Progress of Redemption #04 — David Shirley

Israel’s Restoration and the Coming Messiah

Now in Act 3 we see that God restores Israel to the land for the coming of the Messiah. The temple and the city of Jerusalem is rebuilt and only a remnant or minority return. They're now under Gentile rule and also during this time we read in the book of Esther how that God providentially preserves his people in Persia and then the Messiah comes to provide salvation for the world.

God’s Purpose in Ezra and Nehemiah

The grounds for all God has done or will do. Now when we look at the books of Ezra and Nehemiah we see that both of them begin in Persia. They begin with a Persian king's decree but they end in Jerusalem because God is working and God told Cyrus king of Persia that he would rebuild the temple.

In Ezra chapter 1 verses 1 through 4 which is interesting the last two verses of second chronicles 36 are the same as the first two verses of the book of Ezra. In second chronicles 36 22 it says in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia in order to fulfill the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia so that he sent a proclamation throughout his kingdom and also put it in writing saying thus says Cyrus king of Persia the Lord the God of heaven has given me all the kingdoms of the earth and he has appointed me to build him a house in Jerusalem which is in Judah whoever there is among you of all his people may the Lord his God be with them and let him go up.

The reason that the last two verses of second chronicles in the first two of Ezra are the same no doubt is because they were originally the same book and if you'll read what Jeremiah prophesied in Jeremiah 29 verses 10 through 14 or turn to Isaiah chapter 45 and read verses 1 through 7 and verse 13 we see God calling Cyrus by name almost 200 years before he was born actually beginning in chapter 44 of Isaiah in verse 27 we see how specific his prophecy was as compared to Daniel chapter 5 when Belshazzar was throwing the feast and the handwriting came out upon the plaster of the wall saying many many people you farson.

Then it says in Isaiah 44 27 it is I who says to the depths of the sea dry up and I will make your rivers dry. It is I he says of Cyrus he is my shepherd and he will perform all my desire. And he declares of Jerusalem she will be built and of the temple your foundation will be laid.

Thus says the Lord to Cyrus his anointed whom I have taken by the right hand to subdue nations before him and to loose the loins of kings to open doors before him so that gates will not be shut. I will go before you and make the rough places smooth.

I will shatter the doors of bronze and cut through their iron bars. And I will give you the treasures of darkness and hidden welts of secret places in order that you may know that it is I the Lord the God of Israel who calls you by your name for the sake of Jacob my servant and Israel my chosen one.

I have also called you by your name. I have given you a title of honor though you have not known me I am the Lord and there is no other besides me. There is no God. I will gird you though you have not known me that men that may know from the rising to the setting of the sun that there's no one besides me I am the Lord.

There's no other the one forming light and creating darkness causing well-being and creating calamity. I the Lord do all these things. So God is calling Cyrus by name before he's born so that he'll know that there is a God and that he is the true God.

And ultimately as he finishes chapter 45 in verse 22 he says turn to me and be saved all the ends of the earth for I am God and there's no other I have sworn by myself. The word has gone forth from my mouth in righteousness and I will not turn back that to me.

Every knee will bow every tongue will swear allegiance. They will say of me only in the Lord a righteousness and strength. God does desire that all would come to know him. And God's working in history he's working to bring the Messiah so that everyone can be saved.

And I think it's just really neat to see in Isaiah 45 in the same chapter the fact that God prophesied the man who will give the decree to bring the Jews back to their land. And it's for the purpose of the coming Messiah.

The Remnant’s Return and the Rebuilding of the Temple

Now after Cyrus gave the decree many of the people didn't care to face the dangers and start all over again. They'd settled in Persia and so only a remnant of the people went back undesirable about 50 ,000 returned.

There were three returns actually the one under the rubble and then later the one under Ezra that we read in Ezra chapters 7 through 11. But in the first six chapters of Ezra we read about the rubble.

And then finally the third return under Nehemiah when he went back and rebuilt the wall. But only a remnant left Babylon to travel over those 700 miles of trackless desert to Jerusalem to start over again.

And yet throughout Ezra we hear the term all Israel. In Ezra 270 it's all Israel he says returns in chapter 6 verse 17 all Israel chapter 8 35 all Israel. Chapter 10 verse 25 he speaks of the tribe Israel.

And so it's interesting to see how the phrase all Israel is used even though there's only a remnant that returns. And when they arrive in Jerusalem the first thing they do in chapter 3 verse 2 is they build the altar.

First the center of Judaism was the altar where the sacrifice took place as the center of Christianity is the cross where the ultimate and true sacrifice of Jesus Christ took place. And then after they built the altar beginning in verse 8 it says.

Now in the second year of their coming to the house of God at Jerusalem in the second month the rubble the son of Shealtiel and Jeshua the son of Jazadak and the rest of their brothers the priest and the Levite and all who came from the captivity to Jerusalem began the work and appointed the Levites from 20 years and older to oversee the work of the house of the Lord now when they had finished laying the foundation of the temple.

In verse 10 it says. When the builders had laid the foundation of the temple of the Lord the priest stood in their apparel with trumpets and the Levites sons of Asaph with symbols to praise the Lord according to the directions of King David of Israel.

And they sang praising and giving thanks to the Lord saying for he's good for his loving kindness is upon Israel forever. And all the people shouted with a great shout when they praised the Lord because the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid yet many of the priests and Levites and heads of fathers households the old men who had seen the first temple wept with a loud voice when the foundation of the house was laid before their eyes while many shouted aloud for joy so that the people could not distinguish the sound of the shout of joy from the sound of the weeping of the people.

So the people shouted with a loud shout and the sound was heard far away. So there's mixed emotions here because I guess some of the older ones had seen the first temple and the second temple was not quite to the standard as the first temple but nevertheless they're back in the place where man could meet God again.

Because the temple being rebuilt and only a small minority have returned a remnant have returned to Jerusalem and the Jews who remained in the other countries established synagogues where they did their teaching and they did their worship.

And the synagogue became a foundational structure actually also helped the churches to come. And whenever Paul went out to spread the gospel he would go to a city he would always go to the synagogue. And so the temple was finally completed.

In Ezra chapter 6 and verse 15 it says. And this temple was completed on the third day of the month Adar and it was the sixth year of the reign of king Darius and God was behind the whole thing. In verse 14 it said.

The elders of the Jews were successful in building through the prophesying Haggai the prophet and Zechariah the son of Edith. And they finished building according to the command of the God of Israel and the decree of Cyrus Darius and Artaxerxes king of Persia.

And so beginning about 537 all the way to 517 and then 516. Actually they finished the temple and God worked through history to help them finish this temple. As a matter of fact in 1835 Henry Rawlinson a British army officer noticed on a mountain northeast of Babylon a great isolated rock it was rising 1700 feet out on the plain and there was a cliff 400 feet above the road it had carvings on the smooth surface of the cliff.

So he investigated and he found an inscription engraved from 516 BC by the order of Darius king of Persia from 521 to 485 BC the same Darius under whom the temple in Jerusalem was rebuilt as told in Ezra.

The same year the temple was completed and Rawlinson spent four years standing on a ledge getting squeezes of the inscriptions there. And in about 14 more years translations were completed of them and he found the key to the ancient Babylonian language and unlocked to the world the treasures of ancient Babylonian literature.

Esther and God’s Providential Preservation

And once again archaeology catches up with the Bible. Now between chapters six and seven in the book of Ezra you probably ought to place the book of Esther where you see the good hand of God providentially preserving his people scattered throughout Persia.

And even though the name of God is not mentioned specifically in the book of Esther because partly I think it was believed that God could only be met in Jerusalem and these people are scattered throughout Persia.

But you do have the tetragrammaton the yhvh where God's name was so holy that they took the vowels out of God's name and only left the consonants and there were four consonants yhvh and they called them the tetragrammaton.

And you do find that in acrostic form four different times in the book of Esther in chapter 1 verse 20 and chapter 5 verse 4 chapter 5 verse 13 and chapter 7 verse 7. But you definitely see God's hand providentially controlling the circumstances and the events to fulfill his purposes and and God will do that and the Jews and the dispersion would have been destroyed except for Esther.

And so this book's a documentation of God's power and his wisdom manifested in his control of the events that place Esther into the palace at the precise moment she was needed to overthrow Satan's plans to thwart the redemptive purposes of God.

In chapter 1 of Esther we read of Ahasuerus who was well another name for him was Xerxes and he was throwing this great feast 180 day banquet the king and he called in his queen Vashti in order to show her off and she refused.

And so because of that embarrassing moment he deposed Vashti which is thought to have been in around 482 BC and he found another queen but he had to leave and go on an expedition against Greece. And whether he married Esther before that or after that we're not totally sure but we know that he found no one with which he was as pleased as with Esther and so he married her.

She was a young Jewish girl and Ahasuerus died about 13 years later and Esther lived on on through the reign of her stepson Artaxerxes and no doubt had some influence there in the days of Ezra and Nehemiah because Artaxerxes was giving commandment to help them.

You know this story how that Haman had a decree made to kill all the Jews in all the provinces and so Esther warned by Mordecai had to go in and she had to intercede with the king on behalf of her people and she went in and touched the top of the scepter and he no doubt still adored her and the outcome was that the gallows that Haman had made for Mordecai Haman was hanged on and in his place of honor was given to Mordecai who was Esther's cousin.

And so because God is providentially taking care of his people the Jews were not massacred at this time and instead when Esther persuaded the king to make another decree authorizing the Jews to resist and then to slay anyone who would attack them it was exactly what they did and so Esther saved the whole race from annihilation.

So she was not only beautiful but she was wise and she was used by God because of her willingness to step out and to trust that God would work in this situation. So the Jews began. What we know today is the Feast of Purim and they still observe it in memory of what Esther did and what God did through her preserving the people and so we see that Zerubbabel has gone back with a remnant of people and he began building the temple and in the meantime too God is preserving his people in Persia.

Ezra’s Reforms and Nehemiah’s Wall

But now in chapter seven of Ezra it's time for Ezra to make his journey to Jerusalem. It's about 457 BC in the reign of Artaxerxes who was Esther's stepson probably around 60 years since the temple's been completed maybe 80 years since the Jews initially came back under Zerubbabel.

Ezra was a priest and he wanted to go teach the law of God to Judah he wanted to beautify the temple and he and he hoped to restore the temple worship. Well when he got there in Ezra chapters 9 and 10 the first thing he found was that people were back in the mixed marriages and he was just sick over this and the rulers of the people had intermarried freely with all the idolatrous neighbors.

God had told him again and again and they'd just gotten out of Babylon with the same kind of thing and so Esther made all the people and the leaders come together and they had to make the commitment to put away their wives their false and foreign wives which they did and though it might seem a little bit severe it was necessary and God used it it was effective to begin to purify the people and so Ezra was bringing in these reforms.

Well soon Nehemiah is going to make his journey to Jerusalem. Nehemiah was the cupbearer to the king and he spent about four months in prayer before he made his request to the king in order to go back because he had it on his heart to go back and rebuild the wall of Jerusalem and fortify the city and this king Artaxerxes as we said was Esther's stepson so no doubt she had some influence there and he set in there a gate permission for Nehemiah to go and so Nehemiah went back and we read that he repaired like the stairs that go down you know from the city of David in chapter 3 and verse 15 he repaired the bend in the wall that's been found verse 25 the tower that stands out in verse 26 and all of these have been found and are clearly detected today.

And so Ezra went back and he rebuilt the wall and fortified the city by assigning families to it and the families came together and took portions of the wall and they all worked together and they rebuilt it.

And then he instituted the public reading of the book of the law and for seven days every day from early morning till midday they would open the book of the law and they'd read the law of God and it says Ezra would give the sense so that people could understand the reading the book of the law and they could keep the covenant of the law.

And that's really neat because so many times all we really need is to turn the word of God loose and God will do the work. And today just simple expository preaching of the word of God will change people's lives.

And so after they finished reading the law they re-entered and renewed the covenant with God and the city was complete dedicated. There's a temple and they cast lots to find out who could live in the city because only one-tenth of the population of people was able to live inside the city and the rest had to live outside of the city.

And they cast lots to see who would live inside of the city. And nehemiah was the governor there in judah for at least 12 years and josephus says that he lived you know to be a great age and he governed judah for the rest of his life.

Israel’s Survival Through Exile and Persecution

And so we see that God has once again preserved his people and brought them back to their land after the 70 years of captivity in babylon. They were in egypt if you remember around 1500 bc and it's amazing what they suffered and yet God led them out.

And then assyria destroyed the northern tribes and now babylon has taken southern tribe of judah into captivity for 70 years and yet they're led out and brought back into their land. And again during the roman times they were scattered.

And since ad 70 when jerusalem was burned and they said his blood come upon us and upon our children in matthew 27 25 then jerusalem has been trodden down until the times of the gentiles shall be completed.

But once again we see in in our day since 1948 they're being regathered back into the land. And so the continuance of the jewish people is a riddle of history. And in spite of numerous judgments and dispersions and persecutions they still exist.

And so there's that development of the people and the nation israel that mocks pretty much all explanation apart from God. God is working well now that the people are back in their land before the lord comes before the messiah is sent.

Persia, Greece, and the Political Background of the Messiah

It's about 4 30 bc and judea is a persian province. Persia has been a world power for about 100 years and it remains so for another 100 years and there's not too much going on. For the most part the persian rule was very tolerant of the jews.

And as we look at this development of history when we read in galatians about the messiah coming and the fullness of time God sent in his son then it involves the all-embracing history of mankind for whose salvation christ appeared.

And during this time when persia was in control the jewish people had a sacerdotal government under the rule of the high priest who were responsible to the satrap and so the high priest was pretty much political and became an ambition for power so much so that we read in history that john the son of judas the son of elijah because of his love for power killed his brother jesus not the jesus you're thinking of who was a favorite of one of the generals of our desert cities who was in command of the district.

And so because of this crime and it was committed right in the temple itself before the very altar. Then the wrath of the persian ruler swept over judea and so the persians occupied jerusalem. The temple was defiled the city was laid in waste and heavy fines were imposed on the people and a general persecution followed which lasted for many years.

Then as later on and many other persecutions followed the samaritans were always willing to obey whatever tyrant was in charge that day and they usually went free of any persecution. And that began to develop more animosity between the samaritans and the jews.

But up to this time the greatest powers of the world had always been in asia and in africa. But now you look toward the west and there's this rising power of greece and you have the greek period or the alexandrian period which was from 334 to 323 bc it covers the asiatic rule of alexander the great the great.

He go to daniel chapter 8. And he's now on the scene. And in the 12 years of his reign he completely revolutionized the world and as described he was swift as an eagle. When alexander was on his syrian campaign and being his policy he wouldn't leave any strongholds.

He reduced tire after a siege of about you know a couple of months and started demanding the surrender of jerusalem. But the jews wanted to remain loyal to persia. And so as alexander was approaching the city uh chadua the high priest with a train of priests in their official dresses and all went out to meet him and to ask for mercy.

Well alexander had a dream of this thing happening. And so because of that dream alexander spared the city and he gave a sacrifice to yahweh and had the prophecies of daniel concerning him read in his hearing and he showed the jews many favors.

From that day forward they became sort of his favorites and employed him in his army and he gave him equal rights with the greeks as first citizens of alexandria. And so you can see where the strong hellenistic spirit of the jews was created because of their relationship there with alexander.

But alexander died and when he's 33 years old he was struck down at babylon and pretty much turned everything into chaos. And he divided his empire under his generals ptolemy and lysimachus cassander and selenus and egypt fell to the share of ptolemy's soter and judea was part of it.

Well soter was succeeded by ptolemy philadelphus who was an enlightened ruler famous through the erection of the lighthouse and known for founding the alexandrian library and he was very friendly to the jews.

Well in his reign the greek translation of the old testament scriptures we know as the lxx or the septuagint was made. And palestine though increasingly became the battleground between the ptolemies. And during this time there was a very decisive battle between ptolemy philopator and antiochus the great at fratia near gaza.

The antiochus was crushed and during philopator's reign in judea they remain in egyptian province. And yet at the same time this battle was a turning point of the history of the jews in their relationship to egypt because ptolemy came in drunk because of the victory and when he got to jerusalem he tried to go and enter the holy of holies in the temple and they wouldn't let him do it and so he retreated.

And when he came back he just took his vengeance out on the jews for opposing his plan and began a cruel persecution of them. And he was succeeded later by his son ptolemy epiphanes who was just a kid five years old.

And so the vengeance of antiochus began to take on the form of an invasion of egypt. And then judea became occupied by the syrians. And you have a syrian period from 204 to 165 bc which was like the valley of the shadow of death for israel and it was almost an uninterrupted time of martyrdom.

Antiochus was succeeded by seleucus philopator who was very cruel. And everything changed when antiochus epiphanes came to the throne and reigned from 175 to 164 and he's been called the nero of jewish history.

He totally defiled the temple and brought in the terrible persecution. Thousands were slain women and children were sold into captivity. The city wall was torn down all the sacrifices ceased. And then the temple on the altar burnt off and he erected a statue to jupiter olympus.

Uh circumcision was forbidden. All the people of israel were forced into paganism. And once again during this time the samaritans went right along with the syrians. But there was a priestly family dwelling at madden which is west of jerusalem named hasmonean after one of their ancestors and it was a family the head was matthias and his five sons.

They raised up a revolt. And so we have the beginning of the maccabean period from 165 to 163 bc. It began with the slaying of an idolatrous jew at the very altar and that was the signal of the revolt.

Well judas maccabeus was used to guerrilla tactics and he was the leader of the jewish patriots. Uh antiochus launched three syrian campaigns against him to stop the rebellion but they just couldn't do it because he was so swift and uh using the guerrilla tactics that he knew they weren't able to do it.

The king finally died of a disease and a peace was reached there with the jews but they're still under syrian control and judas became governor of palestine. And his first act was the purification and rededication of the temple from which the jews date their festival of purification.

Well when the syrians renewed the war against them. Then judas applied for help from the romans which turned out later to sort of be a mistake in many ways. But the roman general pompey took the city and after a siege of three months he entered the holy of holies and estranged himself from every loyal jewish heart.

And so we see the beginning of the roman period which was from 63 bc down to about 4 bc and judea became now a roman province and rome exacted annual tributes from the jewish people. And in the war between pompey and caesar judea was temporarily forgotten.

But after caesar's death then anthony who favored herod the great secured for him the crown of judea and enabled him to completely extinguish the old maccabean line of judean princes. And so herod the great began to be in charge of the area of judea and was so at the time of the and he's the one that was so cruel and had the children two years old and under the boys the males killed.

Jewish Literature and Spiritual Conditions Before Christ

And so before we look at the gospels let's look also at the internal developments that took place within israel at this time. They continued their literary activity even though the voice of prophecy was hushed.

During this period they had many writings which they produced though they lacked the authority of the canon. The apocrypha was produced. The 14 books of the apocrypha and they're very important for an understanding of the jewish problem during these times.

There was the pseudo pygrapha which contained things like the psalter of solomon a collection of songs for worship. There was the book of enoch that's referred to in jude chapter 1 and verse 14. The septuagint version of the septuagint was of great missionary value and contributed perhaps more than anything else to prepare the world for the fullness of time because everyone would be able to read the old testament scriptures in the greek language.

The spiritual conditions at that time having returned from babylon that was a turning point in their spiritual history because the lust of idolatry had pretty much disappeared. In the place of it came an intolerable spirit of exclusiveness and a striving for legal holiness which was the heart of phariseeism which in some ways is just another form of idolatry.

The law became an object of almost idolatrous reverence but the spirit was utterly lost in the form and so hebrew gradually gave way to the common language of aramaic. The rabbis and their schools strove ever more earnestly to keep the ancient tongue pure.

So worship in life had to have separate language and so the jews became bilingual. The hebrew language was used in their synagogues but the aramaic used in their daily life until later. Also the greek was used because it was the lingua franca of the period and the simple laws of god were being replaced by cumbersome human inventions that crushed down all the liberty that we would have in christ.

And we need to remember that for every jew that came back to the old national home there were a thousand that never came back that remained in other lands but they were just preparation for worldwide missions and helped to promote the knowledge of the true god and their synagogues helped to spread christianity when it finally appeared.

Pharisees, Sadducees, and the Preparation of the World

Well there were also political parties developing within the jews themselves. There was the true hellenistic party which hated all the true blooded jews. And then there was the jewish patriots the party of the pharisees and they were opposed to the more secular minded party of the sadducees who were wealthy and had fine social standing and they were wholly free from the restraints of traditions oblivious to the future life and sort of akin to the greek epicureans.

And so these parties bitterly opposed each other till the very end of the national existence of the jews in palestine. And they continued to fight for the mastery through means of the high priestly office.

It was only for a short time that they found unity and that was centered around their hatred for christ while he was walking among them. And so throughout this period you can see god was working. The scriptures were translated into greek.

After the conquest of alexander the great became the common language in the east. The world was being prepared for the word of god. The septuagint was a great movement forward and a fulfillment of the abrahamic promise as well.

In genesis chapter 12 they were meeting in synagogues all over and they became military you know or missionary would say institutions. And though when the messiah came israel didn't recognize him as such they had helped prepare the way for others to come to know christ.

And so we have world centralization because rome ruled what was there and we have a cultural oneness. Now because the roman empire combined the best of the cultures into one we have a world trade and communication system with the greek language there and with the that could be easily traveled.

We had the pox romana the world peace and an army that helped to ensure peace. And the world was degenerating during this time as well. There were two thousand lords in rome and those two thousand had one million three hundred thousand slaves and there were a total of six million slaves throughout the roman empire.

Marriage and family life and chastity was falling apart. There was also a mingling of world religions together. And so this is some of the background that fits into the picture of galatians 4 4 and 5 when it says.

But when the time had fully come god sent forth his son born of a woman born under the law to redeem those who are under the law so that they might receive adoption as sons. And now we hear the voice of a forerunner prepare ye the way of the lord make straight in the desert god.

It's one like elijah one that isaiah 40 verse 3 speaks of. And mark 1 2 introduces us to john the baptist making ready and preparing as a forerunner the coming of the messiah. And i'm sure john's message was as startling as his appearance as he asked the people to repent and to prepare the way of the lord.

For it was a baptism of repentance that he was preaching. I think if i would have picked one to herald my son who was the very son of god coming into the world i would have chosen someone maybe with a more noble birth or a university trained man with an eloquent vocabulary.

And yet god often picks those who we would not select. He picks the foolish to confound the wise the weak to confound the mighty. And so here's john crying prepare the way of the lord. As we look at matthew chapter 1 and verse 1 it is called the book of the generation of jesus christ the son of david the son of abraham.

The Four Gospels’ Portraits of Christ

And so right over the front door god's hung the key to the entrance of this gospel that it is the royal position of the son of david the one who had been determined from the time of abraham because the king is not chosen by popular ballot but by birth.

And then when you turn to mark you immediately notice as mark starts off there is no genealogy at all because mark is going to portray christ as a servant. No one's interested in the pedigree of a servant.

And you look at the front door of luke and there is a genealogy in luke 3 23 but it traces christ line all the way back not to abraham or to david but to adam because he is being presented as the ideal man the one from the line of adam.

And then in john you see there's no genealogy either because it begins within the beginning was the word and the word was with god and the word was god. And so christ is portrayed as god in john. And so when you go through the gospels you get to the end of them and you can see how they close.

You see a key at the back door as well in matthew 28 verses 18 through 20 this royal king who was born of royal birth the son of david is commissioning his disciples that they are to go out with all power that's been given unto the son of david all power in heaven and in earth.

And they're to go teach all nations to observe the things that he's commanded and he'll be with them to the end. And then as mark closes out that great servant we see that in mark 16 20 they went forth and preached everywhere the working with them.

And so christ is pictured as a servant who's still laboring among his disciples. And so he is today we are workers together with him. First corinthians 3 9 says. And he is still working with us. And therefore we're steadfast unmovable always abounding in the work of the lord for as much as we know that our labor is not in vain in the lord.

And then we look at the back door of luke who was presented in his genealogy at the beginning as one traced back to adam the ideal man. And luke has this man jesus christ the perfect man ascending up into heaven unto the father so that he was parted from them and carried out of their sight into heaven.

And we're left with that thought of a perfect man in heaven. And then when we get to the back door of john who is portraying jesus christ as the word the living word that was made flesh that he was very god and the signs that were chosen were chosen to show that he was god.

But for a purpose because over and over john uses the word believe. And it's john's intention to bring men to faith in the son of god so that they might inherit eternal life. And so john closes with uh there are also many other things which jesus did the which if they should be written everyone then i suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written um the tremendous testimonies about this very son of god to increase our faith truly as john said in chapter 7 46 never man spake like this man for he was the very son of god.