Progressive Revelation - Part 6: The Fulfillment of Time: How God Prepared the World During 400 Years of Silence

The Time Between Covenants: History is "His Story"

Read part 5 here.

In this post we will try to see a few things about the time period between the Old Testament and New Testament. That period is called the Intertestamental Period, a time of approximately 400 years where there was no prophetic word from God.

Sometimes we may think why should we worry about this historical period? Answer is history is simply "his story". In other words, history is nothing but the designed, plotted story by God Himself. Even though God was not directly speaking in those days, He was working behind the curtains. 

God’s Control Over Earthly Superpowers

Throughout ancient history, there were always superpowers in the world. We know that Egypt was a power; in the earlier days, they kept the Israelites under slavery, and God, with His might, gave freedom to them. After a few years, Assyria became a superpower and took the upper part of the Israelites (the 10 tribes) into exile. Then Babylon became a superpower and took the remaining two tribes, Judah and Benjamin, into exile.

After Babylon, the Medo-Persian power came into prominence. When they came to power, they gave freedom to the Jews to go back to their nation, allowing them to rebuild the temple and Jerusalem walls.

One observation we must make here is that in all these periods, God's people were not the superpowers. But God used these superpowers to fulfill His will in and on God's people. This is true in our days also, but we do not need to worry because those super powers are all in the control of God. God will use them to fulfill His will, His plans and purposes.

The Greek Influence: Prophecy Fulfilled and the Spread of Language

After Medo-Persia, the Greeks came into power. One famous person from the Greeks, Alexander (the Great), conquered almost all the known world in those days,.

Alexander also did another good thing: he spread the Greek language throughout the world. Greek became the main language for trade, diplomacy, and all official purposes, a process called Hellenization. Alexander was a disciple of Aristotle, who was a disciple of Plato, who in turn was a disciple of Socrates. With all this influence of philosophy, Alexander brought the world into unity in some aspects, and during those days, art, culture, and science developed very well and spread widely.

We can see the foreshadowing of these empires in the Book of Daniel.

• Daniel Chapter 2: Nebuchadnezzar had a dream of a big statue, which Daniel interpreted as depicting subsequent kingdoms starting from Babylon. The kingdom of silver (the two shoulders) depicted the Medo-Persian kingdom, and the bronze part depicted the Greek kingdom.
• Daniel Chapter 8: Daniel was given another vision which depicts the kingdoms that were to come, specifically reading from verses 20-22: "As for the ram that you saw with the two horns, these are the kings of Media and Persia; and the goat is the king of Greece, and the great horn between his eyes is the first king. As for the horn that was broken, in place of which four others arose, four kingdoms shall arise from his nation, but not with his power".

Alexander was the great horn, and the prophecies were fulfilled around 200 years after Daniel spoke them. According to some sources, when Alexander came to capture Jerusalem, the high priest of Jerusalem went to meet him, showed him all these prophecies about himself, and Alexander was mesmerized. He gave freedom to Jerusalem and did not attack them.

What we see here is that even though God is silent and not directly speaking, God is still fulfilling His promises. The prophecies are being fulfilled. God is still working on behalf of His people; He is still protecting them. Sometimes we may see in our lives also we have many promises but things that are happening right now may look very dry. But be assured that God never sleeps nor slumbers. He is still working on our behalf.

The Aftermath of Alexander: Translation and Persecution

After Alexander died, exactly as predicted in Daniel 8:22, four army generals under him took four parts of his kingdom. Only two were very powerful: Ptolemy and Seleucus. Ptolemy reigned from Egypt (Alexandria), and Seleucus reigned from Antiochus in Syria.

For a few years, Jerusalem was under the control of Ptolemy, and they enjoyed peace. Because of this peace, one important incident took place: 72 scholars (six people from each of the 12 tribes) were called from Jerusalem to Egypt and given the task of translating the entire Old Testament into Greek. This translation is important because the Septuagint (the Greek Old Testament) was the main Old Testament available in the New Testament period. 

When Seleucus and his descendants tried to take control of Jerusalem, Antiochus III captured the city. After him came Antiochus IV, who forced Greek culture upon Jerusalem and the Jewish people.

His persecutions were severe:

1. Sabbath was banned. Honoring or implementing the Sabbath became a criminal offense.
2. Circumcision was prohibited. Mothers who took responsibility to circumcise their children were executed openly.
3. Possessing Old Testament Scriptures was a criminal offense. He captured many Scriptures and destroyed them. We should be thankful that we still have God's word in our hands because God protected His word in those days.

Antiochus IV did not stop there. He entered the temple and started idolatry and prostitution in the temple premises itself. Above all, he offered an unclean animal—a pig—on the altar of the temple. All these things were prophesied already in the book of Daniel and were taking place now.

The Jewish Response and the Rise of Sects

In those days, a group called the Maccabees rose up. They fought against Antiochus IV, and their leader, Judas Maccabeus, captured Jerusalem again. They rededicated the temple, and that rededication is celebrated even today by Jewish people; it is called Hanukkah.

Unfortunately, something that started with a good intention was diluted because of their selfishness. There were infightings for power among these people called Maccabees. This period gave rise to the major Jewish sects present in the first century:

1. Pharisees: They chose to follow God's word literally, exactly as it is written. This was another good initiative. But, they are an example for how well they started and how they declined when they came to the first century time.
2. Sadducees: Originally belonging to the Maccabees, they continued in the high priestly job. They went into ties with the Roman government, and with the support of the Roman government, they continued to be high priests. That is why in John's gospel, we see that Annas was a high priest for that year. According to God's word, a high priest should be a high priest throughout their life, but they were paying something to the Roman government, and every year they had to renew their position.
3. Qumran Community: These people produced the Dead Sea Scrolls or Qumran scrolls.
4. Scribes and Teachers of the Law: They were trying to teach and spread God's word by copying the Old Testament from one generation to the other.

This is how the Jewish background was being set in those days (before the arrival of Jesus Christ).

The World Prepared: Pax Romana and Road Transport

After the Greeks, the Romans came into power. Greek continued to be the common language. Julius Augustus was the first Roman emperor.

The Roman government implemented two key things that helped prepare the world for the spreading of the Gospel:

1. Good road transport throughout the world.
2. Pax Romana (Peace of Rome): This peace given by Rome was enforced by military might.

These two policies—good road transport and the peace (whether by force or other means)—helped the New Testament people spread the Gospel very easily in those days.

The Fulfilment of Time

As we see in Galatians 4:4 (ESV): "when the fullness of time had come", the time was coming to its fulfillment. As the time was coming to the end, the world itself had become a stage prepared to receive the Messiah who was to come.

The people of God were waiting for that Messiah because all human offices failed to keep God's people faithful to God.

• They were looking for a Prophet predicted by Moses, as the human prophets had failed.
• They were looking for a King according to the descendancy of David, as the human kings had failed.
• They were also looking for a High Priest who would be there forever to intercede on their behalf before God, as the human high priests had failed.

Human offices failed in these three aspects, but God was going to send His Son to fulfill all these three things in the Messiah.

Luke's Gospel chapter 3 says that Adam was the son of God. In Genesis chapter 1, we see that before God sent Adam into the world, He prepared the whole creation for him. Similarly, when His own Son, the Lord Jesus, was coming into the world, God prepared the whole world, and now the whole world was ready to receive Him.

One thing I want to mention here is that if things that God had promised in our lives are getting delayed, please be reminded that God is still working on our behalf. In the fulfillment of time, He will fulfill those things.

Prophecy Resumes: The Word Came to John

After 400 years of silence of the prophetic word, God resumed speaking.

• Luke 3:2 (ESV): "During the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John the son of Zechariah in the wilderness."

This phrase, "the word of God came," is very important. This phrase was last mentioned 400 years before in the book of Malachi, as every prophetic book starts like this: "The word of God came to so and so". John the Baptist belonged to the Old Covenant, because even Jesus said the least in the Kingdom of God is higher than John the Baptist. What this tells us is that God is now resuming His work. God’s revelation started in the Book of Genesis, and even though it had taken a halt in the Book of Malachi for 400 years, God has now started speaking to His people.

Even though human beings fail, God will continue to be faithful. He continued in faithfulness about revealing Himself. It is our responsibility to receive the revelation and respond to it appropriately. We cannot take it for granted. God is taking it so serious to reveal about Himself to us. If we take it lightly, we will be held accountable before Him because He has given all this revelation and resources to us. May God help us to understand.