THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED TO THE FAITHFUL & DISCREET SLAVE OF THE KING OF KINGS

Copyright Gordon S. Ritchie 1992

INDEX

[1] INTRODUCTION

May the true God reveal to the reader, the true understanding of all the things written in this book. May the reader and the writer both, prove faithful until the end.

The writer expresses sincerest thanks to the faithful and discreet slave, for all of the work that he has done from which the writer has benefited, and all of the many publications that he has provided, without which this book would never have come into existence.

He also would plead with that one to read this book with urgency because we are now in the true 'time of the end' (Dan 8:17, Dan 11:35, Dan 11:40, Dan 12:4 & Dan 12:9), which is the period during which the book of Daniel is unsealed by holy spirit. Which unsealing reveals that the 1,335 days of Daniel 12:12, rather than being a length of time before a convention in the Albert Hall in 1926 (YW p337,338), is in fact the exact length in days of the Great Tribulation of Matthew 24:21. Which unsealing reveals that Daniel chapter 3, rather than being a story about three Hebrew lads who were thrown into a fiery furnace because they would not bow down to a giant gold statue, is a story about the United Nations replacing the seventh world power as the eight king of Rev 17:11, in Nisan 1998 CE, and then taking absolute worldwide power after the manner of Nimrod in Nisan 2001 CE at the start of the last week (of years) of Satan's system and the rescue of the Great Crowd from the fire of the great tribulation, which starts in the middle of that week. Which unsealing reveals that Daniel's victory over the lions, due to his faultlessness (Dan 6:22), is the victory of the anointed brothers of Christ, over the wild beast and its image, due to their righteousness (Rev 15:2). And that the length of time from Nisan 1918, which is when the brothers of Christ who come from the first century preaching campaign are resurrected, until Armageddon is 90 years, which is why Daniel prayed three times a day, for thirty days. Which unsealing also reveals that whereas the Lord's day did indeed begin in Tishri 1914, the 'time of the end' did not begin in 1914, rather it began on:

The prophecies that reveal this date to us will be dealt with in the second half of this book, they have to do with the 1,290 days of Daniel 12 and the 2,300 evenings and mornings of Daniel 8, and the date of Armageddon. For easy reference, and so that the reader is quickly made aware of the potential significance of this work, an accompanying chart: 'The Divine Plan of the Ages' is provided. This 'DPA chart' sets out the chronological part of most of the prophetic understandings in this book. The information in the chart is repeated in Appendix 5. There is no need for the reader to be unduly concerned with the date of Armageddon. This date is one of the least of the many great understandings that Jehovah's prophetic word reveals to his servants in the true 'time of the end', in order to fully prepare them for that fear-inspiring day. The bible, we will see, gives us several prophetic witnesses to the dates of all of the following events:

Please see the chart of bible chronology (DPA chart) provided with this book. We will even go so far as to see prophecies relating to all of the past, present and future presidents and governing body members of the Watchtower Society. We will find out what Paul meant by the term 'third heaven', and we will put this into the context of a greater understanding of the structure of heaven itself. We will see that the bible even prophesies how many of the anointed ones will be remaining here on earth, at various times in the Lord's day. We will see that for a certainty the words of the prophet Amos are true, when he said: 'For the Sovereign Lord Jehovah himself will not do a thing unless he has revealed his confidential matter to his servants the prophets' (Amos 3:7).

We will consider the two scriptures: 'Concerning that day and hour nobody knows' (Mat 24:36), and 'In fact unless those days were cut short no flesh would be saved' (Mat 24:22), in sections 66.1 & 69. However it is here pointed out that Jesus did not say that 'Nobody may know', or that 'Nobody will know', or that 'Nobody can know'. Rather, when asked by his disciples in 33 CE when the end will be (Mat 24:3), he effectively said - Nobody other than God knows that right now! Whereas Daniel, whose book when unsealed provides many witnesses to the date of the first day of the Kingdom of God, has said, referring to the time of the end, that: 'Many will rove about, and the true knowledge will become abundant' (Dan 12:4).

The reader might like to reflect on what the climax of Jesus' efforts to save mankind on his father's behalf is. He might like to ask himself why if 'the one telling from the beginning THE FINALE' (Isaiah 46:10) has told, in advance, even the fate of his son's garment in 33 CE (Psalm 22:18), he has omitted to tell us in advance when the climax of his son's efforts will be? Furthermore the scripture says that not only is Jehovah going to tell us 'the finale', i.e. the date of Armageddon, but he is also going to tell it to us, 'from the beginning'. The reader will see, if he reads this book, three very elegant ways of telling the date of the end, from the date of the beginning: One starting from the date of Adam's sin (Nisan 3993 BCE), one starting from the date of Moses' birth (Adar 1593 BCE) and one starting from the date of validation of the Abrahamic covenant (Nisan 1943 BCE).

However, the unsealing in the time of the end (Dan 12:4) does not only apply to the book of Daniel, it actually applies to the whole bible (Isaiah 29:10-12) with the exception of the majority of the book of Revelation, which Jehovah in his kindness had never sealed up (Rev 22:10). The timing and manner of this unsealing on the part of the holy spirit is really wonderful. The first meaning of the bible we know is the literal and the physical. This meaning applied directly to the Jews, the literal and physical chosen people of Jehovah. The second meaning of the bible is the symbolic or illustrative meaning. This meaning was revealed by Jesus, in his first century ministry, who spoke entirely in illustrations (Mat 13:10-15). This was the meaning which was relevant to the first century Christian, the spiritual Jew. There is however a further meaning which is meant for the twentieth century Christian in 'the time of the end', and this meaning is encoded cryptically in the holy word (see sections 21.1, 52, 52A).

The power in the cryptic meanings of the holy word is astounding (Heb 4:12). We will use this power to deduce the whole timetable of events passed and of events future. What is most fantastic, as far as the writer is concerned, is the manner in which these things are encoded in the bible. Because it is in a pleasant, loving, amusing and intriguing way, that the true God has hidden and sealed these things in his book. They are not, for the most part, judgemental or even corrective. They are in fact an ultimate written expression of the overwhelming love that the creator has for his creation of man, and it is indeed a miracle that Jehovah has performed in the time of the end, and true is the scripture which says:

'Therefore here I am, the One that will act wonderfully AGAIN with his people, in a wonderful manner and with something wonderful; and the wisdom of their wise men must perish, and the very understanding of their discreet men will conceal itself.' (Isaiah 29:14)

For the benefit of the reader, the writer has arranged this book in such a way, that each section is hopefully a logical development of the previous sections. Therefore it is strongly recommended that this book is read in the order that it was written. This order is also more or less the order in which the writer himself became able to understand these things.

THE READER WILL FIND THAT VERY NEARLY ALL OF THE INTERPRETATIONS DISCUSSED IN THIS BOOK HAVE AT LEAST TWO WITNESSES FROM THE BIBLE IN THEIR SUPPORT.

[2] PROPHETIC FORM

This book has its origin in a consideration of Leviticus 26, and in the realisation that this chapter is not only defining laws, blessings and maledictions but is also a prophecy. In fact it is a fundamental determination of the length of the Gentile Times. It therefore provides a second witness to Daniel 4, which is very comforting. But not only is it comforting, it should actually have been expected, because the Most High God Jehovah has stated at Deuteronomy 19:15:

"No single witness should rise up against a man respecting any error or sin, in the case of any sin that he may commit. At the mouth of two witnesses or at the mouth of three witnesses the matter should stand good."

So for a matter to 'stand good' or be established under law, there would need to be two witnesses for it. Since it is impossible for God to lie (Hebrew 6:18), this principle one might think applies to men only rather than to God. But the character of Jehovah is such that he would not put a burden on any of his creations, which he himself was not carrying. Which is why he sent us his son, who is the exact representation of his very being (Heb 1:3), to carry all of our sins, and to demonstrate the personality of the true God to all men, before he asked us, his servants, to try to follow in the footsteps of that one, desisting from sin and carrying each other's burdens.

When the pharisees accused Jesus of bearing witness about himself, he said "I am the one that bears witness about myself, and the father who sent me bears witness about me" (John 8:18). So Jesus accepted and applied the principle of 'two = true' (Deut 19:15) to himself, being a man under law at the time, despite the fact that Isaiah had prophesied concerning him, that 'there was no deception in his mouth' (Isaiah 53:9). Similarly Jehovah, who is the original whom his son was representing, would provide his servants with two witnesses in his book the bible, for any important prophecy. Furthermore, although the bible is inspired by God (2 Tim 3:16), it is actually written by men (Rom 3:4). Therefore even in the bible, two witnesses would be required under law. So, for example, when Jehovah told Abraham that his seed would be afflicted for four hundred years at Gen 15:13, we find a second witness at Acts 7:6. There is no chronological prophecy in the bible, of which the writer is aware, for which the true God has only provided one witness.

This concept of 'two=true' actually goes a lot deeper than one might imagine. Because not only do prophecies always have two separate witnesses in the bible, but the prophetic part of each witness is often repeated twice in the same witness! For example in Daniel 4, the phrase 'Seven times themselves', which is the prophetic part of the account, appears three times in verses 23, 25 & 32. This repetition is doing something more than just signifying truth. It turns out that Joseph is the one who explains why there are repetitions of certain phrases in prophecies, and he did this when he explained the meaning of the dream about the 7 cows and the 7 ears of grain to Pharaoh at Gen 41:32, where he said:

"And the fact that the dream was repeated twice means that the thing is firmly established on the part of the true God and the true God is speeding to do it."

He had previously explained that the two dreams were 'but one' in meaning (Gen 41:25). Now if we examine Gen 41:32, carefully we see that Joseph is saying that when Jehovah repeats something, then it is prophetic (firmly established), and Jehovah is speeding to do it, in other words it will come true at the appointed time. Spelling this out, Joseph is actually giving us the key to all bible prophecy, which is the rule that:

TWO = WILL COME TRUE

This quite simply means, that if the bible repeats something (in the same account), then the repeated phrase is prophetic, and has a greater meaning. In other words:

TWO REPETITIONS IMPLY TWO MEANINGS

This simple rule establishes whether or not a scripture is prophetic. The obligatory second witness to this 'Key' is found in Amos chapter 3:3-7 which says:

'Will TWO walk together unless they have met by appointment?' (verse 3)

'Will a lion roar in the forest when it has no prey? Will a maned lion give forth its voice from its hiding place if it has caught nothing at all?' (verse 4)

'Will a bird fall into a trap on the earth when there is no snare for it? Does a trap go up from the ground when it has absolutely caught nothing?' (5)

'If a horn is blown in a city, do not also the people tremble? If a calamity occurs in the city, is it not Jehovah who has acted?' (verse 6)

'For the Sovereign Lord Jehovah will not do a single thing unless he has revealed his confidential matter to his servants the prophets.' (verse 7)

Verse 3 means that if a phrase or concept in the bible is repeated twice, then this is not a coincidence, rather it has been done deliberately and for a purpose.

Verse 4 is a typical example of this. The second question is the first question, these two questions have 'walked together', and they have 'met by appointment'. The two are 'but one' (Gen 41:25).

Verse 5 is a further example of this repetition, even a repetition of an example of a repetition, because the two questions are again 'but one'.

The next verse is telling us what this repetition is all about, it is a horn which is being blown at the reader, which horn means that Jehovah is prophesying. This is how the writer has been given the interpretations in this book, every time he has seen a repetition, he has said to himself AHA! this is a prophecy from Jehovah.

The last verse (verse 7) tells us again that this repetition, which should be like a horn to readers of the bible, indicates prophecy, and that all things that the true God is going to do are prophesied in his book. Yes Jehovah will not do a single thing without revealing his confidential matter to his servants. Now for a long time Jehovah's servants have understood Amos 3:7, they know that Jehovah will tell all in advance. But now, we see that Amos 3:3-6 describes how Jehovah will reveal his confidential matters to his servants. Every repeated phrase or concept in the bible is put there, by the true God, not by coincidence, but 'by appointment' (verse 3), and the repeated phrase or concept itself is prophetic, having a greater meaning. Finally experience has shown the writer that there are a few key words and phrases that indicate cryptic prophetic meaning in an account, and are worth looking out for, these are:

LOOK!

SEE THERE!

EVEN

MIDST

DOWN TO THIS DAY

DOWN TO THIS POINT

ON THAT DAY

HIDDEN

CONCEALED

[3] THE FUNDAMENTALS COME FIRST

Yes, if the reader has looked at the 'Divine plan of the Ages', which hopefully is still accompanying this book, he will see that there are many wonderful things that are going to be revealed. But before we consider the 'unsealed prophecies' in Daniel, and in fact all over the bible, we need to get a better understanding of fundamental prophecies. We also need to develop a complete and an absolute faith in the perfection of Jehovah, which implies a complete and an absolute faith in the accuracy of his book. It is as his son said:

'For truly I say to you, that sooner would heaven and earth pass away, than for one smallest letter or one particle of a letter to pass away from the law by any means and not all things take place', (Mat 5:18).

These letters, are the letters of the bible. It is also as the Psalmist said: 'The true God, perfect is his way', (Psalm 18:30), and as Moses said: 'The rock, perfect is his activity' (Deut 32:4).

We therefore start off in sections 4, 4.1, 4.2, 5, 6, 7 with a review and re-evaluation of the only two long range coded chronological prophecies that true Christians currently understand, namely the Gentile Times of Daniel 4, and the seventy weeks of years of Daniel 9. We shall then discover that there are a few more than two, of these sorts of long range coded prophecies in Jehovah's book. By 'coded' we mean implicit prophecies, i.e. those which require decoding, either by taking a day for a year or a time as 360 days or otherwise. We exclude from this definition explicitly stated ones such as the 400 year affliction - Gen 15:13, the 430 years in Egypt - Ex 12:41, the 390 years of Ezekiel's sleepless nights - Ezek 4:5, the 480th year after the exodus, when Solomon started building the temple - 1 Kings 6:1, 70 years in Babylon - Jer 25:11,12 etc.

Before we launch into an all out examination of the perfection of the scriptures, from the point of view of men with large rafters sticking out of our eyes (Mat 7:3), the writer would like to again express his gratitude, firstly to man's perfect creator, for the generosity which he has clearly demonstrated, in his not holding back even the smallest detail of his plans for his creations, from his creations, even before these plans are implemented, and secondly to his faithful and discreet servant, for his work of behalf of his God, in producing various essential publications, especially the Insight book, the All Scripture book, the New World translation and the Concordance. Without these, this book would have taken until Armageddon to write! It took long enough as it is.

[4] LEVITICUS 26: THE FIRST DETERMINATION OF THE 70 YEARS OF EXILE IN BABYLON AND THE SECOND DETERMINATION OF THE GENTILE TIMES

Please read Leviticus 26:1-33 and then consider the summary below:

This chapter is a contract in law. This contract is split into two parts, it has a false-worship prohibition part, with a blessing and a malediction, and it has a Sabbath-keeping part, with a blessing and a malediction. Now the Jews themselves breached both of their obligations under this contract. They therefore suffered both of the prescribed penalties (maledictions). We will find that the penalty for the 70 Sabbath years that were not kept was the 70 years of exile in Babylon, and we will find out that the penalty for the false worship that they carried on was the 2,520 years of the Gentile Times. Yes the Gentile Times were a penalty resulting from the law of Moses.

[4.1] THE SABBATH KEEPING PART OF THE CONTRACT

The obligation on the Jews was (verse 2): 'You should keep my Sabbaths and stand in awe of my sanctuary, I am Jehovah'.

The penalty for breaching this was (verses 34,35): 'At that time the land will pay of its Sabbaths all the days of its lying desolated, while you are in the land of your enemies. At that time the land will keep Sabbath, as it must repay its Sabbaths. All the days of its lying desolated it will keep Sabbath, for the reason that it did not keep Sabbath during your Sabbaths when you were dwelling upon it.

This penalty is saying that the number of years of exile will equal the number of missed Land Sabbath years. Also the phrasing of the penalty makes it clear that the Jews will breach and this penalty will result in other words this is a prophecy (notice the repetition - section 2). Now we know from 2 Chron 36:21 that this exile was 70 years long. This means that the Jews must have missed 70 Land Sabbath years. Now the extent of the error of the Jews is prophesied by Ezekiel in Ezek 4:4-6, which tells us that the error for Israel is 390 years and the error for Judah is 40 years:

These two error periods are the temporal extent of the breaching of the contract in Leviticus 26. Both of these error periods ended in Tishri 607 BCE when the exile started (2 Kings 25:25, Jeremiah 41:1,2), this is looked at in W1972 p310. This means that we have an error period for Israel running from Tishri 997 until Tishri 607, and an error period for Judah running from Tishri 647 until Tishri 607.

If we actually work out how many Land Sabbath years are contained in these two error periods (see appendix 1) we find that there were 63 for Israel in the 390 year period and there were 7 for Judah in the 40 year period. So the total number of missed Land Sabbath years was:

63 + 7 = 70

This is why the exile was 70 years long! The bible does therefore tell us that the Jews failed to keep exactly 70 Sabbaths - Insight 2 p833/4 is incorrect.

[4.2] THE FALSE WORSHIP PART OF THE CONTRACT

The Obligation on the Jews (verse 1) was: 'You must not make valueless Gods for yourselves, and you must not set up a carved image or a sacred pillar for yourselves, and you must not put a stone as a showpiece in your land in order to bow down toward it, for I am Jehovah your God.'

The penalty for breaching this was (verse 18): 'If though, despite these things, you will not listen to me, I shall then have to chastise you SEVEN TIMES AS MUCH for your sins.'

This penalty is repeated in verse 21: 'But if you keep walking in opposition to me and not wishing to listen to me, I shall then have to inflict SEVEN TIMES MORE blows upon you according to your sins.'

The repetition of this penalty establishes as it a prophecy (Gen 41:25,32, Amos 3:3-7, section 2). This penalty is a seven-fold penalty. Now the total extent of the error is:

390 years (Israel) + 40 years (Judah) = 430 years

However 70 of these years were Land Sabbaths, and so this error is split into 70 years of missed Sabbath error and 360 years of false worship error:

430 years = 70 years + 360 years

Total error = Sabbath error + False worship error

Therefore the sevenfold penalty for 360 years of false worship error is:

360 years x 7 = 2,520 years

This penalty started to be paid on Tishri 607 BCE, at exactly the same time as when the missed Sabbath penalty started to be paid. So this penalty was all paid up by Tishri 1914, and we have our second determination of the Gentile Times, from the Law of Moses. This split of errors and penalties is what is being said in verse 43:

Since the false worship error was not paid off until 1914 we understand why verse 42 reads "And I shall indeed remember my covenant with Jacob; and even my covenant with Isaac and even my covenant with Abraham". Referring to the spiritualised Abrahamic covenant, with the spiritual sons of Israel (Jacob) because at this time the Law covenant was finished, so there would have been no point in remembering it. The Abrahamic covenant (spiritualised) is still in force now as Paul says: "If you belong to Christ you are really Abraham's seed, heirs with reference to a promise" (Gal 3:29). This promise was the Abrahamic covenant. Which was spiritualised in Tishri 36 CE (Dan 9:27).

So the Gentile Times were as long as they were because the Jews sinned for as long as they did, which is truly amazing. But surely this is unfair, one might say, for the sons to suffer for the errors of their fathers. Well look at verse 39:

'As for those remaining among you, they will rot away because of their error in the lands of your enemies. Yes because of the errors of their fathers, with them (i.e. their fathers errors) they will rot away.'

So the bible tells us that the sons will pay for their fathers' errors and in any case this is nothing new for sons of Adam (Romans 9:14,15). Before we deal with the third witness to the Gentile Times being 2,520 years long, let's briefly compare this second determination of the Gentile Times with Daniel's. There are two conceptual difficulties that bible students can have with the Daniel 4 determination (Live forever book, chapter 16), these are:

Neither of these difficulties exists in the Lev 26 determination, because the day for a year rule is in the prophecy itself at Eze 4:6, which is the scripture which gives us the extent of the breaching of the contract of the law, by the Jews. Also, the dual fulfilment is an integral part of the prophecy, being the two penalties for the two violated obligations of verse 1 and verse 2. This makes Leviticus chapter 26 the perfect way to introduce a student to dual fulfilment because the two fulfilments are explicitly stated and are in fact mathematical complements to each other in that together they add up to make the total error.

The Leviticus 26 determination therefore shows us why the Gentile Times were as long as they were, and shows us the relation between the length of these times and the 70 year exile. But what is more, it also provides a relationship between the Gentile Times and the 70 weeks of years prophecy (see appendix 2). Leviticus 26 even provides a third determination of the times of the nations as we shall see in section 5, in other words:

LEVITICUS 26 IS A FOUNDATION STONE OF LONG RANGE BIBLE PROPHECY.

It is as Jehovah said to Miriam and Aaron: "If there came to be a prophet of yours for Jehovah, it would be in a vision I would make myself known to him. Not so my servant Moses! He is being entrusted with all my house. Mouth to mouth I speak with him, thus showing him, and not by riddles" (Num 11:6-8). So the Gentile Times prophecy was recorded by Moses in Leviticus 26, not as a riddle, and not as a dream or as a vision, but as a straightforward contract in law with penalty clauses.

[5] THE THIRD DETERMINATION OF THE GENTILE TIMES

Returning to Leviticus 26, notice that whilst verses 18 and 21 contain the phrases: "seven times as much" and "seven times more", verses 24 and 28 contain the phrases: "I shall have to strike you seven times for your sins" and "I shall have to chastise you seven times for your sins". These two phrases miss out the concept of "as much" or "more". Since this omission is made twice then to quote Joseph "It is firmly established on the part of God" (Gen 41:25,32, Amos 3:3-7).

So without any calculation at all Jehovah has told us for a fact that the chastisement period will be seven times. So if we now look at Rev 12, we will see that a time is 360 days, and if we now invoke the 'bible rule' of a day for a year (Num 14:34), then we have a figure of 2,520 years for the Gentile Times from Leviticus, Revelation and Numbers !!

We now have our three witnesses to the length of the Appointed Times of the nations. This derivation is probably the easiest one of the three to explain to a bible student.

[6] THE 70 WEEKS OF YEARS OF DANIEL 9, RE-EXAMINED

The theme scripture for this section is Deuteronomy 32:4, "The rock, perfect is his activity"

The first thing we notice when we look at this prophecy in Daniel 9:24-27, is that from the "going forth of the word", from Artaxerxes (Neh 2:1-6), in Nisan 455 BCE to Tishri 29CE when Jesus became the Christ there were NOT 69 weeks of years or 483 years !! There were in fact 483 and a half years. Now the Most High God Jehovah is not known for being half a year out in any of his calculations (Deut 32:4). As he himself said to Moses "The hand of Jehovah is cut short is it?" (Num 11:23). So if Jehovah is not wrong anywhere then man must be wrong somewhere! This problem is considered in Watchtower 1965 p632, where it is pointed out that maybe we should take the start date for the 70 weeks of years as the orders given by Nehemiah himself at the beginning of the month of Ab (see fig 2) to physically start building the city walls (Neh 2:18, Neh 6:15). Or maybe it should be taken from when the city wall was finally completed on Elul 25, 52 days later (Neh 6:15). However, neither of these dates fully resolve the problem.

However, as mentioned above, we do know that the end-point of the 483 years was Tishri 29 CE, because Jesus certainly died in Nisan 33 CE and his ministry was definitely three and a half years long (Dan 9:27). So why don't we just face it - our start date is wrong ! Since we know that Jehovah is perfect, we know for a fact that whatever word went out it did not go out in Nisan 455, it did not go out in Ab 455, and it did not go out in Elul 455, this is because it went out for a certainty in Tishri 455 BCE. This means that it was not Artaxerxes word of Nehemiah 2 and nor was it Nehemiah's word of Neh 2:18 and nor was it the finishing of the wall described in Nehemiah 6:15. So what word did go out in Tishri 455 BCE? Well, let us have look at Nehemiah 8:1-3:

Thereafter the festival of Booths was re-established (Neh 8:17) and an atonement day would have been held on Tishri 10. So this was the word, God's word, that went out, not the word of Artaxerxes. Daniel 9:25 says:

"She will return and actually be rebuilt with a PUBLIC SQUARE and a MOAT".

Daniel does not say that she will be rebuilt with a WALL! This 'public square and a moat' in Dan 9:24 is referring to the 'public square that is before the Water Gate' in Neh 8:3. This moat may refer to Hezekiah's tunnel leading to the spring at Gihon, this body of water is reached through and is nearest to the Water Gate, which had its own public square, as did the gate of Ephraim (See the map of Jerusalem in fig 1).

Daniel 9:24 says "There are 70 weeks ... to terminate transgression and to finish off sin and to make atonement for error." So this whole prophecy has to do with atonement.

So whereas in Nisan and in Ab and in Elul we had a physical restoration of a wall, in Tishri we had a spiritual restoration of true worship. Which do you think is the more likely start date for the 70 weeks of years prophecy a spiritual restoration and a spiritual rebuilding of true worship resulting from the word of God as spoken by his prophet Ezra or a wall construction project resulting from the word of Artaxerxes?

Hopefully we can now see that the restoration of true worship in Jerusalem, and the atonement on Tishri 1 to 10 in 455 BCE prefigured the atonement and restoration of pure worship afforded us by the Messiah.

[7] A PROPHETIC PARALLEL TO THE 70 WEEKS OF YEARS PROPHECY

We now know that the 70 weeks of years period of Daniel 9 started with a re-establishment of pure worship and an atonement sacrifice, the re-establishment of the festival of Booths (Neh 8:17) and the restating of the oath to obey the law of Moses (Neh 10:29) and keep the Sabbath (Neh 10:31), We therefore can see that this period started in Tishri 455 BCE with an inauguration of acceptable worship in this temple. The physical inauguration of Zerubbabel's temple occurred in the sixth year of the reign of Darius (Ezra 6:15,16) which was 515 BCE (Insight 1 p584), 60.5 years earlier. 486.5 years after Tishri 455 BCE is Nisan 33 CE, when Jesus was resurrected and the spiritual temple of Jesus' spiritual body was inaugurated, and approved (Mat 28:6). So there were 69.5 weeks of years between these two temple inaugurations. Now let us look at the time between the inauguration of the tabernacle in the wilderness and the inauguration of Solomon's temple. How long was this time? Exodus 40:17 reads:

'Accordingly it came about that in the first month, in the second year, on the first day of the month, the tabernacle was set up.' Verse 34 says: "And the cloud began to cover the tent of the meeting and Jehovah's glory filled the tabernacle.'

So on Nisan 1, in 1512 BCE, the second year of the exodus, the God of heaven approved the tabernacle for pure worship. Moses and Aaron then conducted a 7 day inauguration and atonement ceremony (Lev 8:33,34). Precisely 486 and a half years (or 69 and a half weeks of years) later, we read in 1 Kings 8:2:

'So all the men of Israel congregated themselves to King Solomon in the lunar month of Ethanim (Tishri) in the festival that is, the seventh month'.

In the rest of the chapter we read about Solomon's giant inauguration ceremony, and Jehovah again signalled his approval by coming down in a cloud (1 Kings 8:10). Solomon's temple was finished in the eleventh year of Solomon's reign in the month of Heshvan (1 Kings 6:38). Solomon became king in 1037 BCE so the temple was finished in Heshvan 1027 BCE, so the inauguration occurred in Tishri 1026 BCE (Insight 2 p988). Just to recapitulate:

Nisan 1512 to Tishri 1026 is 486 and a half years exactly

Tishri 455 to Nisan 33 CE is 486 and a half years exactly

The former being an exact prophetic type for the latter. Zerubbabel's temple was the greater tabernacle and Jesus' heavenly body was the greater temple of Solomon. This parallel confirms all the arguments advanced by the faithful and discreet slave in the Insight book 2 p989, that those who maintain that Solomon's temple was inaugurated in 1014 BCE are wrong. Now we ask the question that set the writer on the course which transformed this work from a 'letter to the society' into this book:

SINCE THE BIBLE PROVIDES A PROPHETIC TYPE FOR THE 70 WEEKS OF YEARS PROPHECY, WHICH ARISES FROM THE ONE PENALTY CLAUSE IN THE LAW AT LEVITICUS 26 (SEE APPENDIX 2), DO THE HOLY SCRIPTURES PROVIDE A PROPHETIC TYPE FOR THE GENTILE TIMES, WHICH ARISE FROM THE OTHER PENALTY CLAUSE IN THE LAW AT LEVITICUS 26 ??

In this section we will see that the Gentile Times is associated with the loss by the physical nation of Israel of their right as the firstborn son of Jehovah (Ex 4:22,23), to have one of their number as the King or family head, over all of Jehovah's people. We will then realise that since the firstborn son had three firstborn rights and not only one firstborn right, that there must be two other periods which are similar in form to the Gentile Times, and which represent a loss of each of the other two rights of the firstborn. Because the firstborn in a family (male son from the father) inherited the following three things by right at his father's death:

The literal sons of the patriarch Israel (Jacob) provide an example of this with the loss of all three firstborn rights by Reuben (who was the oldest son of Jacob) when he slept with his father's concubine Bilhah. (Gen 49:3,4; Gen 35:22). As a result of this act of disloyalty and unfaithfulness against his father his land inheritance went to Joseph (Gen 48:22), whose two sons Ephraim and Manasseh became a tribe each, thereby doubling Joseph's inheritance of all of his father's estate, because Reuben's sons became only one tribe and the land was split up according to the number (twelve) of the tribes. The priesthood went to the sons of Levi, the first high priest was Aaron (Gen 28:1), a son of Levi. The Kingship of all Israel went to the sons of Judah as we know through the royal line of David.

To spiritualise this situation we replace Jacob with Jehovah, we replace Reuben with Adam, we replace Bilhah with Eve and we replace Joseph, Judah and Levi with Jesus and the firstborn spiritually, i.e. the heavenly class, or spiritual Israel.

The spiritual situation is then that Adam was the first fleshly and spiritual human son of Jehovah (he was born with everlasting i.e. spiritual life). He committed an act of spiritual unfaithfulness with Eve against his spiritual father thereby sinning against Jehovah's spirit (Gen 3:17).Whereas Reuben had committed an act of physical unfaithfulness against his physical father, thereby sinning against his father's flesh. Adam lost his land inheritance (the garden of Eden), his patriarchal headship of all mankind and his priesthood of all mankind as a result of his sin. He was thrown out of the garden of Eden, and he died and was therefore head of nothing. Jesus first and then spiritual Israel receive all three firstborn rights because they become a nation of Kings and Priests, "A royal priesthood a Holy nation" (1 Peter 2:9),"they will be priests of God and of the Christ, and they will rule as Kings with him for the 1000 years" (Rev 20:6), and they receive a double inheritance from the estate of their father Jehovah, because they will rule over two realms, the earthly realm and the heavenly realm. For John saw a new heaven and a new earth in Rev 21:1, and Jehovah said in verse 7 'anyone conquering will inherit these things (plural), and I shall be his God and he will be my son'. Whereas Paul has asked to which one of the Angels did he ever say: "You are my son I, today, I have become your father"? (Heb 1:5). Furthermore at his second presence we are told that all God's angels do obeisance do him, whose co-rulers Abraham's seed have become (Heb 1:6).

This parallel is mentioned by Paul at Romans 5:14 and 1 Cor 15:45-49 which reads: "The first man Adam became a living soul, the last Adam became a life giving spirit. Nevertheless, the first is not that which is spiritual, but that which is physical, afterward that which is spiritual. The first man is out of the earth and made of dust; the second man is out of heaven. As the one made of dust so the ones made of dust are also; and as the heavenly one is so those who are heavenly are also. And just as we have born the image of the one made of dust, we shall bear also the image of the heavenly one."

There is one further antitype of Reuben's licentiousness, which is to take all Israel, i.e. all the sons of Jacob, who collectively are Jehovah's firstborn, for Reuben, who was Jacob's firstborn. We do this because Jehovah said "Israel is my firstborn, and I say to you send my SON away that he may serve me. But should you refuse me here I am killing your firstborn" (Ex 4:22,23). Also Israel himself was Jehovah's firstborn, as well an Isaac's firstborn, because Jacob was only conceived after Jehovah had cured Rebekah's barrenness (Gen 25:22). The literal sons of Israel would have had all the firstborn rights that the spiritual ones have now but for their unfaithfulness to their spiritual father (1 Samuel 8:7). Which is why, in exodus 19:6, we read "And you yourselves will become to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation".

The fact that the nation of Israel was going to lose all its firstborn rights was firmly established by Jehovah by the two witnesses given to them at Genesis 21:12, in the case of Ishmael and Isaac, and at Genesis 25:32-34, in the case of Esau and Jacob. In both cases the firstborn lost his rights to the second born. This therefore prefigured and indeed prophetically established that physical Israel would lose its birthright to spiritual Israel. Summarising we have:

Firstborn Firstborn Firstborn rights Firstborn

Gen 2:7 Gen 29:32 Gen 48:5 etc Col 1:18

The purpose of all the above is to demonstrate to the reader that whatever it is that Jehovah is doing with Kingship, he is doing the same thing with Priesthood and Land inheritance, since they are all three part of the same thing namely the rights of the firstborn. We can therefore reasonably expect that just as there has been a 2,520 year Kingship exile period, when no man had Jehovah as his direct ruler, namely the Gentile Times. There has also been a 2,520 year exile of mankind's spiritual head whose name alone is Jehovah, and a 2,520 year land inheritance exile period.

A cursory glance at the figures supports this because 2,520 years before Jesus died was about 120 years before the flood, which was when Jehovah withdrew his spirit from mankind (Gen 6:3), and 2,520 years before the Jews entered the promised land in 1473 was 3993 BCE which would be a reasonable date for an eviction from the garden of Eden (Adam being about 33 years old at the time - he was born around 4026 BCE - Insight 1 p 459). We will now examine these two periods in great detail and see what Jehovah has to say about them.

We know that 120 years before the flood Jehovah alienated himself from mankind. The account of this in Genesis 6:3 reads: "After that Jehovah said, my spirit shall not act TOWARD man indefinitely in that he is also flesh. Accordingly his days shall amount to 120 years." As an aside the word 'also' appears in this scripture because a lot of the 'men' were 'also' fallen angels. So God's spirit started acting against man at that time. In other words God and man became enemies, we became alienated, we were no longer at one we were at two, we were unreconciled and in need of atonement or reconciliation. Genesis 6:6, one of the most moving scriptures in the bible says:

'And Jehovah felt regrets that he made men in the earth, and he felt hurt at his heart.'

What a terrible situation man had put his creator in! Again in verse 7: "I am going to wipe men whom I have created of the surface of the ground.... because I do regret that I have made them." We know this is meant in the sense that men, whom Jehovah had created, had caused him to feel regret. This did not mean that Jehovah felt that he had made a mistake in creating man (this was Satan's view).

We can certainly see why men and his creator Jehovah God became enemies, alienated, at two and unreconciled at that time. There are at least five references in the bible to this state of affairs and to the reconciliation, atonement, peacemaking and unification that Jesus' sacrifice achieved approx 2,520 years later. These are:

All five of these will be quoted here. Please look out for the four aspects of this spiritual enmity:

SPIRIT AGAINST MAN SPIRIT TOWARD MAN

At two <-----> Atonement

Alienation <-----> Unification

Enemies <-----> At peace

Unreconciled <-----> Reconciled

Malachi 4:5,6: "Look I am sending to you people Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and fear inspiring day of Jehovah. And he must turn the heart of fathers back toward sons, and the heart of sons back toward fathers; in order that I may not come and actually strike the earth with a devoting of it to destruction." Notice that hearts were to be turned back, implying that they were once turned towards each other and then, at the time of Malachi, they were turned away from each other, and then, that they would be turned back towards one another at the arrival of the prophet Elijah, who is symbolising Jesus Christ in this scripture. Obviously we can read "spirit" for "heart" in the above.

Colossians 1:20,21: "And through him to RECONCILE AGAIN to himself all other things by making PEACE through the blood he shed on the torture stake, no matter whether they are things upon the earth or the things in the heavens. Indeed you who were once ALIENATED and ENEMIES because your minds were on the works that were wicked, he has AGAIN RECONCILED by means of that one's fleshly body through his death."

Paul, the superlative spiritual lawyer sums up the whole situation here. Notice that each time the word 'reconcile' appears, it appears with the word "again". Since this is stated twice we know that it is firmly established on the part of God, that God and all living things were originally reconciled, then they were unreconciled, and then they became reconciled again.

Referring now to Ephesians 2:12-16, the enmity mentioned here was the enmity between the nation of Israel and the Gentiles, an enmity which was an integral part of the law of Moses. But we know that the law was a tutor leading to Christ (Gal 3:24), and as with almost everything that the nation of Israel did physically, this pictured a larger spiritual situation. In this case the physical enmity between Jew and Greek under law, stands for the spiritual enmity between God and man. Which enmity persisted throughout the whole period that Israel was under law, and which enmity Jesus Christ nailed to the torture stake, so the scripture reads:

"that you were at that particular time without Christ, ALIENATED from the state of Israel and STRANGERS to the covenant of the promise, and you had no hope and were WITHOUT GOD in the world. But now in union with Christ Jesus you who were once FAR OFF have come to be NEAR by the blood of Christ. For he is our PEACE, he who made the TWO PARTIES ONE and destroyed the WALL in between that fenced them off. By means of his flesh he abolished the ENMITY of the law of commandments consisting in decrees, that he might create the TWO PEOPLES in union with himself into ONE NEW MAN and make PEACE; and that he might fully RECONCILE BOTH PEOPLES in ONE BODY to GOD through the torture stake, because he had killed off the ENMITY by means of himself" (Eph 2:12-16).

The wall between the Jew and the Greek which pictured the enmity between God and man, was also a type for Jesus' flesh, which was an antitype for the curtain separating the holy from the most holy. When Jesus died, his flesh was destroyed, the temple curtain was rent in two (Mat 27:51), and the wall of the law was knocked down. All of this pictured the end of the enmity between God and man. In fact in verse 16, Paul is actually referring directly to enmity between God and man, when he says "Reconcile both peoples in one body to God." This reconciliation was the knocking down of the wall between God and man, which was symbolised by the knocking down of the wall of the law between the Jew and the Greek.

Paul puts this very encouragingly at Romans 5:10: "For if, when we were enemies, we became reconciled to God through the death of his Son, much more, now that we have become reconciled, we shall be saved by his life."

Finally (as a fifth witness) at 2 Corinthians 5:18,19: "But all things are from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the MINISTRY OF THE RECONCILIATION, namely, that God was by means of Christ reconciling a WORLD to himself".

So by means of the death of Jesus Christ, Jehovah was not just reconciling the Jew to the Greek, he was actually reconciling the whole 'world to himself'. He was in fact ending the Alienation Times.

[9.1] THE EXACT LENGTH OF THE ALIENATION TIMES

Jehovah has provided - as we should expect - several witnesses, in the holy word, which firmly establish that the Alienation Times were exactly 2,520 years long, to the month (Gen 41:25,32, Amos 3:7). We will not reveal what these are yet because it is possible to reach this conclusion by another very beautiful route, which was the route that the writer first took.

There is no argument that the Jews left Egypt in Nisan 1513. This is especially true now that we know for a fact, having performed many calculations correctly (section 4), that the 390 figure in Ezekiel 4:4-6 is the true length of time from Solomon's death to the Exile in Babylon. We also know for a fact that this was exactly 430 years after the Abrahamic covenant was validated when Abraham crossed the river Euphrates, (All Scripture is inspired p286, Gal 3:17, Ex 12:41).

However there is a technical point, which is going to become important to us now. This is the trans-calendral change at 1513 BCE, when the first month of the year changed from Tishri to Nisan (Ex 12:2). Similar care has to be taken here to that which is exercised at the trans-calendral situation at '0 CE'. As the prophet said "And he is changing times and seasons, removing kings and setting up kings, giving wisdom to the wise ones and knowledge to the ones knowing discernment" (Dan 2:21).

Abraham was 75 at the time of the validation of his covenant (Gen 12:1-4), so he was born within a few months of Nisan 2018 BCE (see section 24.2). If we now add up all the ages of his ancestors we can place the flood as occurring 352 years prior to this in 2370 BCE, (Insight 1 p460, All Scripture p286). But when we added all the reigns of the Kings from Rehoboam to Zedekiah we got the figure of 393 years for the length of the period from Solomon's death to the Exile (Insight 1 p462). This figure is 3 years too much, because Jehovah has provided an already added up figure of 390 years for this period in the form of Ezekiel's sleepless nights (Ezek 4:5):

'And I myself must give to you the years of their error to the number of 390 days, and you must carry the error of the house of Israel.'

The house of Israel was established in error (1 Kings 12:24-30), therefore the length of its error was the length of its existence. Therefore it existed for 390 years, and since it ceased to exist in Tishri 607, it was established 390 years earlier, in Tishri 997 CE, which was just after Solomon's death. This example shows us that adding up reigns does not necessarily give an accurate answer to the length of time from Solomon's death until the exile.

And if he provided us with a pre-added up figure for this period (390 years as opposed to 393 years), would our loving father not have provided us with a pre-added up figure for the period from the flood to Abraham's birth? Well he did, it's at Genesis 9:28 which tells us:

Since we already knew that the flood occurred when Noah was 600 years old, i.e. middle aged! (Gen 7:6), Jehovah has stated this 350 year period twice, each time in a different way (once as 350 and once as 950 less 600). But as Joseph said to Pharaoh in Genesis 41:25; "The dream... is but one". And as Amos has said in Amos 3:1; 'Will two walk together unless they have met by appointment'? No sir, our God has 'firmly established' (Gen 41:32) this as a prophetic period. And what was the prophetic significance of Noah's death if he had died 2 years before Abraham was born? Well, who can say? but if he died after Abraham was born, and this period was the time between the flood and Abraham's birth, then this 350 year period would be very significant. So all this is a witness that Noah lived to see the baby Abraham - A most beautiful and loving of interpretations indeed, and an orderly one. We shall see it is a true one, even an interpretation that belongs to Jehovah (Gen 40:8). Consider the following:

1. Would the very definition of love keep Noah alive for 950 years, only for him to die two years before seeing the promised seed, which seed he himself carried as a saviour through the flood?

2. Did Moses walk around the wilderness for 38 years only to die two years before seeing the promised land? No he lived to see the promised land and then died, and furthermore having been a saviour himself, saving a nation and a seed and carrying it through water (the Red Sea), he was an antitype of Noah.

3. The greatest saviour figure to appear was Jesus Christ. Now there were two witnesses, even two prophets, who remained alive until Jesus was born and then died, namely the prophet Simeon (Luke 2:25) and the prophetess Anna (Luke 2:36-38). Please remember that Noah too was a prophet (Gen 9:24-28).

4. If Noah did die just after having seen the baby Abraham, then the period from the flood to Jesus' death would be 2400 years i.e. 2x12x10x10.

From this we can see Saviours and prophets live to see the fulfilment of God's promises. We can therefore strongly assert that Noah died in 2018 BCE, which was the year of Abraham's birth (although we have no direct proof as yet). This would mean that the flood was in progress in Nisan 2368 BCE, which was 350 years before Nisan 2018 BCE which was 75 years before Nisan 1943 BCE, which was when the Abrahamic covenant was validated, which was 430 years before Nisan 1513 BCE (Ex 12:41).

Jesus died on Nisan 14, 33 CE, this is when the reconciliation was fully accomplished. If we count back 2400 years from 14th Nisan 33 CE, we end up in Nisan 2368 BCE, which is 350 years before Abraham's birth, remembering the trans-calendral correction at '0 CE'. Genesis 7:11 tells us that the flood started on Heshvan 17, and ended on Heshvan 27, so Nisan 14 is aroundabout the centre of the flood. So the flood would be from Heshvan 2369 BCE to Heshvan 2368 BCE, (Heshvan was October/ November - see fig 2).

If we count back 120 years before Nisan 2368, which is 2400 years before Nisan 33 CE, then we end up in Nisan 2488 BCE. Now Jehovah said in Gen 6:3;

One of the meanings of this is that the 120 years was the length of time that Jehovah determined would be left for the pre-flood system, measured from the time of this directing of Jehovah's spirit away from man. But this time is stated as an age: 'his days shall amount to 120 years'. One of the reasons why the true God has stated this as an age is because in the bible, ages, which are stated in years, are not accurate to the month, whereas time prophecies stated in years are fulfilled accurate to the month. Ages are in fact accurate to the nearest year, see section 24.2. Which is why the 352 figure (or rather 427-75) in Insight 1 p 460, which is the result of adding up the ages of Abraham's ancestors, is inaccurate if we accept the 350 years of Gen 9:28) as the true figure. This means that ages may be as much as six months out. We shall see in the next section that the 350 years figure is indeed the true length of time from the flood to Abraham's birth and so the flood did indeed run from Heshvan 2369 until Heshvan 2368 BCE. Now, in the case of the 120 years of Gen 6:3, this period actually extended from Nisan 2488 BCE (2520 years before Nisan 33 CE) until Heshvan 2369 BCE, the start of the flood. It was therefore 119 years and 7 months (see fig 2). So to the nearest year it was a 120 year period. Jehovah is perfect!

To paraphrase the words of a certain bible study: "One might expect that the book of numbers would contain a few numbers that were relevant to divine prophetic time". We shall now see that it most certainly does. In this section we first of all look at the details of the ransom of the Levites in Num 3:41-51 which, we will see, prophetically determines various features of the ransom sacrifice of the Christ. Then we look at the sum of the presentations of the 12 tribes in Num 7:84:88. Which presentations, we will see, prophetically determine the length of the Alienation Times which ended in that ransom.

Numbers 3:41 tells us:

This command is repeated in verse 45, almost word for word, by now we recognise this as Jehovah's way of telling us that this is a prophecy (Gen 41:25,32, Amos 3:3-7). The next few verses tell us that there were 273 more firstborn sons of Israel than there were Levites:

'And as the ransom price of the 273 from the firstborn of the sons of Israel, who are in EXCESS of the Levites, you must take 5 shekels for each individual' (verses 46,47).

We then read in verses 48, 49:

Moses then gave this 1365 (273 x 5) shekels to Aaron and his sons (verse 51). We have seen repetition of the whole ransom deal, we have seen repetition of the 'excess' and the payment of the ransom or redemption price for this excess. This means that there is a greater meaning to this ransom deal and a greater meaning to the excess ransom or redemption price (Gen 41:25,32, Amos 3:3-7, section 2).

It is most noticeable that the ransom does not only involve humans but also involves 'domestic animals'. This is mentioned twice and actually follows from the killing of the firstborn of man and beast at the passover in Egypt. Verse 13 describes this:

Now the human element of this ransom deal was actually individually registered, at Jehovah's command, and an excess was established, and this was then paid for at five shekels a head. The domestic animal element of this ransom was not registered individually in its entirety because one cannot really remember all of ones firstborn animals very easily. Because of this, the domestic animals of the Levites quite simply ransomed 'all the firstborn' among the domestic animals of the sons of Israel. In other words both groups were counted as equal. But whereas the total numbers of domestic animals were not registered, there was an excess of Levitical animals that was registered in Numbers 7:2,3. Here we read that the chieftains of the twelve tribes presented 12 bulls and 6 wagons as an offering before Jehovah. The scriptures say from verse 2:

So these animals were very special Levitical animals, they were offered before Jehovah, and so were holy and set apart from the other domestic animals of the Levites. They were then given to the Levites and had a sort of priestly-animal function. They became the property of the Levites on Nisan 1, 1512 (Num 7:1), which was a month before the registration and ransom was effected (Num 1:1, 3:1). First of all we notice that their number is repeated and is very emphatically compared with the number (also 12) of the chieftains. Their number is repeated again in verses 7,8). Therefore their number has a greater prophetic meaning (Gen 41:25,32, Amos 3:3-7 section 2). We have already mentioned that these priestly-animals were actually registered individually and were set aside. Therefore it is apparent that they are treated in a different way from the rest of the Levitical animals, not only in that they are serving as priests but also in that they are a numerically registered excess group with a prophetic significance. This is telling us that they are actually the excess of animals that corresponds to the excess of 273 humans in the ransom deal of Numbers 3:46.

In fact this is witnessed to cryptically by the two statements that the chieftains were: 'Over the ones registered' (verse 2), and that the bulls were proportioned: 'A bull for each one (chieftain)' (verse 3). Combining these two statements, i.e. taking 'a bull for a chieftain' in the statement in verse two, we see that prophetically, the bulls were 'over the ones registered'. In other words, the 12 bulls of the Levitical animal excess were to be taken in addition to (i.e. 'over') the human 'registered' Levites of 22,000 souls, thereby making a total of 22,012 Levitical souls. Which is equivalent to treating them as a registered animal excess over and above the firstborn domestic animals of the sons of Israel. These bulls were also redeemed, because being clean and being offered to Jehovah, they would normally have been killed and eaten by the priests. We then read in Numbers 18:15:

'You should without fail redeem the firstborn of mankind; and the firstborn of the unclean beast you should redeem. And with a redemption price for it for a month old onward you should redeem it, by the estimated value, five silver shekels. Only the firstborn bull or firstborn male lamb or firstborn goat you should not redeem. They are something holy. Their blood you should sprinkle upon the altar.'

So the firstborn of men and unclean animals were to be redeemed at five shekels, but firstborn of clean animals were to be killed. Putting all of this together we see that the 12 bulls, had they been firstborn (which they would have been for an occasion such as this - the first ever offering to the true God from the heads of the 12 tribes of Israel), would normally have been killed because they were clean and therefore unredeemable. But in any case, even if these bulls had been secondborn, they were certainly offered to Jehovah and were not killed. Therefore they were redeemed, even at Jehovah's command, so that they could serve him in his temple - just like the anointed ones today. The redemption price for man or beast was the same - 5 shekels - so they would have been redeemed at 5 shekels per head, just like the other 22,000 Levites. So now we have 22,012 Levite men and animals, and 22,273 firstborn sons of Israel, (Numbers 3:39,43). So having been paid 1365 Shekels by the sons of Israel, the Levites now owed 12x5 or 60 Shekels back, because they had a registered excess of 12 domestic animals. So the total ransom of men and animals was 1305 shekels.

There are no prizes for discerning what this ransom is illustrating here. We have already determined that both the ransom itself and the ransom price of the excess have a greater meaning because they are repeated. We have the following ransom, which is looked at in W 1961 p ###:

Firstborn sons of Israel <----> Sons of Israel's firstborn (Levi)

Levi was the firstborn son of Jacob as far as priestly inheritance was concerned. This ransom is deliberately and very carefully worded above. Levi was Israel's firstborn (as regards priesthood rights), so Levites are the 'sons of Israel's firstborn. Stating the ransom as stated above, clearly demonstrates the justice of Jehovah, because we can see that the two sides effectively have the same weight. If we replace Israel (Jacob) with God we get the ransom below. In other words spiritualising this ransom gives:

We have God's firstborn on the right side of this ransom rather than 'sons of God's firstborn', because Jesus does not die whereas Levi did, and so Levi lives on through his sons, whereas Jesus lives on period. Restating this we can say:

This is therefore the greater ransom. The cost to Jehovah of Jesus' ransom sacrifice was amongst other things, watching the suffering of his son, for 3 years and seven and a half months from Jesus' baptism until his ascension (Dan 9:27). Jesus paid the ransom to his father in heaven on Iyyar 25, 33CE, (Acts 1:3,9), precisely 41 days after finishing his ministry, when he ascended and reappeared before the person of God (Heb 9:24). He had earned this wage on Nisan 14, 33 CE. If we now take 'A day for a shekel' in the total ransom price of 1305 shekels then we are being told that from Jesus' batism into death until payment of the ransom in heaven, there were 1305 days. This is 3 Prophetic Hebrew years (of 360 days) and seven Prophetic Hebrew months (of 30 days) and 15 days in prophetic time (Let the reader use a calculator).

WHEN THE BIBLE STATES A PROPHECY IN DAYS, THEN IT IS ACCURATE TO THE DAY! (section 22.1)

This observation follows from the faith that we have in the fact that Jehovah is perfect (Deut 32:4). Which fact apart from being cited in the scriptures is evident from his works of creation. If we count back 1305 days from Iyyar 25, 33 CE, we end up on Tishri 10, 29 CE (including Tishri 10 and excluding Iyyar 25). Therefore we now know that:

A DAY FOR A SHEKEL

We now look at the account of the inauguration offering, in Numbers chapter 7, we wonder what this could prefigure! Verses 84 to 88 sum up the total offering as follows:

We have read in the earlier verses that the dishes and bowls contained fine flour for a grain offering, and Jehovah has made no distinction between the contents of the dishes and the bowls, (neither is it easy to discern what, in fact, the difference is between a dish and a bowl).

So all of the inauguration sacrifice was physically contained in two types of physical containers, the first had a physical value of 2400 shekels of silver, the second had a physical value of 120 shekels of gold.

Applying our new bible rule of 'A day for a shekel', together with our old bible rule of 'A day for a year', we get:

All of this sacrifice was temporally contained in two types of temporal containers, the silver post-flood container had a temporal value of 2,400 years, the gold pre-flood container had a temporal value of 120 years.

We remember that in Daniel chapter two the gold head period preceded the silver breasts and arms period in time (see section 77.2). Similarly, we now have a gold period of 120 years followed by a silver period of 2400 years. This is one of the many prophecies in the bible, where the physical stands for the temporal.

Now if we look at Numbers 7:87,88 and we see that the total number of animals sacrificed was 252 (let the reader use discernment, or a calculator). The redemption value of this sacrifice is 252x5 shekels or 1,260 shekels. Not that these animals were redeemed, they were of course killed, but the cost to redeem them would have been 1,260 shekels. Of course Jesus, whom these animals prefigure, was killed himself. Applying the new bible rule of 'A day for a shekel' we have the temporal value of this sacrifice being 1260 days, or 3 years and six months, the length of Jesus' ministry before his sacrifice, which we know was the end of all sacrifices. He was a burnt offering, sin offering and communion sacrifice all in one. Now the bible only states this prophecy to the accuracy of one animal or five shekels or five days, and it is in fact accurate to within five days, since the total time of Jesus' ministry was in fact 3 years and six months and four days, i.e. 1,264 days, because the ministry started on Tishri 10, 29 CE, and finished on Nisan 13 33 CE. This is because he was in the heart of the earth for Nisan 14,15,16 (Mat 12:40). Brothers, this is the perfection of the true God.

So the event which marks the division of time into the two containers, is the flood, which happened 2,400 years before Jesus died. 120 years before this, in the earlier or gold system of things, we know that Jehovah alienated himself from mankind at Genesis 6:3 as discussed above.

AND THE ALIENATION TIMES WERE 2400+120=2,520 YEARS LONG

2,520 = 3 x 7 x 10 x 12

Divine temporal completeness, organisational completeness (earthly and heavenly), and emphasis, perfection. (In the bible 3 can mean emphasis, although actually it means building temples quite a lot as we will find out, in the second half of this book; 7 means divine temporal completeness (section 47). It is as the proverb says:

'If you keep seeking for it as for silver, and as for hid treasures you keep searching for it, in that case you will understand the fear of Jehovah, and you will find the very knowledge of God' (Prov 2:4,5)

Putting this diagrammatically:

[11] THE LAW OF MOSES: THE SECOND AND THIRD WITNESSES TO THE LENGTH OF THE ALIENATION TIMES

Both of these witnesses come from the law of Moses, specifically Deuteronomy 15:1,2 and Leviticus chapter 4. The first two verses of Deuteronomy chapter 15 say:

'At the end of every seven years you should make a release'. 'And this is the manner of the release: there will be a releasing by every creditor of the debt that he may let his fellow incur. He should not press his fellow or his brother for payment, because a release to Jehovah must be called.'

This 2,520 days, prefigures the 2,520 years of enmity between man and God, or debt from man to God. This enmity arose due to sin, which is a debt from man to God. But God took this debt on himself. The death of the Christ was a 'release to Jehovah' from all our debts, in that he paid for these personally with his son. We now have our second witness.

Furthermore Leviticus chapter 4 tells us that in a sin offering for the 'high priest' (verses 3,6) or for the 'entire assembly' (verses 13,17), the priest had to spatter the blood seven times before Jehovah. Whereas in a sin offering for a 'chieftain' (verse 22) or a 'soul of the people of the land' (verse 27) this did not occur. This together with the greater meaning is shown in the diagram below:

So we have two groups containing two classes of people. These two groups, under the law, are required to follow two different procedures for their respective sin offerings. The first group of the high priest and the entire assembly, whose sin offerings both involve the spattering of blood seven times before the altar, prefigure the 144,000 anointed priests-to-be, and all of mankind as a group. Therefore the 144,000 individually and mankind collectively are accredited righteousness or atoned for at the end of a period of 2,520 years (seven times), when Jesus' blood is spilt at the altar. The second group, of the chieftains and the souls of the people of the land (i.e. the people of the land as individuals or as souls), prefigure the other sheep of John 10:16, who are not declared righteous as individuals, or individually atoned for, after the seven times of the Alienation Times. However, these ones may well benefit personally and individually from the atoning value of Jesus' blood, after the thousand year reign. This amounts to the prospect of a future atonement for them individually, on the back of an immediate atonement collectively. We now have our third witness to the length of the Alienation Times.

[12] THE EXEDENIC TIMES

First of all we point out that the existence of the Aaronic priesthood did not prove that Jehovah, mankind's ultimate spiritual head, was no longer alienated from his people. This alienation was manifested in the fact that the high priests under the law were not mediators between God and man. There was only one such mediator before the advent of Jesus, namely Moses and he was not the high priest, and furthermore he did not mediate directly between God and man, he actually mediated between the word of God, the Angel Michael, and man (Gen 42:23,see section 31). Whilst it is true that together Aaron and Moses did provide a high priest and a mediator, for 39 years in the wilderness, the mediation was one of law, the purpose of which was to "make transgression manifest" (Gal 3:10), and to lead the nation to Christ. There was no life that resulted from the law, and so it was not a mediation of reconciliation.

Aaron was therefore a physical high priest and not a spiritual high priest. This is summed up as usual by Paul, in Galatians 32:18-22: "For if the inheritance (i.e. everlasting life) is due to law, it is no longer due to promise; whereas God has kindly given it to Abraham through a promise. Why then the law? It was added to make transgressions manifest, until the seed should arrive (Jesus) to whom the promise had been made; and it was transmitted through angels by the hand of a mediator. Now there is no mediator where one person only is concerned, but God is only one. Is the law therefore against the promises of God? May that never happen! For if a law had been given that WAS ABLE TO GIVE LIFE, righteousness would actually have been by means of law. But the scripture delivered up all things together to the custody of sin, that the promise resulting from faith toward Jesus Christ might be given to those exercising faith."

The situation is entirely different with the Kingship, because David was not a mediator of Kingly benefits he actually was the King of Jehovah's people, who sat on Jehovah's throne, which was described both as the 'throne of David' (1 Kings 2:24), and 'Jehovah's throne' (1 Chron 29:23).

Now we know for a certainty the true God has determined a 2,520 year Kingship exile period, and a 2,520 spiritual headship exile period on Mankind. These two witnesses themselves are a pretty strong indication, if they are not even a proof, that there will also be a 2,520 year land inheritance exile. This is because the third right of the firstborn is for a double portion of his father's estate, and in particular this applied to his father's real estate for the sons of Israel, in the initial physical fulfilment of this principle (see section 8). Adam and his sons were effectively exiled from this when the land was cursed as a result of Adam's sin (Gen 3:17-19). In fact all three exile periods are associated with curses:

Gentile Times: Malediction of Leviticus 26:16-40

Alienation Times: Curse of the law, see Galatians 3:13

Exedenic Times: Curse on the ground of Genesis 3:17-19

In the case of the Gentile Times, the length of the malediction was the length of the times, see section 4. In the Alienation Times, mankind was cursed for the whole period of the times, in that Jehovah's spirit was against them because we were at two with God, which most certainly is an accursed condition to be in. Likewise in the Exedenic Times the length of the curse on the ground is the length of the times. This curse was symbolically lifted when the sons of Adam, who were also sons of Jacob, entered into the promised land and received a typical representation of the land inheritance which those putting faith in the Christ will receive after Armageddon (Jos 5:9-12). We know that the whole scene of the falling of Jericho, the saving of Rahab (Joshua 6), the saving of the Gibeonites and the battle that Jehovah and Joshua fought against the five kings (Joshua 10), who had attacked the Gibeonites, is prophetically typical for the Lord's day, with Spiritual Israel standing for Physical Israel (Watchtower 1967 p624-630). After the battle to save the greater Gibeonites of the Great Crowd, which battle is Armageddon, then we do get our land inheritance. Now it remains to find out for certain just how long the land inheritance exile from the expulsion from Eden until the entering into the promised land actually was.

In this spiritual earthquake of a section, we will discover that Cain, Adam's physical firstborn, had a prophetic part to play in Jehovah's grand purpose for mankind! This is fairly astounding although there have been other unrighteous men who have carried prophetic signs (e.g. the men of Sodom).

The inheritance left us by Adam was sin and death (Rom 5:14-16), and his real estate inheritance was a curse as stated in Genesis 3:17:

Now since Cain was Adam's firstborn, he was in the awful position of coming in line for this disastrous inheritance. Which is precisely what he did. Because he indeed sinned after the likeness of his father (Rom 5:14), he obviously died, and more significantly from the prophetic point of view he inherited the curse on the land, having merited it by his sin of murdering his brother, which was a sin after the likeness of his father's sin, because both sins carried the death penalty. We read in Genesis 4:10:

So Cain inherited his father's 'curse in banishment from the ground'. In other words Cain was exiled from the power of the land by this curse. Cain then complained about his punishment, expressing his fear that anyone finding him would kill him and Jehovah responded by saying:

This statement is prophetic. It is referred to again in verse 24, which reads "If seven times Cain is to be avenged, then Lamech seventy times and seven." So the two references firmly establish it as true and qualify it for being prophetic (Gen 41:25,32, Amos 3:3-7, section 2). Watchtower 1973 p 301 makes the point that this sign on Cain was certainly true and recognised at the time.

BUT WHAT DOES IT MEAN ?

Well, we know that Jehovah's law is like for like, soul for soul (Ex 21:23). It most certainly is not soul for seven souls. And even if it was, which man is there who has ever been born with seven souls? However, the next part of the verse is:

BUT WHO REALLY WAS THIS SIGN PUT IN THE BIBLE FOR ?

Because the bible was not written for the literal 'killers of Cain', no it was written for the spiritual 'killers of Cain', (we shall find out what this means later), it was very much written for those who will have 'that which is complete' (which is the completed bible), yes, it was very much written for us! (1 Cor 13:10).

So the immediate physical interpretation of this sign was as given in verse 15, i.e. that no one should strike Cain, (Lamech got that bit right, but the penalty he did not understand - Gen 4:24). But we who are putting faith in the Christ, are no longer seeing with the eyes of men, but are seeing with eyes of faith, because as Jehovah said to Samuel "Not the way man sees is the way God sees" (1 Samuel 16:7). So how did God see this penalty? Let us look at this penalty spiritually.

The spiritual meaning of killing Cain is revealed in the book of Revelation (Just as the identity of the woman in Genesis 3:15 is revealed in the same book), where we find:

Nobody literally died in any of these four events. In the first example 'Killed' we know means pronounced spiritually dead, due to their false worship, it means this also in the second example. In the third example, since it was faithful witnesses who were killed, the killing refers not to the terminating of the life they had, but to the terminating of their true worship. In the fourth example the "killing" refers to the termination of their false worship as members of Christendom. These interpretations are all covered in the Revelation book chapters 23 and 25.

So 'killing' in the bible, can mean the terminating of either true or false worship. If we look at Cain and Abel in this light, then we see that Abel was the true worshipper, and Cain was the false worshipper (Gen 4:3-5):

"And it came about at the expiration of some time that Cain proceeded to bring some fruits of the ground as an offering to Jehovah. But as for Abel, he too brought some FIRSTLINGS of his flock, even their fatty pieces. Now while Jehovah was looking with favour upon Abel and his offering, he did not look with any favour upon Cain and upon his offering."

The prophetic drama between Cain and Abel, is the story all true and false worshippers. This sort of thing is looked at in the recent Watchtower: Dec 1 1991 p9-15

The occurrence of this event would then be signified by:

This would occur simultaneously with and therefore indicate the occurrence of the 'Killing of Cain'. It would also involve the termination of a period of wandering and fugitiveness (Gen 4:14).There is no problem in identifying when all this occurred because one cannot wipe out false worship without first establishing true worship. This happened after the circumcision at Gilgal, as discussed earlier, immediately after which they held the passover:

'On the fourteenth day of the month, in the desert plains of Jericho. And they began to eat some of the yield of the land, the day after the passover, unfermented cakes and roasted grains, on this same day' (Jos 10,11).

This scripture is very significant, this was the first act of pure, clean, true worship that the nation of Israel had ever done, i.e. they killed Cain on that day. Jehovah's nation did not perform any national acts of true worship before the left Egypt. Neither did they perform any such acts in the wilderness because as Stephen has said:

'So God turned and handed them over to render sacred service to the army of the heaven, just as it is written in the book of the prophets: "It was not to me that you offered victims and sacrifices for forty years in the wilderness was it, O house of Israel?"' (Acts 7:42)

The first passover in Israel was the "killing of Cain" that the servants of the true God performed that day, this was actually Jehovah's vengeance on Cain, in that he personally had at last re-established the true worship, after the manner of Abel, that Cain had wiped out.

And the very next day was the first time that God's faithful servants had eaten fruit from the promised land, before this they had been exclusively eating Manna, so the land was no longer cursed, and this was the first time that man had eaten the fruit of uncursed land since the garden of Eden. Yes the Exedenic Times had ended!!!. To prove this, in the next four verses the manna stopped, their eating of the yield of the land is again mentioned (firmly establishing it as prophetic), and then Joshua is told by 'The prince of the army of Jehovah' (God's firstborn) that the ground near Jericho where he is standing is holy - i.e. not under any curse - yes, Joshua is in the promised land (Jos 5:11-15).

And the curse of Cain was lifted on Nisan 14, 1473 CE, the same day (not year) that Jesus released the nation of Israel from the curse of the law, thereby ending the seven times of the Alienation Times! So the Exedenic Times ended on Nisan 14,1473 BCE.

Showing this diagrammatically:

By now the reader will have realised that the Exedenic Times, being seven times, were 2,520 years long, and this is what the Most High God meant by "must suffer vengeance seven times" (Gen 4:15). Therefore we can deduce that the first cursing of the land in Genesis 3:17 occurred in Nisan 3993 BCE. Because although Cain was set up by Jehovah as a sign representing this curse, he had merely inherited it from his father, having sinned in like manner to him. The curse started with Adam and not with Cain. We are now able to say that the bible tells us that:

This was when the land was cursed and when Adam and Eve were thrown out of the garden of Eden. Now Cain himself was said to take up 'residence in the Land of Fugitiveness to the East of Eden' (Gen 4:16). Furthermore we have read in Gen 3:24, that the true God, when he banished Adam and Eve from Eden:

Whereas when Joshua met angel Michael in the promised land in Joshua 5:13, we read:

These things tell us that the Cherubs guarding the garden, were actually enforcing the Exedenic Times, which is a time in 'the land of fugitiveness'. Because it was not just Cain, it was all of mankind who were fugitives, and especially it was the Jews, until they reached the promised land. This is why both the Cherubs and the 'land of fugitiveness' were to the East of Eden. The sword of Angel Michael, was the replacement for the flaming sword of Gen 3:24. And whereas the flaming sword was 'turning continually to guard the way to the tree of life', we will see later in section 60, that when Jesus came in 1473, he came as the 'way', and when he came in the first century as the 'truth' he said:

'I am the way and the truth and the life' (John 14:6).

And Jesus is the one who really has been guarding the 'way to the tree of life' for all of Jehovah's people, because as the scripture above goes on to say:

Yes, the Jesus replaces the cherubs, and the sword that proceeds from his mouth (Rev 2:16), which is the word of Jehovah, replaces the flaming sword of Gen 3:24, as the guarding weapon for the tree of life.

[13.1] ADAM WAS BORN IN TISHRI 4027 BCE

We know that the flood started on Heshvan 17, 2369 BCE and ended on Heshvan 27, 2368 BCE (Gen 7:11, 8:14, 9:28, section 9.1). We know too that Noah was 600 years old when the flood occurred (Gen 7:6), which figure may be up to 359 Jewish days out either way (section 24.2), and yet this flood began in the six hundredth year of his life (Gen 7:11), which is an exact statement. If the reader has a quick look at section 24.2 he will see how Jewish ages are calculated. Armed with this knowledge we know that Noah was born in the Jewish year between Tishri 2369 and Tishri 2368. Therefore the year from Tishri 2019 to Tishri 2018 was his 950th full Jewish year of life, and he was therefore 950 years old all through that year according to the Jewish way of reckoning ages. If we then add up all the ages of the ancestors of Noah, we get a year for the birth of Adam of 4025 BCE, rather than the 4026 of All Scripture Book p286. Neither of these years are necessarily correct, because adding up ages is inaccurate, because these ages maybe up to 359 Jewish days out (section 24.2).

All that we can definitely say from this that Adam was 32 plus or minus 10 years old when he sinned, in Nisan 3993 BCE, because Noah was the 9th in line from Adam and each extra ancestor introduces a possible 1 year error into the sum of all of their ages. Also we do not know when exactly in the ancient Jewish year starting Tishri 2369 Noah was born. However, 33.5 years old (according to the modern way of counting) is a distinct possibility here and we do know that Adam sinned in the month of Nisan in 3993 BCE. Who does this remind us of?? hmmmmmm. Well there is a lot in this parallel, because as a sister said to the writer, Paul has written in 1 Tim 2:6;

We know that this correspondence is between Adam and Jesus, whom Paul calls 'the last Adam' (1 Cor 15:45). Now does a life which is perfect for 33 years and six months, correspond to a life which was perfect for 32 years and six months or 34 years and six months? Has the one who is perfect in his activities (God), made a correspondence that is a few months out? Was he unable to quite make these two lives balance out, because this task would have been too difficult for the one who has said through his prophet Isaiah: "Everything that is my delight I shall do" (Isaiah 46:10)? No sir, Adam lived for 33.5 years before he sinned!

ADAM WAS BORN IN TISHRI 4027 BCE

He died spiritually, when he was 33 years and six months old in the month of Nisan, and not only does it seem to the writer highly probable that he sinned on Nisan 14, 3993 BCE, but if he had not died spiritually on that day then the ransom would not correspond perfectly from a temporal point of view, and so we have no choice but to accept this date for the day on which he sinned. This was the day that Jesus redeemed the situation, and was therefore granted something even better than that which Adam lost. Actually this is further witnessed to by the scripture in Gen 3:8 which identifies Jehovah as: 'Walking in the garden about the breezy part of the day', which gives us a time of the day when the spiritual death sentence was passed, which was after Adam had sinned. This time being later in the afternoon, would have been just after the ninth hour, (which is 3 pm), which was when Jesus, the last Adam (1 Cor 15:45) physically died, gaining spiritual life (Mat 27:46). Bothers this is a very elegant plan we are getting sight of here, very elegant indeed, even divinely beautiful (Acts 7:20)!

[14] THE FALL OF JERICHO: THE SECOND WITNESS TO THE LENGTH OF THE EXEDENIC TIMES

This witness is the fall of Jericho itself, as described in Joshua chapter 6. Verse 3 reads:

'And all you men of war must march round the city, going round the city once, that is the way you should do it for six days. And seven priests should carry seven rams horns, before the Ark, and on the seventh day you should march round the city SEVEN TIMES and the priests should blow the horns.'

This whole procedure is then recorded again in verses 12-16, qualifying it to be prophetic (Gen 41:25,32, Amos 3:3-7, section 2), not that it could be anything else! The simplest thing to do here is just to state exactly what this meant. Marching round the city for six days, means that the seventh day is a figurative Sabbath or a release to Jehovah (Deut 15:2). Now on the seventh day they marched round Jericho seven times. So they went back to their starting point seven times physically. Now whereas the Jews went back 7 times to the start physically, we are going to go back seven times to the start temporally, because as we have already seen in section 10 and as we will further see in the rest of this book, Jehovah often uses the physical to depict the temporal. So where do we find ourselves? Well it's seven times or 2,520 years before Nisan 1473, i.e. Nisan 3993 BCE when false religion started, and when the ground was cursed as a result. Because just as Cain's curse was a continuation of Adam's curse, so was Cain's false worship a continuation of the first ever act of false worship by a responsible human, namely Adam, at Genesis 3:6, who chose to worship Eve the creation, rather than Jehovah the creator. Which is why Jehovah said to him in verse 17:

'Because you listened to your WIFE'S voice and took to eating from the tree concerning which I GAVE you this command, "You must not eat from it," cursed is the ground on your account.'

So this march is prophetically saying that there will be a period of 2,520 years before, Jehovah's people are released from the curse of Cain, and before his people are released from false worship.

Because the release that was represented by the falling down of the walls of Jericho, was a release from false worship. And whereas we read in Joshua 6:5 and in Joshua 6:20:

we read in Jeremiah 51:44, and in Jeremiah 51:58:

Didn't you always wonder why Rahab was a harlot? The following things are repeated in this account:

The blowing of the seven horns

The shouting of the war cry

The falling down flat of the wall

Each one going straight up into the city

These four things are prophetic, having a greater meaning (Gen 41:25,32, Amos 3:3-7, section 2). Furthermore, since the whole procedure is repeated twice, it too has a greater meaning. There are in fact three symbolic meanings to this drama:

[1] It represents the release from the curse of Cain, and the release from false worship which he represents. This is why we read in verse 26:

This curse is the continuation of the curse of Cain, because Cain, the firstborn, was the foundation of false religion (or Jericho or Babylon), and Abel, the youngest (at the time) was the escape (the doors). Both of these sons of Adam were forfeited. Cain was lost to Satan and Abel was lost to Hades. He who rebuilds Jericho, re-establishes false worship and hence regains the curse of Cain, which was a land exile curse (Gen 4:11). Now the firstborn land inheritance right of Jacob's sons went to Joseph. His firstborn son from the point of view of inheriting this right was Ephraim, who was also his youngest son (Gen 48:17-19). So now we can say:

THE CURSE OF CAIN HAS BECOME THE CURSE OF EPHRAIM

This curse is therefore a warning, it is saying that if the Jews rebuild Jericho, i.e. re-establish false worship, then they will again be cursed in exile from the holy land, they will be evicted. It is not at all surprising therefore, that we find in Joshua 16:1:

Although Ephraim quite correctly did not take Jericho itself. The tribe of Benjamin did! (Jos 18:12,21), but they did not rebuild it. 1 Kings 16:34 tells us that it was rebuilt during Elijah's time by a Bethelite (Ephraimite) who did lose his firstborn and his youngest in the process. This prophetically signalled that the Nation of Israel would lose its land inheritance and turn back to false worship. All this occurred, and the judgement was executed in 607 BCE, when they were vomited out of the promised land because they had restarted false worship, yes they had rebuilt Jericho. Ezekiel then tells us in chapter 37 verses 15-25 that the stick of Ephraim (Land inheritance) and the stick of Judah (Kingship inheritance), although separate at the time will become one again under one King. This refers to the Kingdom of God, after Armageddon, in the real promised land with the real land inheritance, and with Jesus as King. It also confirms that Ephraim truly does stand for land inheritance, and so he is the one being referred to in the curse of Jericho. Incidentally the inclusion of the words 'at that particular time' is the holy spirit telling the 'post-unsealing Christian' that this curse relates to a particular prophetic time period. This section of this book was sealed up until after February 1, 1992.

[2] The fall of Jericho further symbolises the fall of literal Babylon, as evidenced by the comparison of Joshua 6 and Jeremiah 51. Also both of these falls were a release from a land exile. The former being a release from the Exedenic exile and the latter from the 'exisraelic' exile if you will.

[3] The final symbolism is that this fall represents the fall of Babylon the Great. This is where all four of the repeated phrases in verse 5 and 20 come in. The seven priests who blew the seven rams horns, prefigure the seven angels who blow the seven trumpets in Revelation, the purpose of the first four of which is to denounce Babylon the Great (see section 79). The large war cry prefigures the preaching work of the brothers before its fall in Nisan 1918 (see section 58.3). The fall of the wall of Jericho which represents the fall of the greater Babylon is also the fall of Satan from heaven which was the division of the greater temple curtain of the spirit creatures in heaven into Satan and his demons, who were evicted, and Michael and his angels who remained. The dividing of this kingdom or curtain enabled the first brothers of Christ (Paul, Peter etc) to be resurrected into heaven, just as the division of the physical temple curtain, and of Jesus flesh enabled him to go into heaven. This is a very deep thing and it is what is meant by the two repeats of:

'And the people must go up, each one straight before him' (verses 5,20)

They are actually going up not into Jericho but into heaven, in this symbolism. The reader probably will not accept all of this symbolism at this time, but do not worry, all of this is explained later in section 58.3 (by Daniel, when his book truly unsealed).

By now it may be apparent to the reader that the whole book of Joshua is going to mirror the book of Revelation. This is because the one is the account of the physical conquest of the false worshipping Canaanites by physical Israel and the other is the account of the spiritual conquest of the false worshipping greater Babylonites by Spiritual Israel. In fact the two spies of Joshua 2:2 prefigure the two witnesses of Rev 11:3. In that they searched out "The LAND and JERICHO" (Jos 2:1) and they preached a sackcloth message to Rahab that her city was doomed. She, for her part, responded positively, and the two spies were the ones who got Rahab and her family out. Whereas the modern day two witnesses are the ones who having preached a sackcloth and ashes message to Babylon the Great before it fell, are now getting men out of her, while there is yet time left. Rahab and her family prefigure those anointed ones who come out of Babylon the Great (the Rahab Class) and the other sheep who make the same exit (the greater family of Rahab). This is why it is said of Rahab in verse 25:

The phrase 'down to this day' means that this scripture has an application which will be uncovered in the time of the end, and relates to final ministry it is a cryptic statement, it actually means that this account has an application down to today. We will see this phrase a lot more in this book.

[15] ELIJAH & ELISHA: THE FOURTH, FIFTH & SIXTH WITNESSES TO THE ALIENATION TIMES

This witness is in fact a double witness involving Elijah and Elisha. Jesus effectively tells us that this pair are a double act, or a double type, at Luke 4:24-27 which reads:

Jesus is saying that the two examples stand for the same thing, just like Joseph had told to Pharaoh in Genesis 41:25. Since Jesus has combined these two accounts to illustrate his rejection by his own people, let us combine them and see what we get. As an aside notice that immediately after Jesus told his fellow Nazarenes this, they:

The account involving Elijah is in 1 Kings 17 and 18, the account involving Elisha is in 2 Kings 4 and 5. When both of these accounts are fused, one gets a pretty accurate account of Jesus' life! The parallel works a follows. Elijah and Elisha both stand for Jesus or Jeshua, or Jehoshua or Jahshua, but nobody was ever called the later in the bible. This is obvious from the names actually, Elijah means " my God is Jehovah", Elisha means, "my God is salvation" and Jeshua (or Jesus) means "Jehovah is salvation" i.e. the name Jesus is the combination of Elijah and Elisha. Isn't Jehovah brilliant!

The symbolism employed in the two accounts is:

There are three references to the seven times of the Alienation Times in these accounts. These are the contest between Jehovah and Baal, where Elijah's servant is told to '"Go back", for seven times' (1 Kings 18:43). The raising of the Jewish woman's son by Elisha, where the son blinked 'as many as seven times after which he opened his eyes' (2 Kings 4:35). And the curing of the leper Naaman, where Naaman had to 'plunge into the Jordan seven times' (2 Kings 5:14). We start by considering the account of the contest with the prophets of Baal.

[15.1] ELIJAH AND THE PROPHETS OF BAAL

1 Kings 18:1 tells us that the drought that Elijah had petitioned the true God for, was in its third year when Jehovah told Elijah to "Go, show yourself to Ahab, as I am determined to give rain upon the surface of the ground". James (5:17) tells us categorically that the drought lasted three years and six months. At first sight this looks like the true God has made a mistake, in that he has allowed his prophet Samuel (who wrote Kings) to put the third year when he should have put the fourth year. So is Jehovah negligent? Has he not seen this scripture or has he maybe made a mistake? Well, we know that none of these things is the case with the true God, because he is perfect, and there is absolutely nothing in all of his works that we as his imperfect creations, are able or will ever be able, to find fault with. It is as his prophet says: 'There exists no one that can check his hand or say to him, "What have you been doing?"' (Dan 4:35).

Now the reason that Samuel records Jehovah as telling Elijah to go and show himself to Ahab in the third year we shall see in the second half of this book (section 96) is because the drought started in Tishri 934 BCE and the contest was in Nisan 930 BCE, on the 14th day. Which means that if Jehovah had told Elijah to go and find Ahab two or three weeks before the contest, then this command would have occurred in the third full year of the drought (Hebrew years are Nisan to Nisan). Also a drought between Tishri and Nisan of 934 BCE was of no consequence because the harvest occurred in the period from Nisan to Tishri (see fig 2), so this was the third agricultural year of the drought. We know too that this drought is a typical representation of the exposure of the pharisees, wrought by the three and a half year ministry of Jesus, which ended in Nisan, so we would expect that the physical drought in Elijah's time would also end in Nisan.

Obadiah is then told by Elijah to tell Ahab to come and meet Elijah (verses 8,16). This symbolises the angel Michael, the word of God (the greater Elijah), transmitting the law and the prophets to mankind, which is the Hebrew scriptures (the greater Obadiah). Then these scriptures directing the nation of Israel (the greater Ahab) to the Christ (the greater Elijah). This was not just a casual chat between Elijah and Obadiah about king Ahab!

Then the contest occurred, and the details of this contest are a sealed prophecy, the meaning of which is displayed in section 96. After the victory for Jehovah and Elijah, all the false prophets are killed physically, which represents the spiritual death of the pharisees. This ensued after the ministry of Jesus, who himself said to them: 'Serpents, offspring of vipers, how are you to flee from the judgement of Gehenna?' (Mat 23:33). Elijah's attendant (Obadiah?), representing the law, then had to wait until he had gone back to look seven times, before the downpour of rain, which represented Pentecost 33 CE, which was the realisation of the reversal of the withdrawal of God's spirit 120 years before the flood, in Nisan 2448 BCE. The account has a second statement of the fact that it was seven times that Elijah's attendant went back in verse 44:

'It came about on the seventh time that he got to say: "Look! There is a small cloud like a man's palm ascending out of the sea"'.

The two repetitions are a prophetic form (Gen 41:25,32, Amos 3:3-7, section 2) and the occurrence of the word 'Look!' is a further alarm bell to twentieth century bible students. So Elijah's servant, is telling us, that the law was telling us, that this period would be 2,520 years long. Specifically we know that it was the Land Sabbath provision of the law (Deut 15:1,2), see section 11, and the sin offering procedure for the high priest and the assembly (Leviticus 4). This account is therefore both a further witness to the length of the Alienation Times and a confirmation that the law itself provides a witness to the length of these times, which is something that we looked at in section 11. Furthermore this account will also provide a witness that the Alienation Times was symbolised the festival of weeks, so we will find another feature of the law, which pointed to these times.

Now why did the cloud (verse 44) look like a man's palm??........ It was because it prefigured baptism by holy spirit, which was effected by the laying on of hands (Acts 8:17). Please note that the seven times in the physical account occurred between the sacrifice and the downpour, this is not an accident. It is because the seven times of the Alienation Times is also symbolised by the seven weeks of the lack of holy spirit after the physical death of Christ and before the arrival of Pentecost, because a 'week' is a unit of time just as a day or a year or a month is. The greater 'seven times' is of course the seven years of years of the Alienation Times, which ended at the sacrifice of the Christ, rather than the seven weeks of weeks before Pentecost. We now have our fourth witness to the length of the Alienation Times.

This sort of realisation is what this book is all about. Suppose we had ignored the fact that whereas the Alienation Times is supposed to end on Nisan 14, the seven times of this account ends at the downpour, which symbolises Pentecost, which is 52 days after Jesus' death, being the day after the seven weeks of days after his resurrection which was the festival of the firstfruits. Suppose we had said to ourselves, fine we are 52 days out in 2,520 years, we can live with this!

So by having faith in the perfection of Jehovah, we say NO! the true God is not 52 days out, and neither is he even one day out. We then examine the situation further and we find out a wonderful and marvellous thing. For 3,500 years since this festival was instigated, no man has known why it was on the fiftieth day, after the firstfruits (Lev 23:15,16, see fig 2). Well today there is a man who does know. And the reason that he knows is not because of any brilliance on his part, it is not because of any divine vision or supernatural spiritual experience. It is because he has put faith in the perfection of his God, it is because he knows that the true God never makes a mistake. It is an impossible thing for a human to discover a mistake made by the true God. So if we see something that looks like God has made a mistake then we have not got the true interpretation, and the mistake is ours. This humble observation is the basis of many of the interpretations in this book.

We now have a fifth witness to the length of the Alienation Times, even one enshrined in the law itself, namely the festival of weeks. And this account of the contest between Jehovah and Baal has told us that the seven weeks preceding the festival of weeks symbolises the Alienation Times. Because this account compares the seven times of Elijah's attendants going back to look for rain, with the seven weeks of days before Pentecost on Sivan 6, in the first instance. This period of course started with the festival of the firstfruits, which was the first grain offering of the year, hence we read in verse 36:

So this is really the aspect of the Law, which Elijah's servant, who symbolically stands for the law, is telling us was prefiguring the Alienation Times. Paul prophetically confirms this at Galatians 3:13,14, where he tells us that the curse of the law was ended by the death of the Christ, and that this enabled the 'promised spirit' to be outpoured (at Pentecost), we read:

Paul is not merely referring to the curse of the Law here, because the removal of this curse did not result in the outpouring of holy spirit, rather it was the removal of the malediction of the Alienation Times, the curse of Genesis 6:3, which was the withdrawal of Jehovah's spirit, that enabled the outpouring at Pentecost of this spirit. It was Jesus who made this possible, and changed the malediction into a blessing.

[15.2] ELISHA CLEANSES THE LEPROSY OF NAAMAN

Naaman was told by Gehazi to go back seven times into the Jordan before he was made clean, representing the 2,520 year alienation period that Jehovah had determined on all nations before he would consider taking them back into his family ending with the reconciliation brought about by the death of the Christ (Col 1:20,21; 2 Cor 5:18,19). Again Gehazi represented the law and the prophets, specifically Deuteronomy 15:1,2, and Leviticus 4, Numbers 16:9 and all the prophecies leading to Christ. The law itself was a tutor leading to Christ (Gal 3:24), for both Jew and Gentile, i.e. both the widow's son and Naaman. This account shows us that whilst the Gentiles were not preached to until Tishri 36 CE, they were collectively, as a group, clean on Nisan 14, 33 CE. We know this anyway because the scripture says: 'for this he did ONCE for all time, when he offered himself up' (Heb 7:27). The prophetic statement of bathing 'seven times' is mentioned twice in verses 10 & 14, and so it has prophetic form (Gen 41:25,32, Amos 3:3-7, section 2). There is a lot more to this account (see section 25.1). We now have our sixth witness to the length of the Alienation Times.

[16] KING DAVID: THE FOURTH WITNESS TO THE GENTILE TIMES

We will find out in the second half of this book (Gen 32:14-16, section 95), that King David was anointed in Nisan 1083. This is a new date for bible students. The 430 years from Nisan 1513 to Nisan 1083 have a lovely symmetry with the 430 years in Egypt from Nisan 1943 until Nisan 1513 (Ex 12:41). Consider please the account of Samuel anointing David, at 2 Samuel 16:10 "So Jesse had seven of his sons pass before Samuel; still Samuel said to Jesse: Jehovah has not chosen these." Then when David appeared Jehovah said to his prophet "Get up, anoint him for this is he!".

By now the answer to this should be obvious, it was because David, having been anointed, was going to have to wait for seven times to pass by before he became King. 'All this befell' David, to coin a phrase from Daniel 4:28. And David's first regnal year therefore started in Nisan 1076 BCE, seven years after he was anointed. We know another King who had to wait seven times before he became King in 1914, his name is Jesus Christ. So David has 'Done a Nebuchadnezzar' as they say in London. We now have a fourth witness to the Gentile Times being 2,520 years long. In fact David lived like a wild beast during his seven times of exile, hiding in caves and living in the open as a fugitive, whereas Daniel 4:25 says:

"And you they will be driving away from men, and with the beasts of the field your dwelling will come to be...and seven times themselves will pass over you, until you know that the Most High is ruler in the kingdom of mankind, and that to the one he wants he gives it".

Compare this with David's existence in 1 Samuel chapters 22-31. Specifically:

1 Samuel 21:13 reads "So he disguised his SANITY under their eyes and began acting insane."

Whereas Daniel 4:34 reads "I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted up to the heavens my eyes, and my own UNDERSTANDING began to return to me; and I blessed the Most High himself, and the one living to time indefinite I praised and glorified..."

This might almost be called a Psalm of Nebuchadnezzar. As a final technicality, that there were seven son's that passed Samuel by is mentioned twice, in that 1 Sam 16:11 says "Finally Samuel said to Jesse: 'Are these all the boys?' To this he said, 'The youngest one has till now been left out,'" and 1 Samuel 17:12 says "Now David was the son of this Ephrathite from Bethlehem of Judah whose name was Jesse. And he had EIGHT sons.....and David was the youngest." So the matter is firmly established on the part of God, because the true God has given us two witnesses to this passing by occurring seven times (Gen 41:25,32, Amos 3:3-7). Now we can truly understand the last words of samuel at 1 Chron 29:29,30:

A scripture which quite plainly tells us that the 7 'times that passed over' David, before he became king are the seven times of the Gentile Times, or the times of 'all the kingdoms of the lands'! In fact the scripture also says that these times 'passed over Israel', in other words Israel had to wait for seven times before it got something. Yes indeed, even before it got the promised land, after the seven times of the Exedenic times. In fact even further, the scripture syas that the affairs of David were written in three books, i.e. three times, which means that these 7 times will pass over three times, once over Israel (the Exedenic Times), once over all of the kingdoms of the lands (the Gentile Times) and once over David (prefiguring the Gentile Times, and since David was a type for Jesus, symbolising the Alienation Times as well).

So David's first regnal year started in Nisan 1076 BCE, exactly seven years after his anointing in Nisan 1083 BCE. We know that he was made King of Judah in Hebron sometime before this in 1077 BCE, because he ruled in Hebron for 7 years and six months (2 Sam 2:11), but regnal years start in Nisan (Insight 1 p461), so 1076 was his first regnal year, and 1077 was his accession year. The faithful slave have David's first regnal year as 1077 BCE (not 1076 BCE), but this date is merely a calculation backwards from the fourth year of Solomon's reign (1 Kings 6:1) and Insight 1 p461 admits difficulties with this. These difficulties are resolved by realising that both David and Solomon were coregent in 1037 BCE.

This is evident from the fact that Solomon is referred to as a 'King' three times in 1 Kings 1 at verses 51 and 53, and this was before David had died (1 Kings 2:1). Furthermore 1 Chron 26:31 tells us that in David's fortieth year he assigned duties to the Levites and then showed the temple plans to Solomon (1 Chron 28:11), then he made Solomon King a second time in chapter 29 verse 22,23. The first time for this being recited at 1 Chron 23:1, which was before he assigned all the duties to the Levites (see section 24.1).

So Solomon started reigning in David's fortieth year. So the 33 regnal years in Jerusalem for David started in Nisan 1069 and ended after Nisan 1037, and the 7 years 6 months at Hebron started around Tishri 1077 and ended in Nisan 1069 (2 Sam 5:4,5), and this scripture tells us that David was 30 when he became King so he was 23 when he was anointed. And Solomon's first regnal year started in Nisan 1037 BCE, whilst he was coregent with his father. The second anointing of Solomon may have been an exclusive one, i.e. when the coregency had ended. Saul's first regnal year was therefore 1116 BCE and not 1117 BCE. This is also looked at in the 'All Scripture' book p284 (Regnal and Accession years).

[17] JACOB MEETS ESAU IN GENESIS 33: THE THIRD WITNESS TO THE EXEDENIC TIMES, THE SEVENTH WITNESS TO THE ALIENATION TIMES & THE FIFTH WITNESS TO THE GENTILE TIMES

This chapter of Genesis is a witness to all three of the 2,520 year maledictions, which Jehovah has determined on his people, due to their sinfulness. We start at verse 2:

'And he put the maidservants and their children foremost and Leah and her children after them and Rachel and Joseph to the rear of them. And he himself passed on ahead of them and proceeded to BOW DOWN TO THE EARTH SEVEN TIMES until he got near Esau his brother.'

Why did he happen to do this here? Was Jacob in the habit of bowing down to the earth seven times for a brotherly greeting? Well verse 3 says:

In other words, the bowing down occurred when he was not near his brother, or when he was far from his brother. So this bowing was a very distant and a very peculiar greeting - if it was a greeting at all. In fact the greeting Jacob did give to Esau was a hug and a kiss and a bursting into tears as we read in verse 4. So what did this bowing down mean - spiritually?

Well to understand this we first notice that he bowed down to the earth seven times. Jacob's actions therefore prophetically tell us that there will be seven times determined for the earth, and that these will pass on ahead, as Jacob did, of the three groups of people who next bow down in front of Esau. In other words there will be a 2,520 year period determined for the earth before each one of three groups:

bows down before Esau - So who is Esau representing ?? May Jehovah be praised for revealing this to the friend of his servant, and answering the his prayers! Because verse 10 says:

And Jacob later says to Esau in verse 14:

"Let my lord please, pass on ahead of his servant, but I myself continue the journey at my leisure according to THE PACE OF the livestock that is before me and according to THE PACE OF the children until I shall come to my Lord at Seir."

This is the cryptic verse, because Jacob never went to literal mount Seir! Esau turned South for mount Seir and Jacob turned North, re-crossing the Jabbok (Insight 1 p1245). So we now need to find out what the symbolic meaning of Seir is in the bible. Well the bible provides three witnesses as to the meaning of Seir as follows:

Teman was a major city in Edom which is the home of mount Seir, Paran is the Sinai peninsular. All these three scriptures are actually songs, together they 'firmly establish' that Edom/Esau/Seir stand for the Judgement role of Jehovah and Sinai/Jacob/Israel stands for the merciful, generous and abundant in loving kindness role. So he flashes forth from Seir, but he beams forth from Sinai. Yet another double type!

Returning now to verse 10, we now understand that the gifts that Jacob brought to Esau were to appease literal Esau physically and to appease Jehovah spiritually - This is why the chronology of the Jews in section 95 which was represented by various interpretations of the gifts that Jacob offered to Esau, ended with the 70 weeks of years and the end of the Alienation Times. Because at the end of this period, at the half of the week, Jehovah was finally appeased and the Alienation Times had ended, God and man were reconciled, the Esau role had become the Jacob role. Gods face was seen throughout the three and a half year ministry of his son, (who was the exact representation of his very being - Heb 1:3). Also since Jacob himself represents the loving face of Jehovah (i.e. the resident in and beaming from Sinai role, rather than the resident in and flashing from Seir role) Jehovah is effectively appeasing himself, which is what he did in any event, because it was he who paid the ransom and no one else, (Grab your diving bells please!). This was Jehovah's purpose for man, that we would see his face, through his son.

Now in verse 14 the reference to the pace of the animals is confirming that Jacob will not reach mount Seir until the time periods that the intervals in the crossing of the Jabbok stand for are fulfilled and in fact that the animals themselves set the pace - in other words they definitely do stand for the time periods discussed in the section 95. And furthermore the children setting the pace is similarly confirming that the three groups of mothers and kids, determine the prophetic time periods governing the return of Jacob to Seir, which return means the changing of Jehovah's face from judgemental to loving, which means the changing of a malediction into a benediction which means the changing of a curse into a blessing (Num 23&24, section 27). The final part of this return is completed at Armageddon, and these three groups of women and kids are at the end points or changing points of the three 2,520 year prophetic times of exile or of cursing or of malediction in the bible, namely:

THE EXEDENIC TIMES ----> Servants + kids

THE ALIENATION TIMES ----> Leah + kids

THE GENTILE TIMES ----> Rachel + kids

Now we see why Jehovah said: "I loved Jacob but Esau I hated" (Romans 9:13), because the two twins represented the two roles that Jehovah plays, just as the two residences of Sinai and Seir do as well. He much prefers to show love to his people than to judge them, which is why we read in Leviticus 26:21:

It is not that our God wants to inflict blows, it is that he has to because he is just. But he hates this role whereas he loves the role of merciful repurchaser. Which is why it is said of him:

"Jehovah, Jehovah a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abundant in loving kindness and truth, preserving loving kindness for thousands, pardoning error and transgression and sin, but by no means will he give exemption from punishment, bringing punishment for the error of fathers upon sons and upon grandsons, upon the third generation and upon the fourth generation." Ex 34:6,7

Returning to the three groups of Jacob's family. If we spiritualise the first of these groups, the maidservants of Jacob and their children we get: servants of Jehovah and their sons. In other words the Nation of Israel, slaves under law. We know that the Exedenic Times ended 40 years after this nation was born, and under law a mother who has a son is unclean for forty days, (Lev 12:1-4), this has a lot to do with why the Nation of Israel wandered around in the wilderness for 40 years. So Israel became clean and the Exedenic Times ended in 1473 BCE. This end point of these times is represented by Jacob's maidservants and their children. Bilhah and Zilpah, Jacob's maidservants were in a covenant arrangement with Jacob, a covenant of slavery, like the law.

If we spiritualise Leah and her children, i.e. Jacob's first wife and her kids, we get Jesus Christ and his anointed brothers. Because the covenant between Jacob and Leah was not one of slavery, it was a marriage, i.e. a covenant of love. As was the Messianic covenant, and Leah's children represent the further covenanters and beneficiaries under this. As Jesus said to his apostles at the last supper:

"I make a covenant with you just as my father has made a covenant with me for a Kingdom, that you may eat and drink at my table in my Kingdom, and sit on thrones to judge the twelve tribes of Israel." (Luke 22:29,30).

The problem now is - if Leah and her kids stand for Jesus and the anointed, then what can Rachel and Joseph stand for? The answer to this question has already been provided by Joseph himself when he interpreted Pharaoh's dream (Gen 41:25,32) the two things are 'but one', (we have seen this quite a lot now). Just like Elijah and Elisha together were a double type for Jesus. One representing his ministry to the Jews and the other representing his apostles ministry to the Gentiles. Similarly 'Leah + kids' and 'Rachel + Joseph' are a double type for Jesus and his followers (spiritual children).

BUT WHAT TWO ASPECTS OF THE CHRIST DO THEY REPRESENT?

Well Leah's children included Judah, and Rachel's child at this time, i.e. the time of this bowing down to Esau, was only Joseph. Also Leah was stationed before Rachel, and indeed Jacob married Leah first, then he married Rachel. Also Leah gave birth first and then Rachel, also the eyes of Leah had no luster, whereas Rachel had become beautiful in form and beautiful in countenance.

From this it is evident that Leah stands for Jesus first role on earth as ransomer and redeemer of mankind, and minister to the Jews. A role in which he came born in the royal line of David, from the tribe of Judah. And Leah's children picture Jesus's anointed brothers born again under the new covenant, who were fleshly sons of Abraham. And Rachel stands for Jesus in his second role as heavenly minister to the Gentiles, or spiritual Israel excluding those of that spiritual nation who were also from fleshly Israel, because these are Leah's children. When Jesus became King in heaven in 1914, he was of course in his heavenly or Rachel role. The birth of Joseph symbolises the birth of the Kingdom of God in heaven in Tishri 1914 (see section 18). This birth is Jesus collecting one shoulder (the heavenly one) of his land inheritance, which is the firstborn right that Jacob gave to Joseph. The other shoulder of Jesus' land inheritance is his earthly Kingdom the collection of which is actually symbolised by the birth of Benjamin.

This is because the spiritualised version of this is:

We also know why the rest of Genesis 29:17 reads 'Whereas Rachel had become beautiful in form and beautiful of countenance.' This was because:

Do notice that the scriptures say that Rachel had become beautiful, Jehovah is so exact! This would be a ridiculous thing to say from a physical point of view because Jacob had only met her a month earlier, (Gen 29:14). No Rachel became beautiful of countenance, when Jesus became beautiful in countenance, in that after a long period of time, his countenance became a majestic one, in 1914. At this time as Jesus' role changed from sacrificial and lowly to judicial and exalted. Brothers the bible is not a book which is comparing the physical attributes of sisters, it is a book which is demonstrating the spiritual attributes of God's Son Christ Jesus!

Furthermore the double-type of Elijah-Elisha for Jesus is actually very similar to the double type Leah-Rachel. Because Elijah, who came first ascended to the heavens in a windstorm (2 Kings 2:11), and Elisha who came second anoints Jehu as King and Executioner (2 Kings 9:3). As we saw in section 15, Elijah primarily represented the ministry to the Jews, exposing the prophets of Baal, the typical pharisees, as false worshippers. He was persecuted by Jezebel. Whereas Elisha saw their and Jezebel's downfall the antitype of which is the destruction of Babylon the Great. So putting these two together we get:

Although both Elijah and Elisha performed miracles with both Jews and Gentiles, whereas Leah prefigured the Jewish ministry under the fleshly Abrahamic covenant, and Rachel prefigured the wider ministry under the spiritualised or faith driven Abrahamic covenant. See section 18, 'Jacob's marriages to Leah and Rachel '.

In conclusion, the Exedenic Times are represented by the seven times bowing Jacob, in that he passed ahead of his maidservants and their children, who symbolise the greater maidservant of the Nation of Israel and its children, who became clean in Nisan 1473. This date was the end of the Exedenic Times. The Alienation Times are represented by the seven times bowing Jacob, in that he passed ahead of Leah and her children. The first of her children was conceived at Pentecost 33 CE, just after the end of the Alienation Times. The Gentile Times are represented by the seven times bowing Jacob in his passing ahead of Rachel and her children, who are heavenly children, since Rachel represents the heavenly role of Jesus. Joseph's birth as we have said stands for the birth of the heavenly part of the kingdom of God, in 1914, at which time Rachel became 'beautiful of countenance' (since she was representing a King).

Rachel started to become 'beautiful in form' in 1918, when the first parts of the heavenly body of the Christ, which her physical body represents, were resurrected into heaven. This scripture is very reassuring because it provides definite evidence in addition to the three rights of the firstborn that there are three and only three 2,520 year prophetic exile periods determined upon the earth, to which Jacob bowed down. We will look further at Jacob's marriages to Leah and Rachel in section 18. We will see a further proof that mankind suffers only three maledictions of seven times duration in section 27.

[18] JACOB'S MARRIAGES TO LEAH AND RACHEL: THE EIGHTH WITNESS TO THE ALIENATION TIMES AND THE SIXTH WITNESS TO THE GENTILE TIMES

In Genesis chapters 29,30 and 31, the story is told of Jacob's arrival at, his 20 year stay in and his departure from, the house of Laban his uncle. This account is a lot more than a romantic story about a shepherd and two sisters! It is in fact nothing less than a summarised account of Jehovah's contentions with mankind during the first 6,000 years of the seventh creative day, which we now know started on Nisan 14, 3993 CE (Gen 4:15, section 13, Jos 6:4, section 14). The account starts at chapter 29 verse 1, with Jacob travelling to visit uncle Laban. On arriving he finds a well with three droves of sheep nearby, waiting to be watered. The account of this in verses 3-12 is too deep to look at now, we will consider it again in section 61.

After this episode at the well, we read that Jacob: 'Dwelt with him (Laban) a month of days' (Gen 29:14). This is the literal translation, as given in the reference bible. Well we have seen the "week of years" in Daniel 9, we have also seen the "Year of years" in Daniel 4 and numerous other seven times prophecies. Now at last we have the:

Yes thirty years, a day for a year, the first thirty years of Jesus' life before his covenant for a Kingdom with his father (Luke 22:29) was validated at his baptism in Tishri 29 CE. During which time Jehovah, the greater Jacob was effectively dwelling with mankind, through the presence of his son. This, believe it or not, is the only scripture that we are so far aware of that shows that Jesus was exactly 30 years old at his baptism, because we know that prophecies which are stated in years are accurate to the month (section 24.3). We are excepting the route via John the baptist and the priestly division of Abijah which served eighth in the temple, and the numerous other circumstantial evidences (See Index under Jesus - Birth date). We will find out the exact day when Jesus was born in section 40. In the meantime we can now say:

It is as Isaiah said: 'The maiden herself will actually become pregnant, and she is giving birth to a son, and she will certainly call his name Immanuel.' (Isaiah 7:14) Immanuel means 'God is with us', obviously God wasn't physically with us, but his son, who is the exact representation of his very being (Heb 1:3), was. Now we do know why Laban said to Jacob, very much under inspiration in verse 14:

It was because Jehovah was going to be with us, through his son, in the flesh of man! Next we read in verse 20:

'And Jacob proceeded to serve seven years for Rachel, but in his eyes they proved to be like some few days because of his love for her. Then Jacob said to Laban: "Give over my wife because my days are up, and let me have relations with her." With that Laban gathered all the men of the place and had a feast.' But then he tricked Jacob, swapping Leah for Rachel, and when asked why by Jacob, Laban says:

Jehovah (Jacob's antitype), has never and will never be tricked by any of his creations, this is because he knows the outcome of everything before he starts it, so he cannot be tricked (Isaiah 46:10). However the nation of Israel (Jehovah's firstborn-Ex 4:22), under the Abrahamic covenant, was to become a 'Kingdom of priests and a holy nation.' (Ex 19:5,6) In other words all of the heaven-bound class of men could have come from fleshly Israel. But this did not happen, and Jehovah knew that it wasn't going to happen. As usual this whole situation is covered beautifully by Paul in Romans 9:24-33, quoting Hosea saying:

'Those not my people I will call my people, and her that was not beloved, "beloved".' And so we read in Acts 15:4 that God 'Turned his attention to the nations to take out of them a people for his name,' (Insight 2 p1234).

Jehovah was therefore cheated, in the sense that he paid for 144,000 people from fleshly Israel and only a few thousand responded from this group. So he did not pay any more, but he had to work a bit longer with the nations to seal all of Christ's brothers, which time we shall see is symbolised by Jacob's seven years of work for Rachel.

The 'week of this woman' (i.e Leah), is then the seven years which starts in Tishri 29 CE, when the covenant for a Kingdom between Jesus and God was validated, at Jesus' baptism (Luke 22:29), corresponding to the marriage of Jacob with Leah, who represents Jesus in his ministry to the Jews and sacrificial role. This week ends in Tishri 36 CE, when Jehovah turned his attention to the nations (Acts 15:4). Daniel 9:27 refers to this week saying:

"And he must keep the covenant in force for the many for one week".

This covenant is the Abrahamic covenant, referred to above, and this statement is the same statement as:

'Celebrate to the full, the week of this woman', (Gen 29:27).

Now this covenant was to last to time indefinite, and since there were no conditions imposed on Abraham, it was unbreachable by him. God does not breach any of his covenants and so it is still in force now. In fact it remains in force until all the Israel of God are sealed, and then for a week of years more after that, which week bears a resemblance to this week (Dan 9:27, see section 74). What happened in 36 CE at the 'end of the week', was that Abraham's seed no longer were to be those who inherited the genes of their father, but they were to be those who inherited the faith of their father Abraham, which faith had moved Jehovah to make this covenant with him in the first place, rather than any excellence in Abraham's genes which were in fact pre-programmed to induce sin (Rom 11:17-24,Gal 3:28,29). In other words the covenant was spiritualised, at the end of this week of Leah.

Back in the symbolic drama (Gal 4:24), this spiritualising of the Abrahamic covenant that occurred in 36 CE corresponds to Jacob's marriage to Rachel, that happened at the end of this 'week of Leah'. Then Jacob 'went serving him for yet seven years more' (verse 30). This period is the Gentile Times, seven years of years, after which Jehovah does no further work for Jesus, because he is installed as King and the work is done. At that time Michael is crowned (Rev 6:2). Before then we know that Jehovah was doing the work because as David said: 'Jehovah said to my Lord, "Sit at my right hand until I put your enemies beneath your feet"', (Mat 22:44). And after the 7 years of years of the Gentile Times, we know that Jesus was doing the work because Daniel says in chapter 12 verse 4, 'And during that time Michael will stand up.'

Similarly the seven years of service that Jacob gave for Leah, represent seven years of years, i.e. 2,520 years of service that Jehovah gave, until Jesus paid the Ransom in his "Leah role", that is the Alienation Times. The next events in Genesis 29, are Leah's producing Reuben, Simeon, Levi and Judah. So Leah conceives first, which represents the first anointed brothers being fleshly Jews, there being about 5,000 of them by the time Peter recited his marvellous God-given response to the Pharisees in Acts 4:4-12. The slave girls have two children each and then Leah has her last two before Rachel gives birth to Joseph.

'And it followed that when Rachel had given birth to Joseph, Jacob IMMEDIATELY said to Laban: "Send me away that I may go to my place and to my country"', (verse 25).

At this time Jacob had served the seven years for Rachel (verse 26), so Joseph's birth stands symbolically for and coincides with the birth of the Kingdom of God in the heavens, which birth happened in Tishri 1914, since this was exactly at the end of the seven years of years meant by the service for Rachel. In this symbolism, the birth of Benjamin is the birth of the earthly kingdom of God, which is why Rachel, whose marriage represents the spiritualised Abrahamic covenant, died on giving birth to Benjamin (Gen 35:16-19), because death ends a marriage and the Abrahamic covenant ends of the first day of the Kingdom of God, which is the birth of Benjamin - symbolism par excellence! The birth of Joseph is the birth of the heavenly Kingdom of God, in this symbolism. Please note the prophetic words 'Down to this day' in Genesis 35:20 (section 2). Now we are in a position to understand the prophetic blessing that Jacob made to Joseph at his deathbed. which reads:

'And yet his BOW was dwelling in a permanent place, and the strength of his hands was supple. From the hands of the powerful one of Jacob, from there is the shepherd, the stone of Israel. He is from the God of your father, and he will help you; and he is WITH the Almighty, and he will bless you with the blessings of the heavens above.... They will CONTINUE upon the head of Joseph, even upon the CROWN of the head of the one singled out from his brothers.' - Gen 49:24-26.

Joseph is the heavenly kingdom, which gives Jesus the crown and the bow. The blessing continues:

'Offshoot of a fruit bearing tree, Joseph is the offshoot of a fruit bearing tree, by the fountain, that propels its branches up over a wall.' - Gen 49:22.

Yes Joseph prefigured Jesus, the offshoot of Jehovah the source of life, and the branches that were propelled over a wall, were the arrows that Jehovah prophetically aimed at Babylon: 'Summon against Babylon archers, all who are treading the bow. Encamp against her all around.' (Jer 50:29), the wall of Jericho too, the type for Babylon, fell to Joseph's arrows in that it stood for the release from the land curse of Cain (Jos 6:3-5, see section 14).

Having finished working for Rachel, Jacob now had to work for his flock, he was a hard working man this Jacob, like his father in the heavens, who has an 'abundance of dynamic energy' (Isaiah 40:26). Jacob used a very interesting method of producing sheep which were to be his:

'Then Jacob took for his use staffs still moist of the STORAX tree and of the ALMOND tree and of the PLANE tree,' (verse 37).

He would then put them in the drinking troughs only when 'robust' sheep were around, and then the children of these sheep would be marked as Jacob's.

IS THIS A NEW FARMING TECHNIQUE THAT JEHOVAH IS TELLING US ABOUT??

Is the God of the heavens, of whom referring to the stars, Isaiah said: "It is the one who is bringing forth the army of them even by number, all of whom he calls even by name" (Isaiah 40:26), interested in very colourful sheep??

No he is not, this is a symbolic drama (Gal 4:24)! which he has related for our benefit, that we might understand and get the sense of it. In this regard the Insight book tells us that:

Put these three together and we get: 'a royal priesthood, a holy nation' (1 Peter 2:9) and 'a kingdom and priests to our God, and they are to rule as kings over the earth', (Rev 5:10). There is only one King, the Cedar of Jesus Christ, whereas the anointed ones rule as Kings, in that they exercise his Kingly authority, so they are represented as Plane trees, which were not quite as grand as Cedars, Jehovah's symbolism is perfect. So the flocks stand for mankind and the colourful ones stand for those chosen by God. We say chosen, because he would only offer the three staffs to the 'robust' ones. This pictures the angelic direction of the preaching work. As Jesus said 'Neither throw your pearls before swine' (Mat 7:6). Notice too, that the method of producing God's people nowadays is by exposing them to spiritual food and drink, i.e. exposing them to God's word, which is the same method that Jacob used to get his colourful sheep (Gen 30:38). Verse 42 says:

'But when the flocks showed feebleness he would not locate them there. So the feeble ones always came to be Laban's, but the robust ones Jacob's.' - How true!

Laban is now finally identified as playing the part of Satan, the owner of all the feeble sheep, i.e. wicked men. What is truly fascinating is that this does not become apparent until the end of this symbolic drama, just like in the reality which this represents! Jehovah's wisdom is deep, deep, deep. Chapter 31 verse 2 says:

'When Jacob would look at the face of Laban, here it was not as with him formerly'.

Whereas John says in Rev 12:17: 'And the dragon grew wrathful at the woman, and went off to wage war with the remaining ones of her seed'.

Yes Jacob was symbolically in 'the last days', of his time with Laban, and Jehovah said to him "Return to the land of your fathers and your relatives," (verse 3). So Jacob flees with all his family and flock and Rachel steals the Teraphim that belonged to Laban (verse 19).

The insight book tells us that the Teraphim stood for family inheritance i.e. land inheritance. Rachel stealing this was therefore very significant. Because Satan is the ruler of this world, and he has given it to his sons, who Laban's sons stand for in this drama. So Laban goes chasing after Jacob (verse 23), in order to try and regain his lost earthly land inheritance for his sons. He had already lost his heavenly inheritance at this time. In other words, Rachel stealing the Teraphim prefigured Michael throwing Satan, and his demons (Laban and his sons), out of heaven. We read in verse 25:

'So Laban approached Jacob, as Jacob had pitched his tent in the mountain and Laban had PITCHED HIS TENT (Literal translation- ref bible) in the mountainous region of Gilead.'

This reminds us of the King of the North in Daniel 11:45, who is the one of whom Daniel said: 'And he will plant his palatial tents between the grand sea and the holy mountain of Decoration.'

The grand sea stands for unruly mankind or Laban's flock, and the holy mountain is Jehovah's visible organisation, where we find Jacob's flock. Laban is pitched between the two, having followed and caught up from behind. This also reminds us how important it is to retain the literal renderings of the bible, because this shows us for a certainty, that it is Satan's earthly organisation who will be planting the tents (Dan 11:45), which means that this organisation will be the King of the North at Armageddon. Furthermore, Satan's earthly organisation at this time will be the United Nations, which is the eighth King of Rev 17:11. Therefore we can say that at the end:

Laban then uses further deception in saying in verse 27:

"Why did you have to run away secretly and outwit me and not tell me, that I might send you away with rejoicing and with songs." A likely story, he had already changed Jacob's wages "ten times" (Gen 31:7).

Do you notice here that Laban is 'transforming himself into an angel of light'? If not then read 2 Corinthians 11:14. We shall return to this ten times later! in the section 21.

Laban then searches everywhere for the Teraphim but does not find it, because Rachel has hidden it. This is signifying that Laban's estate will go to the sons of Rachel when Laban dies rather than to the sons of Laban. Which again is signifying that Satan's estate of the whole planet, will go to the followers of Christ rather than to the sons of Satan, when Satan is finally abyssed, yes:

'The meek ones themselves will posses the earth, and they will indeed find exquisite delight in the abundance of peace' (Psalms 37:11).

But when does this happen? well verses 41,42 say: 'This makes twenty years for me in your house. I have served you, fourteen years for your two daughters and SIX YEARS FOR YOUR FLOCK, and you kept changing my wages TEN TIMES. If the God of my father the God of Abraham and the Dread of Isaac had not proved to be on my side, you would now have sent me away empty handed.'

Both the 'ten times' and the 'twenty years' are mentioned twice, qualifying them to be prophetic. The twenty years we know were temporally consecutive, as far as Jacob was concerned. But the periods that the seven, seven and six years symbolise are not temporally consecutive because there is a large overlap between the Alienation Times and the Gentile Times. We are going to look at both the 'ten times' and the 'six years' in sections 20 & 21. But before we do, we finally look at verses 45-55:

[18.1] JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES AND THE WATCHTOWER SOCIETY

We will now discover that Gen 31:45-55, are a prophecy which says that in the last days, Jehovah's people will be called Jehovah's witnesses & that the collective name for the anointed brother's of Jesus will be the Watchtower Society. Verses 48-50 read:

Then Laban goes to 'his own place' -verse 55, and Jacob is met by angels (Gen 32:1). This sounds rather like Satan hurling ridiculous accusations as he is dragged into the Abyss, 'his own place', at Armageddon, at which point he is no longer able to see what is going on, on the earth, and there is no man with Satan and his demons any more, because all such ungodly men who were 'with Satan', have been executed by Jesus at Armageddon. But actually there is a lot more to this business of more wives than at first meets the eye, because the fleshly Abrahamic covenant of Leah's marriage was finished in Tishri 36 CE, the spiritual Abrahamic covenant of Rachel's marriage finishes in Nisan 2008, so this scripture is a prophecy which says that:

After Nisan 2008, Jehovah will conclude more than one new covenant with his people.

Then Jacob being met by the angels, in verse one of the next chapter, is symbolising the last of the anointed remnant being resurrected to the marriage of the lamb (Rev 19:9), where they meet Jehovah, the greater Jacob. Yes, this scripture is very prophetic! Because Laban and his sons 'lying concealed' from us and us from them (Gen 31:49), is Satan and his demons being abyssed for a thousand years (Rev 20:2). The stone that Jacob set up as a pillar (verse 45), was said by Laban to be 'something that bears witness', (verse 52). It was in fact the 'stone that the builders rejected', and the one 'that has become the head of the corner', (Psalms 118:22). The one who himself said, "I have come into the world, that I should bear witness to the truth" (John 18:37).

And when Jacob said to his brothers: "pick up stones" (verse 46), this was Jehovah saying to these 'brothers', find and seal the anointed ones, the first of whom was the apostle Simon, the son of Jonah, to whom Jesus, the pillar, said: "You are Peter, and on this rock-mass I will build my congregation, and the gates of Hades will not overpower it", (Mat 16:18). So his name was changed to Peter, meaning: a piece of rock. Later Peter himself said:

"You yourselves also as LIVING STONES are being built up a spiritual house, for the purpose of a Holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God, through Jesus Christ", (1 Peter 2:5).

As John the baptist said, "God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones". These are the stones in the heap of verse 46: 'And they went making the stones into a heap'. This account is very spiritual because fleshly Jacob did not have any literal brothers with him on this mountain, his only brother was Esau and he was in another mountain at the time, (mount Seir). So when verse 46 says: 'after that they ate there on the heap', this means that these 'brothers', have therefore formed this heap out of stones which then feeds them. So these brothers are themselves the stones in the heap.

Further proof that the pillar is Jesus and the heap is the anointed brothers, is found in the account of Jacob's ladder, in Genesis 28:10-22, set whilst Jacob was on his way to meet Laban. Wherein we read: 'And he took one of the stones of the place and set it as his head supporter, and lay down in that place', (verse 11). The angel Michael certainly is Jehovah's head supporter! Further we read:

'And he began to dream, and look! there was a RISING FLIGHT OF STONES (literal), stationed upon the earth and its top reaching up to the heavens; and look! there were God's angels ascending and descending on it. And look there was Jehovah stationed above it' (verses 12,13).

Whereas Jesus said to the apostle Nathaniel: 'Truly truly I say to you men, You will see heaven opened up and the angels ascending and descending to the Son of man', (John 1:51).

Yes Jacob's 'head supporter', the bottom of the 'ladder' in his dream, was the Son of Man, the bottom of the ladder in Jesus' illustration.

'So Jacob got up early in the morning and took the stone that was there as his head supporter and he set it up as a PILLAR AND HE POURED OIL ON THE TOP OF IT', (verse 18).

This 'pillar' has just been anointed! Finally verse 22 says: 'And this stone that I have set up as a pillar will become a house of God'. Jesus, when he died, became the spiritual temple, i.e. the house of God, so hereagain Jesus Christ is identified with this anointed pillar. This rising flight of stones is a more or less perfect description of the anointed brothers, what are they if they are not a rising flight of 'living stones'?

So the stones in the heap are the 'living stones' of the anointed brothers of Christ. The feeding for such ones, in the last days, is from the faithful and discreet slave (Mat 24:45), and these 'brothers' who are eating from this heap which they themselves made, are the domestics of the spiritual house of 1 Peter 2:5, Mat 24:45. They are Jacob's, (Jehovah's) brothers in the sense that they are brothers yes (albeit of the Christ), who belong to Jehovah, because he purchased them, with his son's life. Once this heap had been made and the 'brothers' were eating from it we are told in verse 49, that Laban called it this witness heap 'Galeed', which means 'witness heap' and 'the Watchtower'!

We do not have to worry about the fact that Laban, (Satan) has called the heap this name, because in the preceding verses 24 and 29, we have two witnesses to the fact that Jehovah had told Laban not to go 'speaking from good to bad' with Jacob, i.e. to speak truthfully to him. (Thank Jehovah for directing his faithful slave, so that the brothers have included the literal translation in the footnotes for this chapter, without it we would be totally lost). Since Laban was speaking to Jacob, throughout these verses, and when he named this witness heap the Watchtower, we can rely on the truth of Laban's statements, because the two witnesses firmly establish its truth on the part of God, (Gen 41:32). In fact it was for this reason that verses 24 and 29 were included in this passage. Furthermore, all of the Bible is inspired of Jehovah, not of Satan, and Laban does most of the talking in these verses. So this scripture is a prophecy which is saying:

This prophecy of Laban's was made over 3,700 years ago! And what is it that this heap does? 'This heap is a witness' (verse 52), in fact it is Jehovah's witness, because verse 51 says: 'God is a witness between me and you'. It is most important to realise here, that the Watchtower Society took its name, in 1879, from Ezekiel 3:17, and Isaiah 21:8-12. And Jehovah's witnesses took their name, in 1931, from Isaiah 43:10 '"You are my witnesses", is the utterance of Jehovah', (w77 p752-3). The brothers did not have the above understanding of Laban and Jacob when they took either of these two names. But even if you do not realise this, this scripture is still saying that at the end, the anointed brothers will be Jehovah's witnesses, and the whole body of them will be called The Watchtower! So whether the society had deliberately orchestrated this or not (which they did not do in any case), the fact remains that since there is now somebody with these two names, and there has been nobody else with these two names for 71 years since 1914, it is apparent from this scripture alone, that Jehovah's Witnesses are the true Christians!!

In verse 54 we read: 'After that Jacob sacrificed a sacrifice in the mountain and invited his brothers to eat bread. Accordingly they ate bread and passed the night in the mountain'. In Revelation 19:9 we read: 'Happy are those invited to the evening meal of the Lamb's marriage'. This final meal before Laban (Satan) returns 'to his own place', (verse 55), is the marriage feast in heaven, before Satan is Abyssed: "And I saw an angel coming down out of heaven with the key of the abyss and a great chain in his hand. And he seized the dragon, the original serpent, who is the Devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years", (Rev 20:1,2)

Now in verse 53, Laban is swearing by the gods of Nahor etc, but Jacob is swearing by the dreaded one of Isaac (literal renderings). The reason for these separate gods for both of the parties is stated in Joshua 24:2:

'This is what Jehovah the God of Israel has said, "it was on the other side of the river that your forefathers dwelt a long time ago, Terah the father of Abraham, and the father of Nahor, and they used to serve other Gods"'.

The footnote to verse 53 in the reference bible is incorrect, the writer ventures to suggest. Since when has Jehovah been lumped together with a few other Gods? The rendering in the New World is also a fairly confusing translation here. The meaning is that Laban wants the Gods of Nahor and of Abraham's father Terah to Judge, whereas Jacob swears by Jehovah - the dreaded one of Isaac. Of course these Gods of Abraham's father and Nahor are false - Jos 24:2. This scripture is actually identifying Laban as Satan. Which is why Jehovah is called the dreaded one of Isaac. Because as we know, the Demons shudder at his name - James 2:19.

Yes, we know that we have that which is complete - 1 Cor 13:10 - but do we yet know just how complete it is?

We now know that the Exedenic Times started in Nisan 3993 BCE. This was when Adam was thrown out of the garden of Eden (Gen 4:15, Jos 5:10-15, see section 13). The question now is, was this start coincident with the start of the seventh creative day? Well, in Genesis 4:1, Eve says, at the birth of Cain: "I have produced a man with the AID OF JEHOVAH". This is the last possible candidate for a creative act on the part of Jehovah, because Eve said it was such. And although Eve was not renowned for her spiritual perception, the fact remains that all scripture is inspired of God and beneficial, and Eve must have felt that Jehovah had aided her productive act. However, the scriptures tell us that the normal method of creation employed by the most high God, is for him to create, with his firstborn son beside him as a master worker, (Prov 8:30). Therefore the concept that Eve would create with Jehovah as a co-worker is ludicrous.

Furthermore, if Jehovah really had helped Eve in a creative way, then this would be an admission that the reproductive parts of Adam or Eve were defective, which is an impossibility, given that their purpose was to 'fill the earth', (Gen 1:28), and Jehovah is perfect in his activity - Deut 32:4. So we deduce that this was not a creative act and therefore the last creative act was before the eviction.

Furthermore, since the changing of Adam's genetic make-up from everlasting human to 930 year lasting human, was most certainly a creative act on the part of Jehovah, (albeit a fairly destructive one), since this was done immediately preceding the eviction from Eden and since the cursing of the ground itself was also a creative act on the part of Jehovah, in that the ground was changed from perfect to thorny and thistly (Gen 3:18), by an act of God, it is evident that the sixth creative day was certainly still going right up to the eviction. Hence we now know that Jehovah's sixth creative day ended right at the time of their eviction.

Therefore we can say yes, the seventh creative day began in Nisan 3993 BCE, at the same time that the Exedenic Times started.

So at the memorial this year in 1992, for a certainty, we will be exactly 5984 years into the seventh creative day, (Inspired p286, 287). The length of the non-Sabbath part of the seventh creative day (week), is 6,000 years, so:

Whilst it is common knowledge to the brothers that there was a burning of the fingers in 1975, which was 6,000 years after 4026 BCE, the statement made in the 'All Scripture' book p287 that "Speculating on future dates based on bible chronology does no good", is a bit of an over-reaction, especially considering that fact that the Society was started on such a "SPECULATION", about 1914.

BUT THAT WAS ENOUGH FOR HIM !!

We now have in the sections of this book preceding this one seventeen witnesses to three 2,520 year periods. Namely the Exedenic Times, the Alienation Times and the Gentile Times.

IS THIS ENOUGH FOR US ??

We don't even need the signs of the times, to know for a certainty that we are in the last days, and that the end is at precisely 16 years away, from the 1992 memorial. If the reader is laughing at the idea that a man can now know when the end is, then it is suggested that he reads section 89.3. There are two scriptures that are probably puzzling the reader right now, these are: Matthew 24:36 which tells us that: "that day and hour nobody knows" and Matthew 24:22 which tells us that: "unless those days were cut short, no flesh would be saved, but on account of the chosen ones those days will be cut short." We will look at both of these in the sections 66.1 & 69. In the meantime it is apparent that:

But brothers, do not worry if these seventeen witnesses are not enough for you! Because the one who is superabundant in his generosity toward his creation, whom he loved as his sons whilst we were yet behaving as his enemies, has provided for you SIX FURTHER MEANS OF CALCULATING THE DATE OF 2008, and various numbers of scriptural witnesses for each method of calculation! (sections 21,22,40,42,71,87)

[20] THE SIX YEARS THAT JACOB WORKED WITH LABAN FOR HIS FLOCK: A WITNESS TO THE 6,000 YEAR LENGTH OF THE NON-SABBATH PART OF THE SEVENTH CREATIVE DAY

As we have seen in Gen 31:41 & in section 18 covering Jacob's stay with Laban in Genesis 31, that Jacob had to work six years for the flock. What does this mean?... Yes Jehovah, the greater Jacob had to deal with imperfection that is one reason why it was six years. But the other reason was that the length of time during which Jehovah worked for the entire flock of redeemed mankind from righteous Abel to the Great Crowd was six thousand years. Now the seven years that Jacob worked for Leah fully and exactly represented the seven years of years of the Alienation Times. Also the seven years that Jacob worked for Rachel, fully and exactly represented the seven years of years of the Gentile Times. So the six years that Jacob worked for the flock must fully and exactly represent the preset 6,000 year period during which Jehovah worked to redeem all of his flock, i.e. a thousand years for a year. There is a prophetic precedent for this in that we can combine:

It is most noticeable that both of these scriptures have the same form, and that the prophetic statement is mentioned twice in both cases. Both statements are therefore in prophetic form (section 2). This is Jehovah telling us that somewhere in the bible we are to take a day for a thousand years. Well, we know that Jesus Christ is Lord of the Sabbath, (Mat 12:8) and that he performed many miracles on the Sabbath (Insight 2 p833). This was not a coincidence, because Paul said: 'There remains a Sabbath resting for the people of God' (Heb 4:9). So the Millenial rule is one example of this taking of a day for a thousand years. Another example of this rule of 'a day for a thousand years' being applied along with the 'day for a year rule', thereby making 'a year for a thousand years' is the 6 years of work that Jacob did for Laban, which represents the 6,000 years of work that Jehovah did to save men from Satan. In fact both examples are the same example, because if you have a 1,000 year Sabbath, then you have a 6,000 year 'rest-of-the-week'. If the reader finds this sort of abstraction hard to swallow, have a look at section 73, or section 97 for more of this sort of thing, and please bear in mind that Joseph interpreted (correctly) a twig and a basket and a cow and an ear of grain for a year (Gen 40,41).

Therefore Jacob's working period for his flock can be taken to give us a further witness to the seventh creative day being in fact 7,000 years long. Also the account in Joshua of the conquest of literal Israel gives us the same figures. Because It took six years for the Jews to complete the major part of the conquest and they rested from their works of fleshly warfare of the seventh year which was a Sabbath year (Jos 14:10, Insight 2 p833). Whereas mankind in general has taken 6,000 years to conquer sin and death, which conquest is achieved by faith and works of faith, and is made possible only because of the undeserved kindness of God. These conquerors 'will rest from their own works', to paraphrase Hebrews 4:10, these being works of spiritual warfare, (Eph 6:10-13), in the Sabbath over which Jesus Christ will rule as Lord of lords and King of kings (Rev 19:16), which is the thousand year kingdom of God on earth.

[20.1] THE CALENDAR WEEK: THE SECOND WITNESS TO THE 6,000 YEAR NON-SABBATH PART OF THE SEVENTH CREATIVE DAY

The scripture at 2 Peter 3:8 says:

This, as we have discussed in section 20, is in most obvious prophetic form. We can apply this 'bible rule' of a day for 1000 years, to the 'Judgement day' of Matthew 11:22 & 11:24. This judgement day, being repeated, has a greater meaning. This greater meaning is found by applying Peter's rule of a day for a thousand years. Similarly we read in Leviticus 23:3:

This Sabbath definition is repeated and therefore prophetic (Gen 41:25,32, Amos 3:3-7, section 2), having a greater meaning. The greater Sabbath, is found by applying Peter's prophetic rule of a day for 1000 years. We then have the 6,000 years of work by Jehovah, in his contentions with his creation of man, with his wages from this period of work being 144,000 angels and an uncountable number of 'other sheep'. This is followed by a 1000 year resting period for Jehovah (which is the 'Sabbath to Jehovah' - Lev 23:3), which is the kingdom of God, wherein Jesus and his brothers are doing all of the work.

In the sort of irony that this world is full of, we are going to have over 5 billion people celebrating the Sabbath every week, right up to and in fact beyond (see section 49), the very day of Nisan 14, 2008 CE, which is the first day of the greater Sabbath which all of their seventh day celebrations have been symbolising. And nearly all of these people who celebrate these festivals are not going to accept the existence of the greater festival which their actions have been prophesying 52 times a year for the last 3500 years. It will be just as it was with the Jews. Why are we so blind ??? Why is Satan so successful ??? We will find out in section 49.2 that men will actually celebrate the Sabbath ten times in the kingdom of God, before the son of man is revealed! How can they be that stupid ??? Truly spiritual things are more powerful than physical things.

[21] THE PROPHECY OF THE TEN TIMES OF LABAN'S TIMES: THE SECOND DETERMINATION OF THE DATE OF 2008.

This prophecy we shall see, is one of the main prophetic themes of the bible. In Genesis 31:7 Jacob says to his wives: "Your father has trifled with me and has changed my wages ten times, but God has not allowed him to do me harm". And in verse 41: "This makes twenty years for me in your house. I have served you fourteen years for your two daughters and six years for your flock, and you kept changing my wages ten times". We know that the appearance of this 'ten times' twice, means that it is prophetic (Gen 41:25,32, Amos 3:3-7).

In sections 18 & 18.1, we learned how Laban pictured Satan and Jacob pictured Jehovah. So if Satan has changed Jehovah's wages ten times, then there is a period of 3600 (360 x 10) years during which Satan has been attempting to cheat Jehovah, we know that he always fails, just as Laban always failed (Gen 31:8-12). Because, although Laban did change Jacob's wages of very colourful sheep, Jehovah then reacted by giving Jacob even more than he would have got if there had been no change in his wages.

Well we know, that Satan has been trying to cheat Jehovah ever since the garden of Eden. But we want to find out when the special wages which the colourful sheep of Gen 30:32 symbolise, were first changed. Because 3,600 years after this is Armageddon, the end of the covenant through which all men are saved. The Jews, i.e. those who were under the fleshly Abrahamic Covenant, were the first people to correspond to the very colourful sheep and goats of Jacob's flock, which he chose by locating his three staffs in front of them when they were in heat, so 'that they might get in heat by the staffs' (Gen 30:41). These three staffs symbolise the covenant to be a 'kingdom of priests and a holy nation' (Ex 19:6, section 18). So these are the wages that Laban is changing. Now the first shepherd of these chosen people was Moses, who used a staff himself in his shepherding work. Moses himself was the first one to fulfil the scripture in Gen 30:31:

This shepherding is repeated twice, and so there is indeed a greater fulfilment, which means a greater shepherd (Gen 41:25,32, Amos 3:3-7, section 2). And whereas we read in Gen 30:36 of Laban that:

Moses & Aaron said to Pharaoh at Ex 5:3:

Which three days were the day of the tabernacle, the day of Solomon's temple and the day of Zerubbabel's temple (see section 29). So the wage changing period is going to start in the time of Moses, the first shepherd of Israel. We must now briefly break off from Laban's Times to insert a section on the famous scripture 'A time, times and half a time'.

[21.1] A TIME, TIMES AND HALF A TIME

We start by performing a cryptic unsealed calculation on the information in Gen 30:35,36. This calculation really belongs in the second half of this book, in the "Unsealed Prophecy" part, but we include it here because it relates to this account. The verses say:

The cryptic calculation is as follows:

He-goats (both speckled & colour-patched) 2 Times +

She-goats (both speckled and colour-patched) 2 Times +

Partially white young rams 2 Times +

Brown young rams 2 Times +

Total of animals 8 Times

Placed into the hands of Laban's sons 10 Times x

Total 80 Times

In this calculation we take plural things as standing for 2 Times, and we take a hand as standing for 5 Times. The reason for taking plural things as meaning 2 Times is the scriptural form:

'A time, times and half a time' (Rev 12:14, Dan 7:25, Dan 12:7).

In 1877, brother Russel combined this with Rev 12:6 to deduce that a time was 360 days of the prophetic form of the Hebrew calendar, then, taking a day for a year, he calculated the year of the end of the Gentile Times as being 1914 from Daniel 4. In 1992, the writer of this book, having extended this angel's realisation to almost every incidence of the word 'Times' in the bible (see sections 5,11,13,14,15,16,17,18,19,21 etc.), now extends this whole prophetic form to cover any list of animals or materials or people or belongings, in the following manner:

SINGULAR ITEMS STAND FOR: 1 TIME

PLURAL ITEMS STAND FOR: 2 TIMES

HALF ITEMS STAND FOR: HALF A TIME

This turns out to be a major prophetic key to the holy book. Examples of this in the second part of the book occur in sections 36.1, 37, 38, 42, 43, 53, 58, 70, 73, 86, 95, 96, 97, 98, 99 etc. The classic example is in section 95. As a further example, why really did John tell us at Rev 18:12,13 that the full stock of Babylon the Great was the following?

Gold Silver Precious stone

Pearls Fine linen Purple

Silk Scarlet Scented wood

Ivory Precious wood Copper

Iron Marble Cinnamon

Indian spice Incense Perfumed oil

Frankincense Wine Olive oil

Fine flour Wheat Cattle

Sheep Horses Coaches

Slaves Human souls

Do we really need to know that she had marble as well as cinnamon? Well, no, but we do really need to know when she will be destroyed by the UN, and this list tells us when this will be (see section 86).

There is even a further application of 'A time, times and half a time', and this is to the concept of 'so many times as much'. In other words in addition to interpreting any scriptures which explicitly state the words 'seven times' as meaning: 7 years or 7 years of years, we can interpret even an implicit appearance 7 times, i.e. just the concept of seven times, in a scripture as also meaning 7 years or 7 years of years. A classic example of this is the scripture in Rev 17:12,13 which says:

Here the number (ten) of horns and kings is twice compared with the number (one) of hours and thoughts. So we have ten times as many horns and kings as we have hours and thoughts. This is an implicit occurrence of ten times, in that the concept only (of ten times) appears in the scripture, via a comparison, but the words 'ten times' do not actually appear themselves. This scripture means that the eighth king of the UN, will rule for ten times, i.e. ten years before Armageddon. So the 7th world power will be deposed in Nisan 1998 (see section 53 for a full explanation).

In summary the progression of understanding of the scripture 'A time, times and half a time' has been as follows:

[1] Applies to the seven 'times' of the Gentile Times in Daniel chapter 4.

[2] Applies to almost every incidence of the word 'times' in the bible.

[3] Applies to many incidences of the concept of 'so many times'.

[4] Applies to many large lists of possessions, materials, animals, humans

etc, singular items standing for 1 time, plural items standing for 2 times and half items standing for half a time.

At the end of the day, if the man on the Clapham omnibus is asked: "What is half of seven?", he replies: "It is three and a half", he does not reply: "It is one plus twice one plus a half." It is therefore manifestly apparent that the true God, who is most certainly able to do anything that the man on the Clapham omnibus is able to do, having created that man, is saying a lot more than "Three and a half times", when he says: "A time, times and half a time". Hopefully the man on the Clapham omnibus will one day know what this greater meaning of this central expression in the bible really is (Dan 12:4)!

As an example of application number [3] above, we take a hand (of Laban's sons - Gen 30:35) as standing for 5 Times, because it has five fingers on it, i.e. fingers occur on it five times. This is an implicit occurrence of five times, i.e. the concept of five times appears but the words 'five times' do not. The symbolism of the hand standing for five times is also used in Daniel chapter 5 (see section 58), in 2 Samuel 21 (see section 98), in Genesis 43 (see section 38) and in Num 14:21 (see section 23).

So we now have a period of 80 years, 'after which he set a distance of three day's journey between himself and Jacob' (verse 36). Having already tied these 3 days up with Ex 5:3, we know that the greater three day period started in Nisan 1513, with the exodus from Egypt, the purpose of which was to go: 'please, a journey of 3 days into the wilderness and sacrifice to Jehovah our God' (Ex 5:3). If we count back 80 years from Nisan 1513 we end up in Nisan 1593 BCE. This is the greater 'day' to which the words 'on that day' of verse 35 refer.

Now, The first time that Satan successfully changed Jehovah's wages, actually killing members of Jehovah's chosen flock was in the time of Moses, in 1593 BCE, around the time that Moses was born, when Pharaoh made the order that "Every newborn son you are to throw into the Nile" (Ex 1:22). The midwives of verse 17 did not kill any Hebrew babies themselves, but this order certainly would have meant the death of several of Jehovah's chosen ones, although we know that Moses escaped. This was when Satan first 'trifled with' (Gen 31:7) Jehovah's flock, which were to produce and to be his wages from the Abrahamic covenant. Because just as Laban removed all of the colourful sheep from Jacob before he could breed them 'on that day' (Gen 30:35), this being the start of his changing of Jacob's wages, so Pharaoh removed all of the newborn sons of Israel from Jehovah, before they could breed on the day that he ordered them to be drowned (Ex 1:22), this being the start of Satan's changing of Jehovah's wages.

Whilst Satan had made attempts on Jehovah's chosen people earlier, such as Esau thinking about killing Jacob, such attempts did not succeed so as to actually change Jehovah's wages. Neither Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, any of the seventy (plus five) souls who went down into Egypt nor any other Hebrew, is recorded in the bible as being killed by agents of Satan up to and until this command of Pharaoh in Exodus 1:22. Judah's sons Er and Onan, were killed by Jehovah (Gen 38:7,10), not by Satan, and Abraham was the first of Jehovah's chosen ones, from whose loins the heavenly stars would come.

That Moses was born in Adar 1593, we know because he died on his 120th birthday in Adar 1473 BCE (Deut 31:2, Deut 32:48,50). After Moses died, the Israelites mourned for thirty days of the desert plains of Moab, at Shittim, (Deut 34:8). They then took three days to reach the Jordan (Jos 1:11, 3:2), and on the fourth day which was Nisan 10, 1473 BCE, they crossed the Jordan (Jos 3:5, 4:19). So the camp must have started leaving Shittim on Nisan 7, and therefore Moses died 23 days before the start of the Jewish year which started on Nisan 1, 1473 BCE. This puts his death in the month of Adar, we do not know when exactly in Adar it was, because we do not know how long the intercalary period was between the end of Adar and the start of Nisan in 1473 (Insight 1 p390).

The bible provides us with two witnesses to the simultaneity of Moses' birth and the order from Pharaoh to throw all the newborn sons of Israel into the Nile. These are at Ex 2:1,2:

'MEANTIME...and brought a son to birth. When she saw how good-looking he was, she kept him concealed for three lunar months'.

And in Acts 7:19,20:

'This one used statecraft against our race and wrongfully forced the fathers to expose their infants, that they might NOT BE PRESERVED ALIVE. IN THAT PARTICULAR TIME Moses was born, and he was divinely beautiful.'

Which, itself, is also a witness that the date of Moses' birth is prophetically significant. From this we can deduce that the order from Pharaoh and the first death of a Hebrew newborn son, occurred in these three months of Moses' concealment, which were Adar, Nisan & Iyyar of 1593 BCE, see fig 2. Which means that Jehovah's wages were first changed in one of these months. Which means that the ten times of Laban's Times started in the period from Adar to Iyyar of 1593 BCE. Our cryptic calculation has already showed us that these Times start in Nisan.

Therefore the ten times, or 3600 years, of Laban's Times, will end in Nisan 2008 CE. Jehovah's wages end when the Abrahamic covenant ends, since this covenant is the means by which men, his wages, are saved. The Abrahamic covenant ends on the first day of the Kingdom of God, because Rachel died on the day that she gave birth to Benjamin (Gen 35:16-20, see sections 17,18) which is the first day of the battle of Armageddon (see sections 49,66). So we now have a second determination of the date of Armageddon which confirms the date of Nisan 2008 in such a way as to firmly establish it, and to give us no choice but to accept it, (Gen 41:32, Deut 19:15). This is a very long range prophecy indeed.

Finally we read in Ex 2:9:

This change in the literal wages of Moses' mother. She was getting a very different wage to the other brick-makers at the time. She lost a son but gained some money, and this symbolises the change in Jehovah's wages due to the death of the newborn sons of his chosen people, that Pharaoh's order led to. This is why her wages are mentioned here. Therefore this order from Pharaoh is truly the start of the fulfilment of the prophecy of the ten times of Laban's Times (Gen 31:7).

[22] THE 90 YEARS OF THE SEPARATING TIMES: THE THIRD DETERMINATION OF THE DATE OF 2008.

Now we read in Exodus 2:1,2 that:

Truly it is being said to you today, that this child had the same good looks as his great great grandmother's sister (1 Chron 6:1-3), who was Rachel. Whom the bible says:

Rachel became beautiful in countenance when Jesus became the king of heaven in Tishri 1914 (see section 18). As regards Moses, the anointed saviour of Jehovah's chosen people, his birth to his priestly Levite parents, was three lunar months (of concealment), or 90 days, before he entered into the royal household of Pharaoh. And as regards the anointed brothers of Jesus, who are going to save Jehovah's chosen people out of the great tribulation, they were born as priests and angels on Nisan 16, 1918 (see section 58.3). This resurrection was the start of Rachel's becoming 'beautiful in form'. They were then concealed for three 'months of years' or 90 years in heaven, after which time they become kings entering into the royal household of Jehovah, in Nisan 2008. They become visible at Armageddon, when they themselves will play a part in the saving by Jehovah of his chosen people of today, the Great Crowd.

So this three months of concealment is a very prophetic three months of concealment, because not only is it marking the start of the ten times of Laban's Times, which provide us with our second means of calculating the date of 2008, but it is also a third witness to and a third means of calculating the date of Armageddon, as being 90 years after Nisan 1918. This 90 year period has more prophecies referring to it in the bible than one might expect (Jos 8, section 70; Dan 6, section 65; Luke 12, section 90; Luke 17, section 66; Mat 12, section 58.3), it will be called the Separating Times (Luke 17:34,35) because it is the period of the separating of the sheep and the goats of Matthew 25:32.

[23] THE SECOND WITNESS TO THE TEN TIMES OF LABAN'S TIMES

Ten times precisely, and in seven different books, the bible tells us that Jehovah is slow to anger in a form similar to Ex 34:6:

These ten recitals of this quality of the true God are actually a cryptic witness to the prophecy of the 'ten times of Laban's Times'! Probably one of the deepest witnesses in the bible. The 'ten times' (see section 21.1) are recorded at:

This has the meaning that Jehovah will contain his anger at the deaths of members of his chosen people, the first of which was in Nisan 1593 BCE, at the time of the birth of Moses, who wrote the first two of these recitals in Exodus and Numbers, for ten times, which is 3,600 years, and then he will get very very angry indeed at Armageddon. The use of these ten different scriptures in a major long term prophecy, is what we call:

Jehovah himself bears witness that this is a true interpretation of the ten statements of Jehovah's mercy when he says in reply to Moses' second recital in Numbers 14:18 of this mercy:

"I do forgive according to your word. And on the other hand, as I live, all the earth will be filled with the glory of Jehovah. But all the men who have been seeing my glory and my signs that I have performed in Egypt and in the wilderness and yet kept testing me these TEN TIMES, and have not listened to my voice, will never see the land about which I swore to their fathers" (Num 14:20-23).

This, in the greater meaning, applies to all wicked mankind, who will not see the kingdom of God. The 'ten times' are the ten times of Laban's Times, which end at Armageddon which is the day when Jehovah stops performing sign for the purpose of saving men, and starts performing signs for the purpose of judging them. As regards the scripture 'On the other hand' well, we already know that a hand symbolises 5 times (since fingers occur on it five times - section 21.1) so if we also include 'the other hand' as well, then we are symbolising ten times. So we now have two recitals, one literal and one implicit or conceptual of 'ten times'. This means that these ten times are indeed a prophecy, even the prophecy of the ten times of Laban's Times.

[24] THE INTENDED ACCURACY OF THE BIBLE

The bible is perfect, but we have to understand how accurately each prophecy is stated, before we can fully appreciate this. For instance if one agrees to do something next year, then so long as this thing is done in that year, then one has acted perfectly. Whereas, if one agrees to do something on September 30th next year and then one actually gets round to doing it on October 1st, then one has not acted with perfection, even though this latter agreement was stated far more accurately, than was the former. The bible never does the latter, but often does the former.

[24.1] REIGNS STATED IN YEARS ARE ROUNDED UP TO THE NEAREST FULL NUMBER OF REGNAL YEARS, AND ACCESSION YEARS ARE IGNORED

In 2 Samuel 5:4,5, we read the following:

If we add the 7.5 years in Hebron to the 33 years in Jerusalem, we get 40.5 years, which is not 40 years. How do we explain this six month discrepancy? Well we have already seen, in section 6, that six month discrepancies are very important, and they tell us fine details about how bible chronology works. This scripture is no exception, it is telling us how all reigns are stated in the bible. The first six months of David's reign in Hebron were from Tishri 1077 until Nisan 1076 BCE (see section 16), this was all during his Accession year (All Scripture p284), which is the year before a king's first regnal year. Regnal years are defined as beginning in the month of Nisan so the year beginning Nisan 1076 was David's first regnal year.

SO THE BIBLE DEFINES THE REIGN OF A KING AS THE INTEGRAL NUMBER OF HIS REGNAL YEARS, WHICH START IN NISAN.

David and Solomon were coregent in David's last regnal year which was 1037 BCE (section 16). This is symbolic of the fact that Jehovah and Jesus are right now Coregent in the Lord's day before Armageddon, whilst all of the greater Levitical assignments are made, the type for which is all of the assignments made by David in his last regnal year (1 Chron 23 - 27). In fact the reason that Solomon was made king twice, the first time being recited in 1 Chron 23:1, before all of these Levitical duties are assigned and the second time being recited in 1 Chron 29:22,23 after they had all been assigned, is because Jesus became king over heaven in 1914, before any of his anointed brothers were resurrected, and then he becomes king over earth in 2008, after all of his anointed brothers have been resurrected and assigned their various duties. During this whole period, Jesus is Coregent with Jehovah as Solomon was with David.

It is apparent from the fact that the sum of the regnal years from Solomon to Zedekiah is 393 (Insight 1 p462), rather than 390 which was the true length of this period, that whereas the accession year is not counted in the reign, the last regnal year is rounded up to make a full year.

[24.2] AGES STATED IN YEARS ARE ALSO ROUNDED UP TO THE NEAREST YEAR WITH THE JEWISH YEAR OF ONE'S BIRTH IGNORED

In other words the Jews treated a man's age in the same way that they treated a king's reign. To prove this we first consider the example of Noah. This man performed the feat of being 600 years old in his 600th year, something that is very difficult to do in our present way of counting age! The scriptures say:

'And Noah was 600 years old when the deluge occurred on the earth' (Gen 7:6).

'In the 600th year of Noah's life, in the second month, on the 17th day of the month, on this day all the springs of the vast watery deep were broken open and the floodgates of the heavens were opened' (Gen 7:11).

A most repetitive of scriptures. The 600th year of Noah's life, was the ancient Jewish year starting in Tishri 2369 and ending in Tishri 2368 BC, the year containing the deluge. It is apparent from the wording of verse 11 that Noah's 600th year was all of that year. In other words, according to Jewish reckoning you are in your nth year of life all the way through that year, no matter when in that year your birthday actually falls. What this means is that Noah was either born within the Jewish year from Tishri 2968 to Tishri 2967, which would imply that the Jews counted your 'accession' year as your first year - as regards your age. Or he was born in the Jewish year starting Tishri 2969 BC, in which case the Jews must have ignored a man's accession year and he became one year old when he began his first full year of life. The former way of counting is not very plausible because it would mean that all children are born one year old, although the Jews would also say that they were in their first year. The example of Jesus' visit to the temple 'when he became 12 years old' has sufficient information to determine which of these two counting methods the Jews actually used.

Jesus was born on Tishri 10, 2 BCE (see section ###), and he visited the temple Nisan 11 CE, which was actually the thirteenth Jewish year in which he had lived. But Luke describes this event as occurring:

'When he became 12 years old'

We have already seen that under the Jewish way of counting this would be his twelfth year of life. Therefore Luke was not counting the first six months of his life, in the Jewish year of 2 BCE. So we now know that the statement that Jesus was 12 years old, meant that he was now in his twelfth full Jewish year of life. And by this method of counting it is true to say that 'he became', 12 years old in that very month. As a further point we now know that a one year old lamb and a lamb in its first year are the same thing, namely a lamb which is in its first full Jewish year of life. Therefore Noah was born in the Jewish year starting Tishri 2969 BCE, but his first year of life, was his first full year of life and therefore started in Tishri 2968 BCE.

We have already seen in section 9.1, that adding up all of the Ages of Noah's descendants gives 352 years between the flood and Abraham's birth, whereas in truth there were only 350 years, so the ages give too large a figure. Also adding up all of the ages of Adam's descendants gives 1056 years from his birth until Noah's birth (All Scripture p286), whereas in truth there were at least 1058 years, so, in this case, the ages give too small a figure. This is because Adam was born in Tishri 4027 BCE (section 13.1), and Noah was born between Heshvan 2969 BCE and Heshvan 2968 BCE (section 13.1). Mathematically a Jewish 12 year old could be 11 years and 1 day old or 12 years and 359 days old by the modern method of counting, so adding up a group of ages can introduce an error of +1 or -1 year for each age in the list.

[24.3] PROPHECIES STATED IN YEARS ARE ACCURATE TO THE MONTH

We have seen in section 6, that the seventy weeks of years prophecy, which covers 490 years, is accurate to the month. It starts in Tishri 455 BCE (Neh 8:1-3), and it ends in Tishri 36 CE (Dan 9:27). We have seen that the 70 years of exile in Babylon, which was prophesied in Jeremiah 25:9-12, was fulfilled to the month. Gedaliah was killed in Tishri 607 BCE (Jer 41:1,2) and the worship restarted at the temple site in Jerusalem in Tishri 537 BCE (Ezra 3:1). From these two witnesses to the accuracy of prophecies stated in years, we deduce that all prophecies which are stated in years are accurate to the month (Deut 19:15, 2 Chron 13:1). This is found to be true for every such prophecy which is looked at in this book. The one prophecy which is one month out, is stated as being 'about 36 men' (Jos 7:4 - men stand for years). This is looked at in section 72 (woman 18 years).

[24.4] PROPHECIES STATED IN DAYS ARE ACCURATE TO THE DAY

We have seen in section 10, that the 1305 net shekels of Numbers 3:50 & 7:3, which stand for the 1305 days of Jesus' non-heavenly existence during his earthly ministry, were fulfilled accurate to the day. This is true for the 1,260 days of Rev 11:3 (section 58.3), it is also true for the 2,300 and the 1,290 and the 1,335 days of Daniel 8:14, Daniel 12:11 and Daniel 12:12, as we shall see in the second half of this book. The 1,260 days that the woman of Revelation 12 spends in the wilderness (Rev 12:6) is also fulfilled accurate to the day (section 83). Furthermore our faith in the perfection of the true God, necessitates all of this to be so.

[24.5] SOME FINER POINTS RELATING TO ACCURACY

In Numbers 7:88, there is a prophecy stated in terms of 252 animals, which have a redemption value of 5 shekels per head. Taking a shekel for a day, this prophecy is stated accurate to 5 shekels. We have seen in section 10, that it is fulfilled to within 4 days. This is perfection, because the prophecy was deliberately stated only to five days accuracy in order to indicate that the stated figure could be as much as 4 days out from the true figure.

We will now find quite a few scriptures which depict events which will happen between a certain number of 'times' and that-number-plus-one times into the ten times of Laban's Times. These are all 'between times' prophecies. These timings have been recited by the prophets of Jehovah, not in order to find out roughly i.e. within 360 years, when the various events occurred, which would be of very little use, but in order to indicate the inexorable ticking away of Laban's Times during all the events of the bible. The first one we look at is Greedy Gehazi in 2 Kings 5, which together with Isaiah's olive tree in Isaiah 17:5-9 and Sanballat's letters in Neh 6:1-7 are between times prophecies which count from the start of Laban's Times in Nisan 1593 BCE. The two prophecies of Elisha's five or six arrows in 2 Kings 2:9-15 and the seven shepherds and eight dukes of Micah in Micah 5:5-8, are between times prophecies of Laban's Times, which count from an event up to Armageddon, which is the end of Laban's Times.

[25.1] GREEDY GEHAZI

Do you know, for many millenia people have been citing this example of greed, but until March 1992, Jehovah had not chosen to reveal to anyone on earth what the full, true, spiritual meaning behind this symbolic drama was! We shall see that this account, like its counterpart of the contest between Elijah and the prophets of Baal, is absolutely packed with cryptic prophecy. Would you like to know what it is that the one who causes all things to become (Jehovah means: 'He causes to become' in Hebrew - Insight 2 p5), is saying will in fact become through this prophecy?

For a fairly full account of this symbolic drama see section 15.2. This time we will look at the financial arrangements in the drama. Firstly in 2 Kings 5:5 we read: 'So he proceeded to take in his hand TEN TALENTS of silver and 6,000 PIECES of gold and TEN CHANGES of garments'. We then see in verses 15 and 16 that Naaman offers Elisha the whole of this gift. Now this gift is a very symbolic gift. We see that the figure ten is mentioned twice, so this is a prophetic part of the statement. We will see a further example of changes of garments representing times in section 31 (Gen 45:22), where Benjamin was given five changes of mantles. So the ten talents of silver and the ten changes of garments both represent the ten times of the Laban's Times period. Just as Jacob worked for six years for the flock, which stands for the 6,000 years non-Sabbath part of the seventh creative day, and had his wages changed ten times, which stand for the last 3,600 years of these 6,000 years. So the 6,000 'gold' pieces stand for the 6,000 years, and the ten changes of garments and the ten talents of 'silver' stand for the 3,600 years. The 6,000 pieces are gold and the ten talents are silver, because gold precedes silver in time prophecy (Num 7:84-88, section 10, Dan 2, section 77.2, Dan 5, section 58.1).

Now Elisha refuses to accept this gift which represents the entirety of Jehovah's wages, but Gehazi has other ideas. He petitions Naaman for 'a talent of silver and two changes of garments' (verse 22), thereby changing Jehovah's wages symbolically. Naaman then actually gives him 'two talents and two changes of garments', thereby providing a second witness to a change of wages. Laban's Times started in Nisan 1593 so one time into it is Nisan 1233 and two times into it is Nisan 873 BCE. This drama actually occurred during the reign of King Jehoram of Israel, which places it between 917 and 906 BCE (2 Kings 3:10). By Gehazi asking for 'one' out of the 'ten talents' and 'two' out of the 'ten changes' he was actually saying that this event was occurring between 1233 and 873 BCE. By Naaman giving him both 'two changes of garments' and 'two talents' he was saying that the event was nearer the 'two times' marker of 873 BCE, than it was the 'one time' marker of 1233 BCE. Elisha actually tells us cryptically that the silver and the garments do stand for times when he says in verse 26:

The answer literally is no, but the answer cryptically is yes, thank you Elisha, the silver and the garments are representing times. As mentioned before, this interpretation is not a lot of use to us in determining where exactly in time this event occurred, but it does give us great confidence in the Laban's Times prophecy itself, and the march of prophetic time towards the end of 'Laban's Times' and it demonstrates the marvellous harmony and inspired origin of the bible. Gehazi had no idea about 'Laban's Times' and nor did Naaman when they said what they said in this account. There is actually a lot more cryptic meaning to this account, which is really fantastic, we will look at this in section 97, where we will find that every number in this account has a prophetic significance and we will find the exact date of this change in wages. By the time the reader has finished reading this book, he will more than likely realise that every number in the whole bible has a prophetic significance. For example, why in John 21:11 did the apostles catch 153 big fish??....see section 92. Now if the true God has this sort of control over fish, what sort of control must he have over men? In which case what sort of long-suffering is he displaying towards us, in that he gives us the freedom to make mistake after mistake?

[25.2] MICAH'S SEVEN SHEPHERDS AND EIGHT DUKES

'And you O Bethlehem of Eprath, the one too little to get to be among the thousands of Judah, from you there will come out to me the one who is to become the ruler in Israel' (Micah 5:2). What a fantastic scripture, what a contrast between lowly Bethlehem and the King of Kings that was to be born there! The chronological part of this prophecy is stated in verses 5-8:

We have seen that repetition often indicates prophecy (Gen 41:25,32, Amos 3:3-7, section 2). In Joseph's dream there were seven cows and also seven ears of grain, and the two stood for the same thing (Gen 41:25). We saw in the account of greedy Gehazi (section 25.1), that there was one talent and two changes of garments. Here we have seven shepherds yes eight dukes, this is also repetition but with the numbers one apart. In these sorts of prophecies there is normally the concept of between or the word midst mentioned strategically, to show that we must look between the two numbers for the prophetic time period.

Since the remaining ones of Jacob are repeated twice, the prophecy refers to them, and this is apparent from the whole sense of the chapter as well. The woman in verse 3 is initially Mary, but finally the woman of Revelation 12, the Assyrian is Israel's traditional nasty enemy, and stands for this in the wider sense, i.e. the eighth King of Rev 17:11, the seven shepherds and eight dukes, are the anointed brothers in heaven because, verse 5 says 'we shall also have to raise up against him seven shepherds', which is referring to the heavenly resurrection of the anointed, the time of their shepherding with the sword is therefore Armageddon. This prophecy is saying that, as regards the Assyrian, from the time 'when he comes into our land and treads upon our (Israel's) dwelling towers' i.e. 740-732 BCE, to the shepherding job at Armageddon, i.e. 2008 CE, there will be between 7 and 8 times or between 2,520 and 2880 years, most certainly a true statement.

The Assyrians took Samaria in 740 BCE and Sennacherib was thwarted in his attempt against Jerusalem in Tishri 731 BCE (section 44,).The comments on the Shepherds and Dukes in the Insight book 1 p658 about what these dukes stand for, are not correct it is suggested.

[25.3] ELISHA'S FIVE OR SIX ARROWS

One would expect Elisha's deathbed prophecy to be one concerning Jesus' second presence, because in the double type of Elijah-Elisha, the two men represent his two ministries, one earthly and the other heavenly, which is why Elijah ascended to heaven before the cloak fell for Elisha, 2 Kings 2:9-15. The double-type splits the two ministries into earthly and heavenly, rather than first century and twentieth century, because Elisha actually represents Jesus from his ascension in 33 CE onwards, see section 15, whereas Jesus' second presence started in 1914 CE. Well the Last thing that Elisha prophesies about would be the last thing that Jesus does, in his Elisha role, which is to execute judgement on the wicked at Armageddon, just like Jehu (2 Kings 10:18,19) his type in Elisha's time, see again section 15.

So we read in 2 Kings 13:17, that Elisha asked the 'King of Israel' to shoot an arrow, he then said "Jehovah's arrow of salvation, even the arrow of salvation against Syria". Notice the repetition of 'arrow of salvation'. He then says "you will certainly strike down Syria at Aphek to the finishing point", and later in verse 19 : "In that case you would certainly be striking down Syria to the finishing point". We again notice the repetition of the striking down of Syria to the finish.

Between these two scriptures we read: 'Then he said to the King of Israel: "Strike the earth." So he struck the earth three times and stopped. And the man of the true God grew indignant at him; hence he said: "It was meant to strike FIVE OR SIX TIMES! In that case you would certainly be striking down Syria to the finishing point, but now it is three times that you will strike down Syria."

The initial fulfilment of this was that King Jehoash did defeat the Syrians three times (verse 25). But the greater fulfilment of this prophecy has to do with something more than King Jehoash. It has to do with Jehovah's arrow of Salvation, the one whom Jehovah shot from the heavens to earth! which arrow landed in the immediate vicinity of the virgin Mary, and was in fact his firstborn son, Jesus who was called the Christ. And the striking down of Syria to the finishing point is Armageddon, which is the finishing point of this prophecy of the 'five or six times', which has as a starting point the salvation of mankind by the arrow from the bow of Jehovah in 33CE. This event therefore occurs between five and six times before Armageddon. The two repeated prophetic statements that we noticed above, namely the 'arrow of salvation' and 'the striking down of Syria', therefore represent the starting point and the end point of the prophecy of the five or six times.

Incidentally the footnote says that the Septuagint and the Vulgate bibles have five or six or seven times, rather than just five or six times. The New World has the inspired record. Five or six or seven destroys the greater meaning of this prophecy! However it is most commendable and necessary that all records are quoted!

[25.4] ISAIAH'S OLIVE TREE

This account is found in Isaiah chapter 17. It is not possible to understand this prophecy at all, unless one first understands and knows the prophecy of Laban's Times. This is because as was the case with Gehazi and Sanballat's letters, the times referred to are measured from the start of Laban's Times, so if one does not know when this was, then one is stumped! Whereas with the above accounts of the seven shepherds and eight dukes, and the five or six arrows, the times are measured from Armageddon. Therefore if one knows when this is, but is ignorant of Laban's Times prophecy, then one can still appreciate the temporal significance of the times involved.

Isaiah says that Jehovah says, from verse 5: 'And it must occur that when the harvester is gathering the standing grain and his own arm harvests the ears of grain, he must even become like one gleaning the ears of grain in the low plain of Rephaim. And there must remain in it a gleaning as when there is a beating of the olive tree (notice the repetition of the harvesting of grain) TWO OR THREE ripe olives in the top of the branch; FOUR OR FIVE on the fruit bearing boughs thereof'.

Remember that one can repeat with an 'and' i.e. Gehazi requested 'a talent of silver and two changes of garments, (2 Kings 5:22) or one can repeat with an 'or' i.e. 'two or three ripe olives', (Isaiah 17:6), we then read in verses 7&9:

'In that day earthling man will look up and see his Maker, and his own eyes will gaze at the Holy one of Israel himself' - verse 7

'In that day his fortress cities will become like a place left entirely in woodland, even the branch that they have left entirely on account of the sons of Israel; and it must become a desolate waste.' - verse 9

It is apparent that verse seven is referring to the day of Jesus appearing in the flesh, and verse nine is referring to the day of exile to Babylon. From the double reference to the harvester who gleans with his own arm, who is of course Jesus himself, actually choosing his disciples physically, it is evident that this prophecy refers to this greater harvesting event itself. We know that the exile occurred before the earthly ministry and that is why the 2 or 3 olives are on the 'top' of the tree but the 4 or 5 olives are on the fruit bearing boughs. Because although it is true that the bough grows first before the top of the branch grows, when you glean from such a tree you would glean from the top of the branch first and then from the bough presumably?

In any event the olives stand for times measured from the start of Laban's Times. Two times into them was 873 BCE, three times in was 513 BCE, four times in was 153 BCE and five times in was 208 CE. Again this is not the most accurate of prophecies, but it confirms the progress through the very accurate 'Laban's Times' themselves. Of course 607 - 537 BCE, the exile, is between 873 and 513, and 29 - 33 CE the gleaning, is between 153 BCE and 208 CE.

[25.5] SANBALLAT'S LETTERS TO NEHEMIAH

We have at long last found a prophetic significance for Nehemiah's wall! See section 6. More seriously, this account in Nehemiah chapter 6:1-7 is very straightforward. Sanballat writes to Nehemiah four times saying:

"Do come and let us meet in the villages of the valley plain of O'no" (which did not mean oh no it's the wall again!)

It was in fact a ploy to get Judah to stop working on the wall (we use Judah in the same sense that Jehovah does, i.e. meaning the sons of Judah). Then the fifth time, he says:

So before the fifth letter was written, Sanballat hears about this 'King in Judah' . This means that the King of Israel, who is the lion of Judah, i.e. in the line of Judah, i.e. in Judah, will come between four and five times into Laban's Times. That is between the years of 153 BCE and 208 CE. The fact that this has to do with the ten times of Laban's Times is also apparent from Neh 4:1, which reads:

'Now it came about that as soon as Sanballat heard that we were rebuilding the wall, he became angry and highly offended, and he kept deriding the Jews.' We then read in Neh 4:12, 'And it came about that, whenever the Jews dwelling close by them came in, they proceeded to say to us ten times: "They will come up from all the places where you people will return to us."

This ten times is obviously symbolic, nobody repeats anything ten times, each time he 'comes in' to see you. And neither does this mean that their fear was organisationally complete from an earthly point of view, (Rev book p19). So it is a cryptic sign from Jehovah's prophet Nehemiah that there will shortly follow a prophecy based on the Ten times of Laban's Times.

[26] THE GIBEONITES AND THE SEVEN SONS OF SAUL: THE NINTH WITNESS TO THE ALIENATION TIMES

This account is another example of the festival of weeks, i.e. Pentecost, being used to symbolise the Alienation Times (see section 15.1). Pentecost, which was celebrated on Sivan 6, is the day after the seven full weeks of days, which themselves started immediately after the first day of the barley harvest, the festival of the firstfruits, which was Nisan 16 (Lev 23:15,16, Deut 16:9,10).

By now we are aware that the bible is first literal, then symbolic, and lastly cryptic. This account in 2 Samuel 21, is a good example of how Jehovah is using all three of these techniques, to talk to his people in the Lord's day. Summarising the literal events in this chapter, first there is a famine for three years, 'year after year' because of the bloodguilt on the house of Saul, who is responsible for trying to wipe out the Gibeonites. Then King David offers to atone for this, and the Gibeonites require not Gold or Silver but Seven sons of Saul. But they recognise that it is not their position to 'put a man to death in Israel' (verse 4).

King David then chooses seven sons of Saul (two from Rizpah and five from Michal), who are exposed to Jehovah (verse 6). These being put to death in the first days of the barley harvest (verse 9). Then Rizpah conducts a vigil on the dead bodies until 'water poured down upon them from the heavens' (verse 10). King David on hearing this puts the bones of Saul and of Jonathon in 'the burial place of Kish his father' (verse 14). Then we are told how 'Ishbi-benob' thinks about striking David down, with 300 shekels worth of copper spear. But instead, David's servants strike him down together with three other Philistines, born to the Rephaim, making four times that these people are struck down (verses 17,18,19,21). David's servants have meantime sworn to David saying:

"You must not go out with us to battle anymore, that you may not extinguish the lamp of Israel" (verse 17).

The fourth time that the servants of David struck down one born to the Rephaim, that one had 12 fingers split six and six (each hand), 12 toes split six and six, and we are told that these were '24 in number' (verse 20).

This is all very symbolic and very cryptic! The symbolism is as follows:

The three years of famine, 'year after year' of verse 1, was ended when the heavens opened in verse 10, which we will see was at Pentecost. Since the full year's harvesting ended in Elul (fig 2), and since verse 1 says 'year after year', then cryptically we are being told that this was a 3.5 year famine, because the extra half year from Tishri onwards before the first of the three full years of famine, would not have been seen as such because nobody was harvesting anything then, (compare 1 Kings 18:1, James 5:17). It is of course impossible to have a three and a half year famine, because famines only happen once a year! There is a further witness to this famine being 3.5 years long later in the account as we shall see. These years represent the 3.5 years of Jesus' ministry which whilst not being a famine for his sheep, highlighted the spiritual famine conditions of the time created by the blind and selfish pharisees, as was the case with Elijah (1 Kings 17:1, section 15.1 & 96).

The bloodguilt on Saul's house (verse 1) is the bloodguilt on the house of Israel, which was highlighted by the Mosaic law, and all of the sacrifices involving the blood of bulls etc that this entailed. This bloodguilt is of course inherited from Adam, and it is this which causes the Gentiles (the greater Gibeonites, in this symbolism) to die. The literal bloodguilt on the house of Saul, who in the literal account 'put the Gibeonites to death' (verse 1), was actually atoned for by one Jew, even one from the tribe of Judah, like King David.

David, i.e. Jesus, makes Atonement for them so that they 'bless the inheritance of Jehovah' (verse 3), which is spiritual Israel, this is symbolising the application of the atoning value of Jesus' ransom sacrifice to the faithful ones of the Gentiles. The Gibeonites lack of interest in gold or silver, reflects the inability of any works of mankind to remove bloodguilt and hence bring life. The recognition of the Gibeonites that it is not their position to 'put a man to death in Israel' is prophetic in the sense that it was fleshly Jews who impaled the son of God, and they bore the bloodguilt for that act. Their statement that the problem lies with the House of Saul, is the statement that mankind is in need of atonement, and the problem was highlighted in the house of Saul and recognised in this house, and then solved through this house. The 'chosen one of Jehovah' in verse 6, is not Saul but is Jesus Christ. All the seven sons of Saul are of course sons of Benjamin, which points forward to the witness to the Alienation Times in section 31.

One reason that Rizpah waited until 'water poured down on them from the heavens' is that the two times that her two sons represent, being 2488 BCE until 1768 BCE, was a time during which a large number of people got very wet in the flood. The downpour of water itself represents the downpour of holy spirit at Pentecost 33 CE after the Alienation Times had ended. The seven sons were exposed to Jehovah (verse 9), 'in the first days of the barley harvest', i.e. Nisan 16, on the festival of the firstfruits (fig 2). The house of Saul therefore lost a son seven times on Nisan 16. The scripture actually says:

'So the seven of them fell together; and they themselves were put to death in the first days of the barley harvest, at the start of the barley harvest' (2 Sam 21:9).

This is a statement in prophetic form (Gen 41:25,32; Amos 3:3-7, section 2). Therefore this falling together and this 'first days of the barley harvest', both of which are repeated twice, both stand for something greater. We have already seen that Rizpah, whose two sons stand for two times, then waited from the death in Nisan 16 until the water poured down, which symbolises and therefore was Pentecost in that year. We therefore deduce that the greater meaning of the death of the seven sons is the seven weeks of days of the festival of weeks, which started on Nisan 16 and ended the day before Pentecost (Lev 23:15,16).

BUT THERE IS A FURTHER MEANING TO THE TWO TIMES OF RIZPAH'S SONS

The holy spirit is here telling us that there are two greater meanings to Rizpah's behaviour. The first greater meaning we have seen is the seven weeks before Pentecost in 33 CE. The further meaning to her waiting throughout the seven weeks before Pentecost, is the wait determined on all mankind during the seven times of the Alienation Times, during which there was no downpour of Jehovah's holy spirit. We will see this two and five split of the seven times of the Alienation Times again in section 31, where again the two times part of the split also tells us that there are two greater meanings to the account. Furthermore the five sons of Michal (or Merab, reared by Michal) actually stand for the five times of Benjamin's Times (see section 31) which in turn also stand for the five times of the Apostate Times (see sections 34 & 38).

This is our further witness to the length of the Alienation Times being 7 times long, also all of these 7 sons were fatherless physically before they died (because Saul was already dead), and all mankind was fatherless spiritually for seven times before Jesus died on Nisan 14, thereby ending the Alienation Times (see section 9).

The burial place of Kish is Jehovah's memorial tombs (Mat 27:52,53), for both the anointed and the other sheep, and the bones of mankind do not enter into such officially until after Jesus' death, which is why these bones are transferred, only after the seven sons of Saul have been exposed. Verse 14 ends with 'So God let himself be entreated for the land after this'. This represents the end of the withdrawal not of physical rain but of god's holy spirit. As regards Mephiboseth the son of Jonathon, whose covenant with David prefigured the New Covenant - see section 28, 'the king felt compassion upon Mephiboseth' (verse 7), so he was not killed, even though he was a Son of Saul, who was bloodguilty with respect to the Gibeonites, so really he should have been killed.

This is an exact parallel with the stated symbolism of this account. Saul is fleshly Israel, Mephiboseth is spiritual Israel, these ones have inherited the bloodguilt of their father Jacob (who inherited it from Adam), and are therefore deserving of death. But due to the compassion and undeserved kindness of God, as expressed through his son Jesus, the greater David, they are preserved alive, by virtue of the new covenant, which is the antitype of the covenant between Jonathon and David, which was the covenant which preserved the life of Mephiboseth. The society's various different understandings of what this 'Jonathonic' covenant symbolises are somewhat off this mark, it is suggested (Salvation p128, Su 1401-1, Sr 246-9), see section 28 for a fuller explanation.

The exact length of the famine period is again cryptically defined by the fourth time that the Israelites defeated the Philistines. The 12 toes and the 12 fingers are 'but one' in the words of the prophet Joseph (Gen 41:25), representing the twelve months of the fourth year or fourth 'time' of Jesus' ministry, as opposed to the fourth time that a giant Philistine was killed. Actually one could well liken each year of Jesus' ministry to killing a giant Philistine! Now since the 12 toes and the 12 fingers of this giant fourth Philistine of verse 20, were split six and six, with the man who died being in the middle of his own 12 toes and fingers, so Jesus died in the middle of the 12 months of the fourth year of his ministry. This was when the three and a half year atonement of his ministry ended, thereby 'extinguishing' the greater 'lamp of Israel'. In section 98, we will see that this account actually gives two witnesses to the exact date of the end of this famine, and these witnesses use every concept and number in the account of the killing of the four Philistines. This sort of understanding is therefore scripturally complete. When one understands why every word in a scripture is there, then one has the interpretation that belongs to God (Gen 40:8).

[27] BALAAM AND THE THREE MALEDICTIONS THAT BECAME THREE BLESSINGS

Have you ever wondered why there were three curses that were changed into blessings, in Numbers 23? or why each time before the blessing was forthcoming, Balaam and Balak built seven altars and sacrificed seven bulls and seven rams, one of each on each altar? And why Balaam said to Jehovah before the first sacrifice: "I set the seven altars in rows and I proceeded to offer up a bull and a ram on each altar?" (Num 23:4). If so, then if you have read this book you will probably be able to guess what it is that Jehovah is referring to here. The three maledictions are the Exedenic Times, the Alienation Times and the Gentile Times. The seven bulls and seven rams which are sacrificed sequentially on the seven altars are 'but one' (Gen 41:25) and they represent the seven times needed before each malediction is turned into each blessing. This is why in each of the three accounts of the three curses/blessings in Numbers 23, the sequence of events is as follows:

Deuteronomy 23:5 says: "And Jehovah your God did not want to listen to Balaam; but Jehovah your God in your behalf, changed the malediction into a blessing, because Jehovah your God loved you".

Nehemiah 13:2 says: "for they .... went hiring against them Balaam to call down evil upon them. However our God changed the malediction into a benediction".

The account starts in chapter 22, the symbolism employed is:

With regard to our (i.e. the faithful ones) representation as a she-ass, this may not be too far wide of the mark! We have an awful lot to do in the last sixteen years of this system! Starting in Num 22:5 we see that Balak (Satan) hires Balaam who is from 'Pethor, which is by the river of the sons of his people'. Pethor was in Mesopotamia, the river was the Euphrates (Insight 1 p624, Deut 23:4), in other words in the region of Babylon. Eventually after various financial inducements Balaam sets off on his she-ass towards Balak the King of Moab. This road symbolises the broad and spacious path that leads to destruction of Matthew 7:13. The she-ass is God's people and Babylon the Great is driving them down this road. Now the she-ass sees an angel and then tries to go into the field and get off the road to destruction (verse 23), but Balaam strikes her and forces her back onto the road. This represents the Jews entering the promised land at the end of the Exedenic Times, and Joshua's meeting with the angel Michael (Joshua 5:14, see section 14). Followed by their subsequent expulsions in 740 BCE and 607 BCE. This is actually the first of the three comings of Jesus, and each one of his three comings spell the end of one of the three curses of the Exedenic, Alienation and Gentile Times, see section 60.

Then the she-ass squashes Balaam's foot against a wall, making his position very uncomfortable (verse 25), again due to angelic direction. This represents Jesus' exposure and denunciation of the pharisees, the then representatives of Babylon the Great, at the end of the Alienation Times, his second coming, which was his first visible presence. Finally the she-ass lays down under Balaam, causing him to fall off, or in other words refuses to carry him any further. This is the fall of Babylon the Great, which happens three and a half times (years) after the Gentile Times end, in fact in Nisan 14, 1918 see section 58.3. All three she-ass revolts are angelically guided, and result in beatings from Balaam (Matthew 24:49). All three mark the end of the three maledictions determined on God's people, all of which were demanded by Satan (the greater Balak)!. All three angelic guidances are from Jesus, at his three comings. This is a very very deep and symbolic account, we have been Donkeys in our attempts to understand it. This is why Jehovah's people are symbolised as such here.

We then read a truly marvellous and righteous and just scripture. Because just as Satan used a dumb snake to cause the downfall of mankind, we read that 'Finally Jehovah opened the mouth of the ass'. Jehovah uses a dumb she-ass to condemn Satan in return, and what is more, Satan is forced to agree that the she-ass has not sinned, in other words is forced to admit that God's people are righteous, and admits that he himself is a murderer (verses 28-31). Incidentally the Journey down this road is temporal prophetically, hence the word finally in verse 28. We then find this very prophetic statement from Jehovah's angel:

"Supposing she had not turned aside from before me! For by now even you I should have killed, but her I should have preserved alive" (verse 33).

This represents the destruction of Babylon the Great, and the free gift of life given to God's people. Now we look at the three maledictions that became blessings again in chapter 23. We find that one message of this chapter is that:

The first success was the fall of Adam due to his following Eve rather than God. Eve was actually a false worshipper at the time, having already eaten herself, she was actually a false prophet, like Balaam! This was the start of the Exedenic Times. The second success was the disgusting state that mankind had reached 120 years before the flood, when Jehovah said that he regretted having made men (Gen 6:3,5-7). This was the start of the Alienation Times, and was brought about by the false prophets of physically materialised demons themselves. The third success was the totally apostatised state of the Jewish nation in 607 BCE, idols in the temple etc (Ezekiel 8:7-16). We know from section 4.2, that the Gentile Times started and indeed took their length from the amount of false worship that preceded these times, (Leviticus 26:18).

The first blessing uttered in Num 23:7-10 refers to the end of the Exedenic Times. 'There as a people they keep tabernacling isolated' (verse 9), this is their condition in the promised land. As the scripture says 'You for your part will take possession of the land, and I, for my part, shall give it to you to take possession of it, a land flowing with milk and honey. Jehovah your God I am who divided you off from the peoples' (Lev 20:24, the cross ref).

'Among the nations they do not reckon themselves' (verse 9), we read in Deut 32:8 'When the most high gave the nations an inheritance, when he parted the sons of Adam from one another, he proceeded to fix the boundary of the peoples with regard for the number of the sons of Israel'.

'Let my soul die the death of the upright ones' (verse 10), the cross reference is Psalms 37 where we read in verse 34: 'Hope in Jehovah and keep his way, and he will exalt you to take possession of the earth'.

'And let my end turn out afterward like theirs' (verse 10), the cross reference is Joshua 14:14, which says: 'At that Joshua blessed him and gave Hebron to Caleb the son of Jephunneh as an inheritance. That is why Hebron has come to belong to Caleb... down to this day, for the reason that he followed Jehovah the God of Israel fully.

The second blessing describes the end of the Alienation Times (verses 19-24).' God is not a man that he should tell lies' (verse 19), this is next said in Psalm 89 which is all about Jesus, verse 35 says: 'Once I have sworn in my holiness to David I will not tell lies', whereas verse 26 reads 'He himself calls out to me, "You are my father"' referring to Jesus.

'neither a son of man that he should feel regret' (verse 19), the cross reference is 1 Samuel 15 :29 where we find 'At this Samuel said to him: "Jehovah has ripped away the royal rule of Israel from you today, and he will certainly give it to a fellowman of yours who is better than you....He is not an earthling man so as to feel regrets"'. This was Samuel telling Saul that he would lose the throne, and just after this David was anointed in 1083 BCE see section 95. David prefigures Jesus, of course, furthermore the references to uncanny power and divination in verses 21,23 are mirrored in 1 Samuel 15:23, where Samuel points out to Saul that rebelliousness is the same as the sin of Divination, and pushing ahead presumptuously the same as using uncanny power and Terraphim.

' Has he himself said it and he will not do it, and has he spoken and will he not carry it out?' (verse 19). This is the rhetorical version of Isaiah 46:10,11 which tells us that Jehovah is 'the one telling from the beginning the finale', and then he says: 'I have even spoken it; I shall also bring it in. I have formed it, I shall also do it.' This is Jehovah telling his servants of his prophetic power, and the cornerstone of his whole plan was the death of his son, which was the end of the Alienation Times.

'A loud hailing of a king is in his midst' (verse 21) this refers to Jesus' death see section 40. 'At this time it may be said regarding Jacob and Israel, "what has God worked out." Behold a people will get up like a lion,' (verse 23). This is referring to Jesus, the lion of Judah, being seen, the pivot in the plan that Jehovah has worked out.

The third blessing refers to the period at the end of the Gentile Times. These times being the third malediction (see section 8, the three rights of the firstborn). The blessing spans verses 4-9 of chapter 24. Verse 5 reads 'How good-looking are your tents, O Jacob, your tabernacles O Israel'. Which reminds us of Deuteronomy 6:10 which says:

'When Jehovah your God will bring you into the land that he swore to your forefathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob to give you, great and good looking cities that you did not build, and houses full of all good things that you did not fill.'

Now this scripture was fulfilled initially by the Jews taking cities in the promised land. But since the scripture is also quoted from here in Balaam's third blessing, we see that it applies to the situation after 1914, it is therefore apparent that not every building will be destroyed at Armageddon.

'His King will be higher than Agag, And his Kingdom will be lifted up' (verse 7), we are returning again to 1 Samuel 15, this time it is verse 20, where King Saul overstepped the command of Jehovah by sparing King Agag's life. This is the only King Agag in the bible, and so we must assume that the blessing is referring to him. Now Agag was the head of the Amalekites, in the days of Saul. These were the first people to unilaterally attack the Israelites, after they had left Egypt (Ex 17:8-13). Jehovah therefore made the following pronouncement against them:

'Because a hand is against the throne of Jah, Jehovah will have war with Amalek from generation to generation,' (verse 14).

From which it is evident that the Amalekites and their King stand for the first and traditional enemies of God's people who are Satan the devil and his demonic hordes. It is the king of these ones whom Agag is symbolising, and Jehovah's king will certainly be higher than Satan, and his kingdom will in fact crush and put an end to all of his kingdoms! (Dan 2:44). This point is actually made by Balaam himself in verse 20, where he says:

So the Kingdom which is lifted up (verse 7), is none other than the Kingdom of God, and Jehovah is using the seven year period covering the change of power from Saul to David to symbolise the seven times period covering the change of power from the nation of Israel under the law to Jesus over the heavenly Kingdom. In other words the seven years that David had to wait, after he had been anointed, before he took the Kingdom from Saul, are the Gentile Times. We already know that this is the case from section 16. The insight book 1 p56, of course misses this, since the writers of it are unaware that the Gentile Times prophecy is vividly recited by King David's seven years as a fugitive.

'And their bones he will gnaw, and he will break them to pieces with his arrows' (verse 8), the cross reference is Psalms 2:9: 'You will break them with an iron sceptre, as though a potter's vessel you will dash them to pieces.' As regards the 'arrows', we think of the first of the four horsemen of Rev 6:2, and his bow. Verse 9 is an almost straight quote from Genesis 49:9, the blessing given by Jacob to Judah, whose seed would include the lion of Judah himself. So the whole blessing refers to Jesus in Kingdom power.

The fourth and final utterance of Balaam is prefixed by the words: 'Do come, let me advise you what this people will do to your people afterward in the end of the days', this time period occurs after 1914, and this utterance refers to Armageddon. Balaam now says in verses 15,16:

This piece of scripture we already know applies to the Lord's day. What it is saying is therefore that this account was actually sealed up in the sense of Daniel 12:4. Which we know is true, because it embodies most of Jehovah's plan for mankind! The one who understands this account, therefore has his eye unsealed, and is hearing the sayings of God, and is knowing the knowledge of the most high. Even a vision of the almighty, he is seeing (verse 16). This is certainly true, it is also the true God Jehovah's wish, that many will get this knowledge. His prophet has even said as much (Dan 12:4).

Finally there is a very pertinent point that this account makes for the Lord's day. This is that after these three curses which were turned into blessings, the main problem for God's people was fornication (Num 25:1-9). This is actually a prophecy, for the time after the end of the Gentile Times, which is now! God's people are fulfilling this now in their weakness, since as Paul said: 'Who is weak and I am not weak?' (2 Cor 11:29). Because the biggest cause of disfellowshipping is fornication, which is the idolatry of the opposite sex, which was the fall of Adam. Have we learned nothing from his mistake? Therefore what we need is Phinehas (Num 25:7-9), we have to have his hate for this sin, and his jealousy for his God.

[28] THE PROPHECY OF THE THREE TIMES TO THE NEW COVENANT: THE TEMPLE TIMES

The book of 1 Samuel chapter 20, contains the account of the covenant made between David and Jonathon. This account is very, very symbolic, and very cryptic. It is the purpose of this book that the reader is made familiar with the methods used by the Most High God, to convey his thoughts to his people in the time of the end (Dan 8:17), and these methods are cryptic and symbolic. As we gain more experience in seeing Jehovah's interpretations of his book, the bible, we will find that it is a book within a book within a book. In fact in this way Jehovah has communicated three related messages to three sets of people separated by three thousand five hundred years through the very same set of words, a miracle in itself.

The symbolism employed is:

With this symbolism, we shall find that the account is rich beyond belief. The society has interpreted Jonathon initially as prefiguring the Great Crowd (Salvation p128), presumably as a result of the then recent discovery of the same. SU 140-1 describes him as picturing the 'other sheep' of John 10:16, and SR 246-9 has him prefiguring 'the long line of witnesses of Jehovah before Christ, which extends all the way back to Abel'. Now Jesus told his followers 'You must accordingly be perfect, as your heavenly father is perfect' (Matthew 5:48).

If Jonathon did stand for any of the society's attempts at his identity then there would be no room for any identity to be attached to his ATTENDANT, who is mentioned twelve times in the account. And if Jonathon was anything to do with the Great Crowd how would we understand 1 Sam 23:17 &18 where Jonathon says to David:

We pick up the symbolic interpretation of the account in 1 Sam 20:8, where David says to Jonathon: 'And you must render loving-kindness toward your servant, for it is into a COVENANT OF JEHOVAH, that you have brought your servant with you'. This is the new covenant between Jesus and his anointed brothers, made in 33 CE. Incidentally we know this for a fact because, the new covenant is the covenant which is validated at the end of the three times represented by the three arrows, and these arrows represent salvation, which is the purpose of the new covenant. David then says:

'If there is error in me, put me to death yourself, since why should it be to your father that you should bring me', to which Jonathon answers: 'That is unthinkable respecting you'.

Yes Jesus was free from all error and his brothers were the very ones that did recognise this! In verse 10, David says to Jonathon: 'Who will tell me whether what your father may answer you is harsh'. It was Jesus' brothers who preached the Good News to the Nation of Israel, represented by Saul, and the response to this preaching told Jesus whether they were favourably disposed or unfavourably disposed towards himself. In verse 12, Jonathon says to David:

'Jehovah the God of Israel be a witness that I shall send to my father about this time TOMORROW, OR THE THIRD DAY, and if he is well disposed toward David, shall I not send to you and certainly disclose it to your ear'.

The reference to 'about this time tomorrow' can only be a reference to the time that Jesus died. This is because we are told in verse 24 that immediately after this conversation David proceeded to conceal himself, and we are told in verse 5 that he had to conceal himself until the evening on the third day. We know from Matthew 12:39,40 that Jesus was 'in the heart of the earth' for three days and three nights. Just as Jesus' 'concealment' started in the evening which was the start of Nisan 14 (i.e. when the passover started) i.e. the 'first day' of the festival, so David would in this typical period, conceal himself in the evening which was the start of the first day, which was the 'new moon' (verse 18). Therefore 'this time tomorrow' (verse 12), would be just before the evening or end of the first day of concealment, which was just after Jesus had died, since we know he died at about 3 pm (Mat 27:46). The 'third day' when he came out of concealment, in the evening, corresponds to the time when Jesus was resurrected and appeared to his disciples 'when it was late on that day, the first of the week' (John 20:19). The three days that Jesus' spent 'in the heart of the earth' (Mat 12:39,40) were the first three days of the passover festival.

These first and third days here clearly represent the first and third days of Jesus' concealment (Notice that Jesus was not actually dead throughout all of this period - but then neither was Jonah in the whale - Mat 12:39). Also we remember that the Hebrew day started in the evening. Therefore Jonathon's sounding out of his father at these two times (verse 12) means, the Jonathon Class' sounding out the reaction of natural Jews to Jesus' death (which occurred on the first day) and subsequent resurrection (which occurred on the third day), which sounding work was carried out exclusively by and among the sons of Israel. This statement from Jonathon (verse 12) is actually his obligation under the new covenant, as Jesus said:

What an exhortation! (Mat 28:19,20), which initially applied only to Natural Jews who were anointed brothers of Christ - the 'Jonathon Class'. This sounding would solicit a response which would show to Jesus, whether these sons of Jacob were well disposed to him or not.

In verse 13 Jonathon repeats that he is the one who will disclose to David, the attitude of his father. This repetition is telling us that this exclusive disclosing stands for something greater than literal Saul's attitude toward literal David. In fact it stands for the exclusivity to the anointed Jews (the Jonathon class) of the preaching campaign for the last 'half of the week' of Daniel 9:27, amongst the sons of Israel (the Saul class). Jonathon then says to David in verse 14:

'And will you not if I shall still be alive, yes will you not exercise the loving kindness of Jehovah toward me, that I may not die? And you will not cut off your own loving-kindness from being with my household to time indefinite. Nor, when Jehovah cuts off the enemies of David, every one from the surface of the ground, will the name of Jonathon be cut off from the house of David'.

The phrase 'that I may not die' refers to the household of Jonathon, and the name of Jonathon, i.e. the Jewish race will be represented amongst the anointed, it does not mean that anointed Christians will not individually all die. As Jesus said: 'Unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground AND DIES it remains just one grain; but if it dies, it then bears much fruit' (John 12:24), whilst this here applies to Jesus, we know that his anointed brothers must drink the same cup as he did (Matthew 20:23). Furthermore their covenant needs to be validated with blood, as Paul says: 'For where there is a covenant, the death of the human covenanter needs to be furnished' (Heb 9:16), which lays the matter to rest (in more ways than one).

This cutting off of all of David's enemies from the surface of the ground initially applies to the destruction of Jerusalem, where all of these enemies were sons of Jacob, and then finally to Armageddon. The name of Jonathon is not cut off from the house of David, because all of the anointed brothers of which at least five thousand are Natural Jews (Acts 4:4), at that time have their name in the book of life (Rev 3:5). In verse 17 we read of Jonathon that:

'As he loved his own soul he loved him'. We read in revelation 12:11 of the anointed ones: 'And they did not love their souls even in the face of death'.

We will find out in section 61, just how big the 'Jonathon class' is, we will find out there, how many Jews are in heaven. Next we read in verses 18 and 19, about how David's seat will be vacant on the first day, and on the third day he will be missed very much and he must come to the place where he concealed himself on the 'working day'. The only time in the firstborn son of God's life when his seat was vacant was the three days that he spent in Sheol (Matthew 12:40). He rose on the third day, which was the first day of the week (Matthew 28:1), i.e. the first working day after the Sabbath. And the first thing that the two Maries saw was an angel sitting on a stone (Matthew 28:2), which is why Jonathon said in verse 19 : 'And you must dwell near this stone here'. The footnote to this tells us that the Vulgate bible has 'near the stone, the name of which is Ezel', Ezel means 'God helps', and this help was symbolised by the angel sitting on the stone.

Next Jonathon says that he will shoot three arrows and that he will send the attendant to find these arrows. The other illustration in the bible involving the shooting of three arrows is Elisha's final prophecy - see section 25.3. In that illustration the greater meaning of the arrows was Jesus coming to earth, Jesus was 'Jehovah's arrow of salvation' (2 Kings 13:17). We find the same symbolism in Isaiah 49:2:

'And he proceeded to make my mouth like a sharp sword. In the shadow of his hand he has hidden me. And he gradually made me a polished arrow', this refers to Jesus who was 'gradually polished' over many millenia.

The sign of the overshooting of the arrows (verses 20-22), which Jonathon now uses to inform David about whether or not Saul is well disposed towards him, symbolises Jesus having to wait for a period of three times until as Jonathon says in verse 21:

Which statement cryptically refers to the atonement between God and men brought about by Jesus' death. Then if the arrows (i.e. the time for salvation) are 'further away' then David (Jesus) must 'go for Jehovah has sent you away' says Jonathon in verse 22. This means that until the time represented by the three arrows is reached Jesus cannot come and there is no atonement. Of course the three arrows stand for a time period of three times before salvation (because arrows are shot three times, there being three of them!). So we know that there will be a period of three times, or 1080 years before Jesus dies. The question now is: 'We know that these three times start in Nisan 1048 BCE, but what event marks this start??' (1048 BCE is 1080 years before 33 CE).

The greater meaning of this sign therefore is not whether literal Saul is favourably disposed toward literal David, but is whether the Sons of Jacob are ready for the Son of God. This account is difficult to understand because it is a symbolic sign within a literal sign. But then so is Daniel chapter 4. In fact most of Jehovah's long term temporal prophecies take this form. Next in the account we have the three days of concealment. David's excuse for his absence being that he has a family sacrifice in Bethlehem, and that he had to go so that he could see his brothers, this all of course symbolises Jesus' death, which preserved alive his brothers spiritually, thereby enabling Jesus to see them for evermore. Saul says to Jonathon in verse 30:

This is the statement that the Jonathon class, i.e. natural Jews who become spiritual Jews, disown themselves and their fleshly inheritance, and choose the reproach of the Christ, despising shame like their exemplar Jesus (Mat 16:24, Heb 11:26, Heb 12:2). Saul then makes the following prophecy in verse 31:

The fulfilment of which is that the greater Jonathon's Kingship (i.e. that of the fleshly Jews who become spiritual Jews) is of course firmly established only after Jesus (the greater David) has died and is no longer 'alive on the ground'. Next Jonathon is humiliated by his father and hurt respecting David. This prefigures events such as the flogging of John and Peter in Acts 5:40. The next few verses from 35 to 40 is the account of the calling of the Gentiles. Jonathon says to his attendant:

This is Peter, the leading member of the Jonathon class applying the third key to the Kingdom, he is telling the Gentiles you too can find salvation (arrows=salvation). This is why in the account of the conversion of Cornelius in Acts 10:19, the Holy spirit says to Peter: 'Look! three men are seeking you', these three men represent the Jews, the Samaritans and the Gentiles, i.e. all three of the groups that were called and were seeking God through Jesus' brothers in the first century (see section 36 and Matthew 20:1-7).

However the arrow is shot beyond the attendant, and when the attendant finally reaches it, Jonathon calls from behind the attendant: 'Is not the arrow further away from you', and then he again calls from behind the attendant THREE TIMES saying: 'In haste! Act quickly! Do not stand still!' (verse 38). The repetition of the fact that Jonathon is calling from behind the attendant shows us that this call is symbolic of something greater (Gen 41:32, Amos 3:3-7, section 2). It is quite simply saying that the Attendant class (the Gentiles), will be called third (see section 36.1).

This represents the Gentiles getting saved only after the third call. Which explains why we read in verse 39: 'As for the attendant he did not know anything; only Jonathon and David knew about the matter.' This was because the Gentiles were in complete darkness until Tishri 36 CE. Next, we read that:

This is the Jewish brothers of Jesus giving the means of salvation (their weapons) to the Gentile (young attendant class) brother's of Jesus, who then spread the good news in all the cities of the world. In fact this is fulfilled at Acts 10:44. In verse 41 we are back at the resurrection of Jesus, and we read:

'As for David, he rose up from nearby to the South. Then he fell on his face to the earth and bowed THREE TIMES and they began kissing each other and weeping for each other'.

Now we know that the three bows and the three arrows are 'but one' (Gen 41:25), and that they both mean three times or 1080 years. Nor may it have escaped the attention of the reader that there is a play on words as regards bowing down and bow and arrow. We also know that this whole account is symbolic of the three days that Jesus spent in Sheol and of the New Covenant. In other words, these times are the last three times of the seven times of the Alienation Times (see section 9). We are now at last able to fully grasp the symbolic meaning of the last verse. David and Jonathon have sworn saying:

'May Jehovah himself prove to be between me and you and between my offspring and your offspring to time indefinite'.

Jehovah is precisely the person who lies between, or the bond of union between, the Jonathon class and Jesus and his other brothers, because the bond is no longer fleshly, it is now a spiritual bond. Finally David 'rose up and went his way' i.e. to heaven, and Jonathon 'came into the city' i.e. continued spreading the good news. It now remains to determine what event marks the start of the three times here prophesied. The clue to this is that both arrows and bows point to the ground. Incidentally the start of this period cannot be this typical covenant itself because this whole scene occurs before David is made King, which was in 1077 BCE (accession year - see section 16). Finally the three arrows of Salvation also further symbolise the three comings of Jesus, who himself is 'Jehovah's arrow of salvation' (2 Kings 13:17).

This is because Jehovah is perfect, and so he has not written ambiguous accounts. He has put precisely enough characters in each account for the reader of the bible to be able to uniquely determine the true meaning, if and only if he considers all of the little points that Jehovah has included, none of which are irrelevant.

[28.1] WHAT EVENT MARKED THE START OF THE THREE TIMES OF THE TEMPLE TIMES?

Well it transpires that the start of the three times is found in 1 Chronicles 21, where David purchases the threshing floor from Ornan. David has just conducted a census which Jehovah had not instructed him to do and Jehovah instructs Gad, David's visionary to tell him the penalty for this daft act incited by Satan (verse 1). in verse 10 Gad is told to tell David:

So David has to choose one out of these three penalties all of which last for three times, the times involved being years, months and days respectively. This scripture is very important from a prophetic point of view, because it shows that Jehovah uses a day and a month and a year to symbolise a time. Other examples of a month standing for a time are Rev 11:2, see section 82, and Haggai 1:1, section 67. David wisely chooses the sword of Jehovah, and at the end of the pestilence Jehovah's angel tells Gad to say to David:

'that David should go up to erect an altar to Jehovah on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite' (1 Chron 21:18).

In other words David is commanded to start the preparations for building a temple to Jehovah. Then Ornan himself sees David and:

'he immediately went out of the threshing floor and bowed down to David with his face to the earth', (verse 21).

We then read in verse 26 that David built an altar and offered up sacrifices, and proceeded to call upon Jehovah, who answered him with fire from the heavens. And in chapter 22:1 David says: 'This is the house of Jehovah the true God, and this is an altar for burnt offering for Israel'.

Now we remember the clue provided by the three bows and the three arrows in 1 Samuel 20:41,20, and recognise that since both of them point to the ground, they are 'but one' as a clue, and they firmly establish that the threshing floor of Ornan, the ground on which the temple is to be built by Solomon is where the three times of the Temple Times will start. This is further testified to by the 'bowing down with his face to the earth' (compare 1 Sam 20:41) by Ornan himself and the three times of the penalties offered to David. The chosen penalty period ends with a sacrifice accepted by Jehovah. This sacrifice prefigures Jesus' sacrifice, which was most certainly accepted by Jehovah. So in conclusion this prophecy, the three times of the 'Temple Times' tells us that:

This means that the from the commissioning by Jehovah to prepare the ground for building the temple to the inauguration of the temple in Tishri 1026 BCE, was a period of 22 and a half years. We will see this period again in Daniel 10, section 50. This prophecy is at the heart of many bible prophecies. We will return to it in sections 67 and 94.

[29] THE WHOLE TIMETABLE OF THE LAW, FROM THE ANNUAL FESTIVALS

This section is really too beautiful for the words of a burnt out mathematics scholar who is trying to follow the son of the most high God, Jehovah. Because every year, all of the annual festivals under the law, were in fact declaring and setting time periods for all of the temple arrangements in the whole period from the start of the law in 1512 BCE to the end of it in 33 CE. Which is yet a further reason why the Christ is saying:

"Keep on asking, and it will be given you, keep on seeking and you will find, keep on knocking and it will be opened to you," (Mat 7:7).

Well, we have asked, we have sought, we have knocked, and Look! we have had the whole sacrificial menu opened to us! Consider the below chart:

This chart covers all the annual burnt offerings to Jehovah. It excludes the sin offerings, which were always kids of goats and had no associated grain and oil offerings.

The rule for the grain offerings was 3 tenth of an ephah measures of fine flour for the bull, 2 tenth of an ephah measures for the ram and one tenth of an ephah measure for the lamb. These proportions were in accordance with the size of the animal being burnt. 'FLOUR M.' stands for the flour measure of a tenth of an ephah (Num 28,29). The sum of all of the grain used in one year was 480 ephahs.

The rule for the oil offerings was, half a hin for a bull, a third of a hin for a ram and a quarter of a hin for a lamb. These proportions were to go with the grain offering to make it moist and bind it into cakes. 'OIL M.' stands for the oil measure of a hin. All of these figures are obtained from Numbers chapters 28 and 29. The sum of all of the oil offerings in one year was 94 hins.

The 'SHEKELS' figure is the redemption value of the sacrifice at five shekels a head (Numbers 18:16). Under the Law, the sons of Israel had three temple arrangements, which we will find started and ended on the following dates:

With reference to our chart above, the redemption value of all the animals sacrificed up to but not including the festival of Booths was 490 Shekels, and the tabernacle was used up to but not including the festival of Booths in 1026 BCE. If we now take a shekel for a year (see section 10), we get a time period of 490 years for the tabernacle.

THIS IS WHY THE TABERNACLE HAD A LIFETIME OF 70 WEEKS OF YEARS, JUST LIKE ZERUBBABEL'S TEMPLE! (see section 7)

The sacrifices stop at the half of the last week, as they did with Zerubbabel's temple, i.e. 486 and a half years, was the useful lifetime of the tabernacle. Next we examine the inauguration ceremony for Solomon's temple and we see that this was in the festival of Booths and that only bulls and rams were sacrificed. (1 Kings 8:63). Therefore we add up the redemption value of all the bulls and rams in the annual festival of Booths under the law and it is 420 shekels:

Again we have a cutting short at the half of the last week which, since this period ends in Tishri 606 BCE gives a date of Nisan 609 BCE for the last sacrificial use of Solomon's temple. In other words the passover at that time was the last acceptable ceremony. This makes a lot of sense, firstly because the Tishri 607 BCE date for the beginning of the Gentile Times refers to Kingship ending, not to sacrifices ending. And secondly Jeremiah (39:1) tells us:

This was in Tebeth 609 BCE (see fig 2). We know this because 607 BCE was the eleventh year of Zedekiah (Jer 39:2). It is not likely that Jehovah would be paying any attention to any sacrifices that might have been occurring whilst his anointed executioner, Nebuchadnezzar, was besieging Jerusalem. Also Ezekiel tells us that all sorts of disgusting idolatry was going on in the temple by 612 BCE (Eze 8:1-16). Finally the two witnesses provided by the two temple arrangements either side of Solomon's temple, both of which were cut short at the half of the last week, firmly establish that this is what occurred in the case of Solomon's temple as well.

The remaining 98 lambs left in the festival of Booths have a redemption value of 490 shekels, which taken a 'shekel for a year' (section 10) then provide another witness to the 70 weeks of years prophecy, which ends with the week containing the sacrifice of the lamb of God, in 33 CE.

We have still got a gap between Solomon's temple and the 70 weeks of years part of Zerubbabel's temple. Now how do you fill the gap in your appetite left after you have eaten your meat? That is right, you eat your bread, the grain offering fills the gap! The number of measures of grain used in a year in these sacrifices (excluding the solemn assembly, which symbolises Jesus' death and the end of the law, which was why it was so solemn), was 480 measures. Which stand for 480 years, which splits into the 420 years or 60 weeks of years of imperfect (6 stands for imperfection) worship in Solomon's temple and the 60 years of UNCLEAN worship in Zerubbabel's temple, before Tishri 455 BCE. But we have one further gap between the end of the 420 year period in Tishri 606 BCE and the start of the 60 year period in Tishri 515 BCE.

Well it was the oil that bound the grain offering together was it not! And the total measure of oil that was used in the sacrificial year (excluding solemn assembly), was 94 hins, which stands for the 94 years from the end of sacrifices at the half of the last week of the 60 weeks of years of imperfect worship in Solomon's temple, i.e. Nisan 609 BCE to the inauguration of Zerubbabel's temple in Nisan 515 BCE. So the figurative oil of the 94 years binds the figurative grain of the two periods of unclean and imperfect worship. Notice though that there is a period of six months from Nisan 515 to Tishri 515 which is left over, between the end of the 94 years represented by the oil and the start of the 60 years of Unclean worship represented by some of the grain.

This half year period is excluded from the grain representation precisely because it was clean, because we read in Ezra 6:15-20, that the priests were all clean when they celebrated the passover after the inauguration. Whereas they were not celebrating the festival of Booths properly until 455 BCE (Neh 8:14-18). So the worship would have become unclean six months after the passover in Tishri when they celebrated Booths incorrectly. We will look again at this 60 year unclean period in section 30, and this six month period in section 95.

Summarising this we have three worshipping periods of 490 years. 490 years for the tabernacle, 490 years for Zerubbabel's temple (clean) and although Solomon's temple period was only 420 years, the Babylon exile period was 70 years, which seeing as it was a result of the Land Sabbath violations in the 420 year preceding period (section 4.1) can be added to it to make 490 years. So the whole chronology from 1512 BCE to 33CE is defined and confirmed. Could it be that this is what Jehovah meant when he told Moses to say to Pharaoh:

"And now we want to go please a journey of THREE DAYS into the wilderness, and we want to sacrifice to Jehovah our God"? ( Ex 3:18).

Because the big picture was three 490 year 'days' followed by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, which certainly was the sacrifice to their God. We state two results from this section:

ZERUBBABEL'S TEMPLE WAS INAUGURATED IN NISAN 515 BCE

SOLOMON'S TEMPLE TIME WAS 420 YEARS

[30] EZEKIEL'S MOCK FESTIVAL AND THE SIXTY UNCLEAN YEARS OF ZERUBBABEL'S TEMPLE

Ezekiel 45:9 to 45:25 has got to be one of the funniest and most sarcastic and derisory of divine utterances anywhere in the bible. Jehovah here, has his prophet Ezekiel act as a dead pan comedian. This festival is an absolute joke. First of all Jehovah tells the chieftains to stop defrauding his people, and they must use accurate scales and accurate measures of grain and oil (Ezek 45:10). Then he makes the marvellous statement: "Twenty shekels, twenty-five shekels, fifteen shekels should prove to be the Maneh for you", (Eze 45:12).

Insight 2 p404 misses the point here, it is suggested! Yes a Mina (or Maneh) is 50 Shekels, it has always been 50 shekels it was 50 Shekels before Ezekiel wrote his book of the bible and it was still 50 shekels when Ezekiel wrote his book of the bible. Jehovah is defrauding the defrauders, he is prophesying to them in their language, he is catching them in their cunning (Job 5:13) He has swindled them out of ten shekels!

Who has ever heard of making sixty by adding 20+25+15? This is a bent calculation, it should be 20+20+20, but Jehovah has added 5 here and taken away 5 there, just like the crooked chieftains. What this scripture is so eloquently saying to these corrupt chieftains is that:

It is another witness to the sixty year period from Tishri 515 BCE to Tishri 455 BCE of unclean worship at Zerubbabel's temple, a shekel for a year.

Likewise the law that was laid down in the book of Leviticus was the same in 1512 as it was around 600 BCE when Ezekiel wrote his book, and the same as it was in 33 CE, when Jesus died. This is not a case of Jehovah having to correct a few errors that he made in transmitting the law on festivals to Moses, nor is it a case of him changing his mind about how he wants his worshippers to sacrifice, because it is written:

"I am Jehovah I have not changed" (Mal 3:6).

Jehovah is mercilessly mocking the chieftains and priests in the temple just and they had been mercilessly mocking him with their derisory sacrifices.

Have a close look please at what Ezekiel is proposing:

1. Forget about fine flour (Lev 23:13, Num 28:13), mix up some wheat together with barley (Ezek 45:13) -euch!

2. All of Israel club together and see if they can come up with one sheep (Ezek 45:15) as burnt offering, communion sacrifice and atonement sacrifice all in one!

3. As regards oil, forget about a third of a hin and a quarter of a hin to a tenth of an ephah (Num 28:12-14). Use a whole bath load of it or even ten bath loads, the homer measure (Ezek 45:14), and let's use a sixth of an ephah rather than a tenth - we are going swimming!

4. Who needs a priest? Let the chieftains do all the whole burnt offerings and the grain offerings and the drink offerings, during the festivals and during the new moons and during the Sabbaths (Ezek 45:17) this should be no problem for them.

5. Why have atonement day on Tishri 10? let's have it on Nisan 1 and get it over with! (Ezek 45:18-20) What is the point in spattering the blood seven times before the ark (Lev 16:14), just stick some on the four corners of the altar, and on the doorposts!

6. Look don't worry if you mess up the atonement sacrifice, have another crack at it 7 days later (Ezek 45:20)!

7. Let's try the passover without any lambs (Ezek 45:23)!

8. Why use a kid of the goats for a sin offering all the time (Num 28:15)? let's try a buck of the goats, its still a goat isn't it (Ezek 45:23)?

9. A quarter of a hin of oil to a tenth of an ephah of grain (Num 28:12-14)? No that is far too complicated. Let's just use a hin of oil to the ephah of grain (Ezek 45:24) - no problem.

10. When the next festival comes around, don't bother to change what you are doing, just do whatever it was that you did at the last one (Ezek 45:25), its just another festival, what difference does it make anyway? a festival is a festival.

The point is made is it not?

This is the account of Joseph's prime ministership in Egypt in Genesis chapters 41 - 45. We will first of all look at a few aspects of the account, then we will define the symbolism and then we will look at the two times and the five times prophecies themselves. Yes, it's yet another undiscovered prophecy in Genesis. When Paul tells us at Galatians 4:24, referring to Genesis 16, that:

"These things stand as a symbolic drama, for these women (i.e. the marriage covenants therewith) MEAN two covenants, the one from mount Sinai, which brings forth children for slavery, and which is Hagar...Wherefore, brothers we are children, not of a servant girl, but of the free woman."

DOES THIS MEAN THAT ONLY SARAH & HAGAR ARE ACTING OUT SYMBOLIC DRAMAS?

No, rather we repeat the words that Jehovah said to Miriam and Aaron: "Hear my words please. If there came to be a prophet of yours for Jehovah, it would be in a vision I would make myself known to him. In a dream I would speak to him. Not so my servant Moses! He is being entrusted with all my house. Mouth to mouth I speak to him, thus showing him, and not by riddles; and the appearance of Jehovah is what he beholds" (Num 12:7,8).

We have already seen how Leah & Rachel stand for the fleshly and spiritualised new covenant (i.e. two other women also 'mean two covenants'). Seeing as there is no reader of the bible who has the relationship with Jehovah that Moses had, we are all in the position of Aaron and Miriam, and Jehovah is speaking to us symbolically. The whole bible has to be viewed with this in mind. Similarly Jesus, the greater Moses, mankind's only other mediator, said to his disciples:

"To you it is granted to understand the sacred secrets of the kingdom of the heavens, but to those people it is not granted. For whoever has, more will be given him, and he will be made to abound; but whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him. This is why I speak to them by the use of illustrations, because looking they look in vain, and hearing, they hear in vain, neither do they get the sense of it" (Mat 13:11-13).

Jesus was using illustrations even here, to tell them why he was using illustrations! Yes the whole bible has to be viewed with this in mind too. So bearing these things in mind, we look at the account of Rachel's death in Gen 35:16-20. Here Rachel dies whilst giving birth to Benjamin. We already know that Rachel's marriage covenant with Jacob symbolises the spiritualised Abrahamic covenant, which commenced in Tishri 36 CE, section 18. We also know that death ends the marriage. Therefore Rachel's death symbolises the end of God's covenant with Abraham. This covenant can only end when God has carried out all of his obligations under it, in other words when 'All the nations of the earth' have blessed themselves, by means of his seed. (Gen 22:18). This is fulfilled when all of spiritual Israel is finally sealed. In this account, Benjamin represents this nation. Now we have seen in section 18, how Joseph, Rachel's firstborn, symbolised the kingdom of God in the heavens and Benjamin, her lastborn, symbolised the kingdom of God on the earth. So Benjamin is symbolising two different things in two different accounts. The reader may already be aware that the same bible characters can symbolise different things in different accounts, we will see a lot of this in the sections of this book covering Daniel. In the story of Joseph, that we are looking at here, in Genesis 41-45, Joseph prefigures Jesus, and Benjamin prefigures his anointed brothers.

Meanwhile the ten brothers (excluding Benjamin and Joseph) had sold Joseph as a slave (compare Judas Iscariot), so that he was as good as dead to his father (Gen 37:28). And Joseph had interpreted Pharaoh's dream as meaning that there would be 7 years of plenty, followed by 7 years of famine, having attributed this interpretation to God (Gen 41:25-32). Joseph had now been made Lord of all Egypt and was responsible for all food distribution, when the famine started, because Jehovah was with him, and he had proved himself loyal to Jehovah, resisting the advances of Potiphar's wife. From this it is apparent that Joseph stands for Jesus Christ, who had proved himself loyal to his father Jehovah. At this point we are helped by the words of Stephen in Acts 7:11-13, which tell us that the first time the brothers went to Joseph for food, Joseph was not made known to them, but the second time he was, and the family stock of Joseph became manifest to Pharaoh.

We also read that Jacob did not send Benjamin the first time that the brothers went to Egypt to buy food, because as he said: "Otherwise a fatal accident may befall him" (Gen 42:4). Verse 7 tells us that:

'When Joseph got to see his brothers, he AT ONCE recognised them, but he made himself UNRECOGNISABLE to them'.

Furthermore Joseph said to the ten brothers: "You are SPIES! You have come to see the exposed condition of the land!" (verse 9)

And he took Simeon as a hostage until they brought him Benjamin. And the brothers reasoned that they were bloodguilty as regards their brother Joseph and we read in verse 23,"As for them, they did not know that Joseph was listening, because there was an INTERPRETER between them."

The best thing to do here is to just spill the beans!

Now we can understand what all this is symbolising. Jesus was not made manifest to the Jews under Moses. But it was he through whom Moses talked "mouth to mouth" with Jehovah (Num 12:7,8). This is not surprising since he is the 'word' of God (John 1:1). This also explains why, when Jacob wrestled with the Angel Michael, and when Samson's mother Manoah met the angel Michael, he although being asked by both of them, would not reveal his name (Gen 32:29, Judges 13:18). Now we know why Jacob was not prepared to send Benjamin the first time, and why he was worried that he might be killed. It was because God and Man were enemies at this time, and at two. Jehovah, the greater Jacob and the Nation of Israel under the law, the sons of the ten spies who were bloodguilty, were unreconciled, alienated and enemies, because there were still 1500 years of the Alienation Times left, at the time of Moses (section 9).

The 10 brothers of course prefigure the ten spies of Numbers 13:32, who went to spy out the land of Canaan, whose descendants the sons of Israel were to become. Which descendants were to become bloodguilty for Jesus' death, the greater Joseph. We know too that Jehovah took the Levites in place of all the firstborn of the sons of Israel, this was the first Ransom deal (Numbers 3:45). This deal is prefigured by Simeon ransoming Benjamin, who represents spiritual Israel, the firstborn (excluding Jesus-Joseph) sons of Jehovah (Gen 42:24). Obviously the literal food symbolises the spiritual food, under the law.

Now that we understand the symbolism we can look with something a little closer to Jehovah's eyes, at the second visit of the sons of Israel to Joseph, and the second ransom deal. This time Benjamin comes too and all the brothers receive a banquet. This Banquet is Jesus' ministry to the Nation of Israel. But Benjamin keeps getting five times as much as everyone else (Gen 43:34).

IS THIS BECAUSE BENJAMIN ATE LIKE A HORSE ??

We will find out later! Meantime Joseph has placed his cup in Benjamin's bag. As Jesus asked his disciples: "Can you drink the cup that I am about to drink?" they said to him, "We can." He said to them: "You will indeed drink my cup.." (Mat 20:22,23). Then Judah effectively pays the second ransom for Benjamin, for the sake of his father! (Gen 44:32-34). This symbolises Jesus, the 'Lion of the tribe of Judah', paying the ransom for spiritual Israel, i.e. Benjamin, to vindicate his father's name. And this time Joseph reveals himself to his brothers, as we read in verses 3 and 4 of Gen 45:

Jesus came to earth in Tishri 29 CE and said to each one of the sons of Israel 'Is my father still alive' as far as you are concerned? And a lot of them were very disturbed by him, especially the Pharisees. But to those who would listen, he bade them to 'come close'. 'Be my follower', he said to his apostles, (Mark 2:14). Now we come to a very prophetic explanation from Joseph in Gen 45:5-7:

That it was God who sent Joseph to Rachel we know for sure, because Rachel was barren, Gen 30:23. The seven years of famine stand for the seven years of years of withdrawal of God's spirit, yes the spiritual famine of the Alienation Times. Joseph was sent ahead of the brothers, i.e. the nation of Israel. By how much was he sent ahead? Well when he made this statement there were five years of famine left. And do you remember how he increased Benjamin's portion five times, and Benjamin stands for spiritual Israel. Their first arrival coincides with the end of the Alienation Times:

SO THESE FIVE YEARS ARE FIVE TIMES

And Joseph was born 1800 years, or 5 years of years, before Jesus died. In other words these five times of Benjamin's Times are the last five times in the seven times of the Alienation Times. This puts Joseph's birth at Nisan 1768 BCE, which is not of any earth shattering consequence for bible chronology. But it does make a few dates a bit more exact, as we will see in section 99.

No doubt it has not escaped your notice that all of verses 5 to 7 equally well apply to Jesus himself. Finally we read in chapter 45, verse 22, that Joseph gave Benjamin five times as many changes of mantles as he gave the rest of the brothers (this was not because he was going to sweat five times as much, because he had eaten five times as much at the meal that they all had had earlier!). This is indeed the second recital of the prophetic statement of the five times. And as Joseph himself said they are 'but one', (Gen 41:25). Furthermore, we read in Gen 43:10, that Judah said to Jacob:

This is a lovely lesson in how to interpret the bible. Because what happens if we go 'there' and then 'back two times'. Well 'there' is literally referring to Joseph in Egypt, but cryptically it is Joseph's birth, the beginning of the five times. So going back two times takes us to 120 years before the flood, the beginning of the Alienation Times, which confirms that these times are truly a split of the Alienation Times. This prophecy of the two times and the five times, therefore splits the seven times of the Alienation Times in two, at Joseph's birth. So we now have the prophecy of the two times of Joseph's times, which start in Nisan 2488 BCE, when Jehovah and mankind fell out, and end in Nisan 1768 BCE, when Joseph was born.

There is yet a further meaning to these two times and these five times, and to the prophetic words of Joseph at Gen 45:6,7 and the gift of Gen 43:11,12. This we will look at in section 34, where we will find out really why the five times have been called Benjamin's Times.

[32] INTRODUCTION

The writer has used the name 'Unsealed Prophecy' to this part of the book, because it contains the unsealing of Daniel and a lot of cryptic prophecy and cryptic prophetic calculations. In truth, the majority of the first part of this book, was also sealed up until the 'time of the end', but the first part contains the three basic maledictions of seven times, and various other basics, a few of which (chapters 4,5,6,7,8&9) were not sealed up things, hence it is called 'Fundamental Prophecy'.

Having established the fundamentals, we are now in the glorious position of being able to explode in our understanding of bible prophecy, and of the ways of the true God. We are about to uncover a whole new part of Jehovah's plan for man, in great detail. We will discover the consummate and unparalleled elegance of Jehovah's use of illustration. We are going to go a fairly long way towards grasping the very knowledge of God (Prov 2:4). We will indeed uncover a lot of the hidden treasures in the bible (Prov 2:4). The question that we will then have to ask is:

The bible, itself, will answer even this question! We are going to apply all of the techniques and the various understandings that we have now developed in the first half of this book, first to a few interesting prophecies, then to the Book of Daniel and to the Book of Revelation and to the Book of Luke and to the Book of Matthew and to the Book of Ezra. We will discover from Daniel, that before February 1st of this very year of 1992:

The book of Daniel was not and could not be unsealed !

This is assuming that the memorial in 2004 CE is on Tuesday April 5th, which is the day before Jewish passover day (see appendix 4). This date for the time of the end (Dan 12:4) we work out mainly from Daniel 8. As regards the writer of this book:

What a privilege this is. And what a pleasure it is to be able to convey the unlocked book to the faithful and discreet slave of the King of kings. So enough trumpet blowing, let us make a start. Incidentally the writing of this book started in early January 1992, the writer himself did not consider the book of Daniel at all (for the purposes of this book), until early March, and he was not aware that the 'time of the end' does not start until 1992, until about the middle of March, when it had of course already started. In fact had he been aware that it hadn't started, before it did in fact start, on 1 February, then he would for a certainty have been in an unscriptural position! Because, this date was a sealed up thing.

'Why are you doing this reasoning among yourselves, because you have no loaves, you with little faith? Do you not yet see the point, or do you not remember the five loaves in the case of the five thousand and how many baskets you took up? Or the seven loaves in the case of the thousand and how many provision baskets you took up?...(Mat 16:8-11)

Yes those unreasoning disciples, what little faith they had, they thought that Jesus was giving them a cookery lesson! Of course we aren't like that are we? Oh no, we know exactly what Jesus was talking about, yes he was demonstrating how God can provide both physical and spiritual food to a large crowd of people, in fact to everyone (W62, p616, W76, p192)......... ..................... Fine well if that was the case why is it that the numbers of loaves and people and baskets are not only mentioned in both the parables, but also repeated by Jesus here when he refers back to the parables, as an example of the lack of faith in his disciples? Why is that?

In fact who really were the numbers of people and baskets and loaves and fishes in this account included in the bible for the benefit of? Truly these things in this account were most certainly not included for the benefit of the first century Christians, they would have had a first or second hand witness to both of these miracles, and knowledge of the meaning of these numbers did not belong to them. It was put there for our benefit. Yes it is for the twentieth century Christians, and Jesus is saying to you, Oh faithful and discreet slave, and he is speaking to us, Oh ye witnesses of Jehovah:

He is speaking right out of the page at us, because we are the ones of little faith who have not discerned the greater meaning of these miracles! But now, let us open our eyes to the full glory of these parables! Because what really are the two great feeding miracles that Jesus Christ has performed?

Are they not the two preaching campaigns that he has personally managed?

Are they not the feeding of the anointed brothers in the first century and then the feeding of the anointed brothers in the twentieth century? Were these campaigns to unimportant to be classed as miracles? Well now that we have asked all of these rhetorical questions we say, yes these two campaigns have been the greatest feeding miracles ever. And now please look at the true meaning of these two miracles:

The symbolism that Jehovah uses in truly fantastic. The Alienation Times is explained in section 9, the split of this into two times and five times is explained in section 31. This split occurred at Joseph's birth, which was five times before Jesus died. Now Joseph was the prime minister of Egypt, and was in charge of all physical feeding with grain - hence the five loaves. Whereas in the two times preceding this we had a big flood - hence the two fishes! The little fishes are the smaller symbolic floods which overtook Jerusalem (i.e. God's people) in 607 BCE and 70 CE, as Daniel says - 'the end will be by the flood' (Dan 9:27). The figures of 80,000 and 64,000 for the two preaching campaign are simply the result of splitting the total number of 144,000 brothers in the ratio of 5:4.

So the ratio of 5,000 : 4,000 gives us the ratio of anointed brothers from the two campaigns. The seven congregations in Revelation we know stand for the whole of the anointed brotherhood in the Lord's day.

One major consequence of these figures is that there was a very long period from sometime in the first century until sometime in the 1890's when absolutely nobody was born again at all. This is because all of the 80,000 are associated with the first century preaching campaign and all of the 64,000 are associated with the twentieth century campaign. Which again is because the first group were fed from the 12 baskets of leftovers which represent the twelve apostles themselves, and the second group are fed from the 7 baskets of leftovers which represent the seven congregations of Revelation in the Lord's day. We can also deduce from this that nobody in the 80,000 campaign was anointed after the apostle John died around 100 CE, because after his death, there was nobody from the twelve left alive to feed anyone. In fact the first century campaign is symbolised by the first temple of Solomon, and the twentieth century campaign is symbolised by the second temple of Zerubbabel.

Now we can see why there was a gap between Solomon's temple and Zerubbabel's temple!

Now we can see why there was a 60 year period of unclean worship in Zerubbabel's temple followed by a period of clean worship!

The 'precious fruit' is anointed Christians, the patience is exercised throughout the period of no rain. The early rain is the first baptism of the 80,000 and the late rain is the second baptism of the 64,000. Notice the word 'Look!' (section 2) and the repetition of 'exercise patience'. This repetition is firmly establishing the fact that there will be a long period of no rain i.e. no anointing with holy spirit, during which time creation will be waiting for the presence of the Lord. This period is the apostasy mentioned by Paul.

As regards the 4,000 in the 1890's, well this was the time when there were 4,000 anointed brothers in the society (JP p33), in fact we shall see later in section 38, exactly, and to the month when all of these, including Charles Taze Russel were actually anointed!!). In the first century case, it appears that the 5,000 had been added within a few days of Pentecost (Acts 2:47,3:1,4:4). The society has records which can be compared with both these figures, the 4,000 brothers in the 1890's and the 64,000 total brothers from the second baptism, this is actually done in section 58.2, the results are amazing, but we do not know enough to appreciate this yet, so we will not go into it here. The writer would just mention here that the large numbers of memorial partakers in 1925 of 90,434, and in 1926 of 89,278, (JP p110) were not all anointed, the Great Crowd was first called in 1922, this may be deduced from the third symbolism of Dan 9:27 (see section 74).

The Watchtower article of June 15 p14,15, 1992 mentions the five thousand of Acts 4:4. It also mentions that there were only 4,000 active publishers in 1918, which is the antitypical year to 33 CE (see section 65). It is just possible that this group of 4,000, rather than the 4,000 of the 1890's is in fact the greater meaning of the 4,000 of Mat 16:9. This figure is the number of earthly brothers, who were preaching just after the resurrection of the first century Christians, in Nisan 1918 (Dan 12:7, Dan 5:25, sections 49, 58.3) whereas the 5,000 is the number who were active just after the resurrection of Jesus. It is also possible that the true God knew that both figures (in the 1890's and in 1918) would be 4,000 when he inspired his firstborn son to say what he did in Mat 16:9!

If the reader is not yet ready to accept this do not worry. We are going to find a whole load more witnesses to this 5:4 split of the anointed brothers between the first and second spiritual temples. However, what is without doubt the most astounding revelation that emerges from this is that:

This is because, that which is complete arrived in 98 CE when the last book was written by John. Since John died in roundabout 100 CE, as mentioned above, nobody was anointed from then on, see sections 38 & 39, so there was nobody who was fed in an approved manner from the bible until the Russelites and the end of the Gentile Times (the seven loaves) and the seven congregations of the Lord's day (the seven provision baskets). The completed bible was written largely for us! We can now also understand the scripture:

'When that which is complete arrives, that which is partial will be done away with,' (1 Cor 13:10).

Because this scripture was actually fulfilled at John's death, since he was the last of the ones with the gifts of the spirit, and the last one who could feed the sheep, with the fragments left in the basket of John the son of Zebedee, who was himself the last basket of left overs, from Jesus' gigantic spiritual banquet of his first century ministry. This scripture is saying that the complete bible will arrive at the death of John. In other words it is saying that he will be the last one to write a book or books of the bible.

We have already discerned that the split of the food for the 5,000 into two fishes and five loaves, is the split of the seven times of the Alienation Times into the two times of Joseph's times and the five times of Benjamin's times. We have also determined that there is a large gap from around 100 CE until sometime in the 1890's (the time when there were 4,000 in the society), during which there were no anointings of anybody. This period being the apostasy referred to by Paul (2 Thess 2:3). So this period is aroundabout 1,800 years long, or 5 times long. This period is also the time that mankind has to wait for, before spiritual Israel in again anointed. Now we saw in section 31, which looked at Joseph's and Benjamin's times, that spiritual Israel was symbolised by Benjamin, who was the one who was given five times more food than his older brothers (Gen 43:34), and was given five changes of mantles (Gen 45:22).

So it is beginning to look like the five times of Benjamin's times, which were the last five times of the Alienation Times, are also the length of the period during which there were no sealings of anointed brothers, after the first century ministry, which period we will call the Apostate Times (2 Thess 2:3). In fact we already know that the five times increase in Benjamin's food, represents the length of time that man had to wait for, after Joseph's birth, before spiritual Israel was first fed with holy spirit, at the end of the Alienation Times. But we have also just determined that spiritual Israel is in fact split into two temples. Now since Benjamin represented their entirety in the symbolism in Genesis 41- 45, his five times increase of food, in addition to symbolising the wait of the first temple brothers, would also symbolise the wait determined on the 64,000 brothers of the second temple. These ones therefore also have to wait for the five times of Benjamin's times, after the end of the first baptism, before they would be fed with holy spirit at their first sealing. And whereas the first century brothers were fed with holy spirit after the five times, the twentieth century brothers, were not only fed with holy spirit, but they also were given a change of mantles (Gen 45:22, section 31), even spiritual mantles in heaven, rather than their earthly ones.

What all of this means, is that the two times of Joseph's Times mean, in the first instance, the 720 years from Nisan 2488 until Nisan 1768 BCE, and in the second instance they mean that the five times of Benjamin's Times, is to be interpreted two times. We do not yet quite know enough to examine the scriptures to test this second symbolism. Genesis 43:8-12 is the key to this, because before we can interpret the gift that Jacob sends to Joseph in verses 11 & 12, we need to know the length of the first baptism. We shall find this out in section 36, we shall then return to Joseph and Benjamin in section 38.

Furthermore, as mentioned in section 26, the five sons (of Merab? reference bible footnote) raised by Michal, all of whom were killed in order to atone for the bloodguilt on the house of Saul due to the murder of the Gibeonites (2 Sam 21:4-9), symbolised the five times of Benjamin's Times. And Michal, who was David's first wife, was said to be childless (2 Sam 6:23). This symbolises the two periods of five times, which are symbolised by Benjamin's Times, being periods of no anointing by holy spirit, i.e. nobody being born again. This Apostate Times is a deep thing, like the sealed meaning of Matthew 16:9.

[35] SOLOMON'S TEMPLE BUILDERS: THE SECOND WITNESS TO THE 80,000 OF THE FIRST TEMPLE AND THE 64,000 OF THE SECOND TEMPLE.

We read in 1 Kings 5:15: 'And Solomon came to have 70,000 burden -bearers, and 80,000 cutters in the mountain'. We read the same thing at 2 Chron 2:2 and 2 Chron 2:18. We do know that the repetition of these figures in 2 Chronicles establishes them as prophetic. We also read in 1 Chron 22:2:

'And David now said to bring ALIEN RESIDENTS that were in the land of Israel, and then he set them as STONE HEWERS to hew SQUARED STONES for building the HOUSE OF THE TRUE GOD'.

Now 2 Chron 2:17 refers to the 80,000 stone cutters as alien residents, so we know that they are one and the same with those mentioned in 1 Chron 22:2. The marvellous thing about the construction of Solomon's temple is that as it says in 1 Kings 6:7;

This is a perfect description of how the real house of Jehovah is being built in the Lord's day, i.e. right now. Because who is there, who can hear, or detect, any physical signs that it is actually being built right now as this book is being written? Furthermore, is it not being built out of already completed, living stones? (1 Peter 2:5, Mat 3:9). So we have 80,000 of these righteous and truthful squared stones in the first temple. We use the term first temple brothers for these ones, because the temple that they build is prefigured by Solomon's temple, which was the first physical temple in Jerusalem. Obviously if there are 80,000 in the first temple, then there are 144,000 - 80,000=64,000 in the second, the greater Zerubbabel's temple.

[36] PETER'S VISION OF THE UNCLEAN FOOD: THE LENGTH OF THE FIRST BAPTISM

This length is deduced from the account of the conversion of Cornelius in Acts 10,11, which conversion occurred in Tishri 36 CE. We currently deduce the date of the conversion only from Daniel 9:27, we will find a second witness later in section 74 (the fig tree of Luke 13). Before we tackle the cryptic side of this account, we consider Matthew 20:1-16, which is a timetable for all of the different calls from Jehovah to men. Here Jesus gives us the illustration of a man hiring workers for his vineyard, and quite simply he hires workers at the following times in the day:

Notice that the holy spirit was outpoured on the day of Pentecost at the third hour (Acts 2:15). Peter was praying, before he had the vision of the unclean animals, at the sixth hour (Acts 10:3), and Jesus asked the Samaritan woman at the well to give him a drink, when 'the hour was about the sixth' (John 4:6). Cornelius and his household received holy spirit at the ninth hour (Acts 10:30). The Watchtower Society was set up in 1881, and a call was put out for 1,000 preachers. It was later incorporated in 1884, which is, in itself, not a proof that the last call and the eleventh hour started in 1881. But we will find out from Daniel 6, Ezra 10 and Ezra 7, that both this call in 1881 and the incorporation in 1884, are prophesied in the bible as being the start of the collection of the modern day, twentieth century, second temple Christians, sections 102 & 65. Note that these calls do not necessarily start with anointings by holy spirit (eg: during the first hour, which was Jesus' earthly ministry, nobody was anointed other than him). Now as regards Peter's vision we read from verse 11:

Then Peter awakes and finds three men downstairs (verse 19), one of whom was 'a devout soldier from among those who were in constant attendance upon him' (verse 7). This whole scenario is repeated in its entirety in Acts 11:5-11, for the benefit of the governing body in Jerusalem back then.

Because we know courtesy of Joseph (Gen 41:25,32), and we know courtesy of Amos (Amos 3:3-7), and we know courtesy of Moses (Deut 19:15) and we will find out later courtesy of Paul (2 Cor 13:1, section 59) that this repetition in the bible establishes the account as prophetic, i.e. of symbolising something greater. In fact, the very things that are repeated in this account are the very things that the true God wants us to look at as being the prophetic part of the account. These things are contained in the two scriptures mentioned above.

Now we know that Peter interpreted this vision as a sign that God now considered the Gentiles clean and acceptable in his sight to be called into the congregation. But this sign was not recorded in the bible for the benefit of Peter, because he had already seen and acted on it, by the time that Luke wrote Acts. No, rather it was recorded as a sign for us, the twentieth century Christians. So what is the greater interpretation of this prophetic sign?

Well as regards the three men, they represent Mr Jew, who is the devout soldier who has been in constant attendance (verse 7), Mr Samaritan, and now also Mr Gentile, because there are now three groups of men who are knocking on the door of the wedding feast (Matthew 22:1-13) accepting the invitation from Jesus via Peter, the key-holder. So as regards the footnote in the reference bible on verse 19, 'B', the vatican manuscript 1209, does not have the inspired version when it says there were only two, because the whole point of this account is that this was the third key, (however it is still a great idea to put all versions in) In fact if the Vatican manuscript was true then there could be no Catholics (who are Gentiles) who were ever called by Jesus (a statement which may not be far from the truth in any event)!

As regards the vision, well great linen sheets represent holiness or cleanness in the bible (Dan 12:7). Being let down from heaven, the sheet would represent cleanness from heaven. This is baptism with holy spirit. Now since the four extremities are mentioned, then the vision is referring the spatial extremity of the cleaning that this sheet does. We have seen several times that the spatial is used to represent the temporal in prophecy (see sections 10, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18 etc etc). So this vision may well be giving us the temporal extremities of cleaning by Holy spirit i.e. being born again, of the first baptism (which is the baptism of the first spiritual temple of brothers). We now count out the value of the vision:

By its four extremities 4 x

The four extremities represent four times because there are four times as many extremities as there are sheets. The four footed creatures in it represent eight times because they are plural (2 times) and they have four feet per creature, making a total of 2x4=8. 'All sorts' of them, means plural sorts of them i.e. a further multiplication by 2 making 16. Similarly all sorts of the creeping things is 4 times as is all sorts of birds of heaven. So the linen sheet has 24 times in it and it is let down by its four extremities, but What shall we do with these 4 times? Do we add them to the 24 times in the sheet or do we multiply them by its contents?

Well, in this cryptic inspired writing we see that the sheet is let down by its four extremities, so we realise that this time it is a multiplication that we are being directed towards In other words a multiplication by four. This gives a grand total of 96 times. The whole calculation therefore is:

And we have a total length of time of 96 years, which was the length of the first baptism, which baptism was from holy spirit and resulted in a new birth (John 3:3). Now the first recipient of such was Jesus Christ in Tishri 2 BCE. He was most certainly born again by holy spirit, because he was conceived by the same (Mat 1:20), and he had been born previously in heaven (John 8:58). So the last person was born again in Tishri 95 CE, 96 years later. We find a second witness to this very simply in verse 30, where Cornelius says to Peter:

'Four days ago counting from this hour I was praying in my house at the ninth hour when look! a man in bright raiment stood before me and said, "Cornelius your prayer has been favourably heard and your gifts of mercy have been remembered before God".'

This scripture is telling us to count from the ninth hour, four days ago, until the arrival of Peter at Cornelius' house. Now if we do count from the ninth hour when Cornelius saw his vision (Acts 10:3), to the ninth our four days later when Peter arrived with six other brothers (Acts 11:12), we get 96 hours. Why was this time 96 hours exactly? This question is at the heart of the problem of being given the correct interpretation, Jehovah's own one, of his temporal prophecy,

This is something that we will see again in sections 43 & 71. We know that this 96 hours isn't the main prophecy itself because it is not repeated in the account. Also Jehovah has kindly mentioned that this period started with a vision and there was a man in bright raiment, which directs us to Peter's linen sheet again. Since this result is so important we will state it in really big letters:

There is a very large amount of common sense in this revelation. Firstly, John was locked up on the Island of Patmos at about this time, so this would have been the end of all witnessing work by the apostles, since John was the last one. Secondly, he was the last of the twelve baskets of fragments of spiritual food left over from the feeding of the 5,000 (Mat 16:9, section 33). So at his death there was no more spiritual food available, and therefore there was little point in baptising anybody with holy spirit, only to have them starve in the apostasy.

[37] THE TWO OLIVE TREES OF ZECHARIAH 4: THE THIRD WITNESS TO THE 5:4 SPLIT OF ANOINTED BROTHERS

Have you ever wondered why there is only one lampstand in Zechariah 4:2, and yet in Revelation 11:4 this lampstand seems to be referred to as two lampstands? Have you ever wondered what the bowl is doing on top of the lampstand (Zech 4:2)? Well if so then hopefully your days of wondering are about to end! Zechariah 14 has a primary fulfilment in the persons of Joshua (the high-priest) and Zerubbabel (the governor), who were both anointed to build the physical second temple, which is called Zerubbabel's temple. This was completed in Adar 515 BCE (Ezra 6:15), and inaugurated in Nisan 515 BCE (section 29). We know this because the angel explained this interpretation to Zechariah in verse 14.

We are also told in verse 10, referring to the seven lamps and pipes that: 'These seven are the eyes of Jehovah. They are roving about in all the earth'. This is similar to the introduction in Revelation 1:4 which reads: 'May you have undeserved kindness and peace from "the One who is and who was and who is coming," and from the seven spirits that are before the throne.' These seven eyes and seven spirits represent divine vision and power, which is why we read in verse 6: 'Not by a military force, nor by power, but BY MY SPIRIT, Jehovah of armies has said.' This is what the seven lamps and pipes are all about, in the primary fulfilment. They testify to the divine origin of the two olive trees.

But it does not take 14 verses of Zechariah to explain this. Furthermore an examination of the account reveals a large amount of repetition, which means that there is a large amount of dual fulfilment prophecy in this account (Gen 41:25,32, Amos 3:3-7). One of the striking features of these 14 verses is that Zechariah asks the angel what the whole vision means, and the angel then says to him:

'Do you really not know what these things mean?' In turn Zechariah says: "No my Lord"', (Verse 5).

This conversation is then repeated in verses 11&12, where Zechariah asks the angel twice, what the two olive trees on each side of the lampstand mean. The angel responds:

'Do you really not know what these things mean?' In turn Zechariah says: "No my Lord"' (verse 13).

So we have a lack of understanding which is repeated (Gen 41:25,32, Amos 3:3-7). The point here is that:

If the meaning of a scripture is asked for three times by a prophet of the true God, then this scripture has three fulfilments or meanings. And if an angel of the true God, expresses surprise twice that a meaning is not understood, then there are two meanings that are not understood when they should have been.

So who really is it who has failed to understand this prophecy ??? Is it Zechariah? How many prophets, who by definition are speaking under inspiration, know the meaning of what they are talking about? Consider Daniel 8:27:

No, it is the brothers of the second spiritual temple, the modern day anointed ones, who are prophetically being spoken to 2,500 years in advance. In fact Zechariah 14 is a chapter about their second temple, because, as verses 2&3 say:

Well the seven lamps, even seven, refer in the second meaning to the seven times of the Gentile Times. We know this because Rev 11:3 & 4 say:

Which scripture is obviously something to do with Zechariah 4, notwithstanding the one lampstand discrepancy. So we are now in precisely the same situation as we were in with the 70 weeks of years prophecy in section 6, when we were half a year out - So what do we do?? Do we ignore this small, minor discrepancy of one little lampstand? Well, when Jehovah created mankind, he did not make any mistakes. Jesus Christ proved this, under test from a merciless and lethal adversary. How much more so when he inspired this creation of his to write the books of Zechariah and Revelation? So as in the case of the 70 weeks of years prophecy, the true situation is that:

The extra lampstand is the key to understanding both Zechariah 4 and Revelation 11 !

Because the first lampstand in Zechariah is symbolising the first illumination of this scripture, even the one provided by the angel to Zechariah about the second physical temple. Whereas the second lampstand, that appears in Revelation, is symbolising the second illumination or understanding or fulfilment or meaning of this scripture which is the anointing by holy spirit of the second spiritual temple of brothers. Now this anointing started in the 1890's before the Gentile Times had ended. Hence Rev 11:4 describes both of the two witnesses, who symbolise the two groups of the first and the second temple brothers, who are the two antitypical olive trees, as:

'Standing before the Lord of the earth'

Which has the meaning that the second temple brothers are anointed temporally before Jesus stands up. So again the spatial is symbolising the temporal. The 'standing before' is about as deep as, and bears a strong resemblance to, Dan 12 (see section 49), because Jesus does not become the Lord of the earth in 1914, which is when Michael stands up (Dan 12:1). He become the Lord of the heavens at that time. He only becomes the Lord of the earth in Nisan 2008. Therefore the two witnesses are standing before he is standing at all. But the wording of the scripture, is actually telling us that not only will the two witnesses start to be anointed before Michael stands up in 1914, but also, all the anointed ones of the second temple (and the first temple) will be 'standing' i.e. resurrected in heaven before Jesus becomes the Lord of the earth, in Nisan 2008 CE, although we are not dealing with this point here (see section 49).

So we can now expose the first two symbolisms of Zechariah 14 & Revelation 11:

Two olive trees Joshua & Zerubbabel

Lampstand Primary illumination

Seven lamps Divine origin of construction power

Two olive trees Two witnesses

Two witnesses First temple and second temple brothers

First lampstand, 7 lamps Gentile Times, 7 congregations of Rev 1:20

Seven pipes Seven congregations of Rev 1:20

Second lampstand Rev 11 is the second illumination of Zech 4

We are identifying the two witnesses with the two witnessing campaigns that mankind has been blessed with, namely the 'first century' campaign and the 'twentieth century' campaign (we use these two terms throughout this book, although the writer is aware that the later 'witness' will eventually span three centuries from 1881 - 2008). We will look again at these two witnesses in section 82. The two olive trees represent the two sets of brothers from these campaigns. Zechariah 14, is all about these two separate witnesses/ temples/ baptisms, because the answer to Zechariah's question in verse 12, namely:

is: that the two bunches of twigs are the first and second spiritual temples, the antitypes of Solomon's and Zerubbabel's temples. In other words the brothers from the first and second preaching campaigns, are both ruling as kings (i.e. governors or 'Zerubbabels') and are priests of God and of the Christ, i.e. 'Joshuas' (Rev 20:6). The golden liquid, is the holy spirit, because it is Jehovah that makes things grow (1 Cor 3:7). This liquid is poured out of two separate tubes, and not out of one long continuous tube. There are two olive trees, each with bunches of twigs, which twigs are the anointed brothers, as Jesus said: 'I am the vine, you are the branches' (John 15:5), it is not one large olive tree. Jesus has effectively planted two vines in his two preaching campaigns. And each one is 'pouring forth from within' itself so the one does not pour into the other, which all adds up to two separate baptisms, rather than one long baptism.

The second one of these, which is that of the seven congregations of Revelation, the seven pipes or channels of anointing oil, starts just before the end of the Gentile Times, the lampstand which branches into the seven lamps of the seven congregations of Revelation at the beginning of the Lord's day, when the angel Michael becomes Lord initially of the heavens. Now we know what the seven lamp Jewish lampstand means! It means that there will be seven symbolic congregations of God's people after the seven times of the Gentile Times.

Yes, what about the bowl? What is it doing above the lampstand? Well, since the bowl is above the lampstand, it has a command over the lampstand. In fact it is in a similar position to Jesus in Rev 1:12,13, who is in the middle of the seven lampstands which represent the seven congregations in the Lord's day (Rev 1:10). These are represented by the seven pipes and seven lamps in this symbolism and the bowl feeds these pipes. Now the effect of this feeding miracle from the bowl is in fact cryptically encoded in verses 3,11&12, and it amounts to a sixteenfold multiplication as we shall see. Verse 3 is worded:

'And there are TWO olive trees, ONE on the right side of the bowl and ONE on its left side.'

This statement is in prophetic form because there is a repetition of the fact that there is one on each side. This is actually telling us that the two olive trees will stand for two times in this chapter somewhere, because the two is compared with the one, and this comparison, being repeated (twice), is therefore prophetic. So the two trees are going to mean something greater than just the two spiritual temples (if this is possible). Zechariah actually questions the angel as to what the two olive trees mean, in verses 11 and 12. These verses too are in prophetic form:

This is a masterful example of the way Jehovah uses symbolism in prophecy. The question is so prophetic that it is actually the answer to itself! In fact quite a lot of prophetic questions are their own answers (see section 90, Luke 12:41). We know that the two olive trees stand for two times, if we take them a second time we get four trees representing four times, now all trees have twigs on them, and if four trees have for example 13 twigs each, then the total number of twigs is 4 x 13 = 52 twigs. So this symbolism refers to multiplication.

The two bunches of twigs and the two golden tubes both stand for two times as well, because they too are one on each side of the lampstand, in other words they are being compared with one of themselves (the one which is on either of the sides of the lampstand). So the bunches of twigs and the golden tubes together represent four times, in fact they are multiplied together 2x2=4, because the words used in the scripture are 'by' and 'within themselves', which are words pertaining to multiplication - e.g. nine has three threes within itself. So we multiply the four times of the trees by the four times of the twigs and the golden liquid and we get sixteen times.

So now we can put the whole picture together. In the greater fulfilment, the two olive trees stand for the first and the second temple of anointed brothers, who both experience a sixteenfold increase over the numbers of them represented by the bowl on top of the lampstand, which numbers are the 5,000 and the 4,000 of Matthew 16:9, Jesus' two feeding miracles. This increase being brought about not by military power or by force, but by Jehovah's spirit, and in this process, the brothers in each tree will actually feed themselves, which is what the faithful and discreet slave is now doing. Hence the 'two golden tubes are pouring forth from within themselves the golden liquid,' (verse 12). Verse 10 says: 'For who has despised the day of small things' , and when was the day of small things as regards the building of the real temple, the one made from living stones (1 Peter 2:5)? Well it was the day of the 5,000 in the first century (Acts 4:4), and the day of the 4,000 in the late nineteenth century. Diagrammatically we can represent this as below:

We are now very very happy indeed, because we now almost understand the meaning of something that Zechariah said! We have also found the three prophetic meanings asked for by Zechariah in verses 4, 11 & 12. These are the first and second physical temples, the first and second spiritual temples and the sixteenfold increase in both baptisms, symbolised by the bowl.

[38] THE SECOND WITNESS TO THE 96 YEARS OF THE FIRST BAPTISM, AND THE SECOND WITNESS THAT THE FIVE TIMES OF BENJAMIN'S TIMES ARE THE FIVE TIMES OF THE APOSTATE TIMES

Having discovered in section 36.1 that the length of the first baptism was 96 years, we are now in a position to understand Genesis 43:8-12, which read:

a little balsam 1

and a little honey 1

labdanum 1

and resinous bark 1

pistachio nuts 2

and almonds 2

Also take double the money 20

in your hand 5

& the money that was returned in the mouth of your bags 10

you will take back in your hand 5

Maybe it was a mistake." (second time) 96

This is the second example in this book of a fully cryptic calculation, the justification for this decoding is set out in section 21.1 which is contains the first example of such a calculation. We will see this sort of thing all over the place in future sections 70,73,94, 95, 96, 97, 98, 99 etc. The first thing to notice is the marvellous line:

These finest products are the 80,000 brothers of the first spiritual temple, the man is Joseph, these are carried down through time by the 'receptacles' of the twelve tribes of Israel, who descended from the brothers themselves. We are told to take these 'as a gift', which means that this gift is symbolising something which is to do with these 80,000 brothers. If we add up everything in this gift we get 48 units. We count singular things as 1 and plural things as 2, and hands as 5 (because they have 5 fingers) and the money represents ten times because we read in Genesis 42:25, that Joseph said:

Here the ten men are compared with themselves individually, which comparison yields ten times. That hands do stand for five units is seen again in sections 58.1 & 98. So having got a value of 48 units, or times, for this gift we then see the phrase 'maybe it was a mistake', which of course literally means, maybe Joseph returned their money by mistake. But the result of this is that the brothers have to offer this gift a second time, and in fact the whole trip is the second time that they visit Joseph, and if one makes a mistake, then one tries it a second time. So we take this figure of 48 a second time, i.e. multiply it by two and get 96. This then is the second witness, that the length of the time period during which the finest products of the land are chosen, in the first century, is 96 years.

Furthermore, in verse 9, Judah promises to present Benjamin to Jacob. This symbolises Jesus, the lion of Judah promising to present spiritual Israel in to Jehovah, who is 'in the heavens' (Mat 6:9). This presentation occurs in 1918, after the Apostate Times have ended (for the exact date see section 58.3). So now let us look again at the words of Joseph in Genesis 45:6-8:

This initially applied literally to Joseph. But it is very apparent that this also applies to Jesus in his first ministry as the prime minister not of grain in Egypt but of spiritual food among all mankind. The second year of the famine refers actually to his first century ministry, which was a famine for his opponents, the Pharisees were exposed, but not for his followers (the priests in Egypt did not suffer from the famine - Gen 47:22). The reason that this second year or second time refers to what most people would regard as Jesus' first coming or first time, is that his first century ministry was not actually his first coming. It was in fact his second coming because he comes three times, at the end of each of the three maledictions of the Exedenic, Alienation and Gentile Times (see section 60). The first time he came was in Nisan 1473 when he said to Joshua: "I, as the prince of the army of Jehovah, I have now come" (Jos 5:14). So after this second time that Jesus came in his firs century feeding program, which ended in Tishri 95 CE, we have 'five years in which there will be no ploughing time or harvest' (verse 6). These are the five times of the Apostate Times, about which Jesus himself said in the parable of the wheat and the weeds in Matthew 13:30:

So we can now say that:

NOBODY WAS ANOINTED BETWEEN TISHRI 95 CE AND TISHRI 1895 CE

[39] THE PARABLE OF THE TEN VIRGINS: THE SECOND WITNESS TO THE FIVE TIMES OF THE APOSTATE TIMES

Five were discreet and five were foolish (Mat 25:1-13), which gives us two witnesses to their number, and these two are 'but one' (Gen 41:25,32, Amos 3:3-7), and because their number is repeated the matter is 'firmly established on the part of the true God and the true God is speeding to do it' - because it is a prophecy. Both sets of five virgins fall asleep, whilst waiting for their master, who is of course the Lord Jesus. The oil in their lamps symbolises the anointed heavenly hope of these virgins, as does their virginity itself (Rev 14:4). The number of both sets of virgins is the number of times, for which the bridegroom was delaying, 'a virgin for a time' is the symbolism here! And this means that there was no oil of anointing and no lamps burning with such oil for the whole period of the bridegrooms absence, namely for the five times of the Apostate Times, which times ran from Tishri 95 CE to Tishri 1895 CE. The foolish virgins are the weeds and the discreet virgins are the wheat of Mat 13:24-30. As verse 13 says:

We have not known that day or hour (i.e. Tishri 1895) for 97 years after it happened, not until 1992 CE, did we know when the second temple brothers were first anointed! There is a third witness to the length of the Apostate Times in Ezra 8, section 87, and a fourth in 1 Ch 21, section 94.

[40] JESUS CHRIST IS THE CENTRE OF EVERYTHING!

If you think that you have seen the most beautiful of illustrations, think again! Because this illustration that you are about to witness is truly breath-taking. This is the most powerful chronological prophecy yet revealed, it will be the cornerstone of Mankind's faith that '2008 is the date' (Luke 20:17). Consider the below scriptures if you will:

'And I will tabernacle in the MIDST of the sons of Israel, and I will prove to be their God. And they will certainly know that I am Jehovah their God, who brought them out of Egypt that I may tabernacle in the MIDST of them' (Ex 29:45,46). Note the repetition in this and those following.

'I myself said: "In the MIDST of my days I will go into the gates of Sheol." (Isaiah 38:10)

'See Jehu the son of Jehoshaphat the son of Nimshi there; and you must come in and make him get up from the MIDST of his brothers and bring him into the innermost chamber' (2 Kings 9:2).

'For look! the Kingdom of God is in your MIDST' (Luke 17:21).

'And I will cut off your graven images and your pillars from the MIDST of you, and you will no more bow down to the work of your hands. And I will uproot your sacred poles from the MIDST of you and annihilate your cities' (Micah 5:13,14).

'And you must not defile the land in which you are dwelling, in the MIDST of which I am residing; for I Jehovah am residing in the MIDST of the sons of Israel' (Num 35:34).

'And I shall indeed reside in the middle of the sons of Israel' (1 Kings 6:13)

'And I shall certainly put my tabernacle in the MIDST of you, and my soul will not abhor you. And I shall indeed walk in the MIDST of you and prove myself your God (Leviticus 26:11,12).

'"Cry out loudly and rejoice, Oh daughter of Zion; for here I am coming, and I will reside in the MIDST of you," is the utterance of Jehovah. "And many nations will certainly become joined to Jehovah in that day, and they will actually become my people; and I will reside in the MIDST of you". And you will have to know that Jehovah of armies himself has sent me to you' (Zech 2:10,11).

'A prophet from your own MIDST, from your brothers, like me, is what Jehovah your God will raise up for you ......... A prophet I shall raise up for them from the MIDST of their brothers, like you, and I shall indeed put my words in his mouth (Deut 18:15-18).

'And he said to the man with the withered hand: "Get up and come to the CENTRE"' (Mark 3:3).

So do you see what is being said all over the scriptures? Jesus' death was the centre 'of the years' (Hab 3:2), and the centre 'of the sons of Israel' (Num 35:34), and do you know what these years were?

Consider the pivotal position of Jesus' sacrifice in the plan shown below:

So the whole plan rests on Jesus' shoulders! Now what sort of balance do you need to rest the whole world on top of one point?

YOU NEED PERFECT BALANCE!

And what is the tendency of the world that is resting on that one point?

TO FALL OF!

And where must the pivotal point be put, in order to support it?

DEAD CENTRE!

And isn't that what these scriptures are all about? Jesus was literally dead in the centre, his perfection is represented by his temporally perfect position and balance, which you need to have to support the whole world on your shoulders, which world is statically unstable, always tending to fall off.

THEREFORE THE STATEMENT '2008 IS NOT THE DATE' IS THE STATEMENT 'JESUS WAS NOT PERFECT', WHICH IS THE STATEMENT 'JEHOVAH IS NOT PERFECT'.

We now have our fourth method of calculating the date of 2008. We are going to see in section 66.2 that Nisan 14, 2008 CE, is the date of the evening meal of the Lamb's Marriage (Rev 19:9). Because we know this, we are now able to say without doubt that Abraham crossed the Euphrates on Nisan 14, 1943 BCE (Gal 3:17). We know that this is accurate to the day because Jehovah is perfect and so was his son, which means that his son died in the perfect position of dead in the centre of the covenant as discussed above. Furthermore we know that Cestius Gallus surrounded Jerusalem with encamped armies in the festival of Booths in Tishri 66 CE (W74 p426, Luke 21:20). This festival ran from Tishri 15 - Tishri 21, so for perfect symmetry, since Jesus' death is the pivotal point or centre of all things, he must have been born between the days of Tishri 7 and Tishri 13 2 BCE, with Tishri 10, atonement day, being the obvious choice. Not only is it the obvious choice but it is also dead centre of the week from Tishri 7 to Tishri 13, 2 BCE which corresponds with the festival from Tishri 15 to Tishri 21 66 CE. We will see in section 100, that Cestius Gallus did indeed arrive at Jerusalem on Tishri 18, right in the middle of the festival of Booths, so we can now make the following statement:

JESUS WAS BORN ON TISHRI 10, 2 BCE

If we apply similar reasoning to the last week of the fleshly part of the Abrahamic covenant, i.e. from Tishri 29 CE to Tishri 36 CE, then we get a date for the conversion of Cornelius (Acts 10) and his household of, Tishri 18, 36 CE (because Jesus was baptised on Tishri 10, 29 CE). Which would mean that Cornelius had his dream at the ninth hour of Tishri 15 that year (Acts 10:3, section 36). This makes a lot of sense because the festival of Booths is the final harvest celebration.

So: 'Cry out shrilly and shout for joy! Oh you inhabitress of Zion, for great in the MIDST of you is the Holy one of Israel' (Isaiah 12:6).

[41] THE MIDST PROPHECY AND ITS WITNESSES

It is rare for the bible to contain as many witnesses to a prophecy as it does to the midst prophecy. But there again 'The bearing witness to Jesus is what inspires prophesying' (Rev 19:10). Because of the singular importance of this prophecy, which all of these witnesses testify to, we are going to look at four further prophecies in the bible, in the next four sections, 42-45, all of which include the midst prophecy itself.

[42] THE PROPHECY OF THE COVENANT TIMES: JEHOVAH COUNTS OUT THE LENGTH OF HIS COVENANT WITH ABRAHAM.

This is a really major prophecy (as the worldly business executives would say), made by Abraham himself in Genesis 15:5-11,17. Sadly the Masoretic text, and the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia version of it do not have the inspired version of verse 11 of this account. Happily the Septuagint does. We say this not out of historical precedent, and not out of the numbers of codices with one or other version, but out of a knowledge of divine prophecy. In other words we say that theocratically (not democratically or even historically) the Septuagint has the divine account of this verse. The New World Translation renders verse 11 as:

The Septuagint has it:

The exact Greek, in English letters, and interlinear translation being:

Came down but birds upon the carcasses upon the

divided parts of them and sat down by them Abram

Whilst there is not much difference from a story telling point of view between these two accounts, there is 2160 years difference from a prophetic point of view - as we shall see. In fact the difference is even greater then this, because without the repetition of the fact that the birds came down, really the prophecy is indecipherable.

We therefore elect to use the New world renderings of all verses other than verse 11, for which we chose the Septuagint rendering. From verse 5 we find:

Well, are we able to count the time period during which the stars are chosen? Notice the word look, and the repetition of the counting of the stars (section 2).

'And he went on to say to him; "So your seed will become"' (verse 5).

Yes, they most certainly will!! In fact ever since Iyyar 25, 1918 (section 58.3), at least 80,000 of Abraham's seed have indeed already become stars in the heavens (Rev 1:16, Job 38:7).

'And he put faith in Jehovah; and he proceeded to count it to him as righteousness. Then he added to him: "I am Jehovah...possession"' (verse 6).

So Jehovah is counting something out in terms of Righteousness, and then he is adding it to Abraham. Now this counting as righteousness is referred to all over the bible, Paul himself says, that the scripture says: 'Abraham exercised faith in Jehovah and it was counted to him as righteousness' (Rom 4:3). And he repeats that Abraham was fully convinced, that what God had promised he was also able to do, hence: "it was counted to him as righteousness" (Rom 4:22). So Paul is twice in the same chapter quoting this very scripture FROM THE SEPTUAGINT (the Greek in the Kingdom interlinear is identical to the Greek of the Septuagint for this quote - also the apostles mainly quoted from the Septuagint). To quote the same scripture twice in a chapter of the bible is VERY UNUSUAL INDEED, and not only is it unusual, it is even prophetic (Gen 41:25,32, Amos 3:3-7), and it establishes beyond any doubt that the Septuagint version is the inspired version of this account (2 Cor 13:1, Deut 19:15).

But the Sovereign Lord Jehovah has provided us a second witness even to Paul, in the person of Jesus' half brother James, who says at James 2:23 'And the scripture was FULFILLED which says: "Abraham put faith in Jehovah, and it was counted to him as righteousness." Now if this scripture is 'fulfilled' by the sacrifice of Isaac (James 2:21,22), then James is bearing witness that it was actually a prophecy. And if it was fulfilled 400 or so years before it was actually recorded in the bible by Moses, then there most certainly must be a greater fulfilment after Moses had written it down. Furthermore, James too has quoted this very scripture FROM THE SEPTUAGINT. And further still, James has also been used by the holy spirit to clear up a point in the Hebrew scriptures before, in fact it was about the length of the drought in the days of Elijah (1 Kings 17:1, James 5:17). The length of this drought is not explicitly mentioned in the account in Kings, and James makes up for this, so there is a precedent for James shedding extra light on accounts in the Hebrew scriptures with statements in the Greek scriptures. But this scripture is quoted yet again, FROM THE SEPTUAGINT, by Paul in Galatians 3:6, where he says:

'Just as Abraham "put faith in Jehovah and it was counted to him as righteousness." Surely you know that those who adhere to the faith are the ones who are sons of Abraham. Now the scriptures seeing in advance that God would declare people of the nations righteous due to faith, declared the Good news beforehand to Abraham namely: "By means of you all the nations will be blessed."

Now if these scriptures which Paul is referring to, namely the blessing of Gen 12:3, and the counting of Gen 15:6 are 'seeing in advance', then they are in fact prophecies! at least the Septuagint versions most certainly are! Both Paul and James have now told us that this 'counting as righteousness' is prophetic, two fairly impressive witnesses. Continuing from Genesis 15:8 we read, that Abraham said:

The prophetic meaning of this is: how will my seed know when they will enter into the real promised land?

'In turn he said to him: "Take for me a three year old heifer and a three year old she-goat and a three year old ram and a turtle dove and a young pigeon"' (verse 9).

Now all of these animals were used in sin offerings, and to bring about cleanness or righteousness under the law of Moses. By which law the son of Abraham (i.e. the Jew) himself was counted as righteous. But nowhere in the law is an age of an animal to be sacrificed prescribed as anything other than one year old, in other words if its prescribed as being in a certain year of its life, then the year prescribed is always the first year, (look up all the occurrences of the word 'year' in the concordance in the books of Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy!). A female goat in its first year (or a female kid of the goats), was the prescribed sin offering for an individual who sinned by mistake (Num 15:27, Lev 5:6). The ashes of a young heifer or red heifer were used in the purification from uncleanness due to touching a dead body (Num 19:2-19). In the law, young meant a year old (Lev 9:2,3) a two year old animal was not young. Young rams were used all over the place, one example was the constant feature (Num 28:3). As regards the turtledove and the pigeon, these were always sacrificed in pairs, except in the case of a mother purifying herself, who could use a pair, or a young ram in its first year and a bird (Lev 12:6). In the case of a sin offering, two birds were prescribed (Lev 5:7).

So having revised the law, we are now in a position to count the sacrifice in terms of righteousness under law:

The three mammals represent three times each, because they were each three times as old as the law prescribed. The two birds both represent half a time, because they were both a half times the number of birds that the law prescribed. Next we see in Gen 15:10 (to get the full picture one should read the New world, the Septuagint and the Biblia Hibraica Stuttgartensia, for this verse) that Abraham cut the mammals in two precisely, right down the middle and arranged them in two rows as below:

Then we read the all important verse eleven again:

The big question is: What are these birds (of prey)? The big answer is Matthew 24:28 'Wherever the carcass is, there the eagles will be gathered together.' The second witness to this big answer is Luke 17:37, where his apostles said to Jesus: '"Where Lord?" He said to them: "Where the body is, there also the eagles will be gathered together."' The question posed by the first century apostles of: "Where Lord?" is the question that should be being asked by their twentieth century antitypes, who are their brothers!

Because these birds of prey are eagle-eyed Christians. And these birds 'come down' on the five carcasses and even upon the six divided parts thereof, so they have to come down eleven times. Abram is said to sit down 'by' these carcasses. Well Abram does not sit down until his covenant ends, so the end of the covenant is determined by this coming down through eleven times, and the repetition of the birds coming down, once upon the carcasses and once upon the divided parts of them, reveals that these two statements are prophetic (Gen 41:25,32, Amos 3:3-7). So the equation that we now have is:

Length of covenant + Ten times = Eleven times

(Count the stars) (Added to him) (Sacrifice) (Birds of prey)

We of course know that the Abrahamic covenant lasted a lot longer than one time or 360 years. Therefore the eleven times means eleven years of years and the ten times means ten years of days. Jehovah has already given us a clue as to the correct way to look at this equation, in that the ten times were expressed as literal years for the most part in verse 9. So if we follow this expression, then we get:

This takes us from Nisan 14, 1943 BCE to Nisan 14, 2008 CE. Where we are taking the 11 times to be 11 x 360 = 3960 years. So this is the fifth witness and the fifth method of calculating the date of 2008. As mentioned above, Jesus himself tells us that this is how we can work out the date when he says: "Where the carcass is, there also the eagles will be gathered together." In other words Jesus is saying, have a look at Genesis 15:5-11! Although Jesus was not himself aware that this was the cryptic meaning to what he was saying because he did not know 'that day and hour' (Mat 24:36) when he made the remarks in Luke 17 (see sections 66 & 66.1). All of which shows that Jesus was speaking under inspiration, (there were precious few prophets who did understand the full meaning of their prophecies). But we have not finished yet, because verse 17 says:

Guess who this was! Well what does a fiery torch do? It starts a fire, and what did Jesus say about himself?

'I came to start a fire on the earth, and what more is there for me to wish if it has already been lighted?' (Luke 12:49)

This torch bisected the sacrifice and the meal for the birds, which is telling us that Jesus sets things burning right at the mid-point of the 3,950 years of the Abrahamic covenant, i.e. in Nisan 14, 33 CE. His death really started the bonfire. And just to show how accurate and perfect the creator of mankind is, we notice the smoking furnace pre-existed the torch-lighting, which is what Jesus meant when he said before he died that the fire 'has already been lighted'.

Now just as the eleven tent cloths of the Tent of meeting covered both the ten tent cloths of the Tabernacle and the Ark of the covenant, so the eleven times which the tent cloths of the Tent represent, cover both the ten times which the ten tent cloths of the Tabernacle represent and the length of the Abrahamic covenant itself which the Ark of the covenant represents.

We know of course that the ark represented more than the Law covenant, it also represented Jehovah's direct rulership of mankind (Rev 11:19), which rulership will be exercised by the covenanters of the spiritualised Abrahamic covenant, hence the Ark can stand for the whole Abrahamic covenant. So the equation again is:

(Ark of the covenant) (Tabernacle) (Tent of meeting)

Putting this another way, the eleven times of the tent, directly cover the covenant, only if you first take away the ten times of the tabernacle which was underneath it. Which is what the position was physically. If we take the tabernacle times as years and the tent times as years of years, then we get a length for the covenant of 3950 years (3960 - 10 = 3950). This witness is not so much a direct prophecy of the length of the Abrahamic covenant, as it is a confirmation or a second witness, that the calculation that we performed in Gen 15:5-11 in section 42, was performed correctly. Jehovah often provides such confirmations - see sections 36.1, 71.

Now we see why David said under inspiration to Jehovah's prophet Nathan:

'See, now I am dwelling in a house of Cedars while the ark of the true God is dwelling in the middle of tent cloths' (2 Sam 7:2)

And again he says:

'Here I am dwelling in a house of Cedars, but the ark of the covenant of Jehovah is under tent cloths' (1 Chron 17:1)

Now there is one further major symbolism in the midst of the tent and the tabernacle, and that is the way they were joined together. Because the tabernacle was sown together into two pieces of five tent cloths each and then these two pieces were joined up by gold hooks and rings. Whereas the tent was sown together to make two pieces, one of five tent cloths and one of six tent cloths, and these two pieces were joined by copper rings and hooks. The six piece cloth then had its sixth cloth, which was the one at the front of the tabernacle folded in half (Ex 36:8-18, 26:1-13). In other words both covers were joined together at the centre, as far as was possible, and in the case of the eleven tent cloths of the tent of meeting, the join was in the centre of all the unfolded cloths, and the remaining cloth itself was folded in half. All of this symbolically confirms in advance that Jesus would come in the middle of the Abrahamic covenant. As mentioned before, this account is not so much a prophecy as a confirmation, a second witness, which is Jehovah's way of confirming to us, that both the interpretation of the counting as righteousness and the SEPTUAGINT rendering of Abraham's sacrifice in Genesis 15:5-11 are true.

And now we see further why the temple curtain was rent in two as Jesus' death (Mat 27:51). This renting in two of the temple curtain, is telling us that the joins in the tabernacle and in the tent of meeting (the gold and the copper hooks and rings), which was where these two coverings were rent in two, both represent the death of Jesus Christ. So every time the Jews dismantled their tabernacle in the wilderness, to move it, as they did all over the Sinai Peninsular, the tabernacle cloth and the tent of meeting were both rent in two at the rings and hooks, and the temporally central position of the death of the Christ was being symbolically declared!

'This is what Jehovah the God of David your forefather has said: "I have heard your prayer. I have seen your tears. Here I am healing you. On the third day you will go up to the house of Jehovah. And I shall certainly add fifteen years to your days, and out of the palm of the King of Assyria I shall deliver you,' (verse 5,6).

Hezekiah is prefiguring Jesus here, and we know from 2 Kings 18:2, that he reigned for 29 years in Jerusalem, we also know that Sennacherib started his attack on the cities of Judah in the fourteenth year of Hezekiah's reign (2 Kings 18:13), this was before he came up against Jerusalem.

Hezekiah then asks Isaiah in verse 8: 'What is the sign that Jehovah will heal me and I shall certainly go up on the third day to the house of Jehovah?' The repetition of the sign in the next few verses establishes the sign as being prophetic (Gen 41:25,32, Amos 3:3-7), and we know that it relates to Jesus, who was the one who really went up to the house of Jehovah on the third day. Isaiah describes the sign in verse 9, as follows:

Hezekiah responds:

Then the sign itself is described as follows:

The repetition of the question by Hezekiah establishes the going up or going down as the prophetic statement in the sign. Furthermore the going down is always mentioned with the going back up, in all three quotes above. The one is compared with the other whenever it is mentioned, and the number of steps is the same, being ten, in both directions. Ten is used to symbolise earthly completeness we know and so the greater meaning of this sign is not that Hezekiah will get better, nor is it just that he will have his reign extended by fifteen years. No, the greater meaning is that the entire length of time that the Abrahamic covenant lasted for, before Jesus' death, is equal to the entire length of time that this covenant lasts for after his death.

This is very clear from Isaiah's own account of this miracle in Isaiah 38:8-10. Where we again see that the sign is repeated and whenever the movement of the shadow down the steps is mentioned, so is the movement of it back up the steps. Immediately after describing this Isaiah then recites Hezekiah's Inspired poem that he wrote at the time of his distress, the first words of which are:

This was actually the scripture that enabled the writer and a friend of his to understand the midst prophecy, because it demonstrated that the sign of the shadow was a sign of the midst of something, and we knew that the mid-point was Jesus' death, and then since there were ten steps, an earthwise complete number, we looked at the whole of God's plan for the earth, i.e. the whole length of the Abrahamic covenant. What amazed us is that although we had known the date of Nisan 2008 since February 1, we did not realise that Nisan 33 CE was dead centre of the covenant until we saw this scripture in March.

Knowing as we do that Jehovah is perfect, we would expect that this sign and these three days of sickness would occur in the middle of Hezekiah's reign. There are quite a few witnesses to the truth of this in the account. Firstly we know that Hezekiah wanted to go to the temple on the third day, which means that this was the third day of a festival. We know too that this prefigures Jesus being raised on the third day of the festival of the passover. This means that the three days of this sickness occurred on the first three days of either the passover or the festival of Booths, because these were the only two Jewish festivals lasting longer than one day. Now we read in verse 7, that Hezekiah was given a cake of pressed dried figs, which were harvested at the beginning of Tishri (fig 2). Also the fig harvest is used by Jesus to symbolise this month in Luke 13:6-9 (section 74). Furthermore Isaiah was said to have 'Not yet gone out to the middle court, when Jehovah's word itself came to him', (verse 4). When prophets like Isaiah do things like this, it is very important. This is a witness that this sign occurs just before the middle of something. Well the only two candidates for what this something could be are that year, or the whole reign of Hezekiah. Furthermore Hezekiah himself tells us the answer to this in Isaiah 38:10 which says:

This writing of Hezekiah was inspired by the holy spirit we know. So this sign occurred in the middle of Hezekiah's reign, which was in the middle of his fifteenth regnal year. The middle of the year Elul 30/ Tishri 1 (see fig 2). This is just before Tishri 15, which is the first day of the festival of Booths. So the sign occurred on the first day of the festival of Booths, i.e. Tishri 15, 731 BCE (Hezekiah's first regnal year started Nisan 745 BCE, and his last regnal year started Nisan 717 BCE, 2 Kings 18:1,2). Hezekiah then went up to the house of Jehovah on Tishri 17, which was the third day of that festival. We will see later that Hezekiah's recovery sets a precedent for the resurrections and temple building of the second temple brothers in section 57.

Now was it just these ten lepers that Jesus made clean when he came as the son of man? No sir, it was all of mankind that he cleansed from the uncleanness of the sin which they inherited from their father Adam. And how many of mankind actually acknowledged this great saving that Jesus did and turned round and Glorified God? Precious few, and most of them were Gentiles. So we can see that the ten lepers stand symbolically for all mankind (earthly completeness), but they also stand symbolically for the entire length of the covenant by which mankind is saved and declared righteous i.e. cleansed, up to the time of Jesus' death. In other words the ten lepers of Luke 17:12 are the ten steps of 2 Kings 20:10, and whilst it is an easy thing for ten men to catch leprosy, it is not such an easy thing for the ten to be cured, likewise it is an easy thing for the shadow to advance down the steps, but it is not so easy for it to retrace its steps and go back up! So this parable is telling us that the Kingdom of God is in the Midst of the covenant, which is why Jesus, under inspiration, states this explicitly immediately after the parable in verse 21. We now have a whole new meaning to the statement 'the Kingdom of God is in your midst!'

The position now is, that we know for certain, that in an absolutely critical piece of scripture, namely Gen 15:11, the Septuagint has the inspired version and the Masoretic text, or at least the BHS version of it is wrong. We also found out in section 25.3, that in 2 Kings 13:19, the BHS is in agreement with the LXX, but the Vulgate is wrong. Furthermore the Septuagint version of the olive trees and lampstand of Zechariah 4, makes more sense than the Masoretic version, because it links up the seven 'pipes' of verse 2 with the two 'tubes' of verse 12. Now if we combine this with the fact that the apostles and Jesus himself quoted around three hundred times from the Septuagint, we find ourselves with room to ask rhetorical questions such as:

Well, before we abandon the Masoretic text for its one omission, there are a quite a few scriptures where the Masoretic text has the inspired record and the Septuagint does not (eg: Dan 3:5 LXX misses out rulership groups from verses 2&3 and misses out an instrument from verses 5,7,10 which is not very helpful, all though it does have the correct number of them in Dan 3:15, Dan 12:7 LXX is also pretty confusing). In the writer's limited experience, the Masoretic normally presents a clearer picture, certainly the New World translation of it does. Also we must remember that our heavenly King chose nearly all of his modern day brothers on the basis of their response to the King James bible! But now that we are looking at every word in detail, in order to get cryptic understandings that we need in the time of the end, we require the benefits of both the Masoretic and the Septuagint - it is suggested. No doubt the discrepancies between the LXX and the Masoretic text are few in number, but they certainly are not light in content.

At the least it would seem prudent to record the LXX version as the main text of the Hebrew original, in these cases, with the BHS rendering as a footnote. It is not at all satisfying to read in Acts 2:27 where Peter quotes from Psalm 16:9 saying:

Whereas if we actually read Psalm 16:9 we find:

The LXX version of Psalm 16:9 is what Peter was quoting from, how can we change this? And how indeed does this reflect on our perfect creator? Furthermore, in the light of Gen 15:11, it seems to the writer that we are behoven to quote all the places where the Septuagint differs from the BHS as a footnote. Because this correction is not one from man, in the sense that somebody has dug up a reputedly very old manuscript, or there are more of such manuscripts that say the one thing than there are of those that say the other. No, it is from God, in that the correct version, is revealed through a spiritual knowledge, rather than through an archeological knowledge.

THIS SECTION IS A PLEA TO THE FAITHFUL STEWARD TO PRODUCE A BIBLE WITH GREEK SCRIPTURE QUOTES WHICH MATCH THEIR HEBREW COUNTERPARTS (I.E. USE LXX FOR THESE), AND WITH ALL DISCREPANCIES WITH LXX INCLUDED AS FOOTNOTES.

[47] SEVEN STANDS FOR DIVINE TEMPORAL COMPLETENESS

Seven does not merely mean divine completeness (Rev bk p19), which is a fairly meaningless term because there are precious few examples of any works of Jehovah that are divinely incomplete! It actually stands for divine temporal completeness. Which is why there are 7 days in the week, why the Gentile and Alienation and Exedenic Times were 7 times long and why the seven headed wild beast stands for seven temporally successive kingdoms exercised by Satan over God's people. Indeed the only way in which these seven kingdoms are divinely complete is in a temporal way - they most certainly are not divinely complete by any other measure, because they are kingdoms belonging to Satan, the concept that they are Satanically complete (Rev bk p19) is a contradiction in terms, the writer would suggest.

[48] THE UNSEALING OF DANIEL

It was Joseph who said: "Do not interpretations belong to God" (Gen 40:8). And it is his words at Genesis 41:25,32 that are responsible for a large part of this book. There are critics of Daniel who say that Daniel must have lived 500 years after he did, because there is no way that he could have prophesied all that he did in advance. What they are ignorant of, and what this book has already shown in the case of the Gentile Times and the seventy weeks of years prophecies, is that the true God Jehovah, by his own law, provides two witnesses in order to establish a fact firmly. And a large number if not all of the prophecies in Daniel's book are actually repeated elsewhere in the bible, including both the Gentile Times and the seventy weeks of years prophecies. So one cannot write off Daniel in that manner. Now, in the next sections of this book, we will establish a whole load of further prophetic meanings that Daniel couldn't possibly have had any knowledge of, even if he had lived 2,000 years after he did!

Daniel himself said:

'As for me, it is not through any wisdom that exists in me more than any others alive that this secret is revealed to me, except that the interpretation may be made known to the King himself' (Dan 2:30).

These words apply too, to the writer of this book, who is making the interpretation known to the slave of the King, after the manner of Daniel (see section [77]). The writer therefore has a privilege that he does not deserve, because it is a gift. There are two very strong locks that have been active in sealing up Daniel's book. One is the belief that Matthew 24:36 applies all the way up to the first day of Armageddon (or maybe some believe that we will not even know the day and the hour then!) The other is the belief that the faithful and discreet slave have unsealed this book already and that they did this in the 'time of the end', which time began in 1914. Both of these views are absolute and doctrinal amongst the people who are privileged to bear Jehovah's name. However, due to our God's abundant compassion and superabundant love for his chosen people, he has now removed these two seals, but due to his wisdom, he has left it until now, the time of the end, to make this unsealing.

And whilst it is understandable, that we all fell for the former lock, it is amazing to the writer now, with hindsight, that we also fell for the latter. Because we shall see that apart from the fact that 'the time if the end' did not start until February 1st 1992, there is actually no part of the book of Daniel that has had a correct interpretation at all, since 1914. No part that is, with the exception of the correct parts of our understanding of the prophecy of the King of the North in Daniel 11. In fact the only parts of Daniel that we do understand correctly are the ones that either Daniel himself or Angel Gabriel explained explicitly in the book, or that Brother Russel worked out in 1877 (Daniel 4)!

[49] DANIEL CHAPTER 12

Daniel is totally awestruck at the glorious sight of the angel Gabriel, and is attempting to stand by the great river Hiddekel, which is the river Tigris (Dan 10:4,11). Now in verse 4 of chapter 12, Daniel is told to seal the book up until the time of the end, this sealing is repeated in verse 9, which establishes it as prophetic. Therefore if we understand verses 5 to 8, well then we have broken this seal. These verses were the first verses of Daniel that the holy spirit unsealed to the writer in this book, it was a very beautiful thing indeed. In the vision there are two (men/angels) one standing each side of the great river, the scripture says:

'One on the bank here of the stream and one on the bank there of the stream' (verse 5).

The repetition of the fact that there was one on each bank, establishes their positions as prophetic (Gen 41:25). The LXX has:

Which makes the repetition even more obvious. Then one of them asks the man 'clothed with linen who was up above the waters of the stream: "How long will it be to the end of the wonderful things?"' This one (Angel Gabriel) is then again described as 'the man clothed with the linen who was up above the waters of the stream'. He is the third man/angel in the account, and he swears that:

'It will be for an appointed time, appointed times and a half. And as soon as there will have been a FINISHING of the dashing of the power of the holy people to pieces, ALL THESE THINGS will come to their finish' (verse 7).

Now Daniel himself described this river, the river Tigris as a 'great river' (Dan 10:4). But truly, truly it is said to you today:

NEVER HAS THERE BEEN A RIVER AS GREAT AS THIS RIVER !

Because this river is nothing less than the stream of Jehovah's chosen and holy human beings who have died in union with his firstborn son, and who through him have conquered the whole world, floating off into heaven. Yes, these ones are literally floating off between the two banks. This river is the sparkling stream of the everlasting glory and light that the true God has given to those who are to be immortal Kings in the heavens, and who will rule with the King of Kings for a thousand years. The width of the river is the length of time during which the living stones are resurrected as spiritual souls. And the banks of the river are the borders to this time. This is why the 'man clothed with linen' (Angel Gabriel) is floating above the stream, he is representing humans floating off as angels, and now we can see why there is one other (man/angel) on each side of the stream:

It is because just as there were 3.5 times from the appointed time of Jesus' presence until this stream started, so there are 3.5 appointed times after this stream finishes until the end, i.e. until Armageddon. And this is what the 3.5 appointed times in verse 7 mean.

In some ways it is a shame to have to reveal this at this point, because one can very easily deduce that all of the holy ones are in heaven three and a half years before Armageddon from Revelation 15:8 - see section 84 for a discussion of this. But if the Kingdom of God were to start with any of the holy ones still on the earth and therefore unmarried, then since Jesus is not having two marriage feasts, he would have to be unmarried as well. In which case there would be no covenant in force for the 144,000 to wield any power as kings or priests, in which case the Kingdom would have actually started without them! That is without any of them!

It is also very difficult to explain how in the days of the earthquake of Uzziah, which day is Armageddon, when Jehovah's earthly people flee to the valley of his mountains, it will be that Jehovah will 'certainly come, ALL the holy ones being with him' (Zech 14:5), if in fact some of the holy ones are still here on the earth, and are therefore not with him? Well if there are any left remaining on the earth at Armageddon then the Kingdom of God will truly have overtaken them. Consider please Rev 19:14,16:

Let us not beat around the bush, these armies that are 'in heaven' are the 144,000 brothers of Christ. We know this because they are wearing white clean fine linen, and in the bible one only gets to wear such white clean fine linen if one has put faith in Jesus, the Lord of lords. It is only the sons of men that this test of faith refers to because all the angels know for a fact who Jesus is. The reader will no doubt draw the comparison with the three men clothed with linen in Daniel 12:6,7, all of whom symbolise anointed brothers of Christ (even though one is of course the angel Gabriel). Furthermore Jesus is here called the King of kings (Rev 19:16), he is not called the King of the number of kings who have so far been resurrected. Logic dictates that these ones do not become kings until after the marriage of the Lamb, which is their investiture. In any event we can now say that:

ALL THE ANOINTED WILL BE RESURRECTED BY TISHRI 2004 CE

If we now turn our attention to the near bank of the river of life, we see that this prophecy is actually a witness to the fact that the anointed brothers, who were asleep in death, are raised up in Nisan 1918, which is 3.5 times after Tishri 1914, the time when Michael, the great prince, first stood up (verse 1). This date may also be deduced from Daniel chapters 5 and 7, see sections 58.3 & 64.1. This 3.5 times is the 1,260 days of Rev 11:3. It is therefore not true to say that the three and a half times of prophesying in sackcloth and ashes ended exactly when the brothers were physically locked up in prison i.e. May 7th 1918 (JP p 79), and as a result there was this one and a bit months gap between Jesus becoming King and then the two witnesses of Rev 11:3 starting to prophesy, see sections 58.3 & 82. Furthermore, since we know that the near bank of the stream is exactly 1,260 days long, we also know that this is the length of the far bank, because this whole vision is symmetric, and the same time in verse 7 applies to both banks. Therefore since we know that Armageddon starts on Nisan 14, 2008, we can now say that:

THE LAST ANOINTED ONE WILL BE DASHED TO PIECES THEREBY STARTING HIS TWINKLING OF AN EYE ON TISHRI 15, 2004 CE

We say Tishri 15 because we are including Nisan 14, 2008 itself in the 1,260 days, just as one does in the case of the near bank - see section 58.3. Furthermore since we know that the Gentile Times ended in Tishri 1914, which was when the Angel Michael stood up as heavenly King (Dan 12:1), then, by adding 3.5 times to this date, we now know that:

ALL 80,000 BROTHERS FROM THE FIRST SPIRITUAL TEMPLE WERE RAISED UP IN NISAN 1918 BCE

Now we come to the matter of the 1,290 days and the 1,335 days of verses 11 & 12. Well these two times are the angel Gabriel's answer to Daniel's question in verse 8: 'O my Lord, what will be the FINAL PART of these things'. So both of these time periods refer to events on the far bank of the stream, not on the near bank thereof.

[49.1] THE 1,290 DAYS OF DANIEL 12

Verse eleven quite simply states that there will be 1,290 days from the removal of the constant feature, and its replacement by the disgusting thing that causes desolation (to the end). In other words the ban will come in ELUL 15, 2004 CE, which is three years and seven months exactly (i.e. 1,290 days) before the end, which is on Nisan 14, 2008 CE. This has very little to do with Cedar point Ohio in 1922 (Daniel bk p333-6), but do not despair, there is a prophecy that does relate to that convention, it is Revelation 12:6 - see section 83. It must be stressed here again that if a prophecy is stated in days then it is accurate to the day (section 24.4), and all prophecies are in terms of the Hebrew calendar, unless Jehovah states otherwise.

[49.2] THE 1,335 DAYS OF DANIEL 12

Yes! no doubt the conventioners who came out of the Albert hall in May 1926 were very happy! (Daniel bk, YW p337-8). But truly truly it is being said to you, and Amen Amen to you it is being said today:

This is the most glorious time for the Great Crowd. This is when they know for a fact visibly that they have been saved into the new system. In other words on this day the testing for them ends, and they know that it has ended, because on this day the son of man is revealed! (Luke 17:30) It is in fact 75 days after the Marriage of the lamb, which takes place on Nisan 14, 2008 CE. This marriage marks the first day of the thousand years of the Kingdom of God. Armageddon happens after the Kingdom of God starts, because it is a war fought by spiritual Israel as well as by Christ (Joshua 10). Also because in Genesis 3:15 it is written that the woman's seed will bruise Satan in the head, and in Rev 12:17 we see that her seed include all of Christ's anointed brothers, such ones will not be able to do any bruising to Satan whilst they are humans on the earth. The wording of verse 12 is: 'Happy is the one who is KEEPING IN EXPECTATION and arrives at the 1,335 days'.

Which implies that these ones will be accompanied by those who are not keeping in expectation, so this time is not actually the end of Armageddon. We will see later that this battle rages on for a further 75 days - see section 66.2. We also say that this 75th day is actually the day that the son of man is revealed, because it is at the mid-point of the 150 day preset period for the length of Armageddon (section 66.2), which we know is cut short for the sake of the chosen ones (Mat 24:22), who in this case are the Great Crowd (yes, they are chosen as well!) From the Midst prophecy, in section 40, we know that Jesus' role is temporally central. And just as Jesus gained his reward at the half of the week, having been cut off (Dan 9:27), so the Great Crowd gain their reward at his revealing, at the half of the 150 day period, which for them is cut short. As regards the symbolism of Zoar, see again section 66.2, and bear in mind the words of Jesus in Luke 17:28-30: 'Likewise as it occurred in the days of Lot.... so it will be on that day when the son of man is to be revealed'. This scripture is actually telling us how to work out when the day of revealing will be, namely by referring to the account of the destruction of Sodom, we look at this too in section 66.2.

At this point very large credit has to be given to a bible study who essentially was asking the following rhetorical question, which bears a resemblance to the point made in the Daniel book (YW p223):

Whilst it is true that the covenant for this Kingdom was declared in a room above an inn in Jerusalem, the effect and scope of this covenant is far wider than South Kensington! Now since this prophecy is stated in terms of 'days', its fulfilment has to be accurate to the day (see section 24.4), albeit in terms of the days in the prophetic form of the Hebrew calendar. The time period from September 5-13, 1922 to May 25-31, 1926 is indeed three years and eight months and fifteen days of the current Gregorian calendar yes. But the bible is written in terms of the Hebrew calendar, and what the society has done here (in YW p337,338) is to correctly interpret the 1,335 days as three Hebrew years and eight Hebrew months and fifteen days, and then it has counted out this period as three Gregorian years three Gregorian months and fifteen days! It is strongly suggested that you cannot do this!

The writer would respectfully propose that the correct way to calculate the time between these two conventions (although this is academic because this whole calculation is occurring on the wrong bank of the River of life), is firstly to get the dates of the passovers in the two years concerned. These were April 10th in 1922 and March 27th in 1926, then we can calculate that September 5-13, 1922 was 148-156 days after April 10, which was Nisan 14, 1922. This now means that Cedar point was between Elul 12-20 1922, because prophetic months are all 30 days long. Likewise May 25-31 1926 is 59-65 days after March 27th 1926 which was Nisan 14. This now means that the Albert Hall convention was between Sivan 13-19 1926, because prophetic months are all 30 days long. Now the time between Elul 12-20, 1922 and Sivan 13-19, 1926 is three years and eight months and 7 days maximum, so we literally cannot fit 1,335 days between these two conventions. We will find out in section 69, that the 1,335 days is the exact length of the 'great tribulation' of Matthew 24:21 & Rev 7:14. So this period is actually cut short at both ends, in that it starts at the mid point of the last week, and it ends at the mid point of Armageddon. Daniel 12 therefore ends with the salvation of the Great Crowd, and with the length of the great tribulation which they come out of, to which it refers in verse 1, where we see:

Hereagain the situation is summed up by Paul in 2 Thess 1:6-8:

Which is actually saying that the Great Tribulation of Mat 24:21 ends with the revealing of the Son of Man. We now know that the day of these two things will be Sivan 29, 2008 CE.

Furthermore the writer, for his part, most emphatically praises all of the attempts that the society has made to understand this book of Daniel. Because in making these attempts, which this exposition is merely a further continuation of, we are obeying the words of the Great Prince who is now standing on our behalf (verse 1) who has said to us:

'Keep on asking, and it will be given you; keep on seeking, and you will find; keep on knocking, and it will be opened to you,' (Mat 7:7).

Therefore if we do not ask, then what are we going to be given? And if we do not seek, then how are we going to find? And if we stop knocking, then which door do we expect him to open to us?

The writer has no understanding that he can add to that of the society for Daniel chapter eleven at this time. However now that we know what the river Tigris stands for, we can get a fuller understanding of chapter ten. The first fulfilment is fairly literal, in that Daniel was mourning for three full weeks (verses 2,3) from Nisan 1, 536 to Nisan 21, 536 BCE (verse 1). We know that these three full weeks are prophetic because this phrase is repeated in verse 3. Well if we take a day for a year then this would bring us to Nisan 515 BCE which is when Zerubbabel's temple was inaugurated (Ezra 6:15-20, section 29). We know that 536 was the third year of Cyrus (verse 1), because his first year started in Nisan 538, because he sacked Babylon in Tishri 16, 539 BCE (see Insight book under Cyrus, or see Nabonidus chronicle) and regnal years started in Nisan for kings of Babylon, and even for Kings of Israel and Judah - see sections 24.1, 96, 97, 98 & Appendix 5.

In Ezra 1:1-4 we find the decree from Cyrus who is commissioned by Jehovah to build the second temple (just as David was commissioned to prepare for the first - section 28.1). In Ezra 3:1 we see that the Jews arrive in Jerusalem in Tishri, and it must have been Tishri 537 because this was the end of the 70 years repayment of Land Sabbaths (see section 4.1, Lev 26:34). So the decree from Cyrus went out sometime in 538 BCE, in other words between 22 and 23 years before the second temple was inaugurated. Now if this period was following after the same period for the first temple, which was a pattern for it, then it would have a length of 22.5 years, and the decree would have gone out in Tishri 538 BCE (see section 94).

However this interpretation alone is just too tame for Jehovah's great prophet Daniel, the one whom the angel Gabriel called 'a very desirable man'. Because Angel Gabriel says in verse 13 that he himself has been contending with the demon prince of Persia, for this very period of twenty one days, and he says that he has 'come to cause you to discern what will befall your people in the final part of the days, because it is a vision yet for the days to come.' So we must look for a greater fulfilment in the 'final part of the days'. This is found in the fact that Daniel reaches the bank of the river Tigris sometime on the twenty fourth day of Nisan (verse 4). Now this bank of the river we know represents 1918 (Nisan), the time when the anointed ones started flowing into heaven, (Dan 12:5-7, section 49). In other words the time when the (first) spiritual temple of Christ's brothers is 'inaugurated' in the sense that priests started going into it. If we take a day for a year again then counting backwards, with the twenty-fourth day of Nisan standing for 1918 CE, then the first day of Nisan would be the year 1895 CE. This day, in the greater fulfilment, is the year when the first of the second temple brothers, including brother Russel were anointed, i.e. baptised with holy spirit, the last time that this had occurred was in Tishri 95 CE, see section 36.1. It was also the year when the heavenly commissioning occurred for the building of the first spiritual temple, the one consisting of the 80,000 first temple brothers. So now we have found the year when Brother Russel was anointed! In fact since both the first and second physical temples in Jerusalem set a pattern for the first and second spiritual temples, we know that the time between the anointing of the first of the second temple brothers, which was the time of the commissioning of the first spiritual temple, and the inauguration of the first spiritual temple in Nisan 1918 CE, was 22.5 years, the same time period that separated the commissionings and inaugurations of the two physical temples. Which means that we now have our third witness to the Apostate Times ending at this commissioning time of Tishri 1895 CE (sections 38 & 39). We can therefore say that:

BROTHER RUSSEL WAS ANOINTED IN TISHRI 1895 CE

This date being exactly 1800 years to the month, or five times after the last brother from the first spiritual temple was anointed, in Tishri 95 CE see section 36.1. Furthermore, since every temple which we have so far considered has had a period of 22.5 years between its commissioning and its inauguration. Surely the same period must have occurred between Jesus being commissioned to build his temple and his death in Nisan 33 CE. Well yes, and now we know why Jesus was in the temple for three days when he was aged 12. The account in Luke 2:42-52, tells us that Jesus went up to the temple during the passover, with his parents.

Now since we know that Jesus was born in Tishri, he would not have been exactly 12 years old at this time of year, according to the modern way of reckoning age, because the passover was in Nisan. But he would have become 12 years old in Nisan, since this was the start of his twelfth full Jewish year of life - see section 24.2). We see from verse 41 that his parents went to Jerusalem every year for the passover. This was a long trip from Nazareth, so it was made only once a year. Therefore the first opportunity that Jesus would have had to go to the temple after his being commissioned to build the next one in Tishri 10 CE when he was 11 years old, according to modern and Jewish reckoning, was the passover in Nisan 11 CE. This being 22.5 years before he died and then rose on the third day thereby building the temple of his spiritual body. We can now say that:

JESUS WAS COMMISSIONED TO BUILD THE SPIRITUAL TEMPLE OF HIS BODY IN TISHRI 10 CE, WHEN HE BECAME 11 YEARS OLD, EVEN ON HIS ELEVENTH BIRTHDAY

[51] DANIEL CHAPTER 1 - ### THIS IS WRONG ITS ALL ABOUT THE THIRD BAPTISM

My judge is God, (Daniel in Hebrew) and not only my judge, for he is the judge of all the earth (Gen 18:25), and truly he will do what is right. Who then is the one to whom the judging is entrusted? It is the firstborn son (John 5:22), who can judge the afflicted from his experience of affliction, who can judge the lowly in heart from his experience of being even the lowliest one of mankind (Dan 4:17), and who can judge the meek from his position as being the meekest man by far (Num 12:3, Moses prefigured Jesus), and who can judge the righteous from his position as the King of righteousness (Heb 7:2).

In this account we read how Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah grew fat because they ate a lot of vegetables. And we read that these vegetables imparted to these children knowledge and insight and even understanding of visions and dreams! Truly these were very nutritious vegetables indeed! And we read that it was a Guardian who was in charge of giving these children food (verse 11), even an appointed daily allowance (verse 5). And if the food was to be administered in specified amounts at specified times, well then this Guardian would be giving them their 'food at the proper time' (Mat 24:45). We read that the guardian was appointed by the Chief Court Official (verse 11), who had been commanded by the king to prepare these children for 'standing in the palace of the king' (verse 4), for a set period of time of 'three years' (verse 5). We see that when they were brought in before the king, after this set time, they were 'ten times better' than the 'conjurers' that were in the Kings 'royal realm' (verse 20). So having read all of this we soon realise that something greater is being referred to here than merely the diet of some Hebrew Kids in Babylon. In fact we can soon see that the symbolism is:

This account is all about the length of the period of time that the second temple of anointed Christians are put to the test for. The symbolism is very precise indeed. In verse two the following transportation is repeated:

This bringing in of these utensils to the treasure house, is the bringing in of the 64,000 anointed Christians of the second temple into heaven itself. Which is what chapter one of Daniel is about. Now Ashpenaz was the chief of the eunuchs, this might not at first seem like a very flattering title for the firstborn son of God, but consider Matthew 19:12, and then think which angel is there who ever had his own seed? The literal translation of 'royal offspring' (verse 3) is 'seed of the Kingship'. This is exactly what these children are representing, Abraham's seed, 'heirs with reference to a promise' (Gal 3:29), which promise was for a kingship along with the Christ. 'The tongue of the Chaldeans' is the pure language of Zephaniah 3:9, and if you deny this then you deny that Daniel 4 has anything to do with the Gentile Times, this is because:

We then read how the King himself appoints a daily allowance 'from the delicacies of the king', now these delicacies are from a very different king to Jehovah, he is the other greater King of Babylon: King Satan, the King of Babylon the Great, and this is the other symbolism that the whole royal court of Babylon can stand for in the book of Daniel. Of course things can get confusing when the same king is standing symbolically for two very different Kings, but this account avoids ambiguity by only referring to the delicacies of the King and the drinking wine of the King, in the cases where the King is actually Satan. One could say that Jehovah is here tying us up in knots - and one would be correct, which is why we read, that the Queen says of Daniel himself in Daniel 5:12:

Now if the reader really is beginning to understand his God's book then he will know that the Queen is not only referring to Daniel's own ability here, she is rather telling us, that his book has extraordinary insight into Jehovah's purposes, which are presented in the form of Riddles and are all tied up in knots.

So returning to chapter one, just as Daniel and the others were prepared for the court of the King of Babylon, so the anointed Christians of the second temple were and still are being prepared for the court of the King of the whole universe. And just as the preparation for Daniel and the others was in the form of tempting delicacies and wine of the King, such things being desirable to the eyes and desirable to the flesh and being showy in appearance (1 John 2:16), the preparation for the anointed Christians is a testing with the visually attractive and fleshwise appealing and uplifting before men, sins and uncleanness and selfishness and greed, and self-indulgence and self-importance, of Satan's world. Such things being the delicacies and the drinking wine of the ruler of this system of things.

Now Daniel refused these things, and because of this, and because of the requests of (prayers through) the principal court official, the true God (who you will be pleased to know is standing for himself), gave Daniel over to loving-kindness (verse 9) and 'to mercy before the court official' who is also the judge and executioner of this system (Rev 19:15). When this official says to Daniel: 'and should you make my head guilty to the King', we can see that this is referring to the ransom sacrifice, of the lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world (John 1:29). And these four were tested for ten days. Now the textbook reason as to why this period was 'ten days' is because ten stands for earthly completeness, and so it does, but truly it is being written to you, that there is a lot more than earthly completeness involved in this number. Because it is appearing twice and even three times, in this account, and so we know that it is prophetic and that it stands for something else, having also a greater meaning.

We are now in a position to unlock this chapter of Daniel and to perform the calculation that this chapter is all about. Three years is 1080 days, if the testing lasts ten days then we have 108 tests during this period. So how many times were they tested? It was 108 times and how long a period is that? It is 108 years and now, we have the new bible rule of:

So this prophecy is saying that the full length of the testing period for the anointed brothers of the second temple is 108 years. This is why in verse 20, the four children were said to be TEN TIMES better than the conjurers in the royal realm. Because we are effectively taking ten times for a time in the 1080 days, which are in fact 1080 times (taking a day for a year), of the three years of the daily allowance. This is the loving kindness of Jehovah, who as we have seen in section 36.1, is leaving us confirmations that he has given us the correct interpretation of his book, and we have calculated correctly. And now what is it that happens after the end of this 108 year period?

The Septuagint renders verse 5:

'And the King.....gave orders, to nourish them three years, and that AFTERWARDS, they should stand before the king.'

And from Tishri 2003 CE onwards the anointed remnant will be able to say as did their brother Paul, in 2 Tim 4:8 ;

As a further point, the changing of the four lads names from Hebrew to Chaldean (verse 7), by the court official (Jesus), represents the change of identity of these four, from fleshly to spiritual when they are born again (John 3:3), showing us that they do indeed stand for the anointed ones. Finally, the four lads who stand for the 4,000 brothers of 1895, at the start of the baptism and testing period, increase to 64,000, due to the food that they get from their Guardian. This again confirms the effect of spiritual food on anointed Christians, as being a 16-fold multiplication (Mat 16:9, sections 33, 37).

[52] A CLASSIC EXAMPLE OF A CRYPTIC INTERPRETATION

The reader will find that from now on, some of the understandings of the bible become fairly cryptic. As an example of how the third meaning, the cryptic meaning of the bible works, consider please the scripture of Nahum 3:15, which says:

This is a statement in 'prophetic form', because it is repeated twice - see section 2. The meaning of this prophecy is explained in section 56, but for the purposes of this example, put yourself in a cheeky frame of mind, an amusing frame of mind, a times crossword (be it New York or London) frame of mind, and consider the phrase:

'HEAVY ........... IN NUMBERS'

What do you think this means? Well if we look up the word 'heavy' in the concordance, we find that this word only occurs once in the book of Numbers. Moses there says:

So the true God has made a play on words - there is a double meaning to numbers - on the one hand it is the literal number of locusts, but in the cryptic meaning it is the bible book of Numbers , in which the word heavy occurs only once. The account then goes on to describe an anointing with holy spirit of 70 helpers for Moses, who prefigures Jesus. These 70 elders prefigure the locusts of the first woe of Revelation 9:3. This same account then confirms a major detail of the structure of heaven, the home of the locust, which we will not look at now (see section 56). The point being made here is that Jehovah inspired his prophet Nahum to write those words, in full knowledge that at the time of the end, when this understanding is to be given to them, his people would posses a concordance and would be able to make the cryptic connection. This sort of thing is an absolute miracle! This is the way that one gets to know some of the very knowledge of God (Prov 2:4,5), in the time of the end. There is no way that Nahum had the slightest idea of what he was writing about.

9.5 tribes is Tishri 1991 until 2001, the end of the third baptism, which is the one side of the jordan, and then 2 x 3.5 for the other side. The 85 years is from Nisan 1918 until Nisan 2003, the start of the 7th watch who fight Armageddon, but 'the land has no disturbance from war' because the 3 years of the bear end in Nisan 2003. Caleb is Benaiah, Joshua and Eleazar are Joseph, there appears to be a subcovenant to the last covenant, because there are two tribes, Ephraim and Menasseh, unless these are the gold and the silver, i.e. the princes and the Great Crowd.

At that Joshua blessed him and gave Hebron to Caleb the son of Jephunneh AS AN INHERITANCE. That is why Hebron has come to belong to Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite AS AN INHERITANCE DOWN TO THIS DAY, for the reason that he followed Jehovah the God of Israel fully' (Joshua 14:7-14).

The repeated phrases are:

This 'different spirit' is the holy spirit. Caleb is therefore symbolising the anointed brothers of Christ, these ones are therefore the 'Caleb class'. The greater inheritance which results from the greater promise is heavenly life. Furthermore, just as David first ruled in Hebron and then when all of the tribes had joined him he conquered Jerusalem (2 Sam 5:1-9), so Jesus and his anointed brothers first dwell in the greater Hebron of heaven from Iyyar 25, 1918 until Heshvan 26, 2004 (sections 57, 58.3) when all of their brothers have joined them. At which time, they prepare to move to heavenly Jerusalem on Nisan 14, 2008, the day of the marriage of the lamb (Rev 21:2,9,10).

We can now re-interpret the whole of Joshua 14:7-14, as follows:

Jesus called the first century brothers, the first part of the 'Caleb class', the ones who had followed his father (and him) fully, out of hades and up to heaven to direct the twentieth century preaching work, and report back to him. Their invisible ascension and more particularly the earthly remnant's visible and parallel (although not simultaneous) release from custody (see section 82) caused the greater Babylonites (false worshippers) to be in 'great fear' (Rev 11:11), i.e. their hearts melted.

This resurrection 'preserved' them 'alive', in order that they would be ready to fight the 'war' of Armageddon. The day of this first resurrection 'on that day' was also the day when the greater 'Anakim' of Satan and his demons were evicted from heaven (their great and fortified city) and 85 years after this 'on that day' heaven itself, i.e. the land containing all of the mountains (i.e. kings) is given to the anointed brothers finally, in that their testing by Satan ends. So 'on that day' they have finally 'followed Jehovah fully' and they have finally received their promised inheritance and the period when many of their number are said to both 'go out and come in' to their ranks is over. 85 years after 1918 is 2003, we already know from Daniel 1 (see section 51), that the testing of the anointed ends in Tishri 2003 CE, so this account is a second witness to this date. Incidentally since the 85 years is stated as an age, it is only accurate to the nearest year, see section 24.2.

"And as for you, take for yourself wheat and barley and broad beans and lentils and millet and spelt, and you must put them in one utensil and make them into bread for you, for the number of the days that you are lying upon your side; 390 days you will eat it. And your food that you will eat will be by weight - 20 shekels a day. From time to time you will eat it. And water you will drink merely by measure, the sixth part of a hin. From time to time you will drink" (Ezekiel 4:9-11).

Jehovah then goes on to tell him to bake it over the excrement of mankind and he says further in verse 13:

Ezekiel's sleeping habits have given us the whole chronology of the error of the houses of Israel and Judah, the Gentile Times (see section 4.2) and the 70 year exile in Babylon (see section 4.1). We should therefore expect that his eating habits would be of some chronological significance as well. Jehovah has actually told us what this significance is in verse 13. We will see that Ezekiel's diet will tell us just how long the Jews themselves would have to eat 'their bread unclean among the nations'. First of all we analyse his food:

Wheat 1 time

Barley 1 times

Broad beans 2 times

Lentils 2 times

Millet 1 time

Spelt 1 time

8 x 390 / 20 = 156 times

As regards his drink, well it is 'merely' to be consumed 'by measure' that is 'the sixth part of a hin'. This gives us the next calculation:

390 / 6 = 65 times

Now we read in verse 16 referring prophetically to the Jews in exile:

This is a repetition of the eating by weight and the drinking by measure, which again tells us that there is a greater meaning to the diet of Ezekiel, and that this meaning refers to the length of time that the Nation of Israel will suffer an unclean diet. Furthermore the phrase 'from time to time' appears twice, once at the end of each of the two dietary regulations for Ezekiel. The greater meaning of this phrase is that we should subtract one of the calculated times from the other of the calculated times. This gives the following subtraction:

156 times - 65 times = 91 times

There were 91 years from the end of Solomon's temple times in Nisan 606 BCE, until the inauguration of Zerubbabel's temple in Nisan 515 BCE (see section 29).

In this chapter we find a very nice story about three Hebrew lads who would not bow down to a sixty cubit Gold statue, because they refused to worship any God but Jehovah, who was their God. As a result they were thrown into a fiery furnace by the very angry King. But then an angel rescued them from the furnace and the King was so impressed that he gave an order that anyone who spoke out against the God of these Hebrews, would have his house turned into a public privy. We know of course what this means, because it is really the par