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What I say to you, I say to everyone: 'Watch!'
Mark 13:37

The Threefold Model of Great Sevens

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I'd like to introduce the concept of the seven day model from the popular passage in 2 Peter.

What has often been called the "six day theory" should more accurately be called a seven day model. Peter's reminder was a reference to what is written in the Psalms, which may be seen to add a third element to the two seen in 2 Peter.

In the language of the Bible, when something is said to be like something else they should be compared. So, we shall compare, and, in so doing with this matter of times and seasons, we shall gain a heart of wisdom.

The "six day theory" has been understood for a very long time by numbers of Jewish and Christian scholars to relate two kinds of weeks. Because a day is like a thousand years, the reasoning is that, because the work of creation lasted six days and was followed by a day where the Creator rested from His work, so it is that six thousand years are appointed to bring the work of this present age to its conclusion, and, that it will be followed by a thousand year span of resting from this work. This is actually a seven day model, not six. It is, furthermore, a valid model, not a theory. Yet, the model is incomplete as stated, because, instead of two it involves a comparison between three kinds of days.

1. a thousand years
2. a day that has just gone by
3. a watch in the night

The third kind is referred to as a watch in the night.

Many have noted that the millennial week, which is the timeline of history itself, matches the creation week, day for day. They are of one common pattern. Such an observation is interesting but, really, there's relatively little benefit from such a comparison until you bring the third element into consideration. When you realize that the night watch week is a week of years, the very 70th week of Daniel 9 we're now in - WOW!!! Knowledge of this simple pattern is an amazingly helpful key that grants us access to far greater insight into the days ahead! Because these three kinds of weeks match, one transfers to, or, projects onto another. We can learn about where events are positioned on the timeline of the watches in the night by extrapolation. What we learn about day one from the Creation and Millennial weeks we can apply to day one of the Night Watch week. The same goes for day two, and so on. Now, of course we already know some things about this week having gleaned it from wherever it may be found throughout the biblical text. We have lacked sufficient information to really put it all together. What we tap into with this simple pattern is a vastly larger store of information! We have six thousand years of biblical history to guide us, with the creation week as a checkpoint - and we sure need all the help we can get! Praise the Lord for granting us insight in due season!!!

This week of years is referred to in the Bible in several ways. As night watches, a watch of the night is commonly understood as a division of the portion of a day from sunset to sunrise. The Israelites traditionally divided their night time into three periods called watches. During the time of Roman occupation there were four watches. There has never been more than four, let alone seven, yet, this reference in Psalm 90 refers to a watch of the night as a year in a week of years. This special week is referred to as "night" for its lack of light.

The Day of the Lord is the seventh millennial day. This day of a thousand year duration fits the pattern established in creation in that it begins with the evening and ends with the morning. In the evening portion beginning the Day of the Lord, there are periods known as the night watches.

This week is further referred to as Daniel's seventieth week, (Daniel 9:27) and as the famine week. (Genesis 41:30) Some mistakenly call it "the tribulation," which is an inaccurate and therefore inappropriate label. Here are the key dividing points of the weeks. I will be comparing the days of the divisions marked by history's major events in the millennial week with the corresponding day of the creation week, and then in the study that follows, addressing the night week of watch/years. I won't need to address their starting points because they are coincident. You may be quite surprised to discover that the correspondance between the "Rav Sheva" is striking!

The Shabbat Divider - 6 / 1

The most obvious division in the creation week is the marking of the last day as differing in character from the other six. It is a day of rest.

Rest from His own work - that's the character of the seventh day. More fully, it is to trust not in your own work but rather in the Lord and His provision.

This seventh day of a week and its character is so important it is the subject of one of the Ten Commandments, and the only one that pertains to time. The importance of the Sabbath is also seen in that failure to observe it had a death penalty, that it was attributed as the reason judgment came upon Israel, and that it appears very prominently in the four Gospels. ( Exodus 31:14-16, Numbers 15:32-41, Isaiah 58:13-14, Ezekiel 20, Luke 6:1-11 ) Why is the Sabbath (Shabbat) so important? It is a crucial truth. It is a prophetic testimony that is to be held forth until the important truth it speaks is fully known and manifested.

The Shabbat is, or course, as relevant today as each of the other nine commandments.

The Shabbat applies to weeks of days and to this week of millennia as well.

One of the primary features of "rest" is restoration. This aspect is seen throughout our Lord's first advent ministry as the Shabbat was marked by miraculous healings. In this way, the nature of the millennial shabbat was proclaimed. Healing during the millennial Shabbat is seen the following passage referenced as the day of the Lord, here called simply, "the day."

This day, which will be accounted a thousand year day may be noted in the following description the Apostle John was blessed to record.

While the dragon is bound and certain saints are given rule with Christ, it will be known that some indeed entered into the rest that had been promised, just as it is explained in Hebrews 3.

The Flood Divider : 1 ½ / 5 ½

Perhaps the first major dividing point in history occurred at the great flood in the time of Noah.

Noah was born 1056 years from Adam The flood began in his six hundredth year, 1656 years from Adam. That was shortly after the midpoint of the second millennial day. Where else do we learn of the floodgates of the sky? At their creation - in the second day of the creation week!

So it is that the second day of each of these two weeks of the Rav sheva compare favorably, the image of one appearing in the other. They are made from the same template.

The Exodus Divider : 2 ½ / 4½

The third day of the millennial week compares favorably to the third day of the creation week. A very notable event marking the third millennial day was the miraculous exodus of the children of Israel out of the land of bondage. You may read of the event in Exodus 12-14. It has been the prominent and oft repeated reminder of God's love and delivering power displayed in and for His people. The exodus occurred 2448 years from Adam, dividing the millennial week at the 2 ½ / 4½ point, in the midst of the third day. It is this event and time which marks the start of the first ascending passage in the Great Pyramid's internal chronography, a structure that bears an amazing testimony of the biblical calendar in stone. The highlight of the Exodus event was the crossing of the Sea of Reeds, more commonly referred to as the Red Sea. This refers to the Gulf of aqaba, the arm of the Sea separating the Sinai Peninsula and what is today northwestern Saudi Arabia. "Crossing over" is the very meaning of the word "Hebrew," a fact that should mark this for an alert student's special attention. The word "exodus" is from the Greek word used once in the Bible (Hebrews 11:22) that is variously translated as "departing," departure," "going forth" and "outgoing". The focus is thus on on the going out of Egypt, marked at the boundary point which was the Sea of Reeds. That this was also a figure is plainly seen in I Corinthians 10.

The exodus was a baptism, symbolic of the transition from one kind of life to another. In order to understand the parallels between the rav Sheva, you must understand the symbolism. If you haven't yet, you may find it very helpful to read the Appendix Baptism - the Prophecy. It is the departure from a mortal life through death and the passage into a new life - immortal.

The exodus is a type, an example of death being swallowed up in victory, of this perishable putting on the imperishable. (see also Romans 8:19-23) Egypt, the land of bondage on the one side of the Sea symbolizes this perishable life. The kingdom of God that this perishable flesh and blood cannot inherit is what the promised land symbolizes, to which the Israelites were led upon their departure from the land of bondage. This promised land, or promised rest is the very Sabbath-rest that is the subject of the exerpt from Hebrews 3 you read earlier. The transition from one life to another is marked at the point of completed baptism when coming up out of the water, the completed crossing of the sea. The entrance of new life figuratively presented in the third day of the millennial week is the very subject of the third day of the creation week!

The record of the third day of creation exhibits a very pronounced division. It distinctly shows two parts that each begin and end with the same phrases. In the the first, God spoke a habitation into existence.

Then, the first life form is spoken into existence to inhabit what had been prepared.

First, the geology, then the biology. First, the habitation, then the life to inhabit it. Since the account of the day is so particularly divided, consider what is said in the first part as the first half of the day and the second, likewise. In this perspective, the first life was brought forth after two and a half days. This appearance of new life in the third day speaks of the firstfruits resurrection when the heavenly habitation will have been prepared and new life is then brought forth to inhabit the heavenly city! A third day resurrection morning!

The account of the third day of creation is tightly entwined with that of I Corinthians 15, just as I noted concerning the third day of the millennial week. This comparison exhibits the logic of a math theorem, that if a equals c and b equals c, a therefore equals b. Trees symbolize people, examples of which may be seen in Ezekiel 17:24, Ezekiel 31, Zechariah 4:11-14, Revelation 11:3-4, Mark 8:24, luke 3:8-9, Jude verse 12, among other records. Seed bearing plants and trees are people with the capacity to reproduce after their kinds - the natural and the spiritual; the earthy and the heavenly. It should be noted that as plants spring forth from seeds, the imperishable "new life" plant and tree bodies only come to life after the perishable seed bodies die.

In the creation record, before it was brought forth, it is obvious that no life of a particular kind existed. The "before crossing" existence was not the "plant life" but the "seed life," which in the perspective of that which is truly life is actually no life at all. But, the "after crossing" extence was markedly different. First, here's the "no life" example. Egyptians who had populated the land of bondage and enslaved the children of God represent that kind of corrupt life in which death reigns. Here we see a picture of those who were saved, having crossed over, seeing only death behind them.

In contrast, the condition Israel was in when they came out, when they had been saved, speaks of the new eternal life in that they went out whole, in perfect health, and during their journey their sandals and garments did not wear out.

Notice in the following account sung upon their passing over that these seed life bodies had now been planted in the mountains of the Lord's inheritance.

Another notable feature common to these two great weeks is that of the dry ground, which you may have noticed I highlighted in the scriptures above. Dry ground is that which has no life, produces no fruit; it is dead. Such is a baptism, such is a resurrection, which comes to the new life only through death. The division of the third day is marked in the Rav Sheva by the appearance of new life in resurrection. The habitation which will have been prepared will be inhabited!

Halleluyah!

If you haven't yet read the Appendix Resurrection on the Third Day, you may want to take this opportunity to do so.

The First Advent Divider - 4 / 3

A most significant event marked the 4/3 split in the millennial week. The Son of God came to earth to tabernacle among us. The most popular western calendar, the Gregorian, acknowledges this dividing point, making it a primary feature of the accounting of dates. Every date previous to that point is designated as B.C. (Before Christ) and every date since as A.D. (Anno Domini - In the Year of Our Lord) For an introduction to how the 4/3 split is evidenced in the creation week, let me quote from Avi Ben Mordecai's book, Signs in the Heavens, p. 191. "The Jewish teachers of Torah believed haMashiach, the righteous ruling King of Israel, would come to His people in the fourth day of the Creation "week." The arrival of haMashiach was expected in the period known as the "fourth day" after creation. How did rabbinical interpreters and sages of Torah arrive at this timeline for the coming of HaMashiach? For one, they interpreted the prophet Malachi's words about the messianic age: But for you who fear My name the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings; and you will go forth and skip about like calves from the stall. (Malachi 4:2 NASB) The "sun" translation is correct, rather than "son." Our rabbis deduced from Malachi's words that he was referring to haMashiach and hence to Bereshith (Genesis) 1:14-19 where it says the "sun" was created on the fourth day. This is a symbolic allusion to when g-d's salvation would come to His people...."

Here is that profound account of the coming of HaMashiach, the creation account of the fourth day.

As noted by the Rabbis, in the closing moments of the fourth Millennial day our Lord was indeed brought forth. He came as the greater light, created on the fourth day to govern the day. He himself declared in John 12:46, "I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness."

His was not the only such testimony. The Apostle Peter speaks about the coming of our Lord Jesus as the sun.

The sun is truly the morning star, the only star that comes up every morning and that is seen as the day dawns. Venus is not, as thought erroneously by some, given that it is both a morning and an evening "star" and further fades and dissappears as the day dawns.

So, once again with the testimony of the fourth day, we have a match between these two Rav Sheva.

End Note

1) A day of a thousand year duration may be noted in the limit established for this mortal life. no mortal man with flesh fashioned after Adam has lived longer than a thousand year day. adam himself died at the age of 930; indeed, in that very day!

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