Appendix D
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The Bible
almost silent
The silence
regarding sabbatical or Jubilee
celebrations in the Bible leads
me to conclude that Israel
didn’t measure up to
God’s ideal. In fact, only
one Year of Jubilee is mentioned
in the entire Bible: Isaiah 37:30
and II Kings 19:29. Here we find
the 49th sabbatical
year and the Year of the Jubilee
occurred during the 14th
and 15th years of
Hezekiah’s reign (II Kings
18:13) that fell on 703/702 B.C.
This small point will become very
vital when we try to identify the
year of origin for the Jubilee
cycle.
God’s
patience = 70 units
God’s
patience with Israel’s
backsliding is beyond human
understanding. For centuries He
tried to get Israel to shape up
and accomplish all that He had in
mind. But they refused.
Eventually, Israel filled up
their cup of iniquity. God’s
patience expired when Israel
violated a total of 70 sabbatical
years.
When the number 70
was fully reached, Israel was
expelled from Jerusalem and
hauled off to Babylon by King
Nebuchadnezzar. They had to
remain in Babylon for 70 years
because the land had gone without
70 sabbaticals of rest! Remember
God’s warning? “All
the time that it lies desolate,
the land will have the rest it
did not have during the Sabbaths
you lived in it.” (Leviticus
26:35) In other words, God’s
patience with Israel reached its
limit with 70 years of sabbatical
violations and He had them
evicted from the land. Notice
what the Bible says about their
captivity, “The land
enjoyed its Sabbath rests; all
the time of its desolation it
rested, until the seventy years
were completed in fulfillment of
the word of the Lord spoken by
Jeremiah.”
(II Chronicles
36:21).
How are
70 sabbaticals counted?
How do we know
that Israel was placed in
captivity because they had
violated 70 sabbatical years? “Now,
son of man, take a clay tablet,
put it in front of you and draw
the city of Jerusalem on it. Then
lay siege to it… You are to
bear their sin for the number of
days you lie on your side. I have
assigned you the same number of
days as the years of their sin.
So for 390 days you will bear the
sin of the house of Israel. After
you have finished this, lie down
again, this time on your right
side, and bear the sin of the
house of Judah. I have assigned
you 40 days, a day for each
year.”
(Ezekiel 4:1-6).
Notice how the
math works. If we add 390 years
of Israel’s sin to the 40
years of Judah’s sin, we
obtain a sum of 430 years of
sinful living. This is why
Ezekiel had to lay upon his
Right and left
sides for a total of 430 days
– a day for each year. In
430 years, there are 8 Jubilee
cycles plus a partial cycle (the
9th) that contains 38
years. The point is that 430
years contain exactly 70
sabbaticals! (Keep in mind that
there are 8 sabbaticals in a
Jubilee cycle of 49 years.)
Here’s how the total of 70
sabbaticals is found:
Day/Year again
While in
Babylonian captivity, God spoke
to the prophet Daniel and told
him that He was going to give
Israel another chance. This
opportunity would also have a
limit of 70 units. However,
instead of granting Israel 70
sabbaticals of time, God used the
next larger unit within the
calendar. He granted Israel 70
sevens (70 weeks of years). This,
God hoped, would be enough time
for Israel to become all that He
wanted. Note the progression
within the Jubilee Calendar. God
moved from 70 sabbaticals of
patience to 70 weeks of patience.
Seventy weeks in the Jubilee
calendar contain 490 literal
years. See 457 B.C. to A.D. 33 on
the chart at the end of this
study in Appendix D. According to
Daniel 9, the 70 weeks were to
begin with the decree to restore
and rebuild Jerusalem. In the
Jubilee year of 457 B.C.,
Artaxerxes, the world monarch of
the Persian Empire, issued a
decree granting the Jews complete
sovereignty as a nation. Nehemiah
carried the declaration to the
Jews in Jerusalem. He
arrived in Jerusalem in early
fall and probably read the
declaration on the Day of
Atonement in the year of the
Jubilee, because the land was
officially their at the sounding
of the trumpet on the Day of
Atonement in the Year of Jubilee.
(Leviticus 25:9-10)
Note: For a
careful explanation of the 70
weeks and how the appearing of
Jesus Himself confirmed the
timing of those events, the
reader is referred to The
Revelation of Jesus, another
book by the writer.
When A.D. 33
arrived, the 70 weeks expired.
The Jews had not progressed as
God desired. Israel had greatly
rebelled against the Holy One of
Israel Himself. So, in A.D. 70,
God sent the Romans upon
Jerusalem and it was completely
destroyed again.
7 x 10 = 70
Have you begun to
notice that God’s patience
may be measured in units of 70?
Consider this: When Israel
violated 70 sabbaticals, God had
them removed from the land by
Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar so
that the land might receive its
rest. When Israel violated the 70
weeks, God had Jerusalem
destroyed by the Rome’s army
in A.D. 70. Again, the land got
its rest.
If you are a
student of the Old Testament, you
know that judgment day, the most
important day of the sanctuary
service, was the Day of
Atonement. It occurred on the
tenth day of the seventh month.
The month and the day of this
service combine to form 70. It
may represent the fullness of
God’s patience and ten
represents the limit of His
mercy. One thing is certain, 70
units seem to indicate a time of
judgment. You may have already
considered the possibility that
the existence of sin will be
7,000 years, which happens to be
70 centuries. And, the length of
life itself is often threescore
and ten that of course, is 70
years. Psalms 90:10 Are these
numbers just coincidental?
Kindness
has a limit, too
The first use of
70 sevens is found in Genesis
4:24. But, the finest explanation
is found in the New Testament. “Then
Peter came to Jesus and asked,
‘Lord, how many times shall
I forgive my brother when He sins
against me? Up to seven
times?’ Jesus answered,
‘I tell you, not seven
times, but seventy-seven
times.’” (Matthew
18:21.22)
The NIV and other
translations of this verse seem
to say 77 times. Actually, Jesus
didn’t say 77 times. Rather,
He turned to Peter and said,
“Seventy-sevens.” Peter
immediately understood the
phrase. Just as Israel had been
forgiven by God and granted
seventy-sevens (490 years) of
redemptive opportunity, Peter was
to forgive his brother and grant
him the same redemptive grace.
Prophetic
time periods
It is beyond the
scope of this article to examine
all the prophetic time periods in
the Bible. However, this point
must be made: All
apocalyptic time periods
occurring within the operation of
Jubilee cycles are to be
interpreted in Jubilee units of
time. Under this system, a day
represents a literal year.
This also means that
prophetic time periods outside
the Jubilee cycles are to be
interpreted as they are given,
i.e., literal units of time. This
concept becomes very interesting
when we consider the possibility
that there may be a finite number
of Jubilee cycles. That number
could be 70.
Notice how the
Jubilee principle works with
respect to prophetic time
periods. Before Jubilee cycles
were given, prophetic
time-periods were literal.
Therefore, Noah’s 120 years
of warning (Genesis 6:3) were 120
literal years because they
happened before Jubilee
cycles began. The 1,260 days of
Daniel 7:25, Revelation 12: 6,14
are to be interpreted using
Jubilee units. Therefore, they
represent a 1,260-year time
period. The 1,000 years of the
seventh millennium will be
literal years because they occur after
the expiration of Jubilee
cycles.
One other point.
Some ask why the 70 years
prophesied by Jeremiah were
literal since they occur during
the Jubilee cycles. Answer: The
70 years of Babylonian captivity
were payment-in-kind for
violating the 70 seventh-day
sabbaticals. So, Israel spent a
year in captivity for each
seventh-day sabbatical violation.
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