Dear Doves,

     I am a big fan of Biblical patterns and types.   Consequently, 2007 was a year of great anticipation for me because it appeared to be the concluding year for several patterns of years.   For me, the most significant of the patterns was the 19 plus 40 year pattern.   This pattern is based upon the cutoff age of the individuals who were permitted to enter the Promised Land (i.e. 19 years per Numbers 14:29) and the amount of years those individuals had to wait before they were permitted to enter the Promised Land (i.e. 40 years per Numbers 14:33).   It was noticed by prophecy scholars that the State of Israel was 19 years old when Jerusalem was recaptured by the Jews on June 6, 1967.   Consequently, it was widely thought that something prophetically significant would happen 40 years later.   I don’t think that I was alone in my disappointment when 2007 ended rather quietly –  prophetically speaking, I mean.   It’s not that I believed that the pattern failed, but that I failed to see something in the pattern.   Then, on January 11th, Donna Danna posted something quite amazing.   It was an article from Bill Koenig’s website which concerned a connection that Pastor Mark Biltz of El Shaddai Minisitries saw between President Bush’s January 8-9, 2007 arrival in Israel and an event that occurred on the exact day 3400 years earlier.  http://www.watch.org/showart.php3?idx=99833&rtn=/index.html&showsubj=1&mcat=1

     Here is the observation made by Pastor Biltz:  "Deuteronomy 1:3,8   ‘And it happened, in the fortieth year, in the eleventh month, on the first of the month, Moses spoke to the sons of Israel according to all that God had commanded him concerning them; Behold, I have set before you the land; go in and possess the land which the LORD has sworn to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give to them and to their seed after them.’   It just so happens, this is not only just the first day of the eleventh month, but it is also in the fortieth year since Jerusalem recaptured in 1967!!"    According to Pastor Biltz, the first day of the eleventh month is Shevat 1 on the Hebrew calendar.   It was also January 8-9 in the year 2007.

     I don’t know if you were able to appreciate fully the significance of the parallel timing.   The Jews have a civil calendar and a religious calendar.   The civil New Year or Rosh Hashanah gets most of the attention.   It occurs in the fall.   The religious New Year, on the other hand, occurs in the spring.   God established it at the time of the Exodus.   "This month [Abib/Nisan] is to be for you the first month, the first month of your year."   Exodus 12:2.   This is especially important because the 19 plus 40 year pattern is also based upon the events of the Exodus.   The Israelites did not enter the Promised Land until the Nisan that fell after they reached their 40th anniversary.  They crossed the Jordan River into Canaan around the 10th of Nisan.   See Joshua 4:19.   They celebrated Passover on the 14th of Nisan (Joshua 5:10) and then they conquered the City of Jericho 7 days later.  See Joshuah 6.  (Moses, who was not permitted to enter the Promised Land, died sometime prior.)

     If we apply this pattern to modern day Israel, we see that the 40th anniversay of the recapture of Jerusalem fell on June 6, 2007.  (*Please note that I am working under the assumption that the 19 plus 40 year pattern applies to modern Israel and that was commenced in 1948, when Israel was established as a nation.)  Consequently, the 40th year began during the 2007/2008 religious calendar year that started on Nisan 1/March 20, 2007.  So the pattern will find its completion at the beginning of the next religious year.   We have already seen something prophetically significant occur on Shevat 1/January 8-9, 2008 with the visit of Bush to Israel.  If the pattern holds true, we can expect to see more prophetically significant events through the month of Nisan (April 6, 2008 to May 5, 2008).  There are certain dates that could be very important, such as Nisan 10/April 14/15, Nisan 14/April 19/20 (Passover), and 7 days later, Nisan 22/April 26/27 (which happens to be Firstfruits this year).  I wish I could figure out when Moses died, because that could also be a date to watch.  (It took the Israelites 11 days to get from Mt. Sinai/Horeb to the border of the Promised Land -- Deuteronomy 1:2.   And the Israelites mourned his death for 30 days -- Deuteronomy 34:8.  But I cannot figure out when he actually died.)

     I have to tell you that I feel very encouraged by all of this.  A pattern year that I thought had closed is suddenly reopened.  Of course, the key was in the Bible all of the time.  I just wasn't paying close enough attention.

     Maranatha.

                -- Lisa Taylor