(We discuss the above map in Part Three.)
The following is for those who desire more information.
In this second part, we answer questions that may have arisen from the first part, along with deeper insights.
The last seven years of Daniel’s 490
The prophecy of Daniel 9 presents the last seven years in the grand 490-year cycle as pivotal.
Subtract seven years from 2024t, and you get 2017t. This makes 2017t the start of the 490th Shmita. (Technically, 2017t begins the 489th or 490th Shmita year because the land on the east side of the Jordan rested from war seven years prior, {Deut. 3:20; Josh 11:23}. But this does not affect the actual Shmita year or Jubilee cycles, only the possibility of one additional missed Shmita for several tribes of Israel.)
How the well-known 2014-2015 Lunar-Tetrad Eclipses and the Solar in 2017 are superbly linked
Both the lunar and solar eclipses occur on a Shmita
The year 2014t was the total Lunar Shmita Eclipse, to which I devoted a full year of research and wrote extensively. It was part of a unique tetrad- four total lunar eclipses, each half a year apart, each landing on Passover or Tabernacles in both 2014 and 2015 – and is very rare.
Thus, God marked the 2014t Shmita with the lunar eclipse. But because the original Shmita begins from Creation itself (4115t), and it is in alignment with the Conquest (1406), the 70-year exile that includes the 49 years from the fall of Jerusalem to the return (587-538), it is therefore the dominate cycle. As the dominant Shmita, God has marked 2017 by this total Solar eclipse.
Note the divine order: although the sun (solar) dominates the moon (lunar), yet the night precedes the day. So, it is with the function and timing of the eclipses.
“And God made the two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night, …and the evening and the morning were the fourth day” (Gen 1:16,19).
And it is the pattern of Creation itself: God created everything in six days, three days of forming in parallel to the next three days of filling (Gen 1). Thus, light was created on the first day, but the sun and moon three days later. (Deut 14:28 is based upon this pattern. Also see Dan 9:27, “the middle of the week.”)
Moreover, Jesus rose on the third day. He is the Light before Sunlight. His seven-year ministry was cut short in the middle. When Jesus hung on the cross, the Sun shone for three hours, then Light abnormally darkened for three hours – “A darkness that could be felt” (Ex 10:21-23). But in three days, the Sun rose, preceded by the Morningstar (Matt 27:45; 28:1; Rev 22:16). Ponder this to understand what eclipses mean.
We will not go into detail in this blog, but both Shmitas (2014 and 2017) ultimately have their origin in Creation. See the charts below if you wish to know how that works. It’s important to understand how God calculates jubilees and missed jubilees – to be explained later.
NOTE: Due to the extra half-year at Moses, the book of Genesis places the Creation at 4115t or 4114n. Moses was already 80 at the burning bush (1447t, Exo 7:7; Num 33:39; Exo 12:2), and hence 80.5 at the Exodus (1446n) when God in effect said, ‘From now on, Spring will be the New Year for you’—thus adding half-a-year. (The amazing effects of Acts 6 await a future blog. And see above charts.)
Moreover, when counting jubilees from Creation, add one full year because the Shmita and Jubilee are announced at the end of six full years, not seven. That’s why Adam died at 930 –the 19th jubilee of his life.
When does the Jubilee begin?
Jewish scholars (and the Talmud) insist that the jubilee cannot restart until all 12 tribes return to the Land. So, when we speak of the jubilee, we refer to the original one that began in 1406 BC. As it is written…
“When ye come into the land which I give you (1406 BC), then shall the land keep a Sabbath unto the LORD… In the seventh year shall be a Sabbath,” (Lev. 25:2,4 KJV).
As we will show, although men no longer keep the jubilee (and collectively, Israel never kept it anyway), yet God still tracks it!
Why does God track it?
Because it symbolizes and proclaims the First and Second Comings of Jesus Christ. “HE IS OUR SABBATH REST”! (Hebrews 3-4).
Important side note for the advanced student: the modern Jewish year from Creation (3761t BC), which is based upon faulty chronology, is nevertheless perfectly aligned. Not long after Christ, in an attempt to appropriate known facts yet force the terminus ad quem of Dan 9 to be AD 70 (68), someone determined the Conquest as c.1273 BC, and eventually, the date stuck.
But the effect was providential!
The Conquest date of 1273 BC shifted forward seven Metonic cycles (133 years) from its true date of 1406, with the effect that 1273 now aligned with the jubilees from the actual Creation date of 4115t, (and with 930, 734, 685, 587, 538 BC (i.e., 931t et al.).
On the other hand, (to agree with Ezek 40:1), they invented a 14-year delay from the Conquest until when, allegedly, the jubilees officially began. According to their reckoning, the first jubilee began in 1259 BC. However, the effect of this was to shift the jubilee three cycles ahead of the correct date of 1406 BC!
(1406 minus 49*3 = 1259 BC, plus 14 years is 1273.)
In other words, according to Jewish reckoning (which is the very datum used in Israel today), 2024t-2025t is the 67th jubilee (had they never gone into exile), but really it is the 70th. Either way, it’s the same jubilee cycle.
Jubilees are not 50-year cycles, but 49-year cycles
As most bible-students know, a jubilee does not occur in 50-year cycles but in 49-year cycles. The “50th year” is counted inclusively or exclusively with the 49th year. (Scholars are divided on the issue.) But either inclusive or exclusive, the consensus view is that the seven-year Shmita cycle remains in synchronization with the 49-year jubilee cycle.
Sadly, a few still calculate jubilees as if 50+50+50, etc. Both biblical (Lev 25) and extra-biblical evidence refute this (e.g., Book of Jubilees, Book of Enoch, Dead Sea Scrolls, Samaritan jubilee cycles).
1406n BC is the Date of the Conquest
(Entry to Promised Land, with the harvest New Year commencing 1407t)
1406 BC is the consensus date of modern evangelical scholarship and confirmed by Talmudic tradition in regard to jubilees (e.g., Ezekiel’s vision in 574t, or 573n, said to be on the ‘17th jubilee’). It is the date most frequently found in Bibles, books, and scholarly articles. Exceptions to this are typically due to the failure to account for overlapping reigns in the chronology of the kings of Judah. The overlap of certain father-and-son kings of Judah is apparent when compared to the kings of Israel. (Or it is the failure to take 1Kgs 6:1 literally.)
Do you believe in coincidences?
If you add up the overlapped years of the Kings of Judah, they amount to exactly 49 years and ten days (or 50 years and ten days, depending on whether one takes the fall of Jerusalem to be 586 or 587 BC). This is exactly the number of years in a jubilee –to the very day. It also takes in both the “inclusive” and “exclusive” spans of a jubilee (Tishri 1 to Tishri 10th, plus the 49 or 50 years).
So then, amazingly, one can even ignore modern evangelical scholarship and the Jewish Talmud and still agree that 2024t is the year of Jubilee!
In conclusion, to the traditionalist Jew 2024t is the 67th jubilee.
To the old-school Christian chronologist, it’s the 71st.
But to the vast majority –and the actual one –it’s the 70th.
My friend, that’s a very large swath of agreement!
The eclipse is in America. What about the rest of the world?
I’m a Canadian. I am fully aware that America does not represent the whole world. But America has been a light to the world. If it’s light going out, watch out!
God can delay longer than 15 years!
The gracious 15-year delay I wrote about in 2009 is nearing the first stage of its end. (We explain how the numeric is tied to Hezekiah’s 15 years later. Generally, the 15 years spanned from 2010 to 2025, but then there is the possible seven years before or after that, etc.
As said back in 2009, and so I say again, God also made it explicitly clear that if He chooses, He may delay another 15 or 30 years. But incontrovertibly, 2025 is the great bows-eye, numerically speaking, spanning back, dare I say, hundreds of thousands of years – back to obscure ages. On this scale, 30 or 60 years is but a month or two – like a mere leap month. Notice in the chart that if cycles of 70 continue from the Creation 4175t BC, one arrives at 2055t-2056 AD. But then again, on a times-ten level, half 70 is 35, and Jesus said that the coming of the End would be “shortened” (Matt 24:21-22). Thus, 2055/2056 less 35 equals 2020/2021???
(That’s why the ten-plus-ten years between the eclipses of 2014 to 2024 to 2034, too. These ‘ten-plus-ten’ years on this scale are like the 49th and 50th year of a jubilee, in this case, 7*490 (as 7*49) from the Conquest of 1406 BC. Also, note the rare Metonic/draconic total solar eclipses on the Spring Equinox in 2015 and 2034 to precisely mark this 7th cycle of 70*7-years of Dan 9.)
My point is this: we cannot be dogmatic about when the end will be. Just be ready and watch.
These first two blogs have served to introduce our main subject:
“How did God calculate the missed Sabbath years?”
(It’s truly wonderful… To be explained in the next few articles!)
Click here for “Part One” of this two-part article.
(We discuss the above map in Part Three.)