Leviticus 26 Is It A Time Prophecy

Reasoning The Scriptures

Leviticus 26 is it a Time Prophecy??? By M.S.Mariadas and Y.R.Dinakaran Bible Students, M.B.S.A

times” referred in Leviticus 26 chapter is a Many Bible students suppose and claim that the “7 times” th

time prophecy but critical analyses and examination proves :• • •

That Leviticus 26 is NOT a time prophecy That the “7 times” in Leviticus 26 are NOT predictions of the gentile dominion which began with Nebuchadnezzar. That Leviticus 26 refers to the severity of the punishments to be visited upon disobedient Israel, NOT specifying the length of punishments, but the degree of their intensity.

These conclusions and the reasons for them have been set forth, as above mentioned, on several occasions in these columns. But error dies hard. Instead of refuting our evidence showing that Leviticus 26 is not a time prophecy, those who suppose and claim in 2520 year theory do not, as far continue to take for granted that 2520 year theory is correct, and try by altering their dates, to justify and still encourage the hopes built upon their assumption. Meanwhile the legitimate study of the veritable time prophecies, of which there are several in Daniel and Revelation, has to bear the burnt of discouragement.

POINTS TO BE ESTABLISHED If our position be correct, we should be able to demonstrate the scriptural ness of the following pro-positions – 1. The 26th chapter of Leviticus is NOT a TIME PROPHECY. 2. The “seven times” in Lev 26 do not refer to the epoch called “The Times of Gentiles during which Jerusalem is ruled by Gentiles nations. 3. The Divinely given indications of the end of the Times of Gentiles is a indefinite as to date; yet it is sufficiently explicit to give ground for the expectation that Gentiles government in the earth must soon be superseded by the kingdom of God.

1. Leviticus Leviticus 26 NOT A TIME PROPHECY A Time prophecy is one which predicts a definite period of time for certain definite events. Some Examples of time prophecy are:• The 40 years of wandering in the wilderness num 14:33,34 • Ezekiel’s 40 and 390 days, which were fulfilled @ of a day for a year Ezek 4:5, 6. • The 70 weeks of Daniel 9 Leviticus 26 is it a Time Prophecy ???

1

Reasoning The Scriptures • • • • • •

The 1260, 1290, and 1335 days of Daniel 12 2300 evenings and mornings of Dan 8 The time and times and half a times of Dan 7 and Rev 12 The 1260 days of Rev 12 and 42 months of Rev13. The 70 years of captivity to Babylon (not 70 years of desolation) Jer 25:8-11; 29:10; 2 chron 36:21. The 1000 years of Rev 20.

The days of Daniel’s Time prophecies were to be fulfilled as ordinary calendar years, as were Ezekiel’s day, and as was the wandering of the Israelites in the wilderness. The time and times and Half a (or dividing of) time of Daniel and Revelation were also symbolic, a “Time” being a period of 360 days, each of which called for a year to fulfill it. The word Translated “Time” in Daniel is iddan strongs # 5732 which according to strongs concordance, means “ A set Time” “Technically a year” The word translated “time” in rev 12 is Kairos strongs#2540 which according to strongs means “ an occasion, i.e., “set or proper time”. The fact that one of these “times’ is a period of 360 days is shown in Rev 12, where the “thousand two hundred and threescore(1260) days” of verse 6 refer to same period as “a time [1] and times[2] and Half a time (total 3 .1/2 times) of verse 14. Dividing 126o days by 3.1/2, we get 360 days as the equivalent of “a time” With this value if “a time” in their minds, some have hastily concluded, without due consideration of either text or context, that the ‘seven times’ in Leviticus 26 are equal to 7X 360 = 2520, and that each of these days was to be fulfilled as a year. Hence the assumption is that ht children of Israel were to experience a great bondage of 2520 years to the Gentiles. Although some of our Bible students do agree the fact that the word iddan does not occur in the phrases “seven times” in Leviticus 26, nor is there any equivalent for it. There is absolutely nothing to show that “seven times’ meaning measured or set periods, as Daniel and revelation, are predicted in Lev26. On the other had, we find that the word translated “seven times” in Lev 26:18,21,24,28 is Shibah strongs #7650 which according to strongs is “ a primitive cardinal number; seven(as the sacred full one);also(adverbially) seven times; by impl. A week; by extens. An indefinite number” the Hebrew word shibah therefore corresponds to our English numerical “seven” as in Ex 37:23 “seven laps” where it is used as an adjective. But when shibah is used adverbially the idea is repetition, as in Ps 119:164 “seven (shibah) a day I do praise “or as we would say in English “seven times a day”. In this verse there is no word of “times” but it must be supplied in English in order to express the sense. Being used adverbially in four verses of Leviticus 26 under consideration, shibah is correctly rendered “seven times” in Authorized and Revised versions and by Dr.Young, the English word “times” being used as in the multiplication tables (four times four), or as we might say “seven times as much”. The “Seven times” in Lev 26 refer to the degrees of intensity or severity, and the Rabbi Leeser has so indicated in his version by corresponding Chaldee word shibah “sevenfold”. In Leviticus 26 is it a Time Prophecy ???

2

Reasoning The Scriptures Daniel 3:19 the corresponding Chaldee word shibah, is used of the intensity if the Heat of the furnace –“seven [or sevenfold] more that it was wont to be heated”. The word shibah occurs four times in Lev26, and attention to the context enables us to see that these four shibahs do not march abreast, so that they all pass together; they march in file, one after the other. This is shown in the following quotations. In Lev 26:14-17 the Lord threatens severe punishments upon the children of Israel if disobedient. Then he says-

“And if ye will not yet for all this hearken unto me, then I will punish you seven times more for your sins” sins Lev 26:18 If they were not sufficiently impressed by this experience, The Lord would send another punishment, seven times as sever as the first. So he says-

“And if ye walk contrary unto me, and will not hearken unto me; I will bring seven times more more plagues upon you according to your sins”.Lev 26:21 The use of the word “MORE’ in these two places confirms what we have said as to severity. If these two experiences did not reform them, the lord would give them yet another, as he says“Then will I also walk contrary unto you, and will punish you yet seven times for your sins.Lev26:24 If these three punishments, each seven times as sever as its predecessor, did not bring the children of Israel to their senses, so that they would make no idols or graven images (lev 26:1), the Lord would bring upon them one more punishment, seven times as heavy as the preceding chastisement. He says –

“And if ye will not for all this hearken unto me, me but walk contrary unto me; Then I will walk contrary unto you also in fury; and I, even I, will chastise you seven times for your sins” sins Lev26:27,28 These quotations show that these four shibahs or “seven times” can not be taken together as though they all referred to the same thing. The first of them would not have befallen the children of Israel had they been rightly exercised by previous punishments: the second “seven times” would not have occurred had the first accomplished the purpose; the third “seven times” would not have been visited upon them had they taken to heart the cumulative effects of the first and second; and the fourth “seven times” the culmination if divine fury against them, would not have been poured out upon them had they been reformed by its predecessors. It being shown that these four “seven times” were not concurrent, but consecutive 1,2,3,4- the position of those who favour the 2520 year theory is reduced to an absurdity; for 4X2520 years = 10,080. years, and at that rate even without allowing for intervals between the several “seven times” to give opportunity for reformation, the Times of the Gentiles, which began with Nebuchadnezzar, would still have more than 7500 years to run from 1914, when we Bible students say the Gentiles period of power expired. Leviticus 26 is it a Time Prophecy ???

3

Reasoning The Scriptures Enough has now been said, we trust, to show that Leviticus 26 in NOT a time prophecy, and thus our first point is established.

2. Leviticus 26 NOT a Prophecy of Gentiles Times Our second point is demonstrated by attention to the details of the fourth shibah or “seven times” of Lev26. The culmination of this punishment is thus stated –

“And I will bring the land into desolation: and your enemies which dwell therein shall be astonished at it. And I will scatter you among the heathen, and will draw out a sword after you: and your land shall be desolate, and your cities waste. Then shall the land enjoy her Sabbaths, as long as it lieth desolate, and ye [be] in your enemies' land; [even] then shall the land rest, and enjoy her Sabbaths. As long as it lieth desolate it shall rest; because it did not rest in your Sabbaths, when ye dwelt upon it”.Lev 26:32-35. From this it appears that the fourth shibah or “seven times” was visited upon the children if Israel because they had not observed the SABBATHS mentioned in Lev 26:2, particularly the Sabbath of the lane, which was to rest every seventh year and every fiftieth year (lev 25:1-22) The children of Israel had been punished under the first second and third shibahs or “seven times” by pestilences and by subjugation to their enemies within their land. But the fourth Shibah threatened them with removal from their own to their enemies land, so that the land might for a time lie desolate without an inhabitant, and thus be permitted to enjoy its Sabbaths which the children of Israel did not allow it to have.It was so done. The ten tribes were carried away to Assyria, and the two Tribes to Babylon, the absolute desolation of the Land beginning B.C. 587, or 19 years after the beginning of the seventy years of captivity. Having fulfilled these overdue Sabbaths by a period of 51 years absolute desolation (2 chron 36:21), the fourth shibah or “seven times” would be accomplished, and after suitable confession by the children of Israel, it would cease. This is shown in the following –

“If they shall confess their iniquity, and the iniquity of their fathers, with their trespass which they trespassed against me, and that also they have walked contrary unto me; And [that] I also have walked contrary unto them, and have brought them into the land of their enemies; if then their uncircumcised hearts be humbled, and they then accept of the punishment of their iniquity: Then will I remember my covenant with Jacob, and also my covenant with Isaac, and also my covenant with Abraham will I remember; and I will remember the land. The land also shall be left of them, and shall enjoy her Sabbaths, WHILE SHE LIETH DESOLATE DESOLATE WITHOUT THEM: and they shall accept of the punishment of their iniquity: because, even because they despised my judgments, and because their soul abhorred my statutes”Lev 26:40-43. Was such confession made? Yes! Everything was done as provided in Leviticus 26: we read –

“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” Jerusalem Dan 9:2 (1-19) How wonderfully all was fulfilled! When Daniel prayed and confessed, no one was better fitted that he spoke in a representative capacity for the children of Israel. He refers in Vss 11-14 to to the calamities written in the Law of Moses, which God had brought upon the children of Israel on Leviticus 26 is it a Time Prophecy ???

4

Reasoning The Scriptures account of their disobedience, and in V16 he beseeches that the fury( the very word appears in Lev 26:28 where the fourth shibah threatened) of the Lord might be turned away from Jerusalem. Daniel’s prayer and confession were heard and answered. In the first year of Cyrus, two years or less after the prayer, the decree was issued authorizing whosoever of the children of Israel desired to do so to return to their land and rebuild the sanctuary of the Lord that lay desolate. Thus ended the fourth and the last shibah or “seven times”. It endured for 70 years, and in point of severity it was the worst punishment that had been visited upon the disobedient of Israel. A still worse one “wrath to uttermost” not mentioned in Lev26, has since come upon them. As predicted by the Apostle Paul in 1 Thes 2:15, 16. This extreme wrath was fulfilled when Jerusalem was destroyed and the Jews scattered among the nations, A.D. 68-70. Desolate without them, Not with Them Finally, it should be noticed that the Sabbath years which the Land had to “make good” were to be enjoyed while the sinful children if Israel were absent –

“The land also shall be left of them, and shall enjoy her Sabbaths, WHILE SHE LIETH DESOLATE WITHOUT THEM: THEM: and they shall accept of the punishment of their iniquity: because, even because they despised my judgments, and because their soul abhorred my statutes”Lev 26:43. This completes the proof of our third point, by showing that the predicted years of Sabbath keeping of the land ended when the children of Israel returned to it from Babylon. Thus we see that the attempt t o use the divine disfavor against the children of Israel for their carelessness as a proof that the land was observing more Sabbath years is an error. There fore also, any expectation based upon this error is doomed to disappointment. The original error of supporting that shibah or “seven times” meant 2520 years has been shown up, and this subsidiary error must meet the same fate. 3. No scriptural date for End of Gentile Times We trust we have clearly established our first two points. If so it is proved that Leviticus26 gives no indication of the length of the times of the Gentiles If this be understood, it remains but to note the reference sometimes made to the “seven times” of Nebuchadnezzar’s insanity. Those who hold to 2520 year theory take the liberty to refer to this incident (Dan 4) as being in some manner symbolical of the insanity of Gentile government during 2520 years from Nebuchadnezzar’s rise to universal dominion. As a matter of fact, the Gentiles governments have mean no more insane during the last 2520 +92 =2612 years (2006 Minus 1914) that they were before. Besides how could Nebuchadnezzar’s insanity, which meant the taking away of his power, represent the conferring of power upon the Gentile Governments??? .Reference to Nebuchadnezzar’s affliction by supporters of the 2520 – year theory shows their desperate need of a straw, however slight, to cling to save their theory from being over whelmed.

Leviticus 26 is it a Time Prophecy ???

5

Reasoning The Scriptures Nebuchadnezzar’s misfortune related, to himself alone, and there is no connection whatever between it and the Times of Gentiles. As we have gone fully into the explanation of the visitation upon the great King, we shall not repeat here, but we discuss it latter. As for as we are aware, Some Bible students supporters of the 2520 year theory never refer to any other scriptures other than Leviticus 26 and Dan4. Since neither of these passages refers to their theory in even the remotest degree, it can be truly said that there is positively no evidence in the Bible in Regard to the year in which the Times of the Gentiles are to End. That they will come to there end is certain, and that the Gentiles Kingdoms will be destroyed and suspended by the kingdom of God, is clearly shown in many divine prophecies, among the most striking of which are those in the second and seventh chapters of Daniel, yet neither of these sets a date for the end Gentile dominion. Gentiles Times to End Soon While the Lord has seen fit not to mention explicitly the date when the Times of the Gentiles are to End, he has given a word that enables us to approximate the time. His People are therefore not left to group in darkness, but are able to make a very definite pronouncement. When answering the disciples’ question – “what shall be the sign of thy Parousia”(coming) and the end of the world(age)” the Lord referred to a number of events that were to occur, and said- “So

likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, [even] at the doors. Verily I say unto you, this generation shall not pass, till all these things are fulfilled.” Mat 24:33, 34 We have another clue by Apostle Paul in Romans – “For I would not, brethren that ye should be

ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in. in And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob” Rom 11:25-26. Probably when the Fullness of Gentiles be come or when the elect’s number is sealed Rev 7 , Then the Great Deliverer come out of Zion (Rev14:1) and turn away ungodliness from Jacob, not only from Jacob from every Gentile Nation. This is the nearest approximation we know how to make of the ending of the times of Gentiles. Gladly would we mention ad exact date could we understand such to be divinely authorized, since nothing of the sort is authorized, the Lord’s People must be content with what He has been pleased to make known. We desire to rely fully and with all confidence in what the word of God says. We wish to go as far as it goes in every matter, including the times and seasons, but we realize that it is folly to support that we can go beyond what the word of God says, or be wise above what is written, we therefore respectfully invite – even-urge –those Bible Students who support the 2520 theory to Reconsider their position in the light of the evidence we have now presented for their attention.

Leviticus 26 is it a Time Prophecy ???

6