Video Timeline #9—Exodus to the Dedication of the First Temple

VIDEO Timeline #9


EXODUS TO THE DEDICATION OF THE FIRST TEMPLE


Now the timeline goes forward from the Exodus to the Dedication of the First Temple at the beginning of the Jubilee Year.


God is meticulous in His tracking of time, which is proven in every declaration recorded in the Bible. He is not precise in just years, or even in months, but to the exact day an event occurred. This has been proven in past presentations of this timeline, and will continue to show the accuracy of the bible.


The next important date to be tied into God’s Sacred Calendar is the construction and dedication of the first temple; the one Solomon built. It begins with two scriptures. I Kings 6:1. “And it came to pass in the four hundredth and eightieth year after the children of Israel had come out of the land of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon’s reign over Israel, in the month of Ziv, which is the second month that he began to build the house of the Lord.” II Chron. 3:1-2. “Now Solomon began to build the house of the Lord at Jerusalem on Mount Moriah where the Lord had appeared to his father David, at the place that David had prepared on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. And he began to build on the second day of the second month in the fourth year of his reign.”


It should be recognized that without the foundational work of E. W. Bullinger in the Companion Bible this would have been a far more difficult problem; that is, the 480 years of I Kings 6:1 and II Chronicles 3:1-2. The bible gives the following account which will lead to the defining of the 480 years.


40 years in the wilderness – Numbers 14:29, 33


450 years under the judges – Acts 13:20


40 years under Saul – Acts 13:21


40 years under David – II Samuel 5:4


 3 years under Solomon – I Kings 6:1


573 Total Years


This total of 573 years appears to contradict the 480 years mentioned in I Kings. When adding 573 years to 2518 AM (the year before the exodus,) it gives the biblically correct year that Solomon began to build the temple in 3091 AM or 956 BC. What appears as a biblical error will be shown as confirming dates of the 480 years, solidifying once again the calendrical accuracy of the bible.


The Book of Judges gives the answer for this apparent discrepancy. The record is given of the number of years when Israel was under the domination of foreign nations.


 8 years in Judges 3:8


18 years in Judges 3:14


20 years in Judges 4:3


 7 years in Judges 6:1


40 years in Judges 13:1


93 Total Years


Subtracting 93 years from the total of 573 years brings the remainder to the 480 years of I Kings 6:1. These 480 years was the time that Israel was under the government of God. Then subtracting the 40 years Israel spent in the wilderness leaves a total of 440 years. The significance of this number can now be determined by understanding the instructions for keeping the Jubilee year. In Leviticus 25:1-34 God teaches Israel how to keep the land Sabbath and the Jubilee year. Understanding the time progression of these two events is imperative, because the counting of them will show the year, month and day of the dedication of the temple. It will also show that God’s counting of these special periods of time runs independent of the normal yearly cycle that begins in the spring in God’s calendar.


Notice Lev. 25:3. “Six years you shall sow your field and six you shall prune your vineyards and gather in its fruit.” This makes it clear that the count begins about the time of the sowing of the fields. Wheat and barley are planted in the fall for harvest in spring and early summer, meaning that the count begins in the fall. Clearly God gave Israel two systems of tracking time. One system is based on planting crops, and is dependent on the years in accordance with the land rest of the seventh year, starting in the fall. The other is calculated on the nineteen year Metonic cycle of the sun, moon and earth, which begins in the spring.


Planting of the crops, added to the sabbatical years, can be interrupted by war leading to capture, thus having a different count from the solar year. However man cannot change the cycles of the sun, moon and earth, making the Metonic cycle an absolute unchanging record of time used in the bible as the historic record.


Israel’s religious year begins in the spring with the month of Nisan. Remember! Israel entered the Promised Land in the last half of the fortieth year on the east side of the Jordan, at which time they planted the first crop, and pruned their captured vineyards. It means they began the count of six sowing years in the fall before they crossed the Jordan. An article titled THE WAVE SHEAF OFFERING gives this information in detail which is posted on the web site: www.biblicalcalendarproof.com


God’s instruction is that they are not to sow or prune in the seventh year. It is not speaking of the seventh religious year but of the seventh planting and harvesting year, which resulted in the count to the sabbatical year of rest which began in the fall of the fortieth year of leaving Egypt. Accordingly the planting begins in the fall of 2558 AM or 1489 BC.


Is the time element of I Kings 6 and II Chron. 3 designated in religious or agricultural years? The answer is known because the date for beginning the temple is given in religious calendar time; the second month Ziv, and the second day.


When would the date be for counting the sabbatical years that result in the Jubilee celebration? Lev. 25:8-11. “And you shall count seven Sabbaths of years for yourself, seven times seven years; and the time of the seven Sabbaths of years shall be to you forty-nine years. Then you shall cause the trumpet of the Jubilee to sound on the tenth day of the seventh month; on the Day of Atonement you shall make the trumpet to sound throughout all of your land. And you shall consecrate the fiftieth year and proclaim liberty throughout all of the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a Jubilee for you; and each of you shall return to his possession, and each of you shall return to his family. The fiftieth year shall be a Jubilee to you; in it you shall neither sow nor reap what grows of its own accord nor gather the grapes of your unattended vine.”


Here God designates the Day of Atonement as the start of the fiftieth year, the Jubilee year. As the forty-ninth year was a sabbatical year of rest, it concluded on the day before the Day of Atonement. Then the fiftieth year would begin on the Day of Atonement. The important thing is that the announcement for the return of family property occurs at the beginning of the fiftieth year. Keeping these directions in mind they can now be overlaid on the time frame given in I Kings 6 and II Chronicles 3, allowing for the determination of when the dedication of the first temple occurred relative to the Jubilee Year. Going back to the time of the beginning of the construction of the temple in 3091 AM, or 956 BC, it was completed in seven and one half years. This places its completion in the latter half of 3098 AM or 949 BC, after the Day of Atonement that year. Atonement is on the tenth day of the seventh month.


I Kings 6:38. “And in the eleventh year, in the month Bul, which is the eighth month, the house was finished in all its details and according to all its plan. So it was seven years in building it.” It was started in the second month, and finished in the eighth month of the eleventh year; seven and one half years in the building.


Picking up the date for the first planting in the land of Israel, 2558 AM, gives the last half of that year plus the first half of 2559 AM, making up the first year of the count to the seventh year rest, and ultimately the Jubilee – the fiftieth year. The four hundred and eighty years under God’s government, minus forty years in the wilderness equals 440 years to the beginning of the building of the temple in agricultural years.


The beginning date for the construction of the temple is 3091 AM or 956 BC. Adding seven and one half years to this figure means that the completion is in the fall of 3098 AM or 949 BC, meaning that Israel had just ended its 448th year of planting. The last planting year before the seven year rest began on the Day of Atonement in the fall, one month before the temple was completed. From the time they entered the Promised Land to the Day of Atonement of 3098 AM started the 449th year, and would have been a seventh year, making it a year of rest.


Remember! The count to the sabbatical year began ahead of the calendar year. The sabbatical year began in the last half of 3098 AM or 949 BC, and by taking away its beginning year of 2558 AM from the year 3099, the remainder is 541 years. Subtracting the 93 years of foreign rule brings it to 448 years. Another point to remember is that the planting count began on the Day of Atonement, so that in the eighth month they would be in the 449 year, the year of rest.


The time that elapsed from the completion of the temple in the eighth month was after the Day of Atonement. The next Day of Atonement would end the 449th year, less than a year later.


This means that the dedication at the beginning of the next seventh month would be the start of the Jubilee’s 450th year, showing the temple was dedicated at the start of the Jubilee year 3099 AM or BC 948. It would be in the twelfth year of Solomon’s reign.


An interesting side note to this is that no Jubilee year can occur without seven nationally observed years of rest, negating all speculation about the occurrence of a Jubilee year in our present time frame. The reason is simple; there is no nation now observing this agricultural principal. Thus there can be no Jubilee years at the present time.


The next important date will be revealed in the last presentation; the destruction of the first temple. The establishment of the destruction date connects the present AD Gregorian calendar to the biblical record found in the Old Testament. This important date is part of God’s inspired Word to us.