Weights and Years
In the November, 1994 issue of Beauties of the Truth appeared an article titled “Two Secret Numbers.” One suggestion of the article was that the cryptic message of Babylon’s judgment, “Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin,” carried a veiled testimony of the 2,520 years which would pass until Divine Judgment fell on the last of the four world empires. I think that suggestion is correct. The weights of monetary value implied in this message are mina (1000 gerahs), mina (1000 gerahs), shekel (20 gerahs), and divided mina (500 gerahs). Thus 2,520 gerahs symbolize 2,520 years.
The purpose of this article is to suggest a second and a third witness from the Scriptures for the use of monetary weights to represent years of duration. The second witness is from Genesis 23. This chapter records Abraham’s purchase of the cave of Machpelah as a burial plot for Sarah. Evidently the owner of the plot, Ephron the Hittite, was willing to give the site to Abraham free of charge (verses 11, 15). But Abraham, who had once refused the spoils of war from the king of Sodom, “lest thou shouldest say, I have made Abram rich” (Genesis 14:21-24), kindly refused the charitable offer of Ephron also. He would wait for God’s due time, and receive the land through God’s promise. His payment for the field served as public testimony of this decision.
Ephron cited the value of the land as 400 shekels. I think it is not a coincidence that this number of shekels is the same as the number of years God told Abraham his seed would be afflicted before their release from Egypt, to journey to the promised land (Genesis 15:13). Abraham’s wish to pay the 400 shekels was token of his wish to wait on God for the inheritance of the land, after the 400 years of the affliction of his seed.
The third witness is from Numbers 7. This chapter records in repetitive detail an offering by the 12 tribes of Israel for the support of the Tabernacle. This is not the same as the voluntary gifts by the Israelites of materials for the Tabernacle and its paraphernalia. That offering was generously given, each according to their ability, and so freely that Moses at last had to restrain them from further donations. (Exodus 35:5 through 36:7)
The spirit of giving was perhaps no less genuine and gracious in Number 7. However, the giving was a fixed and established amount, a tax as it were, upon each tribe. The occasion was “on the day that Moses had fully set up the tabernacle, and had anointed it, and sanctified it, and all the instruments thereof, both the altar and all the vessels thereof, and had anointed them, and sanctified them” (Numbers 7:1). It was tendered for “dedicating the altar in the day that it was anointed” (Numbers 7:10). The purpose of this charge was for the support and maintenance of the Levites who cared for the Tabernacle and its services (Numbers 7:3-6).
Therefore this gift from each tribe was token of their support for the services instituted by Divine command. It was token of their pledge of fidelity to the Law and its ordinances. Leviticus 26 affirmed that if they remained faithful to the Law God would bless them abundantly. If not, they would receive seven times of punishment. In its fullest application, that punishment fell as the 2,520 years frequently termed the Times of the Gentiles.
What was the offering of Numbers 7? Each tribe offered “one silver charger, the weight thereof was 130 shekels, one silver bowl of 70 shekels … one spoon of 10 shekels of gold…, and assorted valuables as flour, oil, incense and animals (Numbers 7:12-17). The monetary weights offered were therefore 210 x 12 = 2,520 shekels weight. Why this specific weight? I think it is because this value represented the obligation of 2,520 years of punishment which would come for infidelity to the new arrangement.
– David Rice