Advent of Peace. (Intertestamental time)

Peace

Good Morning everyone. Today we are going to be having a slightly different type of sermon. Here at Upper Room Bible church we spend most of the time expounding on the word of God. take last week as an example when Matt Expounded on Ephesians and showed us that because Christ has come we can have spiritual Life, that Christ has taking us from spiritual death to spirtual life and we can live in newness of that life. The advent candle that was lit last week is the the candle of Hope that Christ brings us Hope. Today the candle will be of Peace, our focus will be that Jesus frees us from the oppression of sin. This also includes being freed from the Tyranny that sin brings socially.

So today instead of Expounding on a particular passage, we are going to be looking at some biblical history to help us understand the Tyranny that the people of Israel were under when there Messiah Jesus was born.

in order to do that we have to look at the time in between the two major parts of scripture. Or what some call the 400 years of silince. Although this time was anything but silent. So bare with me as this is going to be a journey through History.

Before we get into that history lets take a moment to discuss the candle that was Lit. This candle is the candle of peace it reminds us how Jesus is the prince of Peace but what does that really mean.

The verse that the phrase Prince of Peace comes from is found in the amazing book of Isaiah and its going to be found in chapter 9 verse 6. We find this passage in the middle of what scholars would call the book of Immanuel, this is found within the book of Isaiah, The book of Immanuel is chapters 7-12. for of these 5 chapters they all speak of Immanuel (Immanuel by the way is the Hebrew word for God with us and it refers to the Messiah). in chapter 7 Immanuel is viewed as going to be born, in chapter 8 he is viewed prophetically as having been born. in chapter 9 it speaks of the glory of Immanuel, in chapter 10 it talks of the evil that will arise while they wait for Immanuel and chapter 11 talks of the reign of Immanuel and the book of Immanuel ends in a beautiful way in chapter 12 with a hymn of praise to the Messiah The Holy one of Israel.

Lets reread that verse found in Isaiah 9:6-7

Isaiah 9:6–7

6 For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us;

And the government will rest on His shoulders;

And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,

Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.

7 There will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace,

On the throne of David and over his kingdom,

To establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness

From then on and forevermore.

The zeal of the LORD of hosts will accomplish this.

We are going to zoom in on that one phrase right at the end of verse 6. Prince of Peace,

the English definition for peace is freedom from disturbance.

In Hebrew its the word Sar-Shalom. This is one of 4 names giving in this passage and all four of these names refer to the Messiah, The one Isaiah was prophesying about is the prince of Shalom.

This word Shalom is almost always translated as peace, it is sometimes translated as well, safe, favorable but over 80% of the time it is the word peace.

the Hebrew word Shalom though is a little bit more than the English word for peace. The word Shalom conveys the idea of safety, to have success to gain deliverance. satisfaction, contentment, The word carries the idea of not only peace as in having your needs met but the state being completely content.

Isaiah talks of the coming Messiah as the prince of peace, and at the time that Isaiah was written it was much needed. during that time a few things were going on. at the start of Isaiah’s prophetic ministry the Assyrian's were threatening to take over Israel, The Assyrian's did end up taking over the northern tribs of Israel about 10 years after Isaiah started prophesying. Isaiah the prophet was safe from this conquest as he was in Jerusalem in Judah a city that the Assyrians were unable to defeat for God protected the city by killing the Assyrian army. while the Assyrians were able to destroy much of Judah, Judah was not completely destroyed or conquered by them and remained a Jewish nation ruled by the decedents of David.

About a hundred years After Isaiah died in the year of 587 a new empire had arising and had conquered the Assyrians empire and that was the Babylonians. the Babylonians were able to destroy Jerusalem, the temple and completely take over Judah. They took the people of Judah and brought them into captivity (They took them from Judah and brought them to Babylon).

So The People of Judah and Israel are now in captivity in Babylon were they will stay for 70 years. at the end of 70 years a new power arose and defeated the Babylonians. that is the Medes and Persians and they allow the Israelites to go back to Israel and rebuild the temple and fortify there city's. which they do under the leadership of Ezra and Nehemiah. This all happened around 400bc

and that is were the old testament closes, the New testament opens up 400 years later. and when we open the New testament we no longer have the Medes and persions being mentioned. instead the empire in power is Rome. but how did we get from the persions to the romans. Why did the prince of Peace not come when Isaiah prophesied about Him, Why did he come during the times of the romans. why would this prince come than. after all it seemed pretty peacefull under roman rule when we read the gospels.

well much could be said about how peaceful it really was under Rome. what i would like to do is look at is 3 key areas were there was not peace. these three areas are going to be

1- A corrupt priesthood

2- A corrupt King

3- A corrupt religion

lets look at 3 areas. by doing this, it is going to help us understand what happened between the Hebrew scriptures and the new testament. this will help us see it as one big book instead of two half's.

A corrupt Priesthood.

To understand the corruption of the High priest at the time of Jesus, we are going to have to understand who are the high priest. to do this we must read the scriptures

Exodus 30:30

30 “You shall anoint Aaron and his sons, and consecrate them, that they may minister as priests to Me.

so We see that the priest hood goes from Aaron to his sons. but which son he had 4 and there is only 1 high priest? Lets look

In Numbers 25 7-13 it says that Phinehas who was the son of Eleazar who was one of Aarons son s Killed a man who had sinned in Israel. this caused the Lord to Bless Phinehas and say....

in verse 13

(Num 25:13) “and it shall be for him and his descendants after him, a covenant of a perpetual priesthood, because he was jealous for his God and made atonement for the sons of Israel.’ ”

When we open up 1 Samuel we see that this is already corrupted. as Eli is the High priest at that time. Eli is related to Ithamar who was a son of Aarons but he is not related to Eleazar. But in 1 Samuel 2 The two sons of Eli, are Hophini and Phinehas they sinned and God promised to remove the priesthood from Eli and his family forever. remember that.

Later in 2 Samuel 8:17 we see that Abiathar and Zadak are both serving as high priest. Abiathar is related to Eli and Zadok is not he related to Aaron Eleazar.

God had prophesied that The descendants of Eli would not be high priest.

And since Eli was not a decendent of Eleazar he should never have been High priest to begin with. But Zadak is. This makes Zadak the only Eligible priest for the role of High priest at that time.

Once Solomon became King He removed Abiathar has high priest and installed Zadak as the only high priest. This was a fulfillment of prophecy.

It says in

1 Kings 2:27 (NASB95)

So Solomon dismissed Abiathar from being priest to the Lord, in order to fulfill the word of the Lord, which He had spoken concerning the house of Eli in Shiloh.

Here this quote from Roger Libi In his book the Messiah in the Temple.

“Abiathar’s removal from the priesthood is a profound narrative of divine prophecy and consequence. After escaping the terrible slaughter at Nob by Saul and Doeg the Edomite, Abiathar fled to David and served as his personal priest and spiritual consultant. However, his story takes a dramatic turn at the end of David’s life when he chose to support Adonijah (Adoni Ja) instead of Solomon, whom David had selected as the next king. After Solomon solidified his throne, he removed Abiathar as priest and banished him to Anathoth, fulfilling a longstanding prophecy about his great-great-grandfather Eli, who had failed to restrain the wickedness of his sons”

So now Zadak and His descendants are the high priest, we see in Ezekiel that God confirms this and says only the Descendants of Zadok will be high priest.

Ezekiel Chapter 44

15 “But the Levitical priests, the sons of Zadok, who kept charge of My sanctuary when the sons of Israel went astray from Me, shall come near to Me to minister to Me; and they shall stand before Me to offer Me the fat and the blood,” declares the Lord GOD. 16 “They shall enter My sanctuary; they shall come near to My table to minister to Me and keep My charge.

When Israel went into captivity Jozadak was high priest. and when they returned his son Joshua was high priest you can read more about Him in zechariah chapter 3 .

So that’s good. the descendants of Zadok are high priest. and that's how the old testament closes, we have the correct high priest. But a sad turn of events will happen when we get to the new testament. And the need to be rescued from the corruption of the priesthood.

Before going into that lets look at the Kinship

2-A Curropt Kingship.

Again lets start with scripture

The King was to always come from the line of Judah that was first prophesized in Genesis

Genesis 49:10

10“The scepter shall not depart from Judah, Nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, Until Shiloh comes, And to him shall be the obedience of the peoples.

In 1 Samuel 16:13 we see Samuel anoints a descendent of Judah as the next King.

1 Samuel 16:13 (NASB95)

13Then Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the midst of his brothers; and the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon David from that day forward.

God would also make a covenant with David and confirm that a decendent of David would be on the thron in Israel.

Talking to David the prophet Nathan said this to Him.

2 Samuel 7:16 (NASB95)

16“Your house and your kingdom shall endure before Me forever; your throne shall be established forever.” ’ ”

And the decendents of David remain king in Judah all of the way to the Babylonian captivity. God preserved the Decendnents of David through the entire Old Testament In accordance to His word. Gods word is Trustworthy.

But we have a slight problem. See the prophet Jeremiah had said this concerning one of the descendents of David.

Jeremiah 22:28–30

28 “Is this man Coniah a despised, shattered jar?

Or is he an undesirable vessel?

Why have he and his descendants been hurled out

And cast into a land that they had not known?

29 “O land, land, land,

Hear the word of the Lord!

30 “Thus says the Lord,

‘Write this man down childless,

A man who will not prosper in his days;

For no man of his descendants will prosper

Sitting on the throne of David

Or ruling again in Judah.’ ” 1

Jeremiah prophesied that no descendant of Coniah will prosper. Remember that.

again in 587 The Babylonians destroyed Jerusalem and took the people captive for 70 years when they returned Zerubbabel was a leader of those returning.

He was a grandson of King Coniah a descendant of David, he was born in Babylon during the exile and returned to Judah after King Cyrus II permitted the Israelites captives to return and rebuild the temple. He had attained considerable status while in captivity and was recognized as a “prince of Judah,” He was appointed by the Persians as governor of Judah.

Here is the problem though Zerubbabel was a descendent of Coniah so that's no good since Coniah was cursed. And after the Old testament closes we don’t really know what happened to Zerubbabel or his children. We know they continued because he is mentioned in the genealogy of Jesus in Matthew, showing us that if Joseph was the father of Jesus, that would mean that Jesus has no claim to the throne since he is related to Coniah, This is why Luke's genealogy follows Marys ancestoriry showing us that She is not related to Coniah but another of David's dcendnents allowing Jesus to be hair to the throne. This is important because it shows us the importance of Mary being a virgin when she had Jesus.

That is the kingship now lets look at the religion.

lets look at our third point

3- a corrupt Religion.

The religion is often tied to the Leader and throughout most of the old testament that was the king, we see that when the king is good the people are also doing well but when the King is bad the people follow. The religion is also tied to the priesthood.

The religion that the Jewish people were to follow was not one that was created by man but was giving by God. He gave them the Law, we find the law in Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. This law is what the people were to follow and what they were to obey. It contained 613 commands. Sometimes you will hear of it broken down into the Moral law, the ceremonial law and the civl law. But the bible never ever gives it that distinction is always references the Law has a whole all 613 commands never broken into categories. We see throughout the old testament that the people did not obey the whole law at any point.

Once they came back from captivity Ezra and Nehemiah with zererabbel (The Govener of Judah) and Joshua (The high priest decendnent of Zadak) helped the people to read and obey the law, and it seems as though we have a revival of proper worship before God. But when we open the new testament we see that something has happened if the people were truly following the law that God had giving them. Jesus would not have been condemning them but praising them. So what happened?

To fully understand the great difference between the Old and New testament we need to understand what happened in between them. So lets spend a moment to see what happened. Remember we left off with a proper priesthood a proper king (kind of) and a proper religion as in a proper revival to obey the 613 commands as giving by God.

Here is a quick history, now for anyone who has done deeper studies into this time of what bible schoolers call the 400 years of silience even though it was anything but silent. you will find that I am only giving the highlights and because of that much of the context is missed. Also understand that everything im about to say is not found in the scriptures this is all from historians and other acient text.

We left off in 400bc and everything is looking ok the Jews are under the rule of the Persians but they are allwoing freedom of Religion and paid for them to rebuild the temple and there citys so not bad. Side note.

This starts the period known as the times of the Gentiles, once the Jews came back from Babylonian captivity they remained under Gentile rule for over 2000years, until God allowed them to reestablish a nation in 1948.

So for about 100 years Israel was under the Rule of the Persians but a new empire arose who’s chef commander was alexander the great, alexander took over Persian empire around 330bc this brought Greek influence to Israel another word for Greek influence is Hellenism so if you hear the word Hellenistic or hellenision relaize that just means greek influnce. After Alexander died his kingdom was broken into three main parts one for each of his generals, the area of Israel and south of it came under the rule of His general Ptolemy (taa·luh·mee). This who will become known as the Ptolemaic (taa·luh·may·uhk) empire. the area north of Israel came under the general Seleucus which will become known as the Seleucid empire.

So for another 100 years Israel was under the Rule of the Ptolemaic (taa·luh·may·uhk) empire, this was in general a good time for Israel, while there was some Greek influence (Hellenism) it was not a ton.

During this 100 years The leader Potomly (taa·luh·mee) the second gathered 70 scholars in Alexandria Egypt and had them translate the old testament from Hebrew to Greek. This became Known as the Septuagint. And was the the text that the new testament uses when making quotes from the Old testament.

After those 100 years around 200bc the Seleucids under King Antiochus the 3rd wanted to expand there empire and took over a large portion of the Poltomic (taa·luh·may·uhk) empire. That included the area of Israel and Egypt. The Seleucids were not as kind and wanted a deeper Greek influence into the area.

Under the sluiceds they realized that the Jewish priesthood is handed down from father to son. And they did not have control of that, The priesthood at this time is still under the decedents of Zadok, but instead of being called Zadakites they are now called Oniasd as a prominte priest had the name oniad.

In the year 175 Onias the thrid who was the high priest was strongly agasint Helleisiim (greek influnce). But there was another descendent of Zadok Joshua who wanted to become the high priest so he paid the Selucid government about 400 talents of silver to become high priest in the place of Onias the third. Since Joshua was in favor of Hellisiim he changed his name from Joshua to the greek name Jason this was a major change that will have lasting impact on the priesthood because now for the first time it bought with money and after only 3 years of being high priest another person bought the priesthood for even more money.

This was causing much frustration for many of the people, as the impacts of hellisiom statred to show, Statues, Games and idols and many more things. The finel straw was in the year 167bc when Antiochus 4th forbid the Jewish people from using the temple and from practicing the Law, in fact he set up an idol to Greek God Zues inside the temple and sacrificed a pig on the alter of Inscense. This started a rebbelian lead by a priest named Mattathias and his sons, they will become known as the Hasmonions a name you might be more fimilare with is the Maccabaeus, they lead a revolt against the antiochus 4th. in 164bc Antiochus 4th unexpetedly died and this allowed the Maccabaeus to take over the temple and they cleansed it and rededicated it to the Yahweh. This became known as the mircile of Hannaka. and is the start of what is called the Hasmonean kingdom.

The Maccabaeus were sussesful in there rebblion and they were able to kick out the solucids and retake the land of Israel. And it lasted until 63bc. A historian wrote this about that time

“This century of Jewish independence was a time of great national, cultural, and religious revival, and of growing strife between differing schools of religious thought and belief.“

Lets look at The Hasmonean’s (The Maccabaeus). So the Hasmoneans are related to Aaron but not through the linage of Zadok (remember that is what is needed to be high priest). But at this time they are so desprete to have a high priest.

There was so much cruoption with the oniads (those that are related to Zadak) that Mattathias’s son Judah become high priest, he ended up dying before the end of the revolt. So after some time another one of his brothers become high priest, Simon, He became high priest and announced himself to be prince over Judea. A little time later in 104bc a grandson of Simon became high priest but crowned himself king. Now the two offices of High priest and King which are to be seperated according to the Law of God become One. Those who freed the Jews from the bondage of the Solucids have become just has cruopt as the solucids.

We see a lot curroption in the kinship and in the priesthood. This lead to a new faction of religiose thought to arise, they called themselves the Phariseess. The pharisees wanted to remove the curroption and focus on teaching and obying the law and build fenches around it to protect people.

During this time the Hasmonions started to alinged themselves with the Oniads (the decendents of Zadak) who are now known as the sadducess. These two groups started fighting over who could be priest and who could be king.

Than in the year 63bc the internal fighting had gotten so bad and thousends of people had died that both sides were at a complete stalemate, so what do you do in a stall mate you call for help, so they called in a new raising power to come help them with this civil war and who showed up but General pompey of Rome. So Pompey the great a Roman general came in with thousands of roman soilders and settled the dispout quickly but he did not leave. One of the things Pompey did to stop the infighting was to seperate the powers of high priest and King. This separation though lead to a new leader one who’s father is Antipater the Idumean.

The word Idumean means ecdemite. Someone who is decendnent from Esu Jacobs older brother that story is found in Gen 25. Jacob had become the nation of Israel while Esau became the nation of Edom

Antipater had a son named Harod who he married to (Mariamne) (Mar ree Am nee) she is a Hasmonean. This would give some ligitmazse for Harod becoming King. Than in 37bc Herod became King of Judah under the rule of Rome, this became known as the Hordian denysty. And that is what we see when we open the of the book of Matthew

Matthew 2:1 “Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king”

Luke 1:5

5 In the days of Herod, king of Judea, there was a priest named Zacharias, of the division of Abijah; and he had a wife from the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth.

Herod was king over Israel, and as to the high priest well herode was so paraniod he had a lot of them killed. Here is a quote from a jewish historian.

“In 36 BCE, an Idumean named Herod took over as king of Judea. Known as Herod the Great, he apparently suffered from paranoia (Par a noi yah) and ruled with ruthless brutality. He put to death forty-six leading members of the Sanhedrin and killed all the remaining members of the Hasmonean family, including, his own wife and children.“

The priest hood was a position that was complelty curopt at this time, while most of the time it was someone of the ansectery of Aaron that was not always gaurnteed. As the position now was one that was political and could be bought or those with enough influnce could optain it.

The king was curropt. Herod was not even Jewish. He was a Edomite.

The religion was complelty corrupt while they still had the law they had added so much to it, that it was no longer reginisable. It no longer mattered what the heart of the issue was but to obay the extra laws they had added. And the religiose leaders those of the sadduces and pharisees could not even agree on important doctrines. we can see this played out in acts 23 where paul gets the two groups so angry with each other becuse he mentioned the resurection, spirits and angles and they cant agree on any of those things.

This was the Mess that Jesus was born in. This is how the Old and New testaments fit together Historical

Hopefully this helps you understand the need they had at that time for the prince of peace to come. They needed the Sar-Shalom.

400 years before Jesus came the prophet Zechariah said this about Him.

Zechariah 6:12–13 (NASB95)

12 “Then say to him, ‘Thus says the Lordof hosts, “Behold, a man whose name is Branch, for He will branch out from where He is; and He will build the temple of the Lord.

13 “Yes, it is He who will build the temple of the Lord, and He who will bear the honor and sit and rule on His throne. Thus, He will be a priest on His throne, and the counsel of peace will be between the two offices.” ’

Did you catch that, the counsel of peace will be between the two offices. What two offices, the office of King and the office of High priest.

Maybe you are asking How do we really know that Jesus is the one who will bring peace, to the kingship and priest hood. Well in REVELATION it says this about Jesus

Revelation 19:16

16 And on His robe and on His thigh He has a name written, “KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.”

Jesus is our King. Ok so he is king what about him being priest. It says this in Hebrews.

Hebrews 7:24–27 (NASB95)

24 but Jesus, on the other hand, because He continues forever, holds His priesthood permanently.

25 Therefore He is able also to save forever those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them.

26 For it was fitting for us to have such a high priest, holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners and exalted above the heavens;

27 who does not need daily, like those high priests, to offer up sacrifices, first for His own sins and then for the sins of the people, because this He did once for all when He offered up Himself.

We now see that Jesus is our King, He is the HIGH PRIEST and he brings a new law. Paul refers to this law as the law of christ.

Galatians 6:2 (NASB95)

2 Bear one another’s burdens, and thereby fulfill the law of Christ.

John 1:16-17

16 For of His fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace.

17 For the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ.

So when Jesus came, He being a decendnet of David had a right to the throne that Harod was on. Jesus fulfilled the law and became a new high priest under a new law the law of Christ. Jesus taught his disiples what true religon looked like. Jesus by Took our sins to the cross and died for us, and rose from the grave defeating death, this proves that Jesus is our Peace.

When we look at the world that Jesus was born in it was courpt the priesthood had falling apart, the king was not even Jewish, the religon was a desater. But the King of Kings came. Look at the world around us. do we see curroption, do we see Teranny, do we see evil goverments and evil empires. yes, and its only going to get worse. but our focus does not need to be there. just like the Israelites should have been looking for the messiah and reginsed him when he came. are we looking for the messiah, do we have our eyes fixed on him in this chotic world. Let us all look to the prince of peace this Christmas season

Instead of a closing prayer i want to close with this charge for the church found in 1 Timothy.so if evryone could plase close there eyes and bow there heads.

1 Timothy 6:13–16

13 I charge you in the presence of God, who gives life to all things, and of Christ Jesus, who testified the good confession before Pontius Pilate,

14 that you keep the commandment without stain or reproach until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ,

15 which He will bring about at the proper time—He who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords,

16 who alone possesses immortality and dwells in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see. To Him behonor and eternal dominion! Amen.

You are dismissed