“There are no more doors,” I said.
“No.”
“So will that be my last vision?”
“Time will tell,” he said. “But this will be our last time together. You’ve been shown many things. It is time now that we seal them.”
“Tell me,” said the Oracle, “in all that’s been revealed to you, what have you learned?”
I didn’t answer him right away. I didn’t think there was any way I could. There was too much to sum up. But then I attempted it.
“I’ve learned . . . that God is real.”
“And you didn’t know that before?”
“I did, and I didn’t. At times I felt it, and at times I didn’t. But it’s beyond that now. It’s not a matter of feeling. God is real, and more than real . . . more real than the world.”
“And why do you say that?”
“There’s no way that all these things could have happened apart from the reality of God. The prophecies alone . . . to foretell human events from ancient times and against all odds of their coming true, and yet thousands of years later they come true. Even in the modern world, with all our technology, we still can’t foretell such things. And yet thousands of years ago it was all foretold by shepherds and farmers, simple people with nothing, and it all came true . . . that fact alone. And all the other dimensions of the mystery, all the details, all the precise quirks and twists and turns . . . all happening at the exact appointed times, in the exact ways, in the exact places . . . all brought to their appointed times and places by an unseen hand over the course of millennia . . . No one but God could have done it, and nothing but His reality can explain it.”
“And what does it tell you about the word, the Scriptures?”
“The word is real . . . and also more real than the world.”
“And you say that because of what?”
“Because the world changes, but the word remains. And in the end the world and everything in it conforms to the word and to its purposes.”
“What else does it reveal?” asked the Oracle.
“That nothing is an accident . . . If the veil wasn’t removed, you could miss it. And it could appear as if there was no purpose. But it was all there. Nothing is an accident, the world, history . . . life . . . It’s not random. It has a purpose, even when you can’t see it. It means something. It has meaning and purpose.”
“Yes,” said the Oracle, “a purpose not just to the world and not just to history and not just to life, but to each life. No life is an accident. No life is without meaning. To each is a purpose . . . to yours.”
“To mine . . . ”
“To yours.”
“Specifically . . . ”
“To yours specifically . . . Even when it seemed to be without meaning and purpose, even when you couldn’t make any sense of it . . . there was a reason and a purpose . . . just as there was in the mystery. The hand of God was there, moving all things for the purpose and hope of redemption . . . even when you asked why and found no answer.”
“Even as I asked why, that was in my vision. But I haven’t told it to you yet.”
“It was not just in your vision,” he replied, “but in your life. You asked God why, but you didn’t hear an answer. There was a reason and a purpose. And so it is written, ‘“I know the plans I have for you,” says the LORD, “plans of peace and not of calamity, to give you a future and a hope.”’” 1
“That’s in the Scriptures?”
“Yes, and that promise is also more real than the world and than all the circumstances of your life.”
At that he became silent. He looked into the distance to the cloud resting beneath us, now accented with the orange-golden radiance of the rising sun. And then he spoke.
“Did you ever wonder,” said the Oracle, “why all these things?”
“What do you mean?”
“Why the Jubilean mysteries?”
“I don’t know what you mean.”
“Why everything revolves around them, prophecy, revelation, world history? Why this particular mystery and not another?”
“Why?”
“What is the Jubilee about?” he asked.
“Return and restoration.”
“And you can only return to that which you’ve left and only be restored to that which you’ve lost.”
“And the Jewish people left their land and lost their ancestral possession . . . but they would return and be restored.”
“That’s only the beginning of the mystery,” he said. “The mystery concerns more than the Jewish people.”
“Who else then?”
“Everyone,” he replied. “The Jewish people stand for all peoples. What happens to them has to do with all.”
“To the world.”
“Not just to the world,” he said, “and not just to all . . . but to each. Everything you’ve been shown, every one of the Jubilean mysteries, has to do with each one, each life.”
“But everyone hasn’t left their land or lost their ancestral possession.”
“And yet everyone has. Therein is the mystery. Everyone has departed. And everyone has lost what belonged to them.”
“I don’t understand.”
“Because you were born into it and haven’t known anything else.”
“Born into what?”
“A world of separation . . . a world fallen and separated from that which is perfect . . . and pure . . . and good, a world estranged from the purpose for which it was created . . . a world fallen into darkness and evil . . . fallen from the light. And so everyone born of this world is a child of separation, separated from God by the darkness . . . by sin. Remember,” he said, “with the nation of Israel, what happens in the physical realm speaks of the spiritual.”
“So the physical exile speaks of a spiritual exile.”
“Yes, but it speaks of an exile that has to do with everyone.”
“An exile from what?”
“As the children of Israel dwelt in exile from the Promised Land, so the children of this world dwell in exile from a spiritual Promised Land.”
“Which is what?”
“An exile from the life you were created to know . . . ” he said, “the life you long to live, a life of fullness and purpose, of blessings, of joy. That is your inheritance . . . and the inheritance of all those created in His image . . . the life they were born to know and live . . . their ancestral possession.”
“But how can something be your ancestral possession or your homeland if you’ve never been there?”
“The same way the Promised Land was the homeland for generations of Jewish people who had never been there. But they knew that they could never truly be at home apart from it. So it is for those of this world.”
“What does that mean?”
“Tell me,” said the Oracle, “why is it that you never feel at home?”
“At home where?”
“In this world . . . when you were lying on the grass, looking up at the sky, longing for Heaven . . . when you knew in your heart that there had to be more to life than what you found in this world, when you cried out in your tears . . . you and every child of this world.
“Did you ever think it strange,” he said, “to spend your entire life in this world, to know nothing else but this world . . . and yet to never feel at home within it?”
“Why is that?”
“Because it isn’t home. So no matter how long you live in it, and no matter how familiar it becomes, your heart can never be fully at peace within it. How could you feel at home in a world of sorrows and pains and fears and rejections and broken dreams and tears and heartbreaks and losses and failures and sins and shame and evil and emptiness? You could never feel at home in this world because it’s not your inheritance. It’s not your land. And it’s not what you were created for. That’s why you feel what you feel. That’s why you always sense something missing . . . you and everyone else in this world. Everyone senses it . . . because something is missing. That
’s why you’re always longing for something more and searching for something better . . . for the good, the perfect, the pure, the right, the true, and the beautiful.”
“We search for it because it’s what we were created to find?”
“Yes,” he said, “that’s why you came here. You didn’t come here seeking only for the meaning of the vision . . . You came here searching for what was missing.”
“And what was missing?”
“What the mystery is all about.”
“And what is the mystery all about?”
“Redemption,” he said. “At the center of the mystery is redemption. Who is it that the Jubilee is for? For the exiled, the separated, the broken, the fallen, the one who has lost. So to a world separated from God, a world of fallen lives and broken people, what is the Jubilee? It’s the ending of the separation. It’s the love of God reaching out to those in exile . . . to restore the broken, to raise up the fallen, to bring back the lost. What is that? It’s redemption,” he said, “to be restored, brought back, healed, and saved . . . It’s redemption. It’s the missing piece.”
“How so?”
“In Hebrew the word for salvation is ýeshua. From that same word comes the Hebrew name Yeshua, the real name of Jesus. If all loss begins in separation from God, then all redemption begins with the ending of that separation. That’s the meaning of Yeshua. It’s through him that salvation comes. So it was foretold in the Hebrew prophecies that Messiah, through his death, would make atonement for our sins and cleanse us from iniquity. If you make an end of sin, then you end the separation . . . then the exile is over . . . then our exile is over.
“There was only one day in the Hebrew year on which the Jubilee could come—on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. That was the day that the sacrifice was offered up to atone for sin, to end the separation between man and God. It’s the sacrifice that ends the separation and ushers in the Jubilee. Messiah is the sacrifice. So from him comes the Jubilee and the power of restoration.”
“The power of what restoration exactly?” I asked.
“All restoration,” he replied, “the restoration of each life to God . . . the resurrection of each life to God.”
“Resurrection. That was central in the mysteries.”
“Because it’s the ultimate restoration. So the sacrifice of Messiah leads to resurrection. You were shown the mystery of Israel’s resurrection. But who is it that a nation follows?”
“Its king. A nation follows its king.”
“And the King of Israel is the Messiah. Thus Israel is the resurrected nation . . . because its leader is the resurrected King.”
“So from him is all restoration.”
“And all the blessings of the Jubilee. In him the outcast are received back; the defiled are made pure; the broken are restored; the condemned, forgiven; the sick, healed; and those in bondage, set free.”
“All this has to do with the restoration,” I said, “but what about other part of the Jubilee? What does it have to do with the return?”
“What is salvation about?” he asked. “It’s about coming home. It’s the prodigal son returning to his father. It’s about finding forgiveness and restoration in the love of God and the arms of the Father.”
“So salvation is also a Jubilean mystery.”
“Of course,” he replied. “To be saved is to be no longer separated from God, to leave your exile . . . to return . . . to come home.”
“What if one never returns to God? What if one chooses not to?”
“Then one remains separated, in spiritual exile. And as the soul is eternal, so too then is the separation. But that’s not the will of God. He isn’t the God of exile but of return, the God of Jubilee. So He calls each of us to return.”
“Is there anyone so separated, so far from God, that they’re beyond redemption, beyond hope . . . beyond the love of God?”
“Is there any sin so great,” he said, “that God’s love is not greater still? Consider what you’ve been shown. The Lord brought back the children of Israel from the ends of the earth. It didn’t matter how far away they were. He gathered them as a shepherd gathers his flock. They were gone for ages, but He never forgot them. He never gave up on them. And He never forgot His promise. Even after thousands of years He kept His word. He restored them. So what was hopeless to the world was not hopeless to God.
“The answer to your question is no. There is no one so far away that His arms aren’t longer still, no sin so great that His love isn’t stronger still, and no life so hopeless that His redemption isn’t greater still. And if He didn’t forget His ancient people, neither will He forget you. And if He didn’t give up on them, neither will He give up on you. And if He kept His word to them, so too will He keep His word to you. ‘For with God nothing will be impossible.’” 2
“So how do you return?”
“It’s all in the mystery,” he said. “In Hebrew to return is to repent, and to repent is to return. So how do you return? You repent. You turn to God. You come back. You open your heart to His love and His forgiveness, and you come home.”
“But how?”
“It can begin with a simple prayer. You ask for mercy, for cleansing and forgiveness, for redemption and restoration. And you find it in the love, the hope, the sacrifice, and the name of Messiah.”
“So the Messiah is the doorway to the Jubilee.”
“Messiah is the Jubilee.”
“And then what?” I asked.
“Then you live it.”
“And what does that mean?”
“Then you live in the power of the Jubilee, the power of restoration.”
“And the power of the Jubilee is . . . ?”
“The power to leave the darkness, and the ways of separation, and the life you were never meant to live . . . and the person you were never meant to be. It’s the power to break free of the past and of every chain of bondage. It’s the power of new beginnings . . . the power to walk in newness and to become the person you were created to become . . . a beloved child . . . of Heaven. And it is the power to regain your inheritance and the blessings you were born to know.”
“How?”
“The same way you would regain inheritance in the year of Jubilee. You stand in the authority of your redemption and you enter it. You dispossess the darkness. For in the power of the Jubilee the darkness has no more authority over your life, no sin, no fear, no bondage, no addiction, no failure, no shame, nor any other darkness. Every dominion is broken. By the power of Jubilee you dispossess it and enter your inheritance.”
“And yet,” said the Oracle, “there is more.”
“More?”
“One last revelation.”
“What is it?”
“The final one.”
“I thought what happened at the end of the age was the final revelation.”
“That was only the end. But the final revelation is what takes place after the end.”
“What takes place after the end?”
“The final Jubilean mystery, the final return, and the final restoration. The final mystery is revealed in the very last pages of the very last book of the Bible, the Book of Revelation. There, at the very end, everything returns to the beginning.”
“To the beginning of the age?”
“To the beginning before the beginning of the age, to the beginning of the beginning. You see, in the final Jubilee, at the very end, all things return to the very beginning. To before the fall, before the darkness, before the entrance of evil . . . and sorrow, before the separation from God . . . to the way it was in the beginning . . . to Paradise.”
“Paradise—is that the ultimate ancestral possession?”
“Yes, our original possession . . . and the long lost inheritance. The final Jubilean mystery is the return to Paradise. Do you know what Messiah said while dying on the cross? He said,
I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise.3
“And what was it that was lost in Para
dise? The Tree of Life, the embodiment of eternal life. Now listen to what reappears in the very last pages of the Scriptures:
And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb. In the middle of its street, and on either side of the river, was the tree of life. . . 4
“What is it that the Jubilee ends?”
“The separation, the exile.”
“And in the beginning there was no separation. God and man dwelt together. So of the end it is written:
And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, “Behold, the dwelling of God is with men, and He will dwell with them. . . ” 5
“In the final Jubilee it will be as it was always meant to be, as in the beginning. There were no tears, no pain or sorrow. Now listen to what is written of the end:
God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.” 6
“So the ultimate land of the Jubilee . . . is Heaven?”
“Yes.”
“And the Promised Land a shadow of Heaven?”
“Yes, of Heaven and Paradise.”
“So the return of the Jewish people to the Promised Land, is it a shadow of entering Paradise, entering Heaven?”
“Yes. It is appointed for every child of God to enter the Promised Land.”
“What then?”
“Then all will be Jubilee. Then the exile will be over. And we’ll be home.”
“So Heaven is our ultimate ancestral land?”
“Heaven,” he replied, “is home.”
“What about Jerusalem?” I asked. “Jerusalem was at the center of all the Jubilean mysteries and at the center of the return. His people always returned to Jerusalem. So does Jerusalem have any place in the final mystery?”
“It does,” said the Oracle. “And so in the very last pages of the Bible, it is written:
The Oracle Page 30
