When God gave His chosen people the land He had promised them, He told them it was intended to stay in the families to which it had originally been allotted. Recognizing that sometimes folks would need to get their hands on their land equity, He set up a system of land leasing by which outsiders could take possession for a fixed period of time. The value of the lease was based on the value of the harvests left before the next JUBILEE year, when all Jews were commanded by God to return to and again take possession of the land He had given their ancestors.
JUBILEE happened every 50 years by God’s decree:
Leviticus 25:10 “You shall treat this fiftieth year as sacred. You shall proclaim liberty in the land for all its inhabitants. It shall be a JUBILEE for you, when each of you shall return to your own property, each of you to your own family.”
The other day, I was reading about the Balfour Declaration and the Battle of Jerusalem and realized they fit the Leviticus definition of JUBILEE.
The Balfour Declaration: November 2, 1917
“You shall proclaim liberty in the land for all its inhabitants.”
The Balfour Declaration was a letter from the United Kingdom’s Foreign Secretary to a leader of the British Jewish community. In it, the British government declared its intention to help the Jews return to their land. It was published in the press on November 9, 1917.
The Battle of Jerusalem: November 17 to December 30, 1917
“It shall be a JUBILEE for you, when each of you shall return to your own property.”
In 70 AD, Roman troops booted the Jews out of Jerusalem and trashed the place. In 314 AD, it passed peacefully from pagan into Christian hands when the Emperor Constantine converted. A few centuries later, Muslims grabbed it and more or less held on to it until World War I when British forces, under the command of General Edmund Allenby, captured Jerusalem from the Ottoman Turks. When Allenby entered the Old City for the first time, he went in on foot through the Jaffa Gate to show respect for the place that is holy to Jews, Christians and Muslims the world over.
Note: The Jews themselves do not celebrate JUBILEE at this time. I’m just going by what I see in key historical events and the text of Leviticus. However, if you continue with my reasoning below, I think you’ll be as intrigued and eyebrow elevated as I was when it all came together!
JUBILEE ONE: Hebrew year 5678
Common calendar: September 17, 1917 to September 6, 1918
- Balfour Declaration and Battle of Jerusalem
- THIRTY years later: Hebrew year 5708
- Common calendar: September 15, 1947 to October 3, 1948
- Yom Ha’atzmaut or Israeli Independence Day. On Iyar 5, 5708 (May 14, 1948 in the common calendar), David Ben-Gurion declared the establishment of the independent Jewish State of Israel.
- Luke 3:23 “When Jesus began his ministry he was about THIRTY years of age.”
JUBILEE TWO = Hebrew Year 5728
Common calendar: October 5, 1967 – September 22, 1968
United Nations Resolution 242 (November 22, 1967) In the aftermath of the Six-Day War of 1967, the United Nations Security Council unanimously adopted Resolution 242, which states that war is an unacceptable way for nations to acquire new territory and that Muslims and Jews need to work for a just and lasting peace in the Middle East. It called for Israel to remove its troops from the territories they had won during the Six-Day War and for all parties to stop claiming they had any right to stomp on the “sovereignty, territorial integrity and political independence” of any of the other parties. On May 1, 1968, Israel accepted it and stated its willingness “to seek agreement with each Arab State on all matters included.”
JUBILEE THREE = Hebrew Year 5778
Common calendar: September 21, 2017 to September 9, 2018
- 70 years after Israel became an independent nation again: Jubilee Three
- 70 years after Jesus was born: Roman troops sacked Jerusalem and destroyed the Second Temple
With all this evidence, I’m thinking my little JUBILEE idea might be legit, in which case … everything points to 5778 (September 21, 2017 to September 9, 2018) being a year of TREMENDOUS significance for Israel.
- Hebrew-Roman calendar conversions @ http://www.cgsf.org/dbeattie/calendar/?hebrew=5778