How did God calculate the 70-year Exile?
Israel were sent into exile because of their relentless apostasy, that reached its low point during the reign of Manasseh.
But how did God calculate the term of Israel’s sentence, the seventy years?
What was the basis of God’s calculation?
Proposition.
God based His calculation on the number of Sabbath years that Israel failed to observe during the years of the human monarchy; the years that Israel rejected God as King.
When Israel demanded a king ‘like all the other nations’, YHWH said to Samuel;
Obey the voice of the people in all that they say to you, for they have not rejected you, they have rejected me from being king over them. (1 Samuel 8:7)
The seventy years were directly linked to Israel’s failure to observe the Sabbath laws, as noted in 2 Chronicles 36:21.
All the days that the land lay desolate, it kept Sabbath, to fulfil seventy years.
Let us unpack the Sabbath laws.
The Sabbath Laws.
Two Sabbath rests are relevant to the calculation, the Sabbath Year and the Year of Jubilee, during which God intended the land to rest.
The Sabbath year was a ‘year of relief’
For six years you will sow your field, and for six years you will prune your vineyard and gather in its fruits, but the seventh year will be a Sabbath of solemn rest for the land, a Sabbath to YHWH. You will not sow your field or prune your vineyard.
(Leviticus 25:3-4)
The Jubilee, was a ‘year of restoration’.
Consecrate the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It will be a jubilee for you, when each of you will return to his property and to his clan.
(Leviticus 25:10)
There is no record in the Bible of Israel ever observing the Sabbath and Jubilee years.
Sabbath years during the monarchy.
The monarchy began with Saul (c1050 b.c.), the first king of Israel, and ended with the death of Josiah (609 b.c.), the last independent king of Jerusalem; a period of 442 years.
Josiah was killed at Megiddo in 609 b.c. and his son, Jehoahaz, ruled for a mere three months before being taken captive to Egypt. The remaining three kings were all vassals of either Egypt or Babylon.
The calculation.
First calculate the Jubilee years:
- 442 divided by 50 = 8.8, therefore, 8 Jubilees.
Then calculate the Sabbath years,
- 442 minus 8 = 434 divided by 7 = 62 Sabbath years
Total: 70 years.
Seventy years was the term of Israel’s sentence.
The Exile began in Egypt.
The Exile thus began with Jehoahaz being taken captive to Egypt, in late 609 or early 608 b.c., and ended seventy years later, in 538 b.c., when Cyrus issued a decree allowing the Jews to return to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple.
This is confirmed by Isaiah’s prophecy;
In that day YHWH will whistle for the fly that is at the end of the streams of Egypt, and for the bee that is in the land of Assyria. (Isaiah 7:18)
When Isaiah prophesied during the eighth century b.c., Assyria was the dominant empire of the region, and Babylon was a vassal kingdom within the Assyrian Empire. It would be another hundred years before Babylon conquered Nineveh (612 b.c.) and wiped out the Assyrian Empire.
Daniel’s Seventy Weeks prophecy.
The two numbers in the calculation, the 8 and 62, are directly linked to the structure of Daniel’s Seventy Week prophecy in Daniel 9:24-27.
Know therefore and understand that, from the going out of the word to restore and build Jerusalem, to the coming of an anointed one, a prince, there will be seven weeks; and for sixty-two weeks it will be built again with squares and moat, but in troubled times.
(Daniel 9:25)
There are eight years of rest during a 50-year ‘Jubilee cycle’; seven Sabbath Years and one Jubilee. The Jubilee cycle helps us to understand the relationship between the seven and sixty-two weeks and how they relate to the coming of Messiah.
The rebellious do not go unpunished!
When Moses asked YHWH to show him His glory, YHWH passed before him and proclaimed;
YHWH, YHWH God, compassionate, gracious, and patient; abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness; keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity, transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers on their children and their children's children, to the third and the fourth generation.
God is quick to forgive, and takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked
I have no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Lord GOD; so turn, and live.
(Ezekiel 18:32)
But, no unrepentant person can survive in the presence of God’s holiness; His holiness is like an unquenchable fire.
Repent and be saved!
There are only two ways to enter into God’s presence and live.
The first is under a ‘Cloak of Repentance’, seeking God’s forgiveness for our rebellion.
The second is clothed in the ‘Robes of Righteousness’ with which God clothes those who repent and seek His forgiveness; for those who turn from their rebellious ways and humbly acknowledge Him as Lord;
I set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life, that you and your offspring may live, loving YHWH, your God, obeying his voice and holding fast to him, for he is your life and length of days.
(Deuteronomy 30:19-20)
I love that phrase, “He is your life and length of days”!
Choose life and length of days.
