The Seven Times - 2520 Years: 1

The Covenant, the Blessings and Curses and the Seven Times

A View of the Longest and Most Amazing Time Prophecy.

The Prophecy of the ‘Seven Times’ or 2520, as found in Leviticus 26, is the longest Time-Prophecy in the Bible. The Daily (508, 538 AD), the 1260, the 1290, the 1335 and the 2300 are all found in this prophetic timeline.

The 2520 year prophecy as it appears on the 1843 prophecy chart.

"…I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live:…that thou mayest dwell in the land which the Lord sware unto thy fathers….." Deuteronomy 30:19, 20

Few in our time have ever heard of the 2520 year prophecy; for the most part it has been dropped from our understanding for well over a hundred years.  However the 2520 runs throughout the Bible, it was a very integral part of the prophetic understandings the pioneer prophecy students had in the mid 1800's and was included in the 1843 Prophecy Chart.  This 1843 Prophecy Chart I am referring to was a study aid made for the prophecy teachers of the early 1840s to help them teach the prophetic visions of Daniel and John (Revelation).  This chart was a direct response the the text found in Habakkuk 2:2 And the LORD answered me, and said, Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it.

Our aim in teaching the 2520 year prophecy is to show that God has a special people, and that the Lord God demands our obedience to His laws he established from the beginning.  Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus. Revelation 14:12

Once you understand the 2520 you will see that all the lines of prophecy which give us dates and times can be found within the 2520 years and in no way does it change or take away from these prophecies.  Neither we, nor the pioneers have found any time prophecy longer than the 2520 in the Bible, so we can safely say this is the longest time prophecy in scripture.

 

The Covenant

Leviticus 26:12 And I will walk among you, and will be your God, and ye shall be my people.

Exodus 19:1 In the third month, when the children of Israel were gone forth out of the land of Egypt, the same day came they into the wilderness of Sinai.
2 For they were departed from Rephidim, and were come to the desert of Sinai, and had pitched in the wilderness; and there Israel camped before the mount.
3 And Moses went up unto God, and the LORD called unto him out of the mountain, saying, Thus shalt thou say to the house of Jacob, and tell the children of Israel;
4 Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagles' wings, and brought you unto myself.
5 Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine:
6 And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation. These are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel.

The Covenant to the Israelite people was a marriage between God and his chosen people.  The Bible says that God laid out before them a covenant that if they would keep it, they would be a peculiar treasure unto Him, they would be his people and they would be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.

What is the basis of this covenant?

Exodus 34:28 "And he (Moses) was there with the LORD forty days and forty nights; he did neither eat bread, nor drink water. And he (God) wrote upon the tables the words of the covenant, the Ten Commandments."

Deuteronomy 7:9 Know therefore that the LORD thy God, he is God, the faithful God, which keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations;

The basis of the covenant is the Moral Law, the Ten Commandments, which is God's universal governing law.  It is this law that the statutes and the Civil Laws of Israel extended harmoniously from, by the word of God given to Moses.  Soon after the encampment at Sinai, Moses was called up into the mountain to meet with God. Alone he climbed the steep and rugged path, and drew near to the cloud that marked the place of Jehovah's presence. Israel was now to be taken into a close and peculiar relation to the Most High; to be incorporated as a church and a nation under the government of God.  They were the covenant people, different from all the people of the world, based on keeping God's ten commandments.

 

Blessings and Curses of the Covenant

With any contract or covenant there are requirements, benefits and penalties.  But in the case of this covenant between God and his people, there were pronounced blessings and curses.

The requirements to be met by the people as dictated by the contract are written throughout the Books of Moses, but for our study here we are going to focus on Leviticus 26:

Le 26:1 Ye shall make you no idols nor graven image, neither rear you up a standing image, neither shall ye set up any image of stone in your land, to bow down unto it: for I am the LORD your God.
2 Ye shall keep my sabbaths, and reverence my sanctuary: I am the LORD.
3 If ye walk in my statutes, and keep
my commandments, and do them;

Here we find the blessings or benefits of the covenant found in verses 4-13

Le 26:4 Then I will give you rain in due season, and the land shall yield her increase, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit.
5 And your threshing shall reach unto the vintage, and the vintage shall reach unto the sowing time: and ye shall eat your bread to the full, and dwell in your land safely.
6 And I will give peace in the land, and ye shall lie down, and none shall make you afraid: and I will rid evil beasts out of the land, neither shall the sword go through your land.
7 And ye shall chase your enemies, and they shall fall before you by the sword.
8 And five of you shall chase an hundred, and an hundred of you shall put ten thousand to flight: and your enemies shall fall before you by the sword.
9 For I will have respect unto you, and make you fruitful, and multiply you, and establish my covenant with you.
10 And ye shall eat old store, and bring forth the old because of the new.
11 And I will set my tabernacle among you: and my soul shall not abhor you.
12 And I will walk among you, and will be your God, and ye shall be my people.
13 I am the LORD your God, which brought you forth out of the land of Egypt, that ye should not be their bondmen; and I have broken the bands of your yoke, and made you go upright.

And here we have the curses or penalties for breaking the covenant in verses 14-39:

Le 26:14 But if ye will not hearken unto me, and will not do all these commandments;
15 And if ye shall despise my statutes, or if your soul abhor my judgments, so that ye will not do all my commandments, but that ye break my covenant:
16 I also will do this unto you; I will even appoint over you terror, consumption, and the burning ague, that shall consume the eyes, and cause sorrow of heart: and ye shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it.
17 And I will set my face against you, and ye shall be slain before your enemies: they that hate you shall reign over you; and ye shall flee when none pursueth you.
18 And if ye will not yet for all this hearken unto me, then I will punish you
seven times more for your sins.
19 And I will break the pride of your power; and I will make your heaven as iron, and your earth as brass:
20 And your strength shall be spent in vain: for your land shall not yield her increase, neither shall the trees of the land yield their fruits.
21 And if ye walk contrary unto me, and will not hearken unto me; I will bring
seven times more plagues upon you according to your sins.
22 I will also send wild beasts among you, which shall rob you of your children, and destroy your cattle, and make you few in number; and your high ways shall be desolate.
23 And if ye will not be reformed by me by these things, but will walk contrary unto me;
24 Then will I also walk contrary unto you, and will punish you yet
seven times for your sins.
25 And I will bring a sword upon you, that shall avenge the quarrel of my covenant: and when ye are gathered together within your cities, I will send the pestilence among you; and ye shall be delivered into the hand of the enemy.
26 And when I have broken the staff of your bread, ten women shall bake your bread in one oven, and they shall deliver you your bread again by weight: and ye shall eat, and not be satisfied.
27 And if ye will not for all this hearken unto me, but walk contrary unto me;
28 Then I will walk contrary unto you also in fury; and I, even I, will chastise you
seven times for your sins.
29 And ye shall eat the flesh of your sons, and the flesh of your daughters shall ye eat.
30 And I will destroy your high places, and cut down your images, and cast your carcases upon the carcases of your idols, and my soul shall abhor you.
31 And I will make your cities waste, and bring your sanctuaries unto desolation, and I will not smell the savour of your sweet odours.
32 And I will bring the land into desolation: and your enemies which dwell therein shall be astonished at it.
33 And I will scatter you among the heathen, and will draw out a sword after you: and your land shall be desolate, and your cities waste.
34 Then shall the land enjoy her sabbaths, as long as it lieth desolate, and ye be in your enemies' land; even then shall the land rest, and enjoy her sabbaths.
35 As long as it lieth desolate it shall rest; because it did not rest in your sabbaths, when ye dwelt upon it.
36 And upon them that are left alive of you I will send a faintness into their hearts in the lands of their enemies; and the sound of a shaken leaf shall chase them; and they shall flee, as fleeing from a sword; and they shall fall when none pursueth.
37 And they shall fall one upon another, as it were before a sword, when none pursueth: and ye shall have no power to stand before your enemies.
38 And ye shall perish among the heathen, and the land of your enemies shall eat you up.
39 And they that are left of you shall pine away in their iniquity in your enemies' lands; and also in the iniquities of their fathers shall they pine away with them.

These curses are very strongly worded and have a prophetic warning in them; they are very precise in their description of what would come to the nation should they break the covenant.  Over and over the curses mention seven times in a very deliberate way.  What is this seven times? 

Seven Times

Seven times chastisement for wilful disobedience towards the covenant or seven times penalty for breaking the contract.

Leviticus 26:14 But if ye will not hearken unto me, and will not do all these commandments; 15 And if ye shall despise my statutes, or if your soul abhor my judgments, so that ye will not do all my commandments….

26:18 And if ye will not yet for all this hearken unto me, then I will punish you seven times more for your sins.

26:21 And if ye walk contrary unto me, and will not hearken unto me; I will bring seven times more plagues upon you according to your sins.

26:24 Then will I also walk contrary unto you, and will punish you yet seven times for your sins.

26:28 Then I will walk contrary unto you also in fury; and I, even I, will chastise you seven times for your sins.

What does this mean "seven times"?

Going by the language of the above texts one would tend to see prophetic language being used.  So what is seven "times"?

In the Bible "time" and "times" are mentioned many times but there is one place in the Bible where it's interpretation is unmistakeable: 

Revelation 12:6 And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and threescore days.

One thousand two hundred and three score days means 1260 as 3 score is 3 X 20 to make 60.

Revelation 12:14 And to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness, into her place, where she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent.

We know from verse 6 that the woman fled into the wilderness for 1260 and now we have the woman fleeing to the wilderness in verse 14 for a time, times and half a time.   Everything is the same except the numbering system.

Let's move on to what a prophetic day equals:

Numbers 14:34 After the number of the days in which ye searched the land, even forty days, each day for a year, shall ye bear your iniquities, even forty years, and ye shall know my breach of promise.

Ezekiel 4:6 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.

So a day is equal to a year. 

According to the Bible how many days in a year?  Let's start by finding out how many days in a month:

Genesis 7:11 In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened

Genesis 7:24 And the waters prevailed upon the earth an hundred and fifty days.

Genesis 8:4 And the ark rested in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, upon the mountains of Ararat.

Here we start on the second month, seventeenth day and end seventh month, seventeenth day making the waters prevail upon the earth for 5 months exactly.  150 / 5 = 30  days in a month; there are 12 months in a year so 12 X 30 = 360 days.

So now lets take the numbers we know and use them to figure out the numbers we don't know:

1260 / 360 = 3.5 or 3 and 1/2. 

Going back to Revelation 12:14 we can assume that a time is one, a half time is 1/2 or .5. 

So 3.5 - 1 - .5 = 2. 

Now we know that a time is one year, times is two years and a half time is half a year.

Since we know there are 360 days in a year and because there is a number in front of the word times to denominate how many times or years are implied we should multiply 360 (one year) by 7 We get 2520!

Seven times = 2520

2520 years was the punishment.

As you can see on the corner of the 1843 Prophecy Chart below, they took 7 times X 12 months = 84 months 84 X 30 days  = 2520 days, a day for a years you get 2520 years.

Conditions for Reinstatement

Were there conditions for re-instatement of favour with God?  God's mercy never fails:

Le 26:40 ¶ If they shall confess their iniquity, and the iniquity of their fathers, with their trespass which they trespassed against me, and that also they have walked contrary unto me;
41 And that I also have walked contrary unto them, and have brought them into the land of their enemies; if then their uncircumcised hearts be humbled, and they then accept of the punishment of their iniquity:
42 Then will I remember my covenant with Jacob, and also my covenant with Isaac, and also my covenant with Abraham will I remember; and I will remember the land.
43 The land also shall be left of them, and shall enjoy her sabbaths, while she lieth desolate without them: and they shall accept of the punishment of their iniquity: because, even because they despised my judgments, and because their soul abhorred my statutes.

These are the conditions found above:

1. v. 40 - confess iniquities.
2. v. 40 - confess iniquities of fathers.
3. v. 41 - humbling of hearts.
4. v. 41, 43 - acceptance of punishment