The Mystery of the Shemitah Sermon Notes

These are the notes I used Sunday morning in my message on the Mystery of the Shemitah. Most of the information came from studying what Warren Wiersbe and Jonathan Cahn. As I tried to say Sunday, nothing has to happen in the next week or the next month or the next year. God is sovereign, and He can do what He wants to do. What I am saying is that God is just as faithful as He is sovereign. Looking at what He has done in the past, in the past with the Jewish people and in the USA, I wouldn't be surprised if something major happened in the next 30 days with the US economy or something greater that goes along with and in addition to a significant upheaval with the US and world economy. Even as one's mind can run rabbit trails about all that might happen, I cannot help but think of the old hymn that says, "My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest frame but wholly lean on Jesus name. On Christ the solid rock I stand, ALL OTHER GROUND is sinking sand."

The Mystery of the Shemitah

Leviticus 25:1-22, Deuteronomy 15:1-11

September 6, 2015

There is a great deal of concern about the days we are in and the days we are facing. Does the Bible have anything to say about it? As you would assume, I believe the Bible has a lot to say about the day we are living in and the days to come. We addressed part of it in the series Coming Attractions. I want to address one more aspect of it today. It finds its roots in the Law of Moses. In the books of Leviticus and Deuteronomy. It is called the Shemitah. READ TEXT The word "shemitah" is a Hebrew word so you will not see it in your English Bible.

1. What is the Shemitah?
1. Shemitah means remission or release, but it can also mean shaking and destruction. The very day when this remission or release was to take place was at sunset on Elul 29 (falls in the month of September in our calendar).
2. The year of the Shemitah was to be a blessing to the people of God. Just as the Lord gave instruction that every 7th day, Sabbath, was to be a day of rest, every 7th year, Shemitah, was to be a year of rest, and at the end of every 49 years there was to an additional year of rest called the Year of Jubilee (Lev. 25). 
3. Personal debts were to be released or canceled every 7 years. Indentured servants were to be released.
4. At the beginning of the 7th year during the Feast of Tabernacles, the priests taught the people the Law from Deuteronomy, specifically reminding them of the Shemitah. It was kind of like a Jewish bible conference. God’s blessing would remain if we obey, but God’s judgment will come if we disobey (Deut. 15:5). Rom. 10:17 says, “Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God.” 2 Cor. 5:7 says, “We walk by faith and not by sight.” The Jews had to have great faith because they would have to trust the Lord for 3 years of provision: the 6th, 7th, and into year 1 of the next cycle. The sad news is that the OT doesn’t say that the Jews ever practiced the Shemitah once they entered the Promised Land.
5. 3 motives to obey the Lord concerning the Shemitah. (W. Wiersbe)
1. Appreciation for God’s blessings (Deut. 25:4, 6, 10, 14).
2. Appreciation for God’s delivering the people from slavery in Egypt.
3. Simple obedience to God’s Word.

1. How did it work in the Old Testament? (FYI- The Hebrew word for safety is Yeshua.)
1. God sent 9 harbingers or warnings to the Jews via the prophets.
2. In 586 BC during the days of the prophet Jeremiah, the land and Jerusalem fell to the Babylonian armies of King Nebuchadnezzar. Why?
3. The Jews had failed to keep the Shemitah, God’s 7 year cycle of blessing and release, for 490 years. That is 70 cycles of 7 years. God’s judgment was that the land rest for 70 years; 1 year for every Shemitah the Jews failed to keep. God condemned the Jews to captivity in Babylon for 70 years (Ezekiel, Daniel, Ezra, and Nehemiah, Ester). 
4. God wanted the Shemitah to be a time of blessing from Him and a demonstration of the people in faith as they kept the Shemitah, but the people chose to disobey God. But even in this we can see the patience of God as He, over and over again, reached out to the people through prophets and circumstances so that they would return to Him, but they didn’t.

1. Is it working right now? The nation of Israel was established by God, first in Abraham, and then literally in Egypt. The only other nation to be brought into existence and dedicated to the Lord is America. 
1. Is the 7 year cycle visible in the history and economy of the US? Yes, it is. The 5 largest economic collapses in the stock market in the last 40 years demonstrate the 7 year cycle: 1973, 1980, 1987, 2001, 2008. Even in 1994 the bond market collapese; it’s called the Great Bond Massacre of 1994 when 600 billion dollars was lost in the US and trillions lost around the world.
2. Is there a chance that these events have any ties to the God’s 7 year Shemitah cycle? 100% of these events took place, according to the Hebrew calendar, in the year of the Shemitah.
3. The greatest collapses in US are also tied to and occur within the Shemitah. 3) 1937-38 was the Shemitah, 2) 2007-08 was the year of the Shemitah, and )1 1930-31 the Great Depression. These were long term crashes that lasted months and years.
4. Rise and fall of nations.
1. Jews.
2. Babylon and the Medo-Persian Empire.
3. 1917, the year of the Shemitah. WW I. Four nations are destroyed, and 1 nation rises: Russian Empire falls, Germany, Austrio-Hungarian Emprire falls, the Ottoman Empire falls, America rises to overtake Great Britain as the greatest financial nation.
4. 4 shemitah cycles later. 1945 WW II, the year of the Shemitah. It began in 1938, also the year of the Shemitah. America rises as the greatest military power in the world. The war was over, the victory march takes place in Berlin on Sept. 7, 1945 (Elul 29). FYI, the Twin towers was dreamed of in 1945, begun in 1966, finished in 1973, and destroyed in 2001. All take place in the year of the Shemitah.
5. 4 Shemitah cycles later, 1973, abortion is legalized. BTW it’s 2015, the year of the Shemitah and we just legalized same sex marriage.
5. Year of Jubilee. Takes place every 50th year. 
1. 1917-1918, Sept. to Sept. Shemitah. 1918-1919, possible Jubilee. Belfore Declaration. The Jews are invited by Great Britain to return to the promised land. They had not lived there since 70AD.
2. 1965-66, Sept to Sept, Shemitah. 1966-67, possible Jubilee. 6 Days War. Jews reclaim Jerusalem.
3. 2014-15, Sept to Sept, Shemitah. 50 year have passed. Elul 29, 2015 is the end of the Shemitah. September 13, 2015.
1. Sept 17, 2001, closing bell of the stock market. The largest one day crash in history to that point. Elul 29.
2. September 29, 2008, closing bell of the stock market. The largest one day crash in history. Elul 29.

The 2 greatest crashes in stock market history both happen on the same day of the Hebrew calendar, the calendar established by God: Elul 29. It happens according to the cycle of the Shemitah. It happens on the once every seven years Elul 29, the day of release and remission. They happen exactly 7 years apart down to the day, the hour, the minute, at the premise moment of the closing bell of the stock market on Wall Street. I don’t know what the future holds, but I do know who holds the future. Are you ready to meet Him?