The Jubilee, the year of restoration to inheritance, is a type or foreshadowing of Israel's national restoration to their inheritance of the land as unconditionally promised to Abraham and to his seed. Responsible Israel rejected their Messiah at His birth. The year 2000 will be forty, fifty-year periods—or forty Jubilees if they had been observed—and as a nation they are still in unbelief.
Remembering the significance of the number forty, complete probation to bring to light good or evil, it seems very significant that their long period of testing must be nearing its end. The gospel of God's grace to sinners has gone out world-wide in recent years as never before through every kind of media. Israel as a nation abides in unbelief except for individuals. Their testing time according to God's past ways is almost over.
Fifty is the number connected with the giving of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost on the fiftieth day after the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. The trumpet of the Jubilee was to be sounded on the tenth day of the seventh month, on the Day of Atonement, once every fifty years. On that day all possessions returned to their original owners, with certain exceptions, and Hebrew bond servants were set free. (See Lev. 25.)
Israel has lost their land to strangers because of transgressions, but on that glad day when they have repented, the type of the Jubilee will be fulfilled at the coming again of their Kinsman Redeemer Messiah. All of the land that was promised to Abraham's seed will be restored, and the bond servants set free, no matter how powerful those who hold them may be.
The type of the Day of Atonement was fulfilled at Calvary's cross. (See Isa. 53; Psa. 22; John 19.)
Forty Years: Testing Time
The numbers forty and fifty are used many times in the description of the tabernacle (the pattern of heavenly things) in Exodus. The significance of the number forty, (forty equals ten times four), is complete probation to bring to light good or evil. According to correct calendar reckoning since our Lord's birth, it is now four or possibly five years nearer than our calendar indicates to the close of 2000 years since the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ.
This great Jubilee will mark the time when the land is restored to Israel in its entirety with a sure title. It seems reasonable to attach a significance to the fact that at this present time, all of these happenings to Israel are converging. Add four (or possibly five) years to our present calendar date, plus what may be left of the forty years of Israel's present testing with the additional seven years of Daniel's seventieth week, and you have the year approximately 2000, forty times the Jubilee's fifty years.
To carry this thought a little further, the date (ordinarily) assigned by Ussher to Ex. 12:1, 21And the Lord spake unto Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying, 2This month shall be unto you the beginning of months: it shall be the first month of the year to you. (Exodus 12:1‑2) is 1491 B.C. This date, like our own calendar, may not be exact. Ex. 12:22This month shall be unto you the beginning of months: it shall be the first month of the year to you. (Exodus 12:2) tells us that the instituting of the Passover in Egypt was to be the beginning of months "to you." This took place about fifteen hundred years before the birth of Christ. This would be thirty-five hundred years before 2000 A.D., a total of seventy Jubilees, again a significant number. Judging from its use in Scripture, the number seventy (seven times ten) indicates complete responsibility, especially in regard to Israel. "You only have I known of all the families of the earth: therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities." Amos 3:22You only have I known of all the families of the earth: therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities. (Amos 3:2). Privilege and responsibility go together.
The appearance of the false Christ soon after the rising to power of the head of the revived Roman Empire, will encourage many of the Jews to return to their homeland, perhaps hurried on by economic and governmental pressure and/or collapse of some of the nations among whom the Jews are scattered.
A remnant among the Jewish people will, after the rapture of the genuine among the professing Church, go out preaching the gospel of the kingdom during the tribulation. Even the godly Jews of today have forgotten that during about the first seven years of the Church's existence, the testimony to salvation through a crucified and risen Christ was carried on by Jews only, and a few proselytes.
The Rapture
About forty years after the rejection by the nation of the person, word, and work of Christ, the city and the temple of Jehovah were destroyed by Titus. Israel's being set aside by God brings in a dispensation of grace to whosoever would receive Jesus.
The particular purpose in bringing this to your attention is this: there is no definite point in time assigned to the "rapture," the resurrection of the dead saints and the changing of the living to bodies of glory. This will mark the end of the day of God's grace and the end of the work of the Holy Spirit in gathering to the body of Christ that which is known as the assembly.
The rapture will definitely close the present day of God's grace. Those remaining on the earth will be subject to the conditions of "the great tribulation" which will be increasingly severe until the end of the seven years. Then the Lord Jesus Christ (Messiah) will come out of heaven to begin the work of judgment that will restore Israel to their long-promised time of blessing, and inaugurate the reign of righteousness that will bring peace and blessing to this troubled world.
“I Will Also Keep Thee”
While all this presents a most solemn picture of what is ahead for this world, on the other hand it lets us know, as believers in the Lord Jesus awaiting His return for us, that we will not be here very long. "To wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from [among] the dead, even Jesus [our deliverer from the coming wrath]." 1 Thess. 1:1010And to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come. (1 Thessalonians 1:10). Also the word to Philadelphia in Rev. 3:1010Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth. (Revelation 3:10), "Because thou has kept the word of My patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall [is about to] come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth." These verses along with many others, particularly Rev. 4 and 5, give Christians to know that they are to expect the coming of the Lord Jesus at any moment now, and before the great tribulation begins. This has been an encouragement to God's people down through the long history of the Church. Conditions in the world are getting more and more troubled. Israel's history has taken a definite turn toward their long-promised restoration to their land of Jehovah.
There is also a great anti-spiritual, anti-religious movement all over the world with the subtle teaching of humanism even in the primary schools. The development of modern means of communication, and the marked inclination toward a one-world government mean that the world is ripe for the appearance of the beast of Rev. 13, and the second beast who will develop into the false prophet and the antichrist.
“the Day Is at Hand”
If you are a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, you will be wondering how much longer we can possibly be left here. Surely for Christians "the night is far spent, the day is at hand." Rom. 13:1212The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light. (Romans 13:12). "At hand" in Scripture means that no more prophecy has to be fulfilled before that "day" of the Lord's coming for the Church. The foregoing is not intended to set dates and especially in regard to the Lord's coming for the Church. That has been the blessed hope for the Church down through all its history, though lost sight of for a long time.
We know Peter has written in 2 Peter 3:99The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. (2 Peter 3:9), "The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some men count slackness; but is long-suffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance." It should be obvious to any Christian who is at all familiar with his Bible that we are in the last moments of the day of grace. May our hearts be encouraged to more faithfulness to Him who is the faithful and true witness.
The moment that God's purposes concerning the Church are completed, our Lord Jesus will come according to His promise in John 14:1-31Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. 2In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. 3And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. (John 14:1‑3). The manner of His coming will be according to 1 Thess. 4:13-1813But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. 14For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. 15For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. 16For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: 17Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. 18Wherefore comfort one another with these words. (1 Thessalonians 4:13‑18). Thus at the very end of the day of grace there is still an opportunity to receive Jesus as Lord and be saved. "If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved." Rom. 10:99That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. (Romans 10:9). Time is short! Any moment may be the last moment that salvation through the grace of God is available to you. The Lord Jesus invites you, "Come unto Me." Matt. 11:2828Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. (Matthew 11:28). God loves you, "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." John 3:1616For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. (John 3:16).
L. Huff