Read these two passages closely, with regards to seven, Sabbath, and 'Jubilee'-fifthtieth year. Without a Jewish understanding and a grounding in the Old Testament-particularly Torah, much knowledge, understanding and revelation is lost. Enjoy!
Mathew 18:21-35.
The Parable Of The Unmerciful Servant.
(think Israel, here).
21Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, "Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times?"
22Jesus answered, "I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.
23"Therefore, the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. 24As he began the settlement, a man who owed him ten thousand talents was brought to him. 25Since he was not able to pay, the master ordered that he and his wife and his children and all that he had be sold to repay the debt.
26"The servant fell on his knees before him. 'Be patient with me,' he begged, 'and I will pay back everything.' 27The servant's master took pity on him, canceled the debt and let him go.
28"But when that servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii. He grabbed him and began to choke him. 'Pay back what you owe me!' he demanded.
29"His fellow servant fell to his knees and begged him, 'Be patient with me, and I will pay you back.'
30"But he refused. Instead, he went off and had the man thrown into prison until he could pay the debt. 31When the other servants saw what had happened, they were greatly distressed and went and told their master everything that had happened.
32"Then the master called the servant in. 'You wicked servant,' he said, 'I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. 33Shouldn't you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?' 34In anger his master turned him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed.
35"This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart."
Surely, the Grace of God!
From Chabad.org. click here to read the rest.
Six years you shall sow your field, and six years you shall prune your vineyard and gather its fruit. And the seventh year shall be a sabbath of rest for the land, a sabbath for G-d...
And you shall count for yourselves seven sabbaths of years, seven times seven years... a total of forty-nine years.... And you shall sanctify the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout the land and to all its inhabitants ....
Leviticus 25:3-10
The number seven figures prominently in our reckoning and experience of time. Most familiar, of course, is the seven-day work/rest cycle that comprises our week, a reenactment of the original seven days of creation when "in six days, G-d made the heavens and the earth... and on the seventh day He rested." Each Shabbat thus completes a full revolution of the original cycle, following which we start anew from "the first day" -- yom rishon, as Sunday is called in the Holy Tongue.
This is why many Jewish life-cycle observances are seven-day affairs. Two seven-day festivals frame our year -- Passover, which runs from the 15th to the 21st of Nissan, and Sukkot, occurring exactly six months later, on Tishrei 15-21. A marriage is celebrated for a full week of sheva berachot ("seven blessings"), and the death of a loved one, G-d forbid, is mourned for seven days (shivah). There are the seven clean days of the niddah (menstruating woman); the seven-day training period before the Sanctuary was inaugurated (shivat yemei milluim), the seven-day purification period from ritual impurity, and numerous other "sevens." Thus the freedom of Passover, the joy of Sukkot, the bond of marriage, the coming to terms with loss, and all these other features of Jewish life are assimilated in all seven dimensions of created time.
Our years, too, follow the cycle of creation: six workday years are succeeded by a sabbatical year of shemittah ("suspension"). In the Land of Israel, all agricultural work is suspended on the seventh year and the land's produce is declared free for the taking for all. Also suspended on the shemittah year are all private debts and the terms of servitude of indentured servants.
God Bless His Word.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Daily Bible Reading Plan
No comments:
Post a Comment