If everyone could turn to Ezekiel 1, I am just going to read the first three verses. It says in Ezekiel 1:1-3:
Now it came to pass in the thirtieth year, in the fourth month, in the fifth day of the month, as I was among the captives by the river of Chebar, that the heavens were opened, and I saw visions of God. In the fifth day of the month, which was the fifth year of king Jehoiachin’s captivity, The word of JEHOVAH came expressly unto Ezekiel the priest, the son of Buzi, in the land of the Chaldeans by the river Chebar; and the hand of JEHOVAH was there upon him.
I will stop reading there.
As we read verse 1, it does not always strike us; but if you were paying attention as we read, there is a time reference made where it says:
…it came to pass in the thirtieth year…
What I always wondered was: the 30th year from what? Where did that come from? What was 30 years before? What kind of timekeeping is God involved in when He says that it was in the 30th year?
I have actually wondered about this for a long time, for a few years. I asked Mr. Camping two or three years ago at the Towson Bible Conference. I said, “Mr. Camping, have you ever looked at this?” He got back to me around the next day and he kind of confirmed what I was thinking concerning the starting point of the 30th year. But then I asked him, “What does it mean?,” and he said, “I do not know; we are going to have to study more to find that out.” It is kind of mysterious.
Now, we are helped because we know what year this is that Ezekiel is writing because it says in verse 2:
In the fifth day of the month, which was the fifth year of king Jehoiachin’s captivity,
So for this 30th year, we can actually come up with the date because it is marked by King Jehoiachin’s captivity.
If you remember when God was finishing up with the nation of Judah, there were four kings that followed Josiah. There was Jehoahaz who reigned three months, there was Jehoiakim who reigned eleven years, there was Jehoiachin who also reigned about three months, and there was Zedekiah who reigned eleven years.
Zedekiah was the last king of Judah. He was the 23rd king of Judah and the last king they would ever have to rule in the line of David. (Of course, the Lord Jesus is royalty; He came as a king, but not in the sense that He was ruling over Israel as these kings were.) After their 23rd king, they were destroyed, just exactly like Israel. After Israel’s 23rd king, they were destroyed by the Assyrians and they never were a nation again.
So this king that is mentioned here, it was the fifth year of his captivity, and it was Jehoiachin. If we go to 2 Kings 24:8-12, it says:
Jehoiachin was eighteen years old when he began to reign, and he reigned in Jerusalem three months. And his mother’s name was Nehushta, the daughter of Elnathan of Jerusalem. And he did that which was evil in the sight of JEHOVAH, according to all that his father had done. At that time the servants of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up against Jerusalem, and the city was besieged. And Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came against the city, and his servants did besiege it. And Jehoiachin the king of Judah went out to the king of Babylon, he, and his mother, and his servants, and his princes, and his officers: and the king of Babylon took him in the eighth year of his reign.
This is referring to Nebuchadnezzar’s reign. It was his eighth year, which would have made it the year 598 B.C. We can determine this just from the reference to Nebuchadnezzar, but it was Jehoiachin, it says here, who went into captivity. He was 18 years old and he reigned for three months. But if we go to 2 Chronicles 36:5-9, it says:
Jehoiakim was twenty and five years old when he began to reign…
He would have been the second king following Josiah. After Jehoahaz, who reigned three months, then Jehoiakim became king, right around 609 B.C., and Jehoiakim is the king in the book of Jeremiah who cuts the scroll of Jeremiah, as Baruch the scribe was reading it. He cut the scroll and he threw it into the fire. That was Jehoiakim and, here, he began to reign when he was 25:
…and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem: and he did that which was evil in the sight of JEHOVAH his God. Against him came up Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and bound him in fetters, to carry him to Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar also carried of the vessels of the house of JEHOVAH to Babylon, and put them in his temple at Babylon. Now the rest of the acts of Jehoiakim, and his abominations which he did, and that which was found in him, behold, they are written in the book of the kings of Israel and Judah: and Jehoiachin his son reigned in his stead. Jehoiachin was eight years old when he began to reign, and he reigned three months and ten days in Jerusalem: and he did that which was evil in the sight of JEHOVAH.
There is a problem because the other reference said that he was 18 and this says that he is eight years old, but both references say that he reigned for three months and ten days. How we understand this is that after Jehoahaz, the first king following Josiah, was removed, then Jehoiakim began to reign for an eleven-year period, but it was a very dangerous time to be a king of Judah, so he made his son, Jehoiachin, co-regent, almost at the very beginning of his reign when he was eight years old. Of course, Jehoiakim, the father, was actually the one ruling in Judah. But when he was taken captive when Jehoiachin was 18, then Jehoiachin began to reign alone, by himself, for three months and ten days.
So that is how we can harmonize the references. You can find this information in Mr. Camping’s book dealing with the kings of Israel and Judah, The Perfect Harmony of the Numbers of the Hebrew Kings, where he really goes into detail.
These are actually some of the verses that people like to point to when they want to find fault with the Bible so that they do not have to worry about what the Bible says. They like to say, “Well, you see, there is an error, there is a mistake, because Jehoiachin here was 18; over here, he is eight. Obviously, there was a scribal error, a mistake where the scribe wrote a wrong number.”
Actually, it is always the case that God’s Word is true and that we, as studiers of the Word of God, have been lazy and careless, whoever comes up with this kind of an idea. When we do more study, we will see that it fits perfectly. There is harmony and agreement.
Jehoiachin was co-regent with his father for ten years. Then when Jehoiakim was taken into captivity, he reigned alone just for three months. We know that he began to reign, Jehoiachin, in 598 B.C., which was the eighth year of King Nebuchadnezzar.
Actually, there are three different ways of coming to this date. It was the eighth year of Nebuchadnezzar. It was the year that Jehoiakim, his father, was taken into captivity, and he also was taken into captivity after three months and ten days. And it is the year that Zedekiah began to reign for the last eleven years of Judah’s history, or the history of the kings, until Judah/Jerusalem would be destroyed in 587 B.C.
Therefore, since we know that it was 598 B.C. when Jehoiachin went into captivity, Ezekiel’s reference to the fifth year of Jehoiachin’s captivity can be dated at 593 B.C. We can be sure of that. 593 B.C. was the fifth year of Jehoiachin’s captivity.
So what happened 30 years before? That is how we get the date where God is counting from. 593 + 30 gives us 623 B.C. That is the date that began this reckoning of time, which in 593 was the 30th year. But what happened in 623 B.C.?
I checked some commentaries and there are a few different ideas. I checked John Calvin’s Commentary, Matthew Henry’s Commentary, and the Jamison, Fausset, and Brown Commentary. One idea is that it is the 30th year from Nabal Palasser, who was Nebuchadnezzar’s father, the king of Babylon, and yet they dated that from 625 B.C. because they did not have the exact time reference that we have. But that is not a possibility. It is not 30 years of a combined time of Nabal Palasser, the king of Babylon before Nebuchadnezzar, and then the length of time for King Nebuchadnezzar’s reign.
Another possibility that Calvin presented was that it was time being considered or reckoned from the Jubilee year, which actually I thought of, too. I was wondering if it could be counting from a Jubilee because there are 50 years between Jubilees. But then the problem is that for 593 B.C., the Jubilee that would have been right before it would have been in 607 B.C. Every Jubilee would be either ending in the year ‘57 or ‘07. From 1407 B.C. when they entered into the land, 1357 B.C. would be the Jubilee, then 1307 B.C., all the way down through history, and so it would have been 657 B.C. or 607 B.C. that would have been Jubilee years, and 623 B.C. does not factor. It does not tie in with any kind of Jubilee.
One other idea was that it was Ezekiel’s 30th year because he was a priest. They were thinking that was how old Ezekiel was, but it does not read that way. It does not read that way, whenever we read of ages that are given in the Bible. The Bible did reckon time according to individuals’ ages; for example, the 600th year of Noah’s life, the flood would come. But it does not read that way. It says in Ezekiel 1:1:
Now it came to pass in the thirtieth year…
It does not say, “in Ezekiel’s thirtieth year,” so that is not a possibility either.
An interesting thing was that just about all of the commentators threw this out there, although they had no support or evidence for it, but they all mentioned the reign of Josiah, of King Josiah, and, actually, that is where they are correct because King Josiah was the one who was reigning in 623 B.C. He began to reign in 640 B.C. at the age of eight and he would reign 31 years until 609 B.C., and he would die when he was 39 after a 31-year reign.
Let us go to 2 Kings 22 and I will start reading from verse 1. 2 Kings 22:1-2:
Josiah was eight years old when he began to reign, and he reigned thirty and one years in Jerusalem. And his mother’s name was Jedidah, the daughter of Adaiah of Boscath. And he did that which was right in the sight of JEHOVAH, and walked in all the way of David his father, and turned not aside to the right hand or to the left.
Josiah was the greatest king of Judah—I think that we can say that as we read about his life—and he was a little boy. He was eight years old. He actually may not have been a child of God at that point because it says later, when he was about 16 or 20, that he began to seek after the God of his fathers, and yet he was still a very young man when he was reigning over Judah. He was the man who, we could say, brought about one of the greatest revivals in the history of the people of God, as far as national Israel. We never even saw anything like it during the Church Age. The Reformation, I do not think, could even compare to what Josiah did. He rid Judah of all of its high places, its idols, anything that he could find. He was going about cleaning up all the wickedness of the nation of Judah during his days, and God even recognizes that there was no king like him previously or that would be after him. He was the greatest king that Judah ever had.
By the way, he was eight and it tells us that he reigned “30 and one years,” which would equal 39. If you were to break down that number, what would it break down to? It would break down to, 39 = 3 x 13. That is how the common denominators of that number break down. The number 3 has to do with the purpose of God. The number 13 has to do with the end of the world.
Actually, when Josiah died in 609 B.C., that began the 70-year period that typifies the Great Tribulation, from 609 B.C. to 539 B.C., which, really, is picturing the Great Tribulation that comes right before the end of the world that we are currently living in. His life and his death had everything to do with our present day.
In 2 Kings 22:3, it goes on to say:
And it came to pass in the eighteenth year of king Josiah, that the king sent Shaphan the son of Azaliah, the son of Meshullam, the scribe, to the house of JEHOVAH…
In the 18th year of Josiah, how old would he be? He would be 26, 8 + 18. And how does 26 break down? It breaks down to 2 x 13. Number 2 has to do with being the caretaker of the Bible, the Gospel, and the number 13 has to do with the end of the world.
It is very interesting, not only that he was 26, but how many more years would he have to live? He had 13. He would live for 13 more years and then he would die in the year 609 B.C. In just a few verses, God is already giving us the number 13 in about three different ways. It is amazing that it was the 18th year of his reign.
Does anyone remember how the reigns of the kings of Israel and Judah were recorded, in what way, in what manner? There was something known as an accession year and a non-accession year. It is a way of keeping track of the time of the reigns of kings.
For instance, there is another “mistake” in the Bible that says that a certain event happened in the 11th year of a king. In the very next chapter, it says that the same event happened in the 12th year of that same king. And people say, “There was a mistake. There is an error in the Bible.”
No. God is just showing us that He keeps track of the reign of kings in two different ways, just like we can do and still do today.
The accession year for keeping track of time, if it is the year 2009 and I become king (well…that is not possible, but…), I am not going to record my first year until January 2010 because I have to fulfill the year. But another way is, of course, if I become king in January 2009, that would be year #1. January of 2010 would be year #2. There is no change, really, from when I began to reign, but there are two different ways of keeping track of it. It is either the first year for the second year; both are correct.
So when we read about the king where a certain event happened (I am sorry that I did not write the verse down) and it says that it was his 11th year, that is true. In the next chapter when it says that it was his 12th year, that is true. That is how God wrote the Bible, so that people who do not want to follow what God says can find verses like that that seemingly are in error and then they can discount everything.
If you can find one mistake in the Bible, one wrong verse where, actually, there is an error, then how can you trust anything in the Bible? But we know that the original Hebrew and Greek and the copies that we have today that are based on the original Hebrew and Greek, that the King James Version was based on, are absolutely perfect and without error and without fault and that there is no mistake. God just wants us to learn a little bit of information on how we can keep track of time.
Well, the 18th year of Josiah could be the year 622 B.C. or 623 B.C. Both are possibilities. The kings of Judah, normally, their reigns were recorded by the accession year, which is that they would have to reign a full year before a year would be counted. But in this case, the 18th year of Josiah has to be the year 623 B.C., and it is just one way that God is referring to it, and it would be a non-accession year. It would be based on the other method of keeping track of time.
So Josiah was 26 in the year 623 B.C., and let us see what happens in 2 Kings 22:3-7:
And it came to pass in the eighteenth year of king Josiah, that the king sent Shaphan the son of Azaliah, the son of Meshullam, the scribe, to the house of JEHOVAH, saying, Go up to Hilkiah the high priest, that he may sum the silver which is brought into the house of JEHOVAH, which the keepers of the door have gathered of the people: And let them deliver it into the hand of the doers of the work, that have the oversight of the house of JEHOVAH: and let them give it to the doers of the work which is in the house of JEHOVAH, to repair the breaches of the house, Unto carpenters, and builders, and masons, and to buy timber and hewn stone to repair the house. Howbeit there was no reckoning made with them of the money that was delivered into their hand, because they dealt faithfully.
They were so faithful that they were trusted with all of the money. There was not any question that they would deal honestly, and that is a good way to be known. Then verse 8, 2 Kings 22:8-13:
And Hilkiah the high priest said unto Shaphan the scribe, I have found the book of the law in the house of JEHOVAH. And Hilkiah gave the book to Shaphan, and he read it. And Shaphan the scribe came to the king, and brought the king word again, and said, Thy servants have gathered the money that was found in the house, and have delivered it into the hand of them that do the work, that have the oversight of the house of JEHOVAH. And Shaphan the scribe showed the king, saying, Hilkiah the priest hath delivered me a book. And Shaphan read it before the king. And it came to pass, when the king had heard the words of the book of the law, that he rent his clothes. And the king commanded Hilkiah the priest, and Ahikam the son of Shaphan, and Achbor the son of Michaiah, and Shaphan the scribe, and Asahiah a servant of the king’s, saying, Go ye, inquire of JEHOVAH for me, and for the people, and for all Judah, concerning the words of this book that is found: for great is the wrath of JEHOVAH that is kindled against us, because our fathers have not hearkened unto the words of this book, to do according unto all that which is written concerning us.
In the 18th year of Josiah, which was 623 B.C., they found the Bible. They discovered the Bible. They had to have known about the Bible, the Word of God—maybe it was just the first five books because it says that it was the book of Moses, but they still could have had Kings and Chronicles and perhaps a couple of other prophets’ writings—but they lost a major part of the Bible, we could say at least, if not the whole thing, and in the 18th year of Josiah when they were going about to fix the house, the high priest found a copy. He found a scroll of the Law of Moses and he gave it to Shaphan the scribe and Shaphan read it. Then he took it to the king and read it before the king, and that was the second time that he was reading it.
As a result, we will see that this sparks Josiah to clean up Judah like never before, to rid Judah of the high places like no king had ever done in the history of Judah before, and we can see why God was keeping track of time from the year 623 B.C. because it actually fits in with the end of the world and the time of the Great Tribulation when we discover the Bible. We find the Book of the Law, because it was sealed up. It was closed till the time of the end. Just because it is the time of the end, God opens up the Scriptures and He reveals truth to His people and His people respond like they never have before in history.
Did you see the first thing that they noticed as they were reading the Book of the Law:
…for great is the wrath of JEHOVAH that is kindled against us…
They noticed the judgment of God upon His people, and that is what we have learned, that judgment begins at the house of God, that the Lord is judging the churches and congregations of the world. Then, of course, we have learned a lot more. There is a lot of information that is being opened up and revealed to us at this time.
Does anyone remember what the spiritual meaning of high places is? There is a lot of talk in the Old Testament about high places that Israel or Judah would have. What is the spiritual meaning? The spiritual meaning is false doctrines, false gospels.
And what is happening now that the Book of the Law, the Bible, is being unveiled? It is being revealed, all of the Scriptures that God had closed up, and the high places are being removed because we are coming to a correct understanding of what the Bible is saying regarding hell, regarding the resurrection, regarding judgment, regarding the judgment throne of God and what that is, and many, many other teachings.
It was all of these high places that were not only in the church. It was just a wrong understanding of the Bible where we have had to continue to be corrected so that, now, we have gained a right understanding, and God’s people are going about fervently, fervently studying the Word and discovering truths.
It is just like somebody is searching the attic of the house of God and wow! Here is a Bible and it is like we are reading it for the first time, just as King Josiah had it read to him.
Let us also go to 2 Chronicles 34:8. This is a parallel account. It says:
Now in the eighteenth year of his reign, when he had purged the land, and the house, he sent Shaphan the son of Azaliah, and Maaseiah the governor of the city, and Joah the son of Joahaz the recorder, to repair the house…
So it is the same account. Then in verse 14, 2 Chronicles 34:14-15:
And when they brought out the money that was brought into the house of JEHOVAH, Hilkiah the priest found a book of the law of JEHOVAH given by Moses. And Hilkiah answered and said to Shaphan the scribe…
By the way, in Jeremiah 36, it is some of the descendants of Shaphan who are listening to Baruch read the scroll of Jeremiah who then takes it to the king and the king cuts it up and throws it into the fire. These descendants of this godly, faithful man were just standing by watching them do that.
So there is quite a different reaction from King Josiah when the scribe reads him the Book of the Law and King Jehoiakim when his scribe reads the book of Jeremiah, which has the same author, the same God gave them. The one reacts like, “Oh, my! What great trouble we are in! The terrible wrath of God is upon us! What can we do? Let us clean up the mess that the nation of Judah has become.” The other king, Jehoiakim, is listening to the Word of God and he gets out his penknife and throws it away.
This is a very vivid illustration of God’s people when they hear the Scripture and those who are not God’s people and who just want to get away from it. They do not want to listen to it. They do not want to obey it. They do not want to realize that they are in great trouble with God. They just seek to rid themselves of it.
Well, here, Hilkiah answered, in verse 15, 2 Chronicles 34:15-25:
…and said to Shaphan the scribe, I have found the book of the law in the house of JEHOVAH. And Hilkiah delivered the book to Shaphan. And Shaphan carried the book to the king, and brought the king word back again, saying, All that was committed to thy servants, they do it. And they have gathered together the money that was found in the house of JEHOVAH, and have delivered it into the hand of the overseers, and to the hand of the workmen. Then Shaphan the scribe told the king, saying, Hilkiah the priest hath given me a book. And Shaphan read it before the king. And it came to pass, when the king had heard the words of the law, that he rent his clothes. And the king commanded Hilkiah, and Ahikam the son of Shaphan, and Abdon the son of Micah, and Shaphan the scribe, and Asaiah a servant of the king’s, saying, Go, inquire of JEHOVAH for me, and for them that are left in Israel and in Judah, concerning the words of the book that is found: for great is the wrath of JEHOVAH that is poured out upon us, because our fathers have not kept the word of JEHOVAH, to do after all that is written in this book. And Hilkiah, and they that the king had appointed, went to Huldah the prophetess, the wife of Shallum the son of Tikvath, the son of Hasrah, keeper of the wardrobe; (now she dwelt in Jerusalem in the college:) and they spake to her to that effect. And she answered them, Thus saith JEHOVAH God of Israel, Tell ye the man that sent you to me, Thus saith JEHOVAH, Behold, I will bring evil upon this place, and upon the inhabitants thereof, even all the curses that are written in the book which they have read before the king of Judah: Because they have forsaken me, and have burned incense unto other gods, that they might provoke me to anger with all the works of their hands; therefore my wrath shall be poured out upon this place, and shall not be quenched.
So this is what they are learning from the Book of the Law. They found it in 623 B.C. A few years later, Josiah, the greatest king that Judah ever had, cleaned up Judah like no one before.
In 609 B.C., Judah was in pretty good condition, considering its history, probably the best condition they had ever been in, but that began the period of judgment, the 70-year period to 539 B.C., and we know that Ezekiel is making reference to this year. It has been 30 years in 593 B.C., but the question is why? Why go back to that date?
Yes, it was a very great day for Judah and for Josiah and a wonderful thing for the people of Jerusalem, that they found the Bible, they found the Book of the Law, but why is God still keeping track of it into the book of Ezekiel? And that seems to be the last reference to it. It is not like we find another reference of 50 years or 60 years from that date. It is only Ezekiel 1:1, and what is the reason?
I think that the reason is that if you take the year 623 B.C. and you subtract the 539 B.C., 623 – 539, you get 84. It is 84 years from the discovery of the Book of the Law, which really is tied into the 13,000 years of history that took place in 1988. It is connected to the judgment that begins at the house of God in 1988.
So if you go from 623, when God identifies Josiah with the number 13, and you go 84 years, it comes to 539 B.C., and what is the big deal about 84 years?
Well, 84 has everything to do with the Great Tribulation, because there are certain periods of time that are examples of the Great Tribulation: the seven-year famine in Joseph’s day, the 70-year period from 609 B.C. to 539 B.C. that we have been looking at a little bit. And the 23 years of our present Great Tribulation is how many days? It is 8400 days. Well, the seven years of famine in Joseph’s day that Acts 7 calls “great affliction” or “great tribulation” is, 7 x 12, 84 months. Seventy years, from 609 B.C. to 539 B.C., is 70 x 12, 840 months.
So we have all of these periods that God uses to typify the Great Tribulation, and the number 84 is in each one. Seven years is 84 months. Seventy years is 840 months. Twenty-three years is an exact 8400 days, which will conclude on May 21st, 2011.
How many years from the flood? From 4990 B.C. until 2011, to the very day and month, it will be 7,000 years, which is 84,000 months to May 21st, which is the 17th day of the 2nd month, and it began in Genesis when God shut the door on the 17th day of the 2nd month. So it is not exactly equivalent, but it is, for all intents and purposes, the 84,000th month on May 21st in 2011.
If we go to Revelation 11:11, it says:
And after three days and an half the Spirit of life from God entered into them, and they stood upon their feet; and great fear fell upon them which saw them.
We know that this is after the first 2300 days of the Great Tribulation. But the reference is “three and a half days,” and then verse 12, Revelation 11:12 says:
And they heard a great voice from heaven saying unto them, Come up hither. And they ascended up to heaven…
The only time reference given in this chapter is three and a half days, which is how many hours? It is 84 hours. So it is actually, in the way that God has given it, it is three and a half days, 84 hours; and then the next thing, they ascend up to Heaven. Again, it is the number 84.
I thought I had one more, but I do not know what I did with it. Anyway, when we find that it is in the 30th year in Ezekiel 1:1 and then we go back to 623 B.C., that is when they find the Book of the Law in that year, and 623 B.C. to 539 B.C. is exactly 84 years. So what happened in 539 B.C.? It was the end of the 70 years that typify the Great Tribulation.
So I think that when you reach the end of 84, it is the end of the Great Tribulation. Of course, we know that it will be 5 months, but that is not in view in some places. But for the believers, that is it and then they are raptured; they are taken up into Heaven.
Well, in 539 B.C., it was the time when Cyrus, the king of the Medes and the Persians, issued the proclamation to go up to Jerusalem to rebuild the city. It is not a perfect type or picture, but after 84 years, they are freed from Babylon, whoever wants to go free, and then they can go up to Jerusalem.
Again, I think that it is showing us that after 84 years, there is going to be the rapture. It is just another verse that ties in with all these other things that God is showing us and giving us insight into, that this is going to happen very shortly in the year 2011.
Well, thank you for your patience because I have been wondering about that verse for several years, and now I think that we have an understanding of what it means.
Okay, we will stop here.