Seventy Times Seven

Thoughts regarding the seventieth Jubilee, the kindness and patience of God, and the end of sin...

The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.

II Peter 3:9 NASB

Just how patient is God and just how long will he wait for us? In Noah's generation it was many years from the time Noah began to build the ark until the flood came. After the prophecy of Jonah, God waited more than 100 years to destroy Nineveh and the kingdom of Assyria. After the crucifixion of Christ, the church endured 38 years of Jewish persecution before Jerusalem was destroyed and the Jewish nation was scattered. None of these time periods indicate a time limit for sin, but they do prove that there is a limit to God's patience and that an end of sin is coming. A clue can be found in Matthew 18:

Peter came and said to Him,

“Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him? Up to seven times?”

Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven."

Matthew 18:21-22 NASB

In this passage and the following parable, Jesus indicates that we must always be ready to forgive, since we have each been forgiven an unimaginable debt to God ourselves. The condition in the parable that triggers God's wrath is not a number or a time limit, but rather the unmerciful behavior of the one who was given great mercy. (Note that Jesus commands heart-forgiveness; to do less is to leave our debtors in prison.)

There is another "seventy times seven" in the Bible, an interesting coincidence or maybe something more:

Seventy weeks have been decreed for your people and your holy city,

to finish the transgression, to make an end of sin, to make atonement for iniquity,

to bring in everlasting righteousness,

to seal up vision and prophecy and to anoint the most holy.

Daniel 9:24 NASB

Those weeks (Hebrew "shabuim") are generally interpreted by Christian scholars as periods of seven years, thus the prophecy primarily refers to the 490 years from that time until the final atoning sacrifice of Christ and the anointing of the body of Christ for world outreach. This prophecy was to be sealed and only released after it was fulfilled. If the math seems strange, consider that seven years is the time designated by God for the remission of debt. The last year of this shabua is known as a "Sabbath year" (Hebrew "shemittah"). Seventy times the shemittah would be observed in the land of Israel, seventy times seven times the high priest would offer the yearly atonement for their sins. After this time God would turn his face away from the Jews and send his Jewish church to the Gentiles. (Remember that after God lifts his hand of protection, there may be years before the natural consequence of sin causes the inevitable disastrous effects.)

The question remains how long before the "times of the Gentiles" is fulfilled and the Messiah returns to reconcile the Jews to himself. There is another type of "shabua" or period of seven known as "Jubilee" (Hebrew "yobel"). Jubilee occurs after seven shemitta periods, or every 49 years. Jubilee is a year when Jews are to return to their tribal homeland, and when the land of Israel should revert to its original tribal allotments. Thus Jubilee has a special relationship to the promised return of Messiah and the establishment of his kingdom on earth.

It turns out that, according to many who have studied this subject, we are in the seventieth Jubilee since the promised land was first given to the tribes of Israel. There are two possible implications regarding this time that we live in now. First, that the seventy times seven prophecy of Daniel applies also to the second coming of Christ, and that the time has come for sin and transgression to end and the promised everlasting righteousness to be established on earth. Second, that the grace of God extended to mankind may have a limit of "seventy times seven" after all, as alluded to by Christ in the book of Matthew.

I'm not suggesting that there is a time limit on God's forgiveness, or that Messiah must come within a certain known time window, but rather that now is a special time and should be treated with utmost diligence to seek a right relationship with God through the mercy offered to us in Christ.

Jubilee is a season of liberation, and a time of spiritual renewal. Though the land may sit idle (i.e. we should not focus on material gain), it is a time when we should use our storehouse of spiritual treasure to reach those in need. Here's a good article on the positive aspects of this Jubilee year:

http://www.johnnyandelizabeth.com/blog/2016-true-year-of-jubilee.

If this Jubilee is bringing the kingdom of Satan to an end, let's consider what that could mean. The One speaking in Daniel 12 says this:

“At that time Michael, the great prince who protects your people, will arise.

There will be a time of distress

such as has not happened from the beginning of nations until then.

But at that time your people

—everyone whose name is found written in the book—

will be delivered.

Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake:

some to everlasting life,

others to shame and everlasting contempt.

Those who are wise will shine like the brightness of the heavens,

and those who lead many to righteousness,

like the stars for ever and ever.

Daniel 12:1-3 NASB

The final jubilee will be a time when all property returns to its rightful owner (God). Such a financial catastrophe will lead to a time of great distress for those who don't have faith, but in the midst of this trouble the people of God will be delivered, and will shine like the stars of heaven. Stars shine at all times, but they can only be seen in darkness. People will be drawn to the light, or they will run to the darkness, so that the fruit will be evident and the harvest can begin.

The true church will stand and grow, while the apostate church will descend with the reprobate culture. At some point this apostasy will exhaust the patience of God, and then the end will come. Truthfully, I don't know how or when this will end, but I know The One who will end it. I'm sure it will be crystal clear at that time, as clear as the glassy sea around His throne. Until then we must work while it is called today, so that Christ may present us to himself as his spotless bride.

Heavenly Accounting

God is not a bookkeeper, but there are certainly books being kept on each of us, and not just by Google and the credit bureaus.

The book on me contains everything I've done, which is basically a book about my sin, because everything I do (including my righteousness) is as "filthy rags" before God.  There is absolutely nothing I could do to zero out this book.  There is nothing you could do, or all of us could do together to zero out these books.  Add to this debt the infinite debt incurred by all of us, when we rejected His Son and put Him through a most painful and unjust death on the cross.  That's a pretty heavy load of debt.

On the other side of the ledger is only one act that can balance the books.  That is the sacrifice of the pure and spotless Lamb of God.  His blood can cover every line in your book.  The good new is - Jesus  lives and He forgives.  You know in your heart that you could not stand and account for your life before God.  Without Jesus we are toast.  Only Jesus can get us out of this jam.

Let me share one of my favorite Psalms 130 with you in music.


In this Psalm, verse 4 says "If you, O Lord, kept a record of sins, O Lord, who could stand? But with you there is forgiveness; therefore you are feared.."

God doesn't want to read my book, He just wants to see my heart pumping the blood of Jesus through my veins, giving me new life. Live in me LORD, and pour out your blessings through me to others!  In Jesus name...

The Balooning Deficit - What's Up With That?

Why the budget deficits?  Find out for yourself here:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/special/politics/30-years-spending-priorities-federal-budget-2012/

The Washington Post provides a nice little interactive tool that helps you see where the money has been coming and going for the last 30 years.  For example:

You can see from the charts where the real problems lie.  First, revenues have declined $600 billion from $2.7 trillion in 2007 to $2.1 trillion the last few years.

Second, spending has gone from $3 trillion in 2007 to about $4 trillion each year since.

So breaking it down further, you will see the exponential growth of the entitlement programs, particularly health care-related expenditures.  You will also see the massive doubling of "income security" which is another word for unemployment benefits.  Oddly, that started in the 2010, most likely due to extending unemployment benefits from one year to two years.

On the revenue side, what happened in 2009?  Individual and corporate income taxes declined by $400 billion.  I believe that was due to an abrubt halt in routine investment gains that had been realized in prior years.  You can't really blame unemployment because payroll taxes hardly budged during that time.  Not only did capital gains evaporate and corporate incomes greatly decline, but you now have a carry-over effect with unrealized capital losses limiting tax revenues.

I guess the most disturbing thing to me is that the 2012 budget calls for a $500 billion increase in tax revenues.  If that doesn't happen we could be staring at a $1.6 trillion budget gap in 2012.  And it could get even worse, with a likelihood of much greater expenditures on interest on the national debt.

$1.6 trillion dollar deficit in a single year - whoa.  That is more than the entire federal budget when the first President Bush left office.  Yet I think the average taxpayer's income is probably not much higher than it was then.  (Mine certainly isn't.)

What can be done about this?  We could probably cut $200 billion from expenditures by getting employment back to pre-recession levels.  That might also add $100-200 billion in revenues.  But primarily the problem is the explosive growth of health care spending.  That absolutely must be stopped, and Obama Care is not going to do it.  Consumers absolutely must become aware of their health costs at the point where they make decisions that affect their health.

I recommend reading a book "The Coming Jobs War" by Jim Clifton.  That's a really good book that explains better than I can do in this blog.