Ezekiel 4:4, commentary and pictures

God directed the prophet to lie upon his left side for the appointed number of days to bear the iniquity of the house of Israel as a living, dramatic portrayal of the coming siege, judgment, captivity and suffering of the people. The lying for 390 days for Israel is followed by a like period of 40 days upon the right side for the house of Judah, joined with bread eaten by weight and water drunk by measure to represent the defiled food Israel would eat in captivity among the Gentiles. Each appointed day was appointed for a year, establishing the standard rule for reckoning time in symbolic prophecy that a day stands for a year. By that reckoning the time and times and half a time as twelve hundred and sixty days, the 2,300 days of Daniel's sanctuary vision, and the seventy weeks cut off from them mean twelve hundred and sixty years, 2,300 years, and 490 years. The sixty-nine weeks as 483 days were fulfilled as 483 full years from the command to restore Jerusalem in the autumn of 457 B.C. to the anointing of Christ at His baptism in the autumn of A.D. 27, which is the working proof that symbolic days mean the same number of years.

Symbolic Action and Setting

Ezekiel was commanded to use his own body as part of a visual message, lying on his left side and bearing the iniquity of the house of Israel for the appointed number of days. This was a God-directed way to illustrate truth, not an act of idolatrous worship. The sign was given to the Israelite captives in Babylonia by the river Chebar while Jeremiah prophesied in Jerusalem.

The bodily position with its days was an acted miniature of Jerusalem's siege and its consequences, portraying the coming judgment in a concrete, dramatic way. Lying a number of days on the left side typified the awful judgments that awaited the Jews. In his own person and actions the prophet represented the future experience of others, being made with his children for signs and for wonders in Israel. Lying bound in one position represented the captivity and suffering that would come upon the people.

The lying on the left side for 390 days to bear Israel's iniquity was followed by another like period of 40 days on the right side for the iniquity of the house of Judah. The lying was joined with eating bread by weight and drinking water by measure and eating defiled bread to represent the food the children of Israel would eat in their captivity among the Gentiles. The sign depicts Israel's captivity with each day representing a year of captivity, borne in a temporary way, continuing through the remaining captivity of Judah to the restoration after seventy years.

Day Represents a Year

Ezekiel 4:4 establishes the standard rule for reckoning time in symbolic prophecy, that each appointed day stands for a year. In symbolic visions prophetic days used as symbols signify years, so the 2,300 days mean 2,300 literal years. The same appointment supports reading the seventy weeks as fulfilled in 490 years and the 1,260 prophetic days in 1,260 years. Both the act of lying on the left side to bear the iniquity of the house of Israel and the days of lying are symbolic, for God appointed each day for a year.

Symbolic powers represented by beasts and horns cannot have their duration measured in literal days without breaking proportion with the symbol, so the time must also be symbolic. God used the shorter span of a day to symbolize the longer duration of a kingdom, just as He used short-lived beasts to symbolize long-existing kingdoms. Since all prophecy comes from the same source and is not of private interpretation, the day for a year given here holds in every symbolic prophecy.

The rule gives positive proof that prophetic times, days, weeks, and months mean years, while prophecies where time is plainly given in years are never reduced to days and back to years again. The principle applies when prophetic periods occur in symbolic prophecy, for God appointed a symbolic day to represent a year. In that setting a short period in prophecy can represent a longer span of time, as Ezekiel's symbolic days lying on his side represent years.

Prophetic Periods Interpreted

The time and times and half a time, or three and one-half times counted as forty-two months of thirty days making twelve hundred and sixty days, means twelve hundred and sixty years covering the period of papal supremacy and dominion when the saints are given into the persecuting power's hand. The standard for reckoning time in symbolic prophecy is that each day stands for a year, and symbolic powers represented by beasts and horns cannot have their duration measured in literal days without breaking proportion with the symbol, so the time must also be symbolic. Since all prophecy comes from the same source and is not of private interpretation, the day for a year given here holds in every symbolic prophecy.

The 2,300 days of Daniel's sanctuary vision mean 2,300 literal years. God's established rule for interpreting symbolic prophetic days is that each day signifies a corresponding year, with the days of lying to bear iniquity representing years, and this rule applies to Daniel's 2300 days so that they end with the cleansing of the heavenly sanctuary, which is the investigative judgment. The seventy weeks or 490 days cut off from the 2,300 days mean 490 years, with the sixty-nine weeks amounting to 483 days fulfilled as 483 years. The fulfillment of the events of the seventy weeks confirms the vision and gives assurance that the rest will also be fulfilled.

The sixth trumpet's hour, and a day, and a month, and a year becomes by this reckoning 391 years and 15 days, illustrating God's method of reckoning symbolic time in Revelation's trumpet visions where each symbolic day counts as one year. The period of the seven last plagues is understood by that day-for-a-year reckoning as one year. The ten days of tribulation represent ten years, applied to the persecution under Diocletian from 302 to 312, described as the greatest persecution under pagan Rome.

Fulfillment and Practical Lessons

The 483 days reaching to the appearing of Messiah were fulfilled as 483 full years. They are reckoned from the commandment to restore and build Jerusalem in the autumn of 457 B.C. to the anointing of Christ at His baptism in the autumn of A.D. 27. This fulfillment is the working proof that symbolic days in Scripture mean the same number of years. The seventy weeks are 490 years cut off from the 2,300-day period, and the fulfillment of their events confirms the vision and gives assurance that the rest will also be fulfilled. The 2,300 days are thus 2,300 years ending with the cleansing of the heavenly sanctuary, which is the investigative judgment.

Using the body as part of a visual message to Judah's captives was a God-directed way to illustrate truth. Lying on the left side represented bearing Israel's iniquity for the appointed number of days, and this was not an act of idolatrous worship. Typically bearing the iniquity of the house of Israel while lying three hundred and ninety days upon the left side was an unpleasant task to the natural man. It illustrates that standing as God's sign in a wicked world is not pleasant business. It was followed by a forty-day period of the same nature lying upon the right side for the iniquity of the house of Judah.