Perfect Timing
Notes
Transcript
Joel, like the rest of us, is reading and quoting prophets from decades and (mostly) centuries before. Then there are at least 350 years of "Scriptural" silence before the coming of Jesus... Rising and falling Empires, short lived rebellions, the abomination that causes desolation... and all waiting on Jesus. At "just the right time" God sent His Son... to rescue us in ALL the ways. How is it the "right time?" We can guess (Pax Romana, Roman roads, Greek language, Synagogues, Pharisees, Sadducees and Zealots)... but ultimately it is the Perfect Timing of the Master. We trust and wait on Him in all things.
Waiting...
Waiting...
Waiting...
This is ridiculous. Absolutely ridiculous.
A few weeks ago we stopped by Five Guys for dinner before youth group. Ordered our food. Then sat down and waited.
And waited. I’d already paid, they had us hostage. Dozens of people waiting for their food, I should have noticed that and left.
We waited for half an hour. SUPER late to youth group. Very frustrating.
You know how the time ticks by SOOOO much slower when you’re waiting like that? Especially if you have somewhere to be, other people are waiting on you in turn. Like watching the microwave tick in slow motion.
The End of the Prophets
The End of the Prophets
Summary of the prophets???
First and foremost, they are addressing the present situation of the people, calling out their sin and stupid, calling them to repentance. Applying God’s love and God’s love to the world around them.
They do it in word, in action, in dramatic art, before thrones and crowds and individuals.
Sprinkled here and there, they lay out what God is doing. And threaded all throughout, the coming promise.
A coming Savior. A Messiah. A Son of Man. A Son of God. A Coming King, Priest, Prophet. Christ. Immanuel.
The last words of the OT.
20 But Judah shall be inhabited forever, and Jerusalem to all generations.
21 I will avenge their blood, blood I have not avenged, for the Lord dwells in Zion.”
The “blood” parts makes me a bit uncomfortable… but I like the “YHWH dwells in Zion” part.
Maybe that’s why our Bible organizes it this way… and you can make a case for Malachi coming after Joel. Those last words are fitting...
5 “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes.
6 And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction.”
Either way, the people of Israel are waiting for this. They see the destruction as coming on the nations, on their enemies.
How long did they wait.
Well, they waited a lifetime. And then another. And then a generation… and another generation.
How long did they wait?
350 years!!!
And, in one sense, it is 350 years, some argue for 400 years, of silence. No new books. No new prophets, not like Isaiah and Jeremiah, not like Daniel, not like Amos, not like Malachi and Joel.
And in all that time, they are waiting. Desperately waiting. Spending the vast majority of that time under foreign occupation!
Desperately waiting for the promised Messiah.
Apocrypha
Apocrypha
What about all these books?
I almost wish these were in the Bible. There’s one called “Bel and the Dragon.” It’s disappointing though, barely a dragon in it. It’s a story of Daniel refusing to worship the dragon, and he makes cakes of fat and hair, and that makes the dragon burst open and die… and then they throw Daniel in the lions den.
These are called the Apocrypha, and they are books from this “in-between” time. These were not considered “Scripture” at the time of Jesus, and still aren’t part of Jewish scriptures today. They are never quoted from in the NT though, like other familiar events and documents, there are a couple references.
The Catholic church now considers these as part of Scripture, the Orthodox church includes even more, all starting from mid-5th century. Most of the early church fathers were opposed to considering them canon, though some had them as “suggested reading.”
Interesting… but not divinely inspired Scripture. Much like the writings of the early church fathers themselves.
Take the good, and there’s some good in there. And drop the nonsense parts on the floor.
God’s Silent Years
God’s Silent Years
And the events most eerily prophesied by Daniel are about to roll out.
While Scripture isn’t being written for 350 years… which is a good deal longer than our nation has existed, crazy for us to think about how long a time that is.
In the years after Zechariah and Malachi and Joel… just shortly after I think Joel wrote. He’s around 350 BC, Alexander the great is born around 350 BC, rises to power right around 333 BC. That’s the Greek Empire.
The goat of Daniel. (Not Greatest of All Time… but maybe?)
Then there was the four horns, the generals inheriting Alexander’s Empire, and that is what conquers and rules over Israel for the next 250 years.
Antiochus IV Epiphanes seeks to force everyone to be “Hellenistic” (adopt Greek culture) and he brings the “abomination that causes desolation.”
Some of this story comes in the Books of Maccabees.
Well, the people are fed up, and they revolt, called the Maccabean revolution. And they rededicate the temple.
It’s kind of an awesome story. They are cracking down, and trying to make everyone follow Greek custom, and they start requiring everyone to sacrifice, and they send a governmental official to a small town, and the small town priest refuses. Mattithiah.
Then another Jewish man steps up and says he’ll do the sacrifice...
So Mattithiah murders the officer instead.
Starts like a gorilla warfare… and they call him the “Hammer” or, in Hebrew, The “Maccabees.”
And Antiochus calls for his best general, and they gather all the people, adding thousands of Jewish rebels, but they are still outnumbered 5 to 1… and Matathiah dies and his son Judah takes over… and prays to God for victory… and they WIN!
Where’s that HBO series? It’s awesome!
And they celebrate that day in the “Festival of Dedication” or “Festival of Lights”, which was honored and celebrated by Jesus. And we call that?
Hannukah.
Their independence lasts until Rome conquers in 63 BC… and they eventually put the Herod dynasty as governors of the region.
But for ALL of those people, waiting on God to fulfill His promises. Waiting on God to send the Messiah, the Chosen One. To restore Israel and Judah.
Can you imagine the Messianic fervor around Matathiah?
Is the “intertestamental time” a time of silence?
No. I believe God still sent prophets, still sent his Spirit, still ruled the heavens, and the world, and Israel in particular. He still answered prayers. He was worshipped.
But with regard to Scripture, these are the Words of God that would set the stage of history, and forever teach His people who He is and what He has done.
… and the stage was set for the Word himself to step in.
4 But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law,
God’s Perfect Timing
God’s Perfect Timing
How is it the "right time?" We can guess at some more reasons:
Pax Romana - the peace of Rome, made it possible for the first time for someone to travel freely from India to Egypt, to England. You couldn’t do that before, a citizen could do it reliably and safely for the first time in history.
The famous Roman roads made that more feasible as well.
The universality of the “Greek” language, for Latin was still just gaining some traction in the empire, that meant you could teach and preach and copy Scripture and someone could read it all across the Empire. Not everyone, certainly, but it was a universal language to an unprecedented extent.
The spread of the Synagogues, which probably began in Babylonian exile but didn’t seem to spread everywhere until after the Maccabean revolution. This is the place where Jesus would teach, and the reason Jesus would be recognized as a Rabbi as well as a prophet, that whole tradition grew up in these intervening years.
Or the way all those events shaped the people around Jesus:
The Sadducees are those who largely assimilate well to Greek culture and now Roman rule, seeking to adapt to the powers that be. And they largely prosper, especially politically.
The Pharisees were those reading the prophets and seeking to follow all of God’s law and teaching, even expanding to sets of rules to make sure you don’t even get close to breaking God’s rules. They pushed back against Greek and Roman influence.
The Essenes were even more extreme, believing they couldn’t possibly follow God’s rules within culture, they retreated to basically desert monasteries to focus on purity and holy living. That’s where the Dead Sea scrolls come from… and probably John the Baptist.
And mixed in among all of these, the Zealots, people who are so eager for the Messiah to get them back to political freedom and supremacy they are willing to help it all along. It worked in the Maccabbean revolution, why not here? And “Messiahs” cropped up on the regular, every few years, in the same way cult leaders pop up and fizzle out today.
In hindisght, we can guess at reasons.
but ultimately it is the Perfect Timing of the Master. We trust and wait on Him in all things.
To do what?
4 But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law,
5 to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.
His timing is perfect.
His plan is perfect.
His purpose is perfect and good and for you.
We are going to be going through the book of Matthew next. I’m excited for this. We are enrolling in Jesus’ Masterclass. How to life. The “With God” kind of life. Kingdom life. Life abundant and eternal.
And God’s timing was perfect. And Jesus’ timing was perfect. And he was and is the smartest man who ever lived…
What Are You Waiting For?
What Are You Waiting For?
If God’s timing is so careful, if He could predict is so perfectly, and carry it out so precisely… does that extend to His plan and purpose for you?
He isn’t phased by a plan that takes decades or centuries… he isn’t rushed by a plan that takes moments.
He isn’t confused the way you are confused. He sees clearly to the heart of what you’re struggling with. And he knows just the right time and just the right way.
He knows all the people involved and he can move empires to accomplish His will.
And so we wait on the Lord. It is a life posture before our Master. To seek His will, always, to do His will, always, in His timing, always. To willingly and even eagerly submit our will and thought and heart and action to His… knowing beyond doubt that is our highest and greatest possible achievement.
We wait on the Lord, his perfect plan, his perfect timing.
Closing
11 Teach me your way, O Lord, and lead me on a level path because of my enemies.
12 Give me not up to the will of my adversaries; for false witnesses have risen against me, and they breathe out violence.
13 I believe that I shall look upon the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living!
14 Wait for the Lord; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the Lord!