Upon reading the Doves letters lately, I have been intrigued at how God's Spirit works. He teaches us "precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line ; here a little, and there a little".
 
For me it was quite a shock in 2001, in July when I read a letter by David Parker on the "38 years from 1967."   Excitedly I wrote a response to his post on a personal experience of mine.
 
Back in the fall of 1996, I had a dream. Earlier in the day, I had visited with a woman friend - a Christian who had with her husband befriended my husband and I when we lived in their community.  Mike and Sharon Vogt are tenant wheat farmers in western Kansas.  This conversation took place right before the 1996 Presidential elections. She asked me in the course of our visit by phone if I would pray for their weather. It had been an unusually wet fall and she said if it did not dry up some, then they would not get their wheat crop planted. No planting = no harvest. This is their livlihood, so I told her I would pray for them.
 
That night I had a dream.  I dreamed I was watching a television with my oldest brother, Dan. He is the only one in my family that I know is saved. In real life, I get bored easily with television, unless it is something that interests me.  In my dream , I became restless and started daydreaming. My brother said to me, "Mary, pay attention. This is your future."
    Sensing the urgency in his voice and the importance of his words, I made myself focus on the t.v. set.  One by one I saw the Presidential candidates that were running that year.  Bill Clinton, Bob Dole, and Ross Perot. One by one, God showed me a sort of "zoom in" on their hearts and I saw the innermost depths.  All of them had character flaws, and I turned (in my dream) and said to my brother, "But none of them are leaders. Who will lead this great nation?"  He replied, "Keep watching."  At about the time I turned back to watch the television went black and I heard a voice. The voice said, "There is no need to put the crops into the ground, because by the year 2005, America will cease to be a nation."  The television came back into focus and I saw a black silhouette of a Jewish man. I knew it was a Jewish man, because of his yarmulka that he wore.
    I heard the voice speak again,  ".....at this time, the ingathering of My people to their homeland will be complete."  Then I awoke.
 
Fast forward.....The year is 2000, actually summer when I was loaned a video set on the Feasts of the Lord produced by Day of Discovery. While watching the one on Rosh ha Shanah, the narrator was saying that Bible scholars believe that John chapter 5 is the feast of Rosh haShanah.  He went on to say that the "certain man with the infirmity 38 years" was believed to be National Israel.  I had one of my "moments".  Excitedly, I started doing the math in my head. 1948 + 38 did not work out. Then I tried 1967. I thought, "1967 would have been when the Jews failed to take the Temple Mount after the Six Day war."  1967+38= 2005!   Bingo. I got the date from the dream I had had back in 1996.
 
I have never forgotten these things. Perhaps the Rosh haShanah fits in well with the shofar sounding and the Jews making Aliyah to Israel. It was a holy convocation, or gathering that was a statute for Israel, per Psalm 81:3.
 
In Pastor Riley's letter  http://www.fivedoves.com/letters/jan2005/fmriley125-2.htm (which made some very good points, I might add), he said,
 
     "A careful study of the Scriptures reveals that it took Israel two years to reach Mt. Sinai. Study it out for yourself."
 
Well, I did.
 
In Exodus 12:2, we see the Passover instituted on  "the tenth of this month" and it was told to Israel that "This month shall be your beginning of months."
After that we see in Ex. 13:6 that the feast of Unleavened Bread occurred right after this and lasted seven days.
 
Next we see the crossing of the Red Sea, and the Song of Moses, and the Bitter waters made sweet.  Exodus 16:1 says,

"And they journeyed from Elim, and all the congregation of the children of Israel came to the Wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after they departed from the land of Egypt.
 
Moses then brings water from the rock ( a picture of Christ) and then the Israelites fight a battle with Amalek. Jethro, Mose's father-in-law intervenes to help Moses set up judges and then in Exodus 19:1, the Word says,
 
"In the third month after the childen of Israel had gone out of the land of Egypt, on the same day, they came to the Wilderness of Sinai."
 
Am I missing something here? This doesn't appear to be two years. But the point I am trying to make is "Do we have to reconcile the approximate length of the generation being 38 versus 40?"
 
The Scripture still stands.
 
"And at the time we took to come from  Kadesh Barnea until we crosed over the Valley of the Zerud was thirty- eight years, until all the generation of the men of war was consumed from the midst of the camp, just as the Lord had sworn to them."  De. 2:14
 
In fact most scholars will say a "generation" for the Jews can be either "38" or "40" years. 40 years would make this present generation end in 2007.
 
I think all the signs point to 2005 as being the year. If anyone can bring more light on this subject, I would appreciate it.
 
 
Mary Hansen