Are the Jubilee and Land Rest Years Important?

Let us now take a moment and review all we have learned to this point. I shared with you how to count the Jubilee Years and where in Scripture Yahweh tells you which year is a Jubilee. We also learned that 1996 was the last Jubilee Year.

Next, you were shown why there is a seventy-six year difference between the Hebrew Calendar 5768 and the one I am claiming as 5844 (In this year of writing 2008). You also learned when the year begins in the spring.

We discovered that the Messiah died on a Wednesday and not a Friday. We came to see that the millennial years also prove this to be true. We also learned what happened during each of those millennial days in history and that the entrance into the Promised Land was in 2500 AC or 1337 BC, a Jubilee Year. This also means that the Exodus took place in 1379 BC. That is 1337 + 2 + 40 =1379 BC.

We determined when the thief on the tree went to paradise. At the same time, we learned a great deal about the Wave Offering which began this countdown to fifty or to Pentecost or, in other words, the First Fruits.

We saw how the Eighth Day, Pentecost, and the Jubilee were all interrelated and how Satan is deceptively trying to usurp Yahweh’s authority. We also concluded what happens during the Eighth Millennium.

So what does all this mean to you and me living today on this Earth at this moment? Who cares? Let me show you something else first and then I will answer this question. The question I will answer in this chapter is: “Just how important is the Jubilee to Yahweh?”
We first need to understand how Yahweh thinks concerning these Land Rest Years and Jubilee Years.

We read in the Book of Daniel:

1 In the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus, of the seed of the Medes, which was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans; 2 In the first year of his reign I Daniel understood by books the number of the years, whereof the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah the prophet, that he would accomplish seventy years in the desolation’s of Jerusalem. (Daniel 9:1-2)

This year was 521 BC.

This revelation Daniel received from Jeremiah is found in the Book of Jeremiah where it is written:

8 “Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts: “Because you have not heard My words, 9 behold, I will send and take all the families of the north,” says the Lord, “and Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, My servant, and will bring them against this land, against its inhabitants, and against these nations all around, and will utterly destroy them, and make them an astonishment, a hissing, and perpetual desolation (sic). 10 Moreover I will take from them the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the sound of the millstones and the light of the lamp. 11 And this whole land shall be a desolation and an astonishment, and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years. 12 Then it will come to pass, when seventy years are completed, that I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation, the land of the Chaldeans, for their iniquity,” says the Lord; “and I will make it a perpetual desolation.” (Jeremiah 25:8-12)

Babylon was conquered in 537 BC, whereas 70 years earlier was 607 BC. But, Jerusalem or Judah was attacked by Nebuchadnezzar, beginning in 606 BC when Daniel was captured, with the final destruction of Jerusalem taking place in 586 BC on the ninth day of the fifth month.

Jeremiah again makes reference to these 70 years in the Book of Jeremiah and states:

8 For thus says the Lord of hosts: the God of Israel: Do not let your prophets and your diviners who are in your midst deceive you, nor listen to your dreams which you cause to be dreamed. 9 For they prophesy falsely to you in My name; I have not sent them, says the Lord. 10 For thus says the Lord: After seventy years are completed at Babylon, I will visit you and perform My good word toward you, and cause you to return to this place. 11 For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. 12 Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. 13 And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart. 14 I will be found by you, says the Lord, and I will bring you back from your captivity; I will gather you from all the nations and from all the places where I have driven you, says the Lord, and I will bring you to the place from which I cause you to be carried away captive. (Jeremiah 29:8-14)

So Daniel knows the 70 year period is coming to a close. He does not know exactly when that time ends, but he knows it is close. So the beginning of this new prophecy of 70 weeks or 70 Shabuwa, (periods of seven or seventy-sevens) is to start when the decree is given out.

Most believe this to be 70 times seven years. Their rationale behind this belief is based on what is written in II Chronicles:

20 And them that had escaped from the sword carried he away to Babylon; where they were servants to him and his sons until the reign of the kingdom of Persia: 21 To fulfill (sic) the word of the LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed her Sabbaths: for as long as she lay desolate she kept Sabbath, to fulfill (sic) threescore and ten years. (II Chronicles 36:20-21)

70 years! That is 70 broken Land Rest Years. To get 70 Land Rest Years, you have to have 427 years. The assumption that you need 490 years of broken Sabbaths is wrong. One Jubilee Cycle times ten. This is an assumption by unlearned men. Each Sabbatical Cycle has eight Land Rests in them, not seven. One occurs on each of the 7th, 14th, 21st, 28th, 35th, 42nd, and 49th years; but, the 50th year is also a Land Rest Year. When you add up these years, counting until you get to 70 broken Land Rest Years, you arrive at 427 years. In the period spanning 490 years, there are 80 Land Rest Years.
When we take the time when Jerusalem fell in 586 BC, and we add 427 years to it, we arrive at 1013 BC. This would have been the time during King David’s reign. Chronologists say that Solomon died in 930 BC after reigning 40 years. 930 + 40 = 970. Add to that, King David ruling 40 years and that brings us to 1010 BC, which is very close to our date for broken Land Rest Years.

Does Yahweh consider these Land Rest Years and Jubilee Years lightly? No, I think not, nor should we. They are very important to Him, so much so, that He removed Judah from the land for 70 years to give the land its rest, which it had not had while Judah was on the land.