VAYIKRA

And [He] called

3 Six years thou shalt sow thy field, and 6 years thou shalt prune thy vineyard, and gather in the fruit thereof;

There were several minor features of excellence in the Mosaic land law. Every seventh year, the land was to be left untilled:

"Six years thou shalt sow thy field, and six years thou shalt prune thy vineyard, and gather in the fruit thereof. But in the seventh year shall be a sabbath of rest unto the land, a sabbath for the Lord: thou shalt neither sow thy field, nor prune thy vineyard" (Lev. 25:3-4).

It is when we consider the objects of this law that we can see its wisdom. Agricultural science has discovered the virtue of giving the land an occasional rest to prevent the exhaustion of its fertility; this may have been included in the objects aimed at in the Mosaic law. But the specified object opens out quite another line of consideration:

"that the poor of thy people may eat: and what they leave the beasts of the field shall eat"

(Exod. 23: 11).

The land, left to "rest and lie still" during the seventh year, would bring forth "that which groweth of its own accord" (Lev. 25:5). This was to be at the service of all comers, with one condition only--that they were poor. That year, there would be no trespass laws. There would be common thoroughfare over all land, with a free welcome to whatever might be found useful.

What a spectacle on earth!--the products of every estate and farm in the whole country, once in seven years at the free disposal of the poor and needy. A most wise adjunct to the jubilee law of a family inheritance: for though, in the main, that law would preserve the community from impoverishment, there would necessarily be many never-do-wells who from mismanagement would be out of their family lands: as Moses told them,

"The poor will never cease out of the land".

Here, for such, would be an alleviation on which they could reckon every seven years: the spontaneous products of the whole land placed at their free disposal. Here was a" poor law" eclipsing all Gentile arrangements.

As regards the owners, how were they to fare during that seventh year ? Their needs were provided in a manner only possible in a divine system:

"If ye shall say, What shall we eat the seventh year ? behold, we shall not sow, nor gather in our increase: then I will command my blessing upon you in the sixth year, and it shall bring forth fruit for three years" (Lev. 25:20),

So that the proprietors would have laid in a stock that would place them above anxiety while all manner of visitors were prowling over their lands in search of food.

Law of Moses Ch 8

The trumpet of the Jubilee.

This great trumpet shall be blown, and Zechariah tells us by whom. In ch. 9:14, having told us previously, that Zion's Sons should be raised up to become a sword upon Greece, it is said,

"And YAHWEH shall be seen over them, and his arrow (the Ten Tribes) shall go forth as the lightning; and ADONAI YAHWEH (Yahweh's Lords) shall blow the trumpet, and shall go forth with whirlwinds of Teman. YAHWEH TZ'VAHOTH shall defend them, and they shall devour, and disregard the stones of the sling."

The trumpet blown is for the calling of the assembly, and for the journeying of the camps; first, for the gathering of the princes, the heads of the thousands of Israel; then for the convocation of all Israel; and thirdly, for war against their enemies -- the antitype of the Memorial of blowing of trumpets, and of the trumpet of the jubilee, on the first and tenth days of the seventh month (Num. 10; Lev. 23:24; 25:9).

The Sons of Deity, His kings and priests, shall blow the trumpet, and proclaim, as the roar of many and mighty waters, to the inhabitants of the world, that they are "the Beginning and the Ending," "the Elohim of all the earth" (Isai. 54:5), the Eternal Spirit multitudinously manifest in flesh.

Eureka - His voice as the sound of many waters.

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The sounding of trumpets was a divinely appointed Mosaic institution. It was a holy convocation, styled "a memorial of blowing of trumpets," and was celebrated on the first day of the seventh month (Lev. xxiii. 24). It introduced one of the most important months of the Hebrew calendar -- the month on the tenth of which was the Day of Covering of Sins; on the fifteenth, the Feast of Tabernacles; and on every fiftieth tenth, the Jubilee, when sins, were not only covered, but every man returned to his possession and family (Lev. xxv. 8-17).

The trumpets used were of silver, two fabricated from a whole piece. They were blown by the sons of Aaron "for the calling of the assembly, and for the journeying of the camp." If they blew with only one, then the princes, heads of the thousands of Israel gathered themselves to Moses; but when they blew an alarm with both trumpets, it was for war against the enemy that oppressed them; and with the assurance that they should be remembered by Yahweh their Elohim, and be saved from their enemies (Numb. x. 1-10).

When an alarm was blown it portended great evil. This appears from Jer. iv. 5, which says: "Blow the trumpet in the land: cry, Gather together, and say, Assemble yourselves, and let us go into the defenced cities. Set up the standard toward Zion: retire, stay not, for I will bring evil from the north, and a great destruction. The lion is come up from his thicket, and the destroyer of the Gentiles is on his way; he is gone forth from his place to make thy land desolate; and thy cities shall be laid waste without an inhabitant."

And again, in Joel ii. 1. "Blow the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in my holy mountain; let all the inhabitants of the land tremble for the day of Yahweh cometh, for it is nigh at hand; a day of darkness and of gloominess, a day of clouds and of thick darkness, as the morning spread upon the mountains: a great people and strong; there hath not been ever the like, neither shall be any more after it ...

A fire devoureth before them, and behind him a flame burneth: the land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness; yea, and nothing shall escape them. The appearance of them is as the appearance of horses; and as horsemen, so shall they run. Like the noise of chariots on the tops of mountains shall they leap, like the noise of a flame of fire that devoureth the stubble, as a strong people set in battle array. Before their face the people shall be much pained; all faces shall gather blackness. They shall run like mighty men; they shall climb the wall like men of war ...

the earth shall quake before them; the heavens shall tremble; the sun and the moon shall be dark, and the stars shall withdraw their shining: and Yahweh shall utter His voice before His army: for His camp is very great: for he is strong that executeth His word: for the Day of Yahweh is very terrible, and who can abide it?"

Such is the illustration furnished by the Spirit of what he means by sounding trumpets of alarm against the guilty. The sounding of a plurality of trumpets was indicative of war. This is the indication of nearly all the trumpets of the apocalypse; not of every trumpet, but of all the Seven trumpets certainly. If they blew with only one, "then the princes, and heads of the thousands of Israel gathered themselves to Moses." None of the seven trumpets indicate a gathering of the saints, or princes and chiefs of the thousands of Israel, to the prophet like unto Moses.

They portend evil to the Apostasy -- the throwing down of the walls of Babylon, when the last blast of the seventh shall have sounded against her from the breath of the kings and priests of Yahweh. But before this portentous blast is sounded by them, a trumpet is blown of a different import -- one that "gathers them together as the elect from the four winds, from one end of the heaven to the other" (Matt. xxiv. 31).

This is the TRUMPET OF THE JUBILEE, which will bring all the approved into the possession of the inheritance; and is symbolized, by none of the seven, but by "an angel flying in mid-heaven having aion-glad tidings to preach." These moshkai kesheth, or sounders of the truth, of Isaiah lxvi. 19, and messengers of Matt. xxiv. 31, go forth "with a trumpet and a great voice," which declares the glory of Yahweh among the nations. It has no sound of alarm in it, like the sounding of the seven.

When the saints, in their graves, and we who may remain, hear this great voice, we shall all gather ourselves together to the Moses-like prophet -- to Jesus "both Lord and Christ." This gathering accomplished, and the affairs to be transacted in the presence of the Lord with regard to his household disposed of -- then, what remains to be executed in connection with the sounding of the seventh and last trumpet will be proceeded with; and the Lamb, with those "who follow him whithersoever he goeth," will "execute the judgment written" against Daniel and John's beasts, till nothing remains of the civil and ecclesiastical powers of the world.

In the prophets, this judicial execution by Jesus and His Brethren, the Elohim of Israel, is styled "The NAME OF YAHWEH coming from far, burning with his anger ... his lips full of indignation, and his tongue as a devouring fire: his breath as an overflowing stream .... to sift the nations with the sieve of vanity" (Isa. xxx. 27). And Yahweh shall be seen over the sons of Zion, whom he shall raise up against the sons of Greece; "and ADONAI YAHWEH shall blow the trumpet, and shall go forth with whirlwinds of the south" (Zech. ix. 14). This trumpet thus divinely blown, is the winding up of the seventh apocalyptic trumpet. All the preceding events of the seven are operative to the development of this crisis in which is "filled up the wrath of Deity."

The sounding by Adonai Yahweh of this closing blast of the seven is the great apocalyptic day of sacrifice -- the slaying of the beasts, before the sins of the nations are covered over, and they become "blessed with faithful Abraham," and "in Abraham and his seed." He executes the Second and Third angel-missions, reaps the harvest, and treads the winepress. All this pertains to "the war of the great day of Almighty Power." It prostrates Babylon, breaks in pieces the powers of the nations, and establishes the power of the kingdom in all the earth.

Eureka - The first fruits

The Babylon whose fall is proclaimed by the second angel, is the city consisting of ten parts, or kingdoms (ch. 11:13); whose Queen, as yet unwidowed, is the Mother of Harlots enthroned in Rome (ch. 17:5,18). This ch. 14:8, is the first place where the name occurs in the Apocalypse; but, as we have seen, not the first place where it is alluded to. In ch. 11:8, it is "styled spiritually Sodom and Egypt;" because its wickedness is equal to theirs; and the judgments decreed against it, as terrible and disastrous. She is as Sodom, for her fornication is raging; and as Egypt, for she has made all nations drink of its wine. Hence the plagues of the second angel in all the fierceness of the wrath of God.

The initiation of the second angel tormentation of the worshippers of the Beast and his Image is the inauguration of the day of revenges, when Yahweh whets his glittering sword, and His hand takes hold of judgment. It is the opening of the Hour of Judgment upon the rebellious Goats in which Yahweh, the Man of War, will render vengeance to His enemies, and reward them that hate Him. Some idea may be formed of this vengeful recompense from Deut. 32:42, in which He saith,

"I will make mine arrows drunk with blood, and my sword shall devour flesh; and that with the blood of the slain and of the captives, from the beginning of revenges upon the enemy".

This will be "a time of trouble such as never was since there was a nation to that same time" (Dan. 12:1) - the antitype of the great Pentecostian Day of Atonement, in which the Trumpet of the Jubilee shall sound (Lev. 25:9). The second and third angels of this fourteenth chapter are the executors of "the judgment written" in this "great day of God Almighty" (ch. 16:14): a day in which an offering shall be made by fire to Yahweh unto the total and complete consumption of the Apocalyptic Beasts, which as the sin of the political world, shall be destroyed by fire and sword.

The Whole Burnt Offering of these Beasts is a grand condemnation in the flesh of the sin-powers. They are to be put to death by being slain with Yahweh's sword; and tormented with fire and brimstone in the burning lake, in the presence of the holy angels, or messengers, and in the presence of the Lamb, who kill and offer the sacrifice to the Eternal Power of the universe (ch. 14:10; 19:20,21).

Eureka - The second angel

This seventh apocalyptic trumpet in the seventh period of its sounding brings out the events prefigured in the Mosaic trumpet of the Jubilee. It brings in its consummation "the Atonement," or Covering Over, of the sins of Israel, liberty from their long previous bondage to the House of Esau, and return to their possessions in the holy Land - Lev. 25:9,10.

The assembling of the tribes is proclaimed, and their camps are marshalled for their journeyings. The princes, heads of the thousands of Israel, i.e., the saints, gather together unto Christ, and Israel is saved from their enemies - Num. 10:2,4,9; 1 Thess. 4:16; 2 Thess. 2:1.

Eureka - Sealed up with seven seals.

13 In the year of this jubile ye shall return every man unto his possession.

Antitype natural Israel -

'And it shall come to pass in that day, that the great trumpet shall be blown, and they shall come which were ready to perish in the land of Assyria, and the outcasts in the land of Egypt, and shall worship the LORD in the holy mount at Jerusalem'. (Isa 27:13)

But this "day of vengeance" in which the Great Shepherd who is a priest upon his throne (Zech. 6:13) punishes the Goats, is also "the year of his redeemed" (Isa. 63:4). He is the redeemer of the two classes of mankind; these are first, "his brethren" whom he has taken out from the nations for his name (Acts 15:14): and secondly, the many nations who shall be joined to Him as his people (Zech. 2:11).

Of this second class are the twelve tribes of the house of Jacob. The nation of Israel is to be the first-born, or chief son of the national family, being the beloved nation for the fathers' sake (Rom. 11:28). The first class are redeemed from the earth, and stand with the Lamb on Mount Zion, and follow him in all his wars and enterprises "whithersoever he goeth".

The redemption of the second class is the work of the Eternal Power through Christ and his brethren. "He saves the tents of Judah first," and strengthens Judah's house (Zech. 12:7;l0:7); and then saves the house of Joseph, or the ten tribes of the kingdom of Ephraim. This salvation or redemption of Jacob is developed in the Jubilee, when "the Great Trumpet is blown" against the Goats; and all Israelites are invited to "return every man to his possession.

" Eureka - The Second Angel.

23 The land shall not be sold for ever: for the land is mine; for ye are strangers and sojourners with me.

The national tenancy of Canaan under the law being leasehold, no purchases of freehold estates could be made in the land. If Israel had been a freeholder, the case would have been different. But the land belonged to the Lord; and they had no more right to grant it away in parcels for ever, than the tenant under a twenty-one years' lease has to cut up his holding into lots, and sell them to purchasers forever.

Israel were the Lord's tenants; and the law said to them on the part of their Landlord, "the land shall not be sold for ever; for the land is Mine, and ye are strangers and sojourners with Me;" so that "in all the land of your possession ye shall grant a redemption for the land."

Hence, if poverty compelled a man to sell his farm, it was always redeemable by himself, or kin, according to certain conditions; but, if neither could raise the money to redeem, the estate was not lost to the original owner; for though it remained in the hands of the purchaser he was obliged to return it for nothing at the year of jubilee

Elpis Israel 2.2.

24 And in all the land of your possession ye shall grant a redemption for the land.

... when sold were returnable to their original owners, because these, as Yahweh's representatives, had the fee simple right in them, and could therefore not convey an unlimited right. The absolute fee simple right was in Yahweh; first, because He brought Israel's first-born out of Egypt while he slew those of the Egyptians (Exod. 13:14); and secondly, because He claimed the Holy Land as absolutely His, the Israelites being only strangers and sojourners with Him (Lev. 25:23).

Phanerosis - His Face as the Appearance of Lightning.