Left Side 390 / Right Side 40 Leads us to 2033 and the End

God told Ezekiel to lie on his left side for 390 days. And then turn over and lie on his right side for 40 days. He also stressed each day for a year. Besides totaling 430 days/430 years which was the exact number of years that Israel was in Egypt – the two periods of time mentioned actually give us what appears to be a time path to the end of the world in 2033.

Here are the verses:

Ezekiel 4:4 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.

5 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.

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.

The Lord tells us that the 390 days has to do with the iniquity of the house of Israel. Jacob had his name changed to Israel in the year 1907 BC. A period of 390 years from 1907 BC does not seem significant at all. But it we go 3,900 years we find it falls on an extremely significant date:

1907 BC + 1994 AD = 3,901 calendar years. -1 (due to no year zero) = 3,900 years.

There is a relationship between the two dates. As the year 1994 AD was a Jubilee year and marked the official end of the Church Age which national Israel spiritually typified.

What about the second period of 40 days or 40 years?

Notice that Ezekiel 4:6 says that once you've accomplished the 390 days, then lie on your right side for 40 more days. This indicates that the two periods of time are consecutive. That is, the 40 days/years takes place after the 390 (3,900 years) is accomplished or finished.

Therefore, we go 40 years from 1994 to fulfill the second time line:

1994 AD + 40 (inclusive) = 2033 AD

And, as we have previously learned, the year 2033 AD has much Biblical evidence pointing to it as the year that the prolonged Judgment Day concludes and the world ends.

Q. It is curious. But It's hard not to have the feeling that we're stretching things out. Like with 1600 furlongs?

A. I don't have that feeling at all.

I think what you are referring to is the idea of stretching 390 years to 3900 years. Because you think the passage says each day for a year.

But, that is actually not said about the 390 days. While it is said about the 40 days. Here's verse 5:

Ezekiel 4:5 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.

Again, it does not say each day for a year. Instead it refers to laying upon (Ezekiel) "the years of their iniquity". Then we're told "390 days". Yes, it could be 390 years. But that doesn't fit anything in God's time table. And so it could also be 3900 years. This would be the years of their iniquity.

The reference to "each day a year" is found in the next verse concerning the 40 days:

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.

And, as it so happens this does work out exactly as a day per year when fitted in the space of 1994 to 2033.

You know a time path is not just worked out by the numbers involved. The information God gives us as well as the context of it is key.

We need to consider that Ezekiel is writing (in chapter 4) around 593 BC.

If we go forward 390 years it lands on a date around 200 BC which has no meaning in Biblical history. Around the year 200 BC was a time when God was silent and nothing of any Biblical significance was happening.

Which means we must look for another time to apply this time path. And the clue we are given is that it concerned the house of Israel/Judah and the bearing of their iniquity.

There could be several possibilities for the start date. But, as with a piece of a jigsaw puzzle we must select the date that fits into the overall scheme of the language found in the verse. The year 1907 BC, when Jacob's name was changed to Israel is a legitimate possibility for the starting point. In that year, literally the nation of Israel had its beginning. There was no Israel before then. With Jacob's name change the children born to Jacob became the children of Israel for the first time.

Okay. Now if go 390 years from 1907 BC it falls on 1517 BC. It is near the time Moses was born (he was born in 1527 BC and Aaron (a few years earlier than Moses) but the date of 1517 BC itself has no significance to anything at all that I can see.

Moreover, we wonder why would God give us a time path in the days of Ezekiel that would only encompass some ancient history of Israel itself? This would be the same question we would ask of any other time path that one might think of having to do with the formation of Israel or its history at its beginning. Why would God move the prophet Ezekiel to become himself a sign of the "siege of Jerusalem"-and then have the sign given (390 + 40) relate back to prior Israelite history? That makes no sense. We suspect that the time line given must somehow be forward looking. A projection of some sort into the time that would come after Ezekiel.

Also, we have to be careful not to fall into the trap as many have concerning the Scriptures, regarding the idea that the thing we're looking at had its meaning for them long ago but not for us today. No. We realize that the book of Ezekiel has much to say about end time events of the end of the Church Age and the end of the world itself. Remember, it was said of Ezekiel, does he not speak in parables?

But no matter where you start in the Old Testament Scriptures, given that they were all written prior to 400 BC you will find that any starting point for a period of 390 years lands on the O.T. side of the cross. Again, you would be left with a time line for them and not for us. Yet, much, very much of God's focus with Israel/Judah was in setting them up as types and figures of the N.T. congregations. They were our ensamples.

The language of laying siege to Jerusalem we can understand very well on a spiritual level. It is the language of God's judgment on the churches and congregations (see Matthew 24:15,16 and Luke 21:20).

Therefore, a projection of a time period greater than 390 years is necessary and that's why a time path of 3,900 years becomes necessary. This period of time brings us to the year 1994 which was the year the Church Age officially ended. It also reveals that the passage in Ezekiel 4 was written for our admonition. Everything fits once we use 3,900 years rather than 390 years.