GOD’S TIMING IS REMARKABLE BUT IS USUALLY EXPLAINED AWAY AS COINCIDENCE
- ABRAHAM WAS FOREWARNED THAT ISRAEL WOULD BE IN BONDAGE IN EGYPT FOR 400 YEARS: GENESIS 15: 13=16
And he said unto Abram, Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years; And also that nation, whom they shall serve, will I judge: and afterward shall they come out with great substance. And thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace; thou shalt be buried in a good old age. But in the fourth generation they shall come hither again: for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full.
- JOSEPH KNEW ISRAEL WOULD BE RELEASED FROM BONDAGE & REMINDED THEM TO TAKE HIS COFFIN WHEN THEY LEFT: GENESIS 50:24-26
And Joseph said unto his brethren, I die: and God will surely visit you, and bring you out of this land unto the land which he sware to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. And Joseph took an oath of the children of Israel, saying, God will surely visit you, and ye shall carry up my bones from hence. So Joseph died, being an hundred and ten years old: and they embalmed him, and he was put in a coffin in Egypt.
- MOSES RECORDED THE EXACT TIMING OF THEIR RELEASE FROM BONDAGE: EXODUS 12:40,41,.51
Now the sojourning of the children of Israel, who dwelt in Egypt, was four hundred and thirty years. And it came to pass at the end of the four hundred and thirty years, even the selfsame day it came to pass, that all the hosts of the LORD went out from the land of Egypt. …and it came to pass the selfsame day, that the LORD did bring the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt by their armies.
- JEREMIAH SIMILARLY PREDICTED THE LENGTH OF THEIR BABYLONIAN CAPTIVITY: JEREMIAH 25:11
And this whole land shall be a desolation, and an astonishment; and these nations [Israel & Judah] shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years.
NOTE: ISRAEL lost her independence as a nation in 606 BC when her last Godly king, JOSIAH, was slain in battle by Pharaoh Necho, king of Egypt, who himself was defeated at the battle of Carchemish in 605 by Nebuchadnezzar who subsequently destroyed Jerusalem. Israel’s bondage began in 606 and lasted 70 years until 536BC.
- DANIEL WAS ALSO SHOWN THE BABYLONIAN CAPTIVITY WOULD LAST 70 YEARS: DANIEL 9:1,2
In the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus, of the seed of the Medes, which was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans; in the first year of his reign I Daniel understood by books the number of the years, whereof the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah the prophet, that he would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem.
- LATER EZEKIEL PROPHESIED THE TOTAL LENGTH OF ISRAEL’S CHASTENING: EZEKIEL 4:5,6
“For I have laid upon thee the years of their iniquity, according to the number of the days, three hundred and ninety days: so shalt thou bear the iniquity of the house of Israel. And when thou hast accomplished them, lie again on thy right side, and thou shalt bear the iniquity of the house of Judah forty days: I HAVE APPOINTED THEE EACH DAY FOR A YEAR.”
NOTE: When the 70 years bondage ended in 536 BC only 42,360 people (Ezra 2:64) (those determined to obey God & rebuild the temple) returned to Israel. The rest, preferring their relative prosperity amongst their heathen neighbours, stayed and remained dispersed throughout the Medo-Persian empire. Even the bondage in Babylon would not softened the heart of all the children of Israel, so Ezekiel was told to prophecy to them of further bondage while they were all still in Babylon.
- EZEKIEL prophesied 390 + 40= 430 days of “bearing their iniquity”.
- 430 days was to be 430 YEARS (EACH DAY FOR A YEAR)
- 430 years less the 70 years in Babylon left 360 years “ bearing their iniquity.”
- MOSES GAVE THE PRINCIPLE OF FURTHER CHASTENING IF GOD’S PEOPLE DO NOT RESPOND BY REFORM: LEVITICUS 26:18 to 24
And if ye will not yet for all this hearken unto me, then I will punish you seven times more for your sins….. and if ye will not be reformed by me by these things, but will walk contrary unto me; then will I also walk contrary unto you, and will punish you yet seven times for your sins…”
- BECAUSE THE MAJORITY OF GOD’S PEOPLE WOULD NOT OBEY, GOD CHASTENED THEM SEVEN TIMES MORE.
DO THE MATH!
360 years “bearing their iniquity” x 7 = 2520 years “bearing their iniquity”
Biblical year is 360 days so 2520 years x 360 = 907,200 days.
907,200 days divided by 365.25 = 2483.8 of our calendar years
2483.8 years from 536 BC = 1947.8 AD
ADDING ONE YEAR for the year “O” = 1948.4
By “coincidence”, on May 14 1948 ISRAEL BECAME A NATION.
“Who hath heard such a thing? who hath seen such things? Shall the earth be made
to bring forth in one day? Or shall a nation be born at once?” Isaiah 66:8