I strongly suspect that 2017 will be a Jubilee Year for Israel. The instructions given by the Lord call for trumpets to sound on the Day of Atonement in the forty-ninth year of the jubilee cycle. The trumpets announce the coming of the Jubilee and are a warning not to “buy” any land because it will revert to the original owner before the next growing season.

The Hebrew year begins Nisan 1 or March 29, 2017. If my assumption that 2017 is a Jubilee Year was correct, then I was looking for an “announcement” on the Day of Atonement, October 12, 2016. The day after, October 13, 2016, the United Nations (UN) delivered on my expectations by declaring that Jerusalem never belonged to Israel and has always been Muslim.

This was confirmed December 23rd, again by a UN resolution to deprive the Jewish people of a major part of their homeland and turn it over to the Palestinians. This announcement from the world counters the very concept of returning the land to the original owners, by saying that they never owned it in the first place. This was the world’s anti-Jubilee announcement.

The UN has shown itself to be an enemy of Israel for many years. In 2015, of twenty-three UN condemnations of national wrong-doing, twenty were against Israel, the only democracy in the Middle East. This was reported by UN Watch, a group that keeps track of UN resolutions.

The actions of the UN are even more interesting because south of the Old City of Jerusalem is a place known for thousands of years as the “Hill of Evil Counsel.” The wretched Antioches Epiphanes IV, who sacrificed a sow on the Temple altar in 165 B.C. made his home on this hill. At least two High Priests of Israel, Annas and his son-in-law Caiphus lived there. Of course, Caiphus was priest when Jesus was crucified.

When the British took over Palestine in World War I, they made their headquarters on the Hill of Evil Counsel. Because of Arab oil, the British did not treat the Jews fairly. (This may explain their decline from world supremacy.) When they left Palestine in 1948 with a war imminent, they left all of their tanks and artillery to the Arabs. The Israelis only had the rifles that they had been able to hide from the British!

There is a long-standing tradition that in Jerusalem the Hill of Evil Counsel is the location of anti-God or anti-Israel forces. It is interesting how some traditions continue to hold true. Guess who makes the Hill of Evil Counsel in Jerusalem their headquarters today? If you guessed the United Nations, you would be correct.

It appears that at the appropriate time, October 13, 2016, the world made an anti-Jubilee announcement. Whether I am correct in my determination that 2017 is a Jubilee Year remains to be seen. Further, I do not know what the Jubilee Year might involve, even if I am correct. Based upon current events however, it should be interesting.

Pray for the lost. Pray for a Great Awakening! The time must be near. Praise the Lord for our Salvation through the Lord Jesus!