Two biblical times intertwine in my understanding to guide me in the ongoing development of my life. Both are prophetic and both are contemporary: future and now. Together they move me along lines of God’s purpose for my life. I trust that you will discern similar motions for your life.
The Jubilee is indicated in Leviticus 25:10 where the children of Israel (the people of God) were to “proclaim liberty throughout the land to all the inhabitants thereof” and every Israelite was to return to his ancestral patronage of land. All debts were satisfied and each person began a new Jubilee cycle of fifty years, fresh and without encumberance. For me personally this is similar to the provision God makes for renewing our youth like the eagle (Psalm 103), giving us a fresh burst of life after our having lived through a complete phase of maturation.
The annual festivals (moed-im) are the second set of times that couple with the large cycle of the Jubilee in my understanding of the progression of my life. These refer prophetically to the second stage of the coming of Messiah when he will consummate the age-long work of the spring festivals by putting away evil from the cosmos and restoring the creation of God to its original intent—but improved because of its having passed through the long testing of the moral creation. For me, this annual cycle is like my day-to-day living whereas the Jubilee is like my year-long sweep of life. The one is the small gear of the machine of living, the other the large gear of the clock-works of my life.
As we enter the Fall Festivals that begin with Yom Teruah (the Feast of Trumpets) which in the secular sense is called Rosh HaShannah (civil new year), let us prepare ourselves for renewal and for a forward look for living.
