I Have Appointed Thee Each Day for a Year

By Al Stoner

 

"Thou also, son of man, take thee a tile, and lay it before thee, and portray upon it the city, even Jerusalem:  And lay siege against it, and build a fort against it, and cast a mount against it; set the camp also against it, and set battering rams against it round about.  Moreover take thou unto thee an iron pan, and set it for a wall of iron between thee and the city: and set thy face against it, and it shall be besieged, and thou shalt lay siege against it. This shall be a sign to the house of Israel.  Lie thou also upon thy left side, and lay the iniquity of the house of Israel upon it: according to the number of the days that thou shalt lie upon it thou shalt bear their iniquity.  For I have laid upon thee the years of their iniquity, according to the number of the days, three hundred and ninety days: so shalt thou bear the iniquity of the house of Israel. And when thou hast accomplished them, lie again on thy right side, and thou shalt bear the iniquity of the house of Judah forty days: I have appointed thee each day for a year" (Ezek. 4:1-6). 

In this meeting our purpose shall not be to delve into the historical involvements of this prophecy, but rather to extract from the prophecy a principle of God's working with His covenanted people: a principle that appears other places in Scripture, and therefore, we refer to it as a principle.  However, in the words of Job, we must add here, "Lo, these are parts of His ways: but how little a portion is heard of Him?" (Job 26:14). 

In Numbers 14, Daniel 9, and our text here in Ezekiel the eternal God's use of the day for a year principle, or formula, appears to be for the purpose of condescending to men who are dwellers in time, bringing them face to face with a controversy that they Most High has with them.

In the case of Ezekiel, and particularly those of Israel living in his day, God employed the day for a year formula to demonstrate His great displeasure with those who were called by His Name, but who had taken the Name of t he LORD in vain.

"For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.

For I will not contend for ever, neither will I be always wroth: for the spirit should fail before me, and the souls which I have made" (Isa. 57:15-16).

The eternal God, the High and Lofty One, who inhabits eternity, dwells in the high and holy place with him that is lowly, and of a contrite spirit.

The Day for a Year Formula is a Divine formula whereby the eternal God reasons and reckons with men whose "days are swifter than a weaver's shuttle" (Job 7:6).

The Numbers 14 Text.  "But as for you, your carcases, they shall fall in this wilderness. And your children shall wander in the wilderness forty years, and bear your whoredoms, until your carcases be wasted in the wilderness. After the number of the days in which ye searched the land, even forty days, each day for a year, shall ye bear your iniquities, even forty years, and ye shall know my breach of promise" (Num. 14:32-34).

In Numbers 14 we have an example of the "day for each year" formula, where men are made to consider the severity of God because of their rejection of the knowledge of Him who had made them for His own purpose and good pleasure.

I commend to you the wholesome consideration of the severity of God.  It is always a good and healthy sign when those professing faith in Christ have a receive the Word of God with all readiness of mind, simply because it is the Word of God, and where men are ready to receive it, not because a certain man said it, but because God said it.

The Reclaiming of the Sabbath Years.  "Therefore he brought upon them the king of the Chaldees, who slew their young men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary, and had no compassion upon young man or maiden, old man, or him that stooped for age: he gave them all into his hand. And all the vessels of the house of God, great and small, and the treasures of the house of the LORD, and the treasures of the king, and of his princes; all these he brought to Babylon. And they burnt the house of God, and brake down the wall of Jerusalem, and burnt all the palaces thereof with fire, and destroyed all the goodly vessels thereof. And them that had escaped from the sword carried he away to Babylon; where they were servants to him and his sons until the reign of the kingdom of Persia: To fulfil the word of the LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed her sabbaths: for as long as she lay desolate she kept sabbath, to fulfil threescore and ten years" (II Chron. 36:20-21).

 

"And I will bring the land into desolation: and your enemies which dwell therein shall be astonished at it. And I will scatter you among the heathen, and will draw out a sword after you: and your land shall be desolate, and your cities waste. Then shall the land enjoy her sabbaths, as long as it lieth desolate, and ye be in your enemies' land; even then shall the land rest, and enjoy her sabbaths. As long as it lieth desolate it shall rest; because it did not rest in your sabbaths, when ye dwelt upon it" (Lev. 26:32-35).

 

"And they that are left of you shall pine away in their iniquity in your enemies' lands; and also in the iniquities of their fathers shall they pine away with them. If they shall confess their iniquity, and the iniquity of their fathers, with their trespass which they trespassed against me, and that also they have walked contrary unto me; And that I also have walked contrary unto them, and have brought them into the land of their enemies; if then their uncircumcised hearts be humbled, and they then accept of the punishment of their iniquity: Then will I remember my covenant with Jacob, and also my covenant with Isaac, and also my covenant with Abraham will I remember; and I will remember the land. The land also shall be left of them, and shall enjoy her sabbaths, while she lieth desolate without them: and they shall accept of the punishment of their iniquity: because, even because they despised my judgments, and because their soul abhorred my statutes" (Lev. 26:39-43).

 

There were seventy sabbath years that were not kept by Israel, (which would have extended over a period of 490 years).  As a demonstration of His righteous judgments, God took those seventy sabbath years back unto Himself, so that the land enjoyed her sabbaths, while Israel was taken captive to Babylon for seventy years.

 

Daniel Chapter 9:24-27.  Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy.  Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times.  And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined.  And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.

 

Seventy weeks, or seventy heptads, or seventy groups of seven. Seventy times seven equals 490 days, or 490 years (a day for a year)."

["Then came Peter to him, and said, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times? Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven" (Mt. 18:21-22).]

 

Seventy weeks are determined:

To finish the transgression, the violation of an express commandment of God.

To make an end of sins, violations of the will of God through error or mistake.

To make reconciliation for iniquity, that which is simply not right, or that which is unrighteous in its essential nature.  Presumption, self-exaltation are also involved here.

All three of these are also summed up in Scripture under the heading of sin.

Sin is the transgression of the Law.

All unrighteousness is sin.

Whatsoever is not of faith is sin.

To him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin. 

In all of these it can be seen that, with regard to God's regard to offenses brought against Him, sin is of a very complex nature.  

To  bring in everlasting righteousness, new creatureship in Christ is a first fruits down payment of that which is coming to believing men in the new heavens and the new earth, wherein dwelleth (only) righteousness. 

To seal up the vision and the prophecy: The vision and prophecy have been sealed upon by the appearance of the Lord Jesus Christ in these last days.  God has nothing more to say to men that what He has said through Christ, His Apostles, and Prophets.   

To anoint the Most Holy: To consecrate the Lord Jesus Christ as High Priest forever, after the order of Melchizedek.  The Lord Jesus Christ is a High Priest of good things to come.   

A High Priest of Good Things to Come.  Christ's High Priestly ministry will be as essential for men to relate to God there in the glorified state, as He is needed here.  The Lamb shall feed them, and lead them unto living fountains of waters. 

The Most Holy One, and the Most Holy Place. To consecrate the Person and the place where He ministers. Christ is "A minister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man" (Heb. 8:2).

 

The going forth of the commandment

to build Jerusalem unto Messiah the Prince

 

The commandment to restore and build Jerusalem. Zerubbabel (536 BC), Nehemiah (444 BC), and Ezra (457 BC) all headed a return from Babylon for the rebuilding of Jerusalem.   

 

Messiah shall be cut off,

but not for Himself.  Christ was cut off out of the land of the living; He was cut off as the last Adam, and He came back from the dead as the Second Man.  He was cut off with no earthly seed, but He shall see His seed, a multitude which no man can number. 

Desolations are determined. 

 

He shall confirm the covenant with many for one week. 

 

He shall cause the sacrifice and oblation to cease.  Christ's substantive work of putting away sin has completely overshadowed the shadows of heavenly things which were in the Law.

 

That determined shall be poured out upon the desolate.

 

In this determinate counsel of God there are things that were determined for the believing and unbelieving, for the righteous and the wicked, for those who serve God and for those who serve Him not.  

Time Expressions in the Revelation.  In the Revelation it seems that the purpose for the various time expressions were to hide their significance from some, and to reveal it to others. The expressions 1,260 days, the forty and two months, three days and an half, and time, times, and half a time all have reference to the same time duration. No doubt, there is a historical significance to this duration of time, but I would like us to consider them from a perspective that ministers to faith in every generation. 

 

"And I will give power unto my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days, clothed in sackcloth" (Rev. 11:3).

 

"And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and threescore days" (Rev. 12:6).

 

"And he (the fourth beast) shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time" (Dan. 7:25).

 

"And I heard the man clothed in linen, which was upon the waters of the river, when he held up his right hand and his left hand unto heaven, and sware by him that liveth for ever that it shall be for a time, times, and an half; and when he shall have accomplished to scatter the power of the holy people, all these things shall be finished" (Dan. 12:7).

 

"And to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness, into her place, where she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent" (Rev. 12:14).

 

"But the court which is without the temple leave out, and measure it not; for it is given unto the Gentiles: and the holy city shall they tread under foot forty and two months" (Rev. 11:2).

 

"And there was given unto him (a beast) a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies; and power was given unto him to continue forty and two months" (Rev. 13:5).

 

"And when they (the two witnesses) shall have finished their testimony" (Rev. 11:7).

 

"And they of the people and kindreds and tongues and nations shall see their dead bodies three days and an half, and shall not suffer their dead bodies to be put in graves" (Rev. 11:9).

 

" And after three days and an half the Spirit of life from God entered into them, and they stood upon their feet; and great fear fell upon them which saw them" (Rev. 11:11).