Chronological Anchors in prophecies.

Examples:

Amos beginning at Chapter 8 verse 9 and continuing to the end of the book. Chronological anchors are highlighted in blue.

   And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the Lord GOD, that I will cause the sun to go down at noon, and I will darken the earth in the clear day: And I will turn your feasts into mourning, and all your songs into lamentation; and I will bring up sackcloth upon all loins, and baldness upon every head; and I will make it as the mourning of an only son, and the end thereof as a bitter day.

   Behold, the days come, saith the Lord GOD, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD: And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east, they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the LORD, and shall not find it. In that day shall the fair virgins and young men faint for thirst. They that swear by the sin of Samaria, and say, Thy god, O Dan, liveth; and, The manner of Beer-sheba liveth; even they shall fall, and never rise up again.

   I saw the LORD standing upon the altar: and he said, Smite the lintel of the door, that the posts may shake: and cut them in the head, all of them; and I will slay the last of them with the sword: he that fleeth of them shall not flee away, and he that escapeth of them shall not be delivered. Though they dig into hell, thence shall mine hand take them; though they climb up to heaven, thence will I bring them down: And though they hide themselves in the top of Carmel, I will search and take them out thence; and though they be hid from my sight in the bottom of the sea, thence will I command the serpent, and he shall bite them: And though they go into captivity before their enemies, thence will I command the sword, and it shall slay them: and I will set mine eyes upon them for evil, and not for good. And the Lord GOD of hosts is he that toucheth the land, and it shall melt, and all that dwell therein shall mourn: and it shall rise up wholly like a flood; and shall be drowned, as by the flood of Egypt. It is he that buildeth his stories in the heaven, and hath founded his troop in the earth; he that calleth for the waters of the sea, and poureth them out upon the face of the earth: The LORD is his name. Are ye not as children of the Ethiopians unto me, O children of Israel? saith the LORD. Have not I brought up Israel out of the land of Egypt? and the Philistines from Caphtor, and the Syrians from Kir? Behold, the eyes of the Lord GOD are upon the sinful kingdom, and I will destroy it from off the face of the earth; saving that I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob, saith the LORD. For, lo, I will command, and I will sift the house of Israel among all nations, like as corn is sifted in a sieve, yet shall not the least grain fall upon the earth. All the sinners of my people shall die by the sword, which say, The evil shall not overtake nor prevent us.

   In that day will I raise up the tabernacle of David that is fallen, and close up the breaches thereof; and I will raise up his ruins, and I will build it as in the days of old: That they may possess the remnant of mankind, and of all the heathen, which are called by my name, saith the LORD that doeth this. Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that the plowman shall overtake the reaper, and the treader of grapes him that soweth seed; and the mountains shall drop sweet wine, and all the hills shall melt. And I will bring again the captivity of my people of Israel, and they shall build the waste cities, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and drink the wine thereof; they shall also make gardens, and eat the fruit of them. And I will plant them upon their land, and they shall no more be pulled up out of their land which I have given them, saith the LORD thy God.”

Commentary: There are definite chronologies involved in the above excerpt from Scripture. An alarming event is characterized by an eclipse of sorts. Since these occur cyclically, the event itself was not the eclipse. This merely happened during the event, whether by a solar eclipse or by a spatial cloud causing a one time eclipse. The event is implied by the “mourning of an only son.” Great sorrow would come from the realization of this event, for a great famine would come, in which God would no longer raise up prophets and guide mankind. Another event is described: a striking of the lintel of the Temple doorway, the key support of the building, and by extension an outpouring of vengeance on the leadership. A period of persecution and scattering will follow during this time of famine. Yet by the mercy and beneficence of God he will restore Israel to her glory, so that the remnant of mankind, of the Earth’s last epoch shall seek the LORD.

By chronology these days now press upon us. The sun came down at the Cross in 30 AD (one method by which the exact year of the crucifixion can be determined). Before the destruction of the Temple,  a voice resounded “Let us Remove.” The lintel of the temple cracked (and fell in some accounts). The Greek gospels preserve that the Temple veil was rent. This is, however, not found in the one Hebrew gospel that was written and which was also thought for centuries to have been Matthew’s original. Jerome’s notes on it preserve that instead of “veil” it says the lintel was smitten and fell, thus fulfilling Amos’ prophecy.

Micah 

Micah’s is one of the most exciting for our time. Micah 5:

 1: Now shall the daughter of Zion be completely hedged in: he hath laid siege against us: they shall smite the tribes of Israel with a rod upon the cheek.2: But thou, Bethlehem, house of Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting. 3: Therefore will he give them up, until the time that she which travaileth hath brought forth: then the remnant of his brethren shall return unto the children of Israel. 4: And he shall stand and feed in the strength of the LORD, in the majesty of the name of the LORD his God; and they shall abide: for now shall he be great unto the ends of the earth. 5: And this shall be the peace, when the Assyrian shall come into our land: and when he shall tread in our palaces, then shall we raise against him seven shepherds, and eight principal men. 6: And they shall waste the land of Assyria with the sword, and the land of Nimrod in the entrances thereof: thus shall he deliver us from the Assyrian, when he cometh into our land, and when he treadeth within our borders. 7: And the remnant of Jacob shall be in the midst of many people as a dew from the LORD, as the showers upon the grass, that tarrieth not for man, nor waiteth for the sons of men. 8: And the remnant of Jacob shall be among the Gentiles in the midst of many people as a lion among the beasts of the forest, as a young lion among the flocks of sheep: who, if he go through, both treadeth down, and teareth in pieces, and none can deliver. 9: Thine hand shall be lifted up upon thine adversaries, and all thine enemies shall be cut off. 10: And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the LORD, that I will cut off thy horses out of the midst of thee, and I will destroy thy chariots: 11: And I will cut off the cities of thy land, and throw down all thy strong holds: 12: And I will cut off witchcrafts out of thine hand; and thou shalt have no more soothsayers: 13: Thy graven images also will I cut off, and thy standing images out of the midst of thee; and thou shalt no more worship the work of thine hands. 14: And I will pluck up thy groves out of the midst of thee: so will I destroy thy cities. 15: And I will execute vengeance in anger and fury upon the heathen, such as they have not heard.

The chronological anchor is clearly verse 2, for we know that can only speak of the Messiah Moses spoke of, since no man is from of “old” (LXX reads beginning), “even the everlasting.” Yet immediately afterward it speaks of God giving up his people until “she” has brought forth. In other words, until the fullness of her time. Even now is this time pressing upon us, even the Syrian. God is preparing to turn us after a hard rebuke, and finally cast from us the idols of our mind as he cast from us the carved idols of our hands so long ago.

Future passages here will highlight both dualism in prophecy (dual application) by the use of the old prophetic and Hebrew style of taking from an earlier thought and elaborating later. This telescoping method, the ancient Hebraic style, reveals the chronological method of prophecy most clearly as an often-alternating and expanding-progression context that allows several applications to the prophecy, both for the time in which it was given and, by key references within it to a future time.