Jubilee – It Is Finished

God’s seasons

I take an online Hebrew class every Monday afternoon. A couple of weeks ago, I was working on my vocabulary flashcards and I came across the word “season or time” which is “et” or עת in Hebrew. And it got me thinking about it’s meaning.

Most of the prophetic words I hear are about seasons. Season of miracles, season of favor, season of restoration, time of breakthrough, etc. Almost all of these use Old Testament Scriptures to confirm them. And the focus is on “doing.” For example, God will release favor in our lives if we’re faithful to do all He has said.

I love the prophetic. There have been times I’ve received prophetic words in my life that confirmed what the Spirit of God had already spoken to me regarding His direction or things concerning my destiny. And it gave me the boldness to act on it… to walk it out.

I don’t have an issue with “seasons” per se. But the problem with seasons is it keeps us focused on a timeframe. One of the aspects of me and my husband’s business is farming. Farming is seasonal….. even in California where we farm year round. We still have seasonal crops. If we’re not careful, we catch ourselves using “catch phrases” that box us into ways of thinking in particular seasons. For instance, cherry season is financially great, apple season we can finally rest, summer fruit season is BUSY, December – January is our leanest season, etc. While all of that seems to be true in the “natural,” it can keep us boxed into certain expectations or limitations. Keeping us walking in by sight and not by faith.

Prophetic “seasons” can do the same. They keep us future focused on what Jesus is going to do, instead of what Jesus has already done. They keep us looking at just one thing for the “season” such as God’s favor instead of looking at the FULL finished work of Christ in our lives and the truth that He has given us ALL things that pertain to life and godliness NOW.

So while I was studying for Hebrew and noticed the word season is “et” or עת in Hebrew. It is made up of the letters “ayin” and “tav”.

“ע” which is ayin in Hebrew is the idea of seeing and watching as well as knowledge. ayin (Gen 6:8) referring to the eyes of the Lord. a word describing an eye…or insight or seeing or perceiving with God’s perspective.

“ת” which is tav in Hebrew meaning cross or the sign of the covenant.

I love that! God’s seasons in our life are all comprised of seeing things from His perspective, and that perspective is Jesus and His finished work (Heb 1:1-3). In every season of my life, I should expect to the finished work of the cross to be in operation in my life. No matter what a natural season may look like in my life, it is still a season of favor, abundance, health, goodness, grace, wisdom, breakthrough, prosperity, sonship, freedom, deliverance, etc.

Luke 4:19 Jesus declared it a “year of God’s favor or a year of Jubilee.” Year is a cycle of time… a season. The root word for Jubilee in Hebrew is yabal, which means “to flow.” Jesus provided a continual flow for us in every season of our life. We don’t just have a season of favor, a season of peace, or a time of abundance. We have a lifetime of continual fulfillment…. of the ALL things that He provided for us for life and godliness.

I still read prophetic words that come across my path about seasons, but now I read them as a reminder of what Jesus has done and what is already mine. Not dependent upon what I do, but mine by inheritance. I read them as God highlighting certain things that are part of the finished work so that I can grow in my knowledge of them. Gain more understanding of these things so that I can walk in victory.

What did the finished work of the Cross provide? That’s your season! Walk in the revelation of it. Walk in the victory of it.

~ Robin

Enemy of Israel…. healed!

And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, and none of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian.” When they heard these things, all in the synagogue were filled with wrath ~ Luke 4:27-28

I started this blog post 2 weeks ago but a death in my immediate family forced me to put my study on hold. Now that life has resumed back to normal, I’m excited to start blogging once again.

We had been talking about Jesus’ teaching of Isaiah 61:1-2 in the past two blogs (see Jesus is our Jubilee and The widow of Sidon) and the people of Nazareth’s response to His teaching. He was revealing to them that He had come to be a light and a blessing… to show forth His salvation… to the Gentiles (unbelievers) as well as the Jews.

He was reminding them of their covenant responsibility to co-labor with Him in being a blessing to ALL the families of the earth (Genesis 12:3)…. He had blessed them to be a blessing… and to release that blessing to ALL we come in contact with.

This example that He gave was unthinkable to their natural reasonings! The widow represented Gentile sinners which was bad enough….. BUT Naaman represents much more than that… he was the captain of the Syrian army… the Syrians oppressed Israel. They were enemies of Israel. Much in the same way that the Romans were the oppressors of the group sitting and listening to Jesus.

Surely Jesus wasn’t asking them to be a light and a blessing to their oppressive enemies, was He?

Remember, God’s heartbeat is for the nations. He was so intent on showing the Israelites His love and compassion for ALL people, and that ALL people can have faith in God, that He chose one of the most hated men in Israel at that time to prove it. God in His mercy pursued Naaman…. there were MANY lepers in Israel but none of them were healed except Naaman the Syrian (Luke 4:27)

The Syrians were always terrorizing and attacking Israel and then taking prisoners back to Syria… and on one of these raids, Namaan carried off a little girl from Israel and made her his wife’s servant (2 Kings 5:2).

2 Kings chapter 5 opens with the Lord allowing Syria to win a battle, although we don’t know who the other side is. The Bible also tells us that Naaman was mighty, honorable to his King (King Aram) and strong in battle. But his military strength and glory were marred by an incurable disease of leprosy.

This little girl that he kidnapped tells Namaan’s wife about the prophet Elisha and that Naaman could be healed if only he were with him.

I love the little girl in this story… she is definitely a co-laborer with God…a minister of reconciliation. She is extending the light and the blessing to the one who took her captive. She has complete faith that if Naaman were to see Elisha he would be healed! She had faith in her God that He is not only able to heal but is also willing to heal…. even an enemy of Israel!

While this story in Luke 4 is a rebuke to the people listening to Him that they are neglecting their covenant role of being blessed to be a blessing to ALL the people of the earth… thankfully, however God doesn’t just rebuke us and leave in our neglectful condition. It is also an invitation to be His ambassadors of unconditional love… God’s love that He poured out into our hearts (Romans 5:5) … to even our enemies… those who oppose us… oppress us… or even enslave us (as Namaan did to this girl).

Namaan goes to see Elisha. An enemy of God, one who has attacked, killed, plundered Israel, one who has leprosy… an outcast of outcasts is standing at the door of the man of God hoping to be healed. He comes carrying as gifts 750 pounds of silver, 150 pounds of gold, and ten sets of clothing and with his horse and chariot and wealth. What a sight Namaan was… power, prestige, a commanding presence. He had yet to acknowledge with the psalmist that “Some nations boast of their chariots and horses, but we boast in the name of the Lord our God.” (Psalm 20:7).

But rather than respond to such pomp and circumstance as Namaan was undoubtedly used to people doing…. rather than come personally, Elisha sends a messenger to him telling him to go and wash 7 times in the Jordan River and he will be made clean. God alone would get the glory for healing Namaan… not Elisha… because Namaan was expecting Elisha, the prophet of God, to heal him… he didn’t even know the God of Israel yet. His trust was in a man whom he assumed had “magical” powers.

Naaman comes from a pagan country, where his “prophets” made quite a spectacle when they healed the sick. According to the Bible Commentaries, they raised their hands in the air and shouted for the sick to be healed.

But God was after Naaman’s heart not just in healing his physical body… He was pursuing Namaan in love!

However, Naaman almost misses his miracle healing because of pride and self-importance. The first words out of his mouth were “Behold, I thought that he would surely come out to me and stand and call on the name of the Lord his God, wave his hand over the spot and cure me of my leprosy. Are not Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Couldn’t I wash in them and be cleansed?” So he turned and went off in a rage. He went away more than just mad… the word used means wrath, rage, full of poison and venom.

Naaman thought! He had a preconceived idea of how he thought his healing would come about.

How many times have we missed or almost missed our miracle because we thought God would do something the way we preconceived it? We had it all figured out in our minds! Thank God He is not bound to the limitations of our preconceived ideas or the boundaries of our thinking!!

Let’s let go of our limited expectations and have faith in the God of Israel and His limitless way of manifesting miracles in our life.

Naaman thought the resources he trusted in were better than what God was providing. He said the rivers in Damascus are better than Israel…. they are tov. Tov in Hebrew is good… to be in proper working order, the way it was meant to… the way God created it to work. Naaman’s pagan ways were far from tov! He lived in a culture that didn’t function the way God created us to live. We were created to love Him… not to serve false gods.

He was asked to do nothing less than to betray the faith of his fathers. He was being asked to be willing to acknowledge that there was a possibility that Israel’s God could do something the Syrian god was unable to do. Naaman would have to let go of everything he trusted in and trust God for his healing. The Jordan means to descend… Namaan would have to humble himself… to descend… to lower himself in order to be made clean.

And this was exactly what Jesus was saying to the people in the synagogue listening to Him that day… if they wanted salvation, they were going to have to let go of everything they trusted in… their adherence to the law…their good works…. and admit they were the poor, the blind, the oppressed, unclean.. that they were no different from Namaan.. or for that matter their Roman oppressors…in need of a Savior. Instead of responding to the rebuke and the invitation to release His goodness and His presence… His salvation…. to the Gentiles (the unbelievers), they responded with offense.

So, after being encouraged by his servant to do what was asked of him, he steps out in faith and humbles himself by dipping in the dirty Jordan 7 times. Naaman experienced the overwhelming power, presence, and mercy of Israel’s God and his whole attitude changed. Naaman had a whole-hearted transformation: “Then Naaman and his entire party went back to find the man of God. They stood before him, and Naaman said, ‘Now I know that there is no God in all the world except in Israel. So please accept a gift from your servant.’”

When Naaman goes back to Elisha’s house – he’s a changed man! There is no mention of horses and chariots this time as he returns to Elisha. And he doesn’t just declare the goodness of God but that God is the only God in the entire world. This is a radical statement for a man of his time, living in a polytheistic society.

Naaman’s God is now the God of Israel and he declares he will only make sacrifices and offerings to God. Before he didn’t want to wash in the Jordan River, because the waters of Damascus, were better than any of the waters of Israel, and now he wants to take dirt from Israel (v 17).

The Bible Commentaries say: he wants to take dirt because God’s presence was in Israel. His solution to worshiping in Syria was to take Israeli dirt with him. He asks God to forgive him when he has to bow to other “gods” because of his obligation to the king. This gentile, knows it’s a sin to bow down to any other “god” that isn’t the God of Israel. Elisha blesses him and tells him to go in peace.

In Luke 4:27 Jesus says there were many in Israel with leprosy in the time of Elisha the prophet, yet not one of them was cleansed—only Naaman the Syrian.”

God’s heart is for the Nations…. Naaman was a changed man… a redeemed man all because of one little Jewish girl who had compassion on him… her oppressor.

~ Robin

Jesus is our Jubilee

Jubilee 1

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” ~Luke 4:18-19

In Leviticus 25, Jubilee has promises attached to it….

Liberty for the captives
restoration of family, land, and possessions
increase from your field
freedom from oppression
safety
triple blessings…. blessings upon blessings!

In Luke 4, Jesus goes into the synagogue… which was his custom… to read and teach the Word. The Word was teaching the Word! This time He went to the synagogue in Nazareth, His home town. Jesus had just begun His ministry and was becoming pretty well known for all of the signs, wonders, and miracles that He was doing in Capernaum and the rest of the Galilee of the Gentiles.

The synagogue was an intimate place that allowed the Jewish people to gather in a less formal setting than the Temple itself. There were no high priests, no Levites, nor any standard liturgy. Anyone was allowed to get up and read from the sacred scrolls. The reader stood and the rabbi sat. They stood up to read the Torah, and they sat down to teach to Torah (Matthew 5:1-2:; Luke 5:3; Matthew 26:55; Luke 10:39;) In ancient times sitting was the posture of authority. Here, after reading the scroll of Isaiah 61:1-2, Jesus assumed the position of a rabbi….sitting while teaching.

The rabbis taught that these two verses were a Messianic prophecy…. and everyone in that synagogue knew the acceptable year of the Lord was the great Jubilee of Leviticus 25. Jubilee was always a symbol of salvation.. this was the hope of Israel… that there would come a final Jubilee. When the Messiah would arrive and all the promises to Abraham and David would be fulfilled. They knew this passage in Isaiah well… it was their hope. So all eyes were fixed on Him as they waited until He sat down to teach on what He just read.

The only thing He said upon sitting was “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” What a short teaching… but so life changing for the people listening! Everyone else whoever read and taught on that scripture said “someday”…. but Jesus said TODAY!

Jesus was saying everything you’ve been waiting for is here! The Jubilee you’ve been hoping for stands before you…. I AM your Jubilee… I am your Messiah.... the Messianic age (the age of Salvation) has begun… it is no longer a future hope. Your Messiah is here! Salvation has come! They no longer had to be poor, broken hearted, captive, blind or bruised. That day Jubilee became a person…. not just a year in time!

Jubilee was a time to sound your trumpet of freedom!
Freedom from slavery to Satan (Ephesians 1:17, 2:17; Colossians 1:12; Romans 6:14). Freedom from sickness and disease (Deuteronomy 28:61; Galatians 3:13).
Freedom from debt to satan and the world’s system (Colossians 2:13-14).
Freedom from fear (1 John 2:5, 4:17-18).
And a time of the commandment of blessing (Leviticus 25:20-21; Deuteronomy 28:8; Ephesians 1:3; Galatians 3:13-14).

Then He closed the Book….He left off the 2nd part of Isaiah 61:2 which was to proclaim the day of vengeance for our God. Jewish expectation was that when Messiah arrived, He would not only restore the fortunes of Israel but would do so by destroying her enemies. They expected a Messiah who was a Warrior King! Such an exclusion from this reading of Scripture was unthinkable for most Jews.

Deliverance from captivity always included destructive judgment upon the enemies of God who enslaved or oppressed them…. the deliverance from Egypt…. the entrance into the Promise Land…. deliverance from the Babylonian Empire…. from the Medo-Persian Empire… why should the Roman Empire be any different. But God was doing a new thing!!

Isaiah 43:19 “”Behold, I will do something new, Now it will spring forth; Will you not be aware of it? I will even make a roadway in the wilderness, Rivers in the desert.”

He also gave them examples of Gentiles that Elijah and Elisha had done miracles among. When He begins talking to them in verses 23-27 He was addressing their neglect of being a people of The Blessing….Gen 12:2 “I have blessed you to be a blessing to ALL families of the earth”

In verse 23 Jesus indicates that they are asking for signs and for the blessings to flow in their own town because so far Jesus had been doing miracles in Capernaum which was a city of both Jews and Gentiles. Jesus was indicating that He had come also to be a light and a blessing to the Gentiles. This would include their Roman oppressors… unthinkable!

Were they offended that He had taken a passage of vengeance and judgment upon the Gentiles and turned it into a passage of mercy and blessing?

Were they offended that His gracious words…. or words of Grace were towards the Gentiles?

He reminds them of Elijah and the widow from Sidon. He also reminds them of Elisha and Naaman the Syrian.

More on both of the widow and Namaan next time….

~Robin