We are now entering the last phase of our study on jubilee forgiveness. This last phase will comprise several blogs based on a pair of lectures I gave back in early 2006. We will make a few modifications to update certain things but nothing to change the substance of the teaching I presented then.
But we begin with this reference to Daniel, who was a teenaged boy back then, and is now a 36-year-old husband and father of four. The story provides a good segue into this final section of studies on the special kind of forgiveness which we call jubilee forgiveness. Why we call it that will become more clear as we continue through this last phase.
Last month young Daniel here had allowed me to read the speech he was planning to give to his 4-H club. It was a well-written speech, Daniel. Good job! Even though I myself was raised on a farm in my early years and was around a lot of laying hens, I learned quite a bit from Daniel about how he raises chickens, not for egg production but for broilers; i.e., for meat production.
Right now, Daniel’s operation is what is called a cottage industry but, I’m telling you, Tyson Foods had better keep an eye on their competition over at Daniel’s parents’ farm. I’m sure most of you know that Tyson Foods, which is headquartered in Arkansas, is the largest chicken producer in America, probably in the world, if I’m not mistaken.
Well, Daniel, I think Tyson Foods is already running scared of the competition they are going to face from you. How do I know that, you ask? Well, it’s because of this news bulletin I just received that shows that they are going after some really big world markets. They want to get way out ahead of you, Daniel!
The gist of this news bulletin is that shortly after Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was elected as Pope Benedict the 16th, that the Chief Executive Officer of Tyson Foods managed to get an audience with the new pope at the Vatican.
After receiving the papal blessing, the Tyson CEO whispered to the pope: “Your eminence, we have an offer for you. Tyson Foods is prepared to donate $100 million to your church if you will change the Lord’s prayer from “give us this day our daily bread” to “give us this day our daily chicken.”
The pope did not hesitate one second. He replied, “That would be impossible. That prayer is the word of the Lord—it must never be changed.”
“Well,” said the Tyson chairman, “we anticipated your reluctance. For this reason, we will increase our offer to 300 million dollars. All we require is that you change the Lord’s prayer from “give us this day our daily bread” to “give us this day our daily chicken.”
Again the pope responded, “That, my son, is impossible. It is the word of the Lord and it must not be changed.”
Finally, the Tyson executive said, “Your holiness, we at Tyson Foods respect your adherence to your faith, but we do have one final offer. We will donate $500 million—that’s half a billion dollars—to the great Catholic church if you would only change the Lord’s prayer from “give us this day our daily bread” to “give us this day our daily chicken.” Please, Holy Father, give it some consideration.”
And with that, the Tyson CEO left the Vatican. Well, the next day, the Pope convened the College of Cardinals, and he announced to them, “My dear princes of the church, I have some good news… and some bad news. The good news is that our holy mother church has been blest to have come into 500 million dollars.”
One of the cardinals spoke up, “And the bad news, your eminence?”
“The bad news,” said the pontiff, “is that we’re losing the Wonder Bread account.”
I realize that joke has been floating around the internet for some time. I first saw it a couple years ago, but then it came to my attention again just last week, and as I was sharing it with Ron Oja, he pointed out how appropriate it is for the time that we are living in.
As you know, one of the albums of Ron’s lectures which we make available is called Sign Language for the Spiritually Deaf, [5 CDs in album A-100; $22 + $7 s & h], so here is an example of sign language, as I shall now explain. I want you to hark back now to our long train of studies on The Tabernacle in the Wilderness.
You recall that the Tabernacle represents, among other things, our progression towards complete salvation of spirit, soul, and body. We go from outer darkness, to the Outer Court, then into the Holy Place, and finally into the Holy of Holies.
The Outer Court correlates to our justification phase of salvation, then to our sanctification in the Holy Place, and finally to our glorification. The Tabernacle also correlates with the three major feasts of Israel: We grow from our Passover stage to our Pentecost phase and finally, we enter Tabernacles.
Okay, so we trust that everyone in our audience has come to know the Lord Jesus Christ at least to the Passover stage; that is, that His shed blood is the cause of our salvation, first stage, Outer Court. And I hope also that we are all beyond water baptism and are working out our salvation in the sanctification phase, as we learn to hear God’s voice and be obedient. (Philippians 2:12)
In this phase, in the Holy Place of the Tabernacle, there were three pieces of furniture. 1. There was the golden altar of incense, which represents our prayers going up as a sweet-smelling savor to our Father.
2. There was the seven-branched golden lamp stand, which were basically oil lamps. The oil represents the anointing of the Holy Spirit, shedding light on the Word of God, to increase our understanding and to bless us with grace to live the overcoming life.
3. There was the table of showbread—"Wonder Bread,” if you will. Jesus is the original Wonder Bread, the bread that came down from heaven. How many loaves were on the table of showbread? Twelve!
For those of you too young to remember, Wonder Bread’s famous advertising slogan was that Wonder Bread helps build strong bodies 12 different ways. In reality, of course, it was refined white flour with a few injected vitamins and iron—not good at all from a nutrition standpoint, but we’re looking at the symbolism here.
And so Jesus, the Wonder Bread, builds the body of Christ 12 different ways. In biblical numerology, the number 12 signifies divine government and, of course, His divine government will be administered to the world through the 12 tribes of Christian Israel.
Thus, as the Body becomes complete and joins with Jesus, the Head, it signifies the time when we will move from the Holy Place into the Holy of Holies. And what is the single piece of furniture in the Holy of Holies? The Ark of the Covenant! And where is Tyson Foods headquartered? In Ark-ansas!
So this simple little joke about the church losing the Wonder Bread account and getting a bigger account in Ark-ansas is just another sign that we are moving beyond Pentecost into Tabernacles.
Similarly, just as the Vatican does not represent all the Christian church, so that is understood to mean that not all the church goes into Tabernacles at this time. It is only the overcomers who will attain immortality at the first resurrection.
We have discussed all that in great detail in past lectures (notably, our God’s Plan for Man series of four albums), but now you can see how this ties in with our current series on forgiveness, because one of the most important hallmarks of an overcomer is that we must be forgivers.
Previously, we presented an outline of the principles of jubilee forgiveness: what it is, and what it is not. Having now been introduced to the principles of jubilee forgiveness, we can now take that information and learn how to actually put those principles into practice.
We will show you some specifics on how to forgive others, how to forgive God, and how to forgive yourself…totally. And thereby how to experience the joy of jubilee forgiveness. Thus, we are now learning how to practice Jubilee forgiveness.
Our good friend, Len Yule, [who passed away a couple years ago. Len was a professional horse trainer] phoned me the other day after having just heard the previous lectures, and he shared with me an experience he had regarding one of those items of what jubilee forgiveness is not.
You will recall that one of them was that jubilee forgiveness is not trivializing the offense. Len recalls years ago when a close friend asked Len to feed his horses while the friend was gone for a couple of days.
Len agreed and fed the animals. But on the day the friend was expected home, Len got delayed about an hour. It just so happened that the friend arrived home earlier than expected. So when Len got there to feed the horses, the friend was there and was really miffed that they had not yet been fed.
He was huffy and showed his displeasure by his standoffishness. Len tried to explain how he had been delayed. He told him he was sorry, but his friend continued to act very sourly about the affair.
The next day Len apologized again and the friend then trivialized the offense by saying, “Oh, just forget about it; it was nothing.” But it was said in a snappy and snarling manner and he continued to act chilly towards Len.
“What I discovered,” said Len, “was that my friend’s trivializing the offense did not allow me to feel forgiveness from him.” Len’s friend was, in effect, withholding forgiveness from Len by pretending that he wasn’t offended.
Fortunately, things later got smoothed out between them, but Len said, when I heard in your lecture that true forgiveness does not mean that we trivialize the offense, it brought up that old memory. And, Len continued, I began to see that this is very similar to the church’s attitude about universal reconciliation. You see, Len said, they think God will trivialize the sins of the wicked and let them get away with their sins.
Of course, as Len knows, that is not what we teach about the doctrine of universal salvation/reconciliation. Just because God will ultimately bring everyone—including the wicked people—into a right relationship with Himself does not mean that God trivializes their sins.
In the intervening years since I gave this lecture, I continue to find that the most resistance to the concept that God will ultimately save every person comes from … the church!
Turn to Matthew 18. And while you are turning there, think way back to our studies on the laws of jubilee. What were the two numbers which have come to be associated most closely with the jubilee?
It was the numbers 49 and 50. The number 50 has even come down to us today in what we call the celebration when a married couple rejoices over their 50th wedding anniversary. We call it their jubilee anniversary, their golden jubilee.
Now if you are at Matthew 18, just stay there and listen as I read the pertinent verses from Leviticus regarding these two jubilee numbers.
Leviticus 25:8 And thou shalt number seven sabbaths of years unto thee, seven times seven years; and the space of the seven sabbaths of years shall be unto thee forty and nine years.
So there is the number 49. Continuing…
9 Then shalt thou cause the trumpet of the jubile [= jubilee] to sound on the tenth day of the seventh month, in the day of atonement shall ye make the trumpet sound throughout all your land.
So there Israel is instructed to blow the trumpet of jubilee on the 10th day of the 7th month of the 49th year. For what purpose? The purpose was to announce that in addition to the 49th year being set aside as a sabbath year, so also was the 50th year to be set aside. It was the jubilee year when all debts were cancelled and everyman returned to his family inheritance. Leviticus 25, verse 10 says:
10 And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof: it shall be a jubile unto you; and ye shall return every man unto his possession, and ye shall return every man unto his family
So that is why the number 50 is associated with jubilee, just as the number 49 is. Many so-called “New Testament” Christians—that is, those who seldom look at the Old Testament because they think that all we really need to focus on is in the New Testament—here is an example of something they would miss because they don’t understand the Old Testament context about which Jesus was speaking when He gave an answer to Peter here in Matthew 18.
Matthew 18: 21 Then came Peter to him, and said, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times?
22 Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven.
You see, this all has to do with the law of sabbath. Most Christians recognize that keeping holy the sabbath is one of the Big Ten commandments. And going to church on Sunday is about as far as they understand its significance. And others want to debate on which day is the real sabbath.
I don’t get into those debates because I have enough material in my files and in my library to make what seems to be an airtight case for a Saturday sabbath, a Sunday sabbath, a Friday evening to Saturday evening sabbath, a noon Saturday to noon Sunday sabbath, and a rotating sabbath day, and so on.
We meet in Tennessee on Saturday with a group whose initial members were primarily Saturday sabbatarians. We meet in Georgia on Sunday with a group whose initial members were primarily Sunday sabbatarians.
So when people ask me which of all the options is correct, I share with them the illustration that Howard Rand wrote years ago which shows the silliness of arguing over it. I suspect many of our listeners have not heard it and it is too long to go into here, so I will post it linked here. It is entitled “The Sabbath Issue.”
The essence of the sabbath is rest. And of course, most of our New Testament Christian friends have no idea that there is a seventh-year sabbath and a 50th year sabbath rest as well.
So that when Peter was asking our Lord if when his brother offended him over and over again, would seven times be enough? In other words, Peter was probably thinking in the literal mode, that after seven times, Peter could take a rest from forgiving.
But Jesus said he should forgive him 70 times 7. Seventy times seven equals 490 which was letting literal-minded Peter know that he had to keep on forgiving pretty much indefinitely.
However, 490 is also ten times 49, the jubilee number. Jubilee by itself means complete and unconditional forgiveness. And so what does ten times 49 mean? Well, I think that Jesus was teaching Peter and us, by extension, that we must always forgive the offender.
Notice that there is nothing in Peter’s question to indicate that the offender ever said he was sorry. Was Jesus being mean to Peter by telling him he had to forgive him every time, no matter how many times he was offended? Not at all.
On the contrary, Jesus was actually instructing Peter about this for his own good. Remember, the one doing the forgiving in all likelihood gets the greater blessing. So Peter and we are only hurting ourselves when we refuse to forgive. I brought this passage in here to show you a New Testament connection with jubilee forgiveness.
(To be continued.)
~END~
