ISRAEL AND THE YEAR OF JUBILEE

Is Israel central to the plan of God? Will there be a rebuilt Temple in Jerusalem? Can Christ only return if Jews have fully regained Israel's Biblical borders? These and other claims are examined in this article. This is a response to the teaching of Rev. Malcolm Hedding, from the International Christian Embassy, Jerusalem.

(Dan 9:24 NIV) "Seventy 'sevens' are decreed for your people and your holy city to finish transgression, to put an end to sin, to atone for wickedness, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy and to anoint the most holy.

(Isa 40:2 NIV)  Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her that her hard service has been completed, that her sin has been paid for, that she has received from the Lord's hand double for all her sins.

          Malcolm Hedding says that by linking these two verses and working with the Hebrew calendar rather than Gregorian calendar it is possible to determine when the year of Jubilee would recommence for Israel. Starting with 586 BC, the year that Judah went into Babylonian exile, adding the “seventy ‘sevens’ “ of Daniel, and then doubling them based on the Isaiah passage, one arrives at the date 1897. He cites two significant nineteenth century scholars who used this method to support this statement.

          He gives no credible reason for linking these two passages of Scriptures. In fact it is highly questionable that one could interpret Isaiah 40:2 as Israel being punished and paying for sins through the dispersion. This is not to mention the well accepted interpretation of Daniel 9:24-27, which points to the coming of Christ (Dan 9:25 [NIV]  "Know and understand this: From the issuing of the decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until the Anointed One, the ruler, comes, there will be seven 'sevens,' and sixty-two 'sevens.' It will be rebuilt with streets and a trench, but in times of trouble”) not the restoration of Jubilee. Christ Himself announced Israel’s Jubilee (which reveals the Old Testament Jubilee as a mere shadow of what it really means to have all debts cancelled) -

(18)  "The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed,(19)  to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor."
Luke 4:18-19

          Apart from these questionable interpretations, what is the real significance of 1897? If this was the year of Jubilee according to the interpretation offered by Malcolm Hedding, which means all debts are cancelled and all ancient lands are restored (Deut 15:1 [NIV]  “At the end of every seven years you must cancel debts”; (Lev 25:13 [NIV]  "In this Year of Jubilee everyone is to return to his own property”), then this is the year that the Jews should have returned to their land. Indeed the scholars that Malcolm Hedding refer to obviously anticipated this.

          Also, if 1897 was the reinstitution of Jubilee, then 1947 should have been the next significant year (even using the more generous Gregorian calendar). If Jews had re-entered the favour of the Lord, then how do we explain the atrocities of World War Two?

ISRAEL AND THE “THIRD TEMPLE”

(Zec 4:6 NIV)  So he said to me, "This is the word of the LORD to Zerubbabel: 'Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,' says the LORD Almighty.

          Malcolm Hedding says that the context of this passage demands the building of a third temple. Solomon’s was the first, Zerrubabel’s was the reconstructed second, and Herod’s was the restored second, according to Malcolm Hedding. He supports this by saying that Revelation 11 also refers to a third temple.

          I can’t find one (credible) scholar who interprets Zechariah 4:6 as referring to the construction of a third temple. This is comforting, because I’ve read the entire passage over and over and can not for the life of me see how this refers to a third temple. Although Malcolm Hedding denies this, the context is in regard to the reconstruction of the temple under Zerubbabel being made possible by the power of God’s Spirit. Malcolm Hedding says the construction of the third temple on Mount Moriah as integral to the validity of Scripture. He therefore says that all Christians everywhere should make praying for the construction of the third temple a priority. Because once it is completed, Christ can appear to Israel for their salvation.

ISRAEL AND ITS LAND

The LORD had said to Abram, "Leave your country, your people and your father's household and go to the land I will show you. I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you."
Genesis 12:1-3

          Malcolm Hedding calls this the Covenant of Grace. I understand his reasoning for this title, and agree with him. He says that this covenant incorporated an everlasting ownership of Canaan. That is, the Abrahamic Covenant is inseparably linked to the occupation of Palestine by Jews. Presumably he bases this statement on Genesis 13:15-

All the land that you see I will give to you and your offspring forever.

          Yet he fails to mention the obligations of the Abrahamic upon Hebrews which made this conditional -

Then God said to Abraham, "As for you, you must keep my covenant, you and your descendants after you for the generations to come.”
Genesis 17:9

          Malcolm Hedding says, based upon his assumptions about Abrahamic Covenant that if Israel fails to possess her land and thus not fulfil this covenant, our own everlasting life is in danger. In reply to this, I say that he is right! If we, who are in covenant with God through the New Covenant fail to keep the obligations of the New Covenant we are in danger of losing our everlasting life! He says that Christians should do all they can to help Israel triumph in the possession of their land. Does this mean that we should assist Israel in murdering and evicting Palestinians or Arabs who are living in the West Bank?

ISRAEL AND THE PEOPLE OF GOD

          I agree with Malcolm Hedding when he says repeatedly that the Church has not replaced Israel, only expanded it. He refers to “physical” Israel (Jews) and “spiritual” Israel (Christians). He says that we are both a part of the one family. He seems to include all Jews and all backslidden Christians in this family. I think this is wrong, and I’m not sure whether this is really what Malcolm Hedding means. But he stresses that all Jews and Christians are one body, one new man, one commonwealth. But he is wrong. The passage in Ephesians 2 refers to redeemed Jews, and redeemed Gentiles -

14  For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, 15  by abolishing in his flesh the law with its commandments and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace, 16  and in this one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility. 17  He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. 18  For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit. 19  Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God's people and members of God's household,

          Some Christian Zionists appeal to the argument that if God has cut off Israel from being His people, then He could just as easily cut off the Church from being His people as well. They argue this way to show that God culd not cut the Church off, and therefore has not cut Israel off. This reasoning baffles me. Jesus said that God would cut off anybody who became unfruitful -

(John 15:1-2 NIV)  "I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener.  He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.

Jesus also said that this was why the responsibility for the Kingdom of God being demonstrated on earth would be taken from the Jews alone, and given to another people-

40  "Therefore, when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?" 41  "He will bring those wretches to a wretched end," they replied, "and he will rent the vineyard to other tenants, who will give him his share of the crop at harvest time." ...43  "Therefore I tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit.”
Matthew 21:40-43

          The Jews listening to Jesus knew that He was talking about them -

(Mat 21:45 NIV)  When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard Jesus' parables, they knew he was talking about them.

          I thought it was rather obvious that God would cut off people who had become apostate. This includes people in the Church as well. God has cut off people from being included as His people. Paul the apostle, and the Old Testament prophets, both argue that within Israel there was only a “remnant” that were truly the people of God -

(Isa 28:5 NIV)  In that day the LORD Almighty will be a glorious crown, a beautiful wreath for the remnant of his people.

(Jer 6:9 NIV)  This is what the LORD Almighty says: "Let them glean the remnant of Israel as thoroughly as a vine; pass your hand over the branches again, like one gathering grapes."

(Rom 9:27 NIV)  Isaiah cries out concerning Israel: "Though the number of the Israelites be like the sand by the sea, only the remnant will be saved.

CONCLUDING THOUGHTS

          The Christian needs to take great care in being polarised about Israel. Up one end of the argument is that God is now opposed to Jews. This is “anti-Semitism”. It is wrong. Jews have a precious heritage-

(Rom 9:4-5 NIV)  …the people of Israel. Theirs is the adoption as sons; theirs the divine glory, the covenants, the receiving of the law, the temple worship and the promises.  Theirs are the patriarchs, and from them is traced the human ancestry of Christ, who is God over all, forever praised! Amen.

          Up the other end of the argument is that Israel is central to the plan of God, and that Jews play, and will play, the central role in Biblical prophetic fulfilment. In this instance, Jews are the “physical people of God”. The question in this case is: Does God have a people that are distinguished by physical and spiritual criteria? To answer this question, and temporarily close this debate, I quote from Paul -

It is not as though God's word had failed. For not all who are descended from Israel are Israel. Nor because they are his descendants are they all Abraham's children. On the contrary, "It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned."  In other words, it is not the natural children who are God's children, but it is the children of the promise who are regarded as Abraham's offspring.
Romans 9:6-8

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