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Showing posts with label New Testament. Show all posts
Showing posts with label New Testament. Show all posts

Monday, December 13, 2021

In Between, part 3

Introduction
This series examines what happened during the intertestamental period of Christian history.  The 400 year period of God’s silence between the completion of the Old Testament and the birth of Christ was a pause that punctuated the greatest Word God ever spoke:  Luke 2:10-11, “I bring you good news that will bring great joy to all people. The Savior—yes, the Messiah, the Lord—has been born today in Bethlehem, the city of David!” 

Jesus came in peace, offering God’s grace and mercy and forgiveness.  However, many in Israel were hoping for and expecting a military leader who would violently conquer God’s enemies and drive them from the Holy Land.  What accounts for this dramatic difference between God's plan and the hopes of so many? 

Part of the reason they expected and hoped for a mighty conqueror instead of a suffering savior has much to do with the history of Israel during the 4 centuries between the Old and New Testaments.  I want to explore more of that history today.  In particular, I want to focus on the Maccabean Revolt, which is the inspiration for the modern Jewish holiday Hanukkah. 

Malachi, the last book of the Old Testament, was written around 475 BC.  God spoke through the prophet. 

Malachi 3:1-5

“Look! I am sending my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me. Then the Lord you are seeking will suddenly come to his Temple. The messenger of the covenant, whom you look for so eagerly, is surely coming,” says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.

“But who will be able to endure it when he comes? Who will be able to stand and face him when he appears? For he will be like a blazing fire that refines metal, or like a strong soap that bleaches clothes. He will sit like a refiner of silver, burning away the dross. He will purify the Levites, refining them like gold and silver, so that they may once again offer acceptable sacrifices to the Lord. Then once more the Lord will accept the offerings brought to him by the people of Judah and Jerusalem, as he did in the past.

“At that time I will put you on trial. I am eager to witness against all sorcerers and adulterers and liars. I will speak against those who cheat employees of their wages, who oppress widows and orphans, or who deprive the foreigners living among you of justice, for these people do not fear me,” says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.

Briefly Explain Passage
Judgment is certainly a theme of this passage.  God says, the “Lord” the people were seeking would judge sinners (and this refers to Jesus, the Messiah).  God says, the Messiah will come to the Temple and purify like a refiner’s fire.  And God also says there will be a trial and judgment against evil doers—in particular against:  sorcerers, adulterers, liars, people who cheat their employees, people who oppress widows and orphans, and people who deprive foreigners of justice.  What many in Israel didn't understand, is that much of that judgment would be of the Israelites, for they continually failed to fulfill their role as God's people. 

What Happened Between the Old and New Testaments?
After Malachi spoke, no other prophet’s words were preserved in the Bible.  Israel was ruled by the Persian Empire.  Then, Alexander the Great of Greece conquered most of the known world—including Persia.  Israel was ruled by Greece for 13 years, and the Greek Empire changed the world.  Greek became the universal language almost everyone could speak.  But when Alexander the Great died unexpectedly, His empire broke into 4 smaller, less powerful Kingdoms—Macedonia, Ptolemaic Egypt, Seleucid Syria, and Pergamum. 

The first little Greek kingdom to rise to prominence and rule Israel for 125 years were the Greek Egyptians.  They allowed Israel a certain amount of autonomy, but they encouraged the Israelites to adopt many elements of Greek religion, culture, and language. 

Many Israelites among the upper crust of society accepted these new Greek ideas.  You had to “Hellenize” (become more Greek) if you wanted to succeed and move up the social ladder.  To resist or reject Greek influence was to be seen as backwards, outdated, ignorant, and irrelevant.  

To be sure, there were many positive elements of Greek culture—systems of reason and logic, mathematics, architecture.  If you enjoy using an umbrella or a map, you can thank the Greeks who brought these things to prominence.  However, along with many good things, also came expectations to worship Greek gods and demigods like Zeus, Hercules, Pan, and others.  A rift formed in Israelite society between those who accepted Greek culture in order to move up and those who remained “pure” and faithful only to Yahweh, the God of Israel. 

The second “little Greek” kingdom to rule over Israel were the Greek Syrians.  When they took over from the Egyptians in 198 BC, they started playing hardball with Israel. The Syrians were tired of the stubborn, rebellious Israelites clinging to their Jewish culture and religion.  All the other conquered peoples of the Greek world had welcomed Greek religion.  The Jews were the main hold outs.  The Syrians made it a goal to rid Israel of Judaism and replace it with Greek culture and religion. 

The Syrians tried to transformed the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem into a temple to worship the Greek gods.  Jewish sacrifices, circumcision, observance of the Sabbath, and Jewish feasts were forbidden.  Jewish sacrifice in the Holy Temple were replaced with sacrifices to Zeus and included unclean animals, like pigs, that were offensive to Jews.  

One priest in ModiÊ¿im, a small town outside Jerusalem, had had enough.  When a Syrian official tried to enforce heathen sacrifice in his town, Mattathias Maccabeus murdered the Syrian official. He and his sons, the Maccabees, fled into the Judean wilderness and began a 32-year revolt.  They fought against the Syrians and also raided Jewish towns and killed any Jews that sacrificed to Greek gods or who collaborated with the “Hellenists”.  

Little by little, the Maccabee’s guerrilla warfare wore down the Greek Syrian kingdom. The Maccabees recaptured and cleansed the Jerusalem Temple in 165 BC.  Many believed this was the fulfillment of Malachi’s prophesy in Malachi 3:1, where it said, “The Lord you are seeking will suddenly come to his Temple…”

The Jews gained independence in 142 BC.  Jewish kings once again rule in Jerusalem. The Hasmoneans dynasty were ruthless kings who were not of the royal line of David.  In 128 BC, they raided the northern territory of Samaria and demanded the Samaritans convert to Judaism.  When the Samaritans refused, the Jews destroyed the Samaritan’s temple in Shechem. This and other events like it led to the bitter animosity between Jews and Samarians we read about in the New Testament. 

The Hasmonean rulers of Jerusalem served as both kings and high priests.  They were not pure or holy or even good and they were not of the royal line of David.  A politically savvy group known as the Sadducees, said it didn’t matter.  The Sadducees preferred terrible Jewish rulers to good pagan rulers.  The Pharisees said a true king must be of the line of David and never accepted the Hasmonean royal line.  This became a bitter dispute that divided the Pharisees (who wanted a return to pure Judaism) and the Sadducees (who were willing to compromise for political expediency).  That division persisted into the New Testament where we read about Christian's interactions with both the Pharisees and Sadducees. 

The reconstituted, independent Israel was not a kingdom to be proud of.  There was no justice.  There was no peace.  Violence and chaos was the order of the day.  Leaders said they worshiped God, but their religion was a lie.  They embodied the sins Malachi 3:5 rebukes--people "who cheat employees of their wages, who oppress widows and orphans, or who deprive the foreigners living among you of justice, for these people do not fear me."

In 63 AD, a new and more powerful empire marched it's legions into Jerusalem and took over.  The Roman Empire’s rule of Jerusalem had begun and the people still yearned for a Messiah to come save them from oppression and finally bring God's Kingdom on earth.  Would this Messiah be like Mattathias Maccabeus—a priest who murdered oppressive officials, waged war on God’s enemies, and violently cleansed the Temple in Jerusalem?  

Many believed and hoped the Messiah would be like the Maccabees, but God had a much better plan.  He foretold the Messiah’s who would be called: Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. (Isaiah 9:6).  The true Messiah’s plan is foretold in Isaiah 61:1, where it says, “The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is upon me, for the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to comfort the brokenhearted and to proclaim that captives will be released and prisoners will be freed.”

And Jesus came and read these very words from the scroll of Isaiah and said in Luke 4:18, “The Scripture you’ve just heard has been fulfilled this very day!” 

Conclusion
As we wait for Christmas, we still don’t know how long we need to wait for Jesus to finally return to judge the living and the dead and right all the wrongs of our broken world.

Waiting is hard.

While we wait, it is tempting to skip ahead and put our hope in people we admire.  We might think, "Perhaps this religious leader is the one we can trust." Or we say, "Maybe that celebrity is someone we can truly admire."  Or we hope, "Maybe the next president will be the one who puts our country back on the right track."

Why do we think our help will come from one of these worldly solutions  and not from Jesus, the true Messiah?  

And while we wait, it is so easy to waiver back and forth between compromising important core values we should never compromise for the sake of practicality or being militant idealists who are incapable of any compromise at all.   

Perhaps the best course of action while we wait is to allow Jesus to fulfill Malachi’s words in us:
To allow Jesus to purify us,
refining us like gold and silver,
burning away all the impurities in us.  

Perhaps it is best, while we wait, that we truly live for God in Christ 
by not cheating employees of their wages,
by no oppressing widows and orphans,
by not depriving the foreigners living among us of justice. 

Perhaps, while we wait, we should be about fulfilling Jesus’ mission when he quoted Isaiah 61:1,
The Lord has anointed me to:
bring good news to the poor
comfort the brokenhearted and
proclaim that captives will be released,
and prisoners will be freed.

Waiting is hard.

But sometimes, God Himself is the One who tells us to wait and be faithful.
And while we wait, we should worship and serve God and God alone
by living out the principles and mission of Jesus Christ.

Monday, November 29, 2021

Living In Between

Introduction
Today is the first Sunday of Advent.  Advent is a season of waiting and preparation.  We are preparing for Christmas—the celebration of Jesus’ birth.  But we are also waiting for the second coming of Christ, for it was promised Jesus would return to judge the living and the dead, and to right all that is wrong with the world.  Then God will recreate the heavens and the earth, and we will live with God forever in Paradise. 

But in the meantime, we are waiting.

Waiting is an important part of God’s plan for His people.  It can feel like nothing happens while you wait, but God is at work. This series will examine what happened to God’s people in the period in between the Old Testament and the beginning of the New Testament while they waited for the Messiah to be born.  This series is also design to help you in those times when you feel stuck in between, waiting.

Timeline of the Old Testament
The Bible is divided into two Testaments – the Old Testament & the New Testament.  The Old Testament primarily deals with God’s covenant with Israel.  The New Testament primarily deals with God’s new covenant with all people, made possible through God’s only begotten Son, Jesus, who was the Messiah the Jews longed for.

Here’s a quick review of the Bible.  
First there was Abraham (circa 1900s BC).  About 400 years later, one of Abraham's decedents, Joseph, went down to Egypt.  Then the Israelites became slaves in Egypt for 400 years.  Next, Moses delivered the Israelites (circa 1300s BC).  About 400 years later, David was annointed king of Israel followed by David's son King Solomon (900s BC).  After Solomon, there was a civil war between the northern and southern tribes of Israel.  Israel split into two kingdoms--Samaria in the North and Judea in the South (we get the name "Jews" from Judea).  In 586 BC, Judea was conquered by Babylon and all the inhabitants were taken away into captivity in Babylon.  about 70 years later, the captives were allowed to return and rebuild Jerusalem & the Temple (515 BC).  Finally, the last book of the Old Testament was composed about 475 BC.

Nothing else was added to the Bible until the New Testament detailed the events from the first century AD after Christ was born.  What happened during the 400 or so years between the Old and New Testament?  We find a clue in the Book of Nehemiah, which was written close to the end of the OT.  In particular, Nehemiah 9:36-37 was written about events that happened about 515 BC.

Nehemiah 9:36-37
36 
“So now today we are slaves in the land of plenty that you gave our ancestors for their enjoyment! We are slaves here in this good land. 37 The lush produce of this land piles up in the hands of the kings whom you have set over us because of our sins. They have power over us and our livestock. We serve them at their pleasure, and we are in great misery.”

Nehemiah Rebuilds Jerusalem
Nehemiah was living as one of the conquered Jewish exiles in Persia when the king of Persia (Artaxerxes) decided to let the Jewish exiles return home to Jerusalem.  The king of Persia  commissioned Nehemiah to govern Jerusalem and help oversee the rebuilding of the city and the Temple.

It was a time of great hope for Jews.  They hoped that Jerusalem might return to the glory of Solomon’s days.  They hoped to achieve religious freedom, peace, and prosperity.  They longed to rebuild and worship in their own Temple once again.

Unfortunately their hopes were never fully realized.  The Temple was rebuilt, but it was a shadow of its former glory.  In fact, the Bible record that the people who had known the glory of Solomon's Temple wept because the new Temple was only a shadow of it's former glory.  The reality is the Jews were “slaves in the land” of Israel (Nehemiah 9:36). They remained vassels, subjugated to the more powerful Kingdoms around them.  Throughout the 400-500 year period between the Old and New Testaments, the Jews were passed around between the various empires that rose to power in the region.  They were not treated with dignity or respect. They were merely pawns in an international chess match. They were disposable, vulnerable, and a commodity to be used by more powerful people.  Nehemiah 9:37 says, “We serve them at their pleasure, and we are in great misery.” And that about sums up the Jewish people’s 400 year experience from the time they returned from exile until the time when Jesus was born—the entire period between the Old and New Testaments.

And while in former times, God had sent prophet's like Isaiah and Jeremiah and Hosea and Micah to speak His word to them--words so powerfully inspired people collected them in our Bible--no one spoke inspired words worthy of being included in the Bible for 400 years after the completion of Malachi.  It seems as if God was silent.

This was not the first time God was silent.  It also wasn’t the first time God’s people had to wait.
Remember, the Israelites were slaves in Egypt for 400 years before God sent Moses to deliver them.  At least during the intertestamental period they were slaves in their own land.

Still, it’s hard to patiently suffer and wait on God when it feels like He is being silent and doesn’t care.  God does care, but sometimes, He has to let us wait and ripen until the time is right to fulfill His plan.

In the meantime, we have to be patient and wait on the Lord.  Psalm 27:14 says, “Wait patiently for the Lord. Be brave and courageous. Yes, wait patiently for the Lord.”

And James 5:7 says, “Dear brothers and sisters, be patient as you wait for the Lord’s return.”

Even if you suffer while you wait, God can use it to bless you when you trust Him & are faithful.  God gives you time to think and grow while you wait for the right opportunities and pass on the wrong ones.  God helps you when you are really hungry and waiting for good food. He teaches you, “Man does not live by bread alone, but by every Word that comes from the mouth of God."  Waiting for God gives you time to realize, He is Your only hope.  


Sometimes, people pause for effect before they say something really important.  After the Old Testament, God paused to let people know He was about to speak the most important Word He woudl ever give--the Word made flesh, Jesus Christ.


The Israelites had to wait for 400 years before their Messiah came, but that 400 years was time for important work in the hearts of HIs people.

 

First, the pause between the Old and New Testaments gave Israelites time to exhaust all their own schemes and realize, they were hopeless without God.


Israel was a small, insignificant land stuck in between massively powerful empires.  They were never going to have enough resources or a powerful enough army to dominate others.
Their only hope was the Lord.  
Again and again the Jews tried to establish their own kingdom by their own hands, but again and again they failed.  By the time Jesus came, most people realized their only hope was the Lord.  It would only be by the direct intervention of God Almighty that they would find salvation.  The name “Messiah”, means the one chosen by God to save.  Jesus is the Messiah.

 

What about you?  Do you realize your only hope is the Lord?
Have you been trying to make your own plans work by your own hand?
Don’t you realize, any “kingdom” you build will not stand.  It will fail.
But the plans of the Lord will last forever.  Learn to wait on the Lord.

 

Second, the time of waiting in between the Old and New Testaments gave the Israelites time to discover their “line in the sand”.

Since Israel had to compromise on many things in order to survive in a hostile world surround by more powerful nations, they really had to learn their core values—the essentials of being faithful to God that they could not compromise.  Not everything is worth fighting about.  But some things are worth dying for.  It's critical to know the difference.

What about you?  Do you know who you really are? 
What are the core values you can’t compromise?  What are the deal breakers for you? 
How do you deal with people who cross the line?
Romans 12:18 says, “Do all that you can to live in peace with everyone.” 
How do you live that out?  How do you know if it’s time to compromise or take a stand?
How do you avoid sin and honor God when you take your stand?

Third, the time of waiting in between the Old and New Testaments helped many Israelites grow closer to God.

Waiting for something important can either drive you away from God or draw you closer.  Some Israelites tried to build their own kingdoms.  In the weeks ahead, we will learn about some of the different political and religious groups in Israel and how they tried to build their own kingdoms of Israel.  Thanksfully, there were also many people (like The Wisemen in the East, and Simeon and Anna in Luke 2) who grew closer to God by waiting on God, praying, worshiping, and patiently trusting God's plan.

How about you? 
How can you grow closer to God as you wait faithfully through prayer, study, fasting, and serving?

Closing Thoughts to Contemplate
Contemplate how
you can grow closer to the Lord as you prepare for Christmas?
What will it take for you to finally realize you are hopeless without God?
What are your core values?
What practical steps could you take this season to truly depend upon God, discover who you really are, and prepare for the coming of the Lord?