Many of you reading this are
wondering when we are going to be getting into the book of Revelation. That is where all the prophecy about the end
of time is located, right? Well,
no. In the first chapter we looked at
prophecies from the books of Matthew and 1 Peter, for instance, to prove we are
indeed in the end times. In the second
chapter we looked in the book of Daniel to prove that Bible prophecy is true
and reliable and to learn the meaning of certain prophetic symbols. We are going to look in Daniel once again
before moving on to Revelation. Not only
do we want to understand what we find in Revelation, we want to know why each
thing means what it does and how it fits in with the others.
The book of Daniel gives us very
useful timelines that we can follow like maps, where we can mark on them
different events prophesied in the Bible.
These timelines are described as days, weeks, and months, but a day in
prophetic language is actually a year.
(see Appendix 2).
If
one day equals one year (Ez. 4:4-6 and Num. 14:34), then…
This passage was spoken by the angel Gabriel to Daniel so it comes straight from heaven.
Gabriel was saying that the Jews and the city of Jerusalem had 70 weeks, or 490 years (7 days per week multiplied by 70 weeks equals 490 years), of probation left to straighten out and start keeping their side of the bargain they had made with God way back when God brought them out of Egypt. The start of the probation period would be when a decree was issued allowing the Jews to restore and rebuild the city of Jerusalem.
It was not long after the Medo-Persians conquered the Babylonians that many of the Jews were allowed to return to their homeland and rebuild the temple Nebuchadnezzar had destroyed.
The 62 weeks, or 434 years (7 x 62 = 434), of the 70-week prophecy follow the seven weeks so it obviously begins in 407 BCE and goes through to 27 CE. Did anything special happen in the year 27 CE? Yes. Luke Chapter 3 and Verse 1 says that it was the 15th year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar when Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist and Messiah the Prince, Jesus, began his ministry here on earth.
Tiberius became co-emperor of Rome with Augustus in 13 CE, so his 15th year would bring us to 27 CE.
DAY for a YEAR
When a day is mentioned in prophecy, it stands for a year in
actual time. So if you see a prophecy of
1260 days, it actually means 1260 years.
One hour would be a literal two weeks, one week would be seven days or
seven years, one month would be 30 days or 30 years, etc. See:
Ez. 4: 4-6; Num. 14: 34
30 DAY MONTH / 360 DAY YEAR
Everyone knows that a year contains 365 days and that not
all the months in a year have 30 days, so how do we come to the decision to
break down the months and years into 30 and 360 days? Some scholars refer to ancient calendars as
proof that the common year was 360 days, not becoming our familiar 365 day year
until the Julian calendar was instituted.
Others talk about the simplicity of using a 360 day year and 30 day
month still in use today when doing complex financial calculations. I prefer the easiest explanation. If you divide 365 days by 12 months you get
30.4 days per month. Rounding that
number down gives you 30 days. Then, if
you multiply 30 days by 12 months you get a 360 day year. Also, in Revelation 11: 2 and 3 we are shown
that 42 months is 1260 days, these numbers coinciding only if a 30 day month is
used (42 x 30 = 1260). The 365 day year
we have now is only an average itself:
2006 only had 364 days, 2007 has 365 days, and 2008 will have 366 days.