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August 16, 2015 |
| The Coming Shemitah | ||
People who make their living in the stock market know of patterns in the crashes of the stock market. One pattern is that almost always the big stock market crashes happen in September. There is another pattern. Almost always these crashes are part of a 7 year cycle. That doesn't mean that there is a crash every 7 years, though sometimes there is. It means that when there is a big crash it almost always comes at the same point in that 7 year cycle.
In the US stock market this cycle of crashes has been going on since at least the late 1800s.
There has been much speculation about these patterns and why they exist. Of course stock market analysts are looking for secular explanations so they wonder if September is a time in the year when people start planning for the winter and that planning causes stock market decisions that cause the market to crash. As for the 7 year cycle, none of them knows why that exists.
It turns out that the Bible explains it. When the explanation is understood we see it includes non-economic events that no one noticed were happening on that same 7 year cycle. These events are the collapses and births and significant moments in the lives of countries and empires. This is what we will look at in this lesson
This lesson is going to tie together 3 previous lessons and a book. It wouldn't be possible to go through all of those in this lesson so what follows is a quick summary of each with a link to the lesson so you can read it later for more detail. Then we'll continue with the lesson
God's Economics 2011-08-21 - When God took Israel as his people he gave them laws, a worship system, a legal system, a governmental system, and much more. This lesson talked about the economic system that God created for Israel. That system is built on Shemitah and Jubilee cycles that we will talk about in this lesson.
Four Blood Moons 2014-01-05 - This lesson described the sequence of four Blood Moons and a Black Sun that, at the time of that lesson, were about to begin. We are now approaching the last event of that sequence, a Blood Moon.
Fall Feasts 2014-09-21 - This lesson describes the fall feasts of Israel and their meaning. Just as the spring feasts told about the major events of Jesus life we expect that the fall feasts are telling us about the events when Jesus returns
The Mystery of the Shemitah by Jonathan Cahn - This book describes how the Shemitah cycle has been tied to economic and other events through history. It follows on from his DVD, The Isaiah 9:10 Judgment: Is There an Ancient Mystery that Foretells America’s Future?
All of the systems that God created for his people Israel were required for Israel to observe as part of their covenant. Observance of those systems is not required in our covenant, however, God intended for us to fashion our systems using, as a pattern, the systems he gave Israel. In many ways the founders of the US used those systems as the pattern and some of those continue to this day. For example, land is only farmed for 6 years and then it is given the 7th year to rest. This comes directly from the Shemitah cycle for the land that God gave Israel.
The Shemitah year of the 7 year cycle had two components. During that year crops were not to be planted or harvested. Instead people were to be allowed to wander onto the land to collect whatever grew naturally. The second component came at the end of that year. On that day any debts that remained were to be forgiven. More than that though, the people were not to consider that debt forgiveness when deciding to lend or borrow.
Israel never observed either the Shemitah cycle or the Jubilee cycle, not for 490 years. When God gave them over to be conquered and made captives of the Babylonians he dictated through Jeremiah the prophet that they would spend 1 year in captivity for every Shemitah cycle they had not observed, a total of 70 years.
We think of this as God's punishment on them for disobeying his laws and breaking his covenant but there is more to it than that. In various places God talks about viewing their time in Babylon in a different way. That can be seen in the verse below.
“‘Do not defile yourselves in any of these ways, because this is how the nations that I am going to drive out before you became defiled. 25 Even the land was defiled; so I punished it for its sin, and the land vomited out its inhabitants. 26 But you must keep my decrees and my laws. The native-born and the foreigners residing among you must not do any of these detestable things, 27 […]. 28 And if you defile the land, it will vomit you out as it vomited out the nations that were before you. (Lev 18:24-28)
God is saying that his laws are not just rules - they are built into the structure of the universe. Therefore you can look at their time in Babylon as punishment or as the land having vomited them out. Both ways of looking at it are correct. God could have said "because you did not obey my laws you became corrupt, self-absorbed and a weak target for the countries around you and therefore you were driven from the land.
But our founding fathers did not use all of God's economic system as a pattern for the infant country. The Shemitah cycle also required debt forgiveness at the end of every 7 year cycle. We are now able to understand the purpose of that rule. It prevents countries from getting into the debt based crashes we've seen for more than 100 years. When an economy is built on debt it fails to function correctly. The separation between rich and poor becomes too great and the poor become the prey of the rich. Eventually it becomes so defective and wobbly that some event triggers a collapse.
Because the Shemitah cycle has been built into the universe these collapses mostly occur on a specific day, the last day of the Shemitah cycle, the day of debt forgiveness. Most stock market analysts only think of these crashes happening in September. They can't pin it down to a single day. That's because they aren't looking at God's calendar. On the Hebrew calendar, God's calendar, there is a specific day, Elul 29, which is the focus point of these crashes. This is the day of debt forgiveness.
Here is a graph of the last big stock market crash in 2008
1
As you can see the crash actually happened over a period of time. The worst day though, the day when the stock market lost the very most, 777 points, was Elul 29. Now look at the last big stock market crash before that, in 2001, 7 years earlier
2
Again Elul 29, is the focus point of the crash. But there was more to that day in 2001, it was September 17th, the first stock market day after 9/11. Therefore the 9/11 attack can only be seen as a warning that the land would vomit us out, just as the initial attacks on Israel by the Assyrians were a warning to Israel. In the same way the stock market crash was the result of the debt leveling forces of the Shemitah and also a warning.
As we look at the US economy since 2001 and 2008 we see that we have not attempted to reduce debt. Instead we have done our best to create more debt by spending money we do not have to prop up the economy, an unconscious attempt to fight against the Shemitah. Though 7 years after the 2008 crash, the US has still not been able to pull itself out, making this the longest recovery period in US history.
As we look at the world economy, we see an economy that is staggering. Every week it seems there is worse economic news from around the world. Greece has essentially crashed. Puerto Rico has missed a payment on its debt. This week China devalued its currency. The EU looks like it will go back into recession. More and more significant economists are becoming concerned that so many things are going wrong at the same time.
The current Shemitah cycle ends on the evening of September 12. It isn't hard to imagine that the right blow could bring it all down.
When we look at the non-economic aspects of the US we find a situation that is no better. A country that was brought into being by men of faith and the support of God has mostly turned its back on God. It appears that God has warned this country in the past. We cannot know God's mind. He may not choose to act now to bring people back to him and to show his sovereignty over all things, but he may.
The Shemitah cycle ends on Elul 29 as we've said. The next day is Tishri 1, the beginning of the most holy season on Israel's calendar. The three
fall feasts come at this time
The last of the blood moons comes on Sukkot. Through history the sequence of 4 Blood Moons has been associated with change. This change is invariably associated with Israel.
Even though the change is associated with Israel, the whole world is affected. For example, in the year 1492 listed above, three small ships set sail from Spain, the country that was most horribly persecuting Jews at the time. Those ships would discover a new land that would become a new country that would be Israel's strongest supporter. Unfortunately many have turned away from that as well.
Many people have noticed the large number of world events that are scheduled to occur in September. This lesson has only listed those that are directly related to the Bible, the Shemitah cycle, the Blood Moons occurring on Israel's feast days, the importance of those feast days. Together they point toward a season of difficult changes.
Benjamin Franklin, 1st President, in his inaugural address on April 30, 1789 said "we ought to be no less persuaded that the propitious smiles of Heaven, can never be expected on a nation that disregards the eternal rules of order and right, which Heaven itself has ordained".
1 Cahn, Jonathan (2014). The Mystery of the Shemitah
2 Cahn, Jonathan (2014). The Mystery of the Shemitah