Jesus' Prophecy of His Own Death

People often want God to prove Himself. Let me see some miracle or mighty act. Then I will truly believe. Some generations have witnessed mighty acts and miracles… but when that small group of eyewitnesses dies and new generations come along those mighty acts fade into distant memory.

What if one of those mighty acts were indelibly written into human history… that would be helpful! But where is that mighty act embedded in human history? Its found in Jesus prophecy of His own death.

Matthew 12:40 – The scribes and pharisees wanted proof from Jesus. Some mighty act or indisputable miracle to verify that He was for real. Jesus did not give them some flashy display of power. He told them he would be in the grave for a duration of 3 daytime periods and 3 night time periods.

The sign He gave probably meant little to them. Bu,t for future generations the 3 days and 3 nights provide a time stamp of when His death and resurrection occurred in human history. Verified by the most reliable source of time keeping in the physical world… the sun moon and stars.

Genesis 1:14 the moon circles the earth, meanwhile the earth spins on its axis, that spinning earth circles around the sun. This means that there are certain alignments of these three objects that only happen at certain times… like a full moon or an eclipse. Another important factor is that these alignments are visible to the human eye… everybody can see them.

The Holy Day Cycle

The dates for the annual holy days are set using a method based on the alignment of the earth moon and sun. That’s why they do not always occur at the same time but shift around according to the alignment of these rotations of the moon around the earth and the earth around the sun.

Leviticus 23:1-2 It was the duty of the priests in Israel to proclaim the feast days and make it known what days they would be. The priests make these declarations based on some simple observations of the earth, moon, and sun… plus some basic addition and subtraction.

The Weekly Sabbath Cycle

The weekly Sabbath is not like that. It is merely a straightforward counting off of 7 days… then another 7 days… then another 7 days. So, the weekly Sabbath is on a separate and different cycle than the holy days. Sometimes the weekly [or 7^th day] Sabbath comes in the middle of the Feast of Tabernacles… sometimes it happens at the same time as one of the annual Sabbaths. This year the holy day called the Day of Atonement in on a Saturday, the same day as the weekly Sabbath. Last year that was not the case, the day of Atonement occurred on a Tuesday.

The orbits of our planet around the sun and moon around the earth are very precise. We can use mathematics to predict where the objects will be in relation to each other. That is why you sometimes hear… “hey, there is going to be an eclipse coming up May 3^rd or August 25^th so you may want to go out and watch it”… or “there is going to be a full moon tomorrow”.

In the same manner we are able to calculate backwards and know where the sun moon and earth were in relation to one another on a given date in the past. So, someone who knows what they are doing should be able to tell you what date the date of the feast of tabernacles, or the 1^st Day of Unleavened Bread was in 1961, or 1348, or 438 B.C. etc.

Putting it Together

For Jesus’ death to have occurred on the day of Passover… for Him to then be in the tomb for 3 periods of day and 3 full periods of night… and for people to have come to His tomb and find Him long gone before daybreak on the first day of the week… for these essentials to happen the Passover would have to fall in a particular relationship to the first day of Unleavened Bread and the weekly Sabbath… a Wednesday.

Using the high precision time clock in the sky… the earth, moon and sun… calculating backwards… the recorded events of His death could only have occurred in 31 A.D.

• The earth, moon, and sun… are signs
• The cycle of 7 annual holy day Sabbaths… are signs
• The weekly Sabbath is a sign
• The 3 days and 3 nights are signs

These signs allow us to pinpoint the date of Jesus death. But knowing he exact date of His death would merely end up on the pile of “interesting facts” in a game of bible trivia except for this: God had given that date to us in scripture about 500 hundred years earlier.

How Shall God Prove Himself?

He would have to DO something. It would have to be something humans can’t do… beyond physics… yet something which could not be dismissed by claims of delusion, psychosis, hypnotism, mass hysteria and so forth.

Here’s what God has been willing to provide:

I [God] will tell you about an event 500 years in advance. Way too far in advance to have been orchestrated by any person or group of people. I’m going to put that prediction in a format that will be universally recognized to have come hundreds of years before the event.

Note: we are talking about the book of the prophet Daniel which no one disputes was written long before the birth, death or resurrection of Jesus Christ.

I [God] will structure the prediction in a way that allows you to tie that predicted date back to your own written records and humanly devised methods of time keeping and calendar dates. The predicted event [the death of the messiah] will happen 486 ½ years after a public proclamation coming from one of your most famous kings… Artaxerxes of the Persian empire [who began his reign 465-464 B.C.]

The specific prediction we are referencing is found in Daniel 9:24-26.

7x7 + 62x7 = 483 years after a decree goes out to rebuild Jerusalem the Messiah will appear on the scene.

Jerusalem had destroyed earlier by the invading Babylonians. The Babylonian empire was taken over during Daniel’s lifetime by the Medo-Persian empire in 538 B.C.

Ezra 1:1-2 Cyrus - decree to begin rebuilding temple

Ezra 6:8 Darius – decree to resume building which had been temporarily suspended

Ezra 7:7-9 the seventh year of Artaxerxes which would place this at 457 B.C. The verses that follow are a copy of the actual decree which allows all the Jews who are willing to return to Jerusalem and restore it as a city.

Lets take that year… 457 B.C. and use it as the starting point for the prophecy we read earlier in Daniel. 483 years later its 27 A.D. [make sure to account for the fact there is no year zero]. At the end of that year 27 A.D. Jesus is baptized and begins His ministry. The Messiah has now appeared on the scene right on schedule.

Now let’s go back to that prophecy in Daniel. Daniel 9:26-27 indicates there is one more week to consider… a 70^th week!

Sometime after the 69 weeks [or 483 years] the Messiah will be put to death… So, He will be put to death during that 70^th week. Actually, not just during but in the middle of the seven.

What’s the middle of 7… its 3 ½

Jesus’ ministry began sometime near the end of 27 A.D. [at the end of the 69 sevens… the 483 years]. I would place the events of His baptism sometime around the fall holy days.

Jesus then taught and preached during the next 3 years:

• To the next Feast of Tabernacles of 28 A.D. [1^st year]
• To the next Feast of Tabernacles of 29 A.D. [2^nd year]
• To the nest Feast of Tabernacles of 30 A.D. [3^rd year]
• Then 6 more months which takes us to the Passover of 31 A.D.

Jesus died in the middle of the final 7 as prophesied in Daniel 2:27… 486 ½ years from the decree that went forth from Artaxerxes to restore the Jewish people back to Jerusalem. Consider the other elements of the prophecy…

• Did Jesus death confirm the New Covenant [and end the old]? YES
• Did Jesus death do away with animal sacrifices [one death, once, for all]? YES

Jesus death and the full sequence of 3 days and 3 nights in the tomb time stamped the date of His death to an alignment of earth, moon, and sun… an event could only have happened on the Passover of 31 A.D. Indelibly written into the high precision time clock of the universe.

Jesus died on a Wednesday afternoon and He was quickly put in a tomb before the beginning of the First Day of Unleavened bread… the annual Sabbath that began at sundown.

1^st Night He was in that tomb all of that following night

1^st Day He remained in that tomb during the daylight portion of that Thursday [the first day of unleavened bread]

2^nd Night He remained in that tomb the following night

2^nd Day While He was in the tomb during the daylight portion of Friday the women bought and prepared spices to embalm His corpse. After the 1^st day of Unleavened Bread which was an annual Sabbath and before the weekly Sabbath.

3^rd Night He remained in the tomb that night

3^rd Day He remained in the tomb during the daylight portion of Saturday… the weekly Sabbath. During this weekly Sabbath the women with the spices refrained from the work of embalming the corpse.

The 3 days and 3 nights were complete after the daylight portion of Saturday

After the sign was completed… sometime during the night Jesus was raised from the dead

The women came while it was still dark… before dawn. Jesus was gone, because He was already resurrected.

These events could only have occurred as recorded if Jesus died 31 A.D. And when He died on 31 A.D. He died on the exact date God said it would over 500 years previously… as predicted in scripture, as testified to by the earth, moon and sun… as written into the history of the Persian kings.

The Church spends a lot of time on proving and teaching the 3 days and 3 nights, we are also particular about the timing and keeping of the holy days, we preserve the observance of the weekly Sabbath…

Is it to show off? Is it so we can feel like we are more biblically literate and think we are better than others?

Your ongoing observance of the weekly Sabbath, the annual Sabbaths, our teaching on the 3 days and 3 nights in the tomb, the research into historical documents and archaeology… we are participating n the very proof and validation God is providing to humanity… so they are without excuse.

People want God to Prove Himself. For those with ears to hear let them hear.