Matthew 6:12
“And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors”.
From the Beginning, the Creator organized His calendar of events according to septets. The Sabbath crown a seven-day week (Genesis 2:2-3); Creation and the Coronation of Messiah is celebrated on the seventh month of the year (Rosh HaShana/Day of Trumpets) (Leviticus 23:24); every seven years fields enjoy a time of rest, and a jubilee deliverance of slaves and forgiveness of debts is celebrated after seven septets (Leviticus 25). In addition, Festivals in both Spring and Fall last seven days and Pentecost is celebrated counting seven weeks from the Feast of Firstfruits (Leviticus 23). These timings are our compass in time, but the present-day Western Gregorian/Roman calendar has gotten us out of sync’ with God’s timings.
According to the Torah, after seven septets, the whole economic system has to ‘reboot’ so to speak (Leviticus 25:11-17). All debts have to be forgiven as well as possessions retained as collateral, which included individuals enslaved to their creditors due to financial hardship. The jubilee provides a provided some sort of salvation and deliverance from financial servitude. God said He established this as a safeguard for the evil heart of man. He says, ‘Thus you are not to take advantage of each other, but you are to fear your God; for I am Adonai your God (Leviticus 25:17). Our sins are like our debt towards God (Matthew 6:12), and the Messiah comes on the Jubilee to restore our financial/moral balance.
Without these limitations, we today have a world in which the economy is based on oppressing others through usury. As we see the world more and more engrossed in an economy were the rich become fewer and richer and the poor more numerous and poorer, we see its financial base failing, seemingly kept together with a paper currency that is not even worth what it is printed upon.
Following the jubilee schedule doesn’t seem to make good business sense but for God it seems very important. In the days of King David, it is said that, "Again the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and He incited David against them to say, Go, number Israel and Judah" (2 Samuel 24:1). We are not told why God’s anger was kindled against Israel, but when we look at the chronology of this, we find that in the 38th year of David, the people had failed to observe seventy rest years and Jubilees. God then brought judgment upon them, causing 70,000 people to die (2 Sam. 24:15). One thousand people died for every rest year that was owed in their debt to the Law. This judgment paid the penalty and wiped the slate clean. But then they failed to keep their rest years and Jubilees after that time as well. When they owed another seventy rest years (Sabbath years) and Jubilees, then God brought Judah into its Babylonian captivity for seventy years to pay the debt. What is the reason God gave for the captivity? ‘To fulfill 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 threescore and ten [70] years" (2 Chronicles: 36:21).
“And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors”.
From the Beginning, the Creator organized His calendar of events according to septets. The Sabbath crown a seven-day week (Genesis 2:2-3); Creation and the Coronation of Messiah is celebrated on the seventh month of the year (Rosh HaShana/Day of Trumpets) (Leviticus 23:24); every seven years fields enjoy a time of rest, and a jubilee deliverance of slaves and forgiveness of debts is celebrated after seven septets (Leviticus 25). In addition, Festivals in both Spring and Fall last seven days and Pentecost is celebrated counting seven weeks from the Feast of Firstfruits (Leviticus 23). These timings are our compass in time, but the present-day Western Gregorian/Roman calendar has gotten us out of sync’ with God’s timings.
According to the Torah, after seven septets, the whole economic system has to ‘reboot’ so to speak (Leviticus 25:11-17). All debts have to be forgiven as well as possessions retained as collateral, which included individuals enslaved to their creditors due to financial hardship. The jubilee provides a provided some sort of salvation and deliverance from financial servitude. God said He established this as a safeguard for the evil heart of man. He says, ‘Thus you are not to take advantage of each other, but you are to fear your God; for I am Adonai your God (Leviticus 25:17). Our sins are like our debt towards God (Matthew 6:12), and the Messiah comes on the Jubilee to restore our financial/moral balance.
Without these limitations, we today have a world in which the economy is based on oppressing others through usury. As we see the world more and more engrossed in an economy were the rich become fewer and richer and the poor more numerous and poorer, we see its financial base failing, seemingly kept together with a paper currency that is not even worth what it is printed upon.
Following the jubilee schedule doesn’t seem to make good business sense but for God it seems very important. In the days of King David, it is said that, "Again the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and He incited David against them to say, Go, number Israel and Judah" (2 Samuel 24:1). We are not told why God’s anger was kindled against Israel, but when we look at the chronology of this, we find that in the 38th year of David, the people had failed to observe seventy rest years and Jubilees. God then brought judgment upon them, causing 70,000 people to die (2 Sam. 24:15). One thousand people died for every rest year that was owed in their debt to the Law. This judgment paid the penalty and wiped the slate clean. But then they failed to keep their rest years and Jubilees after that time as well. When they owed another seventy rest years (Sabbath years) and Jubilees, then God brought Judah into its Babylonian captivity for seventy years to pay the debt. What is the reason God gave for the captivity? ‘To fulfill 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 threescore and ten [70] years" (2 Chronicles: 36:21).
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