A Tale of Confirmation by Mark Aaron Robinson

All the managers at the institution where I am employed are telling their people to put in for retirement because of the likelihood that retirement benefits will be significantly reduced under the new contract scheduled to become effective 10/01/05. The institution Director has even said that he would do so if had been here long enough to be vested. I have actually been praying for several years that God would give us a way to retire. So two days ago, my wife & I decided we would put in our retirement paperwork. I decided I would formally initiate the paperwork yesterday, and while talking about that with my wife, she mentioned that a co-worker said we needed to retire before 06/28/05 to get “the best deal” –I probably would have made it effective October 1^st if not for that piece of advice.

So I was filling out the application, and had to decide on an effective date. Since I was more or less doing this without a lot of fore-thought, and with no specific plans on what to do afterwards, I really couldn’t think of a date that made sense. I had, however, been thinking about the prophetic implications of this June 7^th (on the Gregorian calendar) being the 38^th anniversary of the retaking of Jerusalem in the 1967 Six-Day War. Actually, the correct date is Iyar 28^th on the Hebrew calendar. Iyar 28^th is not only “Jerusalem Day” in Israel, it is also the anniversary date of our Messiah’s ascension into Heaven 40 days after his resurrection. So I decided to retire on Iyar 28^th, which is Monday June 6^th this year. I thought to myself, “OK, I’ll work one last Monday.”

When I turned the application into our Benefits Department, they informed me that the retirement date and the last day of work had to be separated by at least one work day, so I decided our last day would be Friday June 3^rd. I thought no more about this until later in the evening when I decided to pray and ask God for some sort of confirmation that we were making the right choice. I picked up an annotated Bible and opened it, letting God decide what I would read. To my chagrin, I saw I had opened to the first page of commentary on the Lamentations of Jeremiah. I thought, “Shucks…guess God did want to answer me this way tonight,” and promptly started thinking about something else. After 10 minutes of so I looked down at the Bible again and noticed that the left-hand page was actually the last few verses of the Book of Jeremiah ( I had just focused on the Commentary on the right-hand page before). Jeremiah 52:31 -34 reads as follows [emphasis added].

Jer 52:31 And it came to pass in the seven and thirtieth year of the captivity of Jehoiachin king of Judah, in the twelfth month, in the five and twentieth [day] of the month, [that] Evilmerodach king of Babylon in the [first] year of his reign lifted up the head of Jehoiachin king of Judah, and brought him forth out of prison,

Jer 52:32 And spake kindly unto him, and set his throne above the throne of the kings that [were] with him in Babylon,

Jer 52:33 And changed his prison garments: and he did continually eat bread before him all the days of his life.

Jer 52:34 And [for] his diet, there was a continual diet given him of the king of Babylon, every day a portion until the day of his death, all the days of his life.

So what was the scripture telling me? I stared at it for a while, and all of a sudden the significance fairly leaped off the page at me! After 37+ years,Jehoiachin was released form prison, and given a retirement (continual diet all of his days)! It happened on the 25^th day of the 12^th month. The period of time I was thinking of when I chose a retirement day was Iyar 28, 5727 to Iyar 28, 5765, so the 12^th month in all of these year-long periods is Iyar. I chose to retire on Iyar 28^th, but the rules of retirement made my last day of work (imprisonment –Ha) Friday June 3^rd, or Iyar 25^th –the 25^th day of the 12^th month!

I had the privilege of having lunch with Michael Rood today. When I related this story to him, I didn’t even get finished telling it when Michael’s quick mind saw the relationships. He let out one of his big baritone laughs, loud enough that most of the restaurant heard and turned our way (Michael’s laugh is infectious..everybody wanted a share in the merriment). Michael followed it up with a characteristically dry understatement: “That might be the most specific confirmation I ever heard!”

Israel made a disastrous mistake in giving control of the Temple Mount back to the Imam of Jersualem within hours of taking it in War on Iyar 28^th (1967), not unlike the mistake of cowardice by the 12 spies sent out from Kadeshbarnea when Moses and the Israelites were in the wilderness (Deu. 2:14, 9:23). As a result, the Israelites had to wander in the desert till that generation died out (38 years), and modern day Israel has had no peace for 37+ years because of the 1967 failure to possess the land (completely).

Jer 52:31	And it came to pass in the seven and thirtieth year of the captivity of Jehoiachin king of Judah, in the *twelfth month, in the five and twentieth [day] of the month, [that] Evilmerodach king of Babylon in the [first] year of his reign lifted up the head of Jehoiachin king of Judah, and brought him forth out of prison*,
Jer 52:32	And spake kindly unto him, and set his throne above the throne of the kings that [were] with him in Babylon,
Jer 52:33	And changed his prison garments: and he did continually eat bread before him all the days of his life.
Jer 52:34	And [for] his diet, *there was a continual diet given him* of the king of Babylon, *every day a portion until the day of his death, all the days of his life*.