The exile was a terrible shock to the Judeans. Many Judeans were killed, and many more were probably injured. To make matters worse, the people of Israel - really, what remained of them after the Assyrian wars - had now lost their home. They had already lost the northern territories of the Promised Land to Assyria; now they lost the southern territories, including Jerusalem, which housed the Temple, to Babylon. When God made the covenant with Israel at Sinai, God warned - and the people of Israel accepted - that He would continue to bless Israel if they remained faithful to the covenant, but that He would visit terrible punishment upon Israel and exile them if they failed to obey the covenant. Well, you know how the story goes. The Israelites, being sinners like the rest of us, failed to obey the covenant, and God used the Assyrians and the Babylonians to punish Israel and Judah.
Most of the Old Testament prophets, beginning with Hosea and Amos and ending with Malachi, are concerned with these events. In particular, many of the Old Testament prophets are concerned with the events of the Babylonian exile. The prophets who prophesied before the Babylonian exile reminded the people of Israel of the covenant blessings and curses. That is, they reminded the people of Israel that God would severely punish them if they continued to disobey the covenant, but that God would forgive them and take them back if only they would repent and change their ways. Here the emphasis was on God's wrath and justice. Once the Babylonian exile was complete, and the land lost, the prophets began to proclaim the liberation of God's people. The message was one of great hope: God promised to free the people of Israel from captivity, to restore them to the land, and to rebuild the Temple. Here the emphasis was on God's forgiveness and mercy. And, of course, God was faithful to His promises: about seventy years into the exile, the Persians conquered Babylon and sent the captive people of Israel back to Jerusalem to rebuild the Temple.
Many of the prophetic passages that carry this promise of restoration are quite beautiful. Perhaps my favorite is Zephaniah 3:14-20, which reads as follows:
Shout for joy, Fair Zion,Zechariah 8:4-8 contains a promise of restoration that is also quite beautiful:
Cry aloud, O Israel!
Rejoice and be glad with all your heart,
Fair Jerusalem!
The LORD has annulled the judgment against you,
He has swept away your foes.
Israel's Sovereign the LORD is within you;
You need fear misfortune no more.
In that day,
This shall be said to Jerusalem:
Have no fear, O Zion;
Let not your hands droop!
Your God the LORD is in your midst,
A warrior who brings triumph.
He will rejoice over you and be glad,
He will shout over you with jubilation.
He will soothe with His love
Those long disconsolate.
I will take away from you the woe
Over which you endured mockery.
At that time I will make [an end]
Of all who afflicted you.
And I will rescue the lame [sheep]
And gather the strayed;
And I will exchange their disgrace
For fame and renown in all the earth.
At that time I will gather you,
And at [that] time I will bring you [home];
For I will make you renowned and famous
Among all the people on earth,
When I restore your fortunes
Before their very eyes ¾said the Lord.
Thus said the LORD of Hosts: There shall yet be old men and women in the squares of Jerusalem, each with staff in hand because of their great age. And the squares of the city shall be crowned with boys and girls playing in the squares. Thus said the LORD of Hosts: Though it will seem impossible to the remnant of this people in those days, shall it also be impossible to Me?¾declares the LORD of Hosts. Thus said the LORD of Hosts: I will rescue My people from the lands of the east and from the lands of the west, and I will bring them home to dwell in Jerusalem. They shall be My people, and I will be their God¾in truth and sincerity.Whenever I read this passage, I am moved by God's compassion and warmth. It is deeply touching that God - who made the heavens and the earth - should not only love us, but that He should take delight in the gathering of the elderly and the playing of children.
Perhaps the most famous promises of restoration are found in the book of Jeremiah, who prophesied both before and after the fateful years of 597-586. Jeremiah didn't live to see the end of the exile, but he did prophesy about it, and his book contains some beautiful promises of restoration. Here is a passage from Jeremiah 30-31, which is often called "the Book of Consolation":
For the LORD will ransom Jacob,So, why does God agree to rescue the people of Israel from exile? The Bible mentions several reasons. First, some books mention God's wish to uphold the honor of His name as a reason for ending the exile and restoring the people of Israel to their land. Here the idea seems to be that if the people of Israel were permanently defeated by a foreign power, then the surrounding nations would think that YHWH was incapable of rescuing His people. So, for the sake of His own name, God saves Israel. (See, e.g., Ezekiel 36:16-23 and passages from the Torah like Exodus 9:16 and Numbers 14:11-20.) Second, some books mention God's promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as a reason for ending the exile and restoring His people to the land. And third, some books emphasize God's love for Israel as a reason for His saving action. Of course, there is nothing incompatible in the idea that God acted on all three of these reasons, and a number of passages from Scripture mention two or more of these reasons, such as this passage from Micah:
Redeem him from one too strong for him.
They shall come and shout on the heights of Zion,
Radiant over the bounty of the LORD¾
Over new grain and wine and oil,
And over sheep and cattle.
They shall fare like a watered garden,
They shall never languish again.
Then shall maidens dance gaily,
Young men and old alike.
I will turn their mourning to joy,
I will comfort them and cheer them in their grief.
I will give the priests their fill of fatness,
And My people shall enjoy My full bounty¾declares the LORD. (31:11-14)
Who is a God like You,This passage clearly states that God has sworn to rescue Israel both on account of His promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and also because of His love for Israel. (We should remember here that the Bible reminds us over and over again that God was motivated by love when He called Abraham in the first place. See, e.g., Deuteronomy 7:7-8.) And what a stirring passage it is!
Forgiving iniquity
And remitting transgression;
Who has not maintained His wrath forever
Against the remnant of His own people,
Because He loves graciousness!
He will take us back in love;
He will cover up our iniquities,
You will hurl all our sins
Into the depths of the sea.
You will keep faith with Jacob,
Loyalty to Abraham,
As You promised on oath to our fathers
In days gone by. (Micah 7:18-20)
I want to consider two passages that contain promises of restoration and in which it is God's love - and God's love alone - that is mentioned as a reason for the promise. First, I want to take a look at Hosea 14:5-8:
I will heal their affliction,This passage is concerned with the restoration of the northern kingdom of Israel, but I think that it can also be applied to the exiled Judeans in Babylon.
Generously will I take them back in love;
For My anger has turned away from them.
I will be to Israel like dew;
He shall blossom like the lily,
He shall strike root like a Lebanon tree.
His boughs shall spread out far,
His beauty shall be like the olive tree's,
His fragrance like that of Lebanon.
They who sit in his shade shall be revived:
They shall bring to life new grain,
They shall blossom like the vine;
His scent shall be like the wine of Lebanon.
Second, I want to take a look at Isaiah 49:14-16:
Zion says,I think that this may be the most beautiful passage in the Old Testament, if not the whole Bible. God is holy and good, but we are wretched sinners. Yet God loves us anyway; and, in fact, He loves us so much that we are engraved on the palms of His hands, and our walls are ever before Him. In other words, God doesn't just love us - He understands His life to be inseparably bound with ours. We are a central, perpetual concern to the living God, the creator of heaven and earth. And, as Paul says movingly in Romans 8:38-39, nothing can ever separate us from the love of God. Nothing. In Isaiah 49:14-16, God expresses this fact in the most intimate terms possible. He doesn't declare our importance to Him in plain descriptive language. Instead, He uses the image of having engraved us into His palms and of having our walls always before Him. The reference to "our walls" is a little unclear, but it probably refers to our protection, and so to our security and peace. (Remember, the Babylonians tore down the walls of Jerusalem after they captured the city, and much of the book of Nehemiah is concerned with rebuilding these walls.) I am reluctant to say anything more about this passage for fear that I will spoil its power through overexplaining it. What a profound revelation this is.
"The LORD has forsaken me."
Can a woman forget her baby,
Or disown the child of her womb?
Though she might forget,
I never could forget you.
See, I have engraved you
On the palms of My hands,
Your walls are ever before Me.
In the New Testament, we learn that Christ became human to rescue sinners, and that He did so for a number of reasons, including love. In the Old Testament, we learn that God rescued Israel from exile, and that He did so for a number of reasons, including love. And, of course, we may want to draw a number of connections between Israel's exile and restoration on the one hand and the coming of Christ on the other. The point that I want to make is this. The New Testament contains many passages in which God declares His love for His people in moving terms; and, perhaps no words of human language can fully capture the love that Christ showed for us through His Incarnation and Passion. But we shouldn't forget God's declarations of love for Israel in the Old Testament, and we shouldn't forget the faithfulness that God showed when He ended the exile and restored the people of Israel to the land. Christ has come, but we will continue to suffer in exile until He comes again. And, though we can find many words of consolation in the New Testament as we await the return of our Lord and King, we can also find beautiful declarations of God's love, as well as powerful reminders of His faithfulness, in the books of Scripture that we call "the Old Testament".
You know what is interesting to me, and it hit me again as I was reading your post, is how the years are marked going forwards after Jesus birth and backward before Jesus birth. God of course had a hand in time being marked this way. It is always difficult for me to follow the years in B.C. for some reason, I really struggle to follow B.C. time references.
ReplyDeleteWe have the Old Testament and New Testament also marked by the same time juncture of Jesus' birth.
It is as if (and this is also hinted at in the book of Hebrews) that they complement each other, two halves of the whole, sort of...the OT is the NT concealed, the NT is the OT revealed (is how I've heard it said), that the New Testament explains the Old Testament, and the Old Testament prepares the way for the New Testament.
About Israel and God...I know that God blesses those who support and are friends of Israel, but Jesus said to do that with our prayers, to pray for the peace of Jerusalem, and to share the gospel (good news about Jesus) with Israel. It says nothing about supplying them with bombs and aircraft carriers, etc, which is how it gets interpreted these days.
Anyway, some of the jumbled thoughts your post brought to mind. :)
I have been thinking about this, too. In my dispensational studies it was taught that God would regather Israel and the temple would be rebuilt, sacrifices, etc...you know.
DeleteJesus said He fulfilled the Law.
The writer of Hebrews said is was vanishing away.
Maybe we have to look at this a different way.
What do you think about eschatology Leslie?
Susan,
DeleteAlthough I think that it is important to read the Old Testament on its own terms (i.e., as ancient Israelites would have read it), I also think that both the narrative arc of the Old Testament and many narrative details of the Old Testament do point to Jesus. In particular, I think that the narrative arc of the Old Testament both demonstrates (through humanity's sinfulness) and declares (through prophecy) the need for the redemptive act of the cross. I am also inclined to accept the idea of Catholics and Protestants alike that many figures in the Old Testament foreshadow or prefigure Christ, so that, for example, Moses, Joshua, and David are types of Christ. I definitely think that Jesus is the fulfillment of the Old Testament, as He (and Paul and other NT writers) make clear. And, as Paul makes clear, I believe that Christians are part of Israel - not ethnic Israel perhaps, but that Christians are at least part of the people of God. I say "at least part of" because Paul suggests in Romans 11 that God has a special plan for Jews who have not yet accepted Christ. I don't understand much of Romans 11, but it is a fascinating text. At any rate, I think that the Old and New Testaments are inseparable from one another, and that neither can stand without the other.
Ma,
DeleteYour comments touch on some very difficult issues. There are numerous prophecies in the Old Testament that suggest that Davidic kings will permanently rule from Jerusalem and that God will bless His people with a Temple that will abide for all eternity. The first of these prophecies don't seem to cause much trouble for Christians, but the second prophecies occasionally do. I expect that you are already familiar with these issues, but I'll go ahead and discuss them anyways.
The rule of the house of David effectively ended with the exile, and this may seem to contradict the prophecies in the Old Testament that promise that Davidic kings will permanently rule from Jerusalem. However, Christians have traditionally understood that the prophecies about the house of David were - and continue to be - fulfilled by Jesus. I think that this view of the prophecies is right, and that it is supported by the New Testament. I would also add that even Jews do not understand the prophecies about the house of David to mean that at every single moment in history there will be a Davidic king who rules from Jerusalem - rather, they understand the prophecies to mean that God will restore the house of David at some future time, and that once the house of David is restored it will never cease to rule over God's kingdom. I think that this Jewish understanding of the prophecies is compatible with - and even undergirds - the Christian understanding, though of course Christians would want to put out that the Davidic king is Christ, and that He has already inaugurated the kingdom of God.
Con't,
DeleteThe Old Testament prophecies about the Temple are trickier. Many Christians, citing the gospels, 1 Peter, Hebrews, and other NT texts, take these prophecies to be fulfilled by Jesus. And, I think that the prophecies about the Temple were fulfilled by Jesus in at least one important sense. But were they completely fulfilled by Jesus? I don't know much about dispensationalism, but my impression is that dispensationalists believe that at least some of the Old Testament prophecies about the Temple, such as those found in the last chapters of Ezekiel and the book of Malachi, were not fulfilled by Jesus, and that they will be fulfilled in the future. As I understand it, they take this view of the prophecies because they read the prophecies to be concerned with a concrete, physical Temple that will exist for all eternity, and that this eternal Temple cannot be identified with the second Temple, as the second Temple was destroyed by the Romans in AD 70 and still lies in ruins. So, the question is whether the prophecies about the eternal Temple in Old Testament prophets like Ezekiel and Malachi are concerned with a concrete, physical Temple, or whether they should be interpreted symbolically or spiritually. If they should be interpreted symbolically or spiritually, then one can certainly say that they have been completely fulfilled by Jesus. If one says that they must be interpreted concretely and physically, then one cannot say this. To be honest, I interpret the prophecies about the Temple in both ways. I think that the prophecies can and should be understood in a symbolic or spiritual way, and that when they are understood this way, they have been fulfilled by Jesus. However, I also believe that the Old Testament prophets - and the ancient Israelites to whom they prophesied - understood these prophecies at least partly in a concrete, physical way. If this is right, then, since the eternal Temple clearly does not exist yet, one must either say that the prophecies about the Temple will be fulfilled in the future, or one must say that they will never be fulfilled. To be honest, I take the latter view. In other words, I think that the prophecies about the eternal Temple in the Old Testament were partly mistaken, and that there is a sense in which they will never - and can never - be fulfilled. (If Ezekiel were told that the Romans destroyed the second Temple, I think that even he would agree that his prophecies about the eternal Temple were mistaken in at least one important respect. I think that he understood the eternal Temple to be the second Temple that was built at the end of the Babylonian exile, which was destroyed by the Romans, and not another, third Temple that would be built after the second Temple.) This is one reason why I am not an inerrantist. On the other hand, I believe that Jesus has fulfilled the prophecies is another sense, a spiritual sense. Although I think that some of the Old Testament prophecies about the Temple did not - and will not - come true, I don't lose any sleep about this, and I certainly don't think that it calls anything of importance into question.
Con't
DeleteI find eschatology to be an intriguing subject, but I also find it very difficult, and I don't have many opinions about it. However, I will say that the thing that intrigues me most about the end times is how exactly God will cause love to dwell in our hearts so that we are obedient by nature. We are justified by faith alone through grace alone. This means that we can't merit our salvation; and, of course, we remain sinners even after we have come to Christ. But sin is still bad, and God still despises it. Jeremiah and Ezekiel prophecy that God will remove our disobedience and give us hearts of flesh. I take it that they mean by this that when all is fulfilled, we will cease to sin, or at least that our disobedience will cease in some important sense. And, in fact, I think that the entire Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, promises that God will reverse the effects of the Fall and repair the damage to our relationship with God that was caused by sin. In other words, when all is fulfilled, we won't sin, or at least we won't be disobedient in a significant way. However, here on earth, we all still sin, and we are all still seriously disobedient. So, how will God remove our sinfulness and disobedience from us? The question isn't how God will forgive us - He has already done that in Christ - but how God will remove our disposition to sin and disobedience so that we can live with God in love and obedience as He always intended. I am confident that God will do this, but I have no idea how. That, to me, is the most interesting question about the time of fulfillment.
I can't believe I wrote so much. I apologize to anyone who read all of my comments here. :(
You bring up lots of interesting and thought provoking things, Leslie, but I'll just touch on 2.
Delete1. About the temple.........literal?..........figurative?
I went through a study quite a while back that looked at the temple in the OT and compared what was known and said about it in scripture with what is known and said about our heart, mind, and soul. It was a very good study. Many verses that mention our heart dovetailed with areas in the temple and what the Bible said about that. I'll see if I can locate it online. It was given by Nancy Missler, Chuck Missler's wife.
2. Eschatology IS a very tough subject. Just because we don't have all of the answers doesn't mean there are errors in the Bible. I do agree there are spelling errors (or variety?) but I have a feeling that many things the "scholars" and "experts" see as errors are their own error of an inability to look at the issue they are having a problem with correctly. The easy way out is to say the problem is with the text. It is much more difficult to realize the problem is with the "expert" ;-) A friend at work has to laugh when I come to him with my computer problems. He always says "the problem isn't with the computer, the problem is a "picnic" error....hahaha!
This comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteI couldn't find Nancy's study online, but I blogged on my Bible Treasures blog what I DID find about it. I embedded a bunch of links there, much to consider, much reading so now I've got to get to it (reading the links, that is)...after I do some reading, I'll put a comment about it on that Bible Treasures posting, but it may take a few days...
Delete(Edited to close parentheses...I forget that a lot!)
If they should be interpreted symbolically or spiritually, then one can certainly say that they have been completely fulfilled by Jesus.
ReplyDeleteThis is an area that I am starting to lean toward- a spiritual fulfillment. This would have been unheard of for me just a couple of years ago, so it's weird:)
I think of how Paul and Peter and most importantly Jesus used symbolic language and now am having a hard time figuring out why so many of us who take the bible "literally" are missing that.
My brand of dispensationalsim would interpret Ezekiel's temple to be the temple that Jesus will rule from during the millennium (another big topic). Many in that camp would disregard Ezekiel's temple as the second one as it is not at all like that one and that there are so many specifics that it seems that it HAS to be literal...but I don't know now, there are animal sacrifices, priests, etc that we are told are no more in the new covenant.
Of course innerancy is just a given in the studies I have gone into and although I would very much like to believe that, it is not without it's problems.
I've made many a leap in the last couple of years with my eschatology from pretrib, premillenial, futurist, to I don't even know what now. I like what you say about God being interested in restoring what was lost in the fall.
I understand why people are inclined to interpret the prophecies about the Temple etc. in a literal way, and I myself am inclined to think that they should be understood literally at least in part. However, Jesus repeatedly stated - both explicitly and implicitly - that He is the fulfillment of the law and the prophets, which basically means that He is the fulfillment of everything that came before - of the whole Old Testament. Some of what Jesus began what be completely fulfilled until Jesus comes again in glory, but He is the fulfillment of everything. Thus, I think that in at least some sense, Jesus Himself is telling us that He fulfills the prophecies about David, the Temple, eternal rest, etc.
DeleteThere is another point that is worth making. When reading the historical and prophetic books Old Testament, one sees a common theme running from Genesis through 2 Chronicles and Malachi. The theme is this: God wanted to grant His people peace and rest, and to dwell with them in love, from the very beginning; but, humans are sinners, and it is very, very hard to make people obedient. God performed countless miracles in front of Israel, defeated their enemies countless times, finally allowed them to be exiled, then brought them back from exile, and guess what - they were still obedient. And so are Christians today - to borrow Luther's phrase, we are simultaneously sinners and justified. Again, this all raises the question - how is God every going to manage to make us obedient? I think that the Old Testament suggests that it is going to take something far more than living on good land, with a Davidic king, and a thriving Temple. It is going to take something new and unprecedented. That's Jesus. But then, once we have Jesus, why should we need to have a merely human Davidic king or a thriving Temple? And, as Hebrews points out, the Temple is really superfluous after Jesus's first coming, not to mention His second. At any rate, the idea that I am trying to get at is that the Old Testament itself suggests that a merely human Davidic king and a Temple are powerless to provide any real, lasting prosperity for the people of God. And, I think that this may well point to a spiritual or symbolic (non-literal) understanding of the Old Testament prophecies about the Davidic king and the Temple.
By the way, I don't even know what the terms pretrib, premillenial, and futurist mean. I think it would be great if you would write a post about these terms and your own study of eschatology. I would be interested to read what you, Susan, and others have to say about the topic.
Praise God for His Grace!
ReplyDelete