It is a seldom discussed reality that within the Hebrew language, there is no single word that directly conveys the concept of “coincidence”. When attempting to express the idea of something being “coincidental” in Hebrew, one must incorporate the usage of at least two words. The Hebrew expression “tsiruf mikrim” (meaning “a combination of occurrences”) is often used to denote the reality of “coincidence”, as is the phrase, “hashgacha pratit”, words that translate in to, “personal supervision” or “individual providence”, which ironically implies that there is a higher power at work within the coincidence.
While there have always been many secular minded Jewish people, the mindset of the Hebrew culture itself can typically be seen to be more spiritual in nature. To the spiritually minded Jewish people, it is common to acknowledge that a Sovereign God is in control of all facets of life. Even the seemingly lifeless aspects of Inanimate Nature were characterized by the Psalmist as being energized by God when describing Israel’s Exodus from Egypt:
“When Israel went out of Egypt, the house of Jacob from a people of a strange language;
Judah was his sanctuary, and Israel his dominion.
The sea saw it, and fled: Jordan was driven back.
The mountains skipped like rams, and the little hills like lambs.
What ailed thee, O thou sea, that thou fleddest? Thou Jordan, that thou wast driven back?
Ye mountains, that ye skipped like lambs; and ye little hills, like lambs?
Tremble, thou earth, at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob;
Which turned the rock into standing water, the flint into a fountain of waters.” Psalm 114
To the spiritually inclined of Israel, the idea of “coincidence” simply does not exist. The renowned Jewish scientist and intellectual Albert Einstein once famously quipped: “Coincidence is God’s way of remaining anonymous.”
Perhaps nowhere can the folly of “coincidence” be more readily seen than in the matter of fulfilled prophecies found within God’s Word. From the realization of the Messianic Prophesies in the life of Christ (Psalm 22, Isaiah 7:14, 53:7, Daniel 9:24-27) to the prophesied re-emergence of the Nation of Israel in 1948 (Isaiah 66:8, Zechariah 12:10, 14:2), they are too numerous to fully mention in the context of this paper.
Concerning Biblical Prophecy that is yet to be fulfilled, there are also some quite interesting “coincidences” to be acknowledged. One of which is regarding the year 2030 A.D. as being a possible year for the 2nd Coming of Jesus back to the Earth to set up His Millennial Kingdom. For this is the year that many believe will be the time of the fulfillment of Hosea’s prophecy that states that Israel would be set aside for 2 days, and in the 3rd day God would revive them, after which they would then “live in His sight”:
Come and let us return unto the LORD: for he hath torn, and he will heal us; he hath
smitten, and he will bind us up.
After two days he will revive us: in the 3rd day he will raise us up, and we shall live
in his sight.” Hosea 6:1,2
For if we consider the fact that “a day with the Lord is as 1,000 years with man” (Psalm 90:4, II Peter 3:8) then the “2 days” prophesied by Hosea would equate to 2,000 years of time. If we then add 2,000 years on to 30 A.D. (the likely year that Israel was set aside for Crucifying their Messiah), then it follows that the initiation of the Millennial Kingdom could then likely occur in the year 2030 A.D.
The question that then arises is, “Are there any other passages of Scripture that would serve to affirm the possibility of Israel being set aside for 2 days, or 2,000 years, and then once again coming under the headship of God? The answer to the question is a resounding “Yes!”, for God does indeed live by His own principles, “…In the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established” (II Corinthians 13:1).
In the Old Testament, we find the Hebrew people being met by God at the time of their arrival at Mount Sinai (Exodus 19:3), at which time God told Moses:
“Go unto the people, and sanctify them today and tomorrow, and let them wash their
clothes,
And be ready against the third day: for the third day the LORD will come down in the sight
of all the people upon mount Sinai.” Exodus 19:10,11, (“Every eye shall see him”). Rev. 1:7
Here we see the Nation of Israel being physically encountered by God, after which God returns to Heaven for 2 days, followed by His coming back to the Hebrew people on the morning of the 3rd day (Exodus 19:16), a perfect typology of Hosea’s Prophecy (Hosea 6:2).
In the story of the “Woman at the well” in the New Testament (John 4:7-30), we find Jesus first leaving the Jewish lands of Judea and Galilee, and then departing for “2 days” into non-Jewish Samaria (John 4:43). During his stay with these Gentile Samaritans (who are representative of the various non-Jewish peoples of the Church Age), Scripture tells us that through the testimony of the woman at the well, many of the Samaritans “believed on him” (John4:39). After 2 days absence from the Jewish homeland while ministering to these Samaritans, we are told that Jesus once again returned to the land of the Jews (John 4:43), which of course is a perfect typological depiction of God setting aside the Jewish people during the Church Age (2 days or 2,000 years departure), followed by Jesus’ return to them in the 3rd day.
The Prophetic Timelines of Ezekiel
The Old Testament Prophet Ezekiel also provides us with two additional prophetic timelines to the eschatological future, which of course is in keeping with the Biblical Maxim that, “God will not do anything without first revealing it to the Prophets”:
“Surely the Lord GOD will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants
the prophets.” Amos 3:7
In the 4th Chapter of the Book of Ezekiel we read:
“Thou also, son of man, take thee a tile, and lay it before thee, and portray upon it the city,
even Jerusalem:
And lay siege against it, and build a fort against it, and cast a mount against it; set the camp
also against it, and set battering rams against it round about.
Moreover, take thou unto thee an iron pan, and set it for a wall of iron between thee and
the city: and set thy face against it, and it shall be besieged, and thou shalt lay siege against
it. This shall be a sign to the house of Israel.
Lie thou also upon thy 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.
Therefore, thou shalt set thy face toward the siege of Jerusalem, and thine arm shall be
uncovered, and thou shalt prophesy against it.
And behold, I will lay bands upon thee, and thou shalt not turn thee from one side to
another, till thou hast ended the days of thy siege.” Ezekiel 4:1-8
Here we have God telling Ezekiel to lay on his side for 390 days to demonstrate a coming time of discipline for the 10 Northern Tribes of Israel that would last for a period of 390 years. Ezekiel was then told to roll over on his other side for a period of 40 days, which would signify a coming time of discipline for the Southern Kingdom of Judah that would last for a period of 40 years.
These times of discipline for both the Northern and the Southern Kingdoms would be associated with the city of Jerusalem coming under siege. During the siege that would initiate the punishment of the 10 Northern Tribes of Israel, God would provide an iron wall of protection for the city itself, and it would not be destroyed. In the siege of Jerusalem regarding Judah’s discipline however, we see that no such wall would be there, and the city itself and the Temple would be destroyed.
From the subsequent history of the Hebrew people, we find both prophesies being fulfilled completely. In 701 B.C., the Assyrian army laid siege to Jerusalem. Although the Northern Kingdom of Israel was taken captive by the Assyrians, Jerusalem and the Temple were not destroyed.
In the siege of Jerusalem against the Southern Kingdom of Judah by the Roman Army led by Titus in 70 A.D., both the city of Jerusalem and the Temple were destroyed, and the nation scattered abroad.
The key to understanding Ezekiel’s Prophetic Timeline is to be found within the Book of Leviticus. For here we read that if Israel refused to repent after they have come under a period of chastisement, then God would multiply the discipline by a factor of 7:
“And if ye will not yet for all this hearken unto me, then I will punish you seven
times more for your sins.” Leviticus 26:18
Scripture then goes on to say that if Israel would still not repent of their sins, then God would once again multiply their disciplinary sorrows by an additional 7 times (Leviticus 26:21). He then promised yet again and again, that if Israel continued in their wayward ways, that He would multiply their punishment by a factor of 7 (Leviticus 26: 24, 28).
When we consider the case of the 10 Northern Tribes of Israel, we see that their disciplinary period of 390 years started in the year 701 B.C. Scripture indicates that the peoples of the Northern Kingdom were never again a nation in repentance, so we can assume that Israel’s time of chastisement would be multiplied by a factor of 7. When we multiply 390 years times 7, we get a total of 2,730 years. When we add the 2,730 years of rebuke on to the year 701 B.C. and remember the fact that in the time period between 1 B.C. to 1 A.D., there is only one year (the makers of the Augustinian Calendar did not acknowledge the concept of zero), we come to the year 2030 A.D. as marking the cessation of their discipline, should they choose to repent at this time.
In the case of the Southern Kingdom, Judah’s disciplinary period of 40 years began in the year 30 A.D., the year of the Crucifixion. In that the nation did not repent of their sin of murdering their Messiah, Jerusalem was besieged in 70 A.D. by the Romans. God then multiplied their chastisement by a factor of 7 (40×7 = 280 years), after which, in the year 350 A.D., the Jewish peoples still had not repented. Therefore, God multiplied their sorrows by another factor of 7. When we multiply 40 times 7, times 7, we get a period of 1960 years. When we add 1960 years to 70 A.D., the year of Jerusalem’s besiegement, as in the case of the Northern Kingdom, we once again arrive at the year of 2030 A.D.!
When we examine possible prophetic timelines revealed in the New Testament, a 4th prophetic timeline pointing to the year 2030 A.D. also emerges. For within the New Testament, we find Jesus being likened unto Adam, as Scripture refers to Jesus as being, “the Last Adam” (I Corinthians 15:45). According to the advocates of the Millennial/Day Prophetical timeline, that is, if God created the Heavens and the Earth in 6 days, and on the 7th day He rested, then it would follow that mankind would also have 6 days of work, after which he too would have his day of rest from self-rulership on the 7th day during the Millennial Reign of Christ.
According to Biblical chronologists, it is commonly accepted that Adam was likely created in the year 4,004 B.C. When we once again consider the fact that “one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day” (II Peter 3:8), then we could surmise that the completion of man’s 6 days consisting of 6,000 years would be the year 1996 A.D. However, in that Jesus is likened as being the “Last Adam”, it seems that if Jesus had lived 33 ½ years without sinning, after which He “became sin” for us while “nailed to a tree” (II Corinthians 5:21), then so too would the first Adam have likewise also refrained from sinning for 33 ½ years in the Garden of Eden, after which he “became a sinner” while standing “underneath a tree”. This would make the year of Adam’s Fall to be 3970 B.C. When we add the 6,000 years of man’s future self-rule to the year 3970 B.C., we again come to the year 2030 A.D. as the likely year for the start of the Millennium!
As if this were not enough, there may indeed be a 5th timeline that culminates in the possibility that the Millennial Reign of Christ may likely begin in and around the year 2030. For Bible chronologists tell us that the Father of the Hebrew people, Abraham, was born in the 1,948th year after the creation of Adam, or 1948 A.M. (Anno Mundi). It is of interest to note that Abraham’s descendants were reborn into becoming a nation exactly 1948 years after the initiation of the modern age, in 1948 A.D. When we couple this with the fact that Abraham was called by God to leave his father’s house to come under the direct control of God when he was 75 years old, another possible finger pointing to the year 2030 emerges.
For if we add 75 years onto the year 1948 A.D., we come to the year, 2023 A.D. as a likely year for Abraham’s progeny to also come under the direct influence of God. Given the fact that the last 7 years of Daniel’s prophecy have yet to occur (Daniel 9:27), the years of the time period known as the Great Tribulation, when Israel will once again come under the direct influence and discipline of God immediately prior to the Millennial Kingdom, we once more have another possible prophetic finger pointing directly at the year 2030 A.D. For when we add the missing 7 years onto the year 2023, we yet again arrive at the year 2030 A.D.!
By any stretch of anyone’s imagination, could these timelines, which involve so many different and distinct abstract elements, to conclude in the exact same year realistically be considered as being, “Just a Coincidence?” I think not. Time will tell.
I believe that it is safe to say that we can now more readily understand why the Hebrew people never developed a single word to describe the phenomenon known to Western secular thinkers as “coincidence”. For to the enlightened Hebrew, there was never a need to acknowledge a concept or thing that quite likely does not even exist.
Whether or not the Millennial rule of Christ will begin in the year 2030 still remains to be seen. But we would all do well to acknowledge the fact that History is not controlled by mere chance or “coincidence”, but rather by a Sovereign God who ordains the events of History according to His own timetable!
“Remember the former things of old: for I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and
there is none like me,
Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet
done, saying My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure.” Isaiah 46:9,10
