Sabbatical Year

A classic article from September 1981

There was a widespread belief in ancient Judaism, that the coming of the Messiah, would take place during the season when Israel celebrated the sabbatical year.

The concept has been set forth in several Old Testament prophecies and has prompted Jewish scholars down through the centuries to those scriptures in the hope of finding the exact date of the Redeemer’s coming. 

For instance, in Daniel 9, the angel Gabriel spoke of a period called 70 weeks, which he said was determined upon the people of Israel wherein they should finish the transgression, make an end of sin, make reconciliation for iniquity and bring in everlasting righteousness.

Within that period of 70 weeks, the Jewish people were to seal up the vision and prophecy and were to anoint the Most Holy.

Ancient Jewish scholars considered the meaning of those 70 weeks to be seventy sabbatical cycles. The word “week” represented a period of seven years, and seventy of these weeks were said to represent a period of 490 years. 

The reference is obvious. According to the angel Gabriel, the coming of the Messiah was to correspond with the celebration of the sabbatical year, called in the Hebrew language a Shemitah.

Daniel received this new revelation after making an extensive study of the Babylonian captivity from the viewpoint of the prophet Jeremiah. Daniel 9:2 reads: “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 desolations of Jerusalem.” 

Those 70 years of Babylonian captivity were considered to be sabbatical years and in 2 Chronicles 36:21 we are told that the Jewish people were carried into Babylon,  in order to “fulfill the word of the LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed her sabbath: for as long as she lay desolate, she kept sabbath, to fulfill threescore and ten years.” 

The importance of these and other scriptures mark the sabbatical year, but it is important today! Yes, I believe it is. In fact, it seems to hold the key which may mark this generation as the one which will see the coming of the Messiah and the establishment of the golden age.  

Let us research the doctrine of the sabbatical year and take note of its place in prophecy. The Law of the sabbatical year was given to Moses in Leviticus 25:1-5: “And the LORD spake unto Moses in mount Sinai, saying,  Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye come into the land which I give you, then shall the land keep a sabbath unto the LORD. Six years thou shalt sow thy field, and six years thou shalt prune thy vineyard, and gather in the fruit thereof; But in the seventh year shall be a sabbath of rest unto the land, a sabbath for the LORD: thou shalt neither sow thy field, nor prune thy vineyard. That which growth of its own accord of thy harvest thou shalt not reap, neither gather the grapes of thy vine undressed: for it is a year of rest unto the land.”

In Leviticus 26, God warns the Jewish people that if they do not observe the sabbatical year, He will scatter them among the heathen. And He said in verses 34-35: “Then shall the land enjoy her sabbaths, as long as it lieth desolate, and ye be in your enemies’ land; even then shall the land rest, and enjoy her sabbaths. As long as it lieth desolate it shall rest; because it did not rest in your sabbaths, when ye dwelt upon it.” 

It is also in that chapter that God warned the Jewish people of further punishment if they continued to desecrate the sabbatical year.

The judgment link is seen in Leviticus 26:18: “And if ye will not yet for all this hearken unto me, then I will punish you seven times more for your sins.” 

According to these verses, the judgment of God upon the Jewish people has been linked to the observance of the sabbatical year. We know from a study of Jeremiah, that the Babylonian captivity came as a result of the Jewish people desecrating the sabbatical year over a period of 490 years. After 490 years of desecration, the Lord’s patience finally ran out, and He sent them into Babylonian captivity.

You may recall that Peter came to Jesus one day with a question concerning forgiveness. This is found in Matthew 18:21-22: ^“Then came Peter to him, and said, LORD, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times? Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven.” 

Peter may have been referring to the law of the sabbatical year, for you see, according to the Mosaic covenant, the Shmita, or release year, was more than just a time when the land lay desolate. It was also a year when all debts were to be forgiven.

We read in Deuteronomy 15:1-2, “At the end of every seven years thou shalt make a release. And this is the manner of the release: Every creditor that lendeth ought unto his neighbour shall release it; he shall not exact it of his neighbour, or of his brother; because it is called the LORD’s release.”

Now, please note that Peter’s question concerned forgiveness. Perhaps the forgiveness of a debt, because in His answer, Jesus told the parable of a certain king who forgave a monetary debt. The king forgave his servant a debt of 10,000 talents. However, the servant, in turn,  did not forgive his debtors. When the king found out about it, he delivered the ungrateful servant into the hands of tormentors and made him pay that debt.

Is that what the Lord has done with the nation of Israel? Has He forgiven their debt, only to find that they, in turn, did not forgive their debtors? Well, it certainly seems so. God has delivered his people into the hands of tormentors these 2,000 years. And I must say they have been made to pay and pay and pay.

Have you ever just sat down and looked at the numbers in the Bible? For instance, the number 490. Jesus said, “Peter, forgive your brother his debt. Seventy times seven.” That constitutes a total of 490 times.

Four hundred ninety! Is it possible that God has based His judgment upon the Jewish people around the number 490? Let us go back to Sinai and to the giving of the Law.

God said in Leviticus 26:18, “And if ye will not yet for all this hearken unto me, then I will punish you seven times more for your sins.”

Suppose we took the number 490 and multiplied it seven times. Suppose we began with the year God gave the Law to Moses on top of Mount Sinai, and suppose we went into the future 490 years, plus 490 years, plus 490 years, plus 490 years, till seven times. Where would we come out? Well, let’s do it.

Four hundred ninety times seven years. Let us start at Sinai, where Israel began her 40 years in the wilderness, and let us go into the future 3,430 years. To calculate the date, we must determine two things: (1) The date when Moses ascended Mount Sinai; and (2) the correction of the calendar, which has Jesus being born in the year, 4 B.C.

First, let us determine the date Moses received the Law on Mount Sinai. According to the most accepted standard of dating, Adam was created in the year 4004 B.C., and Moses ascended Sinai in the year 1491 B.C. That would be 2,513 years after creation. Let us then add
3,430 + 2,513 = 5,943, and while we are at it, let us add the four years needed to correct the calendar 5,943 + 4 = 5,947. Now remember, we began counting these Sabbatical years when Israel began her 40 years in the wilderness. 

We may convert that number to our Roman calendar by subtracting the 4,000 years from creation to Christ. That brings us to 1947, which ended 490 sabbatical years given to the Jewish people at Sinai. Wow! It seems that God has tied those 40 years in the wilderness, to a 40-year period in this generation, beginning in 1948.

We are not date-setters, which I want to make very clear. We cannot say with certainty that this generation will be a 40-year generation. We can only speculate about the years that have been laid out in history. But this we can say, 490 sabbatical years have transpired since Mount Sinai, and it sure looks suspicious! God may have tied those 40 years in the wilderness to these 40 years, beginning in 1948. 

Let us take note of a few parallels. Before the Exodus out of Egypt, Israel had suffered unmercifully at the hands of the pharaoh. In like manner, from 1939 to 1945, the nation of Israel suffered unmercifully at the hands of Hitler. However, 1946 was a year of relief and release for the Jews. 

Incidentally, 1946 was a sabbatical year, in Deuteronomy 15:1: “At the end of every seven years thou shalt make a release.”

In the year that followed, Israel made another exodus – this time out of Europe, even running a blockade imposed by the British in an effort to go back to their Promised Land. The years from 1946-1948 have been called by the Jewish people “another exodus.”

The sabbatical year certainly seems to have a place in prophecy. For me, the sabbatical year and all the numbers in the Bible are fascinating subjects. Surely, it has a significant place in Bible prophecy.