Christ Return Compared to a Harvest and Seventieth Week of Daniel Untrue?

July 30, 2012

Written by: Gail Green

Christ return compared to a harvest:

When trying to understand end time prophecy it is important to look at time the same way God does. He doesn’t use the Christian calendar or better known to the secular world as the Gregorian calendar: He uses the Hebrew calendar where each month starts with a crescent moon. Back in the days before modern technology two Jewish men would wait for a couple of days and nights for the sliver to show itself, then the two witnesses would report it and that would be the beginning of a new month.

God gave the Hebrews two years in one: the year of creation also called the civil year which starts in the month of Tishri beginning in the fall: September-October of the Christian calendar. Tishri is the seventh month of the ecclesiastical year. The ecclesiastical year begins with the month Nisan in the spring (March-April), it is the start of the planting and harvest season. The harvest and planting year is the most important of the two years when considering God’s plan for the latter days. According to scripture his coming and gathering of his people are compared to harvest time.

There are many verses in the Bible that points us toward the harvest feasts as an end time scenario. The Bible refers to the followers of Christ as laborers for the harvest: Mat 9:37—Then saith he unto his disciples, the harvest truly [is] plenteous, but the laborers [are] few. The Bible speaks of the harvest time as when Christ reaps the souls who love him at the end of the world: Mat 13:39—The enemy that sowed them (weeds in with the good crop) is the devil; the harvest is the end of the world; and the reapers are the angels. Rev 14:15 gives us a picture of Christ sitting on a cloud with a sickle in His hand as an angel cries with a loud voice: the harvest of the earth is ripe and it is time to reap. 

God commanded the Israelites to keep three main feasts in the year: the Passover (feast of unleavened bread), the feast of weeks (Shavuot), and the feast of Tabernacles (Sukkot). God uses these feasts as points in time when he fulfills his word: Christ was crucified on Passover, then fifty days later (after seven times seven weeks) on the Jewish holiday Shavuot (feast of first fruits) the Holy Ghost was given to the disciples; in the Christian world this is called the day of Pentecost. It is said that our redemption will be in the time of the feast of Tabernacles (Sukkot); the last feast of the harvest year: the time of ingathering.

Exodus 23:15-16—Thou shalt keep the feast of unleavened bread: (thou shalt eat unleavened bread seven days, as I commanded thee, in the time appointed of the month Abib (Nisan); for in it thou camest out from Egypt: and none shall appear before me empty ;) And the feast of harvest, the firstfruits of thy labors, which thou hast sown in the field: and the feast of ingathering, [which is] in the end of the year, when thou hast gathered in thy labors out of the field.

God commanded that the seventh day and the seventh year be kept holy:

As we all know God commands that the seventh day of every week be kept holy. In the Jewish world the seventh day is called the Sabbath. It begins at sundown on the sixth day (Friday) of the week and continues until sunset the following day (Saturday). God told the Israelites to get everything prepared on Friday so there was no need for anyone to work on his holy day: it is for rest and worship only. God also commanded the Sabbath year to be kept holy. In that year there was to be no planting and consequently no harvest. This commandment was made so that the land could rest. The Israelites did not obey this rule and that is one of the reasons why God caused them to be taken away captive by Nebuchadnezzar for seventy years.

God commanded seven times seven weeks of days to be counted and the fiftieth day (Shavuot) to be kept hallow.

Deut 16:9 Seven weeks shalt thou number unto thee: begin to number the seven weeks from [such time as] thou beginnest [to put] the sickle to the corn.

Num 28:26—Also in the day of the firstfruits, when ye bring a new meat offering unto the LORD, after your weeks [be out], ye shall have an holy convocation (gathering); ye shall do no servile work:

Not only does God expect the seventh day and the seventh year to be kept holy He commanded seven times seven weeks and seven times seven years be observed and counted. The counting of the forty nine days (seven weeks) was to be kept as a tribute of freewill offering to the LORD and there was to be rejoicing before God and all the people in the place where God chose to put his name. The seven weeks were also to be kept for the Hebrews to remember their days as slaves in Egypt (Deut 16:10-12). After forty nine days were counted the fiftieth day (Shavuot) was to bring the first fruits of the crop to be offered to the Lord. The Jews keep these weeks today in modern Israel; it is called “The Counting of the Omer,” The counting begins the second day after Passover and ends on the evening of the forty ninth day. The fiftieth day starts Shavuot (feast of firstfruits).

God  commanded seven times seven years to be counted and the fiftieth year (Jubilee) to be kept hallow.

To this day no one knows exactly when the last time the Jubilee year was observed. The fiftieth year named Jubilee year by God began with the sound of a trumpet (Shofar) on the tenth day of the seventh month, in the Day of Atonement. It was a time to be hallowed. Liberty was to be proclaimed throughout the land unto all the inhabitants. Every man returned to his possessions and to his family. Following the Day of Atonement in the fifteenth day of the seventh month began the feast of tabernacles that last for seven days.

Lev 25:8-11—And thou shalt number seven Sabbaths of years unto thee, seven times seven years; and the space of the seven Sabbaths of years shall be unto thee forty and nine years. Then shall thou cause the trumpet of the Jubilee to sound on the tenth [day] of the seventh month, in the Day of Atonement shall ye make the trumpet sound throughout all your land. And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout [all] the land unto all the inhabitants thereof: it shall be a jubilee unto you; and ye shall return every man unto his possession, and ye shall return every man unto his family. A jubilee shall that fiftieth year be unto you: ye shall not sow, neither reap that which growth of itself in it, nor gather [the grapes] in it of thy vine undressed.

Daniel's Seventy Weeks Untrue?

Jeremiah 34:14—At theend of seven years let ye go every man his brother an Hebrew, which hath been sold unto thee; and when he hath served thee six years, thou shalt let him go free.

Believe it or not this verse is a major key to understanding the prophecy of Daniel’s seventy weeks. When God counts time He uses inclusion time keeping, meaning that when He says seven years He means six years. He does the same when He says seventy years he means sixty nine years. In the verse above He says at the end of seven years let every man go free and then in the same breath He says after the man has served six years let him go free. He doesn’t need to explain the seventh year or in the case of a seventy year prophecy He doesn’t have to explain the seventieth year because those years are kept holy: they are Sabbatical years. We have a clear example of God doing this with the seventy year period of time concerning the Babylonian captivity.

Jeremiah 29:10—For thus saith the LORD, that after seventy years be accomplished at Babylon I will visit you, and perform my good word toward you, in causing you to return to this place.

Notice God says after seventy years are accomplished (ended) in Jer.29:10, but as I explain in “Daniel and the Babylonian Captivity” the exile started when Daniel was taken captive and ended sixty nine years later and as God promised the Jews returned to Israel and began the seventieth year, the tenth Sabbatical year, back in the land celebrating the Feast of Tabernacles. Upon examining Daniel’s seventy weeks we can see the same type of prophecy given: a seventy year period that involves sixty nine years not four hundred and ninety years.

Most believe that the weeks in Daniel’s prophecy are seventy times seven years: four hundred ninety years, but I contend that those weeks are feasts of weeks (a seven week period) times seventy years. Let’s take a look at the word “weeks” for a moment: we are not considering the word “week” only the plural use of the word in the Bible. This word is used fifteen times in the KJV. It is used three times describing a regular week: Monday, Tuesday, etc… The majority of times it is used are eight times and it is in connection to the “Feasts of Weeks” then it is used four more times in three verses of Daniel chapter nine and is said to mean years. Unlike the word “week” the word “weeks” is never used to refer to years in any other place in the Bible; however the word “week” is used in Gen. 29:27-28 and this is how we understand that a period of seven years is one week of years. The only time people (not God) says the word “weeks” is used as a period of years is in Daniel 9:24-26.

Considering and Understanding the Vision

Daniel 9:23—At the beginning of thy supplications the commandment came forth, and I am come to show thee; for thou art greatly beloved: therefore understand the matter, and consider the vision.

Now, let us do as Gabriel told Daniel to do and consider the vision. We have learned that God uses inclusive time keeping and that when He says seven or seventy He means that the seventh year or the seventieth year is kept holy because they are Sabbatical years. We have also learned that there are no verses in the Bible in which God uses the word “weeks” in the context of years and that it is man who has determined that the word “weeks” means years only in Daniel chapter nine. Let us too consider the article I wrote titled “Christ Return Compared to a Harvest” where it is explained that Jesus uses the analogy of a harvest for His coming: Joel 3:13, Matt. 9:37, 9:38, 13:30, 13:39, Rev. 14:15. Then last but not least let us consider what Jeremiah says in chapter five verse twenty four of his book: Neither say they in their heart, let us now for the LORD our God, that giveth rain, both the former and the latter, in his season:he reserveth unto us the appointed weeks of the harvest.

Daniel 9:24—Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy.

Dan 9:25—Know therefore and understand, [that] from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince [shall be] seven weeks (7),and threescore and two (62) weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall (H2742: trench or ditch), even in troublous times.

In the book written by Sir Robert Anderson “The Coming Prince” he asserts that the last seven years is the seventieth week of Daniel but is there truly a “seventieth week” or could Daniel’s prophecy be another case of inclusive time keeping? Notice in Daniel 9:25 Gabriel says there will be seven weeks and sixty two weeks; nowhere does he say there will actually be seventy weeks when he is describing the period of time that is determined. In Mr. Anderson’s theory the seven weeks are counted before the sixty two weeks. If that was the way Gabriel meant it to be then why wouldn’t he say after sixty nine weeks rather than “after sixty two weeks” considering he describes another week in Daniel 9:27? The way I see it Anderson’s theory makes the claim that Gabriel mentions the seven weeks but doesn’t count them or describe them. Does that make sense to you? Isn’t it more logical that this truly is a case of inclusive time keeping and that what Gabriel is saying is that after sixty two years etc… and then the last seven years is from year sixty three until year sixty nine and that the seventieth year will be the time that Jesus begins to rule?

Not Convinced Yet?

Matthew 1:17—So all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations; and from David until the carrying away into Babylon are fourteen generation; and from the carrying away into Babylon unto Christ are fourteen generations.

In the article  “A Generation Deciphered” it was concluded that Matthew 1:17 is a chronological passage listing important events of the Bible rather than a genealogical passage. And it was concluded that three of the four listed events were all seventy year periods (generations). We have already discussed here that the Babylonian captivity was a seventy year period that ended in the sixty ninth year. The generation of Jesus also ended in the sixty ninth year.

In Matthew 23:36 Jesus referred to the period of time He was living in as a generation. He told all those standing around Him (the multitude living at that time) that all the things He said to them would come upon that generation. Clearly from Matthew 1:1 (also talked about in “A Generation Deciphered”) the life and times of Jesus is a generation that began at His birth and ended with the destruction of the temple in 70 AD. In all reality the temple was not destroyed in the year 70AD but rather the year 69AD. The reason I say that is because there was no year zero. The Gregorian calendar went from 1BC to 1AD skipping the year zero. For the generation of Jesus to end in the actual year 70AD the calendar would have had to been like this: 1BC to year zero to 1AD but it wasn't it was like this 1BC to 1AD.

In Matthew 24:34 Jesus refers to the period of time that will see His coming as a generation just as He did His own generation and we understand that His generation was seventy years that ended after sixty nine years. Those sixty nine years just as the sixty nine years of the Babylonian captivity were a period of time that consisted of sixty nine (feasts of) weeks just as Gabriel describes to Daniel.

In conclusion I must ask: what makes more sense to you? A) The sixty nine weeks (483 years) of Daniel’s prophecy happened two thousand years ago and we are just waiting on the last seven years to pop up out of the blue or B) The seventy weeks of Daniel are seventy years of the feasts of weeks?

Blue Letter Bible. (n.d.). Retrieved April 24, 2012, fromhttp://www.blueletterbible.org/lang/lexicon/lexicon.cfm?Strongs=G3767&t=KJV

King James Version of the Holy Bible.

The Coming Prince. (n.d.). Retrieved August 18, 2012, from Philologos:http://philologos.org/__eb-tcp/default.htm

All rights reserved! (2012)

Read More:

Sir Robert Anderson Wrong?

References:

Blue Letter Bible. (n.d.). Retrieved April 24, 2012, from http://www.blueletterbible.org/lang/lexicon/lexicon.cfm?Strongs=G3767&t=KJV

Jewish Holidays. (n.d.). Retrieved August 1, 2012, from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewish_holiday

King James Version of the Holy Bible.

 All rights reserved! (2012)