He wanted them to be saved for all time from their biggest enemy - sin.īenjamin Vrbicek wrote: “The whole of Scripture teaches that the greatest enemy to God’s people is internal” and “we deeply resist this teaching.” There were clues all throughout Scripture.įor example, immediately before crossing the Red Sea where God crushed Israel’s enemies, the Lord commanded that the Jews paint lambs’s blood on the doors of their houses so that God’s angel of death would not take their firstborn sons when he killed those of the Egyptians. When Jesus arrived, God’s purpose was not to save his nation so they could disobey him again and fall into slavery once more. Israel’s focus on receiving a new promised land caused God’s people to forget some of the key elements of Passover and the ways these connected with prophecy to foreshadow a true deliverance and a better Kingdom. Was he going to lead Israel into battle and cause them to usurp Rome’s power over the Jews and much of the known world? “Truly, I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom” ( Matthew 16:28). Sometimes Jesus really did sound like an anarchist. His following was, at times, quite large, although the people abandoned Jesus when he no longer provided bread or performed miracles. Jesus himself appeared to be preparing the early stages of an uprising. “They were hoping for the prophesied One who would restore the kingdom of Israel under the Davidic dynasty.” All that his people could imagine during the rule of Rome was that a great warrior king would emerge. Our God is able to do more than we could ever ask or imagine ( Ephesians 3:20). The Messiah would be descended from the most famous warrior king of Israel’s history, one who with a single stone that slayed Goliath. “There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit” ( Isaiah 11:1). One reason for this expectation was that prophecy told them Jesus would be descended from King David. Herod and the Jewish rulers considered the title “Christ” as synonymous with that of “King of the Jews” in accordance with the general expectation of the time. King Herod, who ruled Judea under the Romans, clearly understood that the Messiah the Jews expected was to be another king and thus a rival to himself. The Jews also knew from prophecy that a Messiah would come, but they pictured him as a warrior who would crush a visible enemy. Israel would never forget how Almighty God had opened the Red Sea for them ahead of Pharaoh’s chariots, a supernatural defeat of a concrete enemy. The Lord had instituted the Passover as a way of remembering his deliverance from Egypt. They wanted to see the fulfillment of God’s promise to make Israel a great and free nation, but sin repeatedly got in the way. The Jews focused on the oppression inherent to their current circumstances. The Jews had very little autonomy, though they clung to their religion and customs,” according to Alyssa Roat. “By the time of Jesus, Israel was generally considered a backwater Roman province full of cantankerous people with strange religious beliefs. The Pharisees, declared Jesus, “tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on people’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to move them with their finger” ( Matthew 23:4). They were conquered by other countries (Assyria, Egypt), and subjected to oppression by their own religious leaders. A basic outline of the Bible highlights treachery starting with Adam and Eve in the Garden, moves into families, and grows into Israel’s rebellion against God as a nation. These oppressors were external and internal. “The Old Testament contains over 300 prophecies about a future Messiah, a savior anointed by God to deliver His people from oppression,” wrote Dolores Smyth. Their history reveals a pattern of oppression, exile, and victory over assorted enemies from the very beginning of their timeline. Israel’s predicament was this: They were captives to the Roman Empire. Where did this misunderstanding come from? Israel in the First Century With the arrival of Jesus, Israel’s long-awaited freedom from captivity was imminent - or was it? They expected the Messiah to free them from Rome. “Daniel is told, that, after the seventy years of the captivity, seventy times seven must elapse, and that even then Messiah would not come in glory as the Jews might through misunderstanding expect from the earlier prophets, but by dying would put away sin.”
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