to the nation, the words he gave them at the end of their journeying in the wilderness, just before he died.”
“How do you know?”
“Because he was speaking to them from the end of the scroll. The scroll ends with his last words.”
“And what did he tell them there?”
“He told them exactly what would happen to them in the centuries and ages to come. He told them their future.”
“But how could he have known that?”
“It’s another one of the peculiarities about the nation of Israel. At the beginning of its existence, its future was foretold.”
“Where?”
“In the Scriptures, in the prophecies. Its history was foretold ages before it happened, from ancient times.”
“But it’s impossible to foretell that.”
“Yes,” said the Oracle, “to foretell the intricate courses of human events even days before they happen, much less thousands of years, would be impossible. There’s only one way it could be foretold . . . if the foretelling was from God. If God was real.”
“So this would be recorded in the Bible.”
“In the Book of Deuteronomy, Moses’ last words.”
“What exactly did the prophecy foretell?”
“That the land of Israel would be invaded by an enemy people and that the Jewish people would be taken captive into the nations. They would be scattered ‘ from one end of the earth to the other.’ 1 They would be persecuted from one nation to the next. They would wander the earth.”
“That’s what happened in my vision; they were scattered to the world. So did it come true?”
“Yes, first when the armies of Babylon invaded the land, destroyed the Holy City of Jerusalem, and took the people captive into exile in Babylon. The exile would last seventy years, until the rise of the Persian king Cyrus, who would allow them to return to their land.”
“But you said that the prophecy spoke of their being scattered ‘ from one end of the earth to the other.’”
“Yes, that would be fulfilled in its entirety in the second exile. It would begin in the year AD 70. This time it would be the armies of Rome that would destroy Jerusalem and drive the people into exile not to one city or kingdom but to the ends of the earth, and not for seventy years but for ages. They would be persecuted from nation to nation and wander the earth as no people have ever wandered the earth.”
“And how long did the second exile last?” I asked.
“Into modern times.”
“What about the ram’s horn that Moses sounded? He sounded it and said, ‘And thus you shall return.’ What did it mean?”
“There’s only one place in the writings of Moses where the ram’s horn, or shofar, is connected to the words you shall return. It’s in the law of Jubilees.”
“The law of Jubilees? I’ve never heard of it.”
“That’s where the mystery begins. Apparently the Jubilean mysteries are to be revealed to you.”
“I’ve heard the word before, but what exactly is a Jubilee?”
“Imagine,” said the Oracle, “you lost your home, your land, the land of your family, your ancestral possession, your inheritance. In the year of Jubilee you get it all back. In the year of Jubilee that which was lost is restored. As it was written in the Jubilean ordinance:
Each of you shall return to his possession, and each of you shall return to his family. 2
“In the year of Jubilee you come home. Your family comes home. Your separation from your land is ended. So the Jubilee is the year of return and restoration. The Jubilee is the restoring of that which was lost. The land is restored to its original owner, and the original owner to the land.”
“And where is the law of Jubilees in the Bible?”
“In the third book of Moses, the Book of Leviticus.”
“And what’s the connection between the Jubilee and the ram’s horn?”
“The ram’s horn, the shofar, the trumpet, was the sign of the Jubilee. It was the ram’s horn that ushered it in and proclaimed its coming throughout the land.”
“And when exactly did the Jubilee come?”
“Once every fifty years. The Jubilee is the fiftieth year.”
“But what if you lost your land and didn’t survive to the fiftieth year?”
“Then the land would be restored to your children. Then your children would return to it.”
“So what does the Jubilee have to do with what I saw at the beginning of the vision, the multitudes in the desert and their scattering into the world?”
“Everything,” he replied. “To whom was the Jubilee given?”
“To Israel,” I said, “the Jewish people.”
“And what does the Jubilee concern?”
“Returning