The Time-Telling Prophecies of Daniel

Fulfilling The Dream In the dream, Nebuchadnezzar was not seeing something that actually happened to a real tree. It was only a picture or symbol of the Jewish nation. So we should think of the Jews as experiencing the things described as happening to the tree. From being a great nation of 12 tribes filling the whole land of Israel and overflowing its borders, to becoming a small remnant of Jews with no standing as an independent nation, many years of chopping had taken place, with the ax being wielded mainly by Assyrians and Egyptians. The Jews had finally lost their independence through two severe blows in 609 BC. First their beloved and righteous King Josiah was killed by Pharaoh; 3 months later, the same Pharaoh removed the king they had chosen and put his brother on the throne as a mere vassal-king. He did not have to wage war to do this; he was simply following up on the victory he had won against Josiah three months earlier. So the death of Josiah on Tuesday, July 3 (Tammuz 17), 609 BC would be the event with which the seven seasons of the Jewish tree’s forced dormancy would begin. The nation of Judah would be unable to restore itself to independent status among the nations for a period of seven seasons. But it would not be dead; it would be like a stump of a tree bound with a band of iron and of brass. The brass and iron bands represented the bondage of the nation of the Jews to the harsh and heavy rule of the Greeks and Romans; this came after their years of submission to Babylon and Persia, during most of which time they had been treated in a much more kind and humane manner. If we take the number of days in “seven seasons”, that is, seven “returns of the season” or seven tropical years, we have either 2,556 or 2,557 days. If we apply the prophetic rule of a day for a year that we found in the fourth chapter of Ezekiel, then we should expect that after about 2,556 or 2,557 years of dormancy, the tree would be free of its bands of iron and brass and would grow again. That means that the nation of the Jews would break free from the restraints that had been holding them down and would again become a free and independent nation. Beginning with 609 BC and doing the math (2556 -609 = 1947 +1 because there was no zero year =1948; or 2557 -609 +1= 1949), we come to 1948 or 1949 AD. And of course we know that it was in 1948 that the Jews in the land of Palestine declared their independence and proclaimed the establishment of Israel as a free and sovereign state among the nations of the world. It was at midnight on May 14-15, 1948, that the Jews in Palestine declared the existence of the State of Israel. That reborn nation was recognized immediately by President Truman of the U.S.A. as a legal and independent state. But the Jewish nation's struggle for freedom and survival had really only begun; the tree would not grow without opposition. As soon as the new state of Israel came into existence, the surrounding nations made war on it in an attempt to drive the Jews into the sea. It is one thing for a people to declare its independence; it is quite another to secure that independence through military victory. If the Americans had not won their war of independence from England, we would not be celebrating the signing of the Declaration of Independence on the Fourth of July every year. Likewise for Israel. The calculations we made above brought us into the ballpark of the years 1948-1949. But God’s timekeeping is actually more specific than just a two-year range. So let’s see if we can narrow that range a little more. If we take the number of days in a year and multiply that figure by 7 (365.25 X 7) the sum is 2556.75 days. We begin our count with the tragic death of King Josiah on July 3, 609 BC. Counting a year for each day in “seven seasons” brings us to Saturday, July 3, 1948. But we need to continue for another ¾ of a year. So how many days is that? Let’s do the math. Three fourths of a year (365.25 X 0.75) = 273.94 days. There are exactly 39 weeks in 273 days. And the .94 would bring us well into the next day. So counting 39 weeks from Saturday, July 3, 1948 brings us to Saturday, April 2, 1949; and the next day was Sunday, April 3. What happened on that day? It is not as well known as the day Israel declared its independence, but it is at least as important. That is the day that Trans Jordan (now Jordan), the Arab nation that had claimed and was fighting for the largest amount of land within the ancient borders of Israel, signed an armistice with the new state of Israel, ending the Jewish war of independence. Each of the other three countries bordering Israel signed an armistice with Israel shortly before or after that date. The tree of Judah could now begin to grow as a legitimate sovereign state among the nations of the world. This time-telling prophecy was fulfilled right on time. The dream applied perfectly to the nation of the Jews as those who hated Nebuchadnezzar. It was exactly seven seasons, 2556¾ years to the very day, from the death of Josiah on July 3, 609 BC, to the signing of the armistice between Israel and Trans Jordan on April 3, 1949, ending Israel’s war of independence that had begun immediately after the birth of the state of Israel in May of 1948.