Studies in Revelation: Revelation’s Timeline (Part Two)

Daniel’s timeline “to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy and to anoint the Most Holy” (Daniel 9:24), particularly the last three and a half years of the 70^th seven, is the focus of Revelation 6-19.

Jesus had told his disciples,

¹⁵ “So when you see standing in the holy place ‘the abomination that causes desolation,’ spoken of through the prophet Daniel—let the reader understand— ¹⁶ then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. ¹⁷ Let no one on the housetop go down to take anything out of the house. ¹⁸ Let no one in the field go back to get their cloak. ¹⁹ How dreadful it will be in those days for pregnant women and nursing mothers! ²⁰ Pray that your flight will not take place in winter or on the Sabbath. ²¹ For then there will be great distress, unequaled from the beginning of the world until now—and never to be equaled again. (Matthew 24:15-20)

This time of great distress, this “great tribulation,” is the accelerated deception and domination of Satan through the man of sin (2 Thessalonians 2:3,4) and the outpouring of God’s wrath on earth because of her rebellion.

We’re told in Revelation 12 that the Dragon, Satan, will be expelled from heaven and that he expressly goes after the woman who gave birth to Messiah.

The woman fled into the wilderness to a place prepared for her by God, where she might be taken care of for 1,260 days. (Revelation 12:6)

But woe to the earth and the sea, because the devil has gone down to you! He is filled with fury, because he knows that his time is short (Revelation 12:12)

The woman was given the two wings of a great eagle, so that she might fly to the place prepared for her in the wilderness, where she would be taken care of for a time, times and half a time, out of the serpent’s reach. (Revelation 12:14)

These two time designations, “1,260 days” and “time, times and half a time,” both equal out to three and a half years on a 360-day year, as the Jews kept (12 thirty-day months in the lunar calendar). “Time” is one year, “times” is two years. The Devil has some understanding of this length of time, knowing that he only has a short time to accomplish his agenda, which is world domination through the antichrist.

We’re told in Revelation 11 that three and a half years measured in months will be length of time that Jerusalem is dominated by non-Jews, the 7-year covenant that the antichrist had with Israel being violated three and half years in.

But exclude the outer court; do not measure it, because it has been given to the Gentiles. They will trample on the holy city for 42 months. (Revelation 11:2)

And Revelation 13 uses this same time designation of 42 months:

The beast was given a mouth to utter proud words and blasphemies and to exercise its authority for forty-two months. (Revelation 13:5)

Daniel further explains the inauguration of this three and half year time period:

¹¹ “From the time that the daily sacrifice is abolished and the abomination that causes desolation is set up, there will be 1,290 days. ¹² Blessed is the one who waits for and reaches the end of the 1,335 days. (Daniel 12:11,12)

As Jesus told us, the temple and sacrifice in it that is apparently made possible by the covenant with the antichrist, is interrupted by the antichrist’s desecration of the temple by setting up an image of himself there (2 Thessalonians 2:4; Revelation 13:14). Daniel informs us that there will be some additional days to the three and a half years, 30 days more after the three and a half years, and then an additional 45 days.

About this extra time beyond the three and a half years, Expositor’s Commentary suggests,

Between 1,290 and 1,335 days there is an interval of 45 days, or a month and a half. What is destined to take place in that short period can only be conjectured. It may be the time when the thousand-year earthly rule of Christ will be officially inaugurated, as he takes his seat on David’s throne. The intervening time may well be devoted to repairing the devastation and burying the bodies left by the Armageddon campaign (cf. Eze 39:12).

Jesus tells us,

If those days had not been cut short, no one would survive, but for the sake of the elect those days will be shortened. (Matthew 24:22)