The Number 430 Shows Up More Than Once!
Ezekiel was a chosen prophet and a mighty one! And he was given a hard task. He was to preach to his own stubborn and hard-headed people (as God describes them to Ezekiel!), the Israelites, about God's coming destruction of both Jerusalem...and its people. Babylon was coming, sent by God, because the Israelite Jews had become disobedient rebels against their own God. They even worshiped the false gods of the nations around them, gods of wood and stone that were actually powerless and not gods at all. But those gods allowed them to do many wicked things that they liked doing. The true God had rules to follow and expected His people to live in a holy fashion. For this high offense against His dignity God was sending destruction upon Ezekiel's people via the Babylonian army and their king, Nebuchadnezzar. A great fraction of the Israelites would become slaves, and many would simply die from famine or pestilence while under siege or be killed by the enemy sword. This conquest by Babylon certainly did come to pass, and it took place in the late 7th century and the 6th.
In fact, Ezekiel was given the strange task of building a clay model of Jerusalem, then pretending to be Babylon...and attacking the clay model. Here is some of God's direction to Ezekiel from Chapter 4:
4 “Now, son of man, take a block of clay, put it in front of you and draw the city of Jerusalem on it. 2 Then lay siege to it: Erect siege works against it, build a ramp up to it, set up camps against it and put battering rams around it. 3 Then take an iron pan, place it as an iron wall between you and the city and turn your face toward it. It will be under siege, and you shall besiege it. This will be a sign to the people of Israel.
4 “Then lie on your left side and put the sin of the people of Israel upon yourself.[a] You are to bear their sin for the number of days you lie on your side. 5 I have assigned you the same number of days as the years of their sin. So for 390 days you will bear the sin of the people of Israel.
6 “After you have finished this, lie down again, this time on your right side, and bear the sin of the people of Judah. I have assigned you 40 days, a day for each year. 7 Turn your face toward the siege of Jerusalem and with bared arm prophesy against her. 8 I will tie you up with ropes so that you cannot turn from one side to the other until you have finished the days of your siege.
9 “Take wheat and barley, beans and lentils, millet and spelt; put them in a storage jar and use them to make bread for yourself. You are to eat it during the 390 days you lie on your side. 10 Weigh out twenty shekels[b] of food to eat each day and eat it at set times. 11 Also measure out a sixth of a hin[c] of water and drink it at set times. 12 Eat the food as you would a loaf of barley bread; bake it in the sight of the people, using human excrement for fuel.” 13 The Lord said, “In this way the people of Israel will eat defiled food among the nations where I will drive them.”
End Quote
Ezekiel laid on his side, as his regular job as a prophet of God, for 390 days because of Israel's sin (Israel being the 10 tribes that had split from Judah and Benjamin in the 900's B.C.) then Ezekiel flipped over on his other side. He then did 40 more days, but lying on his right side this time, for the sins of predominantly Judah and Benjamin. He laid on his side a total of 430 days for sin's sake. And he laid in sight of his people during winter and summer. Forty of the days were for the sake of the sin of his people, mostly Judah and Benjamin, because the other 10 tribes had been conquered by an invading Syria about 140 years earlier. Some of the people of those tribes had returned to Israel, but many now lived far away.
Since Ezekiel did this just before the 606 BC attack of Jerusalem by Babylon (is that right, Bible scholars?) then does it help us pinpoint the date of Jereboam's rebellion after Solomon's death? If you added 390 years to the year 606 BC (Babylon's initial defeat of Jerusalem) you would have 996 BC. If you added the 390 years to the year 586 BC (the year when Babylon returned and truly destroyed Jerusalem) you would have 976 BC. Are either of these dates significant with respect to Jereboam leading 10 of the tribes in a break away civil war from Rehoboam, Solomon's legitimate chosen successor, accepted as king of Judah and Benjamin but rejected under Jereboam's leadership by the other 10 tribes? Or would the setting up of the golden calves for false worship by Jeroboam in the north be the date it points to perhaps? That is specifically called out as the 'sin of Israel' in some scriptural passages.
What is odd about this number 430 the exact number of years that Israel was dwelling in Egypt, before leaving as described by the Book of Exodus, chapter 12:
40 Now the length of time the Israelite people lived in Egypt[b] was 430 years. 41 At the end of the 430 years, to the very day, all the Lord’s divisions left Egypt. 42 Because the Lord kept vigil that night to bring them out of Egypt, on this night all the Israelites are to keep vigil to honor the Lord for the generations to come.
End Quote
Consequently, a question that could be asked is...what is the significance of the number 430? Is it more than a coincidence that it shows up twice? Because the Jews are about to go into "captivity" the Lord is warning, because of their worldly sin. (Man is "CAPTIVE" to sin it is said. The Bible uses that phraseology, that language, pretty often.) And the Israelites spent 430 years in the "captivity" of Egypt from Jacob's entry under friendly enough terms until the Israelites escape under hostile terms, before being miraculously brought out of Egypt by mighty works of the Lord, such as the 10 plagues of Egypt and the parting of the Red Sea.
So, I am thinking about that! Does it mean something interesting? Does it mask a multi-phase prophecy applicable to two different times? I am thinking that it might. And this is playing around in my thoughts sometimes: many things seem to relate to the year 1620 A.D. such that 1620 sort of starts a clock. By using that idea I once decided in the year 2010 A.D. that the scriptures might be indicating that 2020 A.D. was going to be a real hummer of a year. I don't know the reason why 1620 A.D. might be such an important kickoff date. It is the year the Pilgrims crossed the Atlantic to live as God's people and worship him in freedom. Could that be it? And I am only speculating. God never told me about anything like this and He certainly never told me I was a prophet. Some of us Christians are just interested in trying to determine what sort of days we're in. But this much is certainly true: 'the words of Jesus are the spirit of prophecy', so who knows what might be in God's word, sitting latent, waiting to reveal truths to us at the right time? And since Jesus IS "the Word", all of the Bible's words are possibly to be seen as Jesus' words, though the Son always acknowledged that His Father is great above all others.
From Rev 19:
9 And he saith unto me, Write, Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb. And he saith unto me, These are the true sayings of God.
10 And I fell at his feet to worship him. And he said unto me, See thou do it not: I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus: worship God: for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.
11 And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war.
12 His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns; and he had a name written, that no man knew, but he himself.
13 And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called The Word of God.
14 And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean.
But when will Jesus come again? I have wondered, a little sheepishly because it sounds fanciful, if the answer is encoded very simply and openly in the phrase "Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John and Acts and Letters to the Churches". Wouldn't it be interesting if the order of the Gospels and then sections of the New Testament was letting us know that in the year MML (from the first letters in the first three Gospels in the Bible, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, those forming the Roman Numeral for the number 2050) that Jesus (the J in John, the 4th Gospel) then Acts (the book of Acts) for the Churches (following the Book of Acts are the Letters to the Churches.) Then comes Revelation...wherein Jesus comes to save, tear down, and build up anew, taking rulership over His intended kingdom.
If you add 1620 and 430 you arrive at 2050. (2050 A.D.?) Is that then a year full of possibilities?
I also wonder if the 50th US President might see the end of the USA, or at least of its Presidents. Our next President, presumedly elected in November 2024, will be the 47th. The furthest that the 50th could extend to is 2049 A.D. assuming they didn't invoke some emergency act to extend their time in office, and that's if we have three 2-term presidents in a row, which is allowed under current laws governing US Presidential term limits. All this is just speculation. Only God knows the day and the hour. It could be tomorrow and that would be terrible for anyone not baptized when He comes. Jesus said that unless you are baptized in water and the spirit you can by no means enter the Kingdom of God. Don't put off being baptized if you believe. It's your outside confirmation to the world that you have asked to be a bond slave of Jesus Christ instead of a slave to sin.
But another year that seems to have possible portent is the year 2030 A.D. After all, people say that 30 A.D. is the year that Jesus was crucified. Exactly 2,000 years after that would be 2030 A.D. It ties in with that idea that with the Lord, 1,000 years is like a day and a day is like 1,000 years. Jesus returned from the dead on the third 'day'. So, sometime in 2030 or 2031 should be the beginning of a great 3rd day of sorts. The beginning of the 3rd millennium since Jesus rose after His crucifixion.