AGES OF EARTH VERIFIED IN SOLOMON'S TEMPLE
This is a continuation of our discussion on the prophetic significance of Solomon's Temple: Hopefully, you have patiently endured reading these articles sequentially knowing that it will lead you to an understanding of the age of the Earth.
Before we proceed, I wish to refer you to the article 'Sabbatical and Jubilee Years'. We need to appreciate the difference between
1. Sabbatical Year - the 7th year in the cycle of 7 years (7 years) when debts were forgiven, Hebrew slaves were released and the land was rested, and
2. Year of Jubilee - immediately follows the Sabbatical year after seven Sabbatical years had passed in a cycle of 50 years. (7 x 7 + 1 = 50 years).
This is similar to the way the Day of Pentecost was counted. Pentecost was counted according to 50 days, the Jubilee Year is counted according to 50 years. Its the ultimate Sabbatical year so to speak. There are wheels within wheels, in cycles of 7.
You can see how God works according to patterns and 7 is a key number, because it is patterned after the 6 + 1 days of the Creative Week. The number 7 in bible numerology has to do with perfection, fullness, consummation and end-times. It has everything to do with the age of the Earth and our final redemption. To remind you, sevens occur 49 times, 7 x 7 times, in the book of Revelation which takes us to the end of world history! Our final redemption is the day of our resurrection which occurs simultaneously with the 'first death' of all the wicked remaining on the Earth. The 'second death' takes place after the Millennium, when all the wicked, including the fallen angels, are thrown into the eternal lake of fire. Rather fearful stuff. I don't even want to think about it. Its just too horrible.
'men fainting from fear, and expecting those things which have come on the earth. For the powers of the heavens shall be shaken. And then they shall see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. And when these things begin to happen, then look up and lift up your heads, for your redemption draws near' (Luke 21:26-28).
Although you may think of yourself as already there will still be a final redemption, a double portion of redemption! At that time your body will also be redeemed and restored from the 'ashes of the grave or whatever'.
YEAR OF JUBILEE
At first sight, much the same thing happened in the year of Jubilee as in a Sabbatical year. However, the Year of Jubilee was particularly special.
In effect, because the year of Jubilee immediately followed a Sabbatical Year, there were two consecutive 'Sabbatical Years', but only once every 50 years when two became adjacent. However, in the year of Jubilee, its day of atonement was called the great Day of Atonement, which was more special than the annually repeating days of atonement.
The Jubilee year could thus be considered as a double portion and was different because in the year of the Jubilee, in addition to all the other things which had to be rested and forgiven, all lands had to be returned to tribal families. This was the restoration of their promised lands, according to the lands allotted to each tribe and family as a possession forever. But more about that under 'Sabbatical and Jubilee Years'.
3. The golden altar of incense.
Without the protection of the cloud of incense and the priests own censer of incense, it would have been fatal for the priest to enter beyond the veil into the Most Holy Place. The cloud of incense speaks of our prayer life. Most of us have not yet entered into the depth and travail of prayer of Jesus such as in the garden of Gethsemane. We certainly couldn’t do that in our own strength. In peaceful countries, most of us are just bathing in God’s mercy and are not driven to that degree of prayer, unless on behalf of a loved one. I once had a vivid vision of that kind of prayer. My prayers were like blue flames of a gas burner, with a flicker of yellow, roaring up to heaven. Prayer is important to God in ways that we fail to comprehend. When we don't pray, it allows demonic angels to have advantage in heavenly places.
4. 120 in relation to the great Day of Atonement.
The Day of Atonement was part of the annual Feast of Tabernacles, the only feast not yet fulfilled in the Christian church. What do I mean by that? To repeat myself, Israel celebrated three main feasts. God considered them extremely important. Any man not turning up in Jerusalem for the feasts was cut off from the Lord. We highly recommend the book by KJ Conner, ‘The Feasts of Israel’.
Passover and Tabernacles have three components each, the 7 components signifying their link to end-times, as is also the case for the rainbow, with it's 7 colours. The rainbow was first seen on Earth by Noah after he alighted from the ark. Through it, God promised to mankind that he would never again destroy the Earth by water. However, if you think you can now completely relax and ignore end-times, take heed of 2Peter 3:8 where the apostle said that next time, the Earth and the universe will collapse in a ball of fire! It will truly be a 'Big Bang' but in reverse. Very much sooner than evolutionary cosmologists could have predicted. Although the rainbow is a promise of peace, it is also a promise of a worse judgment to come.
The three Feasts of the Lord are,
1. Feast of Unleavened Bread or Passover. Hebrew Pesach or Greek Pascha.
2. Feast of Harvest or Weeks or Pentecost. Hebrew Shavuot. 3. Feast of Ingathering or Feast of Booths or Tabernacles. Hebrew Succouth or Sykko’ or Sukkot.
In the church age, Passover was fulfilled by the cross at Passover, followed by the resurrection of Jesus. Then exactly 50 days after lambs were slain in Jerusalem, the Holy Spirit was poured out upon the 120 disciples while the Jews were celebrating the Feast of Pentecost in the city.
Every 50th year in Israel was the year of Jubilee. It had special significance during the Feast of Tabernacles, on the Day of Atonement,
YEAR OF JUBILEE
‘You shall count off seven Sabbaths of years, seven times seven years; and there shall be to you the days of seven Sabbaths of years, even forty-nine years. Then you shall sound the loud trumpet on the tenth day of the seventh month. On the Day of Atonement you shall sound the trumpet throughout all your land. You shall make the fiftieth year holy, and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee to you; and each of you shall return to his own property, and each of you shall return to his family. That fiftieth year shall be a jubilee to you. In it you shall not sow, neither reap that which grows of itself, nor gather from the undressed vines. For it is a jubilee; it shall be holy to you. You shall eat of its increase out of the field. In this Year of Jubilee each of you shall return to his property’ (Leviticus 25:8-13. World English Bible).
The crucial day of the Feast was the great Day of Atonement on the 10th day of the 7th month. The first day was a special day of blowing trumpets. Jews also blow trumpets in the intervening 8 days. Trumpets were used as a 'wake up' call to danger, or for war. The Jews understand it as a day of judgement and a 'wake up' call for self-examination. The eight intervening days between the Feast of Trumpets and the Day of Atonement are still used for deep reflection as to how they might have sinned against their neighbour over the past year. The Christian equivalent of the 10 days is to make good with your neighbour and ask for forgiveness before having communion. 'Therefore if you offer your gift on the altar, and there remember that your brother has anything against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift' (Matthew 5:23-24).
'So then, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord. Everyone ought to examine themselves before they eat of the bread and drink from the cup. For those who eat and drink without discerning the body of Christ eat and drink judgment on themselves' (1Corinthians 11:27-20).
Every sin was forgiven on the Day of Atonements, but especially in the Year of Jubilee, every seven weeks of years, on the 50th year. All lands were returned, and all Hebrew slaves were set free. All debts were forgiven the previous year. Slaves of Hebrew origin were released the previous year which was a Sabbatical year. It was a very Holy Day with many attending designated rituals with a feeling of utter joy, although it was also very somber as people mourned over sins of ignorance. This is the day the church is waiting to be fulfilled at the end of the church age, in the same way that Passover and Pentecost were fulfilled,
‘the jubilee year of Leviticus seems functionally similar to the sabbatical year in Deuteronomy, especially if Deuteronomy is understood as mandating that the Hebrew slave be released at the sabbatical (=seventh) year, and not at the beginning of the seventh year of servitude. 7 years versus 50 years: The logic of the 49-year maximum for servitude in Leviticus is explicit. Leviticus describes an institution of a jubilee cycle, where every 50 years, land returns to its original owners. Since the land will be returned, it only makes sense that the owner should be freed to work his land again. Since the jubilee cycle is fixed, this means that different indentured servants will have different amounts of servitude, depending on when in the cycle they are sold into bondage.’ https://thetorah.com/hebrew-slave-exodus-leviticus-and-deuteronomy/
BLOWING OF TRUMPETS - CULMINATING IN BOOTHS AFTER THE DAY OF ATONEMENT
Surely God’s messengers are blowing the trumpets around the world to test (10 days) who of the people will gather to the Lord. The highlight of the event will be the marriage of Christ to His Bride on the great Day of Atonement. This is equivalent to the High Priest in Solomon’s day going into the Most Holy Place, only once in the year. He would come out proclaiming forgiveness to all Israel, even sins of ignorance, to cleanse her to be without spot, or blemish or any such thing. The Lord frequently called Himself her Husband. On this particular day Israel became a holy virgin to the Lord for one day, which had to be repeated every cycle of 50 years. But it is not to be so with the Bride of Jesus.
She is to be as perfect as He is for all time:
‘Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church; and He is the Savior of the body. Therefore as the church is subject to Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for it, that He might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the Word, that He might present it to Himself as the glorious church, without spot or wrinkle or any such things, but that it should be holy and without blemish’. (Ephesians 5:22-27) ‘And truly He gave some to be apostles, and some to be prophets, and some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ. And this until we all come into the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a full-grown man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ’ (Ephesians 4:11-13).
Sukkot. Several booths can be seen in this aerial shot, the last of the Feasts where devoted Jews gather fruits and tree branches to celebrate and rest 7 days in their booth, enjoying the fruits of their labour and the blessings of God.
By Yoninah (Own work) [GFDL (https://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html), CC-BY-SA-3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5)], via Wikimedia Commons
The other photo from Shutterstock.com, via Wix.com, shows a Jewish Orthodox Rabbi blessing the Four Species of leafy plants in a Sukkah on sukkot, the Feast of the Ingathering or Feast of Tabernacles. The booths were a reminder of the end of the 40 years they spent living in tents in the wilderness, before entering the Promised Land through the Jordan. They also prophetically foretell the rest believers will experience in the resurrection.
How does any of this verify our time-frame for world history? This is where prophetic numbers come into play:
5. The number 50.
‘Fifty can be found 154 times in the Bible. Its meaning is directly related to the coming of God's Holy Spirit. After Jesus appeared to Mary Magdalene on Sunday morning, April 9 in 30 A.D., he ascended to the Father in heaven (John 20:17). His ascension, as a type of firstfruit from the dead (Revelation 1:5), occurred on the day God told the Israelites they were to wave a sheaf composed of the firstfruits of their harvest (Leviticus 23:9 - 11). It is on this day that the count of 50 days to the Feast of Pentecost begins.’
There is more to 50 than just that. John the Baptist said that when Jesus comes, He would baptize with the Holy Ghost and fire. ‘Everyone will be purified by fire as a sacrifice is purified by salt’ (Mark 9:49).
‘The Holy Spirit produces the purity of God in our lives. God’s purpose is to purify us (Titus 2:14), and the Spirit is the agent of our sanctification (1Corinthians 6:11; 2Thessalonians 2:13; 1Peter 1:2). As the silversmith uses fire to purge the dross from the precious metal, so God uses the Spirit to remove our sin from us (Psalm 66:10; Proverbs 17:3). His fire cleanses and refines.’ https://www.gotquestions.org/Holy-Spirit-fire.html
Furthermore, the Holy Spirit Himself forgives no sin! Jesus said, ‘For this reason I tell you: people can be forgiven any sin and any evil thing they say; but whoever says evil things against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven’ (Matthew 12:31). A critical function of the Holy Spirit is to purge sin out of our lives. He killed Ananias and Sapphira when they colluded to lie to Him (Acts 5:1-10). When fire came down on Mount Sinai, which was the origin of Pentecost (50), God said He would kill anyone, man or beast, who came too near. The function of the Holy Spirit is to kill off any behaviour motivated by the flesh and to make us spiritual. In the 50th Year of Jubilee all deeds of the flesh were judged and sins were forgiven. There is only death awaiting the non-repentant.
In the days of Queen Esther of Persia, Haman, who intended to kill all the Jews in Persia was hanged on his own gallows that was 50 cubits high. The number 50 judges all that is against God. When king Ahaziah sent for Elijah by force, he sent a captain and his 50 men to arrest Elijah on two occasions. Twice, the 50 men and their captains were consumed by fire from heaven (2Kings Chapter 1). On the third occasion, because they came humbly, God allowed the third captain and his 50 men to live.
[This is a continuation of our discussion on the prophetic significance of Solomon's Temple: Hopefully, you have patiently endured much reading knowing that it will lead you to a better understanding of the age of the Earth].
6. The number 120.
The number 120 signifies the end of all flesh and the beginning of life in the Spirit. (KJ Conner, The Temple of Solomon, KJC Publications Blackburn, 1988). There were 120 trumpeters making one sound at the dedication of this temple.
This number is linked to 50 because there were 120 disciples in the upper room on the Day of Pentecost (50). God gave Himself 120 years before God drowned the unrepentant during the days of Noah. All persons in the Holy Place (the church) had to first pass under the gauntlet of the 120 cubit-high tower facing the Outer Court, that spoke of repentance. Due to His disobedience in striking the rock rather than speaking to it, God took Moses at the age of 120 years, even though he was still able and fit. He was buried and resurrected. He was one of two to appear to Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration to discuss with Jesus His crucifixion that would result in His resurrection.
H. REFLECT AGAIN ON THE YEAR OF JUBILEE
This occurred every 50th year. A Pentecost of years, not days. 7 x 7 weeks of years, followed by the Jubilee Year. On that great Day of Atonement, in the 7th month, on the 10th of the month, when the high Priest went into the Most Holy Place with blood, the people would await his reappearance from the Temple to announce that all sins, whether of ignorance or knowingly committed, were forgiven. All was forgiven and released, including lands, debts and Hebrew slaves. It spelled total freedom allowing a new cycle of weeks of years until the next Jubilee.
I. THE 120TH YEAR OF JUBILEE - THE ULTIMATE AND FINAL GREAT DAY OF ATONEMENT
This is what all Jews and Christians are waiting for, when sin will be no more. The final Jubilee has all the hall marks of the end of carnality and works of the flesh – release from sin and slavery to sin. The two numbers aligned with that sentiment are 50 and 120, the end of carnality and the end of sinful flesh. Both 50 and 120 were mentioned in relation to the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost in Acts chapter 2.
It is interesting that in the Scripture it says, ‘And when the day of Pentecost had fully come…’. God had been waiting for it and is counting 7 weeks of years Himself in heaven. He is as excited about it as the 120 disciples were that day in Jerusalem. He had been waiting patiently for 4000 years since the sin of Adam to begin the 5th day of the Redemptive Week, the birth of Jesus and the start to the church age of 2000 years. For the Final Jubilee, God is counting and has been waiting for 6000 years to usher in the 7th day, the day of rest known as the Millennium. He is waiting for 120 Jubilees of 50 years to run its course so that He can resurrect us into total liberty! the 120th Jubilee will finish off any carnality still residing in us.
HOME OR READ ARTICLE 12 NEXT OR PREVIOUS