Before we move on to Lev 26.1-46, we are going to look at some prophetic applications for the Shemitah and the Yovel. In Gen 6.3 it says that God will not always strive with man, but his years will be 120 years. We know that the Yovel is every 50 years (Lev 25.10). If you multiply 50 times 120 you have 6000. This alludes to the 6000 years of the Olam Ha Zeh, which is followed by the 1000 years of the Atid Lavo/Day of the Lord.
When Yeshua came and read from Isa 61.1-2 (Luke 4.16-20) in the synagogue, many do not realize that this portion of Isaiah is the haftorah for the Torah reading “Nitzavim” (Deut 29.9-30.20). These verses from Isaiah talk about the Yovel, which is described as a complete rest. The captives (slaves) were set free, all debts were cancelled and liberty was proclaimed. The land rests during the seventh and the eighth years (49 and 50). Yeshua stopped reading in Luke 4.19 where it says, “to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord.” This portion would not be fulfilled in his first coming, but will be when he comes the second time.
Isa 37.30-32 says, “This will be the sign for you: you shall eat this year (seventh year) what grows of itself, in the second year (eighth year) what springs from the same, and in the third year (the first year of the new shemitah) sow, reap, plant vineyards, and eat their fruit.” The context here is Assyria had invaded Israel, and they were coming into Judah to Jerusalem. Nothing could stop them but the Lord had promised to defeat them so that not even an arrow would fall on Jerusalem. This is a promise that Assyria would be defeated by Yom Kippur, when the Yovel 50 year period ended.
This is a picture of the Russian invasion of Israel and tells us that Russia will be defeated by Yom Kippur, and the nation will accept Yeshua as the Messiah because they cried out to him in their distress and he delivered them from Russia. Israel is set free as they enter into the fourth year of the Birth-pains and they will never turn away from the Lord again (Ezek 39.22; Isa 10.12).
We know Yeshua returns on a Yom Kippur to Jerusalem, at the sound of the great trumpet (Shofar Ha Gadol) that is blown on Yom Kippur. In the first century, Israel had lost track of the Yovel years due to the Babylonian Captivity when the tribes were taken out of the land. Because of that, the ram’s horn (yovel) was blown every Yom Kippur by the first century to make sure it was blown on the Yovel as commanded in the Torah. As a result, the “great trumpet” became an idiom for Yom Kippur and that is why we know that Yeshua will return to Jerusalem on Yom Kippur (Matt 24.29-31). These verses are a picture of the “release” when the Messianic Kingdom arrives on earth.
Yehovah is also telling us in Lev 25 that we can’t just suck the land dry (or ourselves), but rest (meaning completion) is very important and a key issue. One of the concepts for the Sabbath is rest, or no work. This alludes to the fact that we enter the rest of the Lord in Yeshua without works, it is a free gift, by his grace, through faith (emunah). It is not a work of our own (no work).
One of the concepts alluded to in the word “rest” is the Hebrew “Menuchah” which also means rest. It carries the idea of “completion.” To rest on the Sabbath does not necessarily mean physical rest. It means to have a sense of completion. When the Sabbath comes, be complete in what you need to have done. Don’t leave things “hanging” and then stress about it. However, rest can also allude to our physical lives. Even the animals we use for work were to rest.
One of the main things people deal with today is stress. Stress is the inability to feel a sense of completion or rest. The commandments are given to promote life (Deut 30.6). Have you ever heard, “Hard work never killed anyone?” But it does. The problem is we need to learn how to have “menuchah” (rest). If we don’t, stress can cause indigestion, dreariness, fatigue and strain. It can kill us.
If a man has to sell his property due to debt, his family, friends or brothers were supposed to buy the land back and give it back to him. They were to “redeem” him. The blood relative who did this is called the “goel” or “kinsman redeemer.” The Book of Ruth deals with this concept.
If you lived in a walled city, this didn’t apply because it was considered a permanent dwelling, except for the Levite. They were commanded to live in 48 cities throughout the land called “Levitical cities.” If they sold their house it could be redeemed because they had to live in those cities. At the Yovel, it comes back to the Levite, plus they had 2000 cubits of pasture land all around the city walls to graze their animals. If a house did not belong to a Levite in a walled city, you could buy it and own it forever. It did not revert back at the Yovel.
This put a lot of pressure on the people to dispense and spread out through the land and not live in a walled city. It caused them to take responsibility for one another when someone got into some financial issues. Let’s look at Exo 21.1-6.
A person sells his land, but he can’t redeem the land because he hasn’t, or can’t, save the money. You could sell yourself into “servitude” and your value was determined up to the next shemitah (sabbatical year). If the sabbatical year was five years away, you could sell yourself for five years. You surrendered all your decision making about finances to your “master.” You come under the control of your master.
Now, the biblical concept of a “slave” is that of a hired man or woman. They were not to be mistreated or abused. You were not to be severe (Exo 21.20-21). The master had to treat you the same way as his own children. You ate the same food and he housed you as his own. You could choose who you wanted to serve and this took you out of the economic system, paying back your debt. When the sabbatical year came, you were free to go. But if the master gave you a wife you could not take her with you, or any of your children (Exo 21.4).
If you thought this was a good arrangement, and you liked serving this master, the Torah allowed to you to make the decision to stay because of love for your master. This is called the “Law of the Bond Servant.” The Torah (and the Scriptures) is a book of “boundaries and declarations.” If the servant wanted to stay, they made a public declaration that he loved his master and chose to stay with him on his own (not forced). His ear was pierced with an awl to the doorpost of the master’s house. What is this telling us spiritually?
We owe a debt to the Lord we can’t even begin to pay. He has given us everything (family, wife, children, house, job, etc). We recognize this and we realize this is a good situation, and the household of Yehovah is a good household to belong to. He is a good master. All our debts are paid, so we choose to be a bond servant of Yeshua.
When Messiah comes, the great shofar will be blown on Yom Kippur because it is like the Yovel. The dead have come to life and all debts have been cancelled. The whole concept of the Messianic Kingdom is consistent with this system. In the Torah, this applied only in the land. In the future it will apply worldwide. The whole economic system will be different under Yeshua. This will lead to “menuchah” (rest) and there will be less stress and indebtedness.
Lev 26.1-46 will tell us about some closing admonitions concerning blessings in light of their obedience; and the consequences of disobedience like sickness and defeat; famine and wild beast; the horrors of siege warfare; national destruction and exile; how repentance shall bring a restoration.
Holiness is…
v 1…You shall not make for yourselves idols (“elilim”-this will be similar to Deut 27-28; 1 Cor 8.4), nor shall you set up for yourselves an image of a sacred pillar (mazavah), nor shall you place a figured stone (even) in your land to bow down to it; for I am the Lord your God.
v 2…You shall keep my sabbaths and reverence (by attending in it and worship-Lev 19.30); I am the Lord (Yehovah).
v 3…If you walk in my statutes (chukim) and keep my commandments (mitzvot/good works) so as to carry them out (not just a hearer but a doer);
v 4…then (obedience brings blessings) I shall give you rains in their season (you don’t want rain out of season) so that the land will yield its produce and the trees of the field will bear much fruit.
v 5…Indeed, your threshing will last for you until grape gathering (March to July); and grape gathering will last until sowing time ()usually around October; there would be much produce to work with). YOu will thus eat your food to then full (without fear of famine) and live securely in your land.
v 6…I shall also grant peace in the land (prosperity has no value unless there is peace from robbery or assault or threats of war), so that you may lie down with no one making you tremble. I shall also eliminate harmful beasts from the land (like in a time of war when animals multiply and threaten people), and no sword will pass through your land (an invading army).
v 7…But you shall chase your enemies (who are overcome in battle and run for safety), and they will fall before you by the sword-Judges 7.21);
v 8…five of you will chase a hundred, and a hundred of you will chase ten thousand, and your enemies will fall before you by the sword.
v 9…So I will turn toward you (be inclined towards you) and make you fruitful and multiply you, and I will confirm my covenant with you (carry it out).
v 10…And you will eat the old supply (from previous years) and clear out the old (out of your barns and granaries) because of the new (to make for the new).
v 11…Moreover, I will make my dwelling (“Mishkani” or presence as evidenced by their blessings) among you, and my soul will not reject you (withdraw my favor; later his presence would leave due to their sins-Ezek 10.18-19, 11.23).
v 12…I will also walk among you (in the Mishkan as they journeyed from place to place) and be your God, and you shall be my people.
v 13…I am the Lord (Yehovah) your God (power), who brought you out of the land of Egypt so that you should not be their slaves, and I broke the bars of your yoke ( and made you walk erect (at full liberty and not dejected because of their burdens).
v 14…But if you do not obey me and do not carry out (as a doer of the word) all these commandments (now we have the consequences of disobedience (Mal 4.6; Yeshua did not do away with this-Matt 5.17);
v 15…if, instead, yiou reject my statutes and if your soul abhors my ordinances (by not being a doer of the word) so as to carry out all my commandments, and so break my covenant,
v 16…I, in turn, will do this to you; I will appoint over you a sudden terror (phobias), consumption (anything where you lose weight) and fever (internal burning) that shall waste away the eyes and cause the soul to pine away (sorrow of heart); also, you shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies will eat it up (plunder their granaries, etc).
v 17…And I will set my face against you so that you shall be struck down before your enemies; and those who hate you will rule over you and you shall flee when no one is chasing you.
v 18…If also after these things, you do not obey me, then I will punish you seven times (full or complete measure) more for your sins this is where the 490 years comes from in Dan 9.24-27; the seventy years Jeremiah prophesied about did not end with a full repentance on the part of Israel, even though he allowed them to go back to the land; 483 years have been fulfilled, but the remaining seven years is what we call the “BIrth-pains” or the tribulation period).
v 19…And I will also break down your pride of power (the cause of their pride and independence from God); I will also make your sky like iron (no rain clouds) and your earth like bronze (unproductive soil).
v 20…And your strength shall be spent uselessly for your land shall not produce and the trees of the land shall not yield their fruit.
v 21…If then, you act with hostility (contrary to me) against me and are unwilling to obey me, I will increase the plagues on you seven times (complete measure) according to your sins (God says if they do not repent, they will be punished “seven times.” So, here is a brief example of this concept. We know the Babylonian captivity began in 606 BC and ended in 536 BC after the 70 years prophesied by Jeremiah in Jer 25.11. 360 years remain of the 430 judgment years based on Ezek 4.3-6, 390 years for the north, and 40 years for the south equals 430 years. If you multiply 360 by seven because they did not repent and rejected Yeshua, this equals 2520 years. 2520 years times 360 equals 907, 200 days. Take 907, 200 and divide it by 365.25 and it comes to 2483.4 years. Subtract 536.4, when Israel returned, from 2483.4 and it comes to to 1947.4. Adjust for no year (0) between 1 BC and 1 AD and it comes to 1948.4, or May 1948, when Israel became a nation again. If the Torah no longer applies, how can this be?).
v 22…And I will let loose among you the beasts of the field, which shall bereave you of your children and destroy your cattle and reduce your number so that your roads lie deserted (for fear of traveling on them).
v 23…And if by these things you are not turned to me, but act with hostility against me;
v 24…then I will act with hostility against you and I, even I, will strike you even times for your sins (complete measure).
v 25…I will also bring upon you a sword which will execute vengeance for the covenant (for disregarding it; retribution), and when you gather together into your cities (for refuge behind fortifications), I will send pestilence (disease) among you so that you shall be delivered into enemy hands.
v 26…When I break your staff of bread (food supply), ten women (many) will bake your bread in one oven (food is in short supply) and they will bring back your bread in rationed amounts, so that you will eat and not be satisfied.
v 27…Yet if in spite of this, you do not obey me, but act with hostility against me.
v 28…then I will act with wrathful hostility against you, and I, even I, will punish you seven times more (complete measure).
v 29…Further, you shall eat the flesh of your sons and the flesh of your daughters you shall eat (Lam 4.10; 2 Kings 6.25-29).
v 30…I then will destroy your high places (the “bamot”-Canaanite altars taken over by the idolatrous Israelites) and cut down your incense altars (sun pillars) and heap your remains on the remains of your idols (you prayed to them for help and you ended up just like them); for my soul abhors you (the opposite of Lev 26.6).
v 31…I will lay waste your cities as well, and I will make your sanctuaries desolate (the Temple with its several places and courts) and I will not smell your soothing aromas (because you have no faith and obedience, I will not honor your prayers; incense symbolized prayer-Amos 5.21).
v 32…And I will make the land desolate so that your enemies who settle in it shall be appalled over it.
v 33…You, however, I will scatter among the nations (relegate to a corner) and I will draw out a sword after you, as your land becomes desolate and your cities become waste.
v 34…Then the land will enjoy its sabbaths (the Israelites will fail to let the land rest for 70 sabbatical years and this happened-2 Chr 36.21) all the days of the desolation, while you are in your enemies land; then the land will rest abd enjoy its sabbaths.
v 35…All the days of its desolation it will observe the rest which it did not observe on your sabbaths, while you were living on it.
v 36…As for those of you who may be left, I will also bring weakness in their hearts in the lands of their enemies. And the sound of a driven leaf will chase them (a small noise will make them think someone is coming), and even when no one is pursuing, they will flee as though the sword from the sword, and they will fall.
v 37…hey will therefore stumble over each other as if running from the sword, although no one is pursuing, and you will have no strength to stand up before your enemies.
v 38…But you will perish among the nations, and your enemies’ land will consume you (Num 13.32 for that image).
v 39…So those of you who may be left will rot away because of the iniquity in the lands of your enemies, and also because of the iniquities of their forefathers, they will rot away with them (the consequences of their guilt; they will watch their children who followed their example experiencing the same fate that is so bitter to the parents).
v 40…And they shall confess their iniquity and the iniquity of their forefathers in their unfaithfulness which they have committed against me, and also in their acting with hostility against me (like Nehemiah did in Neh 1.4-11).
v 41…I also was acting with hostility against them, to bring them into the land of their enemies, or if their uncircumcised heart becomes humbled so that they then make amends for their iniquity (they will acknowledge that their affliction was God’s method of humbling their arrogance),
v 42…then I will remember my covenant with Jacob and I will remember also my covenant with Isaac and my covenant with Abraham as well (looking back the first comes to mind), and I will remember the land (the symbol of the covenant).
v 43…For the land shall be abandoned by them (because they failed to observe the Sabbatical year, and that wrong had to make amends before they could return), and they shall make up for its sabbaths while it is made desolate without them. They, meanwhile, shall make amends for their iniquity, because they rejected my ordinances and their soul abhorred my statutes.
v 44…Yet in spite of this, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not reject them, nor will I so abhor them as to destroy them, breaking my covenant with them; for I am the Lord their God.
v 45…But I will remember for them the covenant with their ancestors (literally the first generations like the Patriarchs, the twelve tribes and those who left Egypt), whom I brought out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the nations, that I might be their God. I am the Lord (Yehovah).’ ”
v 46…These are the statutes and ordinances and laws which the Lord established between himself and the sons of Israel through Moses at Mount Sinai (the whole book of Leviticus, with Chapter 27 being an appendix to the book).
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