This will be the fourth consecutive post positing four scenarios that foretell the “season” of Jesus’s return. Taken together, they present a convincing chronological pattern for us to consider. This one concerns the Jubilee Calendar.
Jubilee Calendar
God’s proscribed timekeeping for the Jews includes the Jubilee Calendar, another internal biblical confirmation of a 6000- year period preceding the millennial kingdom of Jesus Christ. In Genesis 6:3 Moses records: “And the Lord said, ‘My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, for he is indeed flesh; yet his days shall be one hundred and twenty years’.” Bible expositors typically connect this verse with God limiting man’s lifespan, or the time span to the flood. Neither suffice, however, as man’s life expectancy never settled on 120 years, and God’s statement was given between Noah’s 500th and 600th year, short of 120 (Genesis 5:32, 7:6). What, then, was God stating? The word “man” in this verse is Adam in Hebrew which means “mankind”- all the human race in general. It is clear, then, that the period of time God is referring to is the span of time He continues to “strive” (contend) with mankind. He was striving with man in Noah’s day and continues to strive with man to the present. And He will continue to contend with mankind until His Son sets up His Kingdom. Therefore, the “120 years (man’s days)” must refer to something other than 120-24hr days or 120- 1000-year days discussed previously. These would be unsupportable extremes. Yet, the 120 years must cover the period from the fall to the kingdom. To understand what timing mechanism God may be referring to, we need to look at the standard for timekeeping given to Moses and the Israelites. In Leviticus 25 God commanded Israel to farm their land for 6 years, then rest on the seventh (sabbath year) and repeat this for seven cycles. After seven cycles (49 years) they were to celebrate an additional sabbath, a 50th year, or as He called it, a Jubilee year. This Jubilee year was the longest time cycle (50 years) commanded by God to be kept. Knowing that, let’s assume that back in Genesis, even though it was before His Levitical command, God was speaking of His future Jubilee cycle when He spoke of 120 years. If that was the case, 120 x 50 equals 6000 years! Fits perfectly! In fact, it fits so perfectly that use of this chronology results in: Noah’s death and Abraham’s birth in the 2000th year (40th jubilee year), the exodus on the 50th (a jubilee of jubilees), Cyrus’ decree to release the Jews from Babylon on the 70th jubilee (beginning of Daniel’s 70 weeks prophecy), along with other “coincidences”.
This chronology predicts six millennia from Adam’s fall in the garden to Christ’s second coming-a perfect fit with the three other scenarios described in previous posts. Use of this calendar may just be the key that alerts us to the season of Jesus’s return. In my next post, I’ll look at the collective significance of these four scenarios and what it likely means for us.
Maranatha, Jim