In the chapter on Abraham and Moses, we looked at the first 2 stages of redemption, which were:
- Stage One (Abraham): God makes and blesses a new nation for the purpose of blessing all nations.
- Stage Two (Moses): God forms this nation into a people for Himself and trains them to look like those who bear His image.
Although this transformation should have resulted in stability and in God's glory among the nations, what actually happened was a steady decline over the next 400 years.
Peter Enns goes through some of the story of those 400 years. For the purpose of this review, I'll summarize by saying that after the Exodus came the lengthy conquest of Canaan after which various dynamic warrior-type judges led and protected the people. (Although Canaan was a tiny piece of land, it was coveted by the nations around it because of its strategic location, thus causing Israel to be constantly under attack by their neighbors who wanted control of that area.)
Eventually the people of Israel demanded a king like the nations around them had; although this was contrary to God's desire for them, He agreed to their demands and gave them a king with the warning that there would be problems as a result of their wanting to be like other nations.
A king was anointed with oil; he was an "anointed one" which in Hebrew means Messiah. So it is appropriate to think of Israel's kings as messiahs, anointed by God to do His work. "To appreciate Jesus' messianic role, how impressive and amazing it is, we need to be familiar with what the concept meant in the Old Testament. There, the 'messianic hope' was not in a heavenly being coming down, but in Yahweh raising up a might warrior-king who would keep the Law and would rule and guide his people..." Saul was the first king and he turned out to be a failure as king. Then Samuel found David, an unassuming and weak young man, and anointed him to be Israel's king. We know the story of David; to get the complete picture of the "messianic ideal", David and his son Solomon need to be looked at side by side. Though neither was perfect, they were both good kings who loved God. However, the "messiahs" that follow them (with a couple of exceptions) were very bad kings, and as a result the kingdom of Israel split into two parts: the northern kingdom (sometimes called Ephraim or Israel) and the southern kingdom (called Judah).
The southern kingdom lasted longer but eventually in 586 BC its people were taken captive into exile by the Babylonians; in 538 BC when the Persians conquered the Babylonians, a small remnant of Israelites returned to their land and the temple was rebuilt under the leadership of Ezra and Nehemiah.
After the exile, the messianic hope sprung up again, the desire for a righteous king, and the books of 1 and 2 Chronicles are among the most "messianic" of all the Old Testament books. "Chronicles is very concerned to see a new king arise, one like David, who will lead the people well. This king, this messiah, will be faithful in leading the people in obedience to God, and he will also protect and expand Israel's borders. This is the Old Testament messianic hope."
When Jesus comes, He defied the expectations of the Old Testament hopes in the Messiah, while at the same time fulfilling them in highly unexpected ways - which explains why his own close followers couldn't understand His mission. "Jesus redefined the messianic role...As God's divine representative to all peoples, Jew and Gentile, Jesus does what no forerunner had been able to do - reverse the damage caused by the first human, the first representative of God on earth, the first image-bearer: Adam. The Davidic stage of redemption helps set the stage for Jesus and his fulfillment of this kingly/messianic role, centuries later..."
Next we'll cover chapter 9: "The Return from Babylon."
No comments:
Post a Comment