God In The Scheme Of Redemption Part 3
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Introduction
Introduction
Greetings...
God’s faithful children have a goal, the same goal as our theme of these lessons, to have “Open Eyes” to God through His Word ().
We have gotten to know God and His love for us better when we examined God in creation and over the last two weeks as we have looked at the “Scheme of Redemption.”
Today we are going to look at how God providentially used several different world empires to impact the fulness of time.
God’s Use Of Medo-Persian Empire
God’s Use Of Medo-Persian Empire
The Medo-Persian empire overthrew the great Babylon empire.
The Medo-Persian empire overthrew the great Babylon empire.
This was prophesied about by three many prophets.
17 Behold, I am stirring up the Medes against them, who have no regard for silver and do not delight in gold. 18 Their bows will slaughter the young men; they will have no mercy on the fruit of the womb; their eyes will not pity children.
Is
28 Prepare the nations for war against her, the kings of the Medes, with their governors and deputies, and every land under their dominion.
Jer
11 “Sharpen the arrows! Take up the shields! The Lord has stirred up the spirit of the kings of the Medes, because his purpose concerning Babylon is to destroy it, for that is the vengeance of the Lord, the vengeance for his temple.
5 Immediately the fingers of a human hand appeared and wrote on the plaster of the wall of the king’s palace, opposite the lampstand. And the king saw the hand as it wrote.
24 “Then from his presence the hand was sent, and this writing was inscribed. 25 And this is the writing that was inscribed: Mene, Mene, Tekel, and Parsin. 26 This is the interpretation of the matter: Mene, God has numbered the days of your kingdom and brought it to an end; 27 Tekel, you have been weighed in the balances and found wanting; 28 Peres, your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians.”
The Medo-Persian empire’s impact on the scheme of redemption.
The Medo-Persian empire’s impact on the scheme of redemption.
Dan 5:
The greatest impact this empire had on the “fulness of time” was its actions towards those it conquered.
Before the Medo-Persian empire the two major empires before “came, destroyed, and dispersed everyone” with the hopes of making those conquered into Assyrians or Babylonians.
Cyrus the Great or Cyrus the Elder (king of the Medo-Persian empire) was different because he “respected the customs and religions of the lands he conquered.” Cyrus II was different, not out of chance, but because God was with him, he knew it, and was listening to God.
Cyrus II was different, not out of chance, but because God was with him, he knew it, and was listening to God.
22 Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, so that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom and also put it in writing: 23 “Thus says Cyrus king of Persia, ‘The Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he has charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Whoever is among you of all his people, may the Lord his God be with him. Let him go up.’ ”
We don’t know when Cyrus knew about the God of heaven or that he was leading him but at some point this became clear, just like it did with king Nebuchadnezzar.
28 Nebuchadnezzar answered and said, “Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who has sent his angel and delivered his servants, who trusted in him, and set aside the king’s command, and yielded up their bodies rather than serve and worship any god except their own God. 29 Therefore I make a decree: Any people, nation, or language that speaks anything against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego shall be torn limb from limb, and their houses laid in ruins, for there is no other god who is able to rescue in this way.”
Summery
Summery
The greatest impact wasn’t allowing the Hebrew remnant to go home, it was the new development of allowing the conquered to keep practicing their religion and customs.
Both the Greek and Roman empires adopted versions of this plan.
This would allow for the gospel to be “preached to every creature under heaven” () without the fear of governmental persecution at first.
God’s Use Of The Greek Empire
God’s Use Of The Greek Empire
The Greek empire overthrew the Medo-Persian empire.
The Greek empire overthrew the Medo-Persian empire.
Alexander the Great began where his father Philip had left off, in putting an end to the Persian empire and expanding the empire.
This too was foretold by God to Daniel.
6 After this I looked, and behold, another, like a leopard, with four wings of a bird on its back. And the beast had four heads, and dominion was given to it.
Dan
3 Then a mighty king shall arise, who shall rule with great dominion and do as he wills. 4 And as soon as he has arisen, his kingdom shall be broken and divided toward the four winds of heaven, but not to his posterity, nor according to the authority with which he ruled, for his kingdom shall be plucked up and go to others besides these.
Dan
There is no biblical or secular information that suggests any Greek king had God directly or indirectly speaking to them and telling them what He desired of them.
The Greek empire’s impact on the scheme of redemption.
The Greek empire’s impact on the scheme of redemption.
By far the most significant impact the Greek empire had on the “fulness of time” was language.
Cicero, a first century BC Roman stated, “Greek is read in almost all nations; Latin is confined by its own narrow boundaries.” (http://www.diktuon.com/smelser_j/ntchronc.htm)
The Greek language was so dominant that even the Jews asked for the LXX to be made because they were much more familiar with Greek than Hebrew.
Of the 300 plus O.T. quotes in the N.T. about 85% are from the LXX and not the original Hebrew or Aramaic.
Summery
Summery
God used the Greek empire to create a universal language that could allow for the gospel to be preached without the need for miracles.
Remember just because miracles, like tongues, existed doesn’t mean that “everyone” had this spiritual gift, nor was it “widely needed.”
In almost all of the book of Acts we don’t see the need for tongue speaking in Paul’s travels.
God’s Use Of The Roman Empire
God’s Use Of The Roman Empire
The Roman empire overthrew the Greek empire.
The Roman empire overthrew the Greek empire.
The Roman empire was the largest empire to ever exist or will exist.
The only “kingdom” to grow larger than the Roman empire is the Lord’s church (, ).
This empire was prophesied about roughly 500 plus years before it came into existence.
The Roman empire is the legs of iron and feet of iron and clay in king Nebuchadnezzar’s dream.
32 The head of this image was of fine gold, its chest and arms of silver, its middle and thighs of bronze, 33 its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of clay.
Dan 2:
The Roman empire’s impact on the scheme of redemption.
The Roman empire’s impact on the scheme of redemption.
There are two specific things that God used the Roman empire to do to help create the “fulness of time.”
First is security or “Pax Romana.”
“The Romans were so successful militarily that they soon had no one left to fight. With Rome replacing Greece as the world super power, and having the power to subdue all nations and tribes of the known world, peace reigned.” (http://bit.ly/2JfGcUg)
This allowed brethren pretty safe travels in spreading the gospel (Paul’s missionary journeys).
The Romans were so successful militarily that they soon had no one left to fight. With Rome replacing Greece as the world super power, and having the power to subdue all nations and tribes of the known world, peace reigned.”
Second is the great roads.
To keep the empire under control they built such great roads that even today many still exist and can be walked upon.
These roads allowed missionaries to travel much quicker than had ever happened in history.
Summery
Summery
God providentially used Rome to secure the land and build great roads so that the “fulness of time” would come.
Conclusion
Conclusion