The Threefold Model of Great Sevens

When Cometh That Thief in the Night - Directory
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Have you heard of the "six day theory"? What it refers to is actually a seven day model.

Peter made reference to Psalm 90.

Peter drew a comparison between two kinds of spans, but the Psalmist compared three. In the language of the Bible, when something is said to be like something else they should be compared. So, let's compare, as in this matter of times and seasons we seek to 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 thus. Because the work of creation was completed in six days and that was followed by one where the Creator rested from His work, so it is that six thousand years have been appointed to bring the work of this present age to completion, to be followed by one thousand years of resting from that work. Technically, you can call it a theory but this will be documented as a valid model. This pattern matching these two kinds of weeks is more correctly identified as one that includes the 7th day. And, to be even more correct, the additional reference named by the Psalmist extends this seven day model to include a third kind of week.

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

The reference to a watch in the night is typically ignored but this span is where the real benefit lies!

Illustrating the same pattern across three scales of duration, these three kinds of weeks are like a fractal.

Many have observed that the millennial week, which is the timeline of history itself, matches the creation week, day for day. They are of a common pattern. When you discern that the night watch is a reference to a year in the very special week of years this simple pattern becomes a valuable source of insight! What we have is a fractal, where the pattern repeats in each scale. What we learn about the Creation and Millennial weeks instructs us about the Night Watches. The events of the first day of Creation compare to the events of the first day of the Millennium, and to those of the first Watch of the Night, and so on through the entire week. This simple pattern is a guide to help us interpret the scriptures and to help us watch according to the Lord's direction in Mark 13:37 and interpret what we see. We have over six thousand years of "biblical" history to guide us, with the creation week as a checkpoint.

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 time spanning from sunset to sunrise. The Israelites traditionally divided their night into three periods called watches. During the time of Roman occupation there were four. There has never been more than four, let alone seven, but this reference in Psalm 90 instructs us through comparison to familiar models. I came to understand about the Night Watches when the Lord led me into the stunning insight about Passing Through the Iron Gate, insight that still causes me to marvel 24 years later!

This special week is referred to as "night" for its lack of light.

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

This week of night watches is also referred to as Daniel's seventieth, (Daniel 9:27) and as the famine week. (Genesis 41:30) Some mistakenly call it "the tribulation."

We will identify a small number of key transitions and compare when they happened, as on the millennial week, to the corresponding day of the creation week. I won't need to address their starting points because they are coincident, with the millennial week beginning with creation. You may be quite surprised to discover just how striking the correspondance between the Great Seven, really is! After this comparison, we'll consider how the pattern manifests in the Watches of the Night. Here are the key dividing points of the weeks.

The Shabbat Divider - 6 / 1

By making the last day different from the other six in character, the creation week is divided into two distinctly different periods.

Rest from His own work - that's the basis for the character of the seventh day.

This seventh day is so special that it's 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 truth it bears witness to is fully known and manifested.

The Shabbat remains relevant, like the other nine commandments. For our benefit, it is a day to exercise our trust in the Lord's provision as we rest from our own.

The Shabbat applies to weeks of days and to this seventh 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 is seen the following passage during 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 that 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 creation week and the millennial week match in how the final seventh is marked by rest and restoration.

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 great waters above and waters below? In the record of creation - of the second day!

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

The Exodus Divider : 2 ½ / 4½

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, which is in the midst of the third day. It is this event and time that marks the start of the first ascending passage in the Great Pyramid's internal chronograph, an ancient modeling of the biblical calendar. 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 call this event out 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 the departure from Egypt, marked at the boundary crossed that was the Sea of Reeds.

That this crossing over was also a prophetic 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 these three great sevens you must understand the symbolism. If you haven't yet, you may find it very helpful to read, Baptism - the Prophecy. Baptism pictures the passage from a mortal life through death into a new life that is 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 passage 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 that is an esoteric lesson of the exodus took place in the midst of the third day of the millennial week. The entrance of new life is likewise the subject of the third day of the creation week!

The record of the third day of creation presents us with a very pronounced division. Its two parts both begin and end with the same phrases. In the the first, God speaks a habitation into being.

Then, the first life 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 the subject of the first part as connected with the first part of the day and the second, the second part. From such a perspective there is a sense that new life was brought forth after two and a half days.

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.

There is a seed kind of life, then a sprouted plant kind of life. Here's something to consider. Those Egyptians who had populated the land of bondage and enslaved the children of God illustrate that kind of seed 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 spiritual life in that they went out whole, in perfect health, and during their journey their sandals and garments did not wear out. Transformation from death to life, as in baptism, in the Sea

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 feature common to these two weeks is that of the dry ground, which you may have noticed highlighted in the scriptures above; Genesis 1:9 and Exodus 15:19. Dry ground is that which produces no fruit and has no life. Such is a baptism, and such is a resurrection, which comes to new life only by passing through death. The division of the third day is marked by the appearance of new life in resurrection. The habitation which will have been prepared will be inhabited - on the third day!

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

The third day of the millennial week compares favorably to the third day of the creation week, and we begin to see a definite trend.

The First Advent Divider - 4 / 3

A most significant season marked the 4/3 split in the millennial week. The Son of God came to earth to dwell among us. The most popular western calendar, the Gregorian, acknowledges this dividing point in making it the primary feature. The time before that point is identified as B.C. (Before Christ) and every date since is A.D. (Anno Domini - In the Year of Our Lord). In recent years, haters of the sovereign God have scrubbed the reference to His son by promoting the relabeling of AD to CE (Common Era), and BC to BCE (Before Common Era). Yet, the calendar still pivots on the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ, and truly, all history does pivots on His work.

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.

It was in the closing moments of the fourth Millennial day our Lord was indeed brought forth, just as it transitioned into the fifth day. He came as the greater light prophesied, which was made 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 brightest morning star, which dawns at the beginning of every day. Venus is often considered to be the morning star (which is also seen in the evening - as the sun also as it sets), but the morning star that's most obviously connected with dawn is the sun itself.

In considering the transition between the 4th and 5th days, at the 4/3 division of the seven, we find a match between the millennial and creation weeks. The Messianic Son was brought forth on the 4th day as the Sun that prophesies of Him had been brought forth on the 4th day.

To Gain a Heart of Wisdom

In comparing these two kinds of weeks a trend has been identified, even a pattern. The link between the two kinds of weeks has been widely known because the Bible reveals how they have the distinctive character of the 7th day in common. Long ago, certain Rabbis predicted when the Messiah would come based on the combination of their correct interpretation of biblical symbolism (Sun as Messiah) and their understanding of the seven day model as a prophetic instrument. It is a prophetic instrument, providing the pattern for those who can, like those Rabbis so long ago, interpret biblical symbolism and rightly apply it. We have a lot more to go on, today, and we need all of it, everything the Lord is bringing to this matter of watching for His coming.

The Rabbis who predicted the Messiah's coming like the Sun on the 4th day relied upon their knowledge of where they were in time. Their confidence in accurately identifiying the 4th day was key. If they had been so much as one day off in their determination, let alone a month or a year, the arrival of the Messiah could have been missed. When it comes to what utility this insight into the threefold model of great sevens may have, the precision with which the Millennial and Night Watch weeks are known is no less critical. The knowledge of where we are in history on the Lord's calendar, His biblical calendar, is a necessary element. The knowledge of when the Night Watch week begins is another fundamental, a span of time that must be identified in the context of that calendar of the millennial week. Without all that as a foundation there is no practical benefit to this insight into the threefold model of great sevens. Many of the studies that have been collected into this body of work called, When Cometh That Thief in the Night, are presented for the documention of the Lord's calendar, to lay this foundation.

It's one thing to be inspired by this insight, to be impressed with the masterful way our God manifests His love in providing for those who, in the last days, require such as this. It's another thing to be guided by the light He provides in such ways. Knowing about this prophetic fractal has been of some benefit as I have watched through the past 20 plus years, and in recent years, joined by Aaron Hermann in the work. Its greater utility will be manifest after the prophetic timeline has been restored.