Ezekiel 4:5, commentary and pictures

Ezekiel was laid on his left side for 390 days to bear the iniquity of the house of Israel, an acted sign with pictured siege works that foretold famine, bondage and captivity for the Jews.
In that appointment each day was appointed for a year, so the 390 days stand for 390 years and establish the rule for reckoning symbolic prophetic time.
The time must itself be symbolic because kingdoms and persecuting powers are shown by beasts, horns, ram, goat and little horn, and literal days could not cover Persia, Grecia, Rome and the long wearing out of the saints.
So the 2,300 days are 2,300 years ending with the cleansing of the sanctuary in 1844, and the seventy weeks are 490 year-days cut off as the first part of that period, with sixty-nine weeks or 483 years reckoned from the autumn of 457 B.C. to Christ's anointing at His baptism in the autumn of A.D. 27.
Time, times and the dividing of time is three and a half years or forty-two thirty-day months or 1,260 days for 1,260 years of papal supremacy ending in 1798, while the 150 days are 150 years from 1299 to 1449 and the hour, day, month and year are 391 years and fifteen days to 1840 by a 360-day year.
The fulfillment of the 483 years to the Messiah in 490 years proves the rule correct, with Numbers 14:34 as joint witness.

Enacted Sign and Setting

Ezekiel was commanded to bear the iniquity of the house of Israel by lying on his left side for 390 days, a symbolic and difficult, unpleasant task appointed as a prophetic act. The days assigned to this lying were not literal duration alone but represented years, for each day was appointed for a year of bearing Israel's iniquity. This was done with a pictured city and siege objects and with his own actions to illustrate God's message to Judah's captives, showing that visual forms and enacted illustration can legitimately communicate God's message. It was a miniature acted realism, distinct from vision, similitude, symbolism, and verbal idealism, performed as realistic preaching that gives emphasis, positiveness, and dispatch to the message.

The action with its privations and suffering showed the awful judgments and calamities that awaited the Jews. His restricted, famine-like diet represented the famine Israel would face, and his lying bound in one position represented the people's captivity by their enemies. The lying for 390 days was a temporary sign of coming calamity, with each day representing a year of captivity, covering Israel's captivity and extending to restoration after Judah's seventy-year captivity.

Day Represents a Year

Ezekiel 4:5 appoints the standard rule for reckoning time in symbolic prophecy, that God counts years according to the number of days and appoints each day for a year. The 390 days appointed for bearing the iniquity of the house of Israel therefore correspond to 390 years, with the days assigned to the prophetic act representing years of iniquity to be borne. The lying on the side being symbolic, the days belonging to it are symbolic also, so that prophetic days elsewhere stand for the same number of years. Applied to Daniel's seventy weeks, which equal 490 prophetic days, the rule gives a period of 490 literal years.

Time in symbolic prophecy must itself be symbolic because kingdoms and powers are represented by beasts and horns, by the ram and the goat and the little horn. Literal days would be out of proportion to such symbols and could not cover the duration embraced in the visions, namely Persia and Grecia and Rome. So the 2,300 days of Daniel 8 are 2,300 years, and the 490 days of the seventy weeks of Daniel 9 are 490 years forming the first part of the 2,300 years and beginning together with them. In the same way the 1,260 days of Daniel 7:25 signify 1,260 years, a period long enough to contain the persecution in which the little horn wears out the saints.

Because all prophetic Scripture comes from the same source and is not of private interpretation, the day-for-a-year rule given here applies to the same time symbol everywhere. A short period of days in prophecy can thus stand for a longer period of years, with one symbolic day standing for one year. The rule is plainly stated in Scripture, thoroughly established as true, and generally accepted by Bible expositors. On that ground time and times and half a time, or 1,260 days, means 1,260 years, and the 2,300 days of Daniel 8:14 mean 2,300 years ending with the cleansing of the sanctuary in 1844.

The verse fits a biblical calendar in which a month has thirty days and a twelve-month year has 360 days, with a prophetic year counted as 360 days. The number of days therefore represents the years of iniquity to be borne, and the same day-for-a-year reckoning counts prophetic time by a year of 360 days. So reckoned, the period in Revelation's sixth trumpet is treated as 391 years plus fifteen days.

Prophetic Periods Interpreted

The 2,300 prophetic days in Daniel 8 represent 2,300 literal years ending with the cleansing of the sanctuary in 1844. The days in the symbolic enactment correspond to years of iniquity, so symbolic days in prophecy stand for literal years. The seventy weeks equal 490 prophetic days and therefore 490 literal years. They are understood as a sevenfold period of years rather than weeks of ordinary days. The sixty-nine weeks are 483 year-days reckoned from the commandment 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. The seventy weeks of 490 years are cut off from the 2,300-day period and form its first part, beginning together with it, and their fulfillment confirms the vision and prophecy.

Time, times, and the dividing of time or half a time is three and one-half years, reckoned as forty-two months of thirty days each, or 1,260 prophetic days, and therefore 1,260 years. This is the period of papal supremacy, persecution, and domination in which the little horn wears out the saints and has saints, times, and law given into his hand, ending in 1798. Time in symbolic prophecy must itself be symbolic, because mighty empires and powers are represented by beasts and horns and literal days would be out of proportion to the symbols and could not cover their duration. Since all prophetic Scripture comes from the same source and is not of private interpretation, the rule given here applies to the same time symbol everywhere. The 390 days corresponding to years of iniquity therefore establish that the 1,260 prophetic days in Daniel 7:25 signify 1,260 literal years, a period long enough for the persecution that wore out the saints.

The 150 days for hurting men in Revelation's trumpets are 150 literal years from July 27, 1299 to July 27, 1449. The hour, day, month, and year for slaying men are 391 years and fifteen days from July 27, 1449 to August 11, 1840. They are reckoned by a 360-day symbolic year in which a year is 360 years, a month is 30 years, a day is one year, and an hour is fifteen days. A symbolic year is counted as 360 days in this reckoning. The ten days of tribulation likewise represent ten years.

Proof and Pastoral Use

The exact fulfillment of the reckoning to the Messiah proves the rule for symbolic prophetic time correct, for each day stands for a year and symbolic days refer to the same number of years as the number of days given. Thus the 483 days to the appearing of the Messiah are 483 years reckoned from the commandment 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. In the same reckoning the 2,300 days represent 2,300 years and the seventy weeks, or 490 days, represent 490 years, and the stated fulfillment of the seventy weeks in 490 years is confirmation. The 390 days symbolically correspond to 390 years of Israel's iniquity, and this day-for-a-year principle applied to the seventy weeks makes them 490 years cut off from the 2,300-day period, whose fulfillment confirms the vision and prophecy.

Together with verse 6 and Numbers 14:34, the appointment of 390 days for Israel's iniquity to represent 390 years stands as joint scriptural evidence for the prophetic day-for-a-year principle. That principle is applied to the period of papal power to persecute God's people.

The appointment belongs to a miniature acted realism, distinct from vision, similitude, symbolism, and verbal idealism, in which the siege of Jerusalem and its consequence are performed as realistic preaching. Such realistic preaching gives emphasis, positiveness, and dispatch to the message of those who have seen terrible things in righteousness. God instructed the use of a picture of a city and siege objects, with personal action, to illustrate His message to Judah's captives, bearing Israel's iniquity for a specified number of days representing years. Visual forms can therefore legitimately communicate God's message and give forceful warning.