Year
Clearly, the year is a marker by which people can keep track of the things in their lives—past, present, and future. God made the year just as he made the seasons. Noteworthy years are obviously too numerous to enumerate, but it should be instructive anyway to see how years, and certain times within a given year, provide a mechanism by which people can organize their activities and through which God shows His plan of redemption.
For instance, in Exodus 12 and 13, the Israelites are commanded to keep the feast of unleavened bread for seven days out of every year, from the fourteenth day of the first month to the twenty-first day at even. During that seven-day period the Israelites were to eat unleavened bread (and to have no leavened bread in their houses), as a remembrance of how the LORD brought the children of Israel out of Egypt, where they had been in bondage for 430 years.
In Exodus 34:22-24, we also see a very important word from the LORD as to the blessing that would follow if only the sons of Israel would appear before the LORD God three times a year,on three important occasions: “And thou shalt observe the feast of weeks, of the firstfruits of wheat harvest, and the feast of ingathering at the year’s end. Thrice in the year shall all your men children appear before the Lord God, the God of Israel. For I will cast out the nations before thee, and enlarge thy borders: neither shall any man desire thy land, when thou shalt go up to appear before the LORD thy God thrice in the year.” (KJV) From this we can discern that the current spate of incursions on Israelite land are a result of the sons of Israel notappearing before the LORD God of Israel three times each year: many of the sons of Israel have fallen into unbelief, back into the worldly (Egyptian) ways, and therefore they have endured terrible land incursions by the sons of Ishmael.
One might say, Well, what does Israel being divided up due to unbelief on the part of the sons of Israel have to do with the creation? The condition of Israel has a lot to do with the creation, because the land of Israel is part of the creation, made by the God of Israel, and loved by Him. One might say, Why not stick to birdies and daffodils? Yes, I love those too, but the creation is large and complex.
It should be noted that in 1 Kings 9 we see that Solomon used to offer burnt offerings as well as peace offerings upon the altar that he built to the LORD; and at about that time, Solomon also built up a navy of ships in Ezion-geber, beside Eloth on the shore of the Red Sea; Solomon’s navy under Hiram fetched 420 talents of gold, many almug trees, and precious stones from Ophir; and the king’s navy under Tharshish plied the open sea and once in three years would bring gold, silver, ivory, apes, and peacocks! Suffice it to say that Solomon appeared thrice before the LORD God of Israel in a year’s time, and he was blessed in a way that harkens back to Exodus 34:22-24 which promised that ifthe sons of Israel would go up to appear before the LORD three times in a year, then they would see the nations being cast out before them, they would see their own borders expanded, and they would experience peace because the LORD God would make it so that no one would covet their land. In the context of our present discussion about a year, Solomon made skillful use of the year by making sure that he appeared before the LORD three times in a year,and he was accordingly blessed.
(But of course, Solomon finally got carried away by his strange wives’ wicked ways, so that he even went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Zidonians, Chemosh the god of the Moabites, and Milcom and Molech, the gods of the Ammonites. As a consequence, God took 10 tribes out of the hand of Solomon and put them into the hand of Jeroboam instead. Solomon tried to kill Jeroboam, but Jeroboam fled to Egypt and stayed there until Solomon’s death. Moreover, according to 1 Kings 11:41, the rest of Solomon’s acts, all that he did, and his wisdom are further detailed in the book of the acts of Solomon.)
A sobering note in our study of God’s created timeline that we call the “year” appears in Revelation 9:
And the four angels were loosed, which were prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year, for to slay the third part of men. And the number of the army of the horsemen were hundred thousand thousand: and I heard the number of them. And thus I saw the horses in the vision, and them that sat on them, having breastplates of fire, and of jacinth, and brimstone: and the heads of the horses were the heads of lions; and out of their mouths issued fire and smoke and brimstone. By these three was the third part of men killed, by the fire, and by the smoke, and by the brimstone, which issued out of their mouths. For their power is in their mouth, and in their tails: for their tails were unto serpents, and had heads, and with them they do hurt. And the rest of the men which were not killed by these plagues yet repented not of the works of their hands, that they should not worship devils, and idols of gold, and silver, and brass, and stone, and of wood: which neither can see, nor hear, nor walk: Neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts. (Revelation 9:15-21, KJV)
When God’s word speaks of an hour, a day, a month, and a year, that sounds like a very dramatic introduction to something very big, and sure enough that “something big” is a 200-million-man army. Whence will such an army come? We would seem to have a clue in Revelation 16:12, indeed, “And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates; and the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared.” (KJV) What huge Asian powers would come jostling across the Euphrates to attack Israel in the Battle of Armageddon (Revelation 16:16)? Obviously, they would be populous countries that are converting economic success into a giant war machine. Are there any Asian countries today that are turning dragon-patterned-shirt revenues, pirated-CD revenues, tea cup revenues, tainted-toy revenues, MSG-laden-soy revenues, and chopsticks revenues into tanks and submarines and fighter planes and warships and troop transports and guns and ammo and propaganda campaigns? Are there any such countries in Asia? Are there any panda-propaganda dictatorships that hide behind smarmy smiles and sharpen their daggers daily and nightly? Are there any such countries in Asia? Could an army of smarmy smiles buoyed by panda bears and flying martial artists really kill one third of the world’s population? They couldn’t karate-chop all of their victims, so they must know something about modern weaponry too—and of course, they’ll have other Asian kings to back them up.
The good news for Israel is that the seventh angel will pour out his vial into the air and a great voice will come out of the temple of heaven, saying “It is done.” Then there will be voices; thunders; lightnings; an earthquake greater than any since men have been on the earth; the great city of Jerusalem will be divided into three parts; the cities of the nations will fall; and God will pour His wrath out on Babylon; the islands will flee and the mountains won’t be found; and a storm of giant hailstones will plague the earth (Revelation 16:17-21, KJV). And of course, the bad guys will lose–including the wicked kings of the east that have been lured across the dried-up Euphrates to a place called Armageddon, lured by the unclean spirits which emanate from the mouths of the dragon, the beast, and the false prophet:
And I looked, and, lo, a Lamb stood on the mount Sion, and with him an hundred forty and four thousand, having his Father’s name written in their foreheads. . . . And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people, saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come: and worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters. And there followed another angel, saying, Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication. And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb: and the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name. . . . And I looked, and behold a white cloud, and upon the cloud one sat like unto the Son of man, having on his head a golden crown, and in his hand a sharp sickle. And another angel came out of the temple, crying with a loud voice to him that sat on the cloud, Thrust in thy sickle, and reap: for the time is come for thee to reap; for the harvest of the earth is ripe. And he that sat on the cloud thrust in his sickle on the earth; and the earth was reaped. And another angel came out of the temple which is in heaven, he also having a sharp sickle. And another angel came out from the altar, which had power over fire; and cried with a loud cry to him that had the sharp sickle, saying, Thrust in thy sharp sickle, and gather the clusters of the vine of the earth; for her grapes are fully ripe. And the angel thrust in his sickle into the earth, and gathered the vine of the earth, and cast it into the great winepress of the wrath of God. And the winepress was trodden without the city, and blood came out of the winepress, even unto the horse bridles, by the space of a thousand and six hundred furlongs. (Revelation 14: 1, 6-11, 14-20, KJV)
In the Ezekiel 38-39 war, Gog and Magog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal, Persia, Ethiopia, Libya, Gomer, Togarmah, and many people swarm like a cloud on the land against the mountains of Israel; Gog will come from the north against Israel, and when it does so with its anti-semitic partners then the LORD God of Israel will cause a great earthquake in the land of Israel, such that the fishes of the sea, the birds of the air, the beasts of the field, the creeping things on the earth, and all the men on earth will shake at the LORD’s presence; and the mountains and the steep places will be thrown down and the walls will fall down; the LORD will cause every man’s sword to be against his brother; and the LORD will send punishment against Gog (and against the many who are with him)pestilence, blood, an overflowing rain, great hailstones, fire and brimstone; in that way, the LORD will magnify Himself and be known in many nations; Gog and all his bands and the people that is with himwill be made to fall on the mountains of Israel and on the open fields so that the birds and beasts will devour them. Who are the many that will accompany Gog?
A profound principle about time, and about the concept of a year, is found in the book of James. Many people look at a time frame such as a year an opportunity to count out how much one will gain during that year—in other words, they will count their chickens before they’re hatched: “Go to now, ye that say, To day or to morrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain: Whereas ye know not what shall be the morrow. For what is life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away. For that ye ought say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that.” (James 4:13-15, KJV) The Lord God of Israel is in charge; we’re not in charge of time.
However, God has given us some frameworks in the form of years, by which we can understand general seasons. In Daniel 9, we see that the angel Gabriel came to give the prophet Daniel skill and understanding because Daniel was greatly beloved:
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. Know therefore and understand, that the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem, unto the Messiah the Prince, shall be weeks, and threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall even in troublous times. And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined. And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it , even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate. (Daniel 9:24-27, KJV)
This timetable of 70 weeks of years (490 years)involves the rebuilding of Jerusalem; the anointing of the most Holy; Messiah the Prince; the cutting off of the Messiah, thereby making reconciliation for iniquity; the sealing up of the vision and prophecy; the covenant of the prince that shall come, concluded with many for one week; and the bringing in of everlasting righteousness.
Clearly, God has given us some frameworks involving years by which we can better understand history as well as the future. Of the prince that shall come, also known as the Antichrist, we further learn that he will speak against the God of gods, magnify himself above every god, have no regard for the God of his fathers, have no regard for the desire of women, and divide the land; he will stop the daily sacrifice and set up the abomination of desolation, kicking off a 1,290-day period of tribulation; and when the evil imposter known as the Antichrist comes to his end, no one will help him (Daniel 11 and 12). Judging from Daniel 12:1, could it be that the great angel Michael, who stands for God’s people, might have a hand in the demise of the beast known as Antichrist? During the day of the LORD, which will come as destruction from the Almighty, men’s hands will be faint and their hearts will melt, pangs and sorrows will take hold of men, and the LORD will lay the land desolate as He destroys the sinners out of the land (Isaiah 13). Thankfully, during the everlasting righteousness of Jesus’s Millennial Reign, the animals will get along once again—for instance, the wolf will live in harmony with the lamb (Isaiah 11).