Natan’s View on Vaccines and Mandatory Government Testing

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I just received a question in the comments section of this blog as to whether I would submit to forced government virus testing and quarantining. Below, I will answer this question as well as share with you my position on vaccines.

For the record, I am 60 years old and have never had a vaccine in my life—not a single one. I don’t intend to ever get one either. Are all vaccines bad? No. But most are because of the toxic substances (adjuvants) that they contain.

Now I’m not opposed to all vaccines. Vaccinations are not necessarily a bad concept. It’s called allopathic medicine and is based on the idea, among other things, that a little toxic substance put into the body can help to build the body’s immune system to fight the pathogens of a particular disease. However, before I would ever take a vaccine, I would have to be certain that it didn’t contain any toxic materials, biblically unclean substances, or biblically forbidden ingredients such as aborted fetal tissues. I would also want to make certain that the vaccine was effective and was actually fighting the disease for which it was intended, and NOT last year’s virus as opposed to this year’s virus.

So far in my life, I have never needed a vaccine, and if I’ve lived this long without one, I suspect that I can make it to the end of my life without one as well. YHVH has healed me many times, and I live a clean, pure life physical and spiritually, so there’s no reason that I should get the virus that’s currently pandemically circulating.

I haven’t exactly spent my life in a cave either without being exposed to possible diseases. I’m out in the world every day running my business. I have travelled to more than 20 countries on four continents, have been in some of the biggest cities in the world, been on many cruise ships and on countless airplanes and otherwise lived a normal, unsheltered life. But I’m careful, know how to protect myself and stay in a right spiritual relationship with my Creator. So far I’ve been spared by YHVH’s grace. I have been to the doctor only once in my life for a medical emergency, and that was more than 30 years ago because of a broken bone.

As far as the leftist governor of Washington State goes and his recent mandates regarding forced government testing for the Corona/COVID-19 virus along with forced quarantines, let me say this. I live in Oregon, which is between Washington and California, so I’m watching the situation in Washington carefully, since such measures could potentially come to my state. I am a libertarian at heart and am opposed to big-brother government encroachments and controls. Basically I want to be left alone to run and manage my own life. I am not opposed to reasonable government measures to protect its citizens from evil things, but am opposed to having my life micro-managed and my constitutional liberties abridged in any way.

With regard to testing, I’m not necessarily opposed to be being tested if I were to come down with symptoms resembling the Corona-COIVID-19 virus. I’d like to know what I’ve got, so I can protect myself and others from it. Quarantine is a biblical-Torah concept after all. If I were to be cursed with this virus, I’d want to know. Beyond that, the less the government knows about me, the less they can control me. They already know a lot, but I’m reluctant to give them voluntarily and for no good reason any more information than absolutely necessary. So to answer your question as to whether I’d submit to testing and mandatory quarantine as the governor of Washington is proposing, I’d have to read the fine details, pray for wisdom from above as to what to do or not to do, and then act out my conscience, and beyond that trust YHVH for his protection and then let the chips fall where they may. This is a decision that each person has to make on their own.

Know this, that the book of Revelation predicts that in the last days, the political and economic powers that run the planet will use pharmaceutical drugs to control the populace for their evil, nefarious and Antichirst purposes (Rev 18:23). I don’t intend to be one of their mind-numbed, subservient, worker bee peasant-serfs. I am a redeemed, blood-bought servant-saint of Yeshua the Messiah, and am in a blood covenant relationship with the Almighty YHVH Elohim, the Creator of the universe, and I will not allow myself to come under any dictates of man that in anyway compromises my relationship with my Elyon or goes against his Written Word. Period. So help me YHVH!

 

On Blessings, Curses and Divine Judgment

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Leviticus 26:1–46, Blessings and Curses Based on Obedience to YHVH’s Torah-Word

The corollary to this passage is Deuteronomy chapter 28. These judgments come upon a people who have forgotten their Elohim because they have been blessed materially and in their self-sufficiency have forgotten who is the source of their blessings. The Torah continually stresses that blessings are contingent upon obedience to YHVH. Similarly, Yeshua reveals that rewards in his everlasting kingdom are also contingent on obedience to his Torah-laws. The greater the obedience, the greater the reward (Matt 5:17).These principles are universal, yet how we tend to forget the cycles of history that repeat themselves over and over again like the unstoppable turning of giant millstone grinding into powder those who refuse to learn the lessons from the past. Each generation proudly asserts it’s exceptionalism and that, somehow, it’s immune to YHVH’s inexorable and immutable principles of divine judgment. Only in the perfect hindsight of history can we see the fallacy of this assumption. Ancient Israel failed to learn these lessons as have subsequent people who claimed to follow the Bible.

In the case of America, and Great Britain before her (and other formerly European Christian nations as well), there was in times past a national consciousness of core biblical values and, to one degree or another, a general public acknowledgement, acceptance of and respect for the Elohim of the Bible. However, as a nation becomes blessed, it reaches an apogee of prominence, power and wealth where it becomes rich and increased with goods and no longer needs Elohim—or so it thinks. It become fat and forgets the source of its wealth and falls into a state of self-sufficiency leading to spiritual blindness in that it fails to recognize its true spiritual state (recall YHVH’s warning to a lukewarm church in Rev 3:14–22). This can happen to individuals, churches and to whole societies.

Because YHVH loves his people and wants to walk among them, to be their Elohim and to bless them (Lev 26:12), when they disobey him and walk in ways that are harmful to their well-being, like any loving parent, he is forced to discipline them. Again and again he sends them his prophets and watchmen to warn them that they’re on a path of self-destruction. But because of pride, they refuse to humble themselves and repent (Lev 26:40–41). It’s the same old story over and over again. Human pride insists that “judgments can’t happen to us because we’re so special.” “All things will continue as they have from the beginning and no evil shall befall us” a self-assured society and individual retorts in mocking and scoffing tones to all those who would hold them accountable for their errant ways (2 Pet 3:3–7). If only the great people, nations and empires that have already trodden this well-worn path and are now in the dust bin of history could speak from their graves and this generation had heart ears to hear!

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The Bible advocates “slavery” but NOT in the way you think

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Leviticus 25:42, Slaves. The Hebrew word slaves or bondmen is ebed meaning “slave, servant, man-servant, worshiper (of Elohim), servant (of Elohim, e.g. Levite, priest or prophet).” Ebed derives from the basic Hebrew root word and verb, abad, meaning “to work or serve.” The word abab refers to service that can be directed toward people, things or Elohim. In biblical usage, if directed toward things, abad can refer to tilling the earth, dressing a vineyard, working flax or constructing a city. When abad is used in reference to serving YHVH it can refer to Levitical and priestly service. In Hebraic thought, such service is considered joyous, not bondage. This same service can be directed toward pagan deities as well. When used in reference to serving another man, abad transforms into the noun ebed meaning “slave or servant.” As discussed below and as pointed out by The TWOT, the concept of Hebrew slavery isn’t akin to the modern concept of slavery where the slave possesses no basic human rights. This was not the case in ancient Israel. The Hebrew slave, on the other hand, occupied a position of status involving rights and trust. The Torah required this to be case as this and other Torah passages demonstrate.

Leviticus 25:45, You may buy. This passage advocates “slavery” among the Israelites. Yet, this is not the slavery the American Negroes, for example, experienced prior to the Civil War. It must be remembered that slavery was rife in the ancient world (as it still is, illegally, today in many countries). Often slaves, however, were able to own homes and livestock and to maintain families as was the case with the Israelites in Egypt and the Jews in Babylon. In this case, these slaves were more like servants or feudal serfs. For example, in Israel, the Gibeonites became the slaves of Israel, but they continued to dwell in their own cities, and enjoy Israel’s military protection (Josh 9). Also, it must be remembered that when Israel conquered an opponents’ land or army, they often inherited slaves from those countries or slaves from other countries the conquered country itself had enslaved. What were the Israelites to do with these people who had been dispossessed of their lands? Send them back to countries that no longer existed, or to which they were no longer welcome? Send them back into heathen situations? Instead, YHVH allowed Israel to bring these captured people into Israel where they could live among a Torah-obedient people who worshipped the God of Israel, YHVH Elohim, where they would be taught to love Elohim totally and their neighbors as themselves. In time, these slaves would be assimilated into the tribes of Israel through intermarriage and become part of Israel and thus be elevated in their social status. In this sense, slavery was a means of evangelizing those who found themselves in the lowest echelons of the ancient world. It was ostensibly a way to bring them into the ways of the Torah thereby elevating them spiritually and socially from their previous enslaved heathen condition.

Leviticus 25:55, Are my servants [or slave.] Here YHVH declares that “the children of Israel are my slaves [or servants, Heb. ebed], whom I have taken out of the land of Egypt—I am YHVH, your Elohim.” Here YHVH states dogmatically that he brought or redeemed the Israelites out of slavery to Egypt so that they could become his slaves. Does this trouble you? Being a slave of YHVH didn’t seem to trouble the apostles of Yeshua who referred to themselves many times as YHVH’s bondservants or slaves (e.g. Rom 1:1; Tit 1:1; Jas 1:1; 2 Pet 1:1; Jude 1:1; Rev 1:1). Perhaps their view of slavery is different than ours. Did they not see two categories of slavery and that all humans fall into one or the other category: slavery to the world, flesh and the devil that leads to death as compared to “slavery” to the Word and the Spirit of YHVH that leads to life? There is no escape. One is either a slave to the law of sin and death or to the law of the Spirit of life in Messiah Yeshua (Rom 8:1–2). Those who have been redeemed by the blood of Yeshua have become Yeshua’s purchased possession as Paul says in 1 Corinthians 6:19–20:

What? Know you not that your body is the temple of the Set-Apart Spirit which is in you, which you have of Elohim, and you are not your own? For you are bought with a price: therefore glorify Elohim in your body, and in your spirit, which are Elohim’s.

Do you live your life, make choices, do or don’t do things, say or don’t say things every day with the realty that your are a slave to YHVH? Is Yeshua truly your Lord and Master? It is easy to make the claims that he is, but living out the reality is a totally different things!

 

To All Americans (and Everyone Every Where): Turn From YOUR Sins!

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Wake up people!

Stop murdering your children and referring to it euphemistically as “pro-choice” or “abortion.” Murder is an abomination to a righteous Elohim and, unless you repent make no mistake about it, you will suffer the same fate as that innocent child you murdered, except your fate will be eternal. So says YHVH Elohim in his Divine Word, the Scriptures.

Our Heavenly Father is also calling this nation to turn from all sexual sin and perversion. All sex outside of marriage is sin and an abomination before a righteous Elohim. Turn from this sin now, and repent. Cry out to your loving Heavenly Father for his grace and strength to come out of sexual sin. If you are living with someone you are not married to, marry or leave immediately. Do not come back to them unless it is at your marriage ceremony. If you are a homosexual, lesbian, child molester or someone who is addicted to pornography, turn at once from these sins. They will damn you eternally unless you repent. Flee these sins like the plague. The arms of Yeshua the Messiah are open wide to receive you and to show you the way to your loving and gracious Heavenly Father. Life eternal and hope await all those who forsake wickedness and seek YHVH’s righteousness and holiness.

Those of you who have abandoned your children and families in pursuit of materialism and selfish self-gratification…repent now! Your riches will perish. Your selfish pleasures will come to an end and not satisfy. Your children and marriages will too if you do not make them the priority in your life that Elohim commands.

Children, honor, obey and respect your parents and you will live long and fruitful lives in this blessed land which the Creator of the universe has given to us.

Turn away from addictions all kinds. These include addictions to drugs, alcohol, nicotine, sex, profanity, pornography, television, materialism, hedonism, entertainment, sports, video games or any other thing that is idolatry and is keeping you from an intimate and loving relationship with YHVH. These sins are destructive to you and your family and to your relationship with your Heavenly Father. Anything that is more important to you than obedience to your Creator as delineated in the pages of YHVH’s Word is idolatry. Whatever takes you away from walking in accordance with his righteous commandments is sin and idolatry. Turn from these things now. Restore your marriages, your relationships with your children and family by crying out in repentance to your loving Heavenly Father. Ask him for strength to overcome your sin. Pray for deliverance in the name of Yeshua the Messiah. Cry out to him for the salvation of your soul and pray to receive the Set-Apart Spirit of YHVH Elohim. Do it today, you are not guaranteed life beyond this very moment.

Turn away from false and satanic religions of all kinds. Turn away from witchcraft, satanism, divination, sorcery, astrology, mother earth worship, New Age, New Thought and science of the mind religions, Eastern religions including Freemasonry, Luciferianism and Islam. Turn away from the demonic and Antichrist religion of Islam. Turn away from religious systems that deny the gospel message of the Scriptures, deity of Yeshua the Messiah and the truth of the divine inspiration of all the Bible from Genesis to Revelation.

America, turn away from and forsake atheism, humanism, Marxism or socialism and evolution. These philosophies are all cut from the same cloth and are akin to each other. They all engender a hatred for the Creator of the Universe who is YHVH-Elohim, the God of the Bible. They are all demonic and satanic in origination and will bring curses on your life and on this nation if you do not turn away from these things NOW! They are all a part of the package of lies of Satan to damn your soul that he successfully peddled to man at the tree of knowledge in the Garden of Eden. These religious philosophies are destructive and ruinous and will bring judgment, curses and damnation to one’s life personally and to this nation corporately if we do not repent of them now.

America, remember the seventh day Sabbath day to keep it set-apart. Six days YHVH the Creator worked, but on the seventh day he rested. He blessed the Sabbath day and set aside that day to be sanctified for his purpose. He commanded his people to keep it. It is a sign between him and his set-apart people. Observe this day, you and your family and be blessed.

YHVH Elohim, the Creator of the universe says in 2 Chronicles 7:14,

If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.

But don’t stop there. Continue reading several verses later:

But if ye turn away, and forsake my statutes and my [Torah] commandments, which I have set before you, and shall go and serve other gods, and worship them; then will I pluck them up by the roots out of my land which I have given them; and this house, which I have sanctified for my name, will I cast out of my sight, and will make it to be a proverb and a byword among all nations. (emphasis added)

America, now is the time to return to YHVH! Return now to the biblical Torah roots of your Christian faith and return to the truth of YHVH-Elohim as lived and taught by Yeshua the Messiah and the first-century, Torah-law keeping, Yeshua-loving, Spirit-filled believers of the book of Acts in the Bible!

 

Weeping for and a Warning Against an Apostate Nation

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Jeremiah 2:4–28 and 3:4, The Weeping Prophet

In this scripture passage, Jeremiah, the weeping prophet (lamenting for the apostate condition of the nation of Israel), speaking on behalf of YHVH, pleads with Israel to return to YHVH, the Elohim (God) of Israel, who had graciously blessed that nation. Under YHVH’s watchful care, Israel had prospered, yet eventually, like the first century believers in Laodicea (Rev 3:14–22), material prosperity had led to their forsaking YHVH for secularism. 

Jeremiah addresses all levels of Israelite society: kings, princes, priests, prophets, pastors and the people. No one escaped his stinging rebuke. In our day, kings and princes would correspond to our political leaders, while prophets, priests and pastors to our spiritual leaders. The people would be everyone else.

In verse 13, Jeremiah states that Israel was guilty of two sins: they had forsaken YHVH, the Fountain of Living Waters, and had exchanged his divine and life-giving truth for the stagnant waters of man-made cisterns, which in Hebraic poetic symbolism is a metaphor for false, humanistic religious and philosophical systems of men. In verse 27, Jeremiah accuses Israel of turning its back on YHVH and exchanging worship of the Creator for worship of the creation and material objects (idols). This is reminiscent of what the Apostle Paul declares in his Epistle to the Romans (chapter one) of a society that rejects the divinely revealed truth of YHVH as found in the Scriptures, and then begins worshipping that which the Creator created including the earth, animals and their own bodies (resulting in hedonism and sexual perversion). In verse 21, Jeremiah declares that Israel had become like a degenerate plant and a strange or foreign grape vine, which can be related to the wild olive tree Paul speaks of in Romans 11. (See also Jer 11:16.)

With all this in mind, can we identify any spiritual parallels between ancient Israel and modern America? If Jeremiah were alive today what might he say to America?

A Wake Up Call—The Battle For the Soul of America

For several generations now, a righteous remnant of end-time warriors has been fighting an uphill battle against immorality, abortion, rebellion against the biblical laws of YHVH, humanism, Marxism/socialism, Eastern “spirituality”/New Age and the global takeover by the corporate-governmental fascist elite called the New World Order. The latest addition to this list is the Antichrist religion of Islam and anti-Semitism. Both are raising their demonic heads at home and abroad in the traditional Judeo-Christian nations of Europe. Islam began knocking on the spiritual door of America a few decades ago, and now because of the large numbers of Moslems in this country, Islam has become a threat worth noting. The goal of Islam is definite, for the Koran states it clearly: to take over the world and to dispossess both Christians and Jews of their lands, property and lives, if they fail to convert to Islam.

We find ourselves in this situation because we as a nation have failed to repent of the sins listed above and now the judgment of Islam and along with the spread of illegal aliens is coming against us (allowed by Elohim) to hopefully wake us up and drive us to our knees before our Father in heaven. 

These curses are coming against America because of its moral and spiritual weakness. Like biological pathogens, these threats to America are feeding on the physical and spiritual body politic of this nation because its spiritual immune system (its spiritual, biblically-based faith and morals) has been seriously compromised due to moral and spiritual declension due to its trend toward weak, hireling and apostate spiritual leaders. 

Where Are the Spiritual Watchman?

Where are the spiritual watchmen on the wall of America warning us of these things and urging us to repent? Other than a few lone and small voices crying in the wilderness, the major leadership of the church in America has been virtually silent. Unless we repent now, starting with the church confessing and forsaking its sins, I believe that America the Titanic is going down in Elohim’s judgment. 

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Is YHVH Raising Up Modern Day Jeremiahs?

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Jeremiah 1–2

Jeremiah the prophet received a direct call from YHVH Elohim to warn the nation of Judah, YHVH’s people, of impending judgment if they would not repent and return to his Torah. YHVH commissioned the prophet to warn and to rebuke those at all levels of society: kings, princes, priests and people (1:18). Is it likely that YHVH will raise up a prophet or prophets in the last days prior to the return of Yeshua the Messiah who will be doing the same thing as Jeremiah?

Jeremiah did not feel adequate to the job (1:6), yet YHVH assured him that he was, for YHVH personally had called and empowered him to do what seemed to be an impossible task: for one man, as YHVH’s representative, to set his face against an entire nation and to survive the resulting wrath of the wicked against that righteous man of YHVH (1:7–10; 18–19).

In the end times, will there yet arise true prophets in which the Word of YHVH is shut up like fire in their bones (Jer 20:9) who will utter forth the fiery oracles of YHVH, which like a hammer will smash to pieces the rock-hard hearts of YHVH’s obstinate, rebellious and sinful people (Jer 23:29)?

Yeshua prophesied that in the last days false prophets would arise, and if possible, would deceive the very elect (Matt 24:11, 24). If Satan the adversary has his false prophets on the scene just prior to Yeshua’s return attempting to deceive YHVH’s people, will not YHVH have his true prophets likewise on the scene to warn, rebuke, provoke, incite, encourage, and give spiritual direction to his people?

Some Christian teachers through their unbiblical teachings on the subject of prophets and prophecy are inoculating YHVH’s people against believing that Jeremiah-type prophets will arise in the last days. It is taught that during the New Testament dispensation until the second coming the character and ministry of the prophets is totally different than those during Old Testament times. Since we are living during the so-called age of grace, these teachers reason, YHVH’s prophets now speak only words of edification, exhortation and comfort, and any modern prophets who warn, rebuke, judge, call YHVH’s people to repentance, or otherwise speak in harsh, black and white terms could not be sent of YHVH, for that type of prophet is a thing of the past. They tell us that such a prophet brings strife, division, and disharmony within the church, makes people feel uncomfortable in their sin and therefore cannot receive the church system’s stamp of approval. Is it reasonable to assume that YHVH will limit himself and the going forth of his Word to the constraints of these soft-shoe teachers?

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The Biblical Social Welfare System as It Relates to the Sabbatical Year and the Jubilee

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Leviticus 25—The Biblical social welfare system.

Leviticus 25, in part, lays out Israel’s social welfare and economic system. Basically, it was a free market capitalistic economic system where private individuals owned property and small businesses and controlled the means and productions of goods and services, and the central government’s involvement in the lives of people was minimal. This is not the case in a purely socialistic (a Marxist or communistic) economic system where the government owns much or most of the property and controls, to one degree or another, the means and distribution of goods and services, and where government regulation of people’s lives is tremendous. The capitalistic system that YHVH gave to Israel, however, contained some quasi-socialistic checks and balances in that greedy or even exceptionally gifted and ambitious individuals couldn’t become excessively rich at the expense of the poor. 

Socialistic economic philosophy demands that the wealth of the nation be equally distributed among everyone including the poor. This may sound good in theory, but it doesn’t work. In reality, socialism stifles individual initiative by punishing (often through taxation and other means of wealth confiscation and redistribution by the government) those who, through hard work, sacrifice, initiative, and inventiveness have become wealthy. So, it stands to reason, why should the wealthy work hard if the fruits of their labors will only be confiscated and be given to the poor or the “have nots, ” or to those who refuse to work? 

At the same time, capitalism is also a flawed system, since in time, the wealthy often end up owning much of the land and control most of the wealth. Human nature being what it is, the greedy wealthy will turn a capitalistic system into oligarchic capitalism where only a few rich capitalists control nearly everything including the economic and political systems. This is the end times system that is described in Revelation 13 and 18 and is called Babylon the Great. Such a system ends up enslaving people through economic and political means, thus creating a veritable feudalistic-type serfdom where rich and powerful business oligarchs who control the government are the new nobility (see Rev 18:13, 23).

With these things in mind, as you are reading through chapter 25, notice how YHVH instructed the poor to be cared for. There was no government welfare system based on taxing the producers and giving to the non-producers. Everyone worked for their living. In fact, the Torah commands everyone to work for six days, and then to rest on the seventh day (Exod 20:9). Sloth and laziness weren’t optons. Even the extremely impoverished were expected to harvest food from the agricultural fields. At the same time, those who owned the fields were to leave the corners of their fields unharvested and not to glean their fields, so the poor would have something to harvest (Lev 23:22; the Book of Ruth). In the Testimony of Yeshua, fathers were expected to provide for their households. Those who didn’t were considered worse than heathens (1 Tim 5:8). Similarly, widows under the age of 60 were expected to support themselves through their own work, while those over the age of 60 could be supported by the local church, but they had to recompense the church through acts of service (1 Tim 5:9–14). Once again, the Bible in no way allows for or promotes a system of government handouts. Except in rare situations, everyone was expected to work.

In this chapter, we also see how the Bible handles the issue of debt, and how it requires people to work to pay off their debts. Bankruptcy wasn’t an option. The Torah allows those in debt to sell themselves into servitude to their debtors through a system called bond service. The debtor would work for the lender until the debts were paid and at the end of seven years all remaining unpaid debts had to be forgiven. This system taught fiscal responsibility to debtors, yet at the same time, it required lenders to show mercy and grace to the poor. Again, the Bible in no way promotes a system of government welfare handouts. Everyone had to work. If you didn’t work, you didn’t eat (2 Thess 3:10). Only the extremely poor who were unable to make a living (e.g. widows and orphans) were cared from the public coffers (Deut 14:28–29; 26:12–13). The Levites were care for publicly as remuneration for caring for and teaching the people spiritually. They also worked as farmers and tradesmen.

Notice how the jubilee year prevented the wealthy from acquiring all the land, and how every 50 years there was a redistribution of land, so that those who through sloth, mismanagement of their resources, or through unfortunate circumstances lost their land could get their land back. Such individuals were mercifully given a second chance to start over again and to learn from their past mistakes. Lending to the poor was encouraged, and the charging of interest to them was prohibited. 

As you read through this chapter, consider how YHVH deals with the perennial social and economic ills that have plagued the world from time immemorial compared to how men currently deal with these same problems, and usually end up making matters worse.

Though it would be difficult to implement such a system in our highly collectivized and industrialized society of today, it is likely that in the future, during the Millennium, when the Torah will be the rule of the earth and an agrarian society will likely be the dominant economic paradigm, that such a Torah-based system will once again be put in place.

Leviticus 25:2, When you come into the land. The Stone Edition Chumash, translates Leviticus 25:2(b) as follows, “When you come into the land that I give you the land shall observe a Sabbath rest for [YHVH].” Note the emphasized portion. Though the Jewish sages say this does not imply that YHVH rests, it acknowledges the fact that as YHVH “rested” after his creation of the world, so too Israel was to rest in the seventh year from its agricultural work (an activity that allows the created [i.e. humans] to share with the Creator in the act of creation) to commemorate Elohim’s act of creation (The ArtScroll Rashi Leviticus, p. 318). The Jewish sages also note that the comparison between the jubilee and the Sabbath is that both bear testimony to Elohim’s creation of the universe in six days and his rest on the seventh. They further note that the seven years of the shemittah (sabbath year) cycle allude to the six thousand years of history that will be climaxed by the seventh millennium, which will be a period of peace and tranquility (The ArtScroll Stone Edition Chumash, p. 697).

Note how everything ancient Israel did in their day-to-day life brought them into worshipful relationship with their Creator by causing them to recall both what he had done for them (past tense) and what he would do for them prophetically (future tense).

Leviticus 25:4, A sabbath of rest unto the land.The land sabbath teaches us that our means of producing an income belong entirely to YHVH. He gives us life, breath, land, health, eyesight, physical and mental abilities and everything else that we need to survive. Now imagine losing, say, your health or your eyesight? Or due to an illness, suppose through a stroke or an injury to the head, you became mentally impaired. Where would you be financially? We belong to YHVH and he gives us everything we need with which to work our land, do our job, raise our family, educate ourselves, and to exist. Are we as grateful to him as we should be?

Leviticus 25:9, Jubilee. The word jubilee is the Hebrew word yovel (KcUh) meaning “ram’s horn trumpet.” The ram’s horn would be sounded at special events as a proclamation of great joy and jubilation such as would be the case at the commencement of the Jubilee Year when all debts were forgiven, all indentured servants were set free, all land was returned to its original owners, and all agricultural activity ceased for a year of rest. The arrival of the Jubilee Year was announced on Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement) with the blast of a shofar called the shofar hagadol or the great or final shofar blast (to be distinguished from the first and second shofar blasts that occur on the feasts of Shavuot (Pentecost) and Yom Teruah (Day of Trumpets or Shofar Blowing or Shouting) respectively. This same event prophetically corresponds with the return of the exiles (the “lost ten tribes”) to the land of Israel (which is an aspect of what the Jewish sages call the “final redemption”) and the return of Yeshua the Messiah.

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