The Mystery of the Shemitah (29 page)

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  The judgment will strike the realm of America’s blessings, prosperity, and sustenance, and that of nations.

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  The judgment will involve collapse.

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  The judgment will humble America’s pride and that of man.

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  The judgment will lay bare the dependence of America and man on God.

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  The judgment will separate wealth from the wealthy and possessions from the owner.

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  The judgment will wipe away that which has been built up.

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  The judgment will level imbalances and erase accounts within the nation and among the nations.

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  The judgment will cause a cessation of functioning and an ending within America and the world.

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  The judgment will bear witness against materialism within American civilization and throughout the world.

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  The judgment will make clear the link between America’s physical and material realm and that of the spiritual.

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  The judgment will release entanglements, attachments, and bondages within the nation and among the nations.

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  The judgment will strike America’s economic and financial realms, and that of the nations.

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  The judgment will impact the realms of labor, production, employment, consumption, revenue, and trade.

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  The judgment will cause production, commerce, trade, labor, investment, profit, and trade to cease or severely decrease.

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  The judgment will annul, transform, and wipe clean the financial accounts of America and the nations.

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  The judgment will cause credit to go unpaid and debt to be released within America and the world.

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  The judgment will wipe away that which has accumulated in America’s financial realm and that of the world.

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  The judgment will manifest as a sign of judgment to a nation that has driven God out of its life, rejected His ways, and pursued material blessings and idols in His place.

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  The judgment will cast down the objects of America’s pride and glory.

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  The judgment will touch not only the financial and economic realms but every realm of society and life.

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  The judgment will wipe away structure of culture, of systems, of civilization.

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  The judgment will wipe away physical realities.

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  The judgment will alter the landscape of nations and powers.

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  The judgment will involve and affect the rise and fall of great powers.

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  The judgment will call America back to God.

The Shemitah of the American Age

The issue of what lies ahead would not be complete without dealing with the prophetic warning lying at the center of the mystery. We have watched as stock markets crash, economies collapse, and that which has been built up is wiped away—and all these things joined to the Shemitah. Each of them have to do with the removal of blessing. Why is that?

The Shemitah is the reminder to any nation or civilization that its blessings come from God. And without God those blessings cannot endure. It is a warning to a nation founded on the purposes of God and blessed by God’s hand, but now increasingly warring against the God of its blessings. The Shemitah is a warning to that nation that its blessings cannot endure.

And then there’s the prophetic warning contained within the Hebrew, as
shemitah
literally means, “the letting fall,” “the letting collapse.” The warning is this: No nation can defy the ways and will of Him who is its source of blessings and expect those blessings to continue. Without Him as the foundation, the blessings will be removed and that which has been built up, no matter how highly built up, will collapse.

The “American age” and the “American Empire,” as some have called it, have been highly built up. The warning here is this: if America continues on its present course, its place as the head of nations will fall and the American age and global order will be allowed to collapse.

A Great Shaking

As for things to watch: After the timing of the Shemitah, what may be of note is the timing of the last harbinger’s completion—the tower at Ground Zero. Beyond that, it would be wise also to take note of America’s crossing of key thresholds in its spiritual and moral descent.

Regardless of when it takes place, whether in the days of the Shemitah or beyond, I believe a great shaking is coming to this nation and to the world. I believe that this shaking will involve financial and economic collapse, though it will not necessarily be confined or limited to these realms. The collapse in the financial and economic realms may be marked, triggered, or accompanied by events in other realms. And whether figuratively, or more than figuratively, I believe will be, in one form or another, as a famine in the land.

Though such things take place as signs of national judgment, they happen also for the purpose of redemption and mercy, so that a nation hardened and deafened to God’s voice may finally hear, awaken, turn, and return.

We began by overlooking the ruins of Jerusalem with the prophet Jeremiah in 586 BC. One can only imagine what he felt as he looked out into the devastation. Beyond his sorrow was the fact that he saw it all coming before it happened. What if we, in the present case, have been given an advance look and an advance warning? What do we do? If calamity should come, how do we prepare ourselves? Is there hope? And what is the answer?

To these last and critical questions we now turn.

Chapter 25
The LAST SHEMITAH

The Ruins, the Prophet, and the Hope

I
S THERE HOPE?
Can we avert judgment? And if judgment comes, is there hope in its midst? And after judgment comes, is there any hope in its wake?

For the answer we must return one last time to the burning ruins of Jerusalem in 586 BC. The prophet Jeremiah had warned his nation unceasingly that the day of its calamity was coming. Could they have averted it? They could have, had they turned back to God. A revival would have saved them. But that would have required repentance, a change of course, the turning away from their sins. But they refused to listen to the warning of the prophets. They refused to turn back. And the judgment came.

And
in the midst
of their judgment, was there any hope? The answer is, again, yes. The judgment had come in stages. During these stages Jeremiah still prophesied to the nation, still warned them, and still pleaded with them to follow God’s will and avert total calamity. Again, they refused. And again, judgment fell.

And
after
the judgment fell, was there any hope then? Anyone who witnessed the burning of Jerusalem, the desolation of the land, and the forced deportation of the people into exile would have answered that the nation’s hope was gone. Yet there
was
hope.

Had there been no hope, why would God have sent prophets, warnings, and prophecies concerning the future? But there was an even more ancient reason for hope—the mystery of the Shemitah. It was this mystery that specifically ordained that the land would lie desolate until the time was complete. At the set time the captivity would be over, the people would return, and the nation would be restored.

The Question of Hope

What about now? And what about America? Is there hope? If there was no hope, there would be no harbingers. What would be the purpose of giving warning if there was no hope of responding to that warning? If there is warning, then there is hope.

Is there any hope of America averting judgment? If there is repentance and revival, yes. But if the nation continues on its present course, then the answer is no. Does it look likely that America will turn back to God? At present and in the direction in which the nation is now proceeding, no.

What about when judgment falls—will there be hope in that day? For those who respond to God’s voice and call, yes. For those who do not, no.

And after the falling of judgment or calamity, will there be hope? Yes, for all who turn to God.

Judgment or Revival, Shaking, and Calamity

So will there be judgment or revival? There can be both: judgment
and
revival. Revival can even come through judgment. There can be judgment upon a civilization and the salvation and revival for those within that civilization who turn to God.

If there is to come a great shaking, what is the hope? I would answer that it is just the opposite: with no shaking, there is little chance of hope. America has grown so hardened to God’s will and so deafened to His voice, that only something of great magnitude has any hope of breaking through. It is written that God is not willing that any should perish but all should come to repentance (2 Pet. 3:9). The heart of God is to save, to restore, and to redeem. And thus all things, even shaking and calamity, must be seen through that truth.

The Fall of Idols

The Shemitah has a purpose. It manifests God’s sovereignty and dominion over all things and exposes the illusion of man’s sovereignty and dominion. It declares that all blessings come from God. It calls man away from the physical realm to the spiritual. It calls him to return to God. Thus the Shemitah is necessary. And when dealing with a culture or civilization enmeshed in materialism, prosperity, carnality, idolatry, arrogance, self-absorption, and the idea that man is sovereign to do however he pleases—the Shemitah becomes even more necessary.

In the day of the Shemitah’s coming, illusions are exposed, entanglements are broken, pride is humbled, the gods are judged, and the idols are wiped away—even the illusions, entanglements, idols, and gods in the lives of His own people.

The Last Shemitah

Even when it comes in the form of judgment, the Shemitah is ultimately a manifestation of mercy in that it reminds, calls back, and warns—in view of a greater Shemitah yet to come. This greater Shemitah concerns not so much nations, but every individual, every life. It is the last Shemitah.

The last Shemitah declares that all things—our lives, our beings, our breath—come as gifts from God. Of ourselves we have nothing. All our notions of ownership are an illusion; all our pride, a deception. We are not sovereign but completely dependent. Everything we have—our possessions, our money, our riches, every moment of our lives—everything has been given to us.