Those ‘Certain’ Years And Days Of ‘Daniel’s People’

Part Four

“About The Times of the End, a body of men will be raised up who will turn their attention to the prophecies, and insist upon their literal interpretation, in the midst of much clamor and opposition.”

Sir Isaac Newton, 1643-1727

“The day the Lord created hope was probably the same day He created Spring.”
Bern Williams

“I smote you with blasting and with mildew and with hail in all the labours of your hands; yet ye turned not to me, saith the LORD. Consider now from this day and upward, from the four and twentieth day of the ninth month, even from the day that the foundation of the LORD's temple was laid, consider it. Is the seed yet in the barn? yea, as yet the vine, and the fig tree, and the pomegranate, and the olive tree, hath not brought forth: from this day will I bless you.”

Haggai 2: 17-19 KJV

“In the fourth year all their fruit shall be holy for giving praise to the Lord.”

Leviticus 19:24 The Amplified Bible

“Jesus saith unto them, Bring of the fish which ye have now caught. Simon Peter went up, and drew the net to land full of great fishes, and hundred and fifty and three: and for all there were so many, yet was not the net broken. Jesus saith unto them, Come and dine. And none of the disciples durst ask him, Who art thou? knowing that it was the Lord.”

John 21:10-12 KJV

“My lover said to me, `Rise up, my beloved, my fair one, and come away. For the winter is past, and the rain is over and gone. The flowers are springing up, and the time of singing birds has come, even the cooing of turtledoves. ¹The fig trees are budding, and the grapevines are in blossom. How delicious they smell! Yes, spring is here! Arise, my beloved, my fair one, and come away.' "

Song of Solomon 2:10-13 NLT

The Bible student comes to realize how the Holy Spirit has progressively revealed God’s Word of Truth from Genesis through Revelation by laying precept upon precept, line upon line. Jesus instructed Daniel “to go thy way for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end.” Now in this day, we have come to the end and it is time for all to be revealed. Many great and Godly Bible scholars, Godly pastors and Bible teachers who truly have a heart for the Lord have each been prompted by the leading of the Holy Spirit to contribute their part to the full revelation of God’s final plan for the Church, for Israel and for the rest of the world. We as students of the Word, all have our special ones who have aided and helped us so much along the way. Also, we have a circle of great friends and acquaintances from which we have gleaned much insight and knowledge. What a day it will be when we gather each one around the Throne before the Lord for the fullest of joy and fellowship throughout the eternal ages to come.

It is a fact that the Sabbatical cycle of Israel is the key that unlocks the real understanding of Daniel’s prophecy of the ‘Seventy Weeks. ’ It was imperative for the ‘Anointed One’ to accomplish the 7 part remedy for sin inside the ‘70^th week’ of the prophecy, and not outside the ‘70^th week,’ and Messiah was to appear after the ‘69^th Sabbatical cycle.’ Because God continued the ‘count of Daniel’s years’ up to the Cross, which occurred in the 486.5^th year of the prophecy, in the middle of a Sabbatical cycle, in the middle of that 70^th week, in the springtime, it then is a fact that God will pick up the count of years exactly where He cut it off…in the middle of another cycle, in the springtime! However, because the final year of the 70^th week is not only a 7^th year, but also must be a 49^th year which then necessarily will be the final 490^th year of the prophecy, we now see that a Jubilee cycle of 9 years is involved. Therefore, this middle will occur in the “middle” of nine!

This Jubilee pattern allows one to see the pattern of the beautiful Hanukkah menorah emerge with its Servant Candle in the middle of 9 branches, in the 5^th position. This points us to the mathematical principle whereby the sum total of the first 9 years of any decade by their year numbers always adds up to the digits of the 4^th year, always ending with the number 5 on the extreme right. I believe the Creator made this to be an eternal reminder, forever pointing to the year in which His final plan for His Church, Israel and the rest of mankind would begin to be implemented, near the end of the 6^th day,’ just before the opening of millennial Kingdom Age, the ‘7^th day’ of rest ! This sum total always points to the spring time of the 5^th year of the nine years, the middle of nine! i.e. in the MIDDLE of a Jubilee cycle!

Hanukkah, which is also called “the Feast of Lights” and the “Feast of Dedication” always begins “in the ninth month, on the 24^th day” which is Kislev 24.

Israel’s present Sabbatical cycle began on Tishri 1, 2000, Jewish year 5761. From Tishri 1, 2000, to Nisan 1, of 2005, 5765 is 54 months. 54 months is 4.5 years.

Israel’s next Sabbatical year begins on Tishri 1, 2007, Jewish year 5768, and will end on Elul 29, 2008.

From Nisan 1, 2005, Jewish year 5765, to Elul 29, 2008, Jewish year 5768, is 42 months or 3 ½ years !

If the Lord begins the last 3 ½ years of Daniel’s ‘70^th week’ this next spring, then Elul 29, 2008, 5768 will be the end of the 7^th year, the end of the 49^th year and the end of the 490^th year of Daniel’s ‘70^th Weeks prophecy!

Then, on Tishri 1, 2008, Jewish year 5769 will open. That year will begin the nation of Israel’s Jubilee year, the 50^th year, on Tishri 10, with the blowing of the 7^th trumpet, the trumpet of Jubilee, because it directly follows after the 49^th year and the 490^th year of Daniel’s prophecy, which will be the MIDDLE of the 7 years of the Tribulation.

From Tishri 1, 2000, Jewish year 5761 to Elul 29, 2009, Jewish year 5769, is a total of 108 months, which is 9 years.

Some might remember a prior study entitled “Come and Dine” which was based on the text of John 21, where Jesus, “the Morning Star” appeared to the disciples in the dim light of the dawn, for the third time since His resurrection, after a night of attempted fishing in which the disciples had caught nothing. Jesus told them to cast their net over the right side of the ship which then produced a total of 153 fish in a net which never broke apart.

In that study the concept of the 7^th prime number, ’17’ was extensively discussed. A prime number is one that cannot be divided by any number other than 1 or itself. The first 7 prime numbers are 1,3,5,7,11,13,17. Information about the number 17 was based on Dr. James Harrison’s book, “The Pattern and the Prophecy.” He showed us how 1+2+3+4+5+6+7+8+9+10+11+12+13+14+15+16+17 = 153. Dr. Harrison called the number 153, “The Resurrection Property.” He said, “No other number, be it 666 or whatever, can copy or counterfeit this outstanding property. So totally singular is this characteristic that out of the whole God’s created quantities, none can imitate it. This establishes the sacred uniqueness of 153, the most fabulous number in the Bible!”

Dr. Harrison went on to say…”With the sum of the integers from 1-17 equaling the number of 153, representing the large fish caught in John 21, the prayer of Jacob whose name is Israel, comes to fulfillment in Genesis 48:16, when he prayed… ‘and may they like fishes, increase into a multitude in the midst [middle] of the earth!’

Clearly, the ‘153 fish’ represent a factor of the total number of God’s ‘Elect’ from Adam and Eve until the last soul is to be saved! This odd number represents God’s foreknowledge of the exact number of His own! This represents a symbol of the total, appointed number of the saints!”

The Hebrew expression for ‘Sons of God’ has a numeric value of exactly 153, while the Greek equivalent adds up to 3,213 or 3x7x153.

As the number of ‘153’ is the ‘Resurrection Property,’ it shows the “physical” redemption of the fish.” In Greek, the name ‘Lazarus’ has the numeric value of 153.

In the Bible, the number ‘17’ represents “victory” and “fruit-bearing” according to Evangelist Ed Vallowe, in his book, “Biblical Mathematics-Keys to Scripture Numerics.”

The first verses describing the Creation total 33, 31 in Genesis 1, and the first 2 verses in Genesis 2. The middle of 33 is 17. Verse 1: 17 says this: “And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth…” This is a description of the ‘Greater Light’…the Sun/Son, representing Y’shua, “The Light of the World,” and the Moon, the ‘lesser light’ which only reflects the light of “the Greater Light,” which represents Israel and the Church!

Of course, Jesus rose in bodily resurrection at the end of the 17^th day of Nisan, at the beginning of the 18^th day of Nisan. On Nisan 18, the righteous Y’shua, stood up in finality as the ‘Righteous Tzaddi’ which represents the number ‘18’ of the Hebrew alpha-bet u

The first 17 days of the opening of the Sacred calendar year in the springtime will eternally add up to ‘153’ which will represent all the redeemed from Adam through the ages to come!

In Isaiah 66:1, the Lord asks this question… “Thus saith the Lord, The heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool: where is the house that ye build unto me: and where is the place of my rest?”

In the Sabbatical year of 520 b.c., Jewish year 3241, on the last day of the Feast of Tabernacles, from the Amplified Bible, the second chapter of the book of Haggai opens with this verse: “¹IN THE seventh month, on the twenty-first day of the month, in the second year of Darius king [of Persia], came the word of the Lord by the prophet Haggai, saying, ²Speak now to Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and to the remainder of the people, saying, ⁶For thus says the Lord of hosts: Yet once more, in a little while, I will shake and make tremble the [starry] heavens, the earth, the sea, and the dry land; ⁷And I will shake all nations and the desire and the precious things of all nations shall come in, and I will fill this house with splendor, says the Lord of hosts.

This statement by the Lord is a futuristic statement in its full implementation, i.e. a telescoping prophecy. Though the Lord was impatient with the returning exiles from Babylon in that they had become paralyzed with fear from the ‘people in the land’ in their continuing effort to rebuild the Temple unto the Lord and stopped their labor on it, it is very clear the Second Temple never even attained the splendor and glory of ‘the first house’ of Solomon’s Temple. Verse 3 says: “Who is left among you that saw this house in her first glory? and how do ye see it now? Is it not in your eyes in comparison of it as nothing?” It is a historical fact from Josephus and others, that the Second Temple fell far short from the full grandeur of Solomon’s Temple. The statement, “yet once more, in a little while, I will shake the heavens…” as mentioned previously, is certainly a future reference to the Day of Wrath which yet waits to be fulfilled at the end of the ‘6^th’ day.

In the KJV, verse 7, that says….”the desire of all nations shall come in….” is an extremely interesting phrase and is a reference to the coming of Messiah God, to His beloved nation of Israel, who came to them first during His 3 ½ year ministry. But again, this is finally looking forward to His ultimate return to Earth after “once more I will shake the heavens,” as Israel’s Redeemer-King who will plant His feet on top of Mount Zion, in His millennial Temple as described in Ezekiel 40-48, where He shall fill this house with splendor and find His rest forevermore!

Another very important point to note in Haggai 2, is a statement by the Lord that also reveals the insufficiency of both the present time in which it was spoken, as well as a failure to be fulfilled at the time of Messiah’s initial visit to Israel. This statement again, awaits a future fulfillment which will only round out to its fullest meaning at the end of Daniel’s ‘70^th week !’ The Lord’s reference here ONLY pertains to ‘thy people, Daniel,’ the future humble, repentant, believing and restored remnant out of the nation of Israel!

This statement provides one of the most important answers to the question as to when the ‘70^th week(s’) of Daniel will be ended !

This is the statement….Haggai, chapter 2, verses 17-19…from the KJV:

“I smote you with blasting and with mildew and with hail in all the labours of your hands; yet ye turned not to me, saith the LORD. Consider now from this day and upward, from the four and twentieth day of the ninth month, even from the day that the foundation of the LORD's temple was laid, consider it. Is the seed yet in the barn? yea, as yet the vine, and the fig tree, and the pomegranate, and the olive tree, hath not brought forth: from this day will I bless you.”

What a profound statement ! What a multilayered prophecy as to its many meanings! What a blessed clue pointing to the end of one of the Bible’s most intriguing prophecies!

Let’s dissect this statement and see what we find:

1. From the very beginning that the Holy One of Israel chose out the nation of Israel and ‘separated her unto Himself’ from all the nations upon the Earth, over and over again she thwarted His plan for her best well-being, because of her disobedience and departure from His Law. In Numbers 14:22-23, speaking of Israel’s completed 40 years of wandering, the Lord said this….”Because all those men which have seen my glory, and my miracles, which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and have tempted me now these ten times, and have not hearkened to my voice; Surely they shall not see the land which I sware unto their fathers, neither shall any of them that provoked me see it:”

Ezekiel chapter 20 recounts five different times over the total history of the nation of Israel that the nation failed God in an attempt to please Him in all things, and those five times, He withheld His ultimate judgment against them. These five attempts fulfill the statement of …”I smote you with blasting and with mildew and with hail in all the labours of your hands; yet ye turned not to me, saith the LORD.” Beginning with verse 37, God foretells the final time of when ….”And I will cause you to pass under the rod, and I will bring you into the bond of the covenant: (during Jacob’s Trouble) And I will purge out from among you the rebels, and them that transgress against me: I will bring them forth out of the country where they sojourn, and they shall not enter into the land of Israel: and ye shall know that I am the LORD.” (the final judgment against the unbelieving of Israel during the last half of the Tribulation)

2. “Consider now from this day and upward, from the four and twentieth day of the ninth month, even from the day that the foundation of the LORD's temple was laid, consider it”….

“The four and twentieth day of the ninth month” is always Kislev 24, the eve of the festival of Hanukkah / the Festival of Lights, the Feast of Dedication.

A cursory reading of this verse seems to imply that the foundation of the Second Temple was laid on “the four and twentieth day of the ninth month” but that is not case upon deeper study from Scripture. First, according to I Kings 6:37: regarding the foundation of Solomon’s Temple …”In the fourth year (of King Solomon’s reign) was the foundation of the house of the LORD laid, in the month Zif:” The month of “Zif” is the second month of the old Hebrew calendar, corresponding to Iyar, in the spring, in the later Jewish calendar.

Then, Ezra 3:8 and 10, reveal the time of beginning of the work of the Second Temple, the ‘house’ of which Haggai speaks…”Now in the second year of their coming unto the house of God at Jerusalem, in the second month, began Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and Jeshua the son of Jozadak, and the remnant of their brethren the priests and the Levites, and all they that were come out of the captivity unto Jerusalem; and appointed the Levites, from twenty years old and upward, to set forward the work of the house of the LORD”….”And when the builders laid the foundation of the temple of the Lord…”

Therefore, neither foundation of Israel’s prior two Temples were laid in “the ninth month, the four and twentieth day, but indeed, both were laid in the second month of the year…in the month of Iyar!

Regarding the commencement of the temple building 15 years after the cessation of the work, The Jerusalem Bible, in Ezra 6:4 says this, quoting King Cyrus’ issued order: “The Temple is to be rebuilt as a place of offering sacrifice and its foundations retained…”

In other words, with the onset of work on the Second Temple in 519 b.c., as commanded by the Lord in Haggai 2, the building resumed on the same foundation which had been laid 15 years prior, in the second month of Zif/Iyar!

Therefore, it is obvious that the Lord had something different in mind when He said….”even from the day that the foundation of the LORD's temple was laid, consider it….” According to Him, Israel was to consider from a ninth month, the four and twentieth day when a VERY important foundation was to be laid….

This wonderful prophecy is first directed to Zerubbabel, the governor of Judah. A footnote ‘p’ on page 1576 of The Jerusalem Bibles says, ”Zerubbabel, a successor of David is associated with traditional royal messianism, and the messianic expectation takes shape about his person, see Zech 6:12.” Plainly, Zerubbabel is a shadow and type of Y’shua, the soon coming Messiah, King, and Priest of Israel. Zerubbabel has been chosen “like a signet ring- to begin the work of the Second Temple but one greater than Zerubbabel, a type of Zerubbabel, namely, Messiah Y’shua, also called, “the Branch” shall finish the work of the future Temple of God, the millennial Temple of Ezekiel still to come!

About Solomon’s Temple, I Kings 7:10 says… “And the foundation was of costly stones, even great stones, stones of ten cubits, and stones of eight cubits.” In Strong’s, the word “costly” is #3368 and means: valuable, prized, weighty, prized (highly valued), rare, splendid. Isaiah 28:16 says…”Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation: he that believeth shall not make haste.” 1 Corinthians 3:11 says…”For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.”

Without question it is clear to see the Lord is revealing that His only, begotten Son, Y’shua Messiah, is that rare, precious and ‘costly’ FOUNDATION STONE OF THE TEMPLE OF THE LORD! This is the same “Stone” in Daniel that defeats the empires of the world as depicted in the statue, without any help, and “by His arm only” will He bring down all Gentile empires finally during the last 3 ½ years of the Tribulation upon the earth. This will be a time “which never has been nor will be again.” Y’shua, ‘The Stone,’ will ‘blow all the wicked nations, peoples and tongues away with the breath of His mouth’ leaving not a trace behind! It is with this Stone that the Lord God of heaven and earth will “shake all nations,”all kingdoms, the heavens, the earth and all of earth’s remaining armies. It is only upon this Foundation Stone, which the nation of Israel and all the redeemed of the world may trust. Y’shua, the Messiah is “the costly and precious stone” upon which not only the spiritual House of the Lord is built (the Church), as well as the redeemed and forgiven whole House of Israel, but also the physical millennial Temple and eternal Temple of the nation of Israel and the New Jerusalem. It is from this millennial/eternal Temple, which is based on the Messiahship of King Y’shua, the Lamb of God, who is the ultimate type of the chosen and elect, Zerubbabel, that the Lord shall extend eternal, everlasting peace like a river throughout all the heavens and earth for ever and forever! It is to this Temple, this millennial and eternal Temple, that “the desire of all nations shall come (Messiah) and I will fill this house with glory, saith the Lord of Hosts! The glory of this latter house shall be greater than the former, and in this place I will give peace, saith the Lord.”

3. “Consider now from this day and upward, from the four and twentieth day of the ninth month….from this day will I bless you….”

Going to the ending of verse 19, the Lord makes a promise to Israel, saying…”from this day will I bless you”….

Jewish history teaches that John the Baptist was born at Passover, 6 months before Y’shua’s birth in the fall of the year. We know that John’s father, Zacharias, was a priest of Israel who “served after the course of Abijah” which was the eighth course of twenty-four courses, which began “at the turn of the year,” of the Sacred Year, [I Chron 24:5-19], and the courses served 2 weeks each year. Abijah’s course was during the end of May/first of June. Under the law Jewish husbands and wives “could only come together” two weeks out of the month because of the laws of levitical cleanliness. Elizabeth “became with child” around the end of June/beginning of July. She was 6 months pregnant when she went to visit Mary, the mother of Y’shua. The “annunciation” by the angel Gabriel to Mary of the conception of Jesus, occurred in the “sixth month.” This was not referring to the sixth month of the year, but the Bible margin note says “the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy” which would be the Jewish month of Kislev and our month of December that year.

This strongest of evidence indicates that the “overshadowing of Mary” by the Holy Spirit which resulted in the conception and incarnation of God’s Son, Y’shua, occurred in the month of our December, the Jewish month of Kislev, and very well could have occurred on the day of Kislev 24! This would necessarily have been very close to the date of winter solstice, December 22, which is the darkest, shortest day of the whole year! Close to or on this very darkest of all days, “The Light of the World,” the “Servant Candle” of Israel’s Hanukkah Menorah, “the Light to lighten the Gentiles” and “the Word that was God and was with God” of John 1:1, came to Earth in the form of “incorruptible flesh” through the miracle of the Incarnation. After a gestation period of 280 days and a bit more, the God/Man child was born to a virgin, wrapped in the High Priestly linen of “swaddling cloth” and was placed in a manger at the time of the fall Feasts- most likely the Feast of Tabernacles, as the future King and Messiah of Israel and the world, Who came down to “tabernacle with men” at “the end of the year” [Ex 34:22]. If this miraculous event did take place on Kislev 24, what a glorious way for the Lord to fulfill the promise “from that day upward I will bless you!”

4. But wait, we now see a further layer of understanding to Haggai 2:19….note this very telling line that says: “Is the seed yet in the barn? yea, as yet the vine, and the fig tree, and the pomegranate, and the olive tree, hath not brought forth:…..”

The Lord asks a question at the time of Haggai 2, in a Sabbatical year of 520 b.c. He asks whether or not the seed is yet in the barn and whether the fruit has yet brought forth ! Of course, He already knows the answer to His own question! In the Kingdom Age parable of the ‘wheat and the tares’ from the KJV, Matthew 13, verse 31 says…” Let both grow together until the harvest: and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn.” It is clear here that the Holy Spirit is making a connection between “my barn” and the millennial Kingdom, into which the ‘righteous wheat’ of Israel and the Gentile believers will be gathered.

In Haggai, the Lord is merely pointing out that the ‘spiritual fruit-bearing’ of the nation of Israel HAD NOT YET OCCURRED at the building of the Second Temple nor even at the time of its rebuilding in 519 b.c. In fact, Daniel’s “thy people” of the redeemed remnant of Israel will not bring forth their ‘spiritual and holy fruit’ until the 3.5^th, beginning of the 4^th year of her ‘circumcision’ during the time of her judgment and repentance throughout the time of Jacob’s Trouble! At the beginning of the 4^th year, which will also be the beginning of the 9^th year of her Jubilee cycle, the resurrected Old Testament redeemed of Israel, along with the resurrected Gentile remnant will be gathered into ‘my barn’ of the Kingdom of David, which will be opened in the middle of the 7 years of the Tribulation, at THE END OF DANIEL’S 70^TH WEEK! In that fourth year, this remnant will satisfy the principle revealed in Leviticus 19:24…

“But in the fourth year all the fruit thereof shall be holy to praise the LORD withal.” At the end of the 7 years of Tribulation, in another ‘middle,’ in the 3.5/4^th year, the hidden, living remnant of Israel all over the world and the resurrected Tribulation martyrs will be physically brought into the Kingdom as Israel’s “spiritual fruit” and will be another ‘holy praise offering’ to the Lord ! “And the remnant that is escaped of the house of Judah shall yet again take root downward, and bear fruit upward. For out of Jerusalem shall go forth a remnant, and they that escape out of mount Zion: the zeal of the LORD of hosts shall do this.” 11 Kings 19: 30-31

Unlike in John 7:6, at a time when Jesus said, “My time has not yet come,” in the middle of the Tribulation, when Jesus takes His great power and begins to reign as “King of Kings and Lord of Lords” at the beginning of the Kingdom in Heaven, He will finally be able to say, “MY TIME HAS NOW COME!”

Just as the nation of Israel’s Messiah’s time will have finally come, again “in the middle,” so the time for “all Israel” to come into her long promised Kingdom of David will also be “in the middle.”

Now, we will see how the blessed “Bride of Christ” will enter Heaven, also “in the middle.”

In the spring of 2005, the end of Nisan ’17,’ [which will come to a total of ‘153’, as the ‘Resurrection Property’] will close at sundown in Israel on Tuesday, April 26. Nisan ‘18’, [when the ‘righteous, final Tzaddi’ stands up] will begin on Tuesday evening, April 26 until sundown Wednesday, April 27, in Israel.

Of course Resurrection Day takes place in the midst of the Barley harvest. But, if the Lord ‘gathers the Bride to Himself’ on Tuesday night, the end of the “third day of the week, which was also on the LAST day of the marriage of Cana when Jesus appeared in John 2, at a time when back then, He said, “my hour is not yet come,” we then would not represent the ‘first sheaf of the barley harvest’ because Jesus already fulfilled that at His resurrection “on the morrow after the Sabbath.” But this time, if He came for us at the end of another third day “His hour will have come!”

In “Come and Dine” we learned how barley is the most humble of all grains. Many of the poor throughout history could not afford wheat flour, as the finer and more expensive flour, as well as now in this time.