The Year of the Goat?

Some of my English as a Second Language students correctly corrected me by saying that it is not the year of the sheep as some people are reporting on the news but in fact the year of the goat. The goat is always the imitation of the sheep. I shared with my class that I know of a Lamb, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. I mentioned to them in basic English; that man is on one side with his sinful nature, and God is on the other side, who is Holy in every way. The big cliff or crevasse separating each other is not passable, and that is why we need the Saviour, the Lamb of God between God and man to be the go between redeemer. I illustrated to my class that even a baby is a sinner, how they cry, and cry sometimes for no reason, and how even I have impure thoughts at times, and am full of things not pleasing to God. I showed them my age spots, and how blemished I am, but Jesus has no blemishes. He is perfect without spot or wrinkle. I further explained by drawing a cross in the crevasse on the blackboard which united man with God, only because of what Jesus did on the cross for us. The Mediator between God and man is explained in more detail at this website.


http://sanfernandochurchofchrist.com/SermonView.aspx?ID=864

(If indeed, this is the year of the goat, then that could mean that the opposite of the lamb will come and take authority for a short time, but we who are disciples and followers of Jesus will no longer be here, as we are going to a wedding in the sky.) My readers can ask me more about this if they like. 

I told my friends class about the four blood moons that are indicators of something big, and how they fall on the Jewish feasts. They were interested to note that four blood moons  occurring on a Jewish Feast day, are astronomically uncommon.  Being a Shemittah year too, a year of release from bondage, financial pressure, pressure of any kind is also what 2014-2015 is known for in the Jewish calendar. The last time we had four blood moons was in 1966, during the six day war when Israel obtained Jerusalem, and before that in 1947 when Israel got their nation.

Pray for Zion by
http://www.pray4zion.org/TheComingShemitahJubileeYear57745.html

 Acknoledgements to

Alf & Julie Saunders

01st September, 2014
 

The Coming Shemitah 5775 (2014/5) & Jubilee Year 5776 (2015/6)

Shalom Partner and Friend of Israel,

The next "Shemitah" or "Biblical Sabbatical Year" runs from:

September 25, 2014 until… September 13, 2015.

While many assume when God created the Sun and the Moon that He did so for light, heat, gravity, and other natural mechanisms, when looking at Genesis 1:14, we learn of four other purposes behind why the lights in the heavens were created and placed where they are.

The Bible says these are for "signs," "seasons," "days," and "years." The Hebrew word for "signs" in this context is owth, a word meaning a "miraculous sign," "omen," or "warning." It signifies, among other things, that God created the heavenly bodies to communicate important matters at particular times to His covenant people. The next reason God created the sun and the moon is for "seasons." Again, in our Western mindset, we figure God is talking about… winter, spring, summer, and autumn (fall). This is the farthest from the truth. In Hebrew, the word here is "mow’ed" and is accurately translated as "an appointed time" or "divine appointment" especially related to "sacred seasons" or Feast days. This same Hebrew word is translated into English in Leviticus 23 as "feast" where it talks about the "Feasts of the Lord."

At first, these two words; "appointments" and "feasts" seem about as far apart as you can get. This is why one needs to keep the Hebrew language in perspective so as not to miss the deeper conveyances of this text. The word "mow’ed" implies that God has a "day timer" or "calendar" on which He keeps predetermined "appointments" with human history and that are connected with "His Feasts or Holy Days." God the Father knew the year, the month, the day, and the exact time His Son, Yeshua (Jesus) would die and how this event would be played out in fulfilment of the Levitical feasts of Israel.  Finally, God declares that the sun and the moon were created to determine "days and years." Obviously, this has nothing to do with our modern Gregorian calendar, which was created by a pagan Roman ruler and is based on the sun. The Muslim calendar is based on the moon. But the Biblical calendar… the one that God uses according to Genesis is based on the sun and the moon. So when the Scripture refers to "days and years" in Genesis 1:14, it is pointing to "Biblical days and years" or "holy days" as well as Shemitah years and Jubilee years (every seventh year the land in Israel was to rest).

What is a Shemitah Year…? The Shemitah Year is the seventh year of the seven-year agricultural cycle mandated by the Torah for the Land of Israel and still observed in contemporary Judaism. When Moses received the Levitical law, God gave the commandment to rest on the seventh day… the Sabbath. Moses also applied the cycles of "seven" to weeks and years. A cycle of seven weeks points to the 50th day, called Pentecost. And a cycle of seven sets of seven years points to the 50th year, the year of Jubilee. The year of Jubilee is based on letting the land rest every seventh year as follows; "For six years sow your fields, and for six years prune your vineyards and gather their crops. But in the seventh year the land is to have a Sabbath of rest, a Sabbath to the Lord." (Leviticus 25:3-4)

Leviticus 25 promises bountiful harvests to those who observe the Shemitah, and describes its observance as a test of religious faith.

The Hebrew people count and observe 7 year cycles. Every cycle would fulfill a "Sabbatical Year known as a "Shemitah" or "Shmitah" and means, "to release!"

“At the end of every seven years you shall grant a release. And this is the manner of the release: every creditor shall release what he has lent to his neighbour. He shall not exact it of his neighbour, his brother, because the LORD’S RELEASE has been proclaimed….” Deuteronomy 15:1-4 Reading this Scripture further promises… many blessings!

The Mystery of the Shemitah… As the prophets gazed out at the ruins of ancient Israel, they realized that there was a mystery to the timing of God’s judgment! That mystery centred on the Biblical Shemitah. Every seventh year, the “Shemitah, or Sabbath Year,” would cause the land to rest, when sowing and reaping, buying and selling would come to a standstill. The Shemitah was unique in that it specifically affected the nation’s economic and financial realms — wiping out all accounts of credit and debt. For the nation that departs from God, the Shemitah becomes a sign of judgment. The year of Shemitah reaches its culmination on the last day of the Hebrew year. (The Harbinger - Jonathan Cahn)

What happened in the last two Shemitah years…? The Shemitah year of 2001… America was attacked by radical Islamic terrorists killing nearly three thousand people on 9/11 and this sad day became America's new day of… discredit and humiliation!

The Shemitah year of 2008… America experienced a stock market crash on September 29 when the market fell 777 points in one day. It was the greatest one-day decline in the history of Wall Street. All this happening on the 29th of Elul which is the day preceding the 7th month (Tishri) on the Hebrew calendar, in the 7th year of the Jewish Shemitah, on the 7 year anniversary of the previous record Dow drop which also happened on the 29th of Elul on the Hebrew calendar, (the day before the 7th month) on the previous 7 year Jewish Shemitah.

Just as the crash of the stock markets of 2008 was also the aftershock of 9/11 the extended after-shock correlated with Isaiah 9:10. And, these two events were tied together impossible to unravel… 7 years apart! This too goes deeper still. The Biblical Year isn’t based on the Western Gregorian calendar but on the Hebrew Lunar calendar. So the 7 year cycle of the Shemitah has to be based not on the Western year but on the Hebrew year... So no matter what date it is on the Western calendar the Shemitah will always end on the 29^th day of Elul of the Hebrew calendar and in 2008 it fell exactly on September 29^th the day of the crash. But, in other years the same day in the Biblical calendar would fall on a different day in the Western calendar.

The two greatest stock-market crashes America had ever know, both taking place on the exact Biblical day separated by the exact period of time ordained in the Bible… 7 years to the day… both occurring on the one Biblical day appointed for the wiping out of credit and debt! Coincidence…? We don’t think so… the odds of the events happening over the past 11 years the way that they did without God’s hand being behind it is astronomical. That whole 777 number stuck out since out of all the numbers on the planet to fall, it happened to be that one? So this “Shemitah” must mean something! How are we going to know the signs and seasons of His return or what He expects from us without studying His days? It surely was a message from God.

The Shabbat (Sabbath)… is the foundation of all other Hebrew festivals. God said that the Sabbath was to be a holy day. This simply means a day that is set apart or different from other days. It was set apart as a day of rest.

The Blood Moon Tetrad of 2014 / 2015 coincides with the beginning of the “Shemitah” as well a “Jubilee Year”… which begins this coming Yom Kippur. A Jubilee (50th) year comes after 7 sabbatical cycles of 7 years and is more amazing that a Jubilee convergence with the “Four Blood Moon” all happening together…! 

To understand the Year of Jubilee… one must first be familiar with the Sabbatical Year, which is observed every seventh year (Exodus 23:11; Leviticus 25:20; Deuteronomy 15:9; Nehemiah. 10:31). The Sabbatical Year… is also known as the “Year of Release,” because farming as well as debt payments were released (discontinued) for the year (Deuteronomy 15:1-2; 31:10). This was initiated at the closing of the Feast of Atonement. Year of Jubilee’… timing was to years (50) what the timing of Feast of Weeks (Shavuot / Pentecost) is to days (50)…the Feast of Weeks (Shavuot / Pentecost) occurs on the 50th day; i.e. the day after seven weeks, plus 1 day after Passover. The Year of Jubilee occurs every 50th year; the year after seven Sabbatical years (49 years) according to Leviticus 25:8-11. The Year of Jubilee begins at the end of 7 Sabbatical years of 7 years, and at the end of the Feast of Atonement / Yom Kippur per Leviticus 25:9. Jewish historian, Josephus believed that the word denoted “liberty!” (Antiquities of the Jews 3.12.3)

So then what is a Jubilee Year…? By adding together seven cycles of seven years, we count a total of 49 years. Therefore, the year of Jubilee is the 50th year as noted by the following verses… “You are also to count off seven Sabbaths of years for yourself, seven times seven years, so that you have the time of the seven Sabbaths of years, namely, forty-nine years. You shall then sound a ram’s horn abroad on the tenth day of the seventh month; on the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur) you shall sound a horn all through your land. You shall thus consecrate the fiftieth year and proclaim a release through the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you, and each of you shall return to his own property, and each of you shall return to his family,” Leviticus. 25:8-10.