God’s 400-year official silence in between the Old and New Testaments was a pause that prepared the world for the most important Word God would ever speak—the Word made flesh, Jesus the Christ. John 1:14, “So the Word became human and made his home among us. He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness. And we have seen his glory, the glory of the Father’s one and only Son.”
We will celebrate the birth of
that precious Word, Jesus, this week at Christmas.
But we have one more Sunday of Advent to go. And so today, we will look at the last 100
years of the intertestamental period and consider the various factions that developed
before Christ was born—factions that we read about in the Gospels that bitterly
divided God’s people—and we will contemplate the bitter divisions in our own times as we wait for Christ to come fix our divided world.
5 And now
the Lord speaks—
the one who formed me in my mother’s womb
to be his servant,
who commissioned me to bring Israel back
to him.
The Lord has honored me,
and my God has given me strength.
6 He says, “You will do more than
restore the people of Israel to me.
I will make you a light to the Gentiles,
and you will bring my salvation to the
ends of the earth.”
7 The Lord, the Redeemer
and Holy One of Israel,
says to the one who is despised and rejected by the nations,
to the one who is the servant of rulers:
“Kings will stand at attention when you pass by.
Princes will also bow low
because of the Lord, the faithful
one,
the Holy One of Israel, who has chosen
you.”
Israel is often called God's chosen people. Some think this goes back Moses, because God sent Moses to deliver Israel from slavery in Egypt and lead them to the Promised Land.
God’s choice of Israel goes back even further to Abraham, because God chose Abraham and said, "Leave your homeland and go to a lad I will show you and I will make you the father of a great nation. You won't even begin to count all your descendants. And you will be a blessing to all the nations of the earth. God chose Abraham because he was a man of faith who believed God, even when it seemed impossible.
But really, God's choice goes all the way back to
creation. God chose to create people. He didn't need people, but He chose to make people so they could enjoy the beautiful world He created and experience God's love and love Him too.
God loves all people. He doesn't create some for
destruction and some for salvation. God created all people in hopes of sharing love. And so, in this sense, God chose all people to be HIs people, but we are so stubborn and sinful we urn away from Him.
But God chose Abraham, because he was a man of faith, to be
a blessing to all the nations and help people everywhere repent of sin and come back into a love relationship with God.
And from Abraham, came Israel, a people who were to be a
blessing. Israel was to be a kingdom of priest who brought all people back to
God.
Israel began to suffer the consequences of their selfishness and idolatry. little by little, their kingdom eroded away until they oppressed and conquered by foreign empires. And in their distress, they cried out for a Messiah to save them. God said in Isaiah 49:6, I "will do more than restore the people of Israel to me. I will make you a light to the Gentiles, and you will bring my salvation to the ends of the earth.”
America seems more divided today than it ever has been. We could learn a lot from the history of Israel's mistakes during the intertestamental period. If ever there were a divided people, it was Israel by the time Jesus was born.
From the 500s BC until the birth of Christ, Jerusalem was ruled by a succession of foreign empires. First, the Persia ruled Israel and allowed the Jews to rebuild Jerusalem and the Temple. Then, Alexander the Great lead Greek Empire to conquer Persia and take control of Israel. However, Alexander the Great died unexpectedly and his empire shattered into four smaller kingdoms--Macedonia, Pergamum, Ptolemaic Egypt, and Seleucid Syria. And so Israel was then ruled by Greek Egypt followed by Greek Syria. Then the Maccabees revolted against Syria and a brutal revolution led to a brief period of independence when the corrupt Hasmonean kings ruled Israel. Then, in 63 BC, the Roman Empire from the west marched into Jerusalem and took over.
All these wars and devastations and instabilities gave rise to
many different political and religious groups in Israel—each one believing they knew what was needed to make Israel great again. Let's look at these various groups.
The Pharisees and Sadducees were both active political parties—backing
different leaders and giving allegiance to various different foreign
influencers through the intertestamental period.
Because the Greek Empire had been so successful in the Mediterranean world, people everywhere realized the Greeks had some really good ideas. Therefore, people in many different countries adopted Greek ideas about government, military, philosophy, and even religion. This process of becoming more Greek was called Hellenization.
Most people realized, if you wanted to get ahead in life and the global world, you needed to be more Greek. The Sadducees welcomed Hellenization in Jerusalem and it helped them rise in social status. However, the Pharisees wanted Jews to remain pure. They didn't want any foreign cultural or religious influences seeping into Judaism. The Pharisees were the scribes who copied the Torah. They believed the Bible faithfulness to the Law of Moses was the way to make Israel great again. So they set about teaching the Law on the streets and encouraged everyone to follow it perfectly.
While the Pharisees were loyal to the Torah, the Sadducees were loyal to the Temple. They believed what everyone needed was to worship God with sacrifices in the Temple. They were the priestly class who controlled the coveted and lucrative positions of the Temple order, including the position of High Priest.
The Pharisees believed in ressurection in the afterlife. The Sadducees were "sad you see" because they didn't believe in ressurection. They believed there was no life after death; this life is all you get. So, they wanted to make the most of this life--earn all you can, gain as much power and influence, and enjoy the comforts of this life--because it's all you get. The Pharisees, on the other hand, believed you should be willing to sacrifice your life for the sake of faithfulness to the Torah because God would reward you in the next life.
The Pharisees were seen as the party of the people, because they could be seen out in the streets teaching the Law to the common person. On the other hand, the Sadducees the elite upper crust of society, wealthy, holding high positions, and were always in the exclusive temple.
Pharisees were very pious, trying to follow God's law perfectly. For example, they refused to work on the Sabbath and even forbid people to have too many tacks in their sandals on the Sabbath because walk around with too many takes might be considered carrying a heavy load, which would be work. The Sadducees, on the other hand, saw religion as a mean to get ahead. They were often quit corrupt, using their political and religious positions for gain, selling appointments for bribes, cheating people with unfair exchanges in the temple, and getting rich off the people's tithes and offerings.
Another bitter division was between the Herodians and the Zealots. When Rome marched into Jerusalem in 63 AD, they installed Antipater as their puppet king in Jerusalem. When Antipater died, his son, Herod the Great, became king in 40 BC. Herod was a ruthless and savvy king. He murdered all his Jewish rivals including his sons, his wife, her 2 sons, her brother, her grandfather, and her mother. This is the same Herod the Wisemen visited in Matthew chapter 2 when they were looking for the infant Jesus, which led Herod to order the murder of every baby in Bethlehem under 2 years old.
Most people loathed Herod, but he was a savvy political leader who skillfully walked the fine line between being the political leader of Judea and a puppet king for Rome. Herod’s rule divided Judea further between two opposing groups—the Herodians and the Zealots.
The Herodians supported Herod's rule. Herod was not of the line of David, Israel's royal line from of old. However, the Herodians supported Herod's dynasty as the new royal line of Israel. They also sought to preserve Israel's autonomy by cooperating with the Roman's. They believed rebellion against Rome was futile and would lead to Jerusalem's destruction.
The Zealots were a militant political party that opposed
the Herodians. The Zealots passion for
the national and religious life of the Jewish people led them to despise Rome
and even Jews who sought peace through cooperation with the Roman authorities. The Zealots fiery nationalism meant they
hated the Herodians. They wanted to
fight violently for Jewish independence.
They were even willing to resort to terrorist attacks, assassination,
and killing their own people to restore David’s Kingdom, which they saw as
God’s Kingdom.
With all the division and strife in Israel’s broken world before Christ, many had given up on this world altogether. Have you ever felt like that? Have you ever felt: "This world is just too dark, too evil. I don’t even know how to live in this place. I just wish I could run away to a lonely mountain and live as a hermit." Or maybe you think, "I'm too social to be a lonely hermit. I’ll join a commune with a bunch of other truly good people, and we’ll turn our backs on this evil world and start over and make our own good world, where there will be peace and love and happiness.”
That was how the Essenes felt before Jesus came.
The Essenes were the “preppers” of the ancient world. They wanted to leave this world behind. They realized the systems of this world were so broken, there was no hope for the world to be found in kingdoms and empires and political factions. Even the established religious systems seemed broken beyond repair. They rejected the Temple in Jerusalem as corrupt as well. So they abandoned it all and moved away out into the wilderness. They wanted to learn how to farm the land and be self-sufficient so they didn't have to depend upon markets and systems and governments of this evil world.
We have the Essenes to thank for the preservation of the Dead Sea Scrolls. While they were caching away food for their communities in caves in the Judean wilderness, they also saved the Holy Scriptures. One day in 1947, a shepherd was wandering through the Judean hills. He picked up a rock and through it into the mouth of a cave and heard something inside smash. When he investigated, he found a clay pot with and ancient scroll inside. It was an ancient copy of the Prophet Isaiah. People often wonder, "How do we know if the BIble we have today hasn't changed from what was ordinally written?" Well, in the Dead Sea Scrolls, we see many of the ancient biblical texts, over 2,000 years old, and they are the same as the texts we read in our Bible's today. Thank you Essenes!
Many scholars also believe John the Baptist was either an Essene or deeply influenced by their religious movement. And it seems very plausible. John the Baptist lived in the wilderness, ate locusts and wild honey, and dress in animal skins (many similarities to the Essene's ascetic lifestyles as monks). The
The Essenes wanted to forget about the world. The world could go to hell; the Essenes wanted to start over from scratch. But by retreating from the world, the Essenes abandoned God's mission for Israel to be a light to other nations. God doesn't want the world to go to hell. God wants to save the world. God did not send His Son to condemn the world, but to save it (see John 3:17).
This was the broken and divided world into which Jesus was born. He came to bring light into the darkness and to show God came to save ALL people.
God’s Kingdom is not just for Jews or Jerusalem or
Israel. God’s Kingdom is for ALL
nations.
And God’s Kingdom is not of this world. In other words, it doesn’t operate by the politics and principles of worldly Kingdoms. It is not won by political maneuverings or by the might of a sword. God’s King is a baby born in a manger and His Kingdom is won by a cross.
It breaks my heart to look around at our broken world—divided between so many factions. And everyone thinks their way is the only way. And I feel great kinship with the Essenes, sometimes, and those who want to leave it all behind and move to a remote cabin in the wilderness and just forget about this broken world.
However, God’s call for His people today is the same as it was in Isaiah 49:6, “I will make you a light to the Gentiles, and you will bring my salvation to the ends of the earth.” And Jesus said in Matthew 28:19 – “Go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.”
I believe Christ is coming again, just as He came 2,000 years ago. But when Jesus comes again in final glory, our Messiah will finally bring His Kingdom on Earth and all that is wrong will be made right. In the meantime, in the waiting, I will do His work on earth. I will take up my cross and follow Him.
And I hope you will too.
