The inter-testamental period

If you turn in your Bible from the last page of Malachi you are immediately in Matthew 1. Historically there is about 400 years in that page turn. It is called the 400 ‘silent years’ by scholars because although God was working there were no prophets speaking, and no Scripture being written to Israel until John the Baptist arrives in the desert.

A brief overview of the history we have covered so far will help to orientate you with these 400 years.

Intertestement-pic

Galatians 4:4 says, “But when the time had fully come, God sent his son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons.” In this period God was preparing the world for the perfect situation for Jesus to come to earth. He was ‘silent’ but working none the less.

Dr. Bert Downs breaks up this history into three parts: rulers, readings and religions.

Rulers

We leave the Old Testament with Israel under the power of the Persian Empire. Their rule continues to 331 B.C. The Persians are key in history because if you remember their foreign policy allowed for the return of the exiles to Jerusalem. They allowed for the population of Jerusalem, the building of the Temple, and securing of the city. But the rule of Persia doesn’t last and in 331 B.C. Alexander the Great conquers the Persians and sets up Greek rule until about 164 B.C. Greek rule came with profound influence to God’s people. Greek culture pervades the land. This culture is an educated, multi-god worshiping culture full of magic and special ceremonies. Perhaps the most important impact they had, outside of culture, was that they brought a language. They brought the Greek language that would become the language of the land. Most people become bilingual. Greek will stay in place as the language, even as Greece loses control of this area, which it ultimately does.

The Greeks eventually loose their ability to control and a group lead by a priest overthrow Greek rule and the people of Judah effectively rule themselves from 154 B.C to about 63 B.C. It is referred to as the Hasmonean dynasty – starting with the Maccabean revolt against Greek rule. Much of the history is recorded in the books Maccabees in the Apocrypha. The time under ‘their own rule’ is one of battle for land and religion.

The Hasmonean dynasty ends in about 63 B.C when General Pompeus makes Judah a client of Rome. The Romans rule until 135 A.D. The Romans bring law, judicial systems, peace, stable government and systems. Notably the Romans are furious road builders. They connect almost their whole empire: Roads that will carry the message of the Gospel far and wide.

Readings

Four major works come out of this period. Firstly, the Apocrypha. The Apocrypha was a group of books, about fifteen of them, never credited as Scripture but worth reading for good history. Also when you read them you will realise the difference between them and inspired, authoritative Scripture –it is quite obvious. If you have a Bible that is used in the Roman Catholic Church, or typically in the Orthodox Church, you will find these books in the middle of that Bible edition.

Secondly, the Pseudepigrapha. The pseudepigrapha were basically sectarian writings. They tended to focus on values and thoughts of people of the time. There were sixty or so, various kinds of writings that also make up an important group of historical things that we want to keep track of.

Thirdly, the Dead Sea Scrolls. We have heard a lot about those in our time because they were discovered not too long ago. They basically reflect the thought and practices of various separatist groups that pulled away from Rome and away from the common culture of the day, trying to preserve the values and certain things that they considered to be important.

Fourthly, the Septuagint, often abbreviated LXX. There is a belief that seventy scholars produced this Bible in seventy days, which probably is not true, but it is a nice story. The Septuagint is the Greek translation of the Hebrew scriptures. Now remember that Greece made their language the main language, and that language now is a key in carrying the scriptures through the land. The Septuagint becomes a key tool, the translation from Hebrew to Greek; and as people learn the Greek language through the land, then that addition of the Hebrew scriptures becomes the much quoted, much read edition through the Roman Empire.

Religions

In this period of time the Jewish religion takes a significant shift. Temple worship is re-established, but it struggles. The priests become more and more politically connected to whoever the ruler is and they become a little more compromising in their approach. In response the synagogue appears. The synagogue is a local-level gathering that teaches the people and is heavily moral and ethical. The synagogue is very formal and has a great influence on the people.

It is the Temple-synagogue separation which leads to the rise of two groups which we see clearly in the New Testament writings – the Pharisees and Sadducees. The Sadducees are connected to the Temple. The High Priest comes from this group, as do most of the priests. They become very connected to the rulers of the land, to the Greeks, and when independence comes they are very prominent; and when Rome comes on the scene, they connect themselves to Rome. Power, wealth and prestige are attached to being a Temple servant. The Pharisees are connected to the synagogue and they become the local teachers. They ask much more of the people, brilliant by all accounts in their formalism and moralism.

Another group arises called the Sanhedrin. They are a ruling counsel of Jews that have managed to stay in power from the time of the Greeks and they basically are the local group, the Judean group, that brings civil law to the people. They answer to the rulers, but they are the Jewish people who rule during this time.

There is another group that does not connect to the politics of the time, and they are known as the scribes. The scribes are teachers and they are those who were most involved in the preservation of the Hebrew scriptures.

There are Herodians who are Jewish people, who have been connected very closely to the Roman rulers. They tend to be wealthy people who attached their wealth to Rome, known as the Herodians because the Herods were the rulers from Rome who ruled over this area we know as Judea. And as opposed to those, we have a group called the Essenes. They are a large, fairly diverse group that pulled out of civilisation, becoming separatists. Many of them moved down by the Dead Sea and wrote the Dead Sea Scrolls.

The stage is set for Jesus to arrive on the scene. The time is ready for God to send his only son into the world, the promised Messiah who will fulfill God’s plan for the people he made all those years and pages ago in Genesis 2.

Restoring The Ministry Of Work

by Paul Mann
18 October 2015 at Bedfordview PM

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Learning The Art Of Being Present With God

by Mike Graves
18 October 2015 at Bedfordview AM

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The book of Malachi

Malachi is the last book in the Hebrew Canon and in our Bibles. It can be placed after the rebuilding of the Temple by Zerubbabel (516 B.C) and before the arrival of Ezra in 458 B.C. It can also be dated some time after Nehemiah had left (445 B.C). Whenever it is dated, what is certain is that the people had become religiously cold and morally lax. They had heard the promises of restoration but now time had passed and disillusionment was the feeling of the time. God appeared to have abandoned his promise and Judah remained a small insignificant province in the Persian Empire.

The problems amongst the people that Malachi addresses are: mixed marriages (2:11-15); failure to tithe (3:8-10); no concern for the Sabbath (2:8-9); corrupt priests (1:6-2:9); and social problems (3:5). In a unique structure Malachi records the Lord’s words to the people. Malachi lists the problems as disputes that the people have with the Lord. He takes each one in turn describing God’s character, the people’s failure, and God’s solution.

Take for example (1:6-2:9). Introduction: God is father and master and you have defiled that. Question: How have we defiled you? Answer: you have placed lame animals on the altar.

The work pictures God as showing his great love for his people but questioning their love for him. He loves his people (2:1); He is their Father and master (1:6); their Father and creator (2:10); a just God (2:17); He does not change (3:6); and is totally honest (3:13), but they have failed to love him with the same enthusiasm. The book lists their behaviour that proves what God ‘suspects’.

Malachi ends, promising the Sun of righteousness will come with healing in his wings – a fitting end.

All Nations Celebration

By Tyrone Daniel
4 October 2015

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Knowing Jesus More

By Matt Doty
4 October 2015 at Bedfordview AM

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Reaching Your City

By Darian Venerable
11 October 2015 at Bedfordview AM

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The book of Zechariah

Only because of the messages and help of Zechariah and Haggai do the discouraged in Jerusalem rebuild the Temple which was finished in 516 B.C. Zechariah and Haggai have very similar themes to their prophecies, understandably. Zechariah’s work can be divided into two parts: Chapters 1-8 deal with more immediate concerns that the community would have been facing, while Chapters 9-14 deal with future events.

Zechariah might be the hardest of the minor prophetic books to understand. Chapters 1-8 consist of visions and reports of historical events. There are eight visions and their probable meanings are below:

  • Vision 1 – Israel had experienced the Day of Lord but the other nations were at ease – how come? The answer comes that God has not forgotten his people and the nations will have their day, too.

  • Vision 2 – opposition against God’s people will not last nor succeed.

  • Vision 3 – the glory of God will no longer be confined to the Temple but the city will be the dwelling place of God.

  • Vision 4 – the people would be able to build an acceptable Temple for God.

  • Vision 5 – the temple they were building was God’s work and although they didn’t find it acceptable, God did.

  • Vision 6 & 7 – God had initiated the exile for purification but sin had returned in the hearts of the returned exiles. This would be dealt with too.

  • Vision 8 – God would have the final say and clear his name amongst the nations.

The chapter closes out with the scene of a coronation (6:9-11) in which most Christian interpreters have seen the blending of Priest and King in Christ. The last thoughts in chapters 7-8 are around fasts that the Jews had observed and set up. Zechariah warns that cold formalism is a possibility that they should fear and shun.

Chapters 9-14 are Zechariah encouraging the people with future events. The return of the exiles was a great victory and restoration but complete restoration still waits. This is the theme of the chapters. The restoration from captivity was only a token compared to the great redemption to come.

The book of Haggai

Ezra tells us that 50,000 Jews returned from Babylon to Jerusalem. Their arrival was not welcomed with palm branches and cheers. Opposition to their return caused them to stammer and fall in discouragement. Ezra reports their rebuilding of the temple but there is a little space that he leaves out. It is the space of the words of Haggai.

Haggai and Zechariah arrive to a discouraged people. They are busy restoring their homes and restoring agricultural productivity (Haggai 1). It was in 520 B.C that the two prophets begin telling the people their priorities are upside down. The Temple is to be built first. By 516 B.C the Temple is built.

The book consists of four oracles that Haggai recorded. The first oracle (1:1-11) covers Haggai telling the leaders and people that the trouble they were facing was because they hadn’t tended to the most important thing – the Temple first.

His second oracle came less than a month after the rebuilding had started (2:1-9). It was clear to all that the second Temple was nowhere close to the glory of Solomon’s Temple. The people who saw Solomon’s would have been in their seventies. Haggai assures them that the second Temple will none the less far exceed Solomon’s in glory.

The third oracle (2:10-19) is in two parts. The message is that holiness is not contagious. Having a temple would not make the people holy. The only hope the people had was not the ‘magic’ of the Temple but the grace and mercy of God.

His fourth oracle (2:20-23) is for Zerubbabel the governor of Judah. The message is that Zerubbabel would not be the one to see a return of David’s rule to Judah, this would come in the future.

The book of Daniel

Second to Revelation, Daniel stands out as the most difficult book in the Bible to understand. Well, only the second half of it. The first half is some of the easiest and most loved narrative for children’s stories and Bible studies.

Daniel is a standout statesman in Babylon. He lives to over ninety years of age maintaining a high rank under Nebuchadnezzar, Belshazzar, Darius and Cyrus. He was taken to Babylon in the first invasion by Nebuchadnezzar and was joined by Ezekiel who arrived in the second invasion eight years later. Ezekiel refers to Daniel as a model of righteousness, no small feat while spending sixty-nine years in the most vile of courts. Daniel always remained faithful to God.

The overarching theme of the book is God’s kingship and royal power. Depending on your viewpoint each chapter tells us about God and Daniel’s experiences living in pagan ruled kingdoms.

Chapter 1 – God is shown as the keeper as Daniel tells us his story of what it’s like to live under Babylonian (pagan) authority.

Chapter 2 – God is shown as the God of history as Daniel speaks about Babylon being the first of three empires to rule Jerusalem and in the time of the fourth, God would usher in a kingdom that would rule over all.

Chapter 3 – God the deliverer is seen as Daniel and his friends survive under Babylonian rule.

Chapter 4 – God is shown as all powerful as Nebuchadnezzar suddenly dies.

Chapter 5 – God is also the judge when in the space of a chapter the Babylonian kingdom falls and the Persians rule.

Chapter 6 – the God who can do anything when under Persian rule saves Daniel from the infamous den of lions.

Chapters 7-12 take up the theme of how God’s kingdom relates to the kingdoms of the world. God’s kingdom moves forward no matter what goes on around it.

Daniel tells us two certain things: (1) it is more than possible for a follower of God to stand in the midst of pagan rule and pressure, and (2) God’s kingdom reigns over all the kingdoms of the world, no matter how it looks at the time.

Pic: Daniel in the Lion’s Den by Briton Riviere (1872).