The Number 70’s Biblical Significance

      

            The Number 70’s Biblical Significance

     If history repeats itself, two thousand seventeen promises to be a very significant year for several historical and Biblical reasons. Of course there are a couple of catches to that statement. First you must actually believe the Bible and you must have read it and understand that it means what it says. Many people read it and then explain why it does not mean what it says. That is a sign of doubt and unbelief.  This is the seventieth year since Israel was revived as nation. When you look at what that means historically in the Old Testament, you also get a grasp of what or why it has significance in this day and age.

   In the Old Testament it was a number that signified that God was performing some great work. When Israel went into the Babylonian captivity prophecy said they would be there seventy years. The reason was to pay for their iniquity which Ezekiel 4:5-6 makes clear is a punishment of every day for a year, which equals a period of 430 years. That number rang a bell in my mind and I remembered reading it in Exodus 12:41 and there it said it was “four hundred thirty years to the day.” It had caught my attention and made me wonder why it was so specific that it was “to the day.” Later I found a reference that from the start of the rebuilding of the wall in Jerusalem after the Babylonian captivity till the coming of Christ was also 430 years. That made three periods of 430 years. Each period was followed with a return to the Promised Land. Two were followed by a period of seventy years.

    Israel was in the Babylonian captivity for seventy years, then while studying I found from the birth of Christ to the destruction of the temple was also a period of seventy years.  All of a sudden I realized there was no seventy year period at the time of Moses, but after some serious studying I found out I was wrong.  There was a seventy year period at the time of Moses. It is just a little harder to see as it is not called a seventy year period, but it exists. Joshua said at the time Moses sent him to search out the land he was forty years old. They then wondered in the wilderness forty years. So when he took charge from Moses and entered the Promised Land the second time he was 80 years old. It also says in 24:27 having done all he was called to do, he lay down and died being 110 years old. That means it took him 30 years to conquer the Promised Land and with his time wondering in the Wilderness it took seventy years from beginning to end. Just a coincidence that there happened to be three periods of 500 years in the Old Testament.

     Sometime later I was reading in Amos and God said he had punished Israel’s enemies three times for their iniquity and that they would be punished for a forth. That got me to wondering wouldn’t he do the same for His Chosen Nation.  As hard as I searched for it I could not find a fourth period in the Old Testament. Then one night I was helping my daughter, Angel, do a paper on Martin Luther and I realized that from the time Martin Luther nailed his treatise to the door of the church in Germany was a period of 431 years. It could not be right as it had to be 430 years to the day. So I got out our World Book and looked it up. I got a real shock. Israel physically became a nation in 1948, but it was voted on in the United Nations and approved in November 1947.  That was 430 years and a couple of days, but knowing it takes time to write legislation I realized it could easily have actually been initiated 430 years to the day. That would take research and going to the United Nations and verifying the facts, but I have no desire to go to that place for any reason.

   Whichever date you use November 1947 or May 1948 the time cycle is about fulfilled. Jesus said in the end time it would be as it was in the days of Noah, read chapter 6 of Genesis and you will find that is exactly the kind of world we are living in today. Recently in a one week period there were, bombings, earthquakes, tornados, tsunami’s and all kinds of destruction going on in the world. I am not a rocket scientist or a genius, but I can see things are coming closer and closer together which is just how it is described in the Bible, like birth pains.

   If you really want some enlightenment read Matthew 24, then realize it is Jesus saying these things and giving these warnings and Tribulation will come before deliverance. If you have those you really care about your time to do something is growing shorter by the day.

    In June of 1967 when Israel regained the Wailing Wall and took control of the Temple Mount I was stationed in Germany. At the time I was twenty one and all of this was unknown to me, but now having reached seventy years of age and been dead twice already myself, my only goal in writing this is to share it so others may understand that the time end time is near. My first big event was thirteen years ago this month. In fact the anniversary is one week from today.  I know I have said this over and over in the last six years I have had a blog, but if it enlightens one soul it will be worth it. At least now I know I can go to rest in peace having shared all I know and hoping it helps someone. My only request if you find this information useful, share it with others.  Remember as my granddaughter says, Sharing is Caring.