Joshua - Blowing the sounds of Jubilee

This is taken from the blog post of Dr. Stephen Jones regarding the prophetic parallel to the battle of Jericho. 

Yet when I looked up the original Hebrew word used, I found that it was yobel, the Hebrew word for Jubilee. We understand, of course, that the priests were blowing rams' horns, but this is not the term that is actually written in the passage. Literally speaking, the priests were blowing the Jubilee.

The Battle of Jericho

In the summer of 1993, the Lord told us to move to Seattle and issue a “call to arms” to anyone wanting to actively participate in the Jubilee Prayer Campaign. We understood from the start that this was based upon the battle of Jericho, and we related the seven days of Joshua's battle to the seven years of our own warfare.

As it turned out, we held a total of eight named prayer campaigns in the next six years (1993-1999). These were:

1. Nov. 21-29, 1993—the Jubilee Prayer Campaign 
2. Jan. 27-30, 1994—His Fullness
3. June 4, 1995—Occupy Till I Come -Phil and Gina moved in next door
4. Nov. 1-7, 1995—Know God as God 
5. Aug. 3, 1996—These Stones II
6. Nov. 1-7, 1996—Love of God
7. Nov. 22, 1997—He Delivered
8. Aug. 19 to Sept. 2, 1999—Dragon’s End

As we entered the eighth prayer campaign, God impressed upon us that the seventh year was our Sabbath year, and we would not engage in spiritual warfare from Nov. 1999 to Nov. 2000. 

At first, I wondered about this, because I took note that Joshua had been instructed to march around Jericho once each day for six days, but on the seventh day the army of Israel was to march around the city seven times. It appeared that Israel did seven times as much work on the seventh day as they did on the other days. So I wondered how the pattern would be fulfilled.

God then moved upon Sunny Day Roberts, an intercessor living in Wisconsin, to schedule meetings with certain ones that she was led to invite. These were discernment meetings where those in attendance were called to discern the voice of God and to issue divine decrees based upon that Word. Such decrees are typified by “trumpets” in the Bible. There were seven such meetings within the dates of our Sabbath year, but she did not consciously try to plan seven meetings. She only did what God told her to do.

I figured out what the Lord was doing in March of 2000, about a month after the second meeting. Of course, I did not tell Sunny Day, because it was important that God should lead her without my help. The first meeting was held in Wisconsin on the night of Dec. 22, 1999. The last meeting was from Nov. 28-30, 2000, covering the seventh anniversary of the Jubilee Prayer Campaign Nov. 21-29, 1993. Only then did we know how the fall of “Jericho” would manifest in all this. After all, the walls did not fall until the very end.

The revelation and decrees that went forth in these seven meetings fulfilled the pattern of the trumpets blowing in Joshua's day, as Israel marched around Jericho seven times on the seventh day. These decrees were not of a warring nature, but a building up of the body of Christ. In this way, the Sabbath-year pattern was fulfilled.

One final word about Jericho . . . In 1998 I needed to know what type of trumpets the priests were blowing during their march around the city. The King James Bible says they were “rams' horns” (Joshua 6:4, 5, 6, 8,13). 

Yet when I looked up the original Hebrew word used, I found that it was yobel, the Hebrew word for Jubilee. We understand, of course, that the priests were blowing rams' horns, but this is not the term that is actually written in the passage. Literally speaking, the priests were blowing the Jubilee.

It is also obvious that Israel was not conducting “conventional warfare” in the battle of Jericho. Marching around the city blowing horns might be considered to be psychological warfare, but it was really spiritual warfare. In other words, Joshua's siege of Jericho blowing the Jubilee rams' horns might have been called their Jubilee Prayer Campaign. It would seem that our own prayer campaign was appropriately named.

Notes: from David

DAS -  God had directed us to move to Mankato In the summer of 1993 and we lived here during these same seven years, we too had several prayer initiatives and some of the dates in the above list are very interesting to me personally. 

1. Nov. 21-29, 1993— my son Micah presented with diabetes at 18 months, he got sick around Nov 21 and was diagnosed on Nov 26, we came home from the hospital on Dec 1, 1993
2. Jan. 27-30, 1994—We started writing material for the seminars Christ in You the Hope of Glory. These sessions aired on cable tv in Mankato, St. Paul and in Rochester and Bloomington, MN
3. June 1995— we finished writing material for seminars - Phil & Gena move in next door
4. Nov. 1-7, 1995—"Experiencing God" - We began meetings at my neighbor's house on Wednesday, November 1, 1995 this group continued to meet weekly for five years until July 31, 2000
5. Aug. 3, 1996—?
6. Nov. 1-7, 1996—?
7. Nov. 22, 1997—He Delivered - My youngest Eliza was born Nov 12, 1997
8. Aug. 19 to Sept. 2, 1999—?
9. Nov 1999 to Nov 2000 during this time we launched Jubilee Restoration Centre in January of 2000 - which we continued Through July 31, 2000 then a period of sabbatical of Nov 22, 2000. 

We are talking about training ourselves to declare things and I thought this concept of Blowing Jubilee was very close to what I shared last Thursday night at the Gap. Namely that we have to become more comfortable declaring the good things of God over situations. That is what Joshua has the priests doing, they were blowing (or declaring) Jubilee over Jericho.