REINHILD NIEBUHR

RETURNING TO THE APPRECIATION OF DIVINELY INSTITUTED SYSTEMS

In February 2022, the Holy Spirit convicted me of accepting the astonishing GIFT of celebrating the “Shabbat” – the Seventh Day of the week – specifically with the purpose of remembering and acknowledging that God is our Creator. This day is ‘set apart’ (meaning ‘holy’ – handled in a different manner to how worldly systems work), according to God’s Divine Design. The aim is to help us humans remember and THANK GOD that everything on Earth and in the Universe has been created by HIM – including each one of us humans! Every atom, the very life-spark, even in a test tube, comes from HIS LIFE-GIVING BREATH! But celebrating the Shabbat was just one more step in the journey which God had started me on in 2007 already… to rediscover His Divine Order for Humankind living here on Earth – even if we’re on the journey towards becoming an ‘interplanetary species’! The basic principles of God’s Divine Order are no doubt applicable in ‘space’ too.

At the time, my interest in living life the biblical way had been sparked through a sequence of absolutely astonishing events. However, for many years I responded with a theoretical interest: too ‘busy’ being busy! But since February 2022, I take the absolute privilege of a Day of Rest, from sunset of the Sixth Day to sunset of the Seventh Day, revelling in the fact that I have permission from the Highest Authority to spend 24 hours doing absolutely NOTHING that has to do with making money or fulfilling a duty – by preparing in advance on the Sixth Day for any need that may arise in my life, or the lives of the people, animals and plants I live with. Of course, there’s the odd occasion when the proverbial child, ass or ox has fallen into a well (Luke 14:5), where this weekly rhythm was broken, but generally speaking, my business life is nowadays placed on pause for 24 hours during this weekly Shabbat.

You may wonder why I’m writing this blogpost today, on 11 October 2025, when it’s clearly not yet sunset… Isn’t writing a blog, work too?

Well, this particular piece of writing comes from my overflowing heart to share the GOODNESS OF GOD with you, to encourage you to TRY GOD OUT in a practical, experiential way. Learning more about God and sharing our understanding and testimony about him is very much part of celebrating a Shabbat.

Also, let me make it very clear that I am NOT trying to say that you MUST celebrate the Shabbat, in order to receive salvation from sins or everlasting life! As Colossians 2:16 makes it very clear, no one can judge anyone or make them feel guilty for not eating one thing or the other or to think that considering one particular day more special than another will force God to rain blessings on you or take you to Heaven.

Salvation is by FAITH alone, through GRACE alone, and Christ has ALREADY paid for all our sins – past, present and future – there’s absolutely NOTHING we can or must do towards receiving the Gift of Salvation. We just have to accept it, when the Holy Spirit knocks on the ‘door of our heart’. He will convict us of everything and anything that we have done, and may still be doing, that is ‘sin’ – meaning harmful to ourselves, damaging our relationship with other people, with Nature (God’s Creation) and most importantly, with God – Father, his Son Jesus Christ and Holy Spirit – Himself.

I’m not learning more about, or practicing, the ‘religion’ of Shabbat, I purely was convicted by the Holy Spirit to start ENJOYING the Gifts of God’s Holidays, as part of living my life here on Earth in great anticipation of King Jesus’ return to Earth! Because every holiday instituted by God is a prophetic picture explaining His plan of salvation, through Jesus Christ. By returning to practically appreciating the divinely instituted systems, I’m merely choosing to celebrate the Gospel of Jesus Christ in a tangible manner, throughout the year.

Let me explain.

I have learnt that the Bible is God’s Instruction Manual (2 Timothy 3:16) for us Human Beings and that it gives clear direction on practically every aspect of life. This includes times, dates and seasons, as well as a wonderful Annual Holiday Plan! Tragically, many people don’t realise that the word “Holi-day” originates from “Holy Day”… Yes! God is also the ‘inventor’ of the holiday as a concept (Genesis 2:3).

You may already know that the number “7” (seven) has special significance when it comes to understanding spiritual meaning in the Bible. So from the weekly Shabbat, the Seventh Day, God’s Divine Order takes us to the “Shmita” Year, better known as the “Sabbatical Year”, which institutes every Seventh Year as a year of rest. The “My Jewish Learning” website explains this year as the “year of release”, when – I quote –

“… debts are to be forgiven, agricultural lands to lie fallow, private land holdings to become open to the commons, and staples such as food storage and perennial harvests to be freely redistributed and accessible to all.”

What a revolutionary concept! Just IMAGINE if all of humankind would agree to honour this Divine Institution…

As with one of the purposes of the Shabbat and the practice of giving a Tenth (tithing), letting the land rest and forgiving debts trains us to live our lives in the complete acceptance that GOD IS OUR PROVIDER (Jehovah Jireh) – everything we have, we receive from him (provided it’s not obtained in any illegal or unjust manner)! We can take time off to spend with our Daddy in Heaven, our Brother – King Jesus – and the Holy Spirit, as well as with our human family and fellow brothers and sisters in Christ one day a week. We don’t have to ‘hustle’ 24/7! God will make sure that there’s enough for our need, even in overflow, if we first seek (pay attention to) the Kingdom of God and its righteousness, which comes through Christ for FREE! (Matthew 6:33)

For over five decades, I never paid much attention to any of God’s appointments (“Appointed Times”). But then, as I explained in a previous blogpost, on my birthday in September 2021, I was forced by circumstances beyond my control, to put all my business dealings and charitable work ON HOLD – circumstances which – later that week – literally brought me to my knees to submit all the work of my hands to God. On that day I made a decision to WAIT on the Lord to show me what to do next, day by day. This started an unplanned “Sabbatical Year” for me, during which I had to rely on miracles for my “daily bread”, while focusing all my time on spiritual growth. But what a BLESSING this has been!

But here’s the interesting thing: it is only in hindsight that I recognised the spiritual significance of this period: according to information I gathered on the internet TODAY, namely that this period in 2021 was the BEGINNING of the current Shmita Cycle! A little more than two years earlier, when my first husband left for Eternity so suddenly and unexpectedly, I had asked God to show me on a daily basis, what he wanted me to do. And that is how I had started living. So it was rather confusing to me that I was forced at the time to place both my business and charitable endeavours on hold… But now I know that God needed to reposition me spiritually, and this process has brought me to an immense appreciation of HIS calendar and HIS instruction and teachings on how to do life BETTER!

Which brings me to the next cycle of seven: the period of seven times seven years and the Jubilee Year. The year following this cycle is the 50th Year and that is God’s JUBILEE YEAR. “Tearfund” in Australia describes the purpose of this year very well:

“The Jubilee year – occurring after every seventh Sabbath year, thus, every 50 years – is an economic, cultural, environmental and communal reset, when the land and people rest, and all those who are in slavery are set free to return to their communities. The Jubilee laws are essentially concerned with social relationship, economic security, stability and the wellbeing of the community. They seek to ensure that people live in ways that reflect good relationships with God, with each other, and with creation.”

In Leviticus 25 God explains in detail how land must be returned to the original owners’ family every 50 years and how any people who became so poor that they had to sell themselves as slaves during the preceding 50 year cycle, should be set free in the next Jubilee Year.

Isn’t this another, ABSOLUTELY BEAUTIFUL and revolutionary, Divine Idea?!

In contemporary Western culture where slavery is illegal (because it was abolished on the basis of Jesus’ teachings!), we may consider individuals held in bondage to debt, those caught in Human Trafficking or working in sweatshops or other forced labour as slaves. Of course we humans should work together to END all Human Trafficking, sweatshop and forced labour practices IMMEDIATELY – not wait for the next Jubilee Year! But how about preparing the way NOW to resolve – and where we fail! – to write-off ALL DEBT in the upcoming Jubilee Year which – according to my research on the Internet – a large group of scholars agree is apparently calculated to start at Sunset October 12, 2035.

Which – when (WOW!!!) I read this TODAY – on October 11, 2025 – would be EXACTLY TEN YEARS from now!

And that, dear Reader, is why I believe that the Holy Spirit INSPIRED me TODAY to spend my Shabbat googling the Jubilee Year. He had prompted me a month or so ago already to research God’s Calendar, and I had found a lot of information then, but no list of Jubilee Years! I literally had no idea that today is EXACTLY ONE DECADE AWAY from the next widely anticipated Biblical Jubilee start date!

The other new piece of information that I found today, is that during the lifetime of Jesus Christ there was a New Jubilee Year starting in the very year when his Ministry started, in his hometown of Nazareth!

Just read this contribution on the “Bible Study” website, by clicking on this link:

Jesus and the Jubilee Year

Riveting stuff! Any biblical scholars or Torah specialists, please refute this, if the author is wrong.

Let me quote an excerpt from the “Bible Study” website:

”Jesus’ ministry began on September 11 (911) in 26 A.D. on the Day of Atonement. This day was the start of a Jubilee period as evidenced by the fact that Christ, a few months later, quoted Isaiah 61:1 – 2 (Luke 4:18 – 19). This quote, which the Lord applied to himself, contains the phrase “to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.” This phrase is a reference to the Jubilee. (Isaiah 61:2 and Leviticus 25:54)

Today, this scripture is being fulfilled in your ears . . . (Luke 4:17 – 19, 21).

And there was given Him (Jesus) the book of the prophet Isaiah; and when He had unrolled the scroll, He found the place where it was written, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me; for this reason, He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor; 

“He has sent Me to heal those who are brokenhearted, to proclaim pardon to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to send forth in deliverance those who have been crushed, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.” . . .

In essence, Jesus is our ULTIMATE JUBILEE and when he returns as King, we will live in an ETERNAL JUBILEE: the brokenhearted will be healed, the captives will be pardoned, the sight of the blind will be recovered, the crushed will be delivered!

But LISTEN: This Kingdom of God is ‘at hand’ ALREADY, spiritually speaking. If you accept salvation in Christ, your brokenheartedness will be healed, your bondage to sin and addiction will be pardoned, your spiritual blindness will be transformed to spiritual eyes that can see the WAY, the TRUTH and the LIGHT and you will be delivered from any evil spirits that are currently crushing you!

Ask me. I know!

So much for today.

SHABBAT SHALOM.