in the Bible.

Chapter 9

Ezekiel’s 30th Year

“Now it came to pass in the thirtieth year, in the fourth month, in the fifth day of the month, as I was among the captives by the river of Chebar, that the heavens were opened, and I saw visions of God.In the fifth day of the month, which was the fifth year of king Jehoiachin's captivity . . .”

—Ezekiel 1:1–2

I love the book of Ezekiel for its wonderful chronological synchronisms! Ezekiel had a penchant for using multiple dates to delineate important chronological information. The first verse of the book of Ezekiel, as quoted at the opening of this chapter, is a fantastic example.

We know from thebiblical record and secular sources that the 30thyear mentioned above is not the reign of any of the then-concurrent secular kings mentioned in the Bible, nor can it be the length of Ezekiel’s captivity up to that point, because as we learned in the previous chapters, Ezekiel’s captivity began at roughly the same time as Jehoiachin’s.

Some have speculated that this 30th year denotes the year of Ezekiel’s birth, because there seem to be no other alternatives. But many biblical commentators are uncomfortable with this,because Ezekiel’s young agewould be rather difficult to justify. Some of the challenges to this position are Ezekiel describing himself as a priest (Ezekiel 3:1) and, throughout the book, showing himself familiar with the priesthood and the former temple service, which would indicate he might have served as a priest in Jerusalem before his captivity some six years earlier—a position he would not have been allowed to hold before he was 30 years of age. Ezekiel was also a man of such stature and influence that the elders of Judah consultedwith him multiple times(Ezekiel 8:1; 14:1; 20:1).

So what are we to make of Ezekiel’s 30th year? The date is so important that Ezekiel opens his book with it and synchronizes it with Jehoiachin’s captivity, thus making it the central chronological waypoint of the entire book. If this was really Ezekiel’s 30th year from birth,what purpose was there for Ezekiel to synchronize it with Jehoiachin’s captivity? Clearly in reading the balance of chronological information found throughout the rest of the book, this opening passage, if indeed it is a reference to the year of his birth, seems out of character, as it does not serve to add further chronological clarity to these events as is Ezekiel’s normal practice.

Let me offer what I believe is a better alternative, one which gives this 30th year the chronological significance implied by its placement in the opening verse of Ezekiel’s wonderful book. The following chart should be familiar to you from the preceding chapters. The chart shows the start of Ezekiel’s and Jehoiachin’s captivity relative to the departure of YHWH’s shekinah from the temple and Jerusalem and the resulting 70 years of divine anger.

The 30th Year of Ezekiel the 30thYear of a Jubilee Cycle?

For the sake of argument, let’s assume a greater significance to the 30th year of Ezekiel 1 than just a personal statement of Ezekiel’s birth year. Instead, let’s see if it is possible that Ezekiel might have been referring to the 30th year of a jubilee cycle.

In chapters 2–4, we learned that the jubilee and Sabbath cycles as described in Leviticus 25 are best understood as synchronized. This means that the first year of a Sabbath cycle and the first year of a jubilee cycle coincide. Further, this also means that the 50th year of a jubilee cycle falls in the 1st year of the next Sabbath cycle.

If then Ezekiel’s 30th year was in fact the 30th year of a jubilee cycle, by the above criteria the 30th year of a jubilee cycle should fall in the 2nd year of a Sabbath cycle. Further, the 7th, 14th, 21st, 28th, 35th, 42nd, and 49th years of the jubilee should each fall in the 7th year of a Sabbath cycle.

Once more, take a look at the previous chart. By the chronological information we have developed in the preceding chapters, we can see that the 30th year of Ezekiel does fit as the 30th year of a jubilee cycle.

This information sheds an entirely new light on the book of Ezekiel. In effect, Ezekiel may have raised the bar on Bible chronology by synchronizing the jubilee cycles with the chronology of King Jehoiachin and the second temple era. As we will see in the next chapter, this was not an accident—Ezekiel goes even further by connecting the biblicaljubilee to the one of the most tragic events in Jewish history, thus confirming for us that this 30th year of Ezekiel was in fact the 30th year of a jubilee cycle.

Chapter 10

Ezekiel’s Jubilee

So far in our exploration of the biblical Sabbath and jubilee cycles, we have established two shemitahs (the 7th year of a Sabbath cycle) approximately 84 years apart, the first during the 10th year of Zedekiah and the second during the 21st year of Darius “the Great” Artaxerxes.Then, in chapter 10,evidence was provided to show that Ezekiel’s 30th year may well have been the 30th year of a jubilee cycle. In order to move this evidence from speculation to reasonable fact, we now need to establish a starting point for the jubilee cycle.

In Leviticus 25,we are given the criteria for celebrating the jubilee. Surprisingly, the jubilee cycle does not begin or end in the 1st month of the religious calendar. Instead, the jubilee begins and ends on the 10th day of the 7th month, during the high holy day of Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement.Let’s take a look at the text:

And thou shalt number seven sabbaths of years unto thee, seven times seven years; and the space of the seven sabbaths of years shall be unto thee forty and nine years.

Then shalt thou cause the trumpet of the jubile to sound on the tenth day of the seventh month, in the day of atonement shall ye make the trumpet sound throughout all your land.And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof: it shall be a jubile unto you; and ye shall return every man unto his possession, and ye shall return every man unto his family. (Leviticus 25:8–10)

According to the text, the jubileecycle begins and ends in the 50th year on the 10th day of the 7th month. As we learned in chapter 1, the jubilee according to the letter of the law is about settling debts and setting the captives free. It is a year of release from bondage. We also learned that Yeshua came in the spirit of the law to set all mankind free from bondage to sin. Someday the letter and the spirit of the law will find combined fulfillment during the reign of Yeshua in the millennium. I believe one of the reason the jubilee cycle and by extension the shemitah begin and end in the 7th month is to connect these cycles to YHWH’s fall holydays, which will find their fulfillmentin Yeshua at the second coming.

Ezekiel’s JubileeYear

This brings us to an unusual statement made by Ezekiel in chapter 40 verse 1. Here Ezekiel describes the “beginning of the year” as falling on the 10th day of the month. The word “beginning” here comes from the Hebrew rosh, which means head, top, summit, upper part, or beginning.

In the five and twentieth year of our captivity, in the beginning [rosh] of the year, in the tenth day of the month, in the fourteenth year after that the city was smitten, in the selfsame day the hand of YHWH was upon me, and brought me thither.(Ezekiel 40:1 , emphasis mine )

For further clarity on the use of rosh, take a look at how Solomon describes the work of YHWH from the beginning (rosh) until the end:

He hath made every thing beautiful in his time: also he hath set the world in their heart, so that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning [rosh] to the end. (Ecclesiastes 3:11)

The only “year” in the Bible that begins or “heads” on the 10th day of the 7th month is the jubileeyear.What is really neat about this passage in Ezekiel 40 is that Ezekiel doesn’t leave the chronology to speculation. He triangulates this “beginning of the year” with two other very important events: the start of his own captivity and the destruction of Jerusalem.

For those who have been really paying attention to the chronology we have developed over the last few chapters, you realize we’ve already identified the year Jerusalem was destroyed as well as the year of Ezekiel’s captivity. Now all we have to do is combine these dates.

If Ezekiel’s beginning of the year is indeed a jubilee, then we should find that the 25th year of Ezekiel’s captivity and the 14th year after Jerusalem was destroyed will mark a jubilee year. Indeed, that is exactly what we find, as the following chart reflects. The 25th year of Ezekiel’s captivity was the 50th year of a jubilee cycle. Not only was it the 50th year of a jubilee cycle, but it was the 50th year of the very jubilee cycle Ezekiel identified in the opening verses of his book. Take a look at the chart:

A Synchronized Second Temple Era

Over the past few chapters we’ve used four chronological waypoints to synchronize the chronology of the second temple era with the Sabbath and jubilee cycles. Our four waypoints were:

1. The 10th year of Zedekiah

2. The 21st year of Darius “the Great” Artaxerxes

3. The 30th year of Ezekiel

4. The 25th year of Ezekiel’s captivity, which was fourteen years after Jerusalem’s destruction

Of these, the first two waypoints provided us with reasonable evidence for two times in Israel’s history when thenationcelebrated ashemitah year. The last two waypoints from the book of Ezekiel provided us with reasonable evidence for dating a biblicaljubilee cycle.

Taken separately, these waypoints are just interesting biblical chronological events—but when combined, their interlocking nature provides powerful evidence for the knowledge of the jubilee and Sabbath laws at various times during the second temple era, if not necessarily for adherence to them. Further, these cycles show the accuracy and cohesiveness of the Bible’s chronological record over time. For the chronologist,it is the interlocking or synchronized nature of these dates that allows us to build a reasonable and factual picture of the jubilee and Sabbath cycles in the Bible.

In Part II of this book, we will take the evidence we’ve built in these chapters and use it to look at the events of the Bible with a bird’s-eye view of when they took place relative to the jubilee and Sabbath cycles. As you will see, this big-picture perspective offersus a rare look at how YHWH has worked down through the ages in bringing about his plan of reconciliation for all mankind through the promised redeemer, our Yeshua. Quite literally, we will see the hand of YHWH at work in the affairs of mankind.

Now the adventure really begins!

Part II

The Jubilee Code

Chapter 11

Adam and the First Jubilee

“This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made he him.”

—Genesis 5:1

In Part I of this book, we laid the foundation for a reasonable understanding of the jubilee and Sabbath cycles in the Bible. We identified and dated two shemitahs (the 7th year of each Sabbath cycle)as well as the 30th and the 50th years of a particular jubilee cycle as described by Ezekiel. What we are still missing is a contextual reference point from which to begin counting the jubilee and Sabbath cycles in the Bible. In other words,we don’t know when the jubilee and Sabbath cycles began.

Since the jubilee and Sabbath cycle laws were not given to Israel until after the Exodus, and because their commencement was tied to the return to the Promised Land, most chronologists try to lay the foundation for these cycles at some point after or during Israel’s conquest of the Promised Land. The challenge to this endeavor is that there are simply no definitive statements in the Bible that clearly spell out when the jubilee or the Sabbath cycles began.

Keep in mind, in the previous chapters we’ve provided reasonable factual grounds to show that Israel or at least some individuals, like Ezra, Nehemiah, Zedekiah, and Ezekiel,shared a common basis for their knowledge of the jubilee and Sabbath cycles. These individuals were clearly sharing the same page of music. The question before us is, since the Bible doesn’t give the specific date the jubilee and Sabbath cycles began, how did these men arrive at their knowledge of the subject? The most obvious answer, as my editor Rachel Thomson reminded me, would have been tradition. Whether oral or written Ezra, Nehemiah, Zedekiah, and Ezekiel had a common understanding of the Jubilee and Sabbath through time. As we will see in this chapter, those traditions had a basis in events nearly 2500 years before the Exodus of Israel from Egypt. The prophet Isaiah identifies the source:

Remember the former things of old: for I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like me,declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure. (Isaiah 46:9–10)

This verse tells us that YHWH, at the very beginning, laid out his plan for mankind. Not long ago, I read a book by Bill Cloud^1that gave me a new perspective on this verse. Mr. Cloud explained that this verse is not just a statement that YHWH can predict the future but that at creation,he set in motion the very patterns upon which that future would be based.For example, at creation YHWH labored for 6 days and rested on the 7th. It wouldn’t be for another 2513 years that YHWHcodified that pattern and give it to the children of Israel as law.

Let’s take these cycles back to the same place the daily pattern of labor and rest began. Let’s go back to the beginning, where YHWH declared the “end from the beginning” and “things that are not yet done.”

Starting with Ezekiel’s Jubilee

By now, many of you are beginning to understand why we took the time to establish the chronology of the Old Testament upon a reasonable factual basis. The chronology we developed in Part I of this booknow gives us the information needed to roll back the jubilee and Sabbath cycles all the way to creation and the first year of Adam. If our premise is correct, the jubilee and Sabbath cycles should have their beginning at the same time YHWH created man. In other words, year 1 of the Sabbath cycle and year 1 of the jubilee cycle should coincide with the first year of Adam.

We know that Ezekiel’s jubilee fell in 570 BC,which was the 3431st year from Adam according to the chronology we have developed. Rolling this backward, we find that indeed, the first year of Adam coincided with the 1st year of a jubilee and Sabbath cycle. Pretty impressive accuracy for nearly three and a half millennia!

To really get a sense of how truly remarkable this information is, we need to count the jubilees using the first year of Adam as our basis. What we find is that Ezekiel’s jubilee wasn’t just any jubilee . . . in fact,it not only marked the 25th year of Ezekiel’s captivity and the14thyear after the city of Jerusalem was destroyed,but it was precisely the 70thjubilee from Adam. Consider that for a moment. Of all the possible jubilee synchronizations in the Bible, the one which YHWH choose to specifically set apart and connect with secular history was the 70th. Throughout the Biblical record the number 7 has long been understood to represent divine perfection and here we find that symbolism associated with the chronology of the Bible in a most unique way. With this in mind we would be well advised to pay special attention.

As we will see in the following chapters, this 70thjubilee is when YHWH’s redemptive plan for mankind really began to take shape. Events were set in motion that would fundamentally alter the course of Jewish history and that of all mankind.

Chapter 12

70 Years and the 70thJubilee

We are not quite ready yet to leave the 70thjubilee. As you will see, this jubilee cycle marked the crux of the second temple era and the real beginning of YHWH’s redemptive plan.

In Part I of this book, we looked at the chronology of that period in order to ascertain a reasonable date for the celebration of the shemitah. That evidence included two periods of 70 years:

- The 70 years ofcaptivity prophesied by Jeremiah

- The 70 years of YHWH’s divine anger

In addition to these two 70-year periods, I would like to add one more:

- The 70 years between the destruction of the firsttemple and the completion and dedication of the second

Each of these periods of 70 years had one amazing thing in common: they all originated in the 70thjubilee from Adam. Due to the importance of these periods of time to our understanding of the second temple era and the 70thjubilee, let’s briefly look at them once again to really fix them in our minds.

The 70 Years of Captivity

Because Israel had fallen into idolatry and stopped keeping the shemitah land rest in the years after entry into the Promised Land, YHWH informed them through the prophet Jeremiah that they would suffer 70 years as captives in the land of Babylon.

And this whole land shall be a desolation, and an astonishment; and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years.(Jeremiah 25:11)

To fulfil the word of YHWH by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed her sabbaths: for as long as she lay desolate she kept sabbath, to fulfil threescore and ten years. (2 Chronicles 36:21)

So Judah was taken captive to Babylon in the third year of king Jehoiakim (Daniel 1:1). This captivity was punishment (in part) for not keeping the shemitah,the 7-year cycle of rest for the land, and the punishment was executed in the 70thjubilee cycle from Adam, which cycle is dependent upon the shemitah for its existence. Not very subtle, is it?

As more fully elucidated in Book II,Daniel’s 70 Weeks: The Keystone of Bible Prophecy, Daniel, one of the Bible’s most famous and influential prophets, was taken captive at this time. Nearly 70 years later, in the final years of his captivity,he understood by the prophecy of Jeremiah that his and his brethren’s captivity was drawing to a close.

In the first year of his reign I Daniel understood by books the number of the years, whereof the word of YHWH came to Jeremiah the prophet, that he would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem. (Daniel 9:2)

Nearly two years later, Cyrus conquered Babylon and set the Jewish captives free, allowing those willing to return and build Jerusalem.

Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of YHWH by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, YHWH stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom, and put it also in writing, saying,

Thus saith Cyrus king of Persia, YHWH God of heaven hath given me all the kingdoms of the earth; and he hath charged me to build him an house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah.Who is there among you of all his people? his God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and build the house of YHWH God of Israel, (he is the God,) which is in Jerusalem.(Ezra 1:1–3)

This declaration by Cyrus in 536 BC ended the 70-year captivity of Judah. Many but not all of the people returned to Judah and Jerusalem. And although they left with permission to rebuild the temple, they did not get much further than laying some of the foundation stones. Then, for the next sixteen years, work on the temple ceased while the people concerned themselves with their own affairs.

But YHWH took a direct hand.In the second year of Darius “the Great” Artaxerxes, YHWH stepped in and commanded the people to “return and build” his house. This commandment by the living God of the Bible brings us to our next period of 70 years.

The 70 Years of Divine Anger

Zechariah 1 records one of the most important events in the history of YHWH’s redemptive plan for mankind. YHWH in his grace returned to Jerusalem “with mercies” and ended a period of 70 years of divine anger. This return included a commandment for the Jewish people to restart construction on the temple. After nearly sixteen years of neglect, the temple construction was restarted, and just four years later it was completed.

Then the angel of YHWH answered and said, O YHWH of hosts, how long wilt thou not have mercy on Jerusalem and on the cities of Judah, against which thou hast had indignation these threescore and ten years? . . .

Therefore thus saith YHWH; I am returned to Jerusalem with mercies: my house shall be built in it, saith YHWH of hosts, and a line shall be stretched forth upon Jerusalem.(Zechariah 1:12–16)

For those who have read Book II,Daniel’s 70 Weeks: The Keystone of Bible Prophecy, you know this divine command in the second year of Darius “the Great” Artaxerxes began the 70 weeks of Daniel and the countdown to the Messiah.

But it is the origins of this 70-year period of divine anger that concern us now. Counting backward from the second year of Darius in 520 BC, we arrive at 589 BC and one of the most sobering events in Israel’s history up to that point, the departure of YHWH’s presence from the temple and Jerusalem. Ezekiel records this devastating event:

And it came to pass in the sixth year, in the sixth month, in the fifth dayof the month [589 BC], asI sat in mine house, and the elders of Judah sat before me, that the hand of the Lord YHWH fell there upon me . . .

And the glory of the God of Israel was gone up from the cherub, whereupon he was, to the threshold of the house . . . And it came to pass, while they were slaying them [those committing the abominations in the temple], and I was left, that I fell upon my face, and cried, and said, Ah Lord YHWH! wilt thou destroy all the residue of Israel in thy pouring out of thy fury upon Jerusalem? . . .

Then the glory of YHWH went up from the cherub, and stoodover the threshold of the house; and the house was filled with the cloud, and the court was full of the brightness of t he YHWH’s glory . . .

Then the glory of YHWH departed from off the threshold of the house, and stood over the cherubims. And the cherubims lifted up their wings, and mounted up from the earth in my sight: when they went out, the wheels also werebeside them, and every onestood at the door of the east gate of YHWH’s house; and the glory of the God of Israel was over them above.(Ezekiel 8:1, 9:3–8, 10:4, 10:18–19)

This passage described YHWH’s fury because of the abominations committed in his house. That fury burned hot for the next 70 years. Even after the captivity ended with Cyrus’s decree in 536 BC, YHWH’s anger still continued for nearly a decade and a half. But then his anger cooled, and he remembered his covenant and returned to Jerusalem with mercies. This return ended the 70 years of divine anger and marked the end of a second period of 70 years which also originated in the 70thjubilee from Adam.

The 70 Years of Desolation Between the FirstandSecond Temples

In chapter 8, of this book we learned that Zedekiah in his 10th year reneged on his word to keep the shemitah release concerning the Jewish slaves. The following year, Nebuchadnezzar razed Solomon’s temple and thus ended the first temple period. In our study of this chronology, we learned that the 11th year of Zedekiah was the year584 BC.

Forty-eight years later, in 536 BC, Cyrus of Persia allowed the Jewish people to return and build the temple. We learned that this effort by the repatriated captives was only halfhearted. Then in 520 BC, YHWH commanded the Jewish people to restart construction of His house. Four years later, the temple was completed in the 12th month of the year 516 BC.

The dedication of the temple took place between the 12th month and the Feast of Unleavened Bread a few weeks later. From the year 584 BC to the sixth year of Darius in 516 BC is a period of 69 years. The celebration of the second temple’s first Passover completed the 70 years. This ended the 70-year desolation period between the firstand secondtemples.

Clearly, the 70thjubileecycle was an incredibly important period in the history of the Jewish people and YHWH’s redemptive plan for mankind. Fascinating, isn’t it, that Ezekiel highlighted not only the 30th year of thisjubilee cycle, but the very year of release in the 70thjubilee itself?

This chapter has given us a glimpse of why the 70thjubileewas so central to YHWH’s redemptive efforts. In the next chapter we will see that this pattern was not a unique occurrence but rather evidence of a much largerpattern in YHWH’s redemptive efforts. Those efforts find their focus in Daniel’s 70 weeks, the keystone of Bible prophecy. It will be fascinating to see how the JubileeCode marks this great milestone in YHWH’s redemptive plan.

Chapter 13

70 Weeks and the Jubilee

“Therefore thus saith YHWH; I am returned to Jerusalem with mercies: my house shall be built in it, saith YHWH of hosts, and a line shall be stretched forth upon Jerusalem.”

—Zechariah 1:16

The aboveis a single statement in the first chapter of one of the so called “minor” prophets, but its significance is still being felt to this very day.

YHWH had returned to Jerusalem!

By itself,YHWH’s returnis a fantastic event, but when it is understood within the context of its time and place, it takes on importance of wonderful significance. Some of you already understand part of the context from Part I of this book, when we learned that this date in the second year of Darius “the Great” Artaxerxes (520 BC) marked the end of YHWH’s 70 years of divine anger. This was a period of time (as we learned from the prophet Ezekiel)that began 70 years earlier in the 70th jubilee from Adam, when YHWH departed Jerusalem in fury because of the abominations of Judah.

We also learned in Book II of this series,Daniel’s 70 Weeks: The Keystone of Bible Prophecy, that this date began the countdown to the Messiah prophesied in chapter 9 of the book of Daniel. Let’s take one last look at this 70-year period to really absorb its significance.

Upon the four and twentieth day of the eleventh month, which is the month Sebat, in the second year of Darius, came the word of YHWH unto Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo the prophet, saying,

Then the angel of YHWH answered and said, O YHWH of hosts, how long wilt thou not have mercy on Jerusalem and on the cities of Judah, against which thou hast had indignation these threescore and ten years? . . .

And YHWH answered the angel that talked with me with good words and comfortable words.So the angel that communed with me said unto me, Cry thou, saying, Thus saith YHWH of hosts; I am jealous for Jerusalem and for Zion with a great jealousy.

Therefore thus saith YHWH; I am returned to Jerusalem with mercies: my house shall be built in it, saith YHWH of hosts, and a line shall be stretched forth upon Jerusalem. Cry yet, saying, Thus saith YHWH of hosts; My cities through prosperity shall yet be spread abroad; and YHWH shall yet comfort Zion, and shall yet choose Jerusalem. (Zechariah 1:7, 12–14, 15–17)

To really get the context here, you need to understand that YHWH’s return to Jerusalem and his commandment to restore and build came in the eleventhmonth of Darius’ssecond year. This was just the capstone of a six-month period where YHWH chastised and challenged the Jewish people to return and build his house and Jerusalem. This period of time began six months earlier in the sixth month of the second year of Darius.

In the second year of Darius the king, in the sixth month, in the first day of the month, came the word of YHWH by Haggai the prophet unto Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Josedech, the high priest, saying,

Thus speaketh YHWH of hosts, saying, This people say, The time is not come, the time that YHWH’s house should be built. Then came the word of YHWH by Haggai the prophet, saying,Is it time for you, O ye, to dwell in your cieled houses, and this house lie waste?(Haggai 1:1–4)

The SecondYear of Darius and theJubilee Code

This six-month period beginning in the fifth month of the sixth year of Darius takes on special significance when seen in terms of the jubilee cycles, because it allows us to see where it fits within the bigger picture of YHWH’s redemptive plan.

From the evidence gathered in the preceding chapters, the jubilee mentioned in Ezekiel 40 was the 70thjubilee from Adam, and it fell in the latter part of the year 570 BC. Nearly 50 years later, in the latter part of 521 BC, the 71stjubileebegan. This first year of thejubileeended in the 7th month of 520 BC.

Keep in mind here that the ancient years of Persia and Israel began and ended in the spring. The jubilee cycle years, on the other hand, began and ended in the fall, during the seventh month—our September/October.This six-month offset can be confusing, but it is important to keep in mind.

It is important to emphasize here that YHWH’s call for hispeople to return and build the temple began (according to Haggai 1) in the sixth month of the second year of Darius.

This period of time, when the divine command to return and build was given, began in the 50th year of the 71stjubilee and continued until the 11thmonth of the 72ndjubilee cycle. During this six-month period, YHWH spoke several times to the Jewish people admonishing them to return and build the temple and Jerusalem.This six-month period culminated in the 11th month, with YHWH’s wonderful declaration that he had returned to Jerusalem with mercies.

Now let’s put the last two chapters in the context of the Jubilee Code:

As you can see, the 70thjubilee beganthree periods of 70 years. The second period of 70 years was the period of YHWH’s divine anger, which thenterminated with the start of the 70 sevens (weeks) of Daniel 9.

Another way to look at this chronological progression is by showing that it began with Adam, and from this beginning point there were 70 jubilees, 70 years, and then 70 sevens until the Messiah came: 70-70-70x7.For more on Daniel 9 and the 70 sevens, please see Book II in the series: Daniel’s 70 Weeks: The Keystone of Bible Prophecy. Subscribers to my blog can download this book and all current and future books in this series for freeat the following link: Subscribe

To me, this is just one more compelling piece of evidence that shows YHWH has purposely ordered the history of mankind to declare His redemptive plan through Yeshua the Messiah.

In the next chapter, we will build upon this amazing series of numbers by showing that YHWH chose to meet and dwell among mankind at specific junctures in the JubileeCode.

Chapter 14

YHWH Dwells with Mankind

“And they heard the voice of YHWH God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of YHWH God amongst the trees of the garden.”

—Genesis 3:8

Let’s return to Eden for a moment,to a time when mankind dwelt in the presence of YHWH. Genesis describes the “voice” of YHWH walking in the garden. Whatever form YHWH’s presence took at this time, the narrative indicates that mankind, before sin entered the garden, was at ease in the presence of YHWH.

Then tragedy struck, as it often does as a result of mankind’s own shortsighted and selfish desires. Adam and Eve sinned and were cast out of the garden andthe presence of YHWH.

Something to Consider Here . . .

The Genesis account does not say when these events took place, but I believe it is possible that they took place around the 30th year of Adam. This is speculation on my part, but the Scripture says that Yeshua became the second Adam, and we know from the gospel accounts that Yeshua began his ministry to redeem mankind about his 30th year. We also know from the Old Testament accounts that the Levites could not officiate as priests until their 30th year. It seems likely to me, based upon this circumstantial evidence,that Adam’s and Eve’s sin took place during the firstjubilee cycle of mankind’s existence, possibly around Adam’s 30th year.

In any case, we can, speculation aside, confidently say that YHWH first dwelt or met with mankind in Eden during Adam’s firstjubilee of existence.

Jubilee 1 – YHWH Dwells with Mankind

A Temporary Dwelling Place

Nearly 2500 years after the tragic event of man’s fall in Eden, YHWHonce again decided to meet with mankind. Only this time it was not as intimate as it had been with Adam and Eve, because our sin had become a barrier to his holy presence. This time it was a tabernacle, a temporary dwelling made with human hands. Now, before anyone could approach the presence of YHWH, the Levitical priesthood had to provide an atonement sacrifice. Even then, only the high priest could approach the inner sanctum, the holiest of holies and the presence of YHWH, and only once a year during Yom Kippur, better known as the Day of Atonement—and that only after making atonement for himself and all Israel.

It is important to keep YHWH’s redemptive theme in mind here. Adam and Eve sinned, so they could no longer dwell in the presence of YHWH. Their sin brought with it knowledge that made them aware of their nakedness andinsufficiency in the presence of God. Their sin required a sacrifice to make atonement as well as to cover their nakedness.This sacrifice would set the precedent for approach to YHWH from then on, serving as a symbolic reminder of sin’s terrible cost and necessity for atonement.

But Adam and Eve were not cast out of the garden without hope. YHWH promised that someday one of their “seed” would make things right. So began YHWH’s redemptive efforts on behalf of mankind. This promise of the coming seed was kept alive by Noah and his descendants through Shem. The promise was then confirmed and strengthened in Abraham and his offspring Isaac and Jacob.

And now we’ve returned to the Exodus of Israel from Egypt, the giving of the law, and the construction of the tabernacle. This law with its detailed instructions and bloody sacrificial rites provided a daily reminder of just how far mankind had fallen from their intended state. But here again, there was hope. These laws and sacrificial rites were but a shadow meant to point Israel, and indeed all mankind, to YHWH’s redemptive efforts through the promised seed, the Messiah. The book of Hebrews explains it so much better than I:

Now of the things which we have spoken this is the sum: We have such an high priest, who is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens; a minister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man.

For every high priest is ordained to offer gifts and sacrifices: wherefore it is of necessity that this man have somewhat also to offer.For if he were on earth, he should not be a priest, seeing that there are priests that offer gifts according to the law:who serve unto the example and shadow of heavenly things, as Moses was admonished of God when he was about to make the tabernacle: for, See, saith he, that thou make all things according to the pattern shewed to thee in the mount.

(Hebrews 8:1–5)

For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect.

For then would they not have ceased to be offered? because that the worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins.But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance again made of sins every year.For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins.

Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me:in burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure.Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me,) to do thy will, O God.Above when he said, Sacrifice and offering and burnt offerings and offering for sin thou wouldest not, neither hadst pleasure therein; which are offered by the law;then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second.By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. (Hebrews 10:1–10)

So now we have a tabernacle and its sacrificial rites, which point us to Yeshua and YHWH’s redemptive efforts on our behalf. Do we really think it a coincidence that the one day of the year when a single man could approach the shekinah presence of YHWH also happens to initiate the start of the jubilee cycle once every 50 years?Let me show you why this is not a coincidence but rather further evidence that YHWH has always been there, guiding history with his redemptive efforts in mind.

The Tabernacle

Let’s start with the tabernacle, which according to Numbers 1 was completed on the first day of the second month in the second year after the Exodus of Israel from Egypt. According to the chronology we developed in Part I of this book, the second year after the Exodus was the 2514th year from Adam. In terms of a prophetic milestone, the tabernacle, that temporary dwelling place where YHWH met with Israel, was completed in the 52ndjubilee cycle from Adam (4x13).

And it came to pass in the first month in the second year, on the first day of the month, that the tabernacle was reared up.(Exodus 40:17)

Jubilee 52 – The Tabernacle Was Completed

Solomon’s Temple
The tabernacle turned out to be only a transitory dwelling place for YHWH to meet with mankind. Nearly 500 years later, a more permanent location was chosen by YHWH on Mount Moriah. Constructed by Solomon according to a pattern shown to his father,King David, by YHWH, the house of YHWH became a wonder of the ancient world.

Solomon began construction of the temple in the fourth year of his reign, and it was completed seven years later in his eleventh year. This, according to the chronology we have established in Part I of this book, was the 3000th year from Adam as well as the 62ndjubilee cycle from Adam.

Then Solomon began to build the house of YHWH at Jerusalem in mount Moriah, where YHWH appeared unto David his father, in the place that David had prepared in the threshingfloor of Ornan the Jebusite.And he began to build in the second day of the second month, in the fourth year of his reign. (2 Chronicles 3:1–2)

In the fourth year was the foundation of the house of YHWH laid, in the month Zif:and in the eleventh year, in the month Bul, which is the eighth month, was the house finished throughout all the parts thereof, and according to all the fashion of it. So was he seven years in building it. (1 Kings 6:37–38)

Jubilee 62 – Solomon’s Temple Completed

The Second Temple

By now you are familiar with the second temple era and the destruction of Solomon’s temple, because as we learned in Part I of this book, this event was the very waypoint that Ezekiel used to date the 70thjubilee. This 70thjubilee saw the genesis of three very important 70-year periods, one of which was the 70 years between the destruction of Solomon’s temple and the completion and dedication of the second temple in the 6th and 7th years of Darius “the Great” Artaxerxes, i.e. 516–515 BC. As we learned in Zechariah 1, YHWH once again returned to Jerusalem with mercies. These events took place during the 72ndjubilee cycle.

And the elders of the Jews builded, and they prospered through the prophesying of Haggai the prophet and Zechariah the son of Iddo. And they builded, and finished it, according to the commandment of the God of Israel, and according to the commandment of Cyrus, and Darius, [even] Artaxerxes king of Persia.And this house was finished on the third day of the month Adar, which was in the sixth year of the reign of Darius the king. (Ezra 6:14–15)

Jubilee72 – The SecondTemple Completed

Salvation Dwells with Mankind

By now you have probably begun to see the pattern. It started in Eden where YHWH dwelled with Adam and Eve in the garden. After their sin,our ancestors were kicked out of the garden and had to live separate from the presence of YHWH. Then, 52 jubilees later, YHWH’s presence came to the tabernacle (13x4). This time, YHWH met with mankind in a temporary dwelling made with human hands. Ten jubilee cycles later, a more permanent meeting place was made. This was the 62ndjubilee cycle,which began the era of Solomon’s temple. In the succeeding years, Solomon’s temple reached its glory, faded, and was destroyed.

But in 520 BC,YHWH returned to Jerusalem once again, right on schedule, during the 72ndjubilee cycle. The second temple was built, but more importantly, the countdown to the Messiah of Daniel 9 began. For the next 10 jubilee cycles, the 70 sevens marched their way through the centuries until the 82ndjubilee cycle arrived and YHWH once again dwelt with mankind.

The Messiah, Yeshua, YHWH’s salvation, was born!

And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: [YHWH’s Salvation]for he shall save his people from their sins.

Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying,Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us. (Matthew 1:21–23)

Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel. (Isaiah 7:14)

And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth. (John 1:14)

It was 52 jubilee cycles (13x4) between the garden of Eden, where YHWH walked in the garden with mankind, and the tabernacle, that first temporary dwellingplace where YHWH chose to meet with mankind. Thirty jubilee cycles later, in the 82ndjubilee cycle (41x2), YHWH became human flesh and once again walked among mankind.

In the final chapter of this book, we will look 62 jubilee cycles into the future after the birth of Yeshua for a glimpse of the 144thjubilee and the possibility that mankind will once more dwell with YHWH in our intended estate.

JubileeCycle 1 – YHWH dwells with mankind in Eden

JubileeCycle 52 – The tabernacle (the temporary meeting place)

JubileeCycle 62 – The first temple

JubileeCycle 72 – The second temple

JubileeCycle 82 – Yeshua, YHWH’s salvation, dwelt with mankind

JubileeCycle 144 – YHWH dwells permanently with mankind?

Chapter 15

Biblical History by 10s

When I was in high school I had a hard time remembering all the dates and events in history. My mother, bless her heart, did the best she should could to help us learn this information (we were homeschooled). Unfortunately, most of what I learned in school was soon forgotten. But the things I did remember often had one thing in common:they were fixed in my mind based upon a larger chronological context. In this chapter, I’d like to offer you a way of looking at some of the important events and people of biblical history by 10s—that is, by looking at what happened in biblical history every 10 jubilee cycles.

I think this perspective might just help you put a chronological context to some of the influentialpeople and events of the Bible. But more importantly,it will give you prophetic milestones in which to mark YHWH’s redemptive plan as it worksits way through the biblical ages.For sure, you won’t look at biblical history the same way again!

To lay the groundwork for this chronological adventure, we must first look at the 1st and 3rdjubilees from Adam.

The First Three Jubilees

Let’s begin in the 1stjubilee, with Adam and Eve and the promise of the coming seed, where we get our first glimpse of YHWH’s redemptive plan for mankind:

And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.(Genesis 3:15)

It’s worth noting in light of the number 13 and the Bible’s messianic redemptive symbolism that this promised seed of Seth was born in the 3rdjubilee cycle, or the 130th year from Adam.

And Adam knew his wife again; and she bare a son, and called his name Seth: For God, said she, hath appointed me another seed instead of Abel, whom Cain slew. (Genesis 4:25)

And Adam lived an hundred and thirty years, and begat a son in his own likeness, after his image; and called his name Seth. (Genesis 5:3)

Jubilee 22

With the death of Seth in the 22ndjubilee, another man was born through whom YHWH would keep alive his promise of the coming seed. Just 14 years later while still in the 22ndjubileecycle from Adam, Noah was born, a man “who walked with God,” a man “perfect in his generations,” and a man “who found grace in the eyes of YHWH.”

And God spake unto Noah, and to his sons with him, saying,And I, behold, I establish my covenant with you, and with your seed after you. (Genesis 9:8–9)

These are the generations of Noah: Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God. (Genesis 6:9)

Jubilee 32

Tenjubilees later, in the 32ndjubilee cycle from Adam, Noah’s son Shem,a servant of YHWH,was born. This Old Testament patriarch’s life began a century before the flood and continued all the way till the time of Abraham.

And he said, Blessed be YHWH God of Shem. . . (Genesis 9:26)

For context’ssake, you should know that Noah died only two years before the birth of Abraham and that Shem lived until the 150th year of Abraham.In fact, Abraham’s death was only 25 years after the death of Shem. I’ve often wondered if Shem might not have been the famous Melchizedek, “priest of the most high God,” who blessed Abram (Abraham) when he returned from rescuing his nephew Lot.

Jubilee 41 and 42
Then, in the 41stjubilee, just two years before the start of the 42nd, Abram, the patriarch of Israel, was born.The promise of the coming seed was preserved in this man who believed YHWH and whose faith YHWH “counted to him for righteousness.” Abram has the distinction of being the first person recorded in the Bible to whom YHWH personally swore (shaba) an oath: an oath that confirmed the ancient promise of the coming seed but further clarified that it would be through this seed that all nations of the earth would be blessed:

And said, By myself have I sworn[shaba], saith YHWH, for because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son:that in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies;and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice.(Genesis 22:16–18)

Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ.(Galatians 3:16)

Jubilee 52
Ten cycles later, in the 52ndjubilee from Adam, an event took place that would set the standard for YHWH’s intervention in the affairs of mankind forever after.

The Exodus!

Once again the gears of change were set in motion, and the descendants of Adam, Noah, Shem, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob became the nation of Israel.

Jubilee 62

Ten jubilee cyclespassed, and then in the last year of the 61stjubilee cycle (and the 1st year of the 62nd),another transition unfolded. David, that Old Testament king who foreshadowed the Messianic king, passed from this world, and the kingdom was given to his son Solomon. Before the end of this 62ndjubilee cycle from Adam, Israel would be no longer united as one, and the history of a divided kingdom would be born.

Jubilee 72

Another 10 jubilee cycles passed, and then in the 72ndjubilee from Adam, YHWH once again reached down into the affairs of mankind to change the course of history. He commanded the Jewish people to return and build his house, and so –began the countdown to the Messiah of Daniel 9.

Jubilee 82

Finally,10 more jubilees passed, and that great countdown to the Messiah of Daniel 9 had run its course.In this time, YHWH became flesh. The Messiah, Yeshua,was born!

The Desolations of Jerusalem

After the events surrounding Yeshua’s death and resurrection and the latter destruction of Jerusalem in the 83rdjubilee cycle, the prophesied period of desolations began for the Jewish people, Jerusalem, and the temple:

O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, which killest the prophets, and stonest them that are sent unto thee; how often would I have gathered thy children together, as a hen doth gather her brood under her wings, and ye would not!Behold, your house is left unto you desolate: and verily I say unto you, Ye shall not see me, until the time come when ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord. (Luke 13:34–35)

Today, Yeshua’s prophetic words are still in effect. YHWH’s house is still desolate, and Israel has not yet called out, “Blessed is he that cometh in the name of YHWH.” It has been 40 jubilee cycles since those words were spoken. In the next chapter, we will look at this period of desolation and see what insights the JubileeCode offers for this period of time.

Chapter 16

The 39thJubilee and the Promised Seed

“And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice.”

—Genesis 22:18

In the 99th year of Abraham’s life, a prophetic milestone was reached concerning the lineage of the prophesied “seed” as it related to YHWH’s redemptive efforts on behalf of mankind. To really get a sense of this pivotal time, we need to back up twenty-five years to Abram’s departure from Haran at the death of his father Terah, because it is here that YHWH called Abram out of land of Ur. Abram obeyed YHWH’s call, and this first recorded act of Abram’s faith began the history of the Hebrew people. (The word Hebrewmeans “one from beyond”).

Now YHWH had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will shew thee:and I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing:and I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed. (Genesis 12:1–2)

When YHWH called, Abram obeyed. As part of that call, though, as recorded in Genesis 12, YHWH promised Abram that in him (that is, in his seed) all the families of the earth would be blessed. This blessing implied, but did not specifically state, that Abram would have an heir after him—though at the time of the blessing, he was childless. It wasn’tuntil two and a half decades later that this promise wasmade more clear.

And YHWH said, Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do; seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him?

For I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of YHWH, to do justice and judgment; that YHWH may bring upon Abraham that which he hath spoken of him. (Genesis 18:17–19)

Abraham’s SecondJubilee

Many years after that initial blessing, we find Abram, a man who believed YHWH and then acted upon that belief, questioning the promises of YHWH. He had been promised an heir of his own flesh, but now he and Sarah were well advanced in years and were still childless. But YHWH kept his word, as it says in Genesis 21:1:

And YHWH visited Sarah as he had said, and YHWH did unto Sarah as he had spoken.For Sarah conceived, and bare Abraham a son in his old age, at the set time of which God had spoken to him.(Genesis 21:1–2)

There are a couple of things worth noting about the events associated with Isaac’s conception and birth. First, the promise of Isaac’s birth was given in the 99th year or the secondjubilee of Abraham’s life.Second, YHWH told Abraham and Sarah that this birth wouldtake place the following year (in Abraham’s 100th year) at the mow’ed or “set time.”

Take a moment to read the following passage so you get a sense of the dynamics at play:

And I will bless her [Sarah], and give thee a son also of her: yea, I will bless her, and she shall be a mother of nations; kings of people shall be of her.Then Abraham fell upon his face, and laughed, and said in his heart, Shall a child be born unto him that is an hundred years old? and shall Sarah, that is ninety years old, bear?

And Abraham said unto God, O that Ishmael might live before thee!And God said, Sarah thy wife shall bear thee a son indeed; and thou shalt call his name Isaac: and I will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his seed after him.And as for Ishmael, I have heard thee: Behold, I have blessed him, and will make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly; twelve princes shall he beget, and I will make him a great nation.

But my covenant will I establish with Isaac, which Sarah shall bear unto thee at this set time [mow’ed]in the next year.And he left off talking with him, and God went up from Abraham.(Genesis 17:16–22)

Sure enough, in Abram’s 100th year, Isaac was born, and in him the promise of the coming seed was kept alive. But there is something more in this passage that only the Jubilee Code can illuminate.

Jubilee 43 and the Promised Seed

You see, this appointed time (mowe’ed) was a major milestone in YHWH’s redemptive plan for mankind.According to YHWH, Isaac’s birth was to take place on a mow’ed or appointed time. Indeed, when looking at this year from the perspective of the jubilee cycles from Adam, we learn that Abraham’s 100th year and Isaac’s birth took place on exactly the 43rdjubilee from Adam. This 43rdjubileebegan a period of time during which YHWH dealt with his covenant people, Israel.

In the following passage,notice how Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist, when talking about Israel’s “horn of salvation,” traces Israel’s beginnings to their “father” Abraham. In the mind of the Jewish people, it was the birth of Isaac to which the beginnings of Israel could be traced:

Blessed be the Lord God of Israel; for he hath visited and redeemed his people,and hath raised up an horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David;as he spake by the mouth of his holy prophets, which have been since the world began:that we should be saved from our enemies, and from the hand of all that hate us;to perform the mercy promised to our fathers, and to remember his holy covenant;the oath which he sware to our father Abraham.(Luke 1:68–73)

For those who have read Book II,Daniel’s 70 Weeks: The Keystone of Bible Prophecy, the preceding passage is familiar, because this covenant sworn with Abraham was the very covenant mentioned in Daniel 9:4, a covenant we traced in Book II from Adam to the Messiah, Yeshua. Indeed, in this book as well, wehave followed that messianic thread—only this time we have examined it as reflected in the jubilee cycles of the Bible.

So in the 43rdjubilee cycle from Adam, YHWH brought to fulfillment a promise made to Abraham twenty-five years earlier, that he would bring forth a seed, and that in that seed, all nations of the earth would be blessed.

YHWH Prepared Himself a Lamb

It could be said that the nation of Israel was born out of the faith of their father Abraham. Many Old and New Testament passages see the origins of the Jewish people in Abraham and Isaac. But it was the birth of Isaac as that first promised seed through whom all the nations of the earth would be blessed that best defined the beginnings of this wonderful epic in the history of YHWH’s covenant people.

Isaac’s birth in the 100th year of Abraham’s life on the 43rdjubilee began a definable period of time during which YHWH dealt directly with his covenant people. A few years later, Abraham, in one of the most poignant Old Testament stories, was given the ultimate test of faith when asked by YHWH to sacrifice his son. We all remember Isaac’s innocentquestion and Abraham’s amazing faith in reply:

And Isaac spake unto Abraham his father, and said, My father: and he said, Here am I, my son. And he said, Behold the fire and the wood: but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?

And Abraham said, My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering: so they went both of them together.(Genesis 22:7–8)

For roughly 1900 years, this testimony of faith and YHWH’s provision has inspired countless generations, but more importantly, it provided mankind a template of YHWH’s redemptive purpose through the coming Messiah.

We know that indeed,nineteencenturies after this promise was made, YHWH did provide himself a lamb. YHWH became human flesh in order to pay the righteous penalty for our sins.

But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour; that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man. (Hebrews 2:9)

Appropriately then, Yeshua (YHWH’s Salvation) came in the 39thjubilee cycle from Isaac as the prophesied seed. In other words, it was 39 (13x3) jubilees from the first promised seed of Abraham until that ancient promise took on its ultimate fulfillment in the birth of Yeshua, the Salvation of YHWH, the promised seed through whom all the nations of the earth would be blessed. It was in the following jubilee, the 40th from Isaac, that Yeshua became the “lamb of God” which took away the sins of the world.

And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS [YHWH’s salvation]: for he shall save his people from their sins. (Matthew 1:21)

As we all know, the story of Yeshua and the Jewish people did not end with the birth of the Messiah or his death and resurrection. But something did transpire in the 40thjubilee from Isaac that had a profound effect on YHWH’s covenant people. A transition took place which has influenced their history for almost 2000 years now. In our next chapter, we will look at the jubilee cycles as they relate to the times of YHWH’s covenant people and the times of the Gentiles, and we will see how these jubilee cycles illustrate YHWH’s redemptive plan for mankind.

Chapter 17

The Times of the Covenant People and the Times of the Gentiles

“And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all nations: and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.”

—Luke 21:24

As we learned in the previous chapter, it was the 39thjubilee cycle from Isaac that saw the literal fulfillment of the promise of a seed of Abraham in whom all nations of the earth would be blessed. That seed was Yeshua, the Salvation of YHWH.

But it was in the following jubilee, that fateful 40thjubilee,that events in YHWH’s redemptive plan took an unexpected turn. Yeshua became the “lamb of God” who took away the sins of the world. Many ofthe Jewish people and even Yeshua’s own disciples didn’t understand the implications at the time, but their rejection of him was an important part of YHWH’s redemptive plan.

In fact, as you will shortly see, from the very beginning of time, YHWH carved out a specific era in history during which he would work out his redemptive plan through the agency of his chosen people. Please bear with me as I flesh this out, because it is incredibly important to understand the dynamics of how YHWH has accomplished his redemptive purpose not only through the Jewish people but through the Gentiles as well.

In the following passage the apostle Paul explains the agency of the Jewish people this way:

. . . who are Israelites; to whom pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises;whose are the fathers, and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came, who is over all, God blessed for ever. Amen. (Romans 9:4–5)

I think it is hard for many Gentiles to understand that Yeshua came first to the Jewish people in part because it was through them that YHWH would bring about his redemptive plan for all mankind.

Jesus was Jewish!

The Jewish people were give the law and promises so that they and their descendants might later reflect YHWH’s divine redemptive purpose to all the nations of the earth. Thiswas not out of a lack of love for the Gentiles; rather, it was all according to a preordained purpose, a plan that included multiple steps, each in their own order.

Let’s look briefly at these steps, and then I’ll give you the big picture according to the Jubilee Code, which will give you a much better perspective on this entire panorama.

These twelve Jesus sent forth, and commanded them, saying, Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not: but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.And as ye go, preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand.(Matthew 10:5–7)

Tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that doeth evil, of the Jew first, and also of the Gentile;but glory, honour, and peace, to every man that worketh good, to the Jew first, and also to the Gentile. (Romans 2:9–10)

The 40thJubilee

You see, YHWH always intended for the seed of Abraham to bless all the nations of the earth. In order for that blessing to come, Yeshua first had to pay the price for mankind’s sins and fulfill the sacrificial and ceremonial laws which spoke of him, laws which were given to and kept alive by the seed of Abraham.

. . . that the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.Brethren, I speak after the manner of men; Though it be but a man's covenant, yet if it be confirmed, no man disannulleth, or addeth thereto.Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made.

He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ.And this I say, that the covenant, that was confirmed before of God in Christ, the law, which was four hundred and thirty years after, cannot disannul, that it should make the promise of none effect.(Galatians 3:14–17)

For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ's at his coming.(1 Corinthians 15:22–23)

That at that time ye [Gentiles] were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world:but now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. (Ephesians 2:12–13)

For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit. (1 Corinthians 12:13)

Now I say that Jesus Christ was a minister of the circumcision[Jewish people]for the truth of God, to confirm the promises made unto the fathers. (Romans 15:8)

For many of the followers of Yeshua in the first century,his death and resurrection was a confusing turn of events. Further, his ascension into heaven without restoring Israel to its prophesied place among the nations was irreconcilable with their notion of the promised Messiah and his reign upon the throne of David.

You have to admit, from a Jewish perspective this probably didn’t make much sense. If Yeshua really was the promised Messiah, then why didn’t he stick around? Why were they left as subjects to the Roman Empire? And how do you explain the destruction of the temple and of Jerusalem, and the dispersion of the Jewish people to the four corners of the earth?

To understand these events takes perspective. YHWH brought the good news to the Jewish people first, and then, in order to fulfill his divine purpose,he used the events following Yeshua’s death and resurrection to bring the good news to the Gentiles as well. Please take a moment to allow the apostle Paul to explain:

Is he the God of the Jews only? is he not also of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also. (Romans 3:29)

I say then, Hath God cast away his people? God forbid. For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin.God hath not cast away his people which he foreknew. Wot ye not what the scripture saith of Elias? how he maketh intercession to God against Israel, saying,Lord, they have killed thy prophets, and digged down thine altars; and I am left alone, and they seek my life . . .

What then? Israel hath not obtained that which he seeketh for; but the election hath obtained it, and the rest were blinded(according as it is written, God hath given them the spirit of slumber, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear;) unto this day. And David saith, Let their table be made a snare, and a trap, and a stumblingblock, and a recompence unto them:let their eyes be darkened, that they may not see, and bow down their back alway.

I say then, Have they stumbled that they should fall? God forbid: but rather through their fall salvation is come unto the Gentiles, for to provoke them to jealousy.Now if the fall of them be the riches of the world, and the diminishing of them the riches of the Gentiles; how much more their fulness?(Romans 11:1-12, emphasis mine)

For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob: . . .

What if God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction: and that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory,even us, whom he hath called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles? (Romans 9:22–24)

What then? are we better than they? No, in no wise: for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin;as it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one. (Romans 3:9–10)

So what happened? Why didn’t Yeshua restore the kingdom to Israel in the first century? To be sure, many of the Jewish people rejected their Jewish Messiah, but in YHWH’s eternal plan, he used these events to bring about the salvation of the Gentiles.

Here is where the Jubilee Code provides a perspective that brings new understanding to the subject.

From the birth of Isaac, the promised seed, until that seed became flesh in the promised messianic redeemer, there were 39 jubilee cycles (13x3). During the 40thjubilee cycle, YHWH accomplished his redemptive purpose through Yeshua’s death and resurrection.

During this 40thjubilee, the Messiah was rejected by national Israel. Fortyyears later, the temple and Jerusalem were destroyed according to Yeshua’s prophecy given in the “sign of Jonah” (Matthew 12:39, 16:4),and a new era in biblical history began.

In Book IV of the Prophecies and Patters series,Shadows and Types of the Second Coming,we will look more closely at how the number 40 is used as a shadow or type in the Bible. I believe there is depth to the subject which few have realized.

For now, though, wecan see that the last atonement sacrifice in the second temple, which took place in69 AD,fit exactly within a period of 40 jubilee cycles beginning with Isaac.

But what about national Israel and the Jewish people? Did the “church” supplant Israel and the Jewish people, as many of our supercessionist and preteristbrethren believe? Have the land covenants and the other promises concerning Israel been inherited by the church?

Not according to the apostle Paul, and not according to the Jubilee Code. As clearly stated in Romans 11, “blindness in part” hashappened to Israel until the “fullness of the Gentiles” come in.The Jubilee Code illustrates this perfectly. From Isaac, the promised “seed,” until the last temple atonement sacrifice was exactly a period of 40 jubilee cycles. Since that last atonement sacrifice and the subsequent destruction of the temple and Jerusalemin 70 AD, we have been living in what I believe is the “times of the Gentiles,” that period of time during which YHWH is calling the Gentiles into the family of God.

For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob . . . (Romans 25:25–26)

Having therefore obtained help of God, I continue unto this day, witnessing both to small and great, saying none other things than those which the prophets and Moses did say should come: that Christ should suffer, and that he should be the first that should rise from the dead, and should shew light unto the people, and to the Gentiles. (Acts 26:22–23, emphasis mine)

Be it known therefore unto you, that the salvation of God is sent unto the Gentiles, and that they will hear it. (Acts 28:28)

Then Paul and Barnabas waxed bold, and said, It was necessary that the word of God should first have been spoken to you: but seeing ye put it from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, lo, we turn to the Gentiles.For so hath the Lord commanded us, saying, I have set thee to be a light of the Gentiles, that thou shouldest be for salvation unto the ends of the earth. (Acts 13:46–47)

For mine eyes have seen thy salvation,which thou hast prepared before the face of all people;a light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people Israel. (Luke 2:30–32)

The Times of the Gentiles

After the destruction of the temple and Jerusalem in 70 AD, national Israel’s hopes for liberation and restoration of the Davidic kingdom were shattered.Since then the Jewish people have lived scattered among the nations. But then, in 1948, a miracle took place. YHWH’s chosen people became a nation in a single day, and YHWH once more began to deal with his people.

Who hath heard such a thing? who hath seen such things? Shall the earth be made to bring forth in one day? or shall a nation be born at once? for as soon as Zion travailed, she brought forth her children. (Isaiah 66:8)

What is so amazing about this is that just as the 39thjubilee cycle from Isaac brought a transition from the times of the covenant people to the times of the Gentiles, exactly 39 jubilee cycles into the times of the Gentiles, another transition began.

Israel was reborn!

Think about that for a minute. In the 39thjubilee cycle from Isaac, the messianic “seed,” Yeshua was born, which ultimately began the demise of national Israel and brought about the birth of the church. The following jubilee cycle, the 40th, saw all national hopes of the Jewish people shattered when Jerusalem was destroyed and they were dispersed to the corners of the earth.

Now, 39 jubilee cycles later, the Jewish people have once again moved into focus. It was during this 39thjubilee cycle from Jerusalem’s destruction that Israel once again became a nation in that fateful year of 1948.Then in 1967, just nineteenyears later, still during the 39thjubilee cycle, the Jewish people reclaimed Jerusalem as their capital.

The Dry Bones

The prophet Ezekiel saw the rebirth of Israel in his famous prophetic vision, found in Ezekiel 37. There, by the Spirit of YHWH, he prophesied that one day the whole house of Israel would be regathered into their land, an event which our generation has witnessed in the 39th and 40thjubilee cycles from Jerusalem’s destruction. Take a moment to read this wonderful prophecy and appreciate how incredibly important these events are in YHWH’s prophetic timeline:

The hand of YHWH was upon me, and carried me out in the spirit of YHWH, and set me down in the midst of the valley which was full of bones,and caused me to pass by them round about: and, behold, there were very many in the open valley; and, lo, they were very dry.And he said unto me, Son of man, can these bones live? And I answered, O Lord YHWH, thou knowest.Again he said unto me, Prophesy upon these bones, and say unto them, O ye dry bones, hear the word of YHWH.Thus saith the Lord YHWH unto these bones; Behold, I will cause breath to enter into you, and ye shall live:and I will lay sinews upon you, and will bring up flesh upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and ye shall live; and ye shall know that I am YHWH.So I prophesied as I was commanded: and as I prophesied, there was a noise, and behold a shaking, and the bones came together, bone to his bone.And when I beheld, lo, the sinews and the flesh came up upon them, and the skin covered them above: but there was no breath in them.

Then he said unto me, Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel: behold, they say, Our bones are dried, and our hope is lost: we are cut off for our parts.Therefore prophesy and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord YHWH; Behold, O my people, I will open your graves, and cause you to come up out of your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel.And ye shall know that I am YHWH, when I have opened your graves, O my people, and brought you up out of your graves,and shall put my spirit in you, and ye shall live, and I shall place you in your own land: then shall ye know that I YHWH have spoken it, and performed it, saith YHWH. (Ezekiel 37:1–8, 11–14)

Notice in the preceding verses that first YHWH brings sinew and flesh upon the bones and places his Spirit in them. In his recent book,Is This the End? Dr. David Jeremiah describes Israel as it relates to the fulfillment of Ezekiel 37 this way:

What we have read in Ezekiel describes Israel in its current state today. The bones have reassembled, but “there [is] no breath in them” (v. 8). The Old Testament word for breath is the Hebrew ruach, which can also mean “wind” or “spirit.” Its New testament Greek equivalent is pneuma, which often denotes the presence of God’s Holy Spirit. We know that since the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit has been imparted to mankind through belief in Him, and the presence of the Holy Spirit in one’s life is the seal of redemption, the mark of God’s people (Ephesians 1:13–14; 4:30; 2 Corinthians 1:21–22). The nation of Israel does not know Christ; therefore, it deos not have “breath.” Its people do not have God’s Holy Spirit. Israel is present in its land, but it is as spiritually dead as Ezekiel’s reconstituted corpses.

This Spirit, which is promised in Ezekiel and described by Dr. Jeremiah, will come to Israel as a nation,but only when they as individuals and a nation acknowledge the One who comes in the name of YHWH.

O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!Behold, your house is left unto you desolate. For I say unto you, Ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord. (Matthew 23:37–39)

It is thrilling to see in Israel today that one by one, the Jewish people are turning to Yeshua, the Jewish Messiah who came in the name of YHWH.

Zechariah 12 gives us even more insight into the fulfillment of Ezekiel’s vision. In the following passage,the prophet Zechariah connects the return of Yeshua to a time when Israel is back in their land and Jerusalem has become a “cup of trembling” to all the nations thatburden themselves with her. This is aperiod of time that our generation, in the 40thjubilee from Jerusalem’s destruction,is witnessing firsthand.

Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all the people round about, when they shall be in the siege both against Judah and against Jerusalem.And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people: all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it . . .

In that day shall YHWH defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and he that is feeble among them at that day shall be as David; and the house of David shall be as God, as the angel of YHWH before them.And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem.

And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn. (Zechariah 12:2–10)

Do you see how this passage in Zechariah ties in with Paul’s explanation of Israel’s status during the period of time when the Gentiles are called into the family of YHWH? When the “fullness of the Gentiles” is completed, Israel will be back in the land, and their presence will be troubling to the nations around them. The only solution to Israel’s untenable position will be the return of Yeshua.

For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob:For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins.(Romans 11:25–27)

Today,the prophesied conditions are present. The dry bones of Israel are once again back in the land promised to their fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Israel in general and Jerusalem in particular have become the preoccupation of the entire world. Oh, that Israel and the Jewish people wouldnow call upon Yeshua, the Salvation of YHWH!

Chapter 18

National Israel and the Jubilee Code

“These are the commandments, which YHWH commanded Moses for the children of Israel in mount Sinai.”

—Leviticus 27:34

It seems appropriate to me that Moses, to whom the jubilee law was first given, would be born during the 50thjubilee cycle from Adam. After all, Moses was the man who would be remembered as delivering Israel from their captivity in Egypt. Indeed we find if we count the years from Adam to the birth of Moses. Two jubilee cycles later, in the 52ndjubilee from Adam, Moses found himself the somewhat reluctant leader of the children of Israel at the Exodus. It was during the 52nd and 53rdjubilee cycles from Adam that Israel left Egypt and entered the Promised Land.

The 10th year of the 60thjubilee saw the start of David’s reign as king of Israel, followed by his death 40 years later in the last year of the 60th and first year of the 61stjubilees cycle from Adam. (Remember, the 1st and 50th year of the jubilee cycles overlap.) This 61stjubilee also saw the start of Solomon’s 40-year reign and the division of Israel.

Forroughly the next 500 years, the nation of Israel was plagued by division, unrest, and captivity. Then, in the 71stjubilee cycle from Adam, 10 jubilees after the reign of king David and Solomon, Cyrus of Persia decreed that the Jewish people could return and build Jerusalem. This decree fulfilled the 70 years of Babylonian captivity prophesied by Jeremiah.

Then, in the 62ndjubilee from Adam, in the second year of Darius “the Great” Artaxerxes, YHWH gave his divine word that his house should be built. Four years later the temple was completed.

50 Jubilees

Now, let’s fast-forward 50 jubilee cycles from the decree of Cyrus during the 71stjubilee cycle to the twentieth century. In 1917, during the 121stjubilee from Adam, the Jewish people through the British Mandate were allowed to return to the Promised Land.

Think about how awesome this was. One of the most important instructions of the jubilee law deals with setting the captives free and returning the land to its original owners.So long ago we have Persia, a secular nation, used by YHWH to bring the Jewish people back to the Promised Land after 70 years of captivity. This took place in the 71stjubilee from Adam. Then, a jubilee of jubilees later (that is, after 50 jubilees),in the 121stjubilee, another secular nation, the British Empire, was used by YHWH to once again accomplish the same purpose. After nearly 2000 years, right on schedule, in a jubilee ofjubilees, YHWH once again returned the Jewish people to their inheritance in the Promised Land.

And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof: it shall be a jubile unto you; and ye shall return every man unto his possession, and ye shall return every man unto his family. (Leviticus 25:10)

Cyrus, Darius, and the Renewal of Israel

So jubilee 71 from Adam saw the return of Israel from the Babylonian captivity. Then, 50 jubilees later, as Mark Twain would say, history rhymed—and Israel returned once again to theirPromised Land.

The 72ndJubilee from Adam
During the 72ndjubilee from Adam, YHWH returned to Jerusalem with mercies, the second temple was completed, and Israel began to practice temple worship once again.

The history of the next twenty-five centuries for the Jewish people is a long storyof missed opportunities, desolation, and horror, with only a glimmer of hope kept alive in the hearts and minds of a remnant.

Even though YHWH’s gears of time turned slowly through the ages, he did not forget the promise he made to Abraham and his descendants, because 50 jubilees after the second temple was completedin 516 BC, the heart of the Promised Land once again became an independent national homeland for all Israel.

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This renewal of Israel as a nation marked:

- 70 jubilees from the Exodus of Israel from Egypt and completion of the tabernacle

- 60 jubilees from the reign of King Solomon and the completion of the first temple

- 50 jubilees from YHWH’s return to Jerusalem andthe completion of the second temple

- 40 jubilees from the birth of the Messiah, Yeshua,and YHWH’s dwelling with mankind

Today, the Jewish people are once again in possession of at least part of the land promised to the descendants of Abraham. When we look at this in terms of the Jubilee Code, we can see that these events happened according to an observable chronological pattern, a pattern which gives us a glimpse of the hand of YHWH at work in the history of mankind.

While this information is exciting from the standpoint of Bible prophecy and our expectation of the Messiah’s return, let’s keep in mind that Israel in general is still a secular nation. Let’s pray that the spirit of YHWH will now energize those bones of Ezekiel’s vision and that they as individuals and as a nation will say, “Blessed is he who comes in the name of YHWH.”

Even so, come, Yeshua!

I say then, Hath God cast away his people? God forbid. For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin.God hath not cast away his people which he foreknew . . .

I say then, Have they stumbled that they should fall? God forbid: but rather through their fall salvation is come unto the Gentiles, for to provoke them to jealousy. Now if the fall of them be the riches of the world, and the diminishing of them the riches of the Gentiles; how much more their fulness?(Romans 11:1–12)

Chapter 19

Yeshua’s Lineage and the 41stJubilee

“Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ.”

—Galatians 3:16

By this time you know the underlying theme of this book is YHWH’s redemptive plan for mankind as it is worked out through the promised seed, the Messiah. As we have explored this wonderful subject, we’ve found that the major waypoints in this plan have been marked by the jubilee and Sabbath cycles in a special way. These prophetic milestones, as I call them, have taken place at identifiable junctures in history that cannot reasonably be attributed to chance.

Taking several steps back from the Bible’s chronological record, a few Old Testament heroes stand out in YHWH’s redemptive plan. The most important of these is Abraham, father of the Hebrew people and servant of YHWH. Abraham has the distinction of being the first person in the Bible with whom YHWH swore (shaba) an oath. This oath and several confirming promises made clear that through Abraham’s seed, all the earth would be blessed. As the apostle Paul explains in Galatians 3:16, this promised blessing was the Messiah, Yeshua. Further, it is through Abraham’s willingness to obey YHWH and sacrifice his son Isaac that we get our first real glimpse of YHWH’s redemptive plan for mankind.

Indeed, as we discussed earlier, it is that famous exchange between Abraham and Isaac and its subsequent events that give us that first type or shadow showingthe depth of YHWH’s love for mankind and the extent he is willing to go to provide for our reconciliation to him.

And Isaac spake unto Abraham his father, and said, My father: and he said, Here am I, my son. And he said, Behold the fire and the wood: but where is the lamb for a burnt offering? And Abraham said, My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering: so they went both of them together.(Genesis 22:7–8)

I think it is important to emphasis here that Abraham and his promised seed were a necessity in YHWH’s redemptive plan because of mankind’s fallen state. After Eden,the next twenty centuries see that scarlet thread of sin weave its path of destruction through the history of mankind.

Then, when the gears of YHWH’s heavenly calendar reached that important milestone in the 41stjubilee from Adam, a child was born who would serve the living God of the Bible in a special way. A man about whom YHWH had this to say:

And YHWH said, Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do; seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him?

For I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of YHWH, to do justice and judgement, that YHWH may bring upon Abraham that which he hath spoken of him. (Genesis 18:19)

I can’t help but ask myself if YHWH could say the same about me and my family. Have I directed my children and my house to keep the way of YHWH, to do justice and judgment so that we might serve the living God of the Bible? Maybe here in Genesis 18, we have a glimpse of what YHWH looks for in his special servants.

In any event, Abraham was such a man, and his birth in the 41stjubilee from Adam marked a milestone in biblical history. Abraham became the first Hebrew—“one from beyond.” A man to whom YHWH swore that in his seed, all the nations of the earth would be blessed. A man who searched for a city not made with human hands.

By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went.By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise:for he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God. (Hebrews 11:8–10)

Now, think about the congruency of the biblical record. We spent a great deal of time laying out a reasonable rendering of the Old Testament chronology in Part I of this book. This chronology showed that 41 jubilee cycles after Abraham’s birth, the covenant YHWH swore with Abraham in Genesis 22 literallybecome our Yeshua, the promised Salvation of YHWH.

- Adam to Abraham = 41 jubilee cycles

- Abraham to Yeshua = 41 jubilee cycles

Then, in the first chapter of the New Testament, we have awesome confirmation of this given by the apostle Matthew when he arranged the lineage of Yeshua. By now you have probably realized that Matthew purposefully removed those four Old Testament kings in the lineage of Yeshua so that he could show 41 generations between Abraham and Yeshua, thus confirming the Old Testament chronology of the Jubilee Code.And so no one could reasonably say his list was an error or an accident, Matthewmade his alteration to the lineage in the most obviously messianic way possible.

First, he arranged the list into fourteen generational groupings, which the Jewish mind would understand for their overtly Davidic and sacrificial context.Remember,King David’s name has the numerical value of 14, and King David in Matthew’s list is the 14th generation from Abraham.

Second, the number 14 is clearly associated with the sacrificial redemptive rites of the Torah—rites which the apostle Paul clearly tells us are shadow pictures of the Messiah. As we explored in Book I of this series, The 13th Enumeration: Key to the Bible’s Messianic Symbolism, the biblical holydays, those great festivals which are but rehearsals of the coming Messiah, all have 13 or 14 sacrifices associated with them in some way.

Third, by removing the kings in Yeshua’s lineage between the 6thand 7th and 13thand 14th generations, Matthew drew his reader’s attention to the cycles of the biblical calendar. The numbers 6 and 7 are associated with the solar side of the Bible’s calendar and mankind’s struggle under the curse of sin,while 13 and 14 are associated with the lunar side of the Bible’s calendar and YHWH’s redemptive promise for all mankind through Yeshua.

Do we really understand how amazing Matthew’s arrangement of Yeshua lineage really is? In a single list of 41 names, Matthew was able to make unmistakablemessianic connections between King David and the Old Testament’s sacrificial redemptive rites, all within the overreaching context of biblical time as seen through the Jubilee Code. And for you mathematicians out there, don’t forget that the number 41 is also the 13th prime.

41 Jubilees from Yeshua

This brings us to our present generation. Today, we must consider the sobering realization that we are living in the 41stjubilee from Yeshua. We look around us and see many important indications that we are nearing the second coming of Yeshua.

- The Jewish people are once again back in their land.

- Christian persecution is growing in nearly every nation on earth.

- Wars and violence rage across the globe.

- Western Christianity has grown lukewarm.

- Moral depravity has left few places on earth untouched.

- Technological singularity is within sight.

- A worldwide system for buying and selling is in place.

- The world is dominated by a single superpower (politically, monetarily, militarily).

While wars and moral depravity have always plagued mankind, it has only been in the last several jubilee cycles that all of these indicators have nearly reached the critical mass described in the Bible’s prophetic word.

Now is the time for vigilance, a time to shake off the slumber of apathy and live our lives as a light that shows the love of Yeshua to our families, our communities, and the world. Let us encourage each other in the spirit of Hebrews 10 and 1 Timothy 6,so when Yeshua returns,he finds his bride waiting and ready.

Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; (for he is faithful that promised;) and let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works: not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.

For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries.He that despised Moses’ law died without mercy under two or three witnesses:of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace?

For we know him that hath said, Vengeance belongeth unto me, I will recompense, saith the Lord. And again, The Lord shall judge his people.It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. (Hebrews 10:23–31)

Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called, and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses. I give thee charge in the sight of God, who quickeneth all things, and before Christ Jesus, who before Pontius Pilate witnessed a good confession;that thou keep this commandment without spot, unrebukeable, until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ. (1 Timothy 6:12–14)

Chapter 20

The 144thJubilee and the Millennium

“Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out: and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God: and I will write upon him my new name.”

—Revelation 3:12

YHWH’s redemptive plan is turning slowing but surely through the ages to a preordained point. That destination is a prophetic milestone sometime after the 1000-year reign of Yeshua, at which time YHWH will remake this earth, and his heavenly city will come down out of heaven to earth. As Revelation 21 describes it, from this point onward YHWH will dwell with mankind, and the “former things are passed away.”Although the biblical details are scant, the Bible is clear that this is the goal to which all biblical history points.

As we wrap up our look at biblical history in light of the Jubilee Code, I think it worth considering the 144thjubilee.

In our next decade, the 123rdjubilee cycle from Adam will end. The significance, if any, of this date only YHWH knows. Then, another 21 jubilee cycles into the future, we will reach the 144thjubilee. This jubileebegins on the 7008th year and 1002st Sabbath cycle from Adam. Between the year 7008 and 7057 from Adam, the 144thjubileewill run its course.

Historically, some of the church fathers believed that biblical history would be patterned after a great Sabbath cycle. In other words, mankind’s travails on this earth would comprise 6000 years of labor and 1000 years of relative rest under the rule of the Messiah during the millennium. In Revelation,we are told that those who have part in the “first resurrection” are blessed, for they will reign with Yeshua for 1000 years. In the Bible, this resurrection of the saints takes place at the rapture or second coming of Yeshua (depending on your point of view).

Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years. (Revelation 20:6)

Looking for a City Made Without Human Hands

We’ve seen in the previous chapters that YHWH ordered the jubilee and Sabbath cycles to mark milestones in his redemptive plan for mankind. After all we have learned about the JubileeCode, it seems more than coincidental to me that the great city, the New Jerusalem, is described as 144,000 square furlongs and that the 144thjubileebegins in the 7008thyear,or in other words,the 8th year of the 8th millennium from Adam.

Therefore, I believe it is worth considering that sometime during the 144thjubilee, YHWH may permanently dwell with mankind in the New Jerusalem as he once did with Adam and Even in Eden.It only seems appropriate to consider once again those famous words in Hebrews 11 which testify to the faith of Abraham who answered when called by YHWH, a man whose future expectation included a heavenly city made without human hands:

By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went.

By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise:

For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.(Hebrews 11:8–10)

Chapter 21

History and the Hand of YHWH

“Remember the former things of old: for I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like me,declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure . . . I bring near my righteousness; it shall not be far off, and my salvation shall not tarry: and I will place salvation in Zion for Israel my glory.”

—Isaiah 46:9–10, 13

To many looking into the pages of the Bible, the people and events described appear to be just a random series of great triumphs and heartbreaking tragedies. It is only when we look at history through the framework of YHWH’s redemptive plan that we begin to see some purpose to it all.

Beginning in Eden with mankind’s first sin, we learn from our ancestors that sin, contrary to theserpent’s promise of enlightenment, instead has brought terror, darkness, and evil. Instead of becoming “gods,” we’ve become less than we once were. That first rebellion brought the corrosive agent of sin into this world, and it has been eating away at our ability to function as the wonderful creation YHWH intended us to be ever since.

But YHWH had a plan!

He promised that someday he would counteract the corrosive effects of sin upon mankind by sending his salvation, his Yeshua. In this book, we’ve followed that promised seed through the biblical ages, and what an amazing journey it has been! We learned by looking at biblical history through the filter of the Jubilee Code that the history of the Bible is not random, but rather that it shows the hand of YHWH at work at specific and identifiable junctures to bring about his redemptive plan for mankind.

We followed the evidence of YHWH’s redemptive efforts from Adam and Eve to their offspring, Seth. Then,in the ensuing years, we saw the effects of sin reach a point where mankind’s very existence was at stake. Only Noah and his family partially escaped the ravages of sin on the antediluvian world and those eight souls started over with only the hope of a yet unfulfilled promise given to Adam and Eve.

Then more time passed, and in the 41stjubilee from Adam, a man of faith was born, a man named Abram, who through faith sought to serve YHWH, the living God of the Bible.

It is here in the 41st jubilee and the following two jubilee cycles that YHWH forged Abraham and his son Isaac into a nation of people through whom his redemptive efforts for all mankind would be realized. This special nation of people is described by the apostle Paul this way:

. . . Israelites; to whom pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises;whose are the fathers, and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came, who is over all, God blessed for ever. Amen.(Romans 9:4–5)

Then, with the birth of Isaac on the 43rdjubilee from Adam, YHWH for the next 40 jubilee cycles orchestrated the magnum opus of his redemptive plan for mankindthrough the agency of the children of Israel. Right on his predetermined schedule in the 39thjubilee from Isaac (13x3), YHWH’s salvation became human flesh in Yeshua.

The Messiah was born!

But then YHWH shifted gears. And for the next 40 years, the times of his covenant people were wound down and temporarily brought to a heartbreaking and tragic pause.

It was during these 40 years of the 40thjubilee from Isaac that YHWH raised up the apostle Paul, the man chosen by YHWH to spearhead his redemptive efforts toward the Gentiles and thus fulfill his promise that the messianic seed of Abraham would bless all nations of the earth. The apostle Paul describes the status of the Gentiles this way:

That at that time ye [Gentiles]were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world:

13 But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ.14 For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us;

Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace;and that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby. (Ephesians 2:12–16)

At the close of those final 40 years from Yeshua, the 40thjubilee from Isaac had run its course. In fulfillment of Yeshua’s own prophecy, Jerusalem lay in desolation and the temple was no more.

O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not! Behold, your house is left unto you desolate. For I say unto you, Ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord. (Matthew 23:37–39)

Today, you and I face the sobering realization that we are living in the 40thjubilee from the destruction of Jerusalem. For the past 40 jubilee cycles, YHWH has been calling the Gentiles into the family of God. To my Gentile brethren, I remind you that the scale of time is nearly balanced. It was in the 39thjubilee from Isaac that YHWH began his move amongst the Gentiles, and by the following jubilee (the 40th),he had shifted his focus to the Gentiles.

Many of us in our lifetime have watched in thrilling wonder asthe 39thjubileefrom Jerusalem’s destruction was brought to a close. This jubilee saw the national reemergence of YHWH’s covenant people and thereclaiming of their national homeland. Today, as the 40thjubileemarches to a close, we are seeing history rhyme. Just as many of the Jewish people of Yeshua’s day had a hard time understanding how YHWH intended to work out his redemptive plan through the Gentiles, so today we are seeing a shift once again. The Jewish people are once more awaking to the covenants of YHWH.

As the gears of YHWH’s redemptive plan change once more, many Gentiles are beginning to understand the importance of seeing the Bible in a Jewish context. Unfortunately, though, there are some Gentiles, like many of Yeshua’s brethren of the first century, who have misunderstood the times in which they are living.Failing to understand that YHWH intends to keep his eternal covenants made with Abraham and his seed, many Gentiles today are resisting the refocusing of the Bible’s redemptive message back toward a Jewish context.

For those still skeptical of looking at the Bible in a Jewish context, I ask you to consider how the Bible describes the millennial reign of Yeshua. Do you realize thatduring the millennium:

- Mankind will be using YHWH’s calendar once again.

- We will be keeping the Sabbath.

- Gentiles who do not honor the feast of Sukkoth will not receive any rain.

- Yeshua will reign from Jerusalem.

- Israel will be chief among the nations.

To my Gentile brethren, I earnestly plead with you not to harden your hearts toward the Jewish people and thus get caught on the wrong side of history. Instead, I encourage you to embrace the Jewish context of the Bible, so that by your loving example, those of Israel who are still temporarily blinded may understand and appreciate the messianic redemptive message of the Bible.

Let’s commit to making our lives that “living sacrifice” that Paul exhorted the Romans to be. By our example, let us provoke our Jewish brethren to jealousy for the redemptive message of YHWH’s salvation so that they too may say, “Blessed be he that comes in the name of YHWH.”

I say then, Have they stumbled that they should fall? God forbid: but rather through their fall salvation is come unto the Gentiles, for to provoke them to jealousy.Now if the fall of them be the riches of the world, and the diminishing of them the riches of the Gentiles; how much more their fulness? (Romans 11:11–12)

For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob. (Romans 11:25–26)

Looking Back

The pages we have explored together in this book provide reasonable evidence that YHWH has ordered events in history to accomplish his redemptive plan for mankind. That redemptive plan resulted in Yeshua, YHWH’s salvation, becoming flesh so that he might pay the righteous penalty for our sins.

Now, today, 41 jubilee cycles after Yeshua’s death and resurrection,we stand at another prophetic milestone in history. Looking back, we see the hand of YHWH in all its redemptive glory, forging major events in history to accomplish his redemptive purpose for mankind.

To those of you who have placed your trust in Yeshua, the salvation of YHWH, my hope is that our exploration of theJubilee Code has strengthened your faith in YHWH’s redemptive love. YHWH has been there behind the scenes of history the whole time. Along the way,he uses men and women of faith who are willing to step up and serve him. I challenge you to be like faithful Abraham and to answer when YHWH calls.

For I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of YHWH, to do justice and judgment; that YHWH may bring upon Abraham that which he hath spoken of him.(Genesis 18:18–19)

To those of you who have not placed your trust in YHWH’s salvation, Yeshua the promised Messiah, I encourage you to open up the pages of the Bible and follow the evidence of YHWH’s redemptive love. That love is the threadthat binds the pages of the Bible into one congruent whole from Genesis to Revelation.

It is the story of a Creator willing to personally make the ultimate sacrifice to pay the righteous penalty for our sins. All it takes for you to avail yourself of that sacrifice is to acknowledge your sin and by faith accept that Yeshua, YHWH’s salvation, was sufficient.

If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus [Yeshua—YHWH’s Salvation], and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.

For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him.For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. (Romans 10:9–13)

Won’t you avail yourself of the opportunity today before it is too late? Someday soon YHWH’s salvation, Yeshua, will come again, and then you will have run out of time.

And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation [Yeshua]nearer than when we believed.The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light. (Romans 13:11–12)

Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come. But know this, that if the goodman of the house had known in what watch the thief would come, he would have watched, and would not have suffered his house to be broken up.Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh.Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his lord hath made ruler over his household, to give them meat in due season?Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing. (Matthew 24:42–46)

Maranatha!

Afterword

Prophecies and Patterns

I hope the information in the pages of this book has inspired you to search the Scriptures for yourself. Please don’t take my word for all the information here but do your own due diligence as a Berean.

For those of you who appreciate the Jubilee Code I hope you’ll subscribe to my blog so that I can let you know when Book IV of the Prophecies and Patterns series is completed.

In Book IV,Shadows and Types of the Second Coming, I will build upon the information in the first three books in this series with the intent to show that we are living in the season of Yeshua’s return.

Rest assured, Book IV will not be about trying to predict the day or hour of the rapture or the second coming. Instead, I hope it will impress upon you the nearness of the Messiah’s return so that you will be encouraged and challenged to live your life as the living sacrifice,as Paul calls us to do in Romans 12. I also hope the book will inspire you to share YHWH’s salvation, his Yeshua, with others in the time we have left before he comes.

In Book IV, we will look at shadows and types of the second coming in the context of:

- 6 days, 6000 years, and the millennial reign of Yeshua

- The coming of the early and latter rain

- YHWH’s spring and fall holydays

- The apostles Peter’s 1 day = 1000 years

- Hosea’s prophecy of the 3rd day

- 40 and the bread of heaven

- Joshua and the crossing of the Jordan

- 40 as a period of testing and restoration for Israel

- Birth pangs and the coming of the Messiah

- Yeshua and transfiguration after the 6th day

- Moses and the significance of 40 in the Bible

To be notified when Book IV has been released for free download subscribe here: The 13th Enumeration

Appendix

7000 Years of Chronology

In Part I, of this book, we looked at the Old Testament chronology of the Bible based upon the Masoretic Text. The following links will take you to an Excel or PDF file of the Old Testament chronology that I used as a basis for this book. The chronology has taken years to reach its current form. In a subject as complex as this, there is always room for improvement, so please do your own due diligence.

When laying out the chronology of the kings of Israel and Judah, I relied heavily on the works of Davidson, Aldersmith, Newton, Josephus, Ussher, Rawlinson, and Jones. Without the insights from these historians and chronologists, the chronology of the kings of Israel and Judah as presented in this book would not be in its present form.

Please note that when relating these ancient dates to our current year, a reasonable argument can be made for a +- variance of a year or two. I hope you will use this chart as a starting point in your own studies, not as a final solution.

These charts may be used and shared freely as long as they are not sold or merchandized in any way, and as long as credit is given to www.the13thenumeration.com.

7000 Years of Chronology – Excel

7000 Years of Chronology - PDF

About the Author

William Struse has been a self-employed plumber for over twenty years. His love of biblical history and Bible prophecy is reflected in numerous articles and several books on the subject.

William resides in the desert of Southern Arizona with his love, Winnie, and their five children. You can connect with William on social media at:

His Blog: Where History and the Bible Meet

Twitter: William_Struse

LinkedIn: William-Struse

Non-Fiction by William Struse (Prophecies & Patterns Series)
Book I - The 13th Enumeration: Key to the Bible's Messianic Symbolism
Book II - Daniel's Seventy Weeks: The Keystone of Bible Prophecy
Book III - The Jubilee Code: Prophetic Milestones in the Bible
Book IV – Shadows & Types of the Second Coming (to be released)

Christian Fiction by William Struse:
Book I - The 13th Enumeration
Book II - The 13th Prime: Deciphering the Jubilee Code
Book III - The 13th Symbol: Rise of the Enlightened One
Book IV - (to be released)