The Mystery of the Shemitah (4 page)

The Mystery of the Third Witness

Scripture ordains that before a matter of judgment is executed, there must be two or three witnesses, two or three who bear consistent testimony concerning the matter.
The Harbinger
reveals that in the case of America and judgment, all three witnesses have appeared. The third witness is the president of the United States.

The Harbinger
Continues: The New Manifestations

Since
The Harbinger
came out, the harbingers and mysteries revealed in the book are continuing to manifest. What is spoken of in the book is coming true. The mystery of judgment has continued to progress.

•
  One of these concerns the seventh harbinger and a clear biblical sign foretelling the judgment of nations.

•
  Another concerns a prophetic word hidden in the ruins of Ground Zero.

•
  Another concerns the fourth harbinger, the tower, the president of the United States, and eight words that lead to national destruction.

•
  Another concerns a message sent out to millions in America and around the world, confirming the link of Isaiah 9:10 to September 11, 2001, but given years before the calamity took place.

•
  Another concerns an event that took place long before America became a nation and connected to the giving of the message of
The Harbinger
itself.

The continuation of the signs is itself a sign that America has continued its descent from God. As the apostasy progresses, so do the harbingers of judgment.

The Mystery Ground

One other mystery revealed in
The Harbinger
warranting mention here is that of the mystery ground. Embedded in America’s foundation is a prophetic warning. The warning was given on America’s first day as a nation. It concerns what will happen if America should ever turn away from God. Linked to that same day and that warning is a ground of earth—America’s ground of consecration. It is here the nation was dedicated to God at its birth. It is this ground which joins together ancient Israel, 9/11, and a prophetic warning to America for this hour.

The Mystery of the Shemitah

There is yet another mystery in
The Harbinger
we haven’t mentioned—for the reason that we will now devote the rest of this book to revealing it. Having now set the prophetic context, we will now begin to unlock that ancient mystery that has not only determined the course of modern history and modern events in America and the nations, but has also ordained the very timing of those events, down to the days—even down to the hours—the mystery of the Shemitah.

In order to unlock it, we must find and assemble five keys . . .

Chapter 4
FIRST KEY: The SEVENTH YEAR

The Man on the Mountain

T
HE MYSTERY BEGINS
in a Middle Eastern desert. An aged man ascends a mountain. The mountain is shaking and appears to be on fire, with flashes of lightning and thunderous rumblings of what sounds like a blasting trumpet. Gathered around the mountain’s base are multiplied thousands of people, watching in fear.

The old man reaches the mountain’s peak and enters into the midst of a thick cloud. Within the cloud he is given a revelation. The man is called “Moshe” and will be known to much of the world as Moses. From the revelation given him will come the commandments, the moral laws, the dietary laws, the laws of cleansings, the blueprint of the tent known as the
mishkan
or “tabernacle,” the establishment of priesthood and the sacrifices, the laws of the Sabbath and holy days, and all the details that will make up the foundation upon which the nation of Israel will rest. The revelation will be called the
Torah
or the “Law.” It is from this revelation that the mystery of the Shemitah will arise.

The Sabbath of Years

It is well known that, for the nation of Israel, every seventh day was called “the Sabbath.” The Sabbath was unique among days. The Israelites were commanded to keep it separate and distinct from the other six days of the week. It was holy. It was the Lord’s Day. On the Sabbath all regular work and all worldly endeavors were to cease. The Sabbath was the day of rest, to be devoted solely to the Lord.

But what is not well known is that the Sabbath was not only a day but also a year. As every seventh day was the Sabbath day, so every seventh year was the Sabbath year.

The LORD spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai, saying, “Speak to the children of Israel and say to them: ‘When you come to the land which I give you, then the land shall keep a Sabbath to the LORD. Six years shall you sow your field, and six years you shall prune your vineyard, and gather its fruits; but in the seventh year there shall be a sabbath of solemn rest for the land, a sabbath to the LORD.’”

—L
EVITICUS
25:1–4

The Sabbath year was likewise to be kept separate and distinct from the six years that preceded it. It was to be a holy year, a year specially devoted to the Lord. During the Sabbath year there was to be no working of the land. All sowing and reaping, all plowing and planting, all gathering and harvesting had to case by the end of the sixth year.

Six years you shall sow your land and gather in its produce, but the seventh year you shall let it rest and lie fallow . . .

—E
XODUS
23:10–11

During the Sabbath year it was not only for the people to rest, but also the land. The fields would lie fallow, the vineyards untended, and the groves unkept. The land itself would observe its own Sabbath to the Lord.

. . . 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.

—E
XODUS
23:11

During the Sabbath year the people of Israel were to leave their fields, vineyards, and groves open for the poor. For the duration of the year the land belonged, in effect, to everyone. And whatever grew of its own accord was called
hefker
, meaning, “without an owner.” So during the Sabbath year the land, in effect, belonged to everyone and no one at the same time.

Elul 29

Just as striking as what happened to the land during the Sabbath year was what happened to the people on the last day of that year:

At the end of every seven years you shall grant a release of debts. And this is the form of the release: Every creditor who has lent anything to his neighbor shall release it; he shall not require it of his neighbor or his brother, because it is called the LORD’s release.

—D
EUTERONOMY
15:1–2

“At the end of every seven years” refers to the last day of the Sabbath year. Elul was the last month of the Hebrew civil year, and the twenty-ninth day was the last day of Elul. So on Elul 29, the very last day of the Sabbath year, a sweeping transformation took place in the nation’s financial realm. Everyone who owed a debt was released. And every creditor had to release the debt owed. So on Elul 29 all credit was erased and all debt was wiped away. The nation’s financial accounts were, in effect, wiped clean. It was Israel’s day of financial nullification and remission.

In the Hebrew reckoning of time, each day begins not with the morning but with the night. This goes back to Genesis 1, when the account of Creation records that there was first darkness, night, and then the day. So every Hebrew day begins with the night before the day. And since night begins with sunset, every Hebrew day begins at sunset. Therefore the moment that all debts had to be reckoned as wiped away was the sunset of Elul 29.

The Remission

In English, the Elul 29 command ordains that every creditor shall “grant a release.” But the original Hebrew commands every creditor to make a “shemitah.” In those first two verses of Deuteronomy 15 the word
shemitah
appears no less than four times. At the end of the second verse it is written, “Because it is called the Lord’s release.” In Hebrew it is called the Lord’s “Shemitah.”

The word
shemitah
is most often translated as “the release” or “the remission.” The English word
remission
is defined as “the cancellation or reduction of a debt or penalty.” The Shemitah of ancient Israel refers not only to the releasing of the land but also to the nullification of debt and credit ordained by God and performed on a massive nationwide scale.

Shemitah became the name of the last day of the Sabbath year, Elul 29, the Day of Remission. But it also became the name of the Sabbath year in its entirety. The seventh year would become known as the Year of the Shemitah, or simply, the Shemitah. The Year of the Shemitah would begin with the releasing of the land and end with the Day of Remission, when the people would themselves be released.

So the word
shemitah
covers both the seventh year and the last day of that year. There’s a reason for that. That last day of Elul 29 is the year’s crescendo, its peak and culmination—the remission of the Year of Remission. In a sense, everything about the Shemitah year builds up to that final day, when everything is released, remitted, and wiped away in one day—or, more specifically, to the eve of that day, to the final sunset.

The Radical Ramifications

The idea of a nation ceasing all work on its land for an entire year is a radical proposition. No less radical is the idea of a day in which all credit and debt are wiped away. The ramifications of these two requirements are so great that concerns arose in later generations as to the Shemitah’s financial and economic consequences. These concerns were intensified when the Jewish people returned to the land of Israel in modern times.

In order to resolve these concerns, the rabbis sought to come up with ways of avoiding the Shemitah’s more radical requirements. One of these was based on the idea that the Shemitah applied primarily to Jewish-owned land. So in the Year of the Shemitah, Jewish farmers would sell their lands to non-Jews and continue to work. The selling would be done under an agreement in which the land would revert to the Jewish farmer at the end of the Shemitah year.