A Fresh Look at the 70 Sevens of “Wonderful Numberer”
“70 weeks are determined upon your people…” Daniel 9:24. 70 x 7 = 490 years
490 years = 10 Jubilees. They came every 49 years (50th year was #1 of next sequence)
They began in 457 BC, a jubilee event when Israel was freed from Persia by Artaxerxes.
10 jubilees extended to 34 AD, but 40 more jubilees (40 x 49) extend to 1994-95.
Jubilee was proclaimed on the Day of Atonement by the High Priest, Leviticus 25:9,10.
In 1995, Pope John Paul on the Day of Atonement went to the UN General Assembly.
In 2015, Pope Francis, also on Day of Atonement went to the UN General Assembly.
Why the 20-year gap?
To answer, we should recall God gives man six days to do all our work* Exodus 20:9,
“Be not ignorant, 1000 years are as a day (2Peter 3:8,9) God is giving us 6,000 years.
Putting the jubilees into 1000 years, we see 490 + 490 years
= 980 years with 20 extra years marked by the papal visits at the end.
In the context of “1000 years are like a day, God is not slack.” The
Greek word, braduno, means no tarrying or delay. This with the
pope’s “jubilee year of mercy,” 2016, suggests the devil knows end-times
are impending.
Rather than expansive plans to build more churches, we are at an end of all our work*
and should focus on warning the world of impending judgment when “the
Bridegroom comes,” as the Angel said, “Prophesy again,” Revelation 10:11. This is not about a rapture as most think. We urgently need a better understanding of the wedding parables...
“Ruler Over All that He Has,” or “Beaten With Stripes”?
Experts
say the two greatest motivations are high reward and fear of loss.
Christ embodied both in the wedding parable of Luke 12:32-48. It
suggests an importance to Him that we don’t understand...
Peter
didn’t understand the parable and he asked if it was for them or all.
Christ replied, “Blessed is that servant whom his master will find so doing when he comes. Truly I say to you that he will make him ruler over all that he has…and that servant who knew his master’s will, and did not prepare himself or do according to his will shall be beaten with stripes.”[1]
Since
signs of the times suggest the Master may return soon, this article
considers the key ingredients of “so doing.” The parable begins in verse
32 with the encouraging words, “Do not fear, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.”
Christ linked the setting up of His kingdom to the phrase, ‘times and seasons’[2]
found in Daniel 2, but also in 1Thessalonians 5 where Paul said it
comes with the day of the Lord, the end-time period that comes as a
thief when they are saying ‘Peace and safety,’ and sudden destruction
comes on them.
Since
the Iran Nuclear Treaty could be considered ‘Peace-and-safety,’ it
suggests relevance in our quest to understand how we become part of the
kingdom. Did we note Paul’s context of destruction? It’s like “travail
on a woman with child,” an echo of Egypt’s travail in birthing Israel,
God’s first-born.[3]
God ‘executed judgment’[4] (sudden destruction cited by Paul) and took Israel to a covenant which made them His kingdom[5] and He later said, “I am married to you.”[6] All of this is included in Paul’s summary-- “All these things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages have come.”[7]
America’s
parallels to Egypt are unmistakable. They killed babies; the US has
aborted 60 million unborn; they were the breadbasket in time of famine
and the greatest military; the same for America. Their cattle got
disease; we have Mad Cow Disease.
It may
seem like the US is not like Egypt because they were in bondage, but the
US participated in the slavery of millions brought to America and has
since then made slaves of many more millions to alcohol, tobacco,
caffeine—slaves to appetites, passions and perversion. This nation is in
greater bondage than they were and yet we may have to go into martial
law to recognize our loss of freedom and bondage.
Martial
law could be the equivalent of “the abomination” that Christ cited as
the reason to flee when we see it “standing where it ought not.”[8] In addition to the Iran Nuclear (Peace & safety) Treaty, we had the first-ever military drill on US soil last summer.
Early
believers understood Christ’s reference to the abomination as the Roman
army, but Rome also came last year, “standing where it ought not” in the
US Congress. How many signs do we need before we under-stand the
Savior’s next line in Luke 12:33, “Sell what you have”? Re this, please consider “Duty in View of the Time of Trouble” Early Writings, 56.
We are immersed in a lukewarm
Christian culture, and not eager for a sudden change that Bible imagery
suggests is coming. Secular writers on strategic relocation suggest
moving from high density population to smaller or rural communities. The
biblical counterpart in Egypt was the land of Goshen, suitable for
agriculture, where the Israelites lived.
A year
early is better than a day late. Waiting till we see martial law being
set up means leaving our things in order to flee to freedom if we
understand Christ’s words.[9]
How do we expect Christ to save us if we don’t do what He says? And
besides sparing ourselves big trouble by obedience, our example may have
a saving influence on others.
Luke’s wedding parable supports parallel history for us. They had “loins girded” in Egypt and we should too.[10] Luke also says to have our lamps burning. The Rule of 1st
Use offers insight: where a word or phrase is first found, it often has
a context to consider for end-times because Christ is the Word, the
First and the Last.[11]
The
first use of burning lamp is Genesis 15 where we find God, as a burning
lamp, making a covenant with Abram. God was the initiator. For us to
have our lamps burning suggests a similar role to initiate the making of
a covenant when the biblical context is satisfied.
We are to “be like men who wait for their master, when he will return from the wedding, that when he comes and knocks [we] may open to him immediately,” but how will we recognize His ‘knock”?
Since the Bible is its own expositor, we gain insight from the only other place where Christ knocks, Revelation 3:20.
But we could be misled by the popular Evangelical meaning. We like the
idea of gentle Jesus always knocking at the door of our hearts, but it
doesn’t fit the end-time focus to open “immediately.”
“One may read the whole Bible through and yet fail to see its beauty or comprehend its deep and hidden meaning.”[12]
The deeper meaning of “knock” is to realize that the lukewarm
materialistic church where Christ knocked, ended in an earthquake that
destroyed the city circa 63 AD.
This fits with the “sudden destruction” that comes as a thief and also the midnight cry[13]
in Christ’s parable; it’s an echo of the cry in Egypt, when God
executed judgment and took His people to a covenant (marriage).
The covenant was 50 days later at Pentecost, but in Luke’s wedding parable, Christ said to ‘open to Him immediately.’ The next verse offers insight. If we’re watching and we open to Him, “he will gird himself and have [us] sit down to eat and will come and serve [us],” Luke 12:37.
“Watching” is translated from the Greek word, gregoreo, meaning
to be awake. It would be unfair for Christ to ask us to be awake
without clues for when, because we can’t be awake every night, but
Passover was the only night in the year that being awake was commanded.[14]
Passover
is the context in each wedding parable. The man without a wedding
garment in Matthew 22 should have his loins girded as in Exodus 12:11. The midnight
cry in Matthew 25 is a link to the cry in Egypt. Christ’s saying He
will gird Himself and serve us is also what He did at the Last Supper,
Passover.
This doesn’t mean we have to kill lambs or eat bitter herbs. “As
He ate the Passover with His disciples, [Christ] instituted in its
place the service that was to be the memorial of His great sacrifice.”[15]
“In
its place” suggests doing the Lord’s Supper on the eve of Passover as a
growing number of church groups do in seeking an authentic service.
Doing so is a perfect time to eat the Lamb in a spiritual sense,
reviewing the closing scenes of His life and what He bore for us. “It
would be well for us to spend a thoughtful hour each day…”[16] Why not on Passover?
According
to Dr. Selye, father of the modern stress theory, gratitude is the most
healing of all emotions and Christians should see it as one of the
purest forms of worship. Why couldn’t every church be open on the eve of
Passover with the invitation for neighbors to come and share the
blessing, and pray that God will pass over us in judgment that
originally fell on that same night, and it did again for Christ.
“In like manner the types which relate to the second advent must be fulfilled at the time pointed out in the symbolic service.”[17]
This suggests that judgments may fall at a Passover someday soon
because that’s when God executed judgment on Egypt. Several passages
suggest that our doing so is protective. This could be important for us
re a vision of an earthquake, 9T 92-95. Passover is implied by her citing Zeph 1:8.
“If
the goodman of the house had known in what watch the thief would come,
he would have watched, and would not have suffered his house to be
broken up.”[18] If we don’t watch, Christ comes as a thief.[19]
His teaching suggests we could be like the goodman who has his house broken by the earthquake [knock in Luke 12:36] if we don’t watch as the passage says. The King James Bible has further insight; the Bible explains.
“The goodman is not at home, he is gone a long journey: He has a bag of money with him and will come home at the yom kece [full moon].[20]
Israelites didn’t travel in winter, and if they took a long journey in
spring and couldn’t get back to Jerusalem for Passover, they were to
keep it a month later, a provision for travel in the law of Numbers 9:10,11.
This text is a surprise basis of timing for FIVE of Christ’s mini-parables inserted parenthetically between His 2nd coming in Matthew 24:30 and same event in Matthew 25:31.
- When five women missed the wedding, Christ said to watch (be awake at Passover) for you know neither the day nor the hour. The Greek means because you don’t understand, “For
the kingdom of heaven is like a man traveling to a far country.” Christ
is linking the reason they don’t understand to it being like a long
journey—a clue for 2nd Passover in Numbers 9:10,11.
Christ would be taking the far journey. His return as Bridegroom must
conform to the law that He said is in effect “till heaven and earth
pass.”[21]
- That
wording was also His introduction to the last parable on the talents and
the wise stewards seemed to know when to expect Him and they were
ready.
- In the last parable of Matthew 24, the evil servant begins to smite his fellow servants. “THEN shall the kingdom of heaven be like 10 virgins…” which we showed has 2nd Passover timing.
- The goodman in Matthew 24:43 is ALSO on a long journey, shown above, 2nd
- “As the days of Noah,” the Flood came with Passover timing, but in the 2nd spring month. Methuselah’s name meant, at his death, the sending forth of waters. He died the year of the Flood.[22] and Noah had to bury his grandfather. He was unclean by reason of contact with a dead body as the in Numbers 9:10,11 shows; and the Flood coming in the 2nd spring month fit that law.
The Flood had Passover timing because Noah entered the ark on the 10th day, the same day the sacrifice was selected in Egypt.[23] When people refused Noah’s invitation, they selected themselves for sacrifice.
God assures us that He won’t do anything without revealing it.[24]
Most readers don’t see a connection with the next verse--what does He
want to reveal? It says, “A lion has roared; who will not fear?” It
sounds unrelated until we see that Amos begins with “before the
earthquake, he said, The LORD will roar.”[25] “The LORD also shall roar…and the heavens and the earth shall shake.”[26]
This suggests an impending apocalyptic event that is revealed, if we can believe it…as the days of Noah. “Christians should be preparing for what is soon to break upon the world as an overwhelming surprise,
and this preparation they should make by diligently studying the word
of God and striving to conform their lives to its precepts.”[27] We must “watch.”
A huge benefit in the wedding parables that we’ve overlooked is that the 144,000 who get to follow Christ wherever He goes in eternity are virgins.
Since the Bible explains itself, they must be the wise virgins that get
into the marriage--those who respond “immediately” in Luke’s parable.
The Rule of 1st
Use is helpful to see what an immediate response looks like. When
Christ called James and John, “they immediately left the ship and their
father and followed Him.”[28] Are we ready to leave our livelihood and close family ties for the sake of His kingdom?
Those
who are “so doing” when He comes must have lights burning. This
includes sharing the light we have so others can have the same
opportunity, even if our invitation is scorned or ridiculed as we see in
Matthew 22 where the King sends His servants to bid others to the
feast.
We
are talking about the Lord’s Supper on the eve of Passover as we’ve
seen, with the modification of it being a month later, “as the days of
Noah,” or “like a man traveling to a far country.”
That would be about a month after the Jews observe Passover and precisely two weeks from when we see the New Moon crescent (chodesh, as specified by God to Moses[29])
in the western sky 20 minutes or so after sundown. It’s usually a night
after calendars show a new moon because they go by a dark moon in
conjunction; God gave a visible sign of the new month and the pure woman
in Revelation 12 is standing on the moon—she has a lunar foundation.
Celebrating the Lord’s Supper with time spent reviewing the closing scenes of our Savior’s life as in The Desire of Ages,
and praying that God will pass over us in judgment is a perfect way to
be ready if He should knock. We are living when we may expect Him and we
must be ready.
God gave Israel a system of feasts, mikvah—rehearsals
that they practiced for 1400 years, yet when Christ died as the Lamb at
Passover, they failed to see the connection. Could we be failing too?
We don’t set times; God set them. They are called appointed times mo’ed, first found in Genesis 1:14 before sin or Jews and enforced by statutes forever.[30] Paul kept them[31]
and said don’t let any one person judge how you keep them but the body
of Christ (the local church should decide), but pro-catholic translators
added an “is” making it sound like they are only shadows, the
substance is Christ, so forget those shadows, and most Christians are
clueless now.
May God
help us to be ready as we invite others to share the blessing of the
Christian’s Passover when we may expect the Master who took the far
journey to return in conformity to His law; it’s still in effect “till
heaven and earth pass.” This isn’t hard if we want to be part of 144,000-- “ruler over all that He has” and not “beaten with many stripes.” Lk 12:44
[1] Luke 12:43-47, NKJV unless specified
[10] Exodus
12:10; Luke
12:35
[12] Steps to Christ, p 90
[13] Christ’s Object Lessons, p 412
[14] Exodus
12:10, Matthew 26:38-41
[15] Desire of Ages, p 652
[16] Desire of Ages, p 83
[17] Great Controversy, p 399
[20] Proverbs
7:19,20, KJV
[22] Story of Redemption, p 63
[23] Genesis 7:4,11; Exodus 12:3
[27] Prophets & Kings, p 626
[31] Acts 20:6,16; 1Corinthians 5:8
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