Article by Michael Urioste
This is an introduction to the concept of the 120 years mentioned in Genesis 6:3 as 120 Jubilees till the end of this age. Genesis 6:3 reads “And the LORD said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years.” (King James Version) Many are quick to assume that this is the time YHVH gave the people of Noah’s day to clean up there act and be saved. However, a closer study of some key verses and the use of simple math quickly contradicts that view. There is also the case of people living well beyond 120 years after the flood. This then leaves us with a question to what the Creator was referring to.
First, let’s dispel some erroneously held beliefs. Noah did not preach for 120 years as many teach and falsely assume. We first find that Noah 500 when he had his three sons. Genesis 5:32 reads “And Noah was five hundred years old: and Noah begat Shem, Ham, and Japheth.” (King James Version) Immediately after we have the Chapter 6 account of YHVH declaring the 120 year deadline and ordering Noah to build the ark. One would assume that he was 500 years old when he began building the ark if you follow the natural progression of the Genesis account. Genesis 7:6 reads “And Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of waters was upon the earth.” (King James Version) Following the natural progression of events, Noah begins to build the ark at 500 years of age and enters the ark at 600. This only gives us a total of one hundred years. What happened to the one hundred and twenty years that YHVH was going to give man on the earth? We have 20 years unaccounted for. Or do we? The Creator means what he says. Yet, His declarations don’t fall in line with what we expect them to mean. One classic example is the warning to Adam in the Garden of Eden. Genesis 2:17 reads “But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” (King James Version) “For in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” would have you thinking about immediate death. However, that is not what happened. YHVH was not referring to a twenty four hour period of time, but a one thousand year period. 2 Peter 3:8 reads “But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.” (King James Version) Adam never lived one complete millennium (day). In fact, neither did any of his descendants lived to see their one thousandth birthday. So when YHVH said, “for in the day that thou eatest….”, He was referring to one thousand years. Adam did not die that same day that he ate of the forbidden fruit. Instead, he live up to 930 years of age, just short of reaching a millennial day. Genesis 5:5 reads, “And all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years: and he died.” (King James Version) So you see that the 120 years are not directly connected to the life of Noah since the scriptures only give a one hundred year account of his life before the flood. However, they are more directly tied to Adam. In fact, the one hundred twenty jubilees count starts with Adam and the creation. In Genesis 6:3 the word ‘man’ is from the Hebrew adam (H120 in the Strongs Hebrew and Greek dictionaries). So the verse is more likely referring to Adam since all mankind originated from him and the one hundred twenty years is inclusive of all generations beginning with Adam.
Now let’s continue to explain the 120 jubilees and the millennial week concept in further detail. First, we need to look at the biblical pattern of sevens in the scriptures. We start with seven days of creation where we get our seven days of the week. The seventh day was set apart and sanctified. In Genesis 2:2-3 we read, “And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.” (King James Version) This is the day we call the Sabbath or Shabbat and its keeping is still relevant today. The next instance of biblical patterns or cycles involves a seven year cycle where, you guessed it, the seventh year is special once again. This seventh year is called the Shemitah in Hebrew. The word literally mean ‘to release’. It was a time where outstanding debts were waived or forgiven. Leviticus 25:4 reads, “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.” (King James Version) Now the seven year cycle is part of a larger cycle involving seven, seven year cycles. Another way of explaining this is to count seven Shemitahs. Once the seventh of these seven, seven year cycles (seven Shemitahs) is complete, this begins the fiftieth year which is what is called a jubilee. The jubilee began during the beginning of the fall feasts of the forty ninth year. Leviticus 25: 8-18 reads:
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.
9 Then shalt thou cause the trumpet of the jubile 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.
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.
11 A jubile shall that fiftieth year be unto you: ye shall not sow, neither reap that which groweth of itself in it, nor gather the grapes in it of thy vine undressed.
12 For it is the jubile; it shall be holy unto you: ye shall eat the increase thereof out of the field.
13 In the year of this jubile ye shall return every man unto his possession.
14 And if thou sell ought unto thy neighbour, or buyest ought of thy neighbour’s hand, ye shall not oppress one another:
15 According to the number of years after the jubile thou shalt buy of thy neighbour, and according unto the number of years of the fruits he shall sell unto thee:
16 According to the multitude of years thou shalt increase the price thereof, and according to the fewness of years thou shalt diminish the price of it: for according to the number of the years of the fruits doth he sell unto thee.
17 Ye shall not therefore oppress one another; but thou shalt fear thy God:for I am the Lord your God.
18 Wherefore ye shall do my statutes, and keep my judgments, and do them; and ye shall dwell in the land in safety
Next we will look at 2 Peter 3:8, “But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.” (King James Version) Are you starting to see the pattern now. The Bible is full of examples where YHVH used patterns of seven to complete His agenda. The number seven is symbolic of completion. Now the next logical step to the pattern would be to count every millennium as a day. According to biblical history we are about to arrive at the end of the sixth day. That means we are on the sixth day of YHVH’s millennial week. If the pattern continues, then we will have a millenium of rest. The millennial week will be an exact copy of the seven days of creation , the seven days of the week. So how do we know if we have reached the end of the six thousand years? That is where the jubilees and Noah’s one hundred twenty count come in. If you multiply 120 by 50, you also get 6000. So let’s suppose that the 120 days that YHVH was talking about in Genesis 6:3 are in fact 120 jubilees that occur every 50 years culminating with the one hundred twentieth jubilee. It turns out that such a calculation has already been figured out by some people. The one hundred nineteenth jubilee was calculated to have occurred in 1967 during the Six Day War when Israel finally captured East Jerusalem and united the city under their control. If we count fifty years from 1967 we come to the date 2017. If this is indeed accurate we are now on the final seventh seven week cycle where the one hundred twentieth jubilee will arrive on 2017!
I would like to go over the main points of this study. First we have the one hundred twenty years mentioned in Genesis 6:3. We find that those years are connected to Adam and not Noah even though Genesis Chapter 6 mentions Noah by name but is not referred to in verse 3. Next there are the pattern, or cycles, that exist throughout the Old and New Testament. Most of those patterns involve the measure of time. We have seen how many of these patterns are closely associated with the number seven. We have the seven days of the week which in turn make up the months on a calendar. Then there is the seven year cycle called a Shemitah which in turn are part of a larger cycle where the seven years are kept seven times, equaling forty nine years. When the forty ninth year are concluded, the jubilee begins. Once the jubilee year is over, the people can once again begin the seven shemitahs cycle once again to reach the next jubilee and the cycle repeating over and over. We find then that the entire Bible shows text after text of how these cycles are to be kept throughout our generations. Each cycle culminates or concludes with a special time that is “set apart” from its counterparts. The days of the week end with the Sabbath which is sanctified and hallowed. This in turn was followed by the seven years with the seventh year (the shemitah) was a sabbath for the land and a time to be released from debt. Seven shemitahs were kept totaling forty nine years. Seven set apart years were kept to begin the next special year, the jubilee which occurred every fifty years. This year was not just a rest for the land and rest from working the land, or just a release from outstanding debts, but a time where liberty was declared throughout the entire nation. Debts were forgiven, slaves were set free, ancestral lands were once again returned to their original families, and rich and poor would once again get a fresh start. Isaiah 61:1-2 reads, “Isa 61:1 The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound;
Isa 61:2 To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn; ”
Yahushua spoke similar words in Luke 4:18-19, “Luke 4:18 The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised,
Luke 4:19 To preach the acceptable year of the Lord.”
This is a very accurate description of what a jubilee is all about. This in turn becomes part of an even larger pattern. With the completion of twenty jubilees we complete one millennium or a day for the Creator as we read in 2 Peter 3:8. To YHVH one thousand years is just one day to Him. Here is where the pattern begins to come together. With each one thousand years counting as one day, then from what we have studied about the patterns of sevens, it is no big stretch to assume that six thousand years will pass before a special seventh millennium will once again be set apart. You will also notice that each special seven overshadows the one that preceded it. The seventh day Sabbath pales in comparison to the shemitah, the shemitah, pales in comparison to the jubilee, and the jubilee will definitely pale in comparison to the seventh millennial period of time which is the time period of Yahushua’s reign on Earth. We have reached six thousand years of Biblical history and are reaching the last jubilee in 2017. That is assuming that, despite how erroneous we human are, we have finally got it right this time. When the one hundred twenty jubilees are complete, then the time given to the generations of Adam will come to an end. But we look to our blessed hope, Yahushua.
1Corinthians 15:22 For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.
1Corinthians 15:23 But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming.
1Corinthians 15:24 Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power.
1Corinthians 15:25 For he must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet.
1Corinthians 15:26 The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.
1Corinthians 15:27 For he hath put all things under his feet. But when he saith all things are put under him, it is manifest that he is excepted, which did put all things under him.
1Corinthians 15:28 And when all things shall be subdued unto him, then shall the Son also himself be subject unto him that put all things under him, that God may be all in all.
I would like to conclude by summing up all that has been proposed to you. We see Yahushua in all the cycles. In the seventh day sabbath we see Him as the Creator of that day which He sanctified and hallowed, set it apart, from the rest of the days of the week. He also declared that he was the Lord of that day. Matthew 12:8 For the Son of man is Lord even of the sabbath day. In keeping the seventh day Sabbath, not only do we acknowledge Him as our Lord, we also begin to see a foreshadow of something greater coming in the shemitahs. In Isaiah 61:1 &2 and in Luke 4:18 & 19, we hear the voice of Yahushua declaring liberty from debt, referring to the price of death we must pay for our sins. He took on our burden and paid our debts on our behalf. Shemitah means ‘to release’, symbolizing our release from having to pay the price for our sins. The shemitah is a foreshadow of what the jubilee will bring. The jubilee symbolizes freedom from the bondage of sin. It is also a prophecy that this world will once again return to its rightful owner(s). The advesary Satan, Hashatan, must release his captives, relinquish his claim to this world and return it to its previous owner or the owner’s descendants. We become descendants, Abraham’s seed, by being grafted in into Israel through Yahushua the Messiah. Israel is not supposed to join the ‘church’ and become members of a denomination like most in the Christian world would like you to believe. Neither are we to become Jews outwardly, but Jews and Gentiles becoming one in the Messiah. The jubilee is followed by the millennial days culminating with the seventh and final millennial week where Yahushua takes his rightful place as “LORD of lords and King of kings”. He will rule with all authority and power, conquer his enemies, subdue all the nations, establish his eternal kingdom, eradicate sin, and destroy death. Yahushuah is the climax of all the cycles that are found in the Bible. The seventh shemitah will begin soon. That is, if the proposed date of the last jubilee of 1967 is in sync with the Creators calendar of events, then the next and final jubilee, the one hundred twentieth, will end in 2017.
You may also find the following links interesting.
http://swissthomas.wordpress.com/2013/06/13/the-mystery-of-the-shemitah-jonathan-cahn/
http://kswptim.wordpress.com/2012/09/14/the-shemittah-and-financial-collapse/
Torah Believers 