Why the Jewish diaspora has lasted so long and why there is no longer any Divine opposition to the Return of the exiles to the Land. (There's plenty of other opposition, but that's for another day.) The Ezekiel-Moses Clock is the clock of the Dispersion.
I first preached what follows on the 3rd April 2005. Exactly 1972 years since Jesus rose from the dead. At the time I knew that 2005 would be significant prophetically, but I had no idea how. It was some time later that I found out what had taken place. I'll keep you waiting a little while for the answer.
What follows is of importance to Jew and to Christian. As it was first preached to Christians, any Jewish readers will have to be patient with explanations of stuff that you are all too familiar with. Likewise, Christians will have to patient with the reverse.
The Exiles of the Dispersion
1 Peter 1 “Peter, an apostle
of Jesus Christ, to the exiles of the dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia,
Asia and Bithynia, chosen and destined by
God the Father, and sanctified by the Spirit for obedience to Jesus Christ and
for sprinkling with his blood. May grace
and peace be multiplied to you.”
These are the first
two verses of Peter’s first letter. Some
commentators have said that this letter was written to the Gentiles, or to a
mixture of Jews and Gentiles, in what is now Turkey and what used to be called
Asia Minor. However, if you look at Acts
2, and particularly at verses 9 and 10, you find that Peter is speaking to Jews
from many countries and, in particular, countries mentioned are Cappadocia,
Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia.
A number of other countries are mentioned but those are the ones that
overlap with 1 Peter chapter 1, and in looking at a map of the ancient world we
find that all of these places are what we would now call Turkey. In short, the whole of 1 Peter is written to
some of the Jews that Peter first spoke on the day of Pentecost. They have now returned to Turkey and he
is writing to them and possibly to their Gentile converts as well. They are called, in the RSV, “the exiles of
the dispersion”. In other versions of
the Bible that is translated slightly differently, but when you check with the
Greek there is no question that they are sojourners of the Diaspora.
‘Diaspora’ is the Greek word for ‘dispersion’.
These are the Jews that have been scattered to the world according to the
Old Testament scriptures. These are
those who have been separated, to some degree, from God, from the Holy Land and from the Temple.
In addition to them, we have the Gentiles who have been scattered across
the world and who have been separated God for a lot longer time, but in essence
this letter is addressed to the Jews of the dispersion, to the Jews in exile.
There is another
interesting comparison to be made between Peter’s letter to the people of Turkey and what
he said on that day of Pentecost, because in both his speech on the day of
Pentecost and his letter, he emphasises that Jesus has come according to the
scriptures and particularly he emphasises the work of the Prophets. On the day of Pentecost he mentions King
David and the Prophet Joel. In the
letter of Peter he quotes from a great many prophets. He quotes from Isaiah, from Psalms, from
Hosea and he quotes from Leviticus. He
even alludes to some of Paul’s writing, which he says are difficult to
understand. This latter sentiment has been echoed over the centuries.
The
reason for and length of the exile
However, the key
thing we need to look at is why the Jews are in dispersion anyway. The Jews have been scattered from their land
to because of the nation’s sins against God.
They had been warned by Moses and, indeed, by prophets since Moses that,
if they continued to disobey God they would be scattered from the land.
Now we need to take
a look at Ezekiel chapter 4. Ezekiel was
describing siege conditions. The city of
Jerusalem is surrounded
by an army, and they are in deep trouble. This has happened on more than one occasion and prophetic scriptures
concerning Jerusalem
being surrounded by armies are very interesting. Jesus himself commented on this and predicted
this. His prophecy was fulfilled in AD70 on occasion, and the terrible thing is
that it will be fulfilled again, and possibly even in our own lifetimes. If it does happen in our own lifetimes,
however, we can expect the return of Christ.
Leaving that aside for the moment and going back to Ezekiel. Ezekiel was told to lie on one side for a
certain number of days and then to lie on the other side for another number of
days. He is told in chapter 4, verse 5,
that he will lie on his left side for 390 days, each day equalling a year, and
that is the punishment of the house of Israel and he is to bear it, to
carry it in some way. Then he shall lie
down again a second time on his right side for 40 days, again a day for each
year, a punishment for the house of Judah. Ezekiel, whose name means my God is
righteous, is here, to some extent, acting out not only the punishment on Israel, but the
role of Jesus. Jesus himself, of course, will take not only the punishment laid
upon Israel,
but the punishment laid upon the whole world.
However, Ezekiel is
to do a total of 430 days, each day equalling a year, 430 years. This is the punishment of Israel for its
disobedience, of the Jews, of Judah
and of Israel
for their disobedience.
They served 70 of
these years in Babylon in exile, from which came the scriptures of Daniel, some of
the Psalms, though not all, but including the well known Psalm (By the waters of
Babylon, we lay down and wept) which has spawned pop songs. Don McLean and
Hot Chocolate have both done versions and it goes right back to those times of
exile in Babylon over 2,500 years ago.
If we take those 70
years away from the 430, that leaves us 360 years to serve. The exile in Babylon last from 586 BC to 516
BC, so if we follow another 360 years from 516 BC, the punishment is over by 156
BC (some 150 plus years before the birth of Jesus) and that is it,
finished. But there is a problem with
this. It was not finished. The people of Israel did not all return at the
end of the exile, by any means, neither was there repentance by 516 BC,
certainly not a thorough repentance.
They had not returned to a pure, unadulterated worship of the Lord, and
there were still plenty of Jews scattered around the world. So, 360 years after the exile we can safely
say they had not really learned their lesson. (I should point out that nobody else is very good at learning lessons, but the Jews are God's chosen Nation.)
What happens
now? This is where a significant set of
scriptures in Leviticus, chapter 26, needs to be taken into account. In Leviticus 26, Moses tells the people of Israel that if
they do not repent then God says, “if after this you will not listen to me (me being God) I
will punish you for all your sins seven times over.” This is mentioned four
times, in verses 18, 21, 24 and 28 - four times. God is not joking. Not only is He not joking, He is not
just emphasising this; He is beating them around the head with a warning. Four times; this is complete, this is
perfect, this will happen.
The conditions in
Leviticus 26 are very similar to those in Ezekiel. They are siege conditions, they are scattered
amongst the nations. The cities are
desolate, the land laid waste, and in fact, for a very long time the land of
Israel has indeed been laid waste. Let
us multiply those 360 years remaining by that factor of 7, and we get a total
of 2,520 years, which is a long time. (Now at this stage
I want to say that I am indebted for this insight to George T. Curle of New Zealand.) 2,520 years, a number which
resonates with the Book of Revelation and some of the numbers in there and in
Daniel. The reason for this is that the
Babylonians had a 360 day year, and that is why we have 360o in a
circle, 12 hours in our clock, 24 hours in a day, 60 minutes to the hour and 60
seconds to the minutes. It all goes back to the Babylonians.
360 years times 7,
this is a profound, deep and complete punishment, during which Israel will
never be in complete control of its own land and many Jews will never live in
the Promised Land. It was partially in
the control of Israel for periods of time, though never quite in total control.
The authority, the sceptre, passed from Israel, with the death of Herod the
Great. The sceptre is the power to execute judgement to the point of capital punishment. It began to move away, this was after Jesus was born, and during his
lifetime the Romans took over it completely.
This, again, was according to prophecy that the Messiah would come (Abraham
prophesied this) that the sceptre would not depart from Judah before Shiloh, that is the Messiah, came. And that is exactly what happened, Jesus was
born while Herod the Great was still king.
However, back to the
exiles in the dispersion and the period of the dispersion which is 2,520 years. The question is, of course, are these
Babylonian years of 360 days or our solar years of 365.24 days? Over 2,500 years this makes a difference. So - a sum. We have the 70 years of
punishment, plus 360 x 7 = 2,520, a total of 2,590 years of exile, of never
really being in charge of their own land, always in fear of somebody else and
eventually, in fact, totally removed from it. Some Jews remained or returned to
the land over the centuries, but they had no form of governmental control over
it until 1948.
What are we to do
with these 2,590 years? If we treat them as 360 day years, we have to multiply
them by 360 and divide them by 365.24. A simple calculator will suffice for
those who do not like long division and multiplication. This gives us 2,552. To
this we add 1, because there is no year zero between BC and AD, and then we
take away from it, not the number we first thought of, but 586BC, the beginning
of the exile. The answer we will get is
1,967.84. In other words, 1967 and a bit.
The beginning of the end of Exile
We are looking at
1967. What happened in 1967? Well, in that year Israel recaptured the whole of the Jerusalem and the Temple area, and for a
while had total sovereignty over the whole of the city of Jerusalem. The Temple
Mount was given back to
the Muslim Waqf and since then Israel
has not exercised complete sovereignty over Jerusalem and, of course, there are chunks of
the Promised Land which are not under Israel’s rule at all. (The Waqf is
the Muslim authority which is supposed to look after the Temple Mount,
because the Mosque of Omar, sometimes called the Al-Aqsa mosque was built on
that site as a symbol of Islamic victory over the Crusaders and the Jews. Not
surprisingly, they have no interest in archaeological investigation of the
site.)
1967 is the answer
we get only if we do the calculation based on the Babylonian year. If we just stick with a simpler calculation
of solar years we don’t have to do this complicated multiplication sum. We take
our 2,590 years, we subtract 586BC from them, we add 1 because there is no year
zero, and we get - do the sum - 2005, this very year. This is a year of immense significance. We are living in a period which appears to
have been predicted, indeed, fixed, partly in the time of Ezekiel and partly in
the time of Moses. Something God foresaw
and planned for and hid in the scriptures for our times. This calculation not only explains and
illuminates the times in which we are living; it also explains why there is
such a massive gap in another calculation between the death of Jesus and other
events predicted in the book of Daniel.
Two men in
particular have done a great deal scholarly research on the dates of the
Bible: Dr Harold W Hoehner in his book Chronological
Aspects of the Life of Christ, looks particularly at the dating of the life
of Jesus; Dr Edwin Thiele has looked at the dating of the Old Testament and
their figures are generally the ones on which much of this prophetic work is
based.
In his book Daniel
predicts a total of 70 weeks of years that Israel has been given to fulfil all
righteousness, to fulfil its mission, to do what God has called it to do. They are also told that after 69 of those
weeks of years, the Messiah would be cut off.
When that calculation is done for the first 69 weeks of years it
accurately predicts the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem.
It comes in shortly before the Crucifixion. It starts in 444BC and
finishes predicting accurately the triumphal entry into Jerusalem. If you want to see the calculation
and the historical arguments surrounding it, etc, then I would recommend the
book Chronological Aspects of the Life of Christ.
It is possible from that information and other information in the book of Daniel, to
show that the wise men not only knew when Jesus would die, but when he would be born
and indeed even the date of his resurrection.
All of that is in the Book of Daniel, but between the death of Jesus and
the remaining seven years there is a gap.
Daniel’s clock stops with the rejection of the Messiah. Ezekiel’s clock, however, has been multiplied
by seven. It is a lot longer than
originally thought and it takes over.
That clock continues ticking.
That is the clock of exile and the Jews are scattered the world over and
in recent years, particularly since 1967, we have seen them coming from all
over the world, including some surprise ones from Africa, from China, from
India, groups of people, who have been able to show that they are descended
from Jews who migrated after the scattering of the Ten Tribes in the Old
Testament, let alone what happened to the Jews after AD70 and the destruction
of Jerusalem and of the Temple. Bit by
bit, all of these people are coming back just as prophesied and the ones who
are hardest to move are the ones who are doing very nicely, thank you, in Britain and America. They are comfortable and see very little
reason, as yet, to move to Israel. That, I believe, will change.
That's as far as I got in 2005 in understanding the prophecy. Anti-Semitism is getting worse all over the world, even in the USA.
So now for the bit I learned later. I had to do some research before I discovered what had happened and I think that it will have passed a lot of Jews and nearly all Christians by as well.
In 2004 the Sanhedrin was re-established and in 2005 they called for specific plans to rebuild the Temple.
Many Jewish scholars and rabbis are not at all sure of the Sanhedrin's validity. Consider this, the Temple Mount was re-taken according to prophecy (1967) and the call for Temple plans occurred according to prophecy (2005).
As I understand it, there is no Divine prohibition in force preventing Jews from returning to the Land or from re-building the Temple.
Many Christians will go apoplectic. For the sake of clarity; the Temple is not necessary if you believe in Jesus the Messiah. There is no more need for sacrifice. However, there is a prophetic need for the Temple and anyone not believing in Jesus as Messiah needs the Temple. Basically, rebuilding the Temple is not down to Christians or Messianic Jews, it's down to devout Jews who have not yet recognised the Messiah. Brothers and sisters, it's not our decision.
There now exist two powers. The recognised political power (the Knesset) and the partially recognised religious power (the Sanhedrin).
It's all about the Messiah.
This is the really Christian bit - but it's very Jewish.
On the way to the Cross, Jesus prophesied as follows:
He was quoting from Psalm 118: 26
This would seem to imply that an official recognition, from the Temple, by the Knesset and the Sanhedrin is required to bring about His Return.
It was always Israel's responsibility to bring in the Messiah. The Church (the Bride) will go to the Groom (Yeshua). This is why He will never return at the Bride's behest. It's really that simple.
CHURCH, WAKE UP! OUR TIME IS SHORT!
ISRAEL, IT WILL SOON BE YOUR TURN.
