Sermon: When Is the Year of Release (Shemitah)?

#1664
David C. Grabbe
Given 30-Jul-22; 71 minutes

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I am going to begin with an observation by Benjamin Disraeli. You may not be familiar with him, but he was the Prime Minister of the UK twice during the 1800s, and he was admired for his insight. Disraeli said that “One of the hardest things in this world is to admit you are wrong. And nothing is more helpful in resolving a situation than its frank admission.”

In view of that, I have good news and I have bad news. I will start with the bad news, which is that we have not had the timing quite right in something that we practice. So, today we will do the hard thing and examine our mistake so that we can resolve it. Leviticus 26 speaks of a restoration that comes when we confess that we have walked contrary to God, which we have, as it turns out.

But the good news is that our walking contrary was entirely inadvertent. It was not willful at all, but rather we had the sincerest desire to follow God’s instructions—we just had an incomplete understanding. And the even better news is that God is gracious, and He gives merciful course corrections so that we can come into more alignment with His will.

Our mistake has to do with which Feast of Tabernacles the book of Deuteronomy should be read. Simply put, we should have read it at the Feast in 2021. In hindsight, it is significant to me that in his opening night sermon this past Feast, Mark Schindler recommended that we read Deuteronomy in preparation for the Feast in 2022. So, Deuteronomy was at least remembered at the proper time. In addition, some of you have observed how frequently Deuteronomy has come up in sermons and sermonettes since the Feast. So, God has been inspiring messages that fit with this seventh year, even though we missed our opportunity to read Deuteronomy at the time specified. Now, we will still read Deuteronomy at the upcoming Feast, and Richard said he thought it would be good to already have this material available, rather than spending time on it at the Feast.

If you would turn to Deuteronomy 31, we will look at the crux of the problem:

Deuteronomy 31:9-13 So Moses wrote this law and delivered it to the priests, the sons of Levi, who bore the ark of the covenant of the LORD, and to all the elders of Israel. And Moses commanded them, saying: “At the end of every seven years, at the appointed time in the year of release, at the Feast of Tabernacles, when all Israel comes to appear before the LORD your God in the place which He chooses, you shall read this law before all Israel in their hearing. Gather the people together, men and women and little ones, and the stranger who is within your gates, that they may hear and that they may learn to fear the LORD your God and carefully observe all the words of this law, and that their children, who have not known it, may hear and learn to fear the LORD your God as long as you live in the land which you cross the Jordan to possess.”

Verse 10 says that the law is to be read in the year of release, which is the Shemitah in Hebrew. This is what we have been striving to do since the Feast in 1994: Every seven years, the book of Deuteronomy has been a major focus of the Feast. This is part of keeping the Feast, along with rejoicing and staying in temporary dwellings. Interestingly, I’ve read that in 1973, the WCG issued a policy on the year of release, saying it is only a principle and not binding. I don’t know if it is significant, but that policy was made seven sabbatical cycles ago. In any case, that policy may have been the reason almost nobody paid any attention to this passage until John was convicted that we need to focus on Deuteronomy every seven years. He gave the timing his best shot, and he was off by just a hair.

When the year of release begins and ends determines at which Feast of Tabernacles the book of Deuteronomy should be read. The year of release begins and ends in Tishri, the seventh month of the sacred calendar, which corresponds to our September/October. It runs from one Tishri to the next one. So, years of release cover parts of two years on the sacred calendar. For example, the current year of release began last September, and it will end in early October in 2022. But the critical point is that the day the year of release will end is before the Feast of Tabernacles, and we will get to the specific day a bit later.

Our reading of Deuteronomy at the upcoming Feast will be just after the year of release, just as it was in 2015, 2008, 2001, and 1994. Of course, getting the timing right will not justify us before God, and we understand that. However, we also understand that there is always a blessing when we come into greater alignment with His will. And there is also a benefit to our character and spiritual growth in admitting an error when we see it and making it right.

As you may recall, the Shemitah involves more than just letting the land rest. It also involves the releasing of debts, which, in application, can include anything that we feel somebody owes us, whether financial or interpersonal. And it involves changes in work and employment. It even involves the Feast of Tabernacles periodically, as we see here. God’s Word is living and powerful, and it does not return to Him without accomplishing His will. And when His living word is disobeyed, adversity inevitably follows.

The root of the Hebrew word Shemitah contains the themes of leaving alone (meaning that one is no longer watching over or maintaining); releasing one’s grip to allow natural consequences; pulling away; loosening; shaking; overthrowing; casting down; discontinuing; and letting something fall.

But the year of release does not have to involve destruction. When it is kept properly, God’s people let go of certain things, and there is a necessary break or natural end of a cycle, and then the next cycle begins with abundance and stability. There is a wiping clean and beginning anew. But if the Shemitah is transgressed, there is a pattern of God releasing His grip and letting events take a destructive course. It can be a year of shaking and overthrowing, and the result can be extremely disruptive in those areas of agriculture, productivity, labor, economics, and even the Feast of Tabernacles.

Overall, the Shemitah proclaims God’s sovereignty and ownership of all things. It especially involves prosperity—either adding prosperity when the Shemitah is observed, or taking prosperity away when it is ignored. It reminds God’s people that He is the source of stability and abundance. It humbles the proud who forget God. It underscores man’s dependence on God. When the Shemitah manifests as a judgment, it is a great equalizer. It separates wealth and possessions from their owners. It wipes away what has built up. It smooths imbalances. It releases entanglements, attachments, and bondages. And it involves transitions, as things wrap up in the 7^th year to make way for a new beginning in the 8^th.

We can clearly see some of those things playing out right now. Drought has devastated agriculture in the Western US and the Midwest. We see increasingly bare shelves and a tightening food supply. We see spikes in the prices of oil, natural gas, and diesel. Natural gas is the primary source of nitrogen for commercial fertilizer, so in many places, fertilizer has either been unavailable, or too expensive to use widely, so crop yields are significantly down. And with the price of diesel so high, some famers cannot afford to run their equipment to prepare fields, plant, harvest, or transport the harvest.

Then there is the war between Russia and Ukraine. Those two nations together produce over one quarter of the world’s wheat, not to mention other food. Ukraine’s farming industry has been disrupted, its grain fields now battlefields, its storage facilities destroyed, its farmers having fled. Russia is still producing grain, but all the other dynamics of the war, including sanctions, means that Europe will receive much less of it. Russia and Ukraine are primary food suppliers of Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. Europe is able to weather the disrupted food supplies, but Africa and the Middle East are not, and are staring hunger in the face. Those areas have demonstrated histories of violence when they run out of food.

In the West, we see labor problems, caused both by the pandemic and by a generational change in attitude regarding employment. First, there was the Great Resignation, caused in part by people flush with government cash and feeling stifled by lockdown policies, throwing off the perceived yoke of their employment and trying something new. But now, as corporate belt-tightening begins, we see hiring freezes and layoffs.

At the same time, we are enduring incredible inflation, caused by the trillions of dollars that the government created out of thin air, but which is really just debt, and the Shemitah presides over debt. The stock markets have been battered and cryptocurrency routed, resulting in a significant destruction of wealth, both what has been honestly earned, as well as what has been accumulated through usury and what has been called into existence by fiat. And since last fall when the Shemitah began, the 100 wealthiest Americans have lost $622 billion.

All these current disruptions I have mentioned relate to God’s year of release. While any one of them may not be unusual, and could happen at any time somewhere in the world, what is beyond coincidence is that they are all happening together this year, and within the nations of Israel. Like with gravity, our feeling that a natural law is not relevant does not mean there won’t be consequences when it is ignored.

Closer to home, though, the COVID-19 events of last fall also fit with the Shemitah—with God letting go, letting things take their natural course, and shaking things up. We had our most disrupted Feast of Tabernacles ever, with most of our ministers being unable to serve for most, if not all, of the Feast. The previous year, we were miraculously spared all infections. In the opening night message at this past Feast, Mark Schindler posed the question as to whether perhaps we left the previous Feast with the wrong sort of high hand.

Also last fall, a significant number of CGG brethren died, the most ever within such a short period of time, beginning on the Day of Atonement, which becomes significant later on. It was a highly disrupted autumn. Yet at the same time, consider also how fitting it was for those who had finished their course to receive their rest in a Sabbath year.

Now, I am not claiming that everything that happened was because we didn’t read Deuteronomy. But I am suggesting that, amongst our other reflections on what God would have us learn from these things, we consider that God may have been drawing our attention to something that we need to better understand. The unchangeable God claims the year of release as His, so it is not something to be treated lightly. Israel was sent into captivity, not just for breaking the weekly and annual Sabbaths, but the Sabbath year as well.

We will move on now to how we can know that we are in a year of release. Maybe you haven’t thought about this, but the year of release is not something that has been committed to the church for safekeeping. That is, the church of God does not have the authority to declare, for example, that 1934 was a Shemitah year since that was the year the Radio Church of God started, any more than the church or its members can establish which day of the week is holy. Rather, the records of those things, like the Hebrew calendar, are part of the oracles that have been committed to the Jews, as Paul says in Romans 3. (And for the parallel principles, I will refer you to John’s sermon series on “Faith and the Calendar,” which he gave back in 2000.)

Even as the Jews have kept track of the weekly Sabbath, and God has enabled them to do so, He has also ensured that there is a record of these special years so that His people can be in alignment with Him. So, if we don’t go by the Jews’ general record of the Shemitah, we really have no starting place at all.

Now, even though God did not commit the oversight of the year of release to the church, He has provided a historical record so the church can see that the Jews have consistently preserved the sequence of seven years for at least the last 2,100 years. And because of Who it is that oversees the Jews’ preservation of the oracles, the correct sequence of years remains unbroken, like a heartbeat throughout time. This does not mean that the Jews’ application of everything has been correct, but God has been faithful to provide what information is necessary for us.

I will give you just a flavor of some of the historical accounts, but enough that you will be able to see that history backs up the consistent Jewish keeping of the Shemitah. Unless you are a historian, the full histories may not be all that riveting, so I will keep it light, so you don’t nod off, or check out, so early in the sermon. The records I will give you are found in the works of Josephus, who was born a few years after the death of Christ.

If you study into the history yourself, you will run across some criticism of Josephus because his record of the Sabbath years appears to be inconsistent. And it is true that if you take all the years that Josephus labels as Sabbath years, they don’t fit onto a consistent timeline. However, if you analyze what Josephus writes about, rather than his own interpretation of the circumstances, then a consistent seven-year cycle emerges.

Here's what I mean: In a couple of places, Josephus identifies a year of release because his sources showed that food was scarce in a certain year. And it is true that in the seventh year, all the fruit from fields, vines, and trees could not be harvested, except by the poor. For those not practicing the year of release, there is a common belief that the seventh year was a time of food scarcity because there was no harvesting. However, the reality is that during the Sabbath year, the people would eat what had been stored in the sixth year, and they could also eat what grew on its own. They couldn’t harvest it, in the sense of gathering it and storing it. But they could go out to the garden, field, or orchard, and get what they needed right then, and they had food.

What this means, then, is that if there was a year of scarcity, it wouldn’t be in the seventh year, but instead in the year after a sabbatical year, because that is when most of what had been stored had been used, and there were fewer volunteer crops since nothing had been planted during the Sabbath year. In fact, if the Jews had been faithful, there would have been abundance in the 6^th, 7^th, and 8^th years, rather than any scarcity at all. But somewhere in the mix, they were missing the mark in terms of God’s statutes and judgments, which is why the land Sabbaths were not being blessed, even though the Jews were keeping them.

Now, regarding the problematic records in Josephus, the research of a man named Don Blosser clarifies things. He is a Bible professor at Goshen College in Indiana. Mr. Blosser went through the works of Josephus and analyzed the couple of places where he identified a Sabbath year because of food scarcity. Mr. Blosser instead charted those years as the first year in the seven-year cycle, and then all the Sabbatical years lined up perfectly.

Now, I will give you the references in Josephus for four Sabbatical years, and you can use these as a starting point for your own research, if you are inclined. And if you are not, it is sufficient to know that the record exists, and that this very same seven-year interval continues up to the year of release we are in right now.

In Antiquities of the Jews, Book XII, Josephus records a land Sabbath that took place during the sieges of Jerusalem and a city called Bethsura. You might notice as we go through these records that they all coincide with Jerusalem and Judah having hard times, and particularly sieges. Anyway, the land Sabbath during this time of siege was in 164-163 BC.

We will move forward several decades to the time of Simon the Hasmonean and his son, John Hyrcanus, who were high priests in the intertestamental period. In Antiquities of the Jews, Book XIII, we find another land Sabbath, both because of the recorded food scarcity, as well as because John Hyrcanus was unable to convince enough men to join his army to avenge his father’s assassination. Josephus says the reason John couldn’t raise a large army was because of the Sabbath year when, he says, “the Jews are wont to remain inactive.”

That takes a little explaining. While the Scriptures don’t say anything about not waging war during the sabbatical year, at least some of the Jews, particularly those in the area of Qumran, believed that there should not be any military activity during the year of release. And from these events, the land Sabbath can be identified as taking place in 136-135 BC.

A third year of release is found in Herod’s conquest of Jerusalem in the decades before Christ. In Antiquities of the Jews, Book XIV, Josephus notes that there was “a sabbatical year which happened to fall at that time.” He says that Jerusalem fell to Herod in a year of release, and that fall of Jerusalem is dated to 37 BC. So, our third sabbatical year was in 38- 37 BC.

And, lastly, we come to an event that we are more familiar with, that of the destruction of the Temple in 70 AD. In Wars of the Jews, Book V, Josephus says that during the year the Temple was burned and Jerusalem was destroyed, there was a food shortage because of the Sabbath year. But remember, food scarcity is indicative of the year after a land Sabbath. So, this means that 68-69 AD was the year of release when nothing was planted or harvested.

So, we have four Sabbath years as recorded by Josephus. These span roughly 230 years, and the dating of one does not depend on the dating of another. What is more, if you line these up on a timeline, or use a spreadsheet program (which makes this very easy), you can verify that they form an unbroken sequence of seven years. You can also stretch forward that timeline, and it will yield 2021-2022 as another Shemitah. So, we have a historical record going back almost 2,200 years in Josephus.

Now, according to this same timeline, there was also a year of release in 26-27 AD. Around that time, there is a historical and biblical event that I believe you will find very interesting, but there are some things we need to cover first. So, just keep 26-27 AD in mind, or jot it down, and we will pause the history for now and dig into the Scriptures.

Please turn with me to Exodus 12, as we start to search out when the Sabbath year begins:

Exodus 12:1-2 Now the LORD spoke to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying, “This month shall be your beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year to you.

This may seem to contradict an autumn beginning of the Shemitah, so we will spend some time on how the Bible refers to years. Verse 2 is a definition Scripture, but we need to notice exactly what God is defining here. This verse gives us the beginning of the sacred calendar year. The first month is called Abib in the next chapter, and after the Jews returned from the Babylonian captivity, they called the first month Nisan.

Most references to a year in the Bible are to this sacred calendar year that begins in Abib and lasts until the next Abib. Anytime you see a mention of a numbered month, such as the first month or seventh month, that month is always in reference to the calendar year that begins with Abib. And, modern Judaism notwithstanding, there is only one calendar alluded to in the Bible. There is only one system of numbered and named months, which is what a calendar is, and that calendar begins in Abib. This is what keeps all of God’s people on the same page, especially when it comes to keeping the holy days.

These verses, then, define the beginning of the calendar year, or we could call it the sacred year, but they do not define every year in Scripture. By definition, a year is the length of time it takes for the earth to travel around the sun, which is some 365 days and some change. A year is just that span of time, and there must more information to know when a specific year begins and ends. But when it comes to the sacred calendar year, God supplies that beginning, which is Abib or Nisan.

While most references to a year in the Bible are to the calendar year defined here, there are exceptions. It is common for societies to have multiple years with different starting points that overlap, and the Bible shows this, too. In the West, the calendar year begins on January the 1^st, but we have any number of other “years” as well—other spans of 365 days besides the one that begins on January 1. For example, we have a school year that begins in August or September. That school year uses the same months as in the Gregorian calendar, but it has a different starting point because of a specific purpose.

Another example may make you groan inside, but think about the dreaded election year. In the US, it begins in November when the election is the following November. The election year also doesn’t have its own calendar—it still uses the same months and in the same order—but it has a specific ending point in November, and the 365 days before that ending point make up the election year.

We will look at some examples in Scripture of years that are spans of time that are not in reference to the sacred calendar year:

Leviticus 25:29 If a man sells a house in a walled city, then he may redeem it within a whole year after it is sold; within a full year he may redeem it.

This is a simple example, but it shows a year that starts with when a man sells his house within a city. The year here is not in reference to Abib because it has a different purpose. It is just a span of 365 days, or 12 months, from the date of sale.

In a similar way, the reign of a king could begin on any day. The first year of his reign, then, would be from the day he became king until 365 days, or 12 months, later, without respect to Abib 1.

We will see an example of this with King Josiah, found in II Kings 22, it you would turn there. Beginning in verse 3 is the account of Hilkiah the high priest finding the book of the law in the temple when they began to repair it. Verse 3 says this takes place “in the eighteenth year of King Josiah.” Next, a scribe reads the law before Josiah, and later, Josiah hears the prophecy of Huldah, who foretells calamity on Judah because of forsaking God. The bulk of II Kings 23, then, shows Josiah’s substantial reforms. He poured himself into destroying graven images and high places, and his extensive efforts that took quite a bit of time.

However, now look at II Kings 23:21-23, which comes after his great national cleansing:

II Kings 23:21-23 Then the king commanded all the people, saying, “Keep the Passover to the LORD your God, as it is written in this Book of the Covenant.” Such a Passover surely had never been held since the days of the judges who judged Israel, nor in all the days of the kings of Israel and the kings of Judah. But in the eighteenth year of King Josiah this Passover was held before the LORD in Jerusalem.

If you are following the sequence, the book is found “in the eighteenth year of King Josiah.” Josiah then cleanses the land to the best of his ability. After all that, he keeps the Passover, also “in the eighteenth year of King Josiah.” Now, even if the law were found and read on Abib 1, two weeks to Passover (on Abib 14) is not enough time for all that is described. Therefore, Josiah’s 18^th year began quite some time before the Passover that was observed within his 18^th year. In other words, the “year of” (something)—like the year of Josiah, the year of release, or the year of Jubilee—can describe something other than the sacred year.

Another example of a “year of” that is not defined by Abib is the year that culminates with Christ’s return. We won’t turn to these, but Isaiah 34:8 speaks of “the year of recompense for the cause of Zion.” Similarly, in Isaiah 63:4, God says, “For the day of vengeance is in My heart, and the year of My redeemed has come.” The year of recompense and the year of Christ’s redeemed both seem to refer to the same period of time, the span of 365 days or 12 months before His return. From what we understand of prophecy, that year appears to end in the fall.

So, just to summarize: Most references to a year in Scripture relate to the sacred calendar year that begins in Abib, but we have seen that there are exceptions. Exodus 12:2 defines when the sacred year begins, but other 1-year spans of time exist outside of that definition, especially when another beginning or ending is given.

I will read the definition of the Hebrew word for year, which is sana. This comes from Mounce’s Complete Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words. Quoting:

(sana) (878x.) Of the many times sana is found in the Old Testament, the majority may be understood in accordance with our modern usage. God created the sun and moon “in order to mark seasons and days and years” (Genesis 1:14). Thus, sana references the years of one’s life (Genesis 5:3), the years of a king’s reign (II Kings 13:1), and the yearly cycle of Israel’s festivals (Exodus 12:2; 23:14; Leviticus 23:41). [God, however, is not subject to time; thus, “you remain the same, and your years will never end” (Psalm 102:27).]

The month in which the exodus occurred was, from that point on, to be reckoned as the first month of the year in Israel’s festival calendar (Exodus. 12:2). [Now, notice this:] The Sabbatical year (every seventh year), however, along with the Jubilee year (the fiftieth year following seven Sabbatical years) was reckoned from the seventh month, with the Jubilee year beginning on the Day of Atonement, the 10^th day of the seventh month (Leviticus 25:1-12). The primary characteristics of the Jubilee year were those of liberty (slaves set free) and restoration (ownership of the land returned to its ancestral owner). …

Regarding the eschatological Jubilee, Isaiah speaks of the “year of the LORD’s favor” (Isaiah 61:2; cf. Luke 4:18-19) and the “year of my redemption” (Isaiah 63:4). This use of sana is therefore parallel in meaning to the use of “day” in the phrase, “the day of the LORD” (e.g. Isaiah 13:9; Ezekiel 13:5; Joel 2:1; Obadiah 15; Zephaniah 1:14; Malachi. 4:5).

Mr. Mounce says the Sabbatical year—the year of release—and the Jubilee year were reckoned from the seventh month, and specifically from the Day of Atonement. We will see why he says this, if you would turn to Leviticus 25:

Leviticus 25:1-12 And the LORD spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai, saying, “Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: ‘When you come into the land which I give you, then the land shall keep a sabbath to the LORD. Six years you shall sow your field, and six years you shall prune your vineyard, and gather its fruit; but in the seventh year there shall be a sabbath of solemn rest for the land, a sabbath to the LORD. You shall neither sow your field nor prune your vineyard. What grows of its own accord of your harvest you shall not reap, nor gather the grapes of your untended vine, for it is a year of rest for the land. And the sabbath produce of the land shall be food for you: for you, your male and female servants, your hired man, and the stranger who dwells with you, for your livestock and the beasts that are in your land—all its produce shall be for food. [Now the instructions move on to the Jubilee year, which is related:] ‘And you shall count seven sabbaths of years for yourself, seven times seven years; and the time of the seven sabbaths of years shall be to you forty-nine years. Then you shall cause the trumpet of the Jubilee to sound on the tenth day of the seventh month; on the Day of Atonement you shall make the trumpet to sound throughout all your land. And you shall consecrate the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a Jubilee for you; and each of you shall return to his possession, and each of you shall return to his family. That fiftieth year shall be a Jubilee to you; in it you shall neither sow nor reap what grows of its own accord, nor gather the grapes of your untended vine. For it is the Jubilee; it shall be holy to you; you shall eat its produce from the field.

What we have here in Leviticus 25, starting in verse 8, is the definition of the year of Jubilee. Exodus 12 defines the sacred calendar year, but Leviticus 25 gives us the definition of something different. Verse 8 says to count seven Sabbatical years—49 years—which is like counting to Pentecost using years instead of days. Verse 9 then commands the blowing of the Jubilee trumpet throughout the land, and this takes place on Tishri 10, the Day of Atonement. In verse 10, the context is the fiftieth year—the Jubilee year, which God says must be consecrated, and that liberty must be proclaimed throughout all the land to all its inhabitants. And during that 50^th year, everyone was to return to his family possessions.

The Jubilee, then, is announced on the Day of Atonement, with trumpets throughout the land, and liberty is proclaimed. The Hebrew word for “proclaim” is used throughout Leviticus 23 regarding the holy days, and the meaning there is that the proclamation is done on the day in question, not in advance. Leviticus 23:4 says that the holy convocations are to be proclaimed at their appointed times.

In the same way, the proclaiming and the blowing of the trumpet are both part of the same drawing of attention to the sanctified beginning of the Jubilee, which is a year that begins on Tishri 10, on Atonement. The blowing of a trumpet shows that the Jubilee starts on Atonement (rather than being proclaimed on Atonement, but not actually beginning until the start of the calendar year in Abib, 6 months later).

Throughout Scripture, trumpets are used for announcing things as they are happening, not for something that will happen long after the sound has faded away. Once a trumpet is involved, the attention is drawn to the immediate, to the present, to something that is taking place right then. So, the Jubilee year is proclaimed and sanctified on the Day of Atonement, and the nation then has a year to make their arrangements and return to their family possessions. And since it is a year, it lasts until the next Day of Atonement, ending on the day before, on Tishri 9.

OK, we will follow this through: If the Jubilee starts on Atonement, and it is the 50^th year, that means that the 49^th year—which is the sabbatical year preceding it—ends the day before the Jubilee starts. And since it, too, is a year, then the 49^th year also starts on the Day of Atonement. And so does the 48^th year, and so on, going backwards.

Now, if you would look at the two small charts, there is something else to understand. For the 7-year cycle to remain unbroken, the 50^th year does not stand as a year on its own, but it is also the 1^st year of the next 7-year cycle. It is just like the count to Pentecost: The 50^th day is not an extra day that pushes off the 1^st day of the week. Instead, the 50^th day overlaps and coincides with the 1^st day of the week. So, the 50^th is also the 1^st. The numbering systems overlap and do double-duty, as it were.

You can see an example of this pattern in verses 20-22, which address the question of whether there would be enough food in the 7^th year. Verse 22 makes mention of the 8^th year and the 9^th year. The 8^th and 9^th years of one cycle are also the 1^st and 2^nd years of the next 7-year cycle. In the same way, the 50^th year, the Jubilee, is also the 1^st year of the next sabbatical cycle. But the Jubilee is additionally the 8^th year of the previous cycle, and thus it contains the concept of a new beginning, which is what the number 8 signifies. It is like God’s Great Reset—a righteous liberation, when all the people can start afresh.

Now, before we move on, notice in verses 14 and 17 here that the Jubilee contains a double warning against oppression. Both the year of release and the Jubilee were part of God’s safety net to keep people from becoming so destitute that they couldn’t recover, but the proclaiming of liberty and warning against oppression are specifically linked to the Jubilee, which becomes important later on.

So, returning to the timing, the Jubilee becomes the foundation of a cycle of secondary years. These years don’t have another calendar. They are simply spans of time with a beginning that is different from the sacred calendar year because they have a different purpose, which is primarily about agriculture. The releasing of debts and slaves in the 7^th year related to agriculture because that was the center of the Israelite economy and labor.

Now, if you think back to the food scarcity recorded by Josephus, we find the answer here as to why there would be scarcity if the Jews were keeping the land Sabbath. Verse 18 of Leviticus 25 shows that the abundance though the 8^th year is conditioned on faithfulness. Think about the people of Christ’s day, and how they were at odds with God on so many things. They had a form of the true religion, and a zeal, but they missed the mark in many things. They were falling short in doing God’s statutes and judgements. Thus, they were not dwelling in the land in safety, but rather undergoing sieges. And they did not receive the abundance that would have carried them through until they could plant again.

We will continue to look at this agricultural year that starts in the fall, and specifically with the Day of Atonement. Verses 3-4 here say to sow in the field for six years, and prune the vineyard and gather its fruit for six years. There are similar instructions in Exodus 23, if you would turn there:

Exodus 23:10-11 Six years you shall sow your land and gather in its produce, but the seventh year you shall let it rest and lie fallow, that the poor of your people may eat; and what they leave, the beasts of the field may eat. In like manner you shall do with your vineyard and your olive grove.

We need to think of these instructions as they relate to the times that God determined for the various crops. We are not an agrarian society, so we are not all that familiar with the timing that God built in. But please make note of this: The sowing for an agricultural year begins in the fall. The primary grains of barley and wheat are sown in November and December. The first grain to ripen is barley, from which the Wavesheaf offering was made in Abib. The agricultural year does not begin with reaping the barley harvest in the spring, but with sowing in the fall, and these verses logically put the sowing first for the agricultural year.

This means that as far as sowing and reaping are concerned, there is a natural starting point for agriculture after the fall holy days, and then a stopping point before the next fall holy days. So, if you are to “sow your land and gather in its produce” for six years, and then let the land lie fallow in the seventh, the “year” in this context starts and ends in Tishri.

This agricultural year is shown in another critical aspect of the growing season, which we will see in Deuteronomy 11. The context here is the fruitful land God is giving to Israel:

Deuteronomy 11:12 a land for which the LORD your God cares; the eyes of the LORD your God are always on it, from the beginning of the year to the very end of the year.

This does not say when that beginning or ending of the year is, but remember that the context here is the abundant land, which indicates agriculture.

Deuteronomy 11:13-14 ‘And it shall be that if you earnestly obey My commandments which I command you today, to love the LORD your God and serve Him with all your heart and with all your soul, then I will give you the rain for your land in its season, the early rain and the latter rain, that you may gather in your grain, your new wine, and your oil.

Verse 14 mentions the early and the latter rains, which some translations call the autumn and the spring rains. The early rains watered the grain planted in the late fall, and the latter rains watered the ripening grain to give a fruitful harvest in the spring. And just to nail this down, Joel 2 gives us a definition scripture:

Joel 2:23-24 Be glad then, you children of Zion, and rejoice in the LORD your God; for He has given you the former rain faithfully, and He will cause the rain to come down for you—the former rain, and the latter rain in the first month. The threshing floors shall be full of wheat, and the vats shall overflow with new wine and oil.

This makes it clear that the latter rain comes in the first month—Abib—making the latter rain a spring rain. These rainy seasons are part of God keeping His eyes on the land from the beginning of the year to the end, and they are named in a way that shows a secondary year. They are early and latter in relation to when the agricultural year begins.

Just a quick note on the olive harvest. You’ll notice on the chart that it could extend past Tishri and the holy days, depending on the conditions. However, there was still time for a harvest of olives and for the pressing of oil so the Israelites could bring their oil to the Feast as commanded.

Now, we will see the existence of the agricultural year from a slightly different angle. Think back to God’s instructions to sow, to prune, and to harvest for six years, and then to cease for the seventh. Because of the times of the various crops, those instructions are easily followed with the agricultural year that begins in Tishri. However, if one tries to apply those instructions to the sacred year that begins in Abib, it introduces some Scriptural contradictions. I will give you three. These can be a little challenging to wrap your head around, so the next chart may help in understanding the problems with an Abib land Sabbath.

First, in the year after a land Sabbath—that is, the 1^st or 8^th year—there would be no grain harvest, because grain could not have been sown in the 7^th year, when no planting was allowed. And since they also would not be reaping grain in the Sabbath year, then the Israelites would only be reaping grain for five years, not six years, like God says.

A second problem is that Leviticus 25:5 says that the food for the 7^th year was from what grew of its own accord—from volunteers. However, if one plants the barley and wheat in the fall of the 6^th year, and then the land Sabbath begins in the spring, then the available grain during the Shemitah would not be from what grew of its own accord—it would be from what was planted instead. On the other hand, if one tries to get around that by just not sowing in the 6^th year, then God’s intent of sowing for six years is broken.

Finally, according to Leviticus 25, the food from grapevines during the land Sabbath must be from grapevines that were not pruned. However, if one does not tend the vines in the 6^th year, then one is not pruning one’s vineyard for six years as it says—only five years.

So, there are problems with trying to begin the land Sabbath in Abib. However, the sowing, pruning, and harvesting for 6 years all fit within an agricultural year that starts in Tishri.

Now, if you would turn back to Deuteronomy 31 where we began, we can better understand the timing of when to read Deuteronomy:

Deuteronomy 31:10-11 And Moses commanded them, saying: “At the end of every seven years, at the appointed time in the year of release, at the Feast of Tabernacles, when all Israel comes to appear before the LORD your God in the place which He chooses, you shall read this law before all Israel in their hearing.

We have looked at how the year of release relates to the agricultural year, which itself is anchored to the Day of Atonement. Now, this says the law is to be read at the Feast of Tabernacles in the year of release. There is only one Feast of Tabernacles in the year of release, and it takes place just shortly after that secondary year begins on Atonement.

To really nail this down, we will focus on the phrase, “at the end of every seven years.” Notice that it does not say, “at the end of the year [singular],” but rather, “at the end of every seven years.” If it said the end of the year, it would be confusing because there is the sacred year that defines when the Feast is, as well as the agricultural year that defines the Shemitah.

We will look at other places this phrase is used, so please turn with me to Deuteronomy 15:

Deuteronomy 15:1 “At the end of every seven years you shall grant a release of debts.

The same phrase. The context shows that these instructions are for what happens within the year of release. You can see that in verses 9 and 12. So, the phrase, “the end of every seven years” indicates something happening within the last year of the whole seven-year cycle. It can be anytime within that 7^th year, but the 7^th year is what is indicated.

We will confirm this in Jeremiah 34:

Jeremiah 34:13-14 Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: ‘I made a covenant with your fathers in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage, saying, “At the end of seven years let every man set free his Hebrew brother, who has been sold to him; and when he has served you six years, you shall let him go free from you.” (See Exodus 21:2; Deuteronomy 15:12)

Verse 14 contains a Hebraism, wherein two phrases describe the same thing. In this case, the phrase, “at the end of seven years” is parallel to, and explained by, the phrase, “when he has served you six years.” So, the phrase, “at the end of seven years” simply means, “in the seventh year.” It means the last year of the sabbatical cycle—the Shemitah.

It is significant that this command is for the 7^th month, even though the religious year begins in Abib. If the Sabbatical year began in Abib, it seems odd that that the law would not be read then. The people would assemble in Abib for Unleavened Bread, yet the law would not be read until the year of release was half over. But because the year of release begins on the Day of Atonement, it is quite fitting that, as God’s people assemble for the Feast of Tabernacles, the overall tone and focus for that special year would be set with a reading of the law, just a handful of days later.

For our part, we were trying to do the right thing. We were just off in our timing. In reality, we were reading Deuteronomy at the beginning of the whole sabbatical cycle, in the first year, instead of reading it within the year of release, at the end of every 7 years.

You may have noticed that I have referred to this secondary year as the “agricultural year” and not “the civil year.” The Jews begin their civil year on Tishri 1, the Day of Trumpets. The Jews have turned Tishri 1 into a New Year’s celebration, just like January 1 is for the Western world. However, that practice started after their return from the Babylon exile. That is significant because the Babylonians had two New Year’s celebrations, one in the spring and one in the fall. The one in the fall took place on the first day of their 7^th month. So, we can see how a little syncretism, in addition to the agricultural year, produced a civil year that begins on the Day of Trumpets. You can read in the Talmud that the Jews are well aware that this secondary year begins on Atonement, and yet they reason it away so they can keep their New Year tradition.

We have finished the material on the timing of the year of release, and so we will return now to history, because there is a related item that I believe you will find fascinating:

Luke 4:16-21 So He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up. And as His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up to read. And He was handed the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when He had opened the book, He found the place where it was written: “The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed; to proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD.” Then He closed the book, and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all who were in the synagogue were fixed on Him. And He began to say to them, “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”

The Sabbath day mentioned here is thought to be Pentecost for two reasons. The first is that the Jews had a system of reading called the Triennial Cycle, in which the Old Testament would be read on the Sabbaths over the course of three years. Here, Jesus read from Isaiah 61, which was the scheduled reading for Pentecost according to that tradition.

However, let’s look at what actually took place here. It says the book (or scroll) of Isaiah was handed to Him. It says that He opened it, which means it was closed when it was handed to Him. It says that He found the passage in Isaiah, not that the scroll was opened there. In other words, He didn’t just passively read what was handed to Him because tradition said He should. Instead, Jesus opened Isaiah, and then He found what He wanted to read that was divinely appropriate for this beginning of His ministry.

As second reason sometimes given for this taking place on Pentecost is a bit technical, and we won’t spend much time on it, but it is worth at least being aware of. That it, the Greek underlying the phrase, “the Sabbath day” in verse 16, is rare. Most references to the Sabbath in the New Testament just say, “the Sabbath,” but this says, “the Sabbath day.” Along with that, the word for “Sabbath” here, sabbaton, is plural. Thus, a literal translation could be, “the day of the Sabbaths,” or “the day of weeks,” which does sound a bit like Pentecost.

However, there is a Greek word for Pentecost that Luke was well-aware of because he used it twice in the book of Acts (Acts 2:1; 20:16). Also, the word sabbaton is frequently plural, even when a single day is indicated. This is just one of the features of the Greek word and how it is used. And even though the phrase “the Sabbath day” is fairly rare, Luke uses this exact construction in three other places (Luke 13:14; Acts 13:14; 16:13), and one is really hard-pressed to find any hint that those places indicate Pentecost. Now, it is possible the phrase indicates an annual Sabbath rather than the weekly one, but there is no evidence that the Greek phrase translated “the Sabbath day” always indicates Pentecost.

On the other hand, there are problems with this Sabbath being Pentecost. One is that the length of Christ’s ministry would be stretched well beyond 3 ½ years. In fact, it would make His ministry some 50 days shy of 4 years—much closer to 4 years than 3 ½ years. Now, we know His ministry ended in Abib on Passover. If we rewind 3 ½ years, it gives us a beginning in Tishri, which is offset from Abib by half a year. Taking this one step farther, starting on Atonement, Tishri 10, would give a ministry of 3 ½ years almost exactly.

A second problem with the Pentecost view is that Christ’s words in Luke 4 do not come just from the Pentecost portion of the Triennial Cycle, but rather from three different places in the same book. He blended portions of Isaiah 61, Isaiah 58, and probably Isaiah 42, which doesn’t fit into the Jewish reading for any day. He crafted His own message for that day, and that may have been at least part of the reason it says everyone’s eyes were fixed on Him. There was something out of the ordinary with His reading, something they weren’t expecting.

Before we get to the Isaiah portions, we will look at the rest of this incident in Luke 4. In verse 22, everyone was amazed or astonished by His words. They caught at least some of what He said, and it really sounded good because of what it referred to. Yet it also seemed incongruous because they knew His family was from this same small hamlet of Nazareth, and they knew He didn’t have an expensive education. But then He offended them. His words in verses 25-27 are examples of Gentiles being blessed while Israelites—the chosen people—underwent hardship. The audience didn’t like that. When you add in that He said Messianic prophecies were fulfilled that day in their hearing, it is no wonder the people of His hometown synagogue got all excited, and tried to throw Him off a cliff.

Now, most of what Christ read came from Isaiah 61, but we will look at the exceptions first. The phrase, “and recovery of sight to the blind,” is not in the Hebrew of Isaiah 61. Instead, it seems to follow Isaiah 42:7, which says, “To open blind eyes, to bring out prisoners from the prison, those who sit in darkness from the prison house.” What is significant about this insertion is that not only is Isaiah 42 a Messianic prophecy, but it foretells that the Messiah would bring justice to the Gentiles. It also says that the Messiah would be a light to the Gentiles, who were the ones identified as being blind prisoners whom the Messiah would rescue and heal. This fits with what Jesus said later in the synagogue that offended everybody, when He pointed out occasions when Gentiles were favored above Israelites.

Next, the last phrase of verse 18 says, “To set at liberty those who are oppressed.” That line also does not come from Isaiah 61, but from Isaiah 58:6. Isaiah 58 is not Messianic, but it relates to the Jubilee and the year of release before it. There are similarities between the release during the Shemitah and the proclaiming of liberty during the Jubilee, and Isaiah 58 contains themes that fit with both.

This is a bit of a tangent, but the difference between the year of release and the Jubilee had to do with the type of indebtedness. The year of release covered smaller debts, meaning loans that a man expected to be able to pay off in a handful of years, or when an Israelite was unable to pay, and so he indentured himself to pay off a debt. God set a limit of six years on those things, and within the 7^th year, those obligations were resolved.

The Jubilee, though, was a reset for larger debts that involved mortgaging the family land or the family home, and where a man fell on such hard times that he had to both lease his land and also work it, to pay off an obligation. God did not want this condition to continue for generations, and so He set time limits on how long such arrangements could last, so that a family did not become perpetually poor, and thus, oppressed. There was an end in sight at the Jubilee, if not for the man, then at least for his descendants. So, the Jubilee protected the inheritance. But because of greed, God gave a stern warning against oppressive terms or practices that would keep the poor from being unable to get back on their feet.

Now, when you read Isaiah 58 with this in mind, the themes of the Jubilee are apparent. The chapter is about a Sabbath with fasting, which points to Atonement. It starts with the command for the prophet to lift up his voice like a trumpet, which is reminiscent of the Jubilee declaration. And the chapter concerns itself, not with small debts and limited servitude, but with exploitation of laborers, heavy burdens, and oppression. It is about breaking every yoke and not just the 6-year arrangements. And God concludes by promising that when there is obedience, the whole nation will feast on Jacob’s inheritance. It is about the whole inheritance being in harmony, which the Jubilee safeguards.

So, when Jesus inserts the line, “To set at liberty those who are oppressed,” He was alluding to more than those who had short term debts they had to pay off or work off. He was promising to completely free those who were unable to better their own conditions because they were in destitution. What He pulled from Isaiah 58, with the mentions of liberty and oppression, rises above the level of the year of release and into the realm of the Jubilee.

The rest of Christ’s words come from Isaiah 61, which is also a Messianic prophecy. Christ says that He had been anointed, and the word “Messiah” means “anointed one.” He also proclaims liberty, which is a direct reference to Leviticus 25, where liberty was proclaimed on the Day of Atonement as the 50^th year was consecrated. Christ also proclaimed the acceptable year of the LORD, which is the year when His people become acceptable to Him. It is the year of God’s favor and goodwill. Christ was declaring that, as the Anointed One, He would set them free, not from bondage to the Romans (as they hoped), but from the worst bondage of all, the bondage of sin. They would be acceptable because ALL the debts against them would be wiped out—the small debts and the large ones. Even as the Jubilee gave hope to the poor above the Shemitah, so Jesus was declaring with a trumpet blast a new beginning, an 8^th year, as well as a 50^th year, in which everything would be reset through the Messiah, who was anointed on that day to begin these wonderful things.

The passage has hardly anything to do with Pentecost, but very much to do with the Jubilee that is proclaimed on the Day of Atonement on Tishri 10.

Remember I asked you to keep in mind that there was a year of release in 26-27AD. Now, If Christ began His ministry in that sabbatical year, His ministry would consist of a 7^th year, and then 2 ½ years of the next cycle. That makes for an odd configuration of years, and it also complicates Daniel’s 70 Weeks prophecy, which indicates that the Messiah would come at the beginning of a Sabbatical cycle, rather than the final year of a Sabbatical cycle.

On the other hand, the Jubilee comes after a year of release, and coincides with the first year of the next cycle. Now, with the year of release in 26-27, and with Christ—by all accounting—proclaiming the Jubilee here, it means the first year of His ministry was the year 27-28AD, beginning in the fall. You can put this in a spreadsheet, or you can count on your fingers with me:

From the fall of 27 AD to the fall of 28 AD is year one.

28-29 is year two

29-30 is year three

And the half year from the fall of AD 30 to Passover in the spring of AD 31 makes 3 ½ years.

We can take this one step further, and I will leave you with this thought. It also has to do with the 70 Weeks prophecy in Daniel 9. There is plenty of disagreement over various aspects of that prophecy, and it is not perfectly clear to me, either. But here are some things that are clear. From everything we can tell, Christ’s ministry lasted 3 ½ years, half of a Sabbatical cycle. And we know from other prophecies that there are still 3 ½ final years, variously called 42 months, 1260 days, or “a time, times, and half a time.” But what is significant is what Gabriel told Daniel would be accomplished by the time those 70 Sabbatical years are complete. Listen to this—Gabriel said, “To finish the transgression, to make an end of sins, to make reconciliation for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy, and to anoint the Most Holy [or, the Most Holy place].” When you search out what is prophesied, all but one relate to the Day of Atonement, the anchor point of Sabbatical and Jubilee years. That is the goal, or the termination point, of the prophecy.

God has a keen interest in His years of release, when they begin and end, because they testify of His faithfulness and His care of His people, and because these special years are part of the consistent pattern by which He has chosen to work out His incredible purpose. And now that we have a better understanding, we can repent, and God-willing, the next time we will read Deuteronomy at the right time, at the Feast in 2028.

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