About 17 years ago, when I turned my life over to Christ, I got an insatiable urge to study Bible prophecy (and haven't lost it yet). About that time Grant Jeffrey's book "Armageddon, Appointment With Destiny" was first printed. That book, plus Hal Lindsey's books, started me off on a roller coaster of Bible prophecy. Of all the prophecy books I've read since, the one chapter in the "Armageddon" book, on Ezekiel's 430 years made the biggest impression. Maybe because it can be solved by mathematics, and I was always into math. Although this prophecy is already written up in this site, I believe it is so important, it bears repeating. The following is taken from Grant Jeffrey's book.
Ezekiel, one of the great prophets of the Bible lived in Babylon during the time Israel was taken over and its people exiled to Babylon. God appeared to Ezekiel in a vision and gave him a prophecy that Israel would be punished for 430 years (Ezek. 4:3-6). For God was fed up with His people's iniquities, and they would be dispersed from their homeland for a trial period.
The land of the Jews was ruled by the Babylonians for 70 years, and for much of that time, many Jews were held as exiles in Babylon. But in the spring of 536 BC, they were allowed to return to Jerusalem by the Persian King Cyrus, after the Persians overthrew the Babylonians. Subtracting the 70 years from the 430, we are left with 360 years of further punishment. Israel did not repent of its sins after 70 years, and most of the nation did not return to Israel. The majority stayed as colonists in what is now Iraq-Iran. 360 years later the Jews still did not fully return to Israel, and nothing significant happened. Why were the Jews still being punished by God 360 years after the Babylonian captivity ended? The answer is in the book of Leviticus. Four times in this book, in chapter 26, God tells Israel, that if she did not repent, she would be punished seven times more for her sins.
Now take the 360 years and multiply it by 7, and you get 2,520 Biblical years. A Biblical year is 360 days, as reaffirmed in the Bible. The Jewish year of Biblical times was lunar-solar and had only 360 days. Therefore the end of the punishment and restoration to Israel would be accomplished in 2,520 years of 360 days each. Multiply the 2,520 years by the 360 days, and we get 907,200 days. Converting this figure into our calendar year of 365.25 days, by dividing 365.25 into 907,200 days we reach a total of 2,438.8 calendar years. Therefore, the end of Israel's worldwide captivity would occur after a total of 2,438.8 years had elapsed from the spring of 536 BC. Keep in mind there is only one year between 1 BC and AD 1. Now add the 2,438.8 years to 536 BC, and we come to the spring of 1948. In the spring of 1948, on May 14th, an event took place that shocked the world. The Jews proclaimed the independence of the reborn state of Israel. The Jewish people celebrated the end of their worldwide dispersion and captivity at the exact time prophesied thousands of years earlier by the prophet Ezekiel.
There are other prophecies that can be proved by mathematics, but to me this one is special. It shows that God, the One Who invented mathematics, and the One Who inspired Ezekiel to write this prophesy, is still on the throne of this universe and is still in control of events.
By George Konig
January 22, 2006
www.georgekonig.org
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