THE JUBILEE OF MESSIAH

Luke 4:18–19                                                                               
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to … preach deliverance to the captives, … to set at liberty them that are bruised,to preach the acceptable year of Adonai.

The Sacred Texts teach us about Hashem’s special times (Leviticus 23; 25). Starting with Spring we have the Sabbatical years every septet, a time where for the most part the land is to be given a rest and people can only eat from what they saved and of what grows of its own accord. It has been calculated that 1967, the year when Jerusalem was freed from occupation and returned to its rightful Jewish heirs was also a Sabbatical year. Another of these times is called the Jubilee year and it comes the year after seven septets.

Due to many interruptions, exiles, occupations, wars, calendar modifications, and lack of information, it is difficult to restore the exact dates of Sabbatical years and Jubilees today. Many have tried by collecting data from history book such as the Book of Josephus as well as taking into consideration hints from biblical texts, and while many of these calculations have somewhat different outcome, there is a body of them that come near to each other in their calculations. A common trend I noticed is that many put the year 28 A.D. (or around) as a jubilee year. I am not a calendar expert so I cannot say, but there are a few factors that can agree to that.

The Jubilee year was to be announced in synagogues at Yom Kippur (Leviticus 25:8-9). During the days of the Master Jubilees were not officially kept but the years of the Master’s ministering on earth correspond to the possibilities of jubilee time. In any case, Yeshua did not miss his cue and could have announced it when he quoted Isaiah sixty-one in the Nazareth synagogue (Luke: 4:18).  If that proclamation at the synagogue was indeed done on a Yom Kippur, then Yeshua was not coming in from a one day fast as the rest of the country did, but from a forty day fast in which his virtue was tested by the enemy of his and our souls. These forty days are comparable to the forty ‘Days of Awe”, a Jewish tradition of spending the forty days before Yom Kippur in soul-searching in order to acknowledge sin in our lives and change our ways.

If there was a jubilee during the Master’s ministry, that would also explain why people had the time to leave home, travel, and listen to him. This was the point of the Jubilee, to stop the daily grind of our day-to-day existence, dedicate time to God in prayer and study of the Torah, as well as to family and friends; sort of an extended Shabbat. God knows that we need help in establishing our priorities, and time to sort out problems with the people who are part of our lives.

In any case, it is evident that both Sabbatical and Jubilee years are important times in God’s calendar and we better keep track of them.

Let us also remember that Yeshua is our Sabbatical Jubilee. He is the one who brings us spiritual and physical restoration, and soon his Sabbatical Kingdom will be established on earth as the greatest of all Jubilees.

 P. Gabriel Lumbroso
www.thelumbrosos.com

For P. Gabriel Lumbroso's devotional UNDER THE FIG TREE in Kindle edition click here.

TAKE HIM HOME!

Matthew 22:37

And he said to him, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.

Before starting the construction of the Tabernacle, the Children of Israel were commanded to cease from all sort of creative activity and observe the Shabbat שבת. “Oh but, how can we observe the Sabbath? There is no synagogue, no Tabernacle, no Temple …!"

Faith based on worship at a certain place on a certain day is common to most religious systems. Whereas for community sake it is good and even needed to have regular meetings and fellowships, I wonder if that was Hashem’s core original idea. After all, the synagogue service was only a post-exilic organizational attempt to expose people to the Torah, in order to avoid another exile. The problem is that with such systems, religion gets removed from home’s daily life and revolves around what we do in the place of worship. Our teenagers then see the difference between who we are at home and who we are at the place of worship and feel that we are hypocrites, and maybe we are. What was then Hashem’s core idea?

And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates (Deut. 6:6-9).

Regardless of our other fellowship activities, our religious lifestyle should be a home-based worship system, where Hashem is involved in every aspect of our lives from the time we wake till the time we sleep. The Jewish Friday night custom of sanctifying (separating/distinguishing) the Sabbath day is a microcosm of the Tabernacle which represents God’s presence with his people. The two candles on the table remind us of the Menorah; the challah bread on the table speaks of the bread of presence; the wine of the daily libation; the festive meal of the Sabbath double-offering portion; and the prayers of the altar of incense. It is home-base service officiated by the  father as the priest for his congregation composed of direct and extended family, as well as friends. The Saturday fellowship at the synagogue is good but it is an extra. I would paraphrase Yeshua and say that, ‘it is Friday night which sanctifies the synagogue service, not the synagogue service which sanctifies Friday night." To go to Saturday service and not sanctify the Sabbath at home on Friday night with our families misses the whole purpose. It’s a family thing. On Friday night it is customary for the husband to give an ode to his wife using Proverbs 31; the wife does the same to her husband and they both bless the children.

Hashem doesn’t just want to fellowship with us in a building somewhere when we are on our best behavior, He wants to be invited to live at the very core of our lives, to hear how we talk to each other at the table, witness how we interact and treat each other during the commonest of household functions. How else can we get his correction input if we just play ‘games’ in front of him (which He is actually not fooled by anyways)?

As we live our lives, may we allow him to be present in all our thoughts. May his bord be in our mouth when we sit in our house, and when we walk by the way, and when we lie down, and when we rise. May we bind them as a sign on our hand, and may they be as frontlets between our eyes. May they be written on the doorposts of our house and on our gates, … and on our hearts. 

A SNEAK PREVIEW OF THE WORLD TO COME!

2 Corinthians 1:21-22

And it is God who establishes us with you in Christ, and has anointed us, and who has also put his seal on us and given us his Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee.

Five lessons did the father teach Israel even before they arrived in Horeb:

1. He who had the power to bitter Egypt's waters by turning them to blood, and thereby drive its people to thirst also had the power to provide sweet waters for his own people in the middle of the desert.

2. He who had the power to starve the richest nation in the world by destroying their crops also had power to feed his people right in the middle of the desert.

3. He who had the power to kill Egypt's cattle so that they had no more of that free meat could provide meat for his people in the middle of the desert.

4. He who destroyed Egypt's armies could also strengthen Israel's ragtag armies against mighty Amalek.

5. He who saw the affliction of Israel in Egypt gave them the gift of the Sabbath.

The Sabbath is a sign of our appurtenance to Hashem. It is like an expensive wedding ring. It is a gift. As a future husband is proud of the beautiful ring he has purchased for his future bride and wants to proudly display it to her ahead of time, Hashem offers the Sabbath to Israel even before the people arrive in Horeb. In a sense, Hashem is displaying His true nature and tells Israel, "You see what I can, and will do for you? I deliver you; I give you sweet waters to drink from; I feed you; I even make your men mighty warriors in order to deliver you from your enemies!" Later, as He declares His intention to wed Israel he will say to her, Moshe went up to God, and Adonai called to him from the mountain: "Here is what you are to say to the household of Ya`akov, to tell the people of Isra'el:

Exo 19:4  'You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I carried you on eagles' wings and brought you to myself.

Exo 19:5  Now if you will pay careful attention to what I say and keep my covenant, then you will be my own treasure from among all the peoples, for all the earth is mine;

Exo 19:6  and you will be a kingdom of cohanim for me, a nation set apart.'

While in desert, even before arriving at Horeb Hashem was giving a 'sneak preview' to the Children of Israel of what He had in mind for them. The apostle says that today we are given the 'earnest of the Spirit' (2 Corinthians 1:22 KJV). This means that today we are only given a 'ten per cent guaranty'  of what Hashem has in store for us, and that we should look forward to the full glory of His intended gift to us in the World to Come. As the people in the desert on their way to Horeb, we today enjoy a 'sneak-preview' of what is to come.

May we always refuse to look at the fake enslaving dainties of Egypt, and learn to keep our eyes focused on what Hashem does for us today, and that as a sign o the mighty glory that is to befall us in the World to Come.

May it be soon Abba, even in our days!

SHABBAT THE MASTER'S WAY!

Mark 3:4

"Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save life or to kill?"

The Sabbath is the most repeated ordinance in the Scriptures. Like the wearing a wedding ring informs people that we belong to someone, Sabbath observance informs our entourage that we belong to El-Shaddai. From a simple mental cognition to a strict and severe application, people have a wide array of ideas on how the Sabbath should be observed. All the aspects of the spectrum of Sabbath application are covered, sometimes even at the cost of division between family and friends. The question we need to ask ourselves is: how did Yeshua observe the Sabbath?

We are told that the evening the Master’s death was a Sabbath so his disciples went to rest according to the commandments (Luke 23:56). What Yeshua taught his disciples was a healthy respect of the Sabbath and there is nothing in the Scriptures to tell us that He broke it. Remember, Yeshua was without sin, and sin is the breaking of the Torah (Hebrews 4:15; 1 John 3:4).

What Yeshua did was argue with what was a harsh and burdensome application of not only the Sabbath but of the whole Torah, He Himself said ‘ My yoke is easy’ (Matthew 11:30). In Torah talk, the 'yoke' the Master referred to was the yoke of Torah application in our lives. What Yeshua was in fact saying is that His type of Torah application was easy and light not hard and oppressive, which included His application of the Sabbath. For example: for farmers, a donkey was a precious commodity in Israel so it was agreed by the religious leaders of the day that if on the Sabbath a donkey fell in a well, its masters could rescue it even though it broke some Sabbath prohibitions. Yeshua then went on to argue that the life of a man was much more precious than that of a donkey, so if it is permissible to rescue a donkey on the Sabbath, it should certainly be permissible to heal a whole man on the Sabbath day.

Yeshua was not creating a new law and application but He certainly was arguing from within the contents of the Jewish law of His day. Yeshua tried in fact to teach us that not only the saving of a life was acceptable on the Sabbath, but also the alleviating of human suffering, which is what eventually became a doctrinal point of disagreement between Him and some of the more rigid religious folks of His day.

The examples of Yeshua’s handling of the Sabbath should give us a good idea of what is biblically permissible on the Sabbath. When He asked them the rhetorical question, Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save life or to kill? (Mark 3:4)", Yeshua in fact reminded His audience that by their own teachings it was alright to do good on the Sabbath Day.

May we remember this principle and learn to make our Sabbath observances a blessing to us, and to those around us.