"Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation. ."--2 Pet. 3:3-4

The Berean Christadelphians

Index

Chronological Charts

Period 1

Period 2

Period 3

Period 4

Period 5

Period 6

THE FOURTH PERIOD
The Period of the Kings

The fourth period is the period of the Kings of Israel. One can pick up any chronology and find the difficulty in resolving this period. Trying to match the Kings of Judah with the Kings of Israel leaves many questions unanswered. For the resolution of this problem, chronologists are indebted to the work of John Thomas. He is the only chronologist I have seen to unlocked the mystery of this period.

The key to resolving the chronology is in the prophesy of Ezekiel. Ezekiel wrote:

EZE 4:1-8   "Thou also, son of man, take thee a tile, and lay it before thee, and pourtray upon it the city, even Jerusalem: And lay siege against it, and build a fort against it, and cast a mount against it; set the camp also against it, and set battering rams against it round about. Moreover take thou unto thee an iron pan, and set it for a wall of iron between thee and the city: and set thy face against it, and it shall be besieged, and thou shalt lay siege against it. This shall be a sign to the house of Israel. Lie thou also upon thy left side, and lay the iniquity of the house of Israel upon it: according to the number of the days that thou shalt lie upon it thou shalt bear their iniquity. For I have laid upon thee the years of their iniquity, according to the number of the days, three hundred and ninety days: so shalt thou bear the iniquity of the house of Israel. And when thou hast accomplished them, lie again on thy right side, and thou shalt bear the iniquity of the house of Judah forty days: I have appointed thee each day for a year. Therefore thou shalt set thy face toward the siege of Jerusalem, and thine arm shall be uncovered, and thou shalt prophesy against it. And, behold, I will lay bands upon thee, and thou shalt not turn thee from one side to another, till thou hast ended the days of thy siege."

Ezekiel is taken in the second invasion by Babylon, prior to the destruction of the city. The prophesy he is given is the length of time that will be involved until the city is destroyed. The question becomes, what do these lengths of times mean?

The total time involved is 390 days for Israel, and 40 days for Judah or 430 days. The principle is clearly stated as a day for a year. "I have appointed thee each day for a year." The answer becomes clear looking at the chronology of the kings of Judah. By running only the chronology of the Kings of Judah, and ignoring the dates given for the kings of Israel, there are 430 years from the 4th of Solomon, when the foundation of the Temple was laid, (ending the 480 years of the third period,) to the 11th of Zedekiah, the destruction of the temple, and the end of the period of the kings.

What is to be made of the difference of 40 years. Reckoning the period from the fourth of Solomon, we find that Solomon reigned 40 years. That would be 36 years of the first period. We are further told that Solomon's son, Rehoboam followed God's word for three years, but in the fifth year, Shishak king of Egypt came up against Judah because of their rebellion. The forty years on the right side, would be the last thirty six year of Solomon's reign, and the first four years of Rehoboam's reign in which they walked in the ways of the Lord, followed by the 390 years of rebellion.

2CH 11:17   "So they strengthened the kingdom of Judah, and made Rehoboam the son of Solomon strong, three years: for three years they walked in the way of David and Solomon."

2CH 12:2   "And it came to pass, that in the fifth year of king Rehoboam Shishak king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem, because they had transgressed against the LORD,..."

What then do we make of the chronicles of the Kings of Israel? The answer is simple. There were different ways of marking time: One way was by the annual years. The other way was in actual length of time in which a person reigned.

To simplify, using our current calendar, if a king began to reign on December 15th, 1990, and died on January 5th, 1992, how long did he reign? Using the annual method, he reigned two years, in that he was in power on two New Year's day. But if we consider the time he actually reigned, it was only one year.

It is apparent that the kings of Judah are reckoned according to the calendar years, and the kings of Israel according to the length of time they actually reigned. Click here for a "

Chart of the Kings .