End Times and the Biblical Jubilee Cycle

Rabbi Judah ben Samuel was born in 1140.  He was known as Judah the Pious and was known for his emphasis on studying the bible, prayer and righteous living.  According to Wikipeida, Rabbi Judah ben Samuel was “descended from an old family of Kabbalists from Northern Italy that had settled in Germany.  Side by side with the official, dogmatic religion of the Church or the Synagogue there has always been a mysticism dealing more largely and more intimately with the personal relation of the individual to God, which at times was in opposition to the religion of the Synagogue.  Judah's mysticism was in such a stage of opposition; he therefore undervalued the study of the Halakhah and indulged in marked departures from the accepted religious practices. He endeavored to deepen the feeling of devotion and piety and emphasized the importance of studying the Bible rather than studying the Talmud.  He deals mystically with prayer, regarding it as more important than study.”  In essence, he was a very spiritual man who strove to follow God and live righteously.  He had a burning desire for the coming for the messiah and according to legend, the prophet Elijah is said to have participated in his Passover "Seder" meal and to have been seen by him in a synagogue.

Dr. Robert Mock has an excellent write-up on his Destination Israel Blog concerning Rabbi Judah’s prophecies that relate to the Jubilee Cycle and the year that the messiah comes.  Instead of writing the details of the prophecies I am going to excerpt a portion from Dr. Mock’s blog (shown in dark text) and refer the reader to his site for those that want to read more about Rabbi Judah from his blog.  Dr. Mock provides the following summary from his blog:

http://destination-yisrael.biblesearchers.com/destination-yisrael/2012/12/rabbi-judah-ben-samuels-jubilee-prophecy-gives-the-year-of-the-messiah.html

Rabbi Judah ben Samuel - “When the Ottomans (Turks) – who were already a power to be reckoned with on the Bosporus in the time of Judah Ben Samuel – conquer Jerusalem they will rule over Jerusalem for eight jubilees. Afterwards Jerusalem will become no-man’s land for one jubilee, and then in the ninth jubilee it will once again come back into the possession of the Jewish nation – which would signify the beginning of the Messianic end time.”

According to Leviticus 25, one Jubilee period is 50 years in which the 50th year, each person will regain ownership of his or her tribal lands. As Rabbi Judah the Pious looked into the future, he was postulating theoretical calculations, which today are showing them to be amazingly accurate. It would be over 300 years after his death that his first prediction would become true.

During the Roman Christian Crusades, the Mamluk began their reign in Jerusalem in the year of 1250 CE when the last Ayyubid Sultan of Egypt, Turanshah was assassinated by his Mamluk slave General Aibek. Aibek then founded the Mamluk Bahri dynasty. They held power over Jerusalem until they were conquered by the Ottoman Turks in the year of 1517, three hundred years after the death of Rabbi Judah ben Samuel.

According to Rabbi Judah he-Hasid, the Ottoman Turks would later wrestle power and control over the Middle East and assume power and control over Jerusalem. They would control the Land of Palestine and Jerusalem for eight Jubilees, according to his predictive calculations.

Well, eight Jubilees (50 years x 8 Jubilees) are 400 years. We know again by history that the Ottoman Turks gained control of Jerusalem in the year 1517 and held power over Jerusalem for 400 years, when they were conquered in 1917, by the British military forces under the command of British military General Edmund Allenby on Hanukkah, December 17, 1917.  The Ottoman Turks began to falter in 1918 after the defeat of the army at Jerusalem. The city of Damascus fell on October 1, Homs on October 16, and Aleppo on October 25 and Turkey capitulated on October 30, 1918. After this date the League of Nations conferred the Turkey, Syria, and Egypt to the British Mandate that included the Land of Israel, then called Palestine, and Jerusalem to the British.

Then the prophecy continues when it states; “Afterwards Jerusalem will become no-man’s land for one jubilee.” Is it not amazing that from the year of 1917 when the British Mandate controlled the city of Jerusalem, Jerusalem did become under international law a “no-man’s land for one jubilee”. It was fifty years after that year in 1917, that the Israeli army captured the city of Jerusalem in the Six Day War on June 17, 1967. Exactly one Jubilee, 50 years later, Jerusalem returned for the first time to the control of the Jewish-Israeli ownership since the day when Jerusalem was destroyed in 70 CE.

As Judah ben Samuel predicted the years of 1217 and 1517 were recognized as the biblical 50 year Jubilee Years. Three hundred years of six Jubilees after 1217, the Ottoman Turks took control of Jerusalem until its fading years when the Allied Forces swept the last ruler of the Ottoman from power by the forces of the British military troops under the command of General George Allenby in 1917.

Even after the Declaration of Independence by Israel in May 15, 1948 and Israel’s War of Independence against five Islamic nations, the city of Jerusalem still remained a “divided city”. The Jordanian government controlled the eastern part of Jerusalem including the Temple Mount and the Old City of Jerusalem. A strip of land divided the State of Israel control of Western Jerusalem and the Jordanian controlled East Jerusalem. This strip of land was called “The No-Man’s Land” by both Israelis and Jordanians.

Then in the year of 1967, Israel was once again attacked. After the Six Day War, on June 17, 1967, the entire region of the West Bank was conquered by the Israeli Army and the entire city of Jerusalem returned back in possession of the Jewish people. Seven hundred and fifty years after the prophecy was first made by Rabbi Judah the Pious, from 1217 to 1967, all the conditions of the prophecy were fulfilled to the letter of the prophetic oracle. Then Rabbi Judah heHasid wrote:

Rabbi Judah heHasid – “In the ninth jubilee Jerusalem will once again come back into the possession of the Jewish nation – which will signify the beginning of the Messianic end time.”

This leaves one more Jubilee, the tenth Jubilee since the Ottoman Turks took control of Jerusalem and the Land of Promise in the years of 1517. According to this Jewish sage, the end of this tenth Jubilee will “signify the beginning of the Messianic end time.”

The end of the 10^th Jubilee would be the year 2017.  Rabbinical teaching is that the messiah could come anytime between now and then depending on our level of repentance.  They teach that if enough people truly repent and turn to God, then the coming judgments will not be as severe and the messiah will return sooner.  So instead of focusing on the evil all around, we need to focus on God and implement true repentance.  The evil is only there to remind us of God and His salvation!

http://www.wnd.com/2012/11/12th-century-rabbi-predicted-israels-future/

The White House Ruins of Samaria

 

Micah 1:6 states “For I will make Samaria a heap of ruins in the open country, planting places for a vineyard.  I will pour her stones down into the valley and will lay bare her foundations.  (NASB)

I traveled to the biblical site of Samaria during the fall of 2009 and took this photo of the ruins of the Israelite palace in the northern Kingdom of Israel.  Samaria was established as the capitol city of Israel by King Omri and this is the palace where his son King Ahab and Jezebel lived and reigned.  The biblical narrative of the death of King Ahab identifies this palace as an “Ivory” or white house.  In 1st Kings 22:37-40 the Bible states “So the king died and was brought to Samaria, and they buried the king in Samaria. They washed the chariot by the pool of Samaria, and the dogs licked up his blood (now the harlots bathed themselves there), according to the word of the Lord which He spoke.  Now the rest of the acts of Ahab and all that he did and the ivory house which he built and all the cities which he built, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel? 40 So Ahab slept with his fathers, and Ahaziah his son became king in his place.”(NASB)

Samaria’s Palace “white house” was destroyed in 721 BC during King Hoshea’s reign by an Assyrian invasion and the northern 10 tribes of Israel were exiled and still have not returned as they eventually lost their identity.  Those that have either seen Pastor Jonathon Cahn’s video “Isaiah 9:10 Judgment” or read his book “The Harbinger” should be familiar with the parallels between the ancient Kingdom of Israel and the USA in Bible prophecy.  The words in Isaiah 9:10 were first spoken by the leaders of the Kingdom of Israel following a limited invasion by the Assyrians.  Isaiah 9:10 states “The bricks have fallen down, but we will rebuild with smooth stones; the sycamores have been cut down, but we will replace them with cedars.”  It was a statement of pride and defiance to God.  They were saying that they could just rebuild and do it even better than before.  They refused to repent and continued on their same path which led to a final invasion by Assyria and the destruction of the “ivory” palace that was in the capital city of Samaria. 

After the Twin Towers in New York City were destroyed by terrorists on September 11, 2001, Senator Tom Daschle quoted Isaiah 9:10 in a speech with the same arrogance and pride as the ancient Kingdom of Israel.  Just like ancient Israel our leaders and country have refused to repent and turn back to God.  If we continue on our current path, will the ancient biblical pattern be fulfilled again in our day with a massive attack by terrorists and the ultimate destruction of our “ivory” palace the White House?  Due to the quantum nature of prophecy, Micah 1:2-7 hints at this.

“Hear, O peoples, all of you; listen, O earth and all it contains, and let the Lord God be a witness against you, the Lord from His holy temple.  For behold, the Lord is coming forth from His place.  He will come down and tread on the high places of the earth.  The mountains will melt under Him and the valleys will be split, like wax before the fire, like water poured down a steep place.  All this is for the rebellion of Jacob and for the sins of the house of Israel.  What is the rebellion of Jacob?  Is it not Samaria?  What is the high place of Judah?  Is it not Jerusalem?  For I will make Samaria a heap of ruins in the open country; planting places for a vineyard.  I will pour her stones down into the valley and will lay bare her foundations.  All of her idols will be smashed, all of her earnings will be burned with fire and all of her images I will make desolate, for she collected them from a harlot’s earnings, and to the earnings of a harlot they will return.” (NASB)

Notice that God coming forth from His place to judge the earth speaks to the End of Days judgment.  Consequently, this prophecy was not only for Samaria and the house of Israel in biblical times (721 BC), but also for the same group of people today (the descendants of the house of Israel that are located in the West, primarily in the USA).  The fact that Senator Daschle quoted Isaiah 9:10 helps confirm who we are and what are destiny could be if we fail to return to God.  God’s people need to truly repent and we need to do it NOW before it is too late!  We are all guilty in a decadent society that has turned its back on God.  Only true repentance will prevent our White House from becoming a heap of ruins in the open country!

God’s Two Great Houses – The Key to Understanding End Times Prophecy

When the Israelites entered the Promised Land they settled in areas according to the tribes.  God was their King and they were initially led by Judges.  Eventually, there naturally developed two Kingdoms.  The Northern Kingdom of Israel led by the predominant tribe Ephraim and the southern Kingdom of Judah led by the tribe of Judah.  The United Kingdom under Kings David and Solomon brought both groups together as one nation.  However, even under their reign, the Bible refers to the kingdoms as separate entities.

Later in biblical history, the northern kingdom of Israel was conquered by Assyria in 721 BCE and exiled beyond the Euphrates River while the southern kingdom of Judah was conquered by Babylon and exiled to that area in 586 BCE.  Seventy years later the Jews returned to their homeland while the northern kingdom never did return in significant numbers and are to this very day referred to as the Lost 10 Tribes of Israel.  There were two separate Israelite kingdoms conquered and exiled at two different times to two different places.  The Jews retained their identity while the northern 10 tribes did not.

Most Bible believing people today, both Christians and Jews read the Old Testament and understand that the United Kingdom under King Solomon was divided following his death into the northern kingdom of Israel and southern kingdom of Judah.  However when they read the books of the prophets related to the End of Days they fail to distinguish between the two groups and lump them together as Judah or the Jews.  Part of the confusion lies in the name that the returning Jews called their new State as they called it Israel instead of Judah.  In fact, President Harry Truman was even surprised by this choice in 1948 as he assumed that the Jews would call their new state Judah (A Case of Courage, Newsweek magazine, May 14, 2007 issue).

When you read Bible prophecy concerning the end times events, you will not understand the full message of what God is going to do unless to keep this distinction (Israel and Judah) in mind while reading.  It is clear that God’s plan is to bring both kingdoms back for restoration in Greater Israel.  In Jeremiah 33:7-9 it says “I will restore the fortunes of Judah and the fortunes of Israel and will rebuild them as they were at first.  I will cleanse them from all their iniquity by which they have sinned against Me, and I will pardon all their iniquities by which they have sinned against Me and by which they have transgressed against Me.  It will be to Me a name of joy, praise and glory before all the nations of the earth which will hear of all the good that I do for them, and they will fear and tremble because of all the good and all the peace that I make for it.”(NASB)

In the book of Ezekiel we see that the Messiah brings all the tribes home and settles them in their tribal territories (Ezekiel 47:13-23).  The Messiah will implement God’s plan to unite and restore His kingdom.  Ezekiel chapter 37 describes the process of uniting the House of Joseph (10 Lost Tribes) with the House of Judah in the vision of two sticks that become one nation in God’s hand.  We are partway through the process.  Judah has returned home and the 10 remaining tribes are waking up to who we are and God is burdening our hearts to return as well.  We are anxiously waiting on God’s anointed messiah to call the remaining remnant of his people (Lost 10 Tribes) home to complete the process and restore all things as the prophets foretold long ago. 

The prophet Isaiah says in Isaiah 11:10-13:  “Then in that day the nations will resort to the root of Jesse, who will stand as a signal for the peoples; and His resting place will be glorious.  11 Then it will happen on that day that the Lord will again recover the second time with His hand the remnant of His people, who will remain, from Assyria, Egypt, Pathros, Cush, Elam, Shinar, Hamath, and from the islands of the sea.  12 And He will lift up a standard for the nations and assemble the banished ones of Israel, and will gather the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth.  13 Then the jealousy of Ephraim will depart, and those who harass Judah will be cut off; Ephraim will not be jealous of Judah, and Judah will not harass Ephraim.”(NASB)

 

Then in Hosea 11:9-11 God says “I will not execute My fierce anger; I will not destroy Ephraim again.  For I am God and not man, the Holy One in your midst, and I will not come in wrath.  They will walk after the Lord, He will roar like a lion; indeed He will roar and His sons will come trembling from the west.  They will come trembling like birds from Egypt and like doves from the land of Assyria; and I will settle them in their houses, declares the Lord.”(NASB)

Last time I checked, our country was located to the west of Israel!  Are you ready for His call?  When He roars, will you be one of the ones that come trembling from the West?