The Ultimate Jubilee

Ron Weinland

1st Day of Unleavened Bread - April 7, 2012

We’re awesomely blessed today to be able to come together as God’s people to observe this first annual High Day of this very unique year, the year of Christ’s coming as King of kings.  We’ve just observed Passover which is so meaningful in this new year, a year that ushers in the millennium of the Kingdom of God ruling on this earth.

This is a time that does  focus on rejoicing and feasting, spiritually, for where we now find ourselves, and there is much more that God and His Son are going to continue revealing to us before Pentecost, before Christ’s return.  To me, that’s exciting, because things have not slowed down at all in that respect as far as what God is revealing and there are things coming to me that are very inspiring as well as through this particular series that we’re going into right now.

So, we are now in and the whole world has now entered the final time of great deliverance out of Egypt, which is what these days picture; the Days of Unleavened Bread, Passover period, going back to the time when God led the Israelites out of Egypt, all foreshadowing those things that were going to happen in the future on a spiritual plane.  Those were very physical things that took place; where we’re at now is, in that respect, being fulfilled in a very spiritual way.  And again, talking about this period of time, of great deliverance out of Egypt, out of the bondage that mankind has been in for the past 6,000 years.

This year is the year of ultimate deliverance, the year of ultimate release from slavery, from bondage.  This is a year of an ultimate jubilee for all of mankind, hence the title for the sermon today, The Ultimate Jubilee.

I think of the timing today as well, of this first High Day, this being the weekly Sabbath.  The wave sheaf that would be waved up before God, this being the First Day, the first high day of deliverance of coming out of Egypt, of picturing that, that’s what it’s about; and we begin a count after today of seven Sabbaths plus one day to Pentecost.  It’s incredible to think where we are now, seven weeks after this and one more day, the Day of Pentecost, and the beginning of that day that’s going to be so awesome, of the things that take place on this earth.

We’re going to begin this first sermon of this Holy Day season by focusing on what a Jubilee year was meant to be.  To get the best idea of this in a concise way I’m going to read from a book that I have, I believe that the author was ‘Unger’, but when I left I forgot to look at it.  I copied some of the pages, but I think that’s the book it is from.  It’s kind of a mini encyclopaedia.

So I want to read, because it’s very good in the sense of what it says about the Jubilee, what it says about the sabbatical years and so forth, and so I want to read a little bit of that because it’s a good concise history of some of those events.

Before we come to what is referred to as the year of Jubilee in that mini encyclopaedia, one must first begin to understand that there were years that were called ‘Sabbatical Years’, referred to as ‘Sabbatical Years’ which occurred once every seven years.  Now, a lot of us who are older and who have been around for a long time, we understand the process of counting seven; seven years, because that was a type of release as well from some of the requirements that God had on His people.  If you remember the third tithe system that was for the physical nation of Israel to take care of the Levite, it took care of the widow, it took care of people who were in need, special needs and so forth, but that was done on a physical plane by a physical nation and not to be misunderstood as far as first and second tithe.  So, we did observe that in God’s Church for many years.  Mr. Armstrong began to do away with that in the sense of recognizing...not doing away with it, the commandment is still there, but when he recognized that various nations were doing that already, they were stepping up and doing some of those things for the people and we didn’t have to do it any longer for the Church.  Because when that wasn’t there, we needed to take care of the Church in those things.

I don’t want to go into a long explanation about the three tithes, the different tithes that were there at different times, but that was counted once every three years.  So in the third year after baptism you would have a third tithe year, in the sixth year – another third year - you would have a third tithe year that you observed, and then the seventh year was a free year, and then you’d start the cycle all over again counting sevens again.  I’ve probably thoroughly confused a lot of you who are new but those who have been around a long time you understand that there is a cycle of counting sevens.

Well, the Jubilee year is along the same lines in the sense of how they did count, because going back to that period of time, even those third tithe years were to be counted in this manner, having to do with what built up to a Jubilee.  So again here, I want to go through and read from that mini encyclopaedia about the sabbatic year.

The sabbatic year, like the year of Jubilee, began on the first day of the civil year, namely, the first of the month Tishri.

...which is the seventh month.  That’s the Feast of Trumpets.  So the Feast of Trumpets begins in the seventh month; that was the civil year and that’s how things were recorded as far as a civil government was concerned.

The laws respecting this year were four in number: (1) The soil, the vineyards, and the olive groves were to have perfect rest.

Everything!  Everything in agriculture was to have a perfect rest, no harvesting in that respect.  Now, they could eat of those things but there was no harvesting for gain, for financial gain and thoroughly stripping everything.  It was to be left there except for some of the things that God said others could have part of.

(2) The spontaneous growth of the fields or of trees was for the free use of the poor, the hireling, the stranger, servants, and cattle. An especially fruitful harvest was promised for the sixth year.

And the same thing was true even with things having to do with the third tithe year and some of the things that took place, and God said the blessings that would go along with that.  And then in here it’s showing in that sixth year the things that, if people observed those things, God gave a greater harvest in the sixth year to help them in the seventh year.

(3) Debts with the exception of one’s owed by foreigners, were to be cancelled. This does not seem to denote the entire renunciation of what was owed but entailed not pursuing it during the sabbatic year.

Payment: so if someone was having difficulty at that time they had some free time to get things together so they could begin the process of paying what they needed to pay, whatever the requirement was.

(4) Finally, at the feast of Booths in this year, [the Feast of Tabernacles] the law was to be read to the people—men, women, children, strangers—in solemn assembly before the sanctuary.

So again, we’re talking about sabbatic years, every seventh year, and it was counted from Feast of Trumpets to Feast of Trumpets at the blowing of the horn.

The sabbatic year seems to have been systematically neglected.

In other words, it was not observed.  As a matter of fact, there is no evidence at all in the Bible that anyone ever kept, in that respect, some of the sabbatic years let alone the Jubilee.  So there’s the possibility that some of them did for a period of time but to do seven of those in a row to get up to Jubilee, there’s absolutely nothing in history even in Judaism, that they don’t believe there was ever a Jubilee kept.

The sabbatic year seems to have been systematically neglected. Hence Jewish tradition explains that the seventy years captivity was intended to make up for the neglect of sabbatical years.

Well, that’s not the case, it was just outright disobedience and they suffered because of that and were taken into captivity.  Anyway, more to the story.

After the return from captivity this year was most strictly observed.

Well, that’s not true!  They did the seven year cycles for a time, but again, never a Jubilee year recorded.

Does that make sense?  ...the seven year cycles?  ...Okay?  Every seventh year you have a sabbatic year, that’s what a sabbatic year is called.

I’m now going to read in the mini encyclopaedia about the Jubilee, and we’ll look at this later on, but in the Hebrew it’s ‘yo-bale’, which means ‘a blast of a trumpet’.  That’s all the word means, ‘a blast of a trumpet’, but it has special meaning because it’s a special kind of blast in what it represents and what it teaches.  So again, reading in this article:

Usually in connection with the year of Jubilee (Lev. 25:28), also called the “year of liberty” (Ez. 46:17 NKJ) and “the year of freedom” (NIV)….

So, there’s some understanding by different ones who have studied the Bible, that they realize that this had special meaning to it.  It had to do with ‘liberty’, it had to do with ‘freedom’, and so they’ve translated it accordingly in some cases, even the word for ‘Jubilee’.

After the lapse of seven Sabbaths of years, or seven times seven years, i.e., forty-nine years,

Seven cycles of sabbatic years – forty-nine years...forty-nine sound familiar?  It all ties together.  It’s an awesome thing that God has given to us, why we do the things we do.

... i.e., forty-nine years; the trumpet was to sound throughout the whole land, and the fiftieth year was to be announced and hallowed as the Jubilee year…

So again, it isn’t until the end of this article that the most important part is stated about the Jubilee year, which is quite incredible how it’s stated considering something that someone had done that was not a part of the Church, but yet there was something here that was understood, that was clear in scripture.

…Thus the Jubilee year became one of freedom and grace for all suffering, bringing not only redemption to the captive and deliverance from want to the poor, but also release to the whole congregation of the Lord from the sore labor of the earth, representing the time of refreshing...

They grasped that there was something this all pictured that was to happen in the future...mentioned in Acts 3:19, and that’s what they quote.

... representing the time of refreshing (Acts 3:19) that the Lord provides for His people.

We’ll read Acts 3:19, just to be reminded of what it says back here.  This is after Pentecost, it’s Pentecost in some of the preaching that was taking place, things that Peter was teaching as they were inspired, moved in a very powerful way, the first day the Church began, and what was being said here.

Acts 3:19 - Repent you therefore and be converted: ‘repent’... I love the words in the Greek, what it’s talking about; the word ‘repent’ means ‘to think differently’.  That’s what God’s called us to do, to think differently; not to think the way we did in the past about everything, the way we believe and so forth, or whatever we’ve been taught, but to think differently, to strive to begin to understand God’s mind, God’s thinking, God’s Word, and to be in unity with Him.  So it says, Repent you therefore and be converted; and that word ‘converted’ means, basically, ‘to change’; change your way now in a right way of thinking and with right understanding, but to live that way.

So...be converted; that your sins may be blotted out when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord; So again, things that we all look forward to, that people have looked forward to ever since this day, ever since the Church began, all those who have ever been a part of the Church have looked forward to the time that these things will be fulfilled. The life they lived, with God’s spirit, being impregnated with God’s spirit, fighting this battle all their lifetime, dying, and then being resurrected when Jesus Christ returns, the first fruits.  Because the Church as a whole through time, until the very end here, has been about the firstfruits; now we’re at a time that there are going to be first fruits and others who continue on into a new age.

Verse 20 - And He shall send, so it makes it clear what this ‘time of refreshing’ is. Speaking of God Almighty – He shall send Jesus Christ, who before was preached unto you: Whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things,  Jubilee is very much about restitution, having to do with inheritance.  ...the restitution of all things, which God has spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began.  This is powerful, what’s being said here, and when we talk in the context here of what a Jubilee is all about.

So now going back to what we were reading; it goes on to say....

For in this year [speaking of the Jubilee year] every kind of oppression was to cease and every member of the covenant people to find his redeemer in the Lord, who brought him back to his possession and family...

I don’t think they even understood fully what they were writing here, what they were saying, the magnitude, the depth of this; and again here, understanding as we talk about ‘possession’ here, as we read about Jubilee, it had to do with the inheritance.  It was the possession given by inheritance.  When the Israelites first went into the Promised Land they were given inheritance and the things of possession that it speaks about when it talks about Jubilee and the freedom that was given, it had to do with that inheritance, primarily that inheritance only in large respect when it talks about possession and those things being given back.

So, let’s go back here to Leviticus 25 where we see Jubilee being talked about, a year of Jubilee, what it means, what God said to a physical people about some of the physical aspects of it.  But understand, all these things – just like I mentioned at the very beginning, coming out of Egypt – a very physical thing, the blood on the doorpost – a very physical thing, the firstborn dying throughout the land – a very physical thing, deliverance as God brought them up to taking them out of Egypt, they began the journey on this day, on a High Day at night time, it was actually last night, what we refer to oftentimes then as the Night To Be Much Remembered/Much Observed.  Much Observed is a better one because ‘observe’ has to do with a watch, the night watch, being observant, on guard, alert, and that’s when they began their journey out of Egypt and came up to the Red Sea and God finally giving them that deliverance then at the end here by opening up the Red Sea.

And so again here, all these things have great meaning for us; coming out of Egypt - coming out of sin, of Pharaoh being destroyed – Satan.  We’ve always understood these ‘types’ of what’s there, of what God has given, of what God’s going to do.  So a lot of physical things that have always foreshadowed things in the future; and this is the same thing here.

Leviticus 25:9 - Then shall you cause the trumpet, very specific here, it is a ‘shofar’ of the Jubilee to sound on the tenth day of the seventh month, in the Day of Atonement; so here’s something rather unique.  It’s talking about a Jubilee, it’s talking about a trumpet that’s to be blown, this is done in the seventh month but it’s done in the Day of Atonement ten days after Trumpets.  So, it’s very unique how God says this is to be done; it’s a very orderly manner in what He says and how to do it.

But it says, in the Day of Atonement you shall make the trumpet sound throughout all your land. Let’s go on and read the rest here about this and then we’ll come back and look at it. And you shall hallow the fiftieth year and proclaim liberty, and the word in the Hebrew means ‘free run as in freedom’.  It’s about freedom... throughout all the land to all the inhabitants thereof: it shall be a Jubilee to you; and you shall return every man to his possession, again, this is specifically about that which involved the inheritance; ...and you shall return every man to his possession and you shall return every man unto his family.

Verse 11 – The fiftieth year shall be a Jubilee unto you and you shall not sow, neither shall you reap that which grows of itself in it, nor gather the grapes of it of your vine undressed.  In other words there was nothing to be done, everything was to be let to grow freely of itself, no massive harvest taking place, no massive planting taking place.  Everything that came up had to come up voluntarily, in other words by the seed that fell from the previous year and whatever, but no tilling the soil, none of that, no pruning of the vines.

Verse 12 - For it is the Jubilee and it shall be holy unto you: and you shall eat the increase thereof out of the field. In other words, you can eat of it but you can’t harvest it.  So it was for the poor, as we read earlier.  And so again, God provided that there were those who could go there and could take certain things for their use, but not for the purpose of large production.  It was just what you had need of yourself if you had need.

Verse 13 - In the year of this Jubilee you shall return every man unto his possession.  So it states it again.  And again, you need to understand, this is in the context, and always talking about a matter of that which is of the inheritance.

Now, it’s really interesting when you start looking at some of this because it’s incredible what’s contained in these verses and how they tie in with other places in the Bible and how they were even translated in various places in the Bible.  I have never looked at these things in depth, I don’t know of anyone who ever has in the Church, we’ve never been taught.  It’s very evident that God just left this up to this point in time because of where we are, for us to see these things.  To me that’s an awesome thing to understand.

Although these verses in the King James speak of a Jubilee the word translated as ‘Jubilee’ in verse 9 is a different Hebrew word than the one that follows in the rest of the verses we just read.  It’s a different word!   ...but it’s about the Jubilee, but it’s interesting to know what it is.

Again here, this word, ‘and you shall cause the trumpet of the Jubilee’...not the same word as is in the following verses at all, it’s a totally different word, but they knew it was talking about a Jubilee, and so it says, ‘you shall cause the trumpet of the Jubilee to sound in the tenth day of the seventh month’.  This word here is a Hebrew word that just simply means ‘a shout’, ‘shouting’, ‘an alarm as in war’, and ‘rejoicing’.  Now that ought to sound familiar because we talk about it almost every Feast of Trumpets, this particular sound that God had these particular horns that were blown on the Feast of Trumpets.  And as a matter of fact this word here, let’s notice... its Leviticus 23... (you can hold your place here if you want because we’re going to be talking about these verses in Leviticus 25 quite often).  But let’s just notice that Leviticus 23, of course, is where all the Holy Days, all the High Days of God are listed.

Leviticus 23:24 - ...Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, In the seventh month, in the first day of the month, you shall have a Sabbath, it’s a yearly Sabbath, an annual Sabbath, a memorial of the blowing, that’s the word...of the blowing of trumpets, an holy convocation. And that’s why so often then on the Feast of Trumpets we go through and I go through and often talk about the different uses of a trumpet, especially in this word here in how it’s used, because so often it had to do with rejoicing.  We understand the blowing of the trumpet about Jesus Christ, that which announces His return, it has to do with royalty and the rejoicing that takes place at that.  It also has to do with, because there are a lot of things that come together at that time, it has to do with an alarm for war, for battle, of things that are going to take place, and it also has to do with the blowing of the horn to give direction.  There were different sounds that were actually given to the Israelites – when to break camp, what to do, how to do it in orderly fashion – and so it has to do with our hearing what God is saying, what God is telling us, following what God instructs us.

All of these meanings are contained in this particular thing here of blowing of the trumpets.  This is the first place that this word, this Hebrew word... it’s teruw`ah - pronounced - ter-oo-aw’ – but it’s the first place that this is used in scripture, right here in the Feast of Trumpets, the blowing of trumpets.  And again here, it’s used in this translation here as the ‘blowing’.

In the second place it’s translated is what we just read earlier, ‘Jubilee’.  So it’s only one place.  To me it’s such an awesome thing how it ties together with a specific subject.  It goes from Trumpets, and the next time it’s mentioned it is connected with the Jubilee.  Not by coincidence, it’s by design.  And as we go through some of these things and you read some of these words that are used here and where God used them and where He... it’s dumbfounding, it’s awesome, it really is, it’s just absolutely incredible how everything fits together.  Because this, the Jubilee, ties everything together.  It ties the Holy Days together in a way that is awesomely inspiring.

So again here, it’s first quoted here because this is the process of counting every sabbatic year.  When this horn is blown – it’s this horn that was blown – that was a matter of the counting that was to take place year by year by year, and on the seventh one it was known as a sabbatic year.  So every Feast of Trumpets this horn is blown.  It takes on special meaning and greater meaning later on when you get to the forty-ninth and you enter into, finally, the fiftieth when it’s blown, because now it’s going to be blown on the tenth day.  Once in fifty years it uses the same one that it talks about that’s blown on Trumpets.  That’s what God’s telling them, “Now you blow this horn on the Day of Atonement, only once in fifty years.”  What an awesome thing!  Because it wasn’t to be blown every year on Atonement – only once in fifty years it’s blown on the time of the Jubilee.  What an incredible thing here that God reveals and shows.  And again, all these things foreshadow something in the future.

The beginning of the blowing of trumpets is about Jesus Christ being heralded as the coming King of kings – we understand that.  It leads up to the time of the blowing of the 7th Trumpet on the final day of man’s self rule which leads into the end of all war with God, candidly, on the last day, and what happens when He pours out the 7 Last Plagues, when He says He’s going to destroy those who are destroying the earth.  All these things that happen at the same time, same time period, the final day.

The meaning behind this becomes clearer; again, the first place the word is used, as I said, is in the Feast of Trumpets, and then next is in the Jubilee year.  Let’s go back and read this again here in Leviticus.

Leviticus 25:9 - Then you shall cause the trumpet of the Jubilee, it’s not a word for ‘Jubilee’, it’s the ‘blowing’, but it’s tied together in a unique way and it has to do with the context of Jubilee because the next few verses are going to talk about a Jubilee, but at least it’s understood here this is when it’s to be blown, the same trumpet that’s blown on Trumpets is now to be blown at the fiftieth year, the beginning of this fiftieth year, and so it ties it all together.

What an awesome thing, a process here that God reveals of that which brings us into atonement with God, at-one with God.  It begins with Jesus Christ as our Passover, it leads us up to the time that we’re able to come into the Kingdom of God, of that which especially the firstfruits come to at Pentecost, all these things that converge at the same time for the first phase of God’s plan being worked out.

There’s another incredible location where this word is used that should have incredible meaning to you as well, and it’s only used twice here.  It’s in the book of Joshua.  You look at where it’s used and all of a sudden we have Trumpets, we have Leviticus 25, and now we have the book of Joshua - teruw`ah.

Joshua 6:5 – You think God doesn’t tie things together?  ...that there isn’t a specific purpose of why things are done the way they are?  It’s truly incredible!  We’re going to read these two places here before we continue on – again, this word that’s used for trumpets on the Feast of Trumpets, one every fifty years on the Day of Atonement, and now in the book of Joshua. Joshua 6:5 - And it shall come to pass that when they make a long blast with the ram's horn, and when you hear the sound of the trumpet, all the people shall shout with a great shout; that same word – what did we say the meaning of it before was?  Shout.  It talks about when Jesus Christ returns and it talks about the shouting that will take place, the shout!  It goes along with the trumpet blast as well; it’s that excitement, the rejoicing that takes place as He returns.

And so again, this is that same word.  ...and the wall of the city shall fall down flat, and the people shall ascend up every man straight before him. So that’s why, to me, I think about how that God has led us in this period of time.  There was a time when we focused on Gideon and when all this began and ‘running down the hill together’ and not knowing fully what’s before us.  Understatement!  And now, toward the end, He’s been blessing us to focus in Joshua, of all things, to focus on a ‘type’ of something that’s being done there, of marching around the city seven times because it’s about deliverance, and it’s about that which God is going to give to His people, and it’s about bringing down the walls of Jericho, which is a ‘type’ of what’s taking place at the end-time here, of what God’s going to do.  It’s similar to the thing of Egypt, of coming out of Egypt.  This here is everything that has been built up in the world – God’s going to bring it down.  The walls are going to come down!

And all the ‘types’ here, of marching around the city seven times, and on the seventh day they march around it seven times on the seventh day.  So the seven days, and then the seven times at that point in time.  Again, all these things have incredible meaning.  You know seven is the number for being complete, that which is complete, the seventh day Sabbath, God’s plan of seven thousand years, complete.  Seven times seven is even greater when you understand what that’s all about, because it’s a magnification of something and it has to do with that which is more on a spiritual plane of that which is complete.  It’s powerful, truly is, things that God gives us even in how things are ordered.

So it says the people shall shout with a great shout and the wall of the city shall fall down flat and the people shall ascend up every man straight before him.  Right up to the end!  Talking about right up to the end here of what’s going to take place in this world.

Verse 20, another place, the other place it’s used, finally - So the people shouted when the priests blew the trumpets: and it came to pass when the people heard the sound of the trumpet, and the people shouted with a great shout, a great shout – the same time.  This is that same word again used twice here in the book of Joshua.  They shouted with a great shout that the wall fell down flat, so that the people went up into the city, every man straight before him, and they took the city.  As in a victory thing, a matter of rejoicing and a victory that God had given.  And that’s what’s happening at the end-time here leading right up to the final period of time of Christ’s return and what takes place when God brings down this world, brings down Babylon – Jericho being very much like the example here, the analogy of Babylon, bringing down the entire system.

Let’s go back to Leviticus 25 now.  Leviticus 25, again, is the first place that the words are used, Jubilee, and spoken of as a Jubilee through here.  It talks about it in a few other places in Numbers and so forth, but again, specifically about the Jubilee.  Let’s read it again here.

Leviticus 25:9 - ...you shall cause the trumpet of the Jubilee, the teruw`ah, to sound on the tenth day of the seventh month, in the Day of Atonement you shall make the trumpet sound throughout all your land. And you shall hallow the fiftieth year and proclaim, again, liberty, and again, this is ‘free run’ as in ‘freedom’.  Its freedom throughout all the land to the inhabitants thereof: and it shall be a Jubilee.  Now, this is a different word; it’s the word ‘yowbel’ – ‘yo-bale’ if you will. Y-O-W-B-E-L  - And that’s the word that’s used the rest of the time through here in Leviticus 25, and so very close to the word, the sound in Hebrew of ‘yowbel’, the Jubilee.  It says and it shall be a Jubilee to you; and you shall return every man unto his possession, and you shall return every man unto his family.

Let’s just add a little bit more here....The fiftieth year is this ‘yowbel’ unto you, a Jubilee, and you shall not sow, neither reap, and that’s a specific word that means, again, ‘not to harvest as for profit’, that which grows of itself, and neither the grapes in it of your vine undressed.  And again, It’s a ‘yowbel’ for you, a Jubilee, and it shall be to you holy and you shall eat the increase thereabout out of the field.  In the year of the Jubilee you shall return every man unto his possession, again, that thing about inheritance.

So, let’s focus on this thing about inheritance now because this is so important to understand what’s being said here, because it’s a ‘type’ of something in the future.  This was a physical thing that the Israelites never kept – no evidence of it whatsoever.  Judaism doesn’t believe, even for them, they fully well believe it was never kept, never observed...full well God knowing that there would be a time it would be observed because He would have to do it.  He has to bring it to pass; and everything that’s pictured there that was to be done in a physical manner pictured that, foreshadowed that which is in the spiritual plane, if you will, that we’re approaching now.

Let’s turn over to Deuteronomy 9 and begin by considering where all this begins to be revealed in an example where Moses was recounting how the Israelites had been responding to God.  So again, over and over again at different times Moses told the Israelites how they had responded to God, why things had happened the way they had, and this is one of those examples here.

Deuteronomy 9:24 - You have been rebellious against the Eternal from the day that I knew you. Thus I fell down before the Eternal forty days and forty nights, as I fell down at the first; because the Eternal had said He would destroy you. So again, recounting that story there of what took place, of how Moses interceded, how He desired certain help and blessings and intervention from God. He said, I prayed therefore to the Eternal, and said, O Lord Eternal, do not destroy Your people and Your inheritance, which You have redeemed; Jubilee is very much about redemption.  It’s about being redeemed, those words that are used over and over again.  It’s about inheritance.  ...and Your inheritance which You have redeemed through Your greatness, which You have brought forth out of Egypt with a mighty hand.  Again, all these symbolic of that which is where we are now, of what God is doing on a far greater plane, on a spiritual plane.

Verse 27 - Remember Your servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; Why is he saying this?  “Because You made promise to them.  You made promise to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.”  And what is that promise?  It’s about an inheritance; it’s about what they were going to receive.  Notice what else it goes on to say...Remember Your servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; and do not look at the stubbornness of this people, nor to their wickedness, nor to their sin: “Because if that’s what you look at then they’re going to be destroyed!” The example there...  Now, this is written for us and God moved Moses, God worked with Moses to come to this point to do these things.  I hope you understand that, that it was never God’s intent to destroy them.  God had a plan of delivering them, God had a plan of taking them through the wilderness for forty years, it was all planned out.  These things did not happen [spontaneously.]

You know, everything that God does is not something that all of a sudden He slaps Himself in the forehead and thinks, “Now what am I going to do?  Let’s see... they went out and spied out the land for forty days... forty years!  Let’s just leave them out there for forty years!”  No, it was all planned out!  God knew exactly what they were going to do when He brought them out of Egypt!  He knew their minds, He knows the minds of human beings, how we think, how we are.  He knew what their response would be.  He knew that as soon as He got them on the other side they’d start murmuring and grumbling.  There’s not enough water, there’s not enough food at the time you want to have it and so what happens with six million people?  What happens with six people?  It doesn’t matter, we’re all the same!  Murmuring and complaining!  And you’d think after going through the Red Sea and seeing Pharaoh’s army destroyed you’d have a little bit of fear to speak against God or to speak out against Moses – but they didn’t.  It didn’t take very long and they were murmuring and complaining again. It’s just the way we are, human nature – it stinks!

Verse 28 - Unless the land from where You brought us out say, because, in other words, Egypt and so forth, Because the Eternal was not able to bring them out to the land which He promised them, see, promise, inheritance – it was given to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and because He hated them, in other words, because of what they might say, that this is what they said, He brought them out to slay them in the wilderness.  Moses was learning some things here that’s passed on to us, things that we learn as God works with us, to understand God lets us go through these things so we can come to understand His will.

It’s like what has happened over the last three plus years; we have come to understand God’s will, and His will, in a very powerful way, is about mercy.  It’s a powerful, powerful attribute that God wants us to understand in life, that we learn to be merciful to each other in relationships.  Because everything that God does, everything that He’s given to us about a way of life, as I mentioned on Passover night, what is it about?  It’s about relationships.  It’s about a fellowship that we’re able to have with God our Father and with Jesus Christ, and with one another.  As we seek to have a right relationship with God and Jesus Christ it’s a matter of what we’re able to practice then in our relationship with one another, and we can’t deceive ourselves in thinking we have a relationship with God if our relationship with each other isn’t right.  We have to clean up our relationships and seek to have a right mind and a right attitude and especially these attributes of God, of mercy, of patience, of love, of grace.  That’s what it’s all about!

We all have problems, we all have hang-ups and so God has us focus on these things.  He had Moses focus on these things because Moses was learning through this process.  We learn from this as well.

And so I hope you have learned from the past several years here, in a very powerful way, more in your life about the mercy of God.  His mercy on us, His mercy on this world, and the fact that we haven’t had to go through the large periods of suffering.  And the reality is, I believe it more with all my being now than ever before, that if nuclear war had started before we wouldn’t be here today.  It doesn’t take very many nuclear weapons to go off in the world to destroy life, and we have enough to destroy it forty plus times over on this earth.  It only takes once!  All the radiation that would engulf the earth, all the things that would take place.  You know, one stupid volcano can go off – was it Chile that went all the way around, caused problems with flights in Australia.  I don’t know if it affected New Zealand or not – okay, it affected here too.  Went all the way around the world and then went past Chile again – just one volcano – circled the earth!  One!  What about a nuclear weapon?  You know, what went off in Hiroshima and Nagasaki is small compared to what we have today.  Those were puny little bombs compared to what we have today.  And a few of those go off in the world?  It doesn’t take long to begin destroying life on the earth.  They understand things about a nuclear winter.  How long can man survive a nuclear winter?  Meaning that the atmosphere is clouded, meaning that the sun doesn’t get through like it should because of all the debris that’s in the atmosphere.  One volcano puts a lot of junk in the atmosphere!  These nuclear weapons put a lot of junk in the atmosphere and man wouldn’t long survive on this earth with a nuclear winter.  Truly!

We’ve been very, very blessed.  God has a plan to bring us right down to the end.  He’s going to allow some of these things to take place, the kind of destruction that’s there – thank God we haven’t had to live through that, or the world hasn’t had to live through that.

So, if we understand how merciful God is to us, the patience that God has with us, we need to learn that with one another.  You talk about some of the greatest lessons that human begins can ever learn – these are the lessons!  That’s why God focuses upon the importance of judgment, mercy, and faith, the weightier matters of the law.  It’s not a matter of just do’s and don’ts, it’s a matter of the spirit, of the heart, of the mind, of how we think and how we think about each other, how we treat each other, how we receive each other, and anything to do with prejudices and things we seek to get rid of.  We want to get rid of them.  We want to have a right spirit and a right mind to each other, toward all of God’s Family – even in the world, its God’s Family out there, they’re just not drawn yet.  And so how we treat others, how we think about others, God’s concerned about that, how we think because that has to do with our conversion.

And so again here, in this story flow there are things that Moses was learning.  It wasn’t a matter that God was going to destroy Israel, He was never, never, never, never, never, Never, NEVER going to destroy Israel – but Moses thought He was. God allowed Moses to think that for a while, knowing exactly what it meant to rebel against God.  He was shaken, he saw things that had happened, he lived through different periods of time where he saw thousands die.  What was it, 27,000 or 23,000 that died that one time when the snakes came out and started killing people and they finally had to make this pole with a serpent wrapped around it, something that’s used to this day on ambulances and hospitals that’s still with mankind!  They don’t even know where it came from!  It goes clear back to the time of the children of Israel in the wilderness, because God said if you’ll come and look upon that pole with the snake on it that’s wrapped around there you won’t die, if you get bitten by a poisonous snake.  I think it was 23-27,000 people that died.  And it doesn’t take much when you know so many people that have died for you to go look on a pole.  And then they began to think it had some mystical power to it, that it was some kind of symbol of healing, and so they started using it for all kinds of sins.  700 years before a king finally had to come along and destroy that pole – but the Israelites didn’t destroy it from their minds, they still had these little symbols for themselves for healing.  Incredible!

So he went on to say, Moses is pleading with Him; he says in verse 29 again...they are Your people and Your inheritance whom You brought out by Your mighty power and by Your stretched out arm.  It’s true, and we’re getting ready for something that magnifies this many, many, many times over.  But again here, he is going through here and talking about this inheritance.  So you need to know how the word ‘inheritance’ is used and why it’s used this way and that it does go back to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and what it is that’s being talked about here, because it’s not just a physical thing by any measure whatsoever.

Let’s notice Joshua 1:6 – because as the Israelites were being brought into the Promised Land there’s a familiar statement concerning what God told Joshua.  We read this every once in a while because of how we’re to respond, how we’re to think.  It’s that familiar expression about being strong and of good courage.  Let’s read it; Be strong and of a good courage: for unto this people shall You divide for an inheritance, something God was going to give, an inheritance, a promise, an inheritance, the land, so this is a beginning, this is very physical, but it pictures something that is far, far greater, because the promise is to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; the physical part is only a small portion of something that foreshadows those things that are far, far greater.  He says, which I swore to their fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give to them. But the promise, again, please understand, is much more when they talk about inheritance.  A promise of inheritance is far more than just land, obviously.

Let’s go over to Hebrews 11 where it talks about some of this.  These are awesome when you go back and read some of these and the stories and what is being said and you focus in a special way on certain sections.

Hebrews 11:8 - By faith, that’s what we live.  Here we are this far along.  After today we’re going to be counting seven Sabbaths and then one more day, actually just the end of the seven Sabbaths – it’s going to be grand for us in that respect, of what begins to take place.  But you look at it physically and you think, “Oh, there’s just not enough time!”  There’s plenty of time for God to do what He said He would do and for what He allows mankind to do.  By faith, Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; please understand what is being said here.  So often we read this and we don’t understand fully what’s being said.  We think the place he went to was what it was all about.  Not at all. Not at all! Because the other scriptures, the other verses make it very clear what this is all about.

It says, ‘when he was called to go out into a place’... what is that place?  Was it just a location of land?  Was it about a physical inheritance that eventually his ancestry farther down the line would receive?  ...‘which he should after’...What’s the after?  ...he should after receive...not just those who would come out of Egypt, but he would receive ‘for an inheritance’ – where God took him was not his receipt for by inheritance he was receiving yet.  He obeyed, and he went out, not knowing where he went. We do that.  We follow God.  God gives us an outline of where we are in time and we follow those things.  Again, you learn more about faith when you live it.  You begin to see things that others went through before you and you know what it means more and more to live by faith, to believe what God says, and it’s in your mind, you do it because you know it’s from God.

...obeyed, he went out not knowing where he went. By faith he journeyed in the land of promise, it was the land of promise; that was a part of it, physical, as in a strange country, so he journeyed in that area, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac, temporary dwellings, tents, with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs, heirs – has to do with inheritance; something you’re going to inherit; heirs! ...the heirs with him of the same promise:

Verse 10 – What’s the place?  For he looked for a City which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God. It wasn’t about the land of Israel, physical land, it was far, far more.  It was something they were going to be given by inheritance, a City.  That’s why we talk about spiritual Jerusalem; it’s not a physical Jerusalem that’s important, it’s the spiritual one that God is building, that’s what’s important, that’s what God has provided and God is giving.  For he looked for a City, Jerusalem, the way of peace, the teaching of peace that God gives to us.   For he looked for a City which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God.

Then it goes on and speaks of other people of faith, and then finally says down in verse 39, notice - And these all, in other words, ‘all of these’ having obtained a good report through faith, so you read about all these different ones it mentions here in Hebrews 11, the different people all the way through time here.  It mentions so many different ones, and then it says, received not the promise: those who went into the Promised Land received not the promise that’s being referred to here, because it’s more than a physical inheritance of a physical land, and that’s what God is making very clear here in Hebrews as well.

...they received not the promise. God having provided some better things for us; Who’s it talking to?  It’s to the Church!  That’s why/who it’s being written to, to the Church.  So God’s making it very clear here there’s something else, provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect. In other words, God’s going to bring the perfection together at a moment in time, and we’re almost there in the first phase of His plan that’s pictured, candidly, in Pentecost in the firstfruits, in the first great phase of that plan.

Let’s notice 1 Corinthians 15 what it says. Again, scriptures we read over and over again at different times in different subjects, but this here about a promise of God, an inheritance – 1 Corinthians 15:50 -Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God; That’s what it’s about.  It’s about an inheritance that was promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  It’s about the ‘seed’.  You know when it talks about a ‘seed’, too, it’s talking about Jesus Christ that was promised to Abraham.  It wasn’t just something about Isaac – that’s the physical part of it.  The ‘seed’ that was promised; that God was going to perform those things through was about Christ, we understand that.  And here, talking about an inheritance, that’s what it’s all about, it’s about a time when we become a part of the Kingdom of God, in the God Family finally, no longer physical human beings.  That’s what it goes on to explain here about the Church, first of all, because this is about the first great resurrection that happens at the beginning of Pentecost.

...and neither does corruption inherit incorruption.  So, that which is physical, that which is corrupt, human nature, us in this Body, we still have corruption in us, we have to pray for forgiveness on a continuing basis day by day, asking God to forgive us.  We fight this battle until finally we’re there.  So, neither does corruption inherit incorruption.

Behold, I show you a mystery; something the world can’t grasp nor understand but God’s people can understand.  That’s why Paul reuses this expression over and over again, about a mystery; we shall not all sleep, and so again here, he’s talking about death, when you die in the Church. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed: In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last Trump: What an awesome thing!  ...at the last Trump, what takes place – the 7th Trumpet, even at the end here; for the Trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. Again, this is written to the Church of those who are going to become a part of the firstfruits.  Now, everybody else through time in the Millennium and in the Great White Throne has to go through the same process, but the first great resurrection is what’s being referred to here by Paul in Corinthians, of what’s going to take place at the sound of the last Trump, referring to the time of the return of Jesus Christ and those who are going to be resurrected at that time – some few who are alive and obviously all the others through the past 6,000 years who have died that God has called.

For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. That’s what God’s called all people to, and the inheritance that is in scripture is about delivering us to this, is about bringing us to this, it’s about freeing us! It’s about true freedom! It’s about true deliverance out of Egypt – because as long as we’re in this physical body we fight against Egypt, we fight against sin.  The Days of Unleavened Bread picture coming out of sin that’s made possible through our Passover, Jesus Christ.  The ability to go before God and ask for forgiveness of our sins and to know that as soon as we’ve done this, because of the covenant relationship of baptism, when we enter into that, we’re forgiven, every time we pray for it – God promises to forgive us.  It’s removed.  He doesn’t hold it against you any longer.  He doesn’t remember it.  He doesn’t hold things against you like we tend to do with each other as human beings – God removes it!  It’s gone!  Awesome!  You can walk away, you know you’re free!

That’s an incredible thing; and the more you grow the more you feel free too, the more you understand that, the mercy of God, that when you pray to Him for forgiveness you walk away and it’s behind you, He doesn’t hold it against you and you continue in your relationship with Him.

So going on here...

The Jubilee year we’ve now come to is powerful in a two-fold way.

1. It is the time for completing the redemption of all who will receive an inheritance God planned from the beginning—of the firstfruits who inherit the Kingdom of God.

This is where we’re at; this is what it’s all about.

It is the ultimate jubilee for those who first enter God’s Family from those redeemed out of the past 6,000 years of man’s self-rule.

And then number two along with that; what an awesome thing!

1. And, this is the time when God delivers mankind out of the spiritual Egypt that has held people captive from the beginning. This is deliverance from Satan and all his ways.

What an awesome thing to realize that Satan’s not going to have power anymore.  He’s not going to be able to do what he does anymore. It’s over with, as far as his ability to influence man, for at least a thousand years.  We used to have the concept, and it used to be taught, that he’s going to be released at the end of the thousand years for a short time.  No, he’s not.  It’s afterwards.  And there’s more coming on that later on whenever God gives it...but it says after the thousand years are complete and it doesn’t say when he’s going to be released for a little season before he’s destroyed.

There is going to come a point in time when he’s actually destroyed but it’s not during the thousand years and he’s not released during the thousand years.  That’s a full free Sabbath; a thousand years for mankind to live and die and go through a process coming up to the Great White Throne.

So again here, we recognize the two things that are taking place in this Jubilee year.  First of all for those who are part of the 144,000, those who are going to be resurrected, that which takes place, the receiving of the inheritance, those who have been redeemed from among mankind for the past 6,000 years, and then also a deliverance from Satan, from demons, in a new age that takes place at the same time.  It is a Jubilee for mankind and the ultimate Jubilee, if you will. There’s another great one coming but we’ll come to that some other time later on, probably not in this series.

So again here, just a reminder of what it says back in Leviticus 25 and focus a little bit more on this.  Understand the importance of ‘inheritance’, when it speaks of inheritance in the terms of Jubilee in Leviticus 25, at least we know what it’s talking about then.

Let’s go back and read a verse we didn’t read earlier in Leviticus 25 that precedes all this, and it’s what was explained at the very beginning of the sermon that we need to understand about sabbatical years, because it’s all here.

Leviticus 25:8 - And you shall number seven Sabbaths of years unto you, seven times seven years; and the space of the seven Sabbaths of years shall be unto you forty-nine years. Very specific language.  So when they go to the next verse there they know the subject is about the Jubilee, the other verses go on and use the word.  It’s about Jubilee in Hebrew, so that’s why it’s that one word, but I think it’s an awesome thing that they actually translated it that in English, this thing about ‘blowing’.  Because it ties Trumpets and the Day of Atonement together in a very powerful way.  Verse 8 is making it very clear here – and when is this done?  Every Feast of Trumpets it’s blown; you count seven years.  And now it’s saying seven times seven years, forty-nine years.  After forty-nine years you come to this Jubilee.

From the Feast of Trumpets in the seventh month to each Feast of Trumpets they counted until they came to each seventh year which was a sabbatic year.  After the space of observing seven full sabbatic years, again, they came to the Jubilee year that’s mentioned here starting in verse 9.

Verse 9 - Then shall you cause the trumpet of the Jubilee to sound on the tenth day of the seventh month, this is important because even though it’s not the word for Jubilee it shows you what trumpet is being blown; it’s the one you keep count with on the Day of Trumpets, it’s every year until you get to seven years and seven times seven, and now it’s being blown on the Day of Atonement because it’s a Jubilee.  It’s something that God magnifies in a very powerful way.  What an awesome thing, the Feast of Trumpets brings us to Atonement, the 144,000 – you’re there, you’ve been brought to being at one with God.

Jesus Christ...  You know, everything in Leviticus 16 when we go through and talk about the Day of Atonement and it talks about the High Priest who goes in and does His work and then He comes back out again and we’ve always shown, referring to... He goes in and performs His work and He doesn’t come back out until its finish, until He’s atoned His House, the Church of God, the Body of Christ.  After 2,000 years now He’s coming back out, He’s coming back to this earth.  What a beautiful picture, something pictured in Leviticus 16 about Atonement, being made at one with God.  Finally that’s when we’ve all been made at one with God, those who are part of 144,000, those who are of the wave loaf that goes back the first 4,000 years and the other wave loaf that’s the last 2,000 years for all of mankind, waved before God, accepted of God when Jesus Christ returns.  Because as soon as He starts returning everyone’s resurrected that’s a part of that.  Beautiful picture!  ...and all about the Day of Atonement.

So, this horn is being tied in over and over again here.  The Jubilee is being tied into the meaning of all these things, bringing it all together in an awesome way.  It just has greater depth of meaning to it, which I find a beautiful thing.  When you think about how things are written in the Bible it’s incredible, everything that’s there that fits together so perfectly.

...in the Day of Atonement you shall make the sound of the trumpet throughout all your land. And it was stated, again, this is that same word for ‘blowing’.  So again, the trumpet blowing referred to as the ‘teruwah’ is about the counting of the years that lead up to each sabbatic year which falls every seven years.  And I’m repeating this because when I went through Daniel I went very fast and people got lost, I had to make a chart.  So I’m repeating some things here just so that it’s deeply etched in our minds.

Again... lead up to each sabbatic year which falls every seven years.  But in the counting, God reveals that after seven times seven sabbatic years is a Jubilee.  Trumpets lead to Jesus Christ delivering mankind into atonement with God – that’s what it’s picturing here.  It reveals God’s will and God’s purpose for His plan of deliverance for mankind.

So, where else is God so specific?  Again, which I know we know now, because I mentioned it earlier, about counting seven Sabbaths of time.  It’s different, because we were talking about years before, but don’t let that escape you because when you keep Holy Days you have to keep them every year.  And so God has a plan of something that’s revealed year by year by year that we’re to do that reflects something about the Jubilee and what God is doing, taking us from Trumpets, everything that’s pictured about Jesus Christ – because everything that’s pictured about Jesus Christ is about Him coming the first time as Passover, the second time as King of kings in the Kingdom of God.  And finally that’s when the first great deliverance of mankind takes place, about Pentecost, the first great resurrection, seven times seven.  After today we start counting seven Sabbaths – seven being the number for that which is complete.

How beautiful, seven times seven, forty-nine, spiritually complete – then you’re at your Jubilee, then you have true freedom.  It just sends chills up and down my spine, it truly does.  What a beautiful picture, to understand why God gave us forty-nine days to count, of something that was reflected back in the Old Testament of forty-nine years, of something very physical that was to teach something very spiritual, a Jubilee, freedom, deliverance from Egypt, freedom for mankind, the receiving, the redeeming and the things that take place to give the inheritance, to deliver the inheritance that God intended from the very beginning for mankind – and the first phase of it is in Pentecost - the first great resurrection that’s going to take place of the firstfruits. God gives a ‘type’ of those things that we can learn from.  It’s very beautiful, it truly is.

Next we’re going to focus in a similar manner on revelations of God concerning the next word that’s used here in Leviticus 25 that we’ve already mentioned, and it’s used several times and is properly translated as ‘Jubilee’ I said, the ‘yowbel’ – ‘yo-bale’  - that’s the word, and it’s specifically about the Jubilee because that’s what the word is.  It’s interesting to notice the last place it’s used.  It goes through Numbers and it talks about a Jubilee as well.  But the next place of importance that it’s mentioned again is in the book of Joshua, Joshua 6.  Let’s go over there again.

I think back on how God leads, guides and directs us and I think about a focus we’ve had on Joshua, not even knowing why, and here it is, all these things!  Because these things are a powerful ‘type’ of what God is doing to bring down Babylon, to bring down the walls of Babylon. ‘Babylon is fallen, is fallen...’  Exactly what was pictured in the Israelites when they marched around Jericho and God brought the walls down.  And God’s bringing down Babylon!  All these things that fit together, and sometimes we follow, we’re led, and what an awesome thing when He shows us more of why and how and how it all ties together.

Joshua 6:4 - And the seven priests shall bear before the ark seven trumpets of rams' horns: it’s the word ‘yowbel’ – ‘yo-bale’, a Jubilee!  Awesome!  But they know now it’s about a specific kind of horn.  And the seven priests shall bear before the ark seven trumpets of ram’s horns:  It was a ram’s horn but it’s the word ‘yowbel’.  Why use that?  Because of everything it means, everything that it foreshadows.  ...and the seventh day you shall compass the city seven times, and the priests shall blow the trumpets. And it shall come to pass, that when they make a long blast with the ram's – interesting here now, the word ‘ram’s’ now is the word ‘yowbel’ – ‘yo-bale’, and then it goes on to say, horn, It’s different from the other’s here in Joshua.  This literally means ‘a horn’.  It was the ‘yowbel’ horn.  What horn was it? It’s the same one they blew on the Feast of Trumpets year after year to keep count until they came to the Jubilee. God said to use this horn – this had nothing to do with being in the wilderness forty years, this wasn’t anything to do about a Jubilee, but it pictures the Jubilee, it shows what God is revealing to...

This is for now, this is something God is fulfilling in a very powerful way.  He said to use this horn!  This is the horn that was to be blown, the same horn that they, if they had come to it, because they hadn’t come to it yet, they hadn’t come to a fiftieth year, they hadn’t blown it on Atonement yet – it’s the same horn.  God’s making it very clear this is the horn you use when you circle around Jericho and you march. This is the horn you blow...and it was a ram’s horn, but again, the word is not ‘ram’, and the word previous to this up there when it says the first time it’s used, ‘the seven trumpets of ram’s horn’?  It’s not the word in Hebrew for ‘ram’s horns’, even though it was, because it’s in context here.  It’s the word ‘yowbel’ – Jubilee.  That’s what you’re to blow, the Jubilee, because of what it pictures, not because it was in a Jubilee, and this wasn’t during the Day of Atonement, but God’s tying everything together here in its meaning and what it pictures.

...and it shall come to pass that when you make a long blast with the ram’s/yowbel horn, and when you hear the sound of the trumpet, all the people shall shout with a great shout; here we are again, incredible... and the wall of the city shall fall down flat, and the people shall ascend up every man straight before him.  And Joshua the son of Nun called the priests, and said unto them, Take up the ark of the covenant, and let seven priests bear seven trumpets of Jubilee/’yowbel’ – seven trumpets of the ‘yowbel’; all those that were blown by the priests on Trumpets.

All these words have meaning.  They reveal things!  But when they’re translated people don’t understand what it’s about; so they know the context, so they know it’s a ram’s horn, so they quote that because ‘yowbel’ makes no sense to them, but it does to us now.

Take up the ark of the covenant, and let seven priests bear seven trumpets of ‘yowbel’ before the ark of the LORD/Eternal. And he said to the people, Pass on, and compass the city, and let him that is armed pass on before the ark of the Eternal. And it came to pass, when Joshua had spoken unto the people, that the seven priests bearing the seven trumpets of... no word for ‘ram’, no word for ‘horns’ – the seven trumpets of the ‘yowbel’ passed on before the Eternal, and blew with the trumpets: and the ark of the covenant of the Eternal followed them.

The very last place that this word is used, Joshua 6:12 - And Joshua rose up early in the morning, and the priests took up the ark of the Eternal. And the seven priests bearing the seven trumpets of ‘yowbel’ before the ark of the Eternal went on continually, and blew with the trumpets: and the armed men went before them; but the rear-guard came up after the ark of the Eternal, the priests going on and blowing with the trumpets.  And the second day they encompassed the city once and returned into the camp...and so they did for six days.  And so we know the story.  It’s showing here every day they blew this horn until they came to the end, and then the seven times and the numbers that were blown as well.  To me, just a beautiful picture, it really is, of that which God is doing and showing it’s a matter of deliverance, a matter of freedom, a matter of bringing us to an inheritance.

We’re not done yet though; this word is used in another place, the first place it’s used and before we get to Leviticus 25 there’s another place it’s used but it’s not translated again as a ‘yowbel’.  It’s in Exodus 19.  Awesome – awesome – awesome how God uses things, and especially this word ‘yowbel’.  Exodus 19, Leviticus 25, and Joshua 6.  You want to talk about a powerful message that God gives in what He’s showing, this is incredible!

You all know what was happening when you get up to Exodus 19, because you know what happens when you get in Exodus 20 – the Ten Commandments are given by God. Exodus 19:1 - In the third month, this is in the month Sivan; this is coming up to the Day of Pentecost.  God takes them out of Egypt by the Passover, they start marching out, they go to the Red Sea, and then finally at the last day God delivers them out of Egypt, talking about the Days of Unleavened Bread, coming out of Egypt, and then brings them up to Mount Sinai and here we are right up next to the Day of Pentecost.

... In the third month, and it’s not ‘when’, but ‘after’ the children of Israel were gone forth out of the land of Egypt, in the day they came into the wilderness of Sinai. For they were departed from Rephidim, and had come to the desert of Sinai, and had pitched in the wilderness; and there Israel encamped before the Mount. And Moses went up unto God, and the Eternal called to him out of the mountain, saying, Thus shall you say to the house of Jacob, and tell the children of Israel; You have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I carried you on eagle’s wings... beautiful thing, it’s about protection.  We understand that in Revelation when it talks about ‘eagle’s wings’, other places this word is spoken of, how God gives protection and deliverance, and how I carried you on eagle’s wings and brought you unto Myself. Now therefore, if you will obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be a peculiar treasure unto Me above all people: for all the earth is mine: And you shall be unto Me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation. These are the words which you shall speak unto the children of Israel. They were never going to receive this as a physical people.  They could not keep this covenant – God knew that – but these things are written for the Church, these things are written for us so that we can understand God’s greater purpose. It’s like the word ‘inheritance’ – there is that which was physical but that isn’t what it was all about.  It foreshadowed something greater later on.

And so it is here because to keep the covenant with God there was something missing.  When God brought them up to the mountain here there was a lot more to the story, wasn’t there?  Let’s notice.  It’s in 1 Peter when Peter was writing and talking about this to the Church, because here is where it’s fulfilled.  It couldn’t be fulfilled in the Israelites; they were a carnal, physical people, they didn’t have God’s holy spirit.  What a beautiful picture, on the Day of Pentecost God gave His law but they couldn’t keep it, they couldn’t keep that covenant, they didn’t have the ability to – without the holy spirit you can’t keep God’s way of life. We have to be baptized, we have to come to a point of a commitment toward God where we go under the water, we come back up, and then the ministry lays hands upon us and we’re given the impregnation of God’s spirit – then with God’s spirit we can begin to live His way of life.  But human beings out here can’t; you can’t of your own will, by your own desire, your own power.  You have to go through more, making a covenant relationship with God.

And that’s what it’s talking about here; the Israelites couldn’t do it.  What a beautiful picture that on the Day of Pentecost God poured out His spirit then. I mean, when you talk about the Holy Days and the plan of God, to me it’s awesome, it’s exciting because everything fits together perfectly, the plan, how it flows together.  That’s why I’m excited about the ‘yowbel’, the Jubilee and what God is showing here, how all the Holy Days are tied together because of God’s plan and purpose for a Jubilee, what it means and where we are in time, why we even started talking about a Jubilee.  I didn’t know what all this was about when we started talking about a Jubilee.  Joshua didn’t know what that was all about fully.  I knew it had meaning to us and what God was showing to us but now it has far more meaning than it did before; God already gave it to us and now He’s showing us why.

1 Peter 1:1 - Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia ...Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, that which God predetermined before time that there were different ones He’s going to call through time to fulfill His plan, those who are called to be a part of the Church, especially when you talk about the first phase of God’s plan of salvation, the 144,000.  So, Elect according to the foreknowledge of God, meaning that it’s a part of God’s plan, a part of what He’s fulfilling, a part of what He’s doing now with the Church and He’s going to finish now as far as that plan of 144,000 that will be resurrected on Pentecost; through sanctification of the spirit, setting apart.  You have to receive the spirit of God. The Israelites never had that, they just had the law.  So sanctification comes through the holy spirit, through the spirit that God gives; unto obedience, so that we can obey.  That’s what this is talking about, so that we’re able to obey.  Doesn’t mean we do it perfectly but we can begin to and we begin to understand and we begin to live this way of life and we’re able to repent because we know what we’re repenting of and we see God’s Word and God’s law and God’s plan in a spiritual plane.

So again, through sanctification of the spirit unto obedience and the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: sometimes we read through these things, we don’t think about what its saying.  Well, it takes God’s spirit to begin obedience, to begin to even see and understand God’s plan and purpose...and it shows how, through the sprinkling of the blood of Christ - through repentance.  That’s what the blood of Christ is all about.  He’s our Passover, that’s how we’re able to have this relationship and receive of God’s spirit on a continuing basis – and so we can continue in this.

Grace be unto you, and peace be multiplied, in ways we don’t even comprehend most times, truly, to all of us. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again unto a living hope, that’s what it means here, it’s not just ‘lively’. It means living hope, it’s alive, it works in us; God’s spirit works in us to change us, to transform us, to transform our minds to become something different than what we were at the beginning, that by the time God’s finished with it we’re different, we’re ready to become a part of His Family, when He’s through moulding and fashioning us.

Again, unto a living hope, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, To an inheritance incorruptible, that inheritance again, incorruptible and undefiled, and that fades not away, reserved in heaven for us; that’s what it’s saying here in the Greek, reserved in heaven.  Why?  Because that’s where God is - until it’s time to be given to us and Jesus Christ brings it with Him, and then at the resurrection we receive it in the first part of God’s plan, the 144,000, Pentecost.

Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. That’s right! That’s where we are!  That’s when it’s going to be revealed, that’s when it’s going to take place.  It’s reserved in heaven for us right now and we live it by faith knowing that’s when we’re going to receive it; and we’re almost there!  Incredible!

1 Peter 2:1 - Wherefore laying aside all malice, in other words, ill will, desire to hurt, or sometimes people don’t even think that way, sometimes malice is just a way we...  it’s about relationships isn’t it?  And so God says to lay all this aside, change, be something different; and all guile, which is a word that just means ‘deceit’.  Strive to get rid of those things in our lives because human nature is very deceitful and deceives itself...and hypocrisies, hate hypocrisies, lying, and envyings, and all evil speaking, the word meaning ‘back-biting’.  We have to be careful how we talk, and especially about one another.

As newborn babes desire the sincere milk of the word, that you may grow thereby: so again here, the beginning of the Church here Peter is telling them, desire to be fed, desire to be nourished by what God desires to give you. If so be that you have tasted that the Eternal is gracious. To whom coming, as unto a living stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God, and precious, so again here, speaking about Jesus Christ and who we’ve been brought to and the process of life we live then. You also, here it is again, what he mentioned earlier; as living stones; you know, ‘stones’ is a good description of us.  ...Thick, hard, hard-headed.  But again here, we begin to change; it talks about a lively stone here, something that God’s moulding and fashioning into shape and ready to be used in His Family, in His Kingdom.

We’re all called for a purpose.  God has a place for everyone, things we don’t grasp and comprehend, and if we yield ourselves to that that’s where we’re going to be the most fulfilled, the happiest, have the most abundant life...because of that.  He moulds and fashions us and He has a place for everyone through time.  That’s an incredible thing to understand!  ...and it begins with that structure of Christ and then the 144,000, and then everything else that’s added to it, a building that God is building.

You know the universe out here, it’s not just whirling away out there on its own whim, just burst and all of a sudden it’s there.  It’s all by design, all by purpose of things that God gave.  How much more us?

You also as living stones are, as it is here in the Greek – are being built up a spiritual House, a Temple, a spiritual House, one that God’s going to dwell in for eternity and we will dwell in Him for eternity, in time.  As we begin to taste that in a small way in this life as He dwells in us and we in Him – everybody different, everybody with different personalities, different experiences of life that make us what we are, and we share in this together.  Nobody’s the same, the uniqueness that’s there – but all of us at one, of the same mind because we agree, of the same way of life to be lived, which is God’s.  And what is that?  It’s about relationships, it’s about Family.  It’s all about Family.

You also as lively stones are being built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, now, the Israelites were told if you obey My covenant then this is what you can have; you’re to be to Me a holy [priesthood].  Well, they couldn’t do it and God knew that.  It’s written for us, it’s given to show that you have to have more; you have to have God’s spirit.

...to offer up spiritual sacrifices, that which is acceptable to God, in other words, how we live and that we do it for the right reasons, most of what we sacrifice is our own self-will, our own selfish desires, our own pride.  That’s a beautiful thing before God, to go before Him in a humble spirit, to not be filled with pride to want things as in a selfish manner, but to give.  That’s why I talk about love so often as being one, especially amongst human beings, when you have to sacrifice; to love, to love someone else with sacrifice.  If you love someone because they love you...if you love someone because they’re easy to get along with and you just have this relationship with them (until they cross you).  If you have this relationship, the way we are as human beings...and it even asks that in scripture, ‘What good is it if we’re a certain way and we do something back for someone else because they do it to us...’  It’s easy to get along with someone like that.  But it’s harder when you have to apply God’s law, when you have to be forgiving, when there are certain things you have to do in order to have a right relationship, to forgive, not to hold something against someone else, to give mercy, to grant mercy, to be willing to grant that – sometimes takes sacrifice on your part.  And on and on it goes.  That’s the way it is.  And this is a spiritual sacrifice that God wants from all of us, the way we think toward each other, that we’re not selfish.

...acceptable to God by/through Jesus Christ.  And so again, the only way this is acceptable to God is if it’s through Jesus Christ, because it’s done through the power of God’s spirit living in us, because we can’t love people this way.  You can’t just go out here and work up God’s way of life and God’s love.  It has to be because of what He’s doing in you and you’re yielding yourself to it to do it His way.

Wherefore also it is contained in the scripture, Behold, I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone, elect, precious: and He who believes on Him shall not be confounded.  So again, over and over again here, focusing on Jesus Christ, how this is all accomplished.  It’s accomplished first because He’s our Passover, because we’re able to have sin forgiven us through Him.  Then the reason He died is so that He could dwell in us, and that’s the part that follows; so that if we repent of our sins He dwells in us.  And so all these things are accomplished, we’re lively stones because of His, and His Father through the power of the holy spirit, dwelling in us.

Unto you therefore who believe He is precious: valuable, in other words, highly valuable, maybe better wording is highly valued.  We highly value that relationship with Jesus Christ and what God has given us through Him.  ...but unto them who are disobedient, the stone which the builders disallowed, in other words, if people don’t obey, if they don’t seek to live right, if they’re not repenting, if they’re not yielding themselves to God’s spirit, then they’ll have a different mind and it’ll be one of resisting and fighting. ...the same, speaking of Jesus Christ again, is made the head of the corner, and a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence, we know what that’s like, you know what that’s like in the Church so often, we receive a bit of that don’t we?  Of what it’s like when people don’t like this way of life, don’t like you living this way of life, but you live it because you’re convicted of it, but sometimes it’s not taken very well by others around us.  You keep the Sabbath,  you keep the Holy Days, you don’t keep Christmas, you don’t keep Easter, and people judge you accordingly then, “You weirdo!”  But it’s about Christ, a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence.

You know, I speak about things and people hear it out there; I know it just aggravates the tar out of some of the people who listen in sometimes. It’s just like goading them; they just can’t take it when I talk about Jesus Christ, when I talk about how that He didn’t die on a ‘cross’.  Oh, people hate that!  “Yes, He did!”  No, He didn’t! He died on a stake, you fool, you moron, spiritually!  You think you have so much knowledge of God’s word and God’s truth and you wear these things around your neck with arms stretched out and He didn’t die that way!  Amazing!  They don’t understand!  He died this way – [arms above the head stretched out with hands together flat].  So simple!  Such a simple thing to understand but they don’t get it; why they came around and broke the thieves legs beside Him, so they couldn’t hold themselves up anymore, because when you’re hanging like this [arms above the head stretched out with hands together flat] you suffocate, you die.  Hanging like this [arms stretched out to sides] you don’t! Big difference!  But the world is so ignorant and they so desire to hold onto ignorance!

When I start talking about the trinity and where it came from – came from the Catholic church!  Everybody out there that believes in it, you want to believe in the trinity?  You owe obedience... you really owe and ought to bow down before the pope, because he’s the one that decided.  You didn’t decide that Lutherans....!   I don’t know why I’m going off on this but there’s got to be a reason – some listening out there.  We get people listening out there once in a while - just to show people how foolish they are.  They don’t like me saying these things.  I’m sorry, I don’t really care whether you like it or not; you’re down to the rope in time!  It’s at the end of the rope, if you will, you have one choice before you, to repent and change, accept what’s true instead of holding onto what you hold onto.

And so you tell them Easter is a bunch of garbage!  It’s a spiritual swill that was given to mankind by the Catholic church – 325 AD the popes decided, the cardinals, they all got together, they all decided they’re going to do away with Passover.  That’s what the Council of Nicaea was about, do away with Passover and we’re going to have Easter now, on Sunday, because we have to have something to give some kind of credibility to worshiping on Sunday, the day of the sun.  So let’s do it on Sunday because that’s when Jesus Christ was resurrected.  No, He wasn’t!  He was resurrected at the end of the Sabbath Day!  They don’t even know that!  Amazing what goes on out there.

So people get mad, upset, because Jesus Christ is a stone of stumbling. The truth, the word of God is a stone of stumbling, a rock of offence if people want to hold onto their own ways.  The Church of Christ ([I’ll] just mention a few of them...), the Church of Christ, the Lutherans, the Methodists, the Presbyterians – what’s the other one I want to get in there?  ...the Baptists!  They hate it when you nail it down to the fact that their major beliefs have come from the Catholic church.  The Baptists didn’t start their beliefs.  The Presbyterians didn’t start it.  The Lutherans didn’t start it.  The Catholic church did.  Everybody got their beliefs from the Catholic church.  Oh, people just really love that one.  Amazing!  They’re actually... and even the popes, even the Catholic church states they’re all in rebellion.  They’re in rebellion to the Catholic church!  That’s basically the bottom line.  Where did they get their doctrines?  The Catholic church knows full well where they got them, “They got them from us.  The trinity?  You got that from us.  You didn’t start until several hundred years later!”  Anyway....

Verse 9 - But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, isn’t that what God told them?  ‘You obey My voice, obey My commandments...’ Exodus 19, ‘...you’ll be a royal priesthood.  That’s what I’ve called you to.’  But they couldn’t do it.  It’s the Church that’s a royal priesthood, we’re able to change.  ...a royal priesthood, an holy nation; Israel wasn’t a holy nation!  They were far from it!  Their whole example and why God had them there as an example is that you can’t, even as a nation receiving the favour, the lands...  Look at this land!  The abundance of New Zealand, the abundance of Australia, the abundance of Canada, the abundance of the United States, the abundance of western Europe...the vast wealth that these nations have held that God promised before it was done, of what they would receive up to the end-time.  The greatest nations the world has ever known; the vast majorities of wealth that these nations have held, all a part of the scattered nations of Israel.  Incredible!  ...but not holy.  But received of some of the promises that God said would take place in time for some of the nations.  It’s about the Church; it’s about those whom God calls, because to be holy means that God is in it.  We’re not holy, but with God’s spirit dwelling in us that sets us apart, with God’s truth that sets us apart. It’s the holy spirit that sets us apart.

But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a special people/a peculiar/a special people; that you should show forth, this word here in the Greek means ‘the virtues’, ‘the character’, ‘the moral excellence’ of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvellous light: and so it’s something, again here, that is given that begins a process, that our lives should begin to reflect that which comes from God.  If it reflects us we’ve sinned.  You know that?  If you reflect yourself apart from God you just reflect sin.  That’s what happens.  That’s what people are going to see, because there are going to be things you’re going to do that are wrong, because you’re selfish, we’re selfish, as human beings, and there are things we’re going to say and do that are a matter of sin and that’s what we do when we reflect ourselves, when we reflect our selfishness.  I don’t want to reflect that, I want to reflect something that God says we can begin to reflect.  Do I do it perfectly?  By no measure; that’s where I’m thankful God gives repentance and I can go before God and say, “Please forgive me through my Passover.  Forgive me of my sin, of what I said about so and so...or what I said to them...or how I said it.”  Or whatever it is I’m repenting of.   And that’s what we do, that we can show forth.  When you show mercy?  ... that you can show forth the virtues, the moral excellence, the character of God.  That’s what we desire to do.

Your ability to show forth mercy, to be forgiving – all those attributes that are there in relationships that should be a part of our life – that’s what God’s called us to.  ...you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation; God’s spirit is to dwell in us; a special people, that you should show forth the praises, the virtue, the character, the moral excellence of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.

Reading again here in Exodus 19, just before the commandments are given, this is the instruction that’s being given.  Exodus 19:5 - Therefore, if you will obey My voice, they didn’t, they couldn’t; and keep My covenant, they didn’t and they couldn’t;  then you shall be a peculiar treasure unto Me above all people: for all the earth is Mine: And you shall be unto Me a Kingdom of priests, and an holy nation.  They never were a holy nation.  Never – never – never!  It’s about the Church.  You have to have God’s spirit in you, that’s what makes us holy.

That’s why I marvel sometimes, people talked about the Promised Land and talk about Jerusalem in the context of being ‘holy’.  And you think, “There’s nothing holy about it!”  You’ve got four different groups of people there in the main area of the old city fighting each other even within their own groups sometimes, they’re fighting with each other, which priests of which religion get to go in there and have the use.  They’ve literally had battles where they go in and fight with each other, fist-fights, the priests, in order to have the time that they can sound the bell and have their religious ceremony in the court there and some of the areas of their church...which we’re talking about traditional Christianity.  Go fight with each other, at least you have something that’s entertaining rather than all the garbage and swill you teach!  The different religions that are there, very unholy.

Now therefore, if you will obey My voice, indeed, and keep My covenant...  kingdom of priests, a holy nation... These are the words which you shall speak unto the children of Israel. Then we went on to 1 Peter 1 and read all that about some of this, and chapter 2, but let’s notice Exodus 19:7.

Exodus 19:7 – And Moses came and called for the elders of the people, and laid before their faces all the words which the Eternal commanded him. And all the people answered together, and said, All that the Eternal has spoken we will do.  They maybe had some good intentions.  You know, sometimes people have some good intentions about doing certain things but then they just can’t do it and they couldn’t do it.  Matter of fact, they didn’t like what took place when God began... it was just too much.  It reveals later on what God spoke to them, that it wasn’t because it was so powerful, it was what He was saying that was too much – the law.  ‘You shall not commit adultery.’  *Gasp...* ‘You shall not steal.’  *Gasp...* ‘You shall not lust...’  All the things that God said.  God said it was because of the law, it was what He gave to them, that’s what they recoiled at, they didn’t want it.  Amazing!

Is that a little bit what the world is like today?  “Oh, the law has been done away with!  That nice one, the Son, came along and did away with His Father’s old harsh laws.  He nailed them to the ‘cross’.  He died in order to nail that old wretched, horrible, filthy law to the ‘cross’.”  And you ask them, “Well, then I can take your car and you’re going to be a happy man, huh?  I can take your home...and take all your money?!”  “Oh no!  Those are good laws!”  It’s the Sabbath!  They hate the Sabbath!  Isn’t that amazing?!

...All that the Eternal has spoken we will do. And Moses returned the words of the people unto the Eternal.  Now, they were a lot more carnal than that, even then at that, they didn’t want any of that law, any of the law, basically.

It says, And Moses returned the words of the people unto the Eternal. As though God didn’t hear it.  But Moses did this.

And the Eternal said, Moses, Behold, I will come unto you in a thick cloud, that the people may hear when I speak with you and believe you forever. And Moses told the words of the people unto the Eternal. And the Eternal said to Moses, Go unto the people and sanctify them today and tomorrow and let them wash their clothes, so there was this process here of something they were going to do, because they were getting ready to come before God’s presence.  And it says, And be ready against the third day: up to the third day, in other words, which was Pentecost, for the third day the Eternal will come down in the sight of all the people upon Mount Sinai. And you shall set boundaries unto the people round about, saying, Take heed to yourselves that you do not go up unto the Mount or touch the border of it: whosoever touches the Mount shall be surely put to death: Powerful!  So things about fear here.  You better have a right attitude and mind when you come before your God and come up to the Mount and be careful of what you touch and how far you go, and that you listen to do it exactly the way you’re told.

Verse 13 - There shall not a hand touch it, but he shall surely be stoned, in other words, or shot through; ‘shot through as with an arrow’ the Hebrew word means here.  So if anyone touches it they’re to die, they’re to be put to death; and whether it be beast or man, it shall not live: when the ‘yowbel’, a particular horn.  ....when the ‘yowbel’ sounds long, they shall come up to the Mount.  Now they didn’t even know, they hadn’t even been told about what the ‘yowbel’ is but this is the word that God recorded, this is the word that God gave.  They had not been given Leviticus 25 yet, they hadn’t heard this.  And yet this is how it’s given here...  when the trumpet/when the ‘yowbel’ sounds long they shall come up to the Mount.  Why is that word used?  What is the importance of that word being used?  But why?  Why would God choose a word having to do at a time when everybody comes up there to the Mount on Pentecost?

Again, the horn is used on Trumpets; later on it’s shown it’s to be used every fiftieth year on the Day of Atonement, and here when God gives the law, when God gives the Ten Commandments – Jubilee.  Because it pictures everything about God’s way of life.  That’s what sets you free!  That’s what gives deliverance out of Egypt!  If you obey My voice...if you will do these things, this is what you receive.  It’s about a rejoicing of life that you can have.  It’s about what makes your life full and rich.  It’s about what God intends for all of mankind.  It’s freedom!  It’s deliverance!  God’s law is what gives us freedom!  God’s law – the truth shall set you free!  What is the truth?  Well, it begins with understanding.  When God begins to call you to the truth He begins to give you understanding of His Word.  What is one of the first things that Jesus Christ began to reveal when He began to teach?  He began to teach about God’s law!  He said He didn’t come to destroy the law or the prophets, He came to fulfill, He came to magnify, He came to give the spiritual intent of what it was all about, He began to reveal.  He says, ‘you have heard it’s been said you shall not murder... you shall not kill...’  He goes on talking about your very attitude toward someone, the very way you think toward someone; in your heart can be murder.  Talk about adultery?  He said, ‘if you lust in your heart...’ it’s a matter of your heart!  You can commit it in your heart and your mind toward someone.  It’s about the mind because that’s what leads to the actual sin!

And so Jesus Christ came along magnifying the law, showing that it’s spiritual not just physical do’s and don’ts.  He came along...    ...and that’s what sets you free!  It’s bondage to disobey God!  It’s bondage in the world when people don’t obey the way of God!  The fact that they don’t want the Sabbath, that they want to hold onto something else, that they want to hold onto the teachings of the Catholic church – that just keeps them in bondage!  It doesn’t free them!  Until they are released from those things - Christmas and Easter – not until people begin to obey are they free!  Not until we begin to obey God’s way of life do we begin the process of being delivered!  Freedom!

You accept Jesus Christ, you begin a process of what?  The Days of Unleavened Bread – coming out of sin in order to be freed, in order to receive the laws and the ways of God that are shown and the spirit of God that enables you to live that way.  And then added to that God shows the first great phase of His plan, the resurrection of 144,000 – Pentecost.  All these things tied together showing what God is doing, how He’s doing it, how He’s bringing about, indeed, the ultimate Jubilee.

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