The Day-for-a-Year Principle–Is it Biblical? (Part Two)
Is there a day-for-a-year principle that can be applied to prophetic interpretation? Is it possible to selectively choose when and where to apply a day-for-a-year principle respective to biblical prophecy? Can we have confidence in the prophetic outcomes and conclusions by using a day-for-a-year principle to interpret biblical prophecy? From the biblical account we learn that Pharaoh Necho appointed Eliakim to be king over Judah after the death of King Josiah, and Pharaoh changed the new king’s name to Jehoiakim. Then, in his eleventh year of reign over Judah, King Jehoiakim was removed from power and taken captive by King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon in c. 598 BCE, as likely were other officials surrounding Jehoiakim’s government, and probably some of the priests, as the king of Babylon also looted the Temple. Nebuchadnezzar then appointed Jehoiachin to be king, and he was eight years old when he began his reign over Judah, but before he could finish his accession year, he was taken captive to Babylon in March of c. 597 BCE. Once again there may have been some of the priests and the king’s advisors who were also taken into captivity as Nebuchadnezzar set his hand a second time to take the “goodly vessels of the house of the Lord” (II Chr. 36:5-7; 10). So began the first of Jehoiachin’s thirty-seven years in Babylonian imprisonment. In Jehoiachin’s fifth year of captivity we see that the priest and prophet Ezekiel was also “among the captives” in the land of the Chaldeans living by the River Chebar. Some scholars consider this to be perhaps a river in the community of Tel-abib, while others identify it with the Grand Canal (nâru kabari) of Nebuchadnezzar. (Of note is that Ezekiel’s prophecies and visions correspond to the years of Jehoiachin’s captivity in Babylon.) Thus, in Jehoiachin’s later years of captivity we see the prophet Ezekiel continuing to demonstrate his prophecies to the people of Israel, even after the fall of Jerusalem, casting his prophecies forward to a future time. Sometimes this meant that he would act out some difficult tasks in front of the people, and one of these tasks was mitigated by the “day for a year” scale regarding the punishment that would befall the people of Israel. Now, in the book of Ezekiel we read that God required him to lie on his “left side, and lay the iniquity of the house of Israel upon it: according to the number of the days that thou shalt lie upon it thou shalt bear their iniquity. For I have laid upon thee the years of their iniquity, according to the number of the days, three hundred and ninety days: so shalt thou bear the iniquity of the house of Israel. And when thou hast accomplished them, lie again on thy right side, and thou shalt bear the iniquity of the house of Judah forty days: I have appointed thee each day for a year” (Ezk. 4:4-6). (Notice that Ezekiel would bear the burden of Israel’s iniquities against God.) This, of course, was done as a sign to the people of Israel, and we see that a legal principle is again applied in this case regarding the burden of iniquity, which is to say that the measure of the burden was “appointed” based on a “day for a year,” and it was Ezekiel—not Israel—who had to symbolically bear the burden. So, we can’t help but notice that the scale of sentence severity is stated as it was in the time of Moses, but in this case it was based upon a given number of years, and according to the scale the years became days, and so Ezekiel was to lie upon his left side for 390 days and then on his right side for 40 days. (These 390 years cannot be assessed from the rule of Jeroboam.) Simply, Ezekiel had to bear the full burden of Israel’s iniquities for 430 days, and that meant the years became days based on the formula that God used to reckon the burden that fell upon Ezekiel. We see then the application of the “day for a year” scale is different for Ezekiel than it was for the people of ancient Israel in the time of Moses. For here we have the “day for a year” scale, and its application is also a day for year, and so instead of receiving a year for each day, Ezekiel received a day for each year. Considering also that this is still a legal judgment based on Israel’s iniquities, as iniquities are indeed a legal matter spiritually, and so we can say with confidence that the context for Ezekiel’s actions was one of comprehending the magnitude of God’s judgment and the burden that Ezekiel was to symbolically bear for all Israel. Interestingly, there are those who make use of this application by turning “times” into years and the years into days, and then they turn the days into prophetic years while attempting to find an historical marker that fits this expanded paradigm respective to some prophecies. An example of this is the notable idiom found in the book of Daniel, which states: “and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time,” and this is thought by some to represent a three and one-half year period of time (360 days in a year) (Dan. 7:25). Thus, the “time and times and the dividing of time” is changed to three and one-half years, then it is changed into 1260 days, and from there it is changed again into 1260 prophetic years of church persecution, which means that at some time during the more than 1950 years of church existence these “prophetic years” must be made to fit somewhere into an historical context, and that context is arbitrary at best, because there are several different possibilities for the starting and ending dates. Noting also that the assumption behind this application is that the beasts of Daniel 7