Old Testament chronology may be a difficult subject to tackle, but I don’t think James Usher was far wrong in saying there were about 4,000 years from Adam to Christ. Our present interest concerns a hidden prophetic word suggesting this 4,000 year period, coming from the time of the Exodus.
In Exodus 12, verses 3 & 6 we read, “Tell all the congregation of Israel that on the tenth day of this month they shall take every man a lamb according to their fathers’ houses, a lamb for a household . . . . . and you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of this month, when the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill their lambs between the evenings.” (About 3 pm)
In 1 Corinthians 5:7 we read, “Christ, our Passover Lamb, has been sacrificed.”
In Galatians 4:4 we read, “When the fullness of time had come, God sent forth His Son.”
In Revelation 13:8 we read, “The Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.”
Putting all these things together we have the following facts. Christ has become our “Passover Lamb”. He was ordained from the beginning, but didn’t appear in the world until “the fullness of time had come.” From history we know that it was 4,000 years after Adam and Eve. Therefore in Exodus, the four days from the tenth to the fourteenth of Nisan were a hidden prophecy, which would have meant nothing to anyone until the time of the Crucifixion. Those four days represented the 4,000 years. Moses, in Psalm 90, even suggested that “One day with the Lord is as a thousand years.”
This is important, because God has written into His word things which were hidden until the time came for their fulfilment. We are privileged to be able to look back and see in perspective the fulfilment of the 4,000 years from Adam to Christ. But what about the future? God’s Kingdom is yet to be established on earth. Is there a hidden prophecy relating to the time of fulfilment? We shall investigate that in the Part 2.
