This is Faith to Witness 99, motivating us to hear God and share the Shepherd.  

Season 2 Episode 138  

THE BEAT | God Goes Before the Birth of His Son (between Malachi and Matthew)

Quick Take 

Hey human, join us to consider what happened 400 years before Jesus was born. How the Pharisees and Sadducees entered the scene. Who ruled the chosen nation, and what was trending culturally by the mighty hand of Alexander the Great, the good, the not-so, and what we take away from how God goes before us. All to hear the heartbeat of Jesus. E138 Thanks for listening.

Can you hear the heartbeat of Jesus?

I’m Kathryn Bise, your host.

It is hard for me to leave the Old Testament world. I completed my Old Testament trek on Easter Sunday, April 20. It took about 2.5 reading months. Spread over a little more time. I find myself mentally lingering, hesitating to move forward. I could live in this B.C. world. The music speaks to my heart. The power of God in a cloud, a fire, in the ark dwelling, speaks to my soul. His people teach me about boldness by his hand. His story speaks to the warrior spirit in me.

So, I have been paused on the intertestamental period of 400 years. I guess for more clarity, and to set the stage. Perhaps to prepare my heart. While many say God was silent, he was not. There were no prophets during this time, but God was working in the lives of his people and through conquering nations storming each other, but toward his purpose.

Between Malachi and Matthew… and Nehemiah and a Newborn

What happened between Malachi and Matthew, and Nehemiah and a newborn named Jesus? I have mentioned that during my Bible read thru I have also been reading Rediscovering Israel, by Kristi McLelland. She skillfully navigates these 400 years, tilling the ground of the Israeli world God would fulfill his final promise in, a promise to send the Messiah.

I am running through a few of her key insights today. I highly recommend you read her book for a deeper understanding of what she calls “the white page” that connects the Old Testament to the New Testament.  And this is just one chapter. The entire book is filled with insight about the history and culture of the Old Testament, New Testament and the power of God’s story throughout. She addresses so many questions I have had about God’s story.

McLelland says this about the voiceless 400 years: “The transition of power moves from the Babylonians to the Persians to the Greeks to the Hasmoneans to the Romans.

The Israeli people lived in captivity in Babylon for 70 years. In 539 BC Persia conquers the Babylonians. It is during this time (Ezra 1:1) that Cyrus, the Persian King rebuilds the temple in Jerusalem (remember Zerubbabel) followed by King Artaxerxes funding and supporting Nehemiah, his cupbearer to rebuild the Jerusalem wall. The Jews were under Persian rule when each of the three “remnants” return to Jerusalem in the Old Testament. God brings the remnant home to Jerusalem as the story approaches this period of prophetic silence.

In 331 BC the Greeks defeat the Persians, led by someone everyone knows, Alexander the Great. He was the consummate warrior with insane military prowess. And he was strategic and well-schooled in the desires of the human heart. He gave the people a culture to gather around, a universal language to own together, and a network of cities (poleis in Greek) that promoted education, individualism and health and competition. This culture was called Hellenism, and it was centered around, thrived on learning, debating, the arts, entertainment and competing.

Hellenism promoted man as a god, and that gods became like them. So, all the Greek statues celebrating the human body make sense, right? During this period, the image of gods evolved from ominous, threatening, wrathful creatures to the face of man. A strong man with athletic prowess. McLelland wisely notes that Hellenism was a passive entertainment culture versus an active Jewish culture that learned, embraced and celebrated God’s story. As McLelland points, Hellenism aligns with our Western culture far more than Jewish culture.

The Culture Jesus Was Born Into

So it makes sense that the Jews in Palestine resisted Hellenism, thus the formulation of the Pharisees (rabbis and teachers of the law, representing the working class, about 6,000 by the time of Jesus), Sadducees (representing elite aristocrats managing the Sanhedrin courts), and Essenes (religious purists); these three sects arose to battle the Hellenistic culture that had a serious stronghold on the world at that time. And on the outset, as Kristi notes, they fought the Hellenistic leadership with honor. In the temple of Jerusalem and as far as the desert in the caves of Qumran where the Essenes scribed the Dead Sea Scrolls.

Sound familiar? This is the religious order Jesus was born into. The way the Jewish faith was directed and managed at the Jerusalem temple and during his day, synagogues all across the land.

Although the Romans defeated the Hasmoneans (also known as the Maccabeans) they did not replace the Hellenistic culture. It was just too good being ruled by moral relativism and living by the flesh. So, it was called the Greco-Roman culture.

These are the cultural norms, religious sects and government leaders that evolved during this time, that Jesus speaks to during his earthly walk. This is the cultural world Jesus was born into, even though the Romans had taken over the government rule. I have addressed this before, but as reminder the Romans built more than 80,000 roads. A way to spread the gospel. The Romans were also living in the Golden Age, called the Pax Romana when they thrived economically, socially, in all ways, really.

It was during this time that Hanukkah comes into being to celebrate the victorious battle of the Hasmoneans over the oppressive Seleucids. A battle to defend their living God against the Hellenistic rule of moral relativism. I will return to this, and as suggested, experience this celebration with my own family and friends, as a way to celebrate God’s story in our lives, as the Jewish people celebrated his power in their lives. As Jesus celebrated it.

Same God.

Thank you, Kristi, for your powerful witness to our living God. Your perspective, the metaphorical “string of pearls” you bring together with such clarity, is so easy to take on my spiritual travels. Simplicity and truth travel well. Traveling light is so important for following Jesus. What a gift your work is.

Shedding light on the historical and cultural stage Biblically prevents us from going our own way on what God’s word means, keeps us aligned with how his people first received it. What this tells me in this: when God tells us in his Word that he always goes before us, we can envision the same preparation. Over a day, a week, years upon years.

• A common language that unites – he will give us the words to communicate.
• A leadership structure for sustaining his peace and protecting his honor – our high priest, Jesus Christ, and the followers he puts around us to show us the way.
• And an amazing spiritual road upon road upon road – always a paved way to keep us walking with him.

The Heart’s Intent

With this, I am ready.

I go into this reading of the life of Jesus looking for his heart in every situation. Why? Because I know that it is the deepest place he takes everyone he encounters. And because I know that the heart of Jesus lives in the center of my witness.

It seems everything is about the heart’s intent. Jesus said on a grassy hillside,

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.

Matthew 5:8

 

Of course, I begin with the tax collector, Matthew. His perspective, inspired by the Holy Spirit, as he walked with Jesus. Matthew writes to a Jewish audience. He is a Jew, who had been working for the Roman Empire, collecting taxes. His life straddled two worlds. But when Jesus made it his time to choose, he chose to follow. Although scholars debate which gospel was first, I start with Matthew because he writes to a Jewish audience, and references Old Testament prophecy, frames the life of Jesus as part of the chosen nation in God’s story. It makes leaving the Old Testament a little easier.

The Heartbeat of Jesus

The insights and spiritual growth from my read thru of the New Testament will take us to the end of Season 2, The Beat. Act as a prompt to share my life experiences, my witness, and nudge you, human, to act on what the Son of God tells us in his earthly years, numbered at 33. And what Paul and others tell us about that walk, how the early church survived through the heavenly heartbeat of a resurrected Savior. And what having a high priest to serve us at the right hand of God means.

And finally, how it will all mark, not the end, but the beginning of a new heaven and a new earth.

Why not read along with me, human? Shall we seek a pure heart?  Do we want to see God?

Imagine looking for, listening for, and hearing the heartbeat of Jesus when he walked on the same earth we are walking on?

His heartbeat is for every single soul he created.

Acts 15:8-9

8 God, who knows the heart, showed that he accepted them by giving the Holy Spirit to them, just as he did to us. 9 He did not discriminate between us and them, for he purified their hearts by faith.

Let’s hear his heartbeat and witness his walk together.