Chart 2

It is interesting that some Bible scholars have noted that God identified a total of 430 years of exile for the Jews. God commanded Ezekiel (Ezekiel 4:3-6) to lay on his left side for 390 days, and right side for 40 days, with each day representing a year of exile for the Jews for their rebellion. Seventy of those prophetic years (a prophetic year= 360 days) were used in the 70 year Babylonian captivity. God also warned His people that if they continued to defy Him, He would extend His punishment by seven-fold (Lev 26:18) Since the Jews were comfortable in Babylon after Cyrus captured it, most defied God's command to return to Israel (Ezra 1-2). Some scholars believe that God may have extended the remaining 360 years to 2,520 prophetic years. This equals 907,200 days or 2,484 years which works out to the year 1948, the exact year Israel became a nation!

Chart 3

In Daniel 9:26-27, God implies that He would bring back his people after the Anointed One (Jesus Christ) is "cut off" (crucified) temple and Jerusalem are destroyed. He is very specific about how and why He will bring them back from all the nations of the world in Ezekiel 36-37. With the crucifixion of Christ, 483 of the 490 years prophesied by Daniel have been completed. The destruction of the temple and Jerusalem takes place within one generation (40 years) of the crucifixion of Christ. God disperses the Jews among all the nations for 1876 years until He brings them home to create a nation on May 14, 1948, just as prophesied by Ezekiel 36:24. However, the time of the Gentiles was not completed until Israel captured all of Jerusalem during the Six Day War in June, 1967. That event fulfilled Jesus' prophecy in Luke 21:24 and also Paul's in Romans 11:32.

Interestingly Matthew 24:34 and Mark 12:30 suggest that Jesus would return within one generation (40 years) of the time either Israel became a nation or Israel completely occupied Jerusalem. If this prophecy means 40 years, then the time when Israel became a nation could not represent the starting date since 1948 + 40 = 1998 has come and gone. However, 1967 + 40 = 2007, which is still yet future. Even so, be cautioned that the Greek word used for generation also means a general time period as well. So Jesus may be referring to the general time He would return, not the specific year. This makes sense because, Matthew 24:36 says that we will not know the exact time Jesus will return, "But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only."

Finally, Daniel 9:27 states that there will be one last week of years (the 7 year tribulation), in which the world system (the beast and specifically the Antichrist), will cut off the daily sacrifice in the temple at the mid-point of the tribulation. Ezekiel 36:26-27 and 39:22 state that the Jews will suddenly and finally realize that Jesus was the promised Messiah all along.