The Shemitah Year/Cycle of 2021-2022 - The Beginning of the Collapse of the American Empire?

Hello, friends. I'm Chadwick Harvey, and this is Faithful Performance, where 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 Shemitah year of 2021 to 2022 and how we could be witnessing the beginning of the collapse of the American empire.

Before we commence, it's important to understand the Shemitah cycle. It's found in Leviticus 25. It is a seven-year cycle on God's prophetic timeline, and it operates on the civil calendar, which begins on Rosh Hashanah — the Feast of Trumpets — which occurs in the fall, corresponding to the September–October area on the Gregorian calendar. The Feast of Trumpets is when the Shemitah cycle begins every seven years.

Don't confuse it with the biblical calendar. The civil calendar began with Genesis 1 through Exodus 11. Anything we read in that range, when it refers to "the first month of the year," is speaking of the civil calendar. That is when Adam opened his eyes, crowned God as King, and that began God's prophetic timeline — the counting of how long we have been on this earth. The civil calendar begins on the Feast of Trumpets, or Rosh Hashanah.

The biblical calendar, by contrast, begins at Exodus 12 onward. In Exodus 12, the Lord told Moses that this was the beginning of months for the nation of Israel — when Israel left Egypt, both Jew and Gentile. That is called the biblical, or ecclesiastical, calendar. It counts the Sabbath, the feast days, and so forth. So there are two different calendars when we read the Holy Bible. The one we are focused on today is the civil calendar, which runs from Genesis 1 to Exodus 11 and counts time from the beginning of human history. That civil calendar framework is also the basis for the Shemitah cycle, as we will see.

It is also important to understand that the Shemitah cycle is a block of seven years. We can think of it as Daniel's 70th Week, which is itself a Shemitah cycle. We will be getting into the Israel Shemitah cycle in the next video, but in this video we are talking about America in the Shemitah cycle — how it has affected America and what we could be looking at in the Shemitah cycle of 2021–2022.

We are going to lay the foundation of the Shemitah cycle from Leviticus 25, understand its prophetic significance as it dealt with Israel, and then — once Israel broke the Shemitah cycle and it began to affect the nations — examine how that principle applies today. If you haven't seen the Shemitah cycle video for the Ottoman Empire, you can review it by clicking the link at the end of this video. The Shemitah cycle is very important to the Lord. It will occur until the end of the age. We want to grasp the prophetic principle of it as it deals with America and then go through the statistics that prove the Shemitah cycle has affected America.

So let's first set the foundation of the Shemitah cycle in Leviticus 25. Leviticus 25:1–5 says:

"And the Lord spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai, saying: Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them, When you come into the land which I give you, then the land shall keep a sabbath to the Lord. Six years you shall sow your field, and six years you shall prune your vineyard and gather its fruit; but in the seventh year there shall be a sabbath of solemn rest for the land, a sabbath to the Lord. You shall neither sow your field nor prune your vineyard. What grows of its own accord of your harvest you shall not reap, nor gather the grapes of your untended vine, for it is a year of rest for the land."

It is remarkable that not only did the Lord command the children of Israel to observe a Sabbath day every week, but He also commanded a Sabbath year — work six years, rest on the seventh. He wanted the land to rest as well, for He had made a covenant with the land itself in the Abrahamic covenant. The land, the people, their servants, and their animals were all to rest. Just as the Sabbath day pictures rest, the Sabbath year points prophetically toward the seventh millennium — the thousand-year rest when Messiah returns. All of this is woven together as we read Leviticus 25.

The Shemitah was also designed to keep Israel from greed — greed in agriculture, in money, and in the pride of their own works. The Lord wanted everything balanced, so they would understand that blessings come from Him alone and not from themselves.

Regarding provisions for the seventh year, Leviticus 25:18–21 says:

"So you shall observe my statutes and keep my judgments, and perform them; and you will dwell in the land in safety. Then the land will yield its fruit, and you will eat your fill, and dwell there in safety. And if you say, 'What shall we eat in the seventh year, since we shall not sow nor gather in our produce?' then I will command my blessing on you in the sixth year, and it will bring forth produce enough for three years."

This is incredible. Not only were they to enjoy a year of rest on the seventh year, but on the sixth year God would give them a triple blessing sufficient to carry them through the seventh, the eighth, and into the ninth year. This was the Lord's provision — and it was also meant to keep them humble, to keep them from greed, and to ensure care for the poor and for the animals of the field, as we also read in Exodus 23.

Now, if Israel failed to keep the Shemitah cycle, there was a severe warning. Leviticus 26:27–28 and 31–35 states:

"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' land; 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."

This is a very stern warning. If Israel refused to obey the Shemitah cycle, the consequences were devastating. God would judge them severely, and the land would receive by force the rest it had been denied. For a nation that loves God, keeps His laws and commandments, the Shemitah is a great blessing. For those who turn away — and here we are speaking specifically of Israel, and by principle of America — there is a judgment that accompanies that turning.

We are trying to grasp the prophetic principle of this seven-year cycle, especially concerning the seventh year. The Shemitah was only formally required of Israel, but we are drawing out the principle and the prophetic understanding of it, and when we examine the statistics concerning America, we will see how that principle has applied there as well.

The word "Shemitah" itself means the fall, the collapse, or the shaking — of a nation that has failed to follow it. But it also carried the meaning of remission of debt: the cancellation, the nullification of what was owed. There was a specific day on which this occurred, called Elul 29 — the last day of the year on the civil calendar. The very next day is Tishrei 1, the Feast of Trumpets, Rosh Hashanah, Yom Teruah, which begins the new year. Currently we are in the year 5780; when we reach the Feast of Trumpets we enter 5781 — always counting from Adam to the present.

Elul 29 was the day of cancellation, the nullification of all debts. Deuteronomy 15:1–2 says:

"At the end of every seven years you shall grant a release of debts. And this is the form of the release: every creditor who has lent anything to his neighbor shall release it; he shall not require it of his neighbor or his brother, because it is called the Lord's release."

If a debt had not been repaid by the end of the seventh year, it was forgiven entirely. Again, this was designed to keep everything balanced — to prevent greed, to restrain the pride of human achievement, and to guard against the accumulation of interest and obligation. It was called the day of nullification, the remission of debt. Bear that in mind as we move into the statistics on America and the Shemitah cycle, because we will see this Elul 29, this day of nullification, coming to fruition in striking ways.

Now let us move to the prophet Jeremiah, because we are still building the prophetic foundation. The Shemitah cycle demanded that the land rest on the seventh year. There was the promise of a triple blessing on the sixth year for obedience, and judgment and chastisement for disobedience. The prophet Jeremiah was sent to the nation of Israel — along with other prophets — to warn them, to call them to repentance for not following the Lord's command in Leviticus 25, and for all the other apostasy they were practicing. Jeremiah is a prophet to the nations as well as to Israel, as we see in Jeremiah 1:4–5 and 9–10:

"Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying: Before I formed you in the womb I knew you; before you were born I sanctified you; I ordained you a prophet to the nations."