Lecture 1: Inter-Testamental Period—The Silence of God Between Malachi and Matthew?
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LECTURE 1: INTER-TESTAMENTAL PERIOD—THE SILENCE OF GOD BETWEEN MALACHI AND MATTHEW? WHAT IS HISTORY? • History is linear: Isaiah 46:8-11. • History has a purpose: Isa 46:10. • Definition: God working out his plan for humanity. • The flow of history bares divine Sovereignty and Providence and reflects the Glory of God. • All written history is interpretation. • No purely objective history. • Filtered thru author’s social situation, political commitment, and religious views. • When we look at ancient history, much of it reflects the writings of victors. • War stories written by victors and record their accounts, many times embellished. • Biblical history is different-we believe it is inspired and thus accurate. • The HS authenticated the written history in Bible, thus it is accurate. • The Bible gives us a supernatural interpretation of the meaning of history. • Not just facts, but interpreted facts with supernatural meaning. • History is doxological-JC is at the center and God’s glory is the goal. • Creation, salvation, glorification all serve the purpose of glorifying God. • When we read the Bible, we see theology intertwined with history. • Sometimes it’s hard to separate the two but due to biblical inerrancy and inspiration, we can trust history and theology in the Bible. • There is a reason why so much of the bible is history. o 1 Cor 10:6,11 o OT is given to us so we would study the characters and the story of Israel and learn spiritual lessons from it o OT history is really a history of the working out of Deut 28:1-2, 15, 64 o The rest of the OT tells how God fulfilled this promise given thru Moses just before Israel entered the Promise Land • As we read these stories and fit the OT & the four centuries after the OT into the history of the empires that were sovereign over other nations, you will see that when Israel obeyed God, she was blessed but when she disobeyed God, as a nation she was judged. • This is the lesson God wants us to learn from our reading of the OT, in fact this is repeated in Hebrews 4 where the author appeals to his Jewish audience to not turn away from Christ as the first generation of the Exiting Israelites turned away from God in the wilderness. His appeal to be loyal to Christ is based on a historical OT example, reminding them of what happens to people who reject JC. • As you listen, don’t see the next few weeks as merely a history lesson, make these connections in your mind and reflect on where you are forfeiting God’s blessings because of your disobedience. INTER-TESTAMENTAL HISTORY • What happened in the Bible between Mal 4:6 and Matt 1:1? • Have you ever noticed that when you read the OT there are no Pharisees, no Sadducees, no Herod, no Romans, no Samaritans, nothing about the crucifixion, people do not attend synagogues but when you read the NT all these individuals, groups and institutions dominate the life of JC. Jesus deals with them almost on a daily basis. • Where did these institutions and groups come from? • You think about the OT and it only has the Ark of the Covenant, tabernacle, and a temple, but the NT has the ark, the temple, and synagogues? Well what are they for? Were they mini temples? • The very last verses of the OT is Mal 4:5-6 • Written from Persia (modern: Iran) 400BC • 100yrs after the 2nd temple is completed 516BC • 100yrs after many Jews returned (536BC) from Babylonian Exile • And they are back at doing the same sins they were exiled over • Divorce is rampant • Sacrifices are corrupt, worst animals are offered to God • They have stopped tithing biblically • Sorcery, adultery, financial corruption, social injustices like oppression of the orphans, foreigners, and poor is blatant • God is being openly mocked • People are actually saying it is vain to serve YHWH. What has God ever done for me? is the attitude dominating Israel (Malachi 3:14) • You know how God responds? Mal 4:2-3, 5-6 • Thru Malachi, the last prophet before the NT era, God promises a Messiah and a forerunner to the Messiah • But after God makes this promise, it’s as if he stopped interacting with his people, we don’t have any inspired words from God until Matt 1:1, which occurs 4-6BC. God is silent from 417BC-6BC • The period was dominated by constant warfare for the area known today as Israel • The Jews who lived in that area were slowly losing their OT Jewish identity because of a new language and new social ideals • The OT Jews and the NT Jews were very different OT SURVEY v Creation: Gen 1-11 =>Pre 2000BC o Catalogs origin of world, evil, sin, ethnicities, languages v Patriarchs: Gen 12-50 =2200-1800BC o Origin of people of God o Purpose of people of God: § Gen 12:3c o Through Abraham-Isaac-Jacob-12 sons, God continued his promise v Egyptian Slavery: 1800-1400BC o Famine forced the 12 sons to Egypt o They multiplied and fulfilled Gen 15:5 v Exodus & Entrance • Books: Exod-Deut • 1445-1405BC • Wandering in the wilderness o They followed moses for 16month before Num 13-14-spies report and grumbling o 40 yrs=40 days of spying the land (Num 14:34) o So at 1.5yrs out of Egypt, they scatter and do not gather back up until 40th year • Joshua 1405-1385BC (conquest/land division) v Judges • 1385-1050BC • Israel is tribal • Ruled by 12 Judges • Constantly at war with Mesopotamia, Philistines, Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Canaanites, Midianites • Tragic Period o Cycle: Israel sins, judgment, repentance, deliverance o 17:6, 18:1, 19:1, 21:25 • Sets up the transition to monarchy v United Kingdom: Saul, David, Solomon • 1050-930BC • 1,2 Samuel, 1 Kings 1-11 • Israel is a Superpower of ANE: politically, religiously, socially, economically, militarily Saul’s reign: (1050-1010) was dominated by wars with the Philistines, Ammonites, Amalekites, Moabites, Edomites David’s reign: (1010-970) was not much different. The first (about 7yrs- 2 Sam 3) of his reign was a civil war with the house of Saul. Then he constantly fought the Philistines, Jebusites, Moabites, Syria, Edomites, Ammonites, king of Zobah. • But the low point of his reign was when Joab (the commanded of the army and his nephew) was fighting with Ammon and David committed adultery with Bathsheba, ordering the murder of her husband Uriah. • Shortly after that, his son Absalom lead a revolution against David. For 4 years Absalom was planning it, which shows David’s bad fathering skills since he had no idea what his son was doing and then experienced a family civil war. There was one more rebellion by the leader (Sheba 2 Sam 20) of the Benjamites but was quickly suppressed. • When David came to the end of his life, it seemed that the sword never left his hand. He fought the enemy on each side of Jerusalem, he fought the enemy within and he was successful. He established the first Empire of Israel and the nations surrounding Jerusalem paid taxes to Israel. • But one thing disturbed his heart, his biggest desire was to build a permanent building for the Ark of YHWH but God said he won’t have the privilege, instead his son will do it Solomon’s Reign: • When his son Solomon came to power, after much internal strife—fighting for the throne with his half brother Adonijah who was joined by Solomon’s cousin Joab (david’s top general, david’s nephew) and Abiathar the priest who followed David for decades after David rescued him from Saul’s murderous plan when he killed 85 priests at Nob, these three formed a triumvirate to develop a coup d'état. 2/3 were executed, abiathar was exiled since he was a priest from Eli’s lineage • Subsequently, Solomon took up construction and military reinforcement of the empire his father David left him. • Solomon instituted high taxes, mandatory military service, nearly enslaved people for his building projects, such as palaces (his-13yrs, 30,000sq ft, built after temple ), forts, and the temple (7yrs, 2500sq ft). His construction projects were international involving employees from various through the alliances he made through marriage. • The reason he married 700 women was to have political ties with the nations of those women, he married princesses and relatives of kings and rulers. His marriages were driven by politics not lust. He improved the economy, fortified the empire, and build the temple David wanted to build. • Solomon ruled the Empire of Israel during its Golden Age from 970-930BC. • 2 Chron 9:22-28 READ, 1 Kgs 11:3 o Horses, silver, gold, wives o Deut 17:14-17Read o Solomon did exactly what God told the king not to do • He oppressed the people and pained God • Well when he died people wanted a break, so they appealed to his son Rehoboam to ease up the burden of employment, taxation, and military service. Rehoboam wisely asked his counselors on what to do but unwisely listened to his friends rather than the elders of Israel (1 Kgs 12:6-11,16,19). • The end result, ten tribes rebelled against Rehoboam and formed Israel under the leadership of Jeroboam while two tribes remained loyal to Solomon’s son, Rehoboam. This happened in 930BC and from that point on, Judah and Israel never reunited. v Divided Kingdom: Ø Israel (10 tribes) (North) o Samaria is the capital o Jeroboam ->Hoshea 722BC, 19kings o Assyria, 40-50yrs after Jonah, came and destroyed Israel 1 Kgs 17:7-23 o 612BC Nineveh was destroyed by Babylon, according to Nahum Ø Judah (2 tribes) (South) o Jerusalem is the capital o Rehoboam->Zedekiah 586BC, 20 kings o Jerusalem, temple burned, many exiled Ø Israel worse than Judah and is destroyed first, but Judah exceeds Israel’s immorality and about 120 years later, God judges Judah for her sins Ø 1 Kings 12-22, 2 Kings, 2 Chronicles 10-36 Ø Civil war between the two, competition Ø Zech 7:8-14 (cf 2 Kgs 17) has some great insight into why God judged Israel and Judah.