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3) Seventy Years Without a Temple
There is another 70 year period prophesied in the Bible. We can note that the prophecy of Tyre is given in straight years. It is not given as a Jewish 'week' where seven days is seven years, a day for a year, or a 'time' (360years). Likewise this second prophecy is in calendar years.
Jeremiah wrote to all the people of Judah and Jerusalem that,
This whole land shall be a desolation, and an astonishment; and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years. And it shall come to pass, when seventy years are accomplished, that I will punish the king of Babylon, and that nation, saith the LORD, for their iniquity, and the land of the Chaldeans, and will make it perpetual desolations. (Jeremiah 25:11-12)
This was fulfilled, as seventy years later Daniel writes,
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. (Daniel 9:1-2)
But one may ask the question why 70 years? Why did Yahweh chose this length of time? 70 years is the length of an ordinary life (Psalm 90:10), so a 70 year captivity means even the long lived don't return to the land, and possibly not their children. The grandchildren of those taken into captivity would be the generation that would go back to the land.
There is something to ponder. 70 years of being strangers, despised by others, were needed to eliminate idolatry and train the new generation.
But this may not be the end of the application of 70 years. Hosea writes,
For the children of Israel shall abide many days without a king, and without a prince, and without a sacrifice, and without an image, and without an ephod, and without teraphim: Afterward shall the children of Israel return, and seek the LORD their God, and David their king; and shall fear the LORD and his goodness in the latter days. (Hosea 3:4-5)
When Israel is a nation again they exists for some time without a king. But, we are not told how long 'many days' is. Jeremiah is told, in effect, that the 70 years is 'many days' as his property deeds are to sit in an earthen vessel as a witness until the return from captivity.
Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Take these evidences,. and put them in an earthen vessel, that they may continue many days. For ..Houses and fields and vineyards shall be possessed again in this land. (Jeremiah 32:14-15)
'Many days' may be more than 70 years also. It is therefore speculation that Israel is to abide as a nation for 70 years until Messiah and David their king return. If they are to abide 70 years from 1948, then Messiah becomes their king in 2018 (or as Israel was voted as a nation in November 29, 1947, the 70 years may end late 2017).
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Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts: and then shall every man have praise of God. (1 Corinthians 4:5)
This may be one of the most misunderstood passages of the Bible. Paul is notorious for long sentences of connected thoughts, and this is part of a complex wide ranging thought which lasts 2 chapters, and includes what seems opposite advice:
But now I have written unto you not to keep company, if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; with such an one no not to eat. For what have I to do to judge them also that are without? do not ye judge them that are within? But them that are without God judgeth. Therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked person. (1 Cor. 5:11-13)
Over all of history the servants of God have known the signs of the times: their times. They have seen the direction of events toward the Kingdom of God on earth replacing the kingdoms, republics and democracies of humans.
An article prompted by National DNA day April 25 celebrating the understanding of DNA.
As I was thinking to write this article, having just read Psalm 46 as I do each year on that day, on January 25th a Bible was found untouched after a tornado hit Hattiesburg, Mississippi.
