490 - The Sabbath and the Timing of the Tribulation - by David Wills - 2024

The Numbers of Redemption

In Luke 15:4, the number 99 is clearly used in connection with the Redeemed as follows:

“4 What man of you, having an hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go after that which is lost, until he find it?” Luke 15:4 (KJV)

God consistently uses numbers, in terms of Redemption, and always precisely reverses the curse. We can see this being played out in Genesis 17, where the LORD appears to Abram at the age of 99. This is where God changes Abram’s name to Abraham; and gives him the promise of the Son, through whom many nations and all the promises of God would come. It was a picture of God the Father giving His Son Jesus to redeem all of humanity to Himself and so it was important that God associated the coming Redemption to Abraham when he was 99, saying that He would return at exactly the same time next year when Abraham was 100, which also represents the fallen generation that needed to be saved.

As such, the Bible supports that Cain and Abel were twins, born outside of the Garden of Eden when Adam was 100. They were the very first generation, because Adam before them had been a special creation of God, he was not begotten. This is why the number 100 is also associated with a generation, when God is talking to Abram. Also, it accounts for Jesus’ reference to the 100 sheep with 99 being contrasted to the 1 lost sheep indicating both that the total of 100 represent the generation that needed saving and that symbolically 99 of those were already redeemed. In this way, the biblical narrative supports that if Adam fell at 99, then he was must have been walking with God, before the fall, for 98 years. This represents two Sabbatical cycles of 49 (7 X 7) back-to-back, without a Jubilee year because it was not needed yet, as man had not sinned and had not lost anything that needed to be restored.

All this suggests that since mankind had walked in harmony with God for two Sabbatical cycles of 49 (49 x2=98) before Falling; and that God, as a Trinity often does things in 3’s, that there would be a third Sabbatical cycle that God would seek to complete. This cycle (seen in Daniel 9:24) is described as Daniel's Seventy Weeks or 490 (49 x10) years. Importantly, it becomes a symbol associated with Redemption because Daniel describes it as time purposed by God to finish...

“…the transgression, To make an end of sins, To make reconciliation for iniquity, To bring in everlasting righteousness, To seal up vision and prophecy, And to anoint the Most Holy.” Daniel 9:24

God as a Trinity often acts in 3’s

The validity of understanding that God does things in 3’s can be seen in a few of the examples that follow:

1. In relation to the number 99, the number of Redemption being considered here, it is clear that 99 is 33 x 3, which is significant because Jesus was 33 years old when He died on the Cross for the Sins of Mankind. In this way, the victory of the triune Godhead (Father; Son and Holy Spirit) over Satan was completed when Jesus, on whom the fulness of the Godhead resided (Colossians 2:9), was 33, and 33 x 33 or 99 was an age directly related to the fall of mankind.
2. The Anti-Christ is prophesied in Dan 7:7-8 and is associated with the number 11, being the 11^th horn that comes up amongst the 10 horns of the fourth beast, that represent the kingdoms of this world:

   “⁷After this I saw in the night visions, and behold, a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, exceedingly strong. It had huge iron teeth; it was devouring, breaking in pieces, and trampling the residue with its feet. It was different from all the beasts that were before it, and it had ten horns. ⁸ I was considering the horns, and there was another horn, a little one, coming up among them, before whom three of the first horns were plucked out by the roots. And there, in this horn, were eyes like the eyes of a man, and a mouth speaking pompous words. Daniel 7:7-8

   Since Jesus came to defeat Satan and the one that represents Satan’s man on earth is the Anti-Christ, it again is no coincidence that Jesus’ victory over him occurred when He was 33, which is 11 x 3.

3. Jesus prophesied that Peter would deny Him 3 times, making his denial complete. This event occurred in front of a coal-fire while Jesus was being prosecuted, but then to reverse the curse that this would normally have entailed, Jesus meets with Peter after the Resurrection, in front of another coal fire, and 3 times asks Peter “Simon, son of Jonah, do you love Me?”. With each response from Peter to the affirmative, Jesus is healing and restoring him, telling him to Tend and Feed His Sheep - John 21:16.
4. 27 is associated with ‘Last Things’, with it notably being associated with the end of the flood of Noah - Gen 8:14-16 shows that it was on the 27^th day that the end of judgement had occurred with Noah and his family being able to exit the ark:

^“14 And in the second month, on the seven and twentieth day of the month, was the earth dried. ¹⁵ And God spake unto Noah, saying, ¹⁶ Go forth of the ark, thou, and thy wife, and thy sons, and thy sons’ wives with thee.” Gen 8:14-16

Also 27 is the number of books with which God chose to reveal the New Covenant sealed with the blood of his Son, with it being the number of books of the New Testament; and the 27^th book of the New Testament is about the Revelation of Jesus Christ.

As such, it is no coincidence that there are 3 @ 9s (3 x 9 = 27) associated with the event of Jesus’ death on the Cross:

 - 9^th hour of prayer - Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, just prior to his arrest.

 - 9 o’clock in the morning – Jesus was crucified.

 - 9^th hour of the day – Jesus died at 3 pm, which was the 9^th hour of the day that started at 6 am.

So, all this suggests that there is one Sabbatical Cycle of 49 yet to complete the set of three that Adam broke in the Garden. Significantly, Jesus (the second Adam) is the one who came to pay the price of Redemption and complete the missing Sabbatical Cycle, which he did by coming not to do away with the Law, but to fulfil it.

490 – the symbol of perfect Forgiveness and fullness of Redemption

As the Law says that the wages of sin is death, Jesus as the sinless Son of God is stating that He came to die for our sins and since the law is associated with the 10 commandments and therefore the number 10, then the remaining Sabbatical Cycle of 49 in connection with the law, represented numerically by the number 10, becomes the 490 (49 x 10) of Daniel that was declared as a time needed to make a reconciliation for sin. Just as when Peter asked Jesus how many times he must forgive sin, asking if 7 times was sufficient, Jesus responded, not 7 times, but 70 times 7, or 490 times:

^“21 Then Peter came to Him and said, “Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Up to seven times?” ²² Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven.” Matthew 18:21-22

The Connection to 98

So, the Sabbatical period based upon 7s and 49 is established as a symbol of perfect forgiveness and redemption that would perfectly complete the next or 3^rd cycle of man, who was made in God’s image, and who prior to the fall had walked with God for 98 years, or two Sabbatical cycles - 49 x 2= 98.

Amazingly, further proof of this 98 (49 x2) being connected with mankind’s walk with God is found in an amazing numerical occurrence in the original 1769 version of the King James Bible.

Firstly though, it is important to note, as it says in 1 Cor 15:45-47, that Jesus came to be the Second or last Adam:

^“45 And so it is written, “The first man Adam became a living being.” The last Adam became a life-giving spirit. ⁴⁶ However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural, and afterward the spiritual. ⁴⁷ The first man was of the earth, made of dust; the second Man is the Lord from heaven.” 1 Corinthians 15:45-47

Therefore, while the first Adam was tempted in the perfect Garden and ‘Fell’, the second Adam was tempted in a fallen Garden and perfectly resisted to the point that He sweated Blood before going to the Cross in our place. And while Israel, that God called His Son, came out Egypt and turned to idolatry, Jesus as Matthew 2 tells us, fulfills Hosea 11 - He is the true Israel, the faithful Israel who succeeds where old covenant Israel failed.

13 Now when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, saying, “Arise, take the young Child and His mother, flee to Egypt, and stay there until I bring you word; for Herod will seek the young Child to destroy Him.”
14 When he arose, he took the young Child and His mother by night and departed for Egypt, 15 and was there until the death of Herod, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying, “Out of Egypt I called My Son.” Matthew 2:13-15

By understanding all of this, we can now connect the dots in relation to 98. Just as Jesus fulfilled the law (that is associated with the number 10),and gave us a picture in Luke’s Gospel of Daniel’s 490 (49 x 10) being the perfect fulfilment and completion of the remaining Sabbath cycle of 49, the King James Version Bible (the authorised word of God for over 4 centuries) has a hidden numeric pattern in connection with Jesus, the second Adam, and the number 98 that is 2 x 49. It shows that Jesus symbolically completed the first two Sabbatical cycles of 98, at the end of which the first Adam fell when he turned 99.

Given that Jesus did this by fulfilling the law, then 98 became 98 x 10 or 980, a number that represents the perfect completion of the 2 Sabbatical cycles by the second Adam, redeeming what the first Adam had lost after walking with God for 98 years. Remembering that Daniel’s 490 years or 70 weeks prophecy is yet to be fulfilled, we can see that in this way, Jesus is literally fulfilling 3 perfect cycles of 490, that symbolize His total work of redemption.

KJV Bible and its hidden 490 and 980

Now remembering that the New Testament was written by 9 different authors over a span of about 50 years, from about AD 44 to around AD 90-95, the way the King James Version Bible encodes this numerical pattern of 980 in connection with Jesus removes all doubt that it could happen by chance, proving that it is the product of God, through His Holy Spirit inspiring every word recorded there.

Amazingly, if you use bible software to count the number of times Jesus’ name is recorded in the KJV bible, you will find that there are exactly 980 occurrences. However, these instances occur in a truly unique fashion that further supports all of this. Essentially, because Jesus’ name is a transliteration of the Greek word Insous, it only occurs in the New Testament and if you divide the count between the ‘Odd’ numbered books (Matthew, Luke, Acts…etc.) and the Even Numbered books (Mark, John, Romans…etc.) you find that the Odd books have exactly 490 references to Jesus and the Even books also have exactly 490 references to Jesus, for a total of 980.

The significance of this is enhanced by understanding that there are twice as many words in the Odd books of the New Testament, than there are in the Even books, so it is statistically impossible for such a common word, as the name of Jesus, to occur exactly the same number of times in both search groups by chance.

490 as a Timing Clue

From the preceding we can begin to see the significance of the number 490, that appears in the book of Daniel as a timing clue that extends from the time of Daniel (who was in exile in Babylon) until the end of the Age, which includes all of the End-Time events (including the Rapture and Tribulation) and extends unto the end of the Millenium, after which God will create a new Heaven and Earth. At this time, the New Jerusalem will descend from Heaven to Earth as Daniel states and will be a part of the time that will “… bring in everlasting righteousness, To seal up vision and prophecy, And to anoint the Most Holy.” Daniel 9:24

Noting this, we turn now to a fascinating fact in that the Date of the Exodus from Egypt by the Israelites is no longer up to academic debate. It has been confirmed as being in 1446 BC by the work of some archaeologists in the nineteenth century, who discovered some Stone Tablets in the ruins of Nineveh. What they found were Cuneiform Tablets from a library in the palace of Ashurbanipal. They were taken to the British Museum where one of the employees there was a scholar called Henry Rawlinson, who today is known as the Father of Assyriology because of his role in deciphering Cuneiform.

Over time he identified many of the Tablet fragments as Eponym Lists that contained a ’year by year’ list of events, including a Solar Eclipse in the time of Jonah that was ultimately associated with an eclipse of 743 BC, through information sourced on a Nasa Web Site. Using this information and other points of correlation they were able to find several corresponding events on both the Eponym lists and in the bible, and they were able to align the two. Then, by adding some of the time periods recorded in the bible to the dates they had on the Eponym lists, they were able to arrive at the exact date of 1446 BC for the Exodus.

To see more information on this, I recommend that you access the work of Joel P. Kramer, who wrote the top selling Archaeology Book called “Where God Came Down – The Archaeological Evidence”. He has also produced an excellent video titled “How we KNOW the dates for the Old Testament!” explaining how all of this was determined – click on the following link to watch it on Youtube:

https://youtu.be/3DJtVlLRMGw?si=SWNo3Xjj84crtqg5

Since 1446 BC was the Exodus and the Israelites spent 40 years in the Wilderness because they did not trust God, their entry into the Promised Land was delayed until 1406 BC. And rather than Moses taking them in, this became Joshua’s role. Significantly, Joshua’s name in Hebrew is Yehoshua  יהוֹשֻׁ֖עַ, which is the same as for Jesus, noting that the more familiar name for Jesus in Hebrew is Yeshua יֵשׁ֨וּעַ, but Yeshua is just an abbreviation for Yehoshua, as Nehemiah chapter 8 shows.

Therefore, in the account of Joshua taking God’s people into the Promised Land, we literally have a foreshadow of Jesus taking His People into Heaven in the Rapture event. This is because at the 'Second Coming' of Jesus He physically comes to earth and sets up His Millennial kingdom, it is only at the Rapture where Jesus meets the Church, or His Bride in the clouds, before taking them to Heaven, as described in John 14. Clearly there are two phases of His return in Scripture that are different and there is a symbolic link between the ‘Entry to the Promised Land’ and the Rapture.

What is exciting about this is that this date (1406 BC) connects with the number 490 in an intriguing way if you remember that 490 is symbolically linked with the fulness of time and the end of all things; and 7 is Gods number associated with perfect completion and Sabbath Cycles; and importantly that He uses it as a multiplier, as the following shows:

• 7 Sabbath year or the Shmita year of Rest and Release
• 7 Shmita years x 7 = 49 years + 1 = 50^th year of Jubilee or year of restoration
• 70 years of Exile for failing to rest the land on 70 Shmita years
• 490 years is equal to 70 Shmita year x 7 and is symbolically linked to a time-period that culminates in the restoration of righteousness, the fulfillment of God’s Redemption for mankind

The Hidden Time Period - from Joshua's entry to the Promised Land to 2025

Essentially, you get something quite amazing if you start with the year that Joshua יהוֹשֻׁ֖עַ, took the Israelites into the Promised Land - 1406 BC and simply add 7 multiples of 490 years, which is 3,430 years:

1406 BC + 3,420 + 1 (to adjust for no year zero) = 2025

Whether you agree or not that all of this could be a pointer to the year of the Rapture, it is undeniably significant that there are exactly 7 periods of 490 years between when Joshua, a foreshadow of Jesus, entered the Promised land and 2025, as it obviously will not be an exact multiple again for another 490 years.

490 and Abraham – From Birth to Exodus

Importantly though, the significance of 490 does not just occur with the time-period involving Joshua’s entry into the Promised Land, but it can also be seen in connection with Abraham as follows:

Exodus 12:41 states:

^“41 And it came to pass at the end of the four hundred and thirty years—on that very same day—it came to pass that all the armies of the LORD went out from the land of Egypt.” Exodus 12:41

And Gal 3:16- 18 states:

^“16 Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ. ¹⁷ And this I say, that the covenant, that was confirmed before of God in Christ, the law, which was four hundred and thirty years after, cannot disannul, that it should make the promise of none effect. ¹⁸ For if the inheritance be of the law, it is no more of promise: but God gave it to Abraham by promise.” Galatians 3:16-18

These scriptures show that the Exodus occurred exactly 430 years after Abraham was called by God and given all the promises. So given the Exodus was established as occurring in 1446 BC, then Abraham’s Calling occurred in 1446 BC – 430 years = 1876 BC

Then, since Abraham was called when he was 75 years old, we can know that he was born in 1876 BC – 75 years = 1951 BC

So interestingly, if you consider the time-period from Abraham’s birth unto the Exodus of the nation that God promised him, you get 1951 BC – 1446 BC = 505 years. Now at first glance this might not seem to be related to 490 in anyway, but we need to understand how God works prophetically to make an adjustment.

Prophetic Time Adjustment

• Essentially, using the most well-known example from Daniel 9:24, about the 70 Weeks (שָׁבֻעִ֨ים) or 70 X 7 =490 where it says that:

²⁴ Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy. ²⁵ Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times. ²⁶ And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined. ²⁷ And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate. Daniel 9:24-27

Clearly, the 70 weeks that represents a total of 490 years is split between 3 periods of time, with the first 2 accounting for 69 weeks of years or 483 years, leaving 1 week of years, or 7 years to complete the total of 490.

As, such most scholars agree that the 483 years were completed historically when Jesus was crucified and then God’s prophetic clock stopped because the nation of Israel was out of relationship with God and were scattered around the world. However, as the nation was reborn in 1948, and God continues to call His people home, we are getting closer to that final week when the Prophetic clock will be started again; and the remaining 7 years, called the ‘Time of Jacob’s Trial’ by Jeremiah, will complete the final 7 years and ultimately the 490 years prophesied to Daniel, will also be completed.

• Another example in the Scriptures relates to what appear to be missing prophetic years in 1 Kings 6:1, where it is stated that 480 years had elapsed from the Exodus to the fourth year of Solomon's reign, while the total number of years during this period actually amounted to 573 years, as detailed in both Acts 13 and 1 Kings, as follows: -

40 wilderness years Acts 13:18

450 years under judges Acts 13:20

40 years under Saul Acts 13:21

40 years under David 1 Kings 2:11

3 years under Solomon 1 Kings 6:1

Importantly, this total of 573 years was 93 years more than the period of 480 years, as stated in 1 Kings 6:1. However, by understanding the principal that God does not prophetically include the time when Israel is out of relationship with Him, we can seek for times when God had given them over to foreign nations and note that Israel was punished five times for sin between the Exodus and Solomon's reign, as follows:-

8 years under Cushan-Rishathaim. the king of Mesopotamia - Judges 3:8

18 years under Eglon, the king of Moab Judges 3:14

20 years under Jabin, the king of Canaan Judges 4:2,3

7 years under the Midianites Judges 6:1

40 years under the Philistines Judges 13:1

This totals 93 years, which are apparently not reckoned in the period stated in 1 Kings 6:1. There was another oppression listed in Judges 10:8, but this was primarily against the Israelites that lived on the other-side of the Jordan in the land of the Amorites, it was not directly against those living in Judah; Benjamin and Ephraim, that comprised the main territories of Israel on the western-side of the Jordan.

So, allowing for this, we now find that the missing 93 years listed in the references from the book of Judges are the precise number of years to make up the difference with the 480 years stated in 1 Kings 6:1 and the 573 calculated from both Acts 13 and 1 Kings. As such, it becomes clear that rather than there being a discrepancy, or inaccuracy in the bible, the difference is accounted for by understanding that God’s prophetic clock actually stopped each time Israel was out of fellowship with God.

With this understanding, we can now return to Abraham, the father of the patriarchs and the spiritual father of the nation of Israel and reexamine the time period of 505 years that extended from his birth in 1951 BC to the Exodus of the Israelites from Egpyt in 1446 BC.

Significantly, we find one period that was synonymous with Abram trusting his own efforts and listening to the voice and plan of his wife, rather than waiting for God to fulfil the provision of the promised son through whom would come all the promises God gave Abraham, when he first called him, as recorded in Genesis 12 - 15. This was when Sarai told Abram to sleep with Hagar her Egyptian Handmaid (Genesis 16). It occurred when Abram was 85 years old and lasted for 15 years until in fulfilment to God’s word, Isaac was born to Abram, now called Abraham, when he was 100 years old.

As in the other two examples, if you understand that God’s prophetic clock had actually stopped during the 15 years when Abram had not waited upon God and had not fully trusted Him to fulfil His word to Him, you can then see that the actual period from the birth of Abraham unto the exodus of his descendants from Egypt to become God’s special nation Israel was actually 505 years -15 years (with Hagar and Ishmael) = 490, God’s symbolic number for the fulness of time.

490 and Abraham – From Birth to Year 2025

Given all of this, we will now consider another possible period involving 490 and the End-Times, noting that is also includes a period when God’s people did not trust God. Unfortunately, this happened immediately after the Israelites left Egypt, when the people did not trust God to provide and protect them, even though He had just miraculously delivered them. When He sought to take them into the Promised Land, ten of the twelve Spies who Moses had sent into the Land, to search it out, saw the giants living there as being too big of an obstacle and gave a bad report that caused the people to complain against Moses and accuse God of having brought them out into the wilderness to die. This resulted in all of the Israelites, except for Joshua and Caleb and those under the age of 20, spending the next 40 years in the wilderness. Again, God’s prophetic clock stopped for 40 years.

So now if you look at God’s whole prophetic timeline beginning with the birth of Abraham, the Father of many nations, including God’s chosen nation Israel, through whom the Messiah Jesus would come, we can see something quite amazing, if you consider 2025 to be a focus point and allow for the years of disobedience just described:

1951 BC (Abraham’s birth) – 2025 AD = 3,975 years

3,975 years – 15 years (Hagar and Ishmael) = 3,960 years

3960 – 40 (Wilderness wanderings) = 3,920 years

490 x 8 = 3,920 years

Incredibly, from the birth of Abraham, who was called out of the world to establish the nation of Israel, through whom Jesus, the Messiah and Saviour of the world would come, and allowing for two periods where the people did not fully trust God, we have exactly 8 periods of 490, noting that 8 is also the number of Jesus, with Jesus in Greek Gematria being 888.

Additionally, as was shown above, this same period also contains one 490 period that is a subset of the whole age, as described in Daniel 24, that also allows for nearly 2,000 years of human history where God’s Chosen people Israel were not in fellowship with God as a nation and were therefore scattered throughout the world. The importance of this can be seen when we understand that these 490-year periods are now converging with it being feasible that they could both find their ultimate conclusion in 2025.

The following is a rough summary of the key timings as they relate to 490, the symbolic Sabbath cycle that acts as a symbolic pointer to a time when Jesus will begin to close our current Age.

490 – God’s number for the ‘Fullness of Time’