The Last Shemitah (The 70th Week of Daniel - 7 Year Tribulation - Time of Jacob’s Trouble)

Hello friends, I'm Chad McCarey and this is Faithful Performance. We explore the testimony of the biblical prophets and how they perfectly correlate with the current events of today. Thank you for joining us.

In this episode, we're going to discover the last Shemitah, which deals with Israel. It is also known as the 70th Week of Daniel, the seven-year tribulation period, and the Time of Jacob's Trouble. We've done a couple of videos in the Shemitah series covering the possible rise of the Ottoman Empire in the fall of 2022 and the possible beginning of the decline or collapse of the American Empire in the fall of 2022, both of which fall within that Shemitah cycle. But in this video, we're going to discover Israel and the last Shemitah — how it begins with Israel and how it also ends with Israel, before the Messiah's second coming and his millennial reign.

Before we commence, it's important to understand God's calendar, because that is what the Shemitah is based upon. In Genesis 1:14, God said his calendar is based upon his two great witnesses: the sun and the moon. That calendar, today, is the Hebrew Jewish calendar. We all use the Gregorian calendar for work and daily life, but it is based upon the sun only. God said in Genesis 1:14 that his calendar is based upon the sun and the moon, and again, that calendar is the Hebrew Jewish calendar.

There are two calendars that God uses in the Holy Bible. The first began with Adam and is called the civil calendar. That is when Adam opened his eyes and crowned God as king, which occurred on Rosh Hashanah, the Feast of Trumpets — what we might associate with the September timeframe. That begins the civil new year, the Jewish new year. This is how time is calculated from Adam until the Messiah's second coming, so it is essential to understand when dealing with biblical prophecy.

The second is the biblical calendar. In Exodus 12, God told Moses that a particular month would be the first month for the nation of Israel — Jew and Gentile, one new body, one new man. That is when the nation of Israel was, in this teaching's view, truly created and set in motion. This biblical calendar governs the Sabbaths, the feast days, the Shemitah year, and all related observances. The civil calendar and the biblical calendar do coincide, but in this video we will focus on the civil calendar, under which the Shemitah cycle begins on Rosh Hashanah, the Feast of Trumpets.

As we lay the foundation, it is important to understand that this Shemitah cycle is very significant to God. It is a seven-year cycle, and we see the number seven appear throughout the scriptures, including in the book of Revelation. That last Shemitah will be the final seven years of the age — known as the Time of Jacob's Trouble, the seven-year tribulation period, and the 70th Week of Daniel. All of these refer to that last Shemitah. And we find its origin in the scriptures, beginning in Leviticus 25.

In Leviticus 25, God commanded the children of Israel to let the land rest on the seventh year. They were to work for six years and then allow the land to rest on the seventh, just as man works six days and rests on the seventh. God wanted the land to enjoy its Sabbath as well. We also find in Leviticus 25 the triple blessing that comes with obeying this commandment. If Israel followed the Shemitah cycle and let the land rest on the seventh year, they would receive a triple blessing on the sixth year — enough to carry them through the seventh, eighth, and ninth years. It was a blessing for Israel to turn their focus entirely back to God for a full year: not to be greedy with agriculture, profits, or gain; to let the land rest; to let the beasts of the field enjoy the land; and to let the poor enjoy the land as well. God wanted to keep everything in balance within the Shemitah cycle.

As discussed in previous videos, once Israel broke the Shemitah, it began affecting the nations — America, the Ottoman Empire, the British Empire, and others. But in this video, we will focus on the Shemitah cycle specifically as it pertains to Israel.

We'll summarize the events that followed when Israel broke the Shemitah, and then bring it up to the present. Before they broke it, God gave Israel a warning in Leviticus 26. Verses 27–28 and 31–35 read as follows: "And after all this, if you do not obey me, but walk contrary to me, then I will also walk contrary to you in fury. And I, even I, will chastise you seven times for your sins. I will lay your cities waste and bring your sanctuaries to desolation, and I will not smell the fragrance of your sweet aromas. I will bring the land to desolation, and your enemies who dwell in it shall be astonished at it. I will scatter you among the nations and draw out a sword after you. Your land shall be desolate and your cities waste. Then the land shall enjoy its Sabbaths. As long as it lies desolate and you are in your enemies' hands, then the land shall rest and enjoy its Sabbaths. As long as it lies desolate, it shall rest — for the time it did not rest on your Sabbaths when you dwelt in it."

In Leviticus 26, we see Moses writing this warning to the children of Israel, almost prophesying that they would disobey. When we read the prophets Jeremiah, Isaiah, and others — with all their judgments — they are reverting us back to the Torah, back to what Moses warned: obey the Lord and let the land rest. God made a covenant with the land, the Abrahamic covenant, and he wanted the land to enjoy its Sabbath as well. He loves his creation.

As we know, Israel disobeyed. They broke the Shemitah cycle, and alongside all their other apostasies — including sacrificing their children to the altar of Molech — God judged them in 586 BC. We can read in Jeremiah 25 that he brought Nebuchadnezzar against them to judge them not only for breaking the Shemitah but for all their other apostasies. They went into a 70-year captivity in Babylon. We can find in 2 Chronicles 36:15–21 that a primary reason was the Shemitah — the land was to enjoy its Sabbaths — which again points back to the warning Moses gave in Leviticus 26.

After the 70-year captivity, the Lord did bring them back into the land. We can read that in Jeremiah, and Ezra speaks about it in Ezra 1:1–4: how Cyrus allowed the children of Israel to return after the captivity and rebuild the temple.

It is very important to realize that this last Shemitah cycle — the 70th Week, the seven-year tribulation period — will not only affect Israel but also the entire world. When we read the book of Revelation, we understand that this last Shemitah, while it is the Time of Jacob's Trouble, will have global impact. God's Shemitah cycle is everlasting. Every seven-year cycle is important to him.

We would also like to go through how the Shemitah affected Israel in a positive way following the destruction of AD 70. The year AD 69 was a Shemitah cycle year, so it is connected to the AD 70 Roman destruction of the temple. After roughly 1,900 years, we begin to see the positive nature of the Shemitah emerging — after the judgment on Israel was fulfilled and the people were scattered, the cycle began turning toward blessing again.

In 1916–1917, a Shemitah cycle occurred that has been discussed in previous videos as a very important marker for many empires. After that cycle, many believe that 1917 was a Jubilee year. In Leviticus 25, after seven times seven — seven Shemitahs — the 50th year was the Jubilee. It was a great blessing, essentially a super-Shemitah. The land rested again for two consecutive years, fruits and blessings were enjoyed, everyone returned to their land, prisoners were freed. You can read all of this in Leviticus 25.

Many people believe that the Jubilee cycle culminated in 1917 — though this is not confirmed and the precise placement of the Jubilee cycle remains debated. However, the events of that year lend strong support to that view.

In 1916–1917, the fall of the Ottoman Empire began. The Ottomans controlled Jerusalem at the time. The British Empire entered World War I and engaged against the Ottomans, having declared war on them in 1914. In 1917, the British recaptured part of Jerusalem, and James Balfour established the Balfour Declaration on November 2nd, 1917. This was the first official step toward the creation of the State of Israel in 1948 — occurring after 1,900 years of exile, in what many believe was the Jubilee year, right after the Shemitah cycle ended.

Now, if we calculate 50 years from 1917, we arrive at 1967 — the year Israel recaptured Jerusalem as its capital. These are two of the major end-of-the-age markers. The third is the return of the Jewish people to the land. Israel had to become a state again, which happened in 1948. They had to recapture Jerusalem as their capital, which happened in 1967. And since 1948, over four million Jewish people have made aliyah — returning to the promised land — in fulfillment of biblical prophecy.

These are the three major signs. Israel is God's time clock. 1948: the State of Israel was established. 1967: Jerusalem was recaptured. And now we look forward to the ongoing return of the Jewish people to the land.