The Messiah and His Miracles (Continued)

The Death of the Messiah (Continued)

The Significance of the Death of the Messiah

Going back to the principles laid down in Genesis, spilt blood implies:

(1) A substitutionary sacrifice, (like the lambs of Abel’s flock , or the ram replacing Isaac on the altar).

(2) A life taken unjustly, (like Abel, the first martyr).

(3) A life taken justly, (in payment for a crime).

It could be argued that the blood of the Messiah was shed in compliance with these three principles.

(1) As a substitutionary sacrifice.

(2) Was a life taken unjustly.

(3) Was payment for a capital crime.

That the death of the Messiah falls into the category of (2) ‘a life taken unjustly’ is self-evident. The judicial killing of Jesus of Nazareth was the murder of the only innocent man that ever lived. He was holy, harmless, undefiled and separate from sinners. Pilate, the only judge that mattered, said, “I find no fault in this man” (Luke 23.4; John 19.6).

It was also the payment for (3) capital crime, though not His own. This points to the idea of (1) substitution (one life given instead of another). It is evident that the New Testament emphasis is on this substitutionary aspect of the death of the Messiah. Peter wrote, “… who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree” (1 Pet.2:24).  Again, “For Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God” (1 Pet.3:18) Paul wrote, “For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Cor.5:21). These echo the prophecy of Isaiah, “He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities” (Isa.53:5). “All we like sheep have gone astray; We have turned, every one, to his own way; And the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all” (Isa.53:6).

With Moses, the sacrifice of the Passover lambs, evidenced by the blood applied to the doorways of the homes of the Israelite slaves, was the best illustration of this spiritual principle. Meditation on this momentous event was also the best educator of the nation and Moses commanded them, and future generations, to remember and celebrate it annually.

Notwithstanding the spiritual principle established at the exodus, the substitutionary nature of the death of the Messiah was not just one life for another but one life instead of all others. This truth is at the heart of the great Adam passage in Romans 5, where Paul wrote that as one man’s act of disobedience brought judgement and death to all men, so the act of obedience by One Man brought justification, and removed the death sentence. “Therefore, as through one man’s offence judgment came to all men, resulting in condemnation, even so through one Man’s righteous act the free gift came to all men, resulting in justification of life. For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man’s obedience many will be made righteous” (Rom.5:18,19) In his other great Adam passage, he says it even more clearly. “For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive” (1 Cor.15:22).

The theological implications of the death of Christ in this manner, is normally expressed by such words as ‘propitiation’, ‘expiation’ and ‘purification’,

Historically, there are three stages in the provision of ‘propitiation’.

(i) Because God is holy, His wrath is directed toward sin and must be appeased to spare man from eternal destruction. His wrath was awakened by Adam’s transgression.

(ii) God provided the remedy by sending Christ as a sin offering.

(iii) Christ’s death assuaged the wrath of God, satisfied His holiness and averted His wrath.

Propitiation is Godward; God is propitiated—His holiness is vindicated and satisfied by the death of Christ. The Greek verb ἱλάσκομαι (propitiation) occurs twice in the New Testament, in Luke 18.13 and significantly in Hebrews, “Therefore, in all things He had to be made like His brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people” (Heb.2:17) As a noun it appears in John’s letters, “And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world,” (1 John 2:2) and “In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins” (1 John 4:10). It appears once again in Paul’s writing. “Whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed” (Rom.3:25).

Expiation is not a word that is found in the New Testament but some translations use it to replace ‘propitiation’. While the primary meaning of ἱλασμός means ‘propitiation’, it surely contains something of the sense of expiation. While propitiation is Godward, expiation is manward or rather sinward. It is sin that needs to be expiated. The death of Christ not only propitiated God but also expiated sin, allowing God to “demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus” (Rom.3:26) The death of Jesus Christ is presented as the ground on which a righteous God can pardon a guilty and sinful race without in any way compromising His righteousness.

Next Time: Purification

The Messiah and His Miracles (Continued)

The Sign of the Prophet Jonah (Continued)

The execution of the Messiah – But why crucifixion?

Prior to these events and in the will of God, authority to inflict the death sentence had been removed from the Jewish courts. So it was the Roman justice system that pronounced the guilty verdict and called for the execution of Jesus, “that the saying of Jesus might be fulfilled which He spoke, signifying by what death He would die” (John 18:32) He had prophesied His death on several occasions. First after Peter properly identified and confessed Him as Messiah: “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Matt.16:16). “From that time Jesus began to show to His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised the third day” (Matt.16:21 cf.Luke 9:19). Then again, when they were in Galilee: “Jesus said to them, The Son of Man is about to be betrayed into the hands of men, and they will kill Him, and the third day He will be raised up” (Matt.17.22,23; cf. Luke 18.33). And then again: “Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and to the scribes; and they will condemn Him to death, and deliver Him to the Gentiles to mock and to scourge and to crucify. And the third day He will rise again” (Matt.20.18,19; cf. Luke 24.7).

The train of events that had begun in the Garden of Gethsemane moved towards its inevitable conclusion, execution by crucifixion. In fact, Jesus had said God would allow no other way for Him to die as the Saviour of the world. “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up” (John 3:14), and again: “When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am He” (John 8:28), and again: “And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples to Myself” (John 12:32).

Jesus would fulfil the prophecy from the Garden of Eden at His execution. As the promised Messiah, He would bruise Satan’s head, and the physical manner of His death would demonstrate and symbolise the spiritual defeat of the Adversary. The head of the serpent had to be below the foot of the seed of the woman. Since the serpent was the one ‘cast down’, Jesus, of necessity, had to be the One ‘lifted up’. Therefore, the key phrase is ‘lifted up’. If the execution had remained with the Jews, it would have been one of the four prescribed ways of judicial killing. They were (1) stoning, (2) burning, (3) decapitation, and (4) strangulation. Although those that were stoned to death would be hanged on a tree afterwards, in none of them is the victim ‘lifted up’. In the case of Jesus, under the Jewish judicial system He would have been stoned. Those that are stoned are ‘cast down’. Often, the place of execution was a form of pit. The Mishnah declares the place of stoning has to be twice the height of a man. The individual would be stoned from above. To maintain the proper positions of the Messiah and Satan, the Son of man had to be lifted up, and crucifixion, as prophesied in Psalm 22, was the mode of execution that maintained the physical demonstration of the spiritual act.

Roman/Gentile complicity

The events of the historic night demand further scrutiny. The larger Sanhedrin, having condemned to death their Messiah, then sent a delegation to fulfil the previously arranged appointment with Pilate. However, aiming to obtain a guilty verdict from the Procurator had become much more difficult because their main political witness, Judas, was no longer available. Nevertheless, they pursued the accusation of sedition, but Pilate would have none of it and pronounced Christ innocent of the charge. Nevertheless, the Jews continued to clammer for the death penalty.

Pilate, the personal representative of the Roman Emperor proclaimed Jesus of Nazareth innocent of all charges on six separate occasions, the last time officially from the judgement seat, but the Jewish leadership showed bulldog tenacity in holding firm to their demand for the execution of Jesus. At any stage, the Sanhedrists could have drawn back from their course of action, but they were stubborn and obstinate. They had one more weapon in their armoury. A piece of intelligence that could be used as political blackmail, which they hoped would secure Pilate’s compliance. Knowing that the governor was concerned about his position under Caesar, they felt he would be vulnerable to a cleverly worded threat, so they warned him that failure to comply with their demands would result in a report to Rome - a report that would confirm previous rumours of Pilate’s complicity in activities to undermine the authority of Caesar. When the threats were voiced, Pilate capitulated and handed the Messiah over for crucifixion, at the same time giving the order to release Yeshua Barabbas, a man bearing the name ‘Jesus, Son of the father’, who was himself awaiting execution for sedition and murder.

From the Antonia fortress, where He had been scourged in the parade square, Jesus was brought through the Herodian extensions on the north side of the Temple. Then, just like the lambs for the morning offerings, He was taken through the gate of the lambs, the Tadi gate, before leaving the Temple through the only exit gate on the Eastern wall, the Shushan gate. The red heifer was taken to slaughter through this gate. It was also the gate through which the scapegoat was led. Like the red heifer, Jesus was taken through the Shushan gate to slaughter. Like the scapegoat, Jesus was taken through the Shushan gate, to bear away the sins of the people. They took Him to the place of execution, an ancient holy site named Calvary or Golgotha, the place of a skull. There He was lifted up and crucified. During His hours on the cross, the Messiah fulfilled His own personal responsibility under the Mosaic Law and made provision for His mother by placing her in the care of John.

Other signs that attended the crucifixion included three hours of darkness over the earth, an earthquake, and the rending of the sixty-foot long, four-inch thick, Temple veil from top to bottom.

Next Time: The Significance of the Death of the Messiah

The Messiah and His Miracles (Continued)

The Sign of the Prophet Jonah (Continued)

The Trials of Jesus

The defection of Judas had greatly helped the scheming Sanhedrists. With a disciple from the inner circle on board, it would be possible to frame an accusation before Pilate and have Jesus executed as an insurrectionist. They presented Judas to Pilate as a political witness, using his testimony to support a political charge. On the testimony of Judas, the procurator signed the order for the use of force to arrest Jesus, and he allocated a unit of Roman soldiers for this purpose. Understanding the need for haste during the festival, Pilate also committed himself to be ready early in the morning, to deal with the case.

So the long night, prosecuted by the power of darkness, began with a betrayal. Judas went to the garden of Gethsemane, with Roman and Temple guards, to arrest the Messiah. In the garden of Gethsemane, demon-possessed Judas betrayed Jesus with a kiss. Kissing a Rabbi was a sign of discipleship and a sign of homage. Even the mode of betrayal was itself a betrayal, “Judas, are you betraying the Son of Man with a kiss?” (Luke 22:48)

The arresting party first took Jesus to Annas. Annas had continued to exert the power of the High Priest even though Rome had deposed him in AD 14. It was in his residence that the first interrogation began. This hearing before Annas, the second hearing before Caiaphas, and the later third hearing before the Sanhedrin, all had the appearance of trials under Jewish law, but were without any of the safeguards of the Mosaic and Mishnaic codes. The first two were held at night, (against the law), and in secret, (against the law) and during the night, the accused was physically humiliated (against the law).

In these hearings, special attention was paid to the law of blasphemy.

From the home of Annas, they took Jesus to the palace of Caiaphas, who was son in law to Annas and the current holder of the office of High Priest. At this examination, the testimony of the witnesses did not agree, a situation that in normal circumstances should have ended the trial. Because the witnesses failed to bring convincing evidence, Caiaphas was compelled to use his high office and unlawfully question Jesus directly, using a formula that compelled a response. The oath, and the question that Caiaphas put to the Messiah, and which demanded an answer was, “I put You under oath by the living God: Tell us if You are the Christ (Messiah), the Son of God!” (Matt.26:63). Here Caiaphas put his finger on the significant elements in the matter. Here is a moment in time, when the decision by the nation would gain its final official status. Jesus answered clearly and responded in the affirmative, “It is as you said. Nevertheless, I say to you, hereafter you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Power, and coming on the clouds of heaven” (Matt.26:64). The whole counsel acted unanimously (and illegally), and proclaimed Him guilty of blasphemy and called for the death sentence. Here, the law-breaking leaders of the nation judicially rejected their Messiah. That all these activities took place at night made them unlawful, and served to demonstrate that these were the servants of the Prince of darkness, and enemies of the Light of the world.

Others in attendance that night, who claimed to be committed to the regulations of the Sanhedrists, ignored the instructions in the law that required them to act humanely, and perpetrated against the prisoner, actions that were high indignities. They abused the Lord of glory with fists, (which under other circumstances would carry a fine of several days’ wages); slapped Him across the face, (which could carry a fine of more than six months’ wages); and worst of all, in Jewish eyes, spat upon Him, (which could carry a fine of more than a year’s wages).

Those that rejected His Messianic claims because He broke the oral law, had no compunction about breaking the same law in at least twenty different instances. The law’s requirements regarding the conduct of capital cases were completely ignored, thus proving, “the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked” (Jer.17:9).

During the humiliation of Jesus, Judas returned the blood money to the Chief Priests, recanted his actions, and then hanged himself. In the morning, as many of the Sanhedrin as could be mustered were gathered together to confirm the verdict and give the proceedings a look of legality.

Next Time: The execution of the Messiah – But why crucifixion?

The Messiah and His Miracles (Continued)

The Sign of the Prophet Jonah (Continued)

The Death of the Messiah

The first element in the sign of the prophet Jonah is the death of the Messiah. The Sanhedrists, politically manipulating the Roman justice system, terminated the life of the Messiah at a bloody execution outside Jerusalem. The opponents of Jesus of Nazareth finally silenced the One who had weighed their lives, their work, and their culture, and found them wanting. Using a charge of insurrection, the Chief Priests in their capacity as the main mediators between Israel and Rome, finally obtained the execution order they had been seeking for more than a year. Anticipating the actions of the Sanhedrin and Pilate, Jesus knew that everything was to culminate in the sign of Jonah. Therefore, He began His final journey in the knowledge that His life would soon end. But His eyes were not so much on the cross, as on the ascension: “Now it came to pass, when the time had come for Him to be received up, that He steadfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem” (Luke 9:51). The writer to the Hebrews also says He looked for heaven and home: “Who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God” (Heb.12:2). Jesus tried to prepare the disciples by giving them additional detail of how He would be despatched. “Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and to the scribes; and they will condemn Him to death, and deliver Him to the Gentiles to mock and to scourge and to crucify. And the third day He will rise again.” (Matt.20:18,19) It was less than a week before His death that He spoke for the first time of the mode of His execution, crucifixion!

The Trials of Jesus

The Pharisees’ rejection of Jesus as Israel’s Messiah was mainly the result of His rejection of the oral law. They felt they were fighting a battle, as did the Hasidim before them, against someone who was intent on bringing down the traditions they had sworn to uphold. However, to facilitate their aim and defeat their enemy, they were prepared to break many of the laws they were committed to defend. These events served to demonstrate that the Pharisaic Sanhedrists were unprincipled hypocrites. When it served their purpose, these so-called defenders and upholders of the oral law trampled over it with impunity. In their ambition to kill the One who branded them as “blind guides”, “whitewashed tombs”, “sons of hell”, “fools”, “serpents”, “lawless hypocrites” and “brood of vipers”, they threw aside any and all respect for the oral law, and rushed to judgement.

The section of the Mishnah called ‘Sanhedrin’ gives the rules for trying capital cases. These were the regulations that governed trials at the time of Christ. Some examples are as follows:

No arrest was allowed that was effected by a bribe.

Charges could not originate with the judges.

Judges were to be humane and kind.

Judges were not allowed to participate in an arrest.

There should be no arrests or trials after sunset.

There were to be no secret trials only public trials.

All trials should be in the Temple compound - normally in the chamber of hewn stones.

No prisoner should be scourged or beaten beforehand.

There should be no trials before the morning sacrifice.

All Sanhedrists may argue for acquittal but not all may argue for conviction – at least one must argue for acquittal.

Witnesses (2 or 3) must agree.

The accused is not allowed to testify against himself, and cannot be condemned on the basis of his own words alone.

An accusation of blasphemy is only valid if God’s name, YHWH, is pronounced.

The verdict could not be pronounced at night only during the day time.

Voting for the death penalty had to be done by individual count, beginning with the youngest, so that older members could not influence the younger.

The trial and guilty verdict could not occur the same time but had to be separated by at least 24 hours.

There had to be a gap of 3 days from the guilty verdict to the declaration of the sentence.

To summarise, the laws, formulated to govern the trial of those accused of capital crime, were humane and considerate. Every precaution was included to ensure a fair and proper trial. Where, when and how a trial was to take place was included in the law. It had to be during the daytime and open to scrutiny, and in a place where the public could observe. Justice had to be done, and had to be seen to be done. A member of the Sanhedrin was required to take up the defence of the accused. Witnesses, whose testimony agreed, were required. The accused would be forbidden to testify against himself – no forced confessions here! There had to be a break between the trial and the verdict, to give time for the proper consideration of the facts of the case. The law timetabled the sentence even further ahead – they built in the delays to allow time for the discovery of new evidence that might aid the case for the defence.

In the trial of Jesus of Nazareth, in their ambition to silence the one authoritative voice that opposed them, they ignored all these regulations.

To be continued

The Messiah and His Miracles (Continued)

The Raising of Lazarus

The narrative of the rich man and Lazarus was the first stage of the sign of the prophet Jonah – the stage of education. The second stage would be demonstration through the miracle of raising a man from Hades. The third stage would be participation, when the Messiah himself would return from Hades. Jesus, at this time, was not reactive but proactive. He was following a planned timetable. A message came from Bethany to the Messiah that Lazarus, His good friend, was ill (John 11:1 ff). Jesus said, “This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified through it”. Nevertheless, He not only waited until Lazarus had died, but planned His journey so that when He arrived Lazarus had been dead three days and three nights. When He arrived at the graveside, He indicated that the miracle He was about to perform was the sign for the nation, “Father, I thank You that You have heard Me. I knew that You always hear Me; but because of the people standing around I said it, so that they may believe that You sent Me.” (John 11:41,42) He also identified it as a sign of deity, “Did I not say to you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?” (John 11:40) So Jesus commanded, “Lazarus come forth!” And he that had been dead four days rose from the grave. It was commonly believed by the Jews of Jesus’ day that the spirit of the individual did not descend into Hades until after 3 days. Therefore, the raising of Lazarus on the fourth day was a suitable sign for the wicked generation who had asked for a sign from heaven but given a sign from Hades. It was also the pre-curser for the true sign of the prophet Jonah, in which the Messiah would rise from Hades after three days and three nights.

Because of this final attesting sign, many believed. But the nation’s leaders, being fearful that their wealthy, privileged, lifestyle could be lost, still plotted to kill Him and destroy the evidence of the sign: “The chief priests consulted that they might put Lazarus also to death; because that by reason of him many of the Jews went away, and believed on Jesus”. Soon after this sign, and immediately after Caiaphas had led the Sanhedrin to agree to the execution of Jesus, the Messiah sent them ten healed lepers, to leave them without excuse! The Messiah had indicated in the relating of the experiences of the rich man and Lazarus, that if they did not believe Moses and the prophets, they would not believe though one was brought back from Hades. By implication, He again says that they did not believe the Scriptures, repeating the essence of an earlier condemnation, “Do not think that I will accuse you before the Father; the one who accuses you is Moses, in whom you have set your hope. For if you believed Moses, you would believe Me, for he wrote about Me.” (John 5:45,46)

The condemnation of the nation and its leaders was complete. They did not base their lives on the T’nach, they did not live by faith, and against a wealth of evidence the record of which, if written down, would exhaust all available space on earth, (evidence that included having the serpent in subjection, mastery over leprosy, and raising the dead), they rejected God’s Son their Messiah. Jesus believed them culpable: “If I had not done among them the works which no one else did, they would have no sin; but now they have seen and also hated both Me and My Father. But this happened that the word might be fulfilled which is written in their law, They hated Me without a cause.” (John 15:24,25) He described them as a wicked, evil, adulterous generation, who worshipped Mammon. This generation of vipers, rejecting the Word of God, and accepting the word of Satan, spoke with a forked tongue. They followed their father, the Serpent, who is the father of lies. Their web of deceit was never more evident than when events came to their inevitable conclusion; and wicked hands took the holy and innocent Son of God and tried Him for blasphemy and treason.

Next Time: The Death of the Messiah

The Messiah and His Miracles (Continued)

The Sign of the Prophet Jonah (Continued)

The Rich Man and Lazarus

To prepare the Sanhedrists, those “servants of Mammon (wealth)”, and “lovers of money” who had rejected Him, He described a certain rich man who had both wealth and position, a condition that the Sanhedrists would have attributed to the blessing of God. The Rabbis taught that wealth was a sign of the favour of God (‘whoever the Lord loves He makes rich’). In contrast with the ease and comfort of the rich man, Jesus described the desperate position and condition of a beggar named Lazarus, who must have been daily visible to the wealthy Jew. Lazarus’ hopes were not great, just that he might have some crumbs that fell from the rich man’s table. In course of time, both men died and went to Hades/Sheol.

This place of the dead had two main compartments, the first part, sometimes called ‘Abraham’s bosom’, was reserved for those that died with a true faith in God. This part, in many ways, mirrored heaven. Since animal sacrifice only covered sin, but did not remove it, those that died in faith before the death of the Messiah on the cross, would not go to hell but could not get into heaven, hence the place called Abraham’s bosom. The second part of Hades/Sheol was a place for those who had either rebelled against God or failed to respond to the light He offered.

There are three subdivisions of the second part of Hades/Sheol. They are subdivisions of ‘hell’. The first subdivision is the ‘abyss’; the second subdivision is ‘Tartarus’; the third subdivision is ‘Gehenna’.

(1) The abyss or bottomless pit is a temporary place of confinement for fallen angels (God will imprison Satan there for a thousand years). The demons in the Gadarene Legion “begged Him that He would not command them to go out into the abyss” (Luke 8:31).

(2) Tartarus is a more permanent place of confinement for fallen angels. “God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell (Tartarus) and committed them to pits of darkness, reserved for judgment” (2 Pet.2:4). (From here, they go directly to the lake of fire).

(3) Gehenna is the place of torment for the wicked. Jesus speaks of it as the destiny of those who rejected Him as Messiah. “Serpents, brood of vipers! How can you escape the condemnation of hell (Gehenna)?" (Matt.23:33)

Since they are three subdivisions of Hell, they obviously have many things in common.

Lazarus, whose name means ‘God helps’, went to Abraham’s bosom, whereas, contrary to all the teaching of the Pharisees, the rich man went to Hell. The Pharisees taught that all Jews would go to Abraham’s bosom, (“all Israelites have a share in the world to come”) (Mishnah: San.10:1) but the Messiah related to them the experience of a Jew (he addresses Abraham as ‘Father’, and Abraham responds with ‘Son’), who is in Hell.

The narrative clearly implied deity because Jesus had knowledge of a conversation between two actual Jews in Hades, after death. He described the torment of the Jewish rich man and the comfort of the beggar named Lazarus. As with Jonah they can speak, remember and pray. The rich man asked Abraham to send Lazarus to him with some water to relieve his torment, but Abraham tells him of the gulf between them that is impassable. Unable to obtain any measure of respite, he asked that Lazarus might be despatched from Hades on a mission to his brothers, to persuade them to repent. The wealthy Jew was asking that his family might be given the sign of the prophet Jonah! “I beg you, father, that you send him to my father’s house— for I have five brothers—in order that he may warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment” (Luke 16.:27,28). The tormented Jew was unwittingly asking for a Jonah to go to his brothers as Jonah had been sent from Sheol to Nineveh. But his brothers had already had that opportunity because a greater than Jonah had preached, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matt.4:17). Abraham replied, “They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them”. Whereupon the rich man said, “No, father Abraham: but if one goes to them from the dead, they will repent” (Luke 16:30). He asserted the Bible was not enough – they needed signs and wonders. Abraham responded, “If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be persuaded even if someone rises from the dead” (Luke 16:31). If they will not believe and obey the Scriptures, then signs and wonders will make no difference! This was another public warning to the Pharisees.

Next Time: The Raising of a man called Lazarus

The Messiah and His Miracles (Continued)

The Sign of the Prophet Jonah

The sign of the prophet Jonah is the sign of death and resurrection. When it was clear that the leaders of the nation would never accept Him, and that the great majority of the people would follow their leaders’ example, Jesus withdrew the offer of the ‘at hand’ kingdom of God. Consequently, the authenticating miracles that He performed to demonstrate that He was their true Messiah ceased. So when He was asked for another attesting sign by the Sanhedrists, He responded, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah” (Matt.12:39). By describing them and the nation they led as “evil”, He drew a straight line between them and the Evil one whom they were serving. They had charged Him with being manipulated by the Evil one. He countered by declaring that they were the ones that were manipulated by the Evil one. This reversal of the true nature of the opposing protagonists is at the heart of the ‘light of the world’ debate. In that discussion, Jesus said to them, “You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it.” (John 8:34) Their response was to repeat their previously formed opinion, “Do we not say rightly that You are a Samaritan and have a demon?” (John 8:48) When He added the adjective “adulterous” He was describing them in the same way as YHWH described Israel at those times when they left the worship of the one and only true God to follow other lovers, that is other gods. In the case of the generation that rejected Jesus as Messiah, it refers to the fact that they have left the LORD to serve another god, Mammon.

His statement, ‘no sign will be given … except …’ declared that there would be only one more authenticating sign left for the nation, the sign of the prophet Jonah. He refused to perform any other attesting signs for the nation. There were other miracles – but they were in response to individual need or for the training of the apostles, they were not offered as authenticating signs for his Messianic credentials. Luke added some extra illuminating detail at this turning point in the ministry of the Messiah. He recorded, “Others, testing Him, sought from Him a sign from heaven.” (Luke 11:16) The request of a sign from heaven continued the doctrine that the previous sign was from Hell/Hades, and was a continuation of the strategy of Satan, that the nation should treat Him as demon-possessed, a ‘cast down one’. This is why the Messiah told them that a sign from Hades would be the only further sign they would receive, the sign of the prophet Jonah. Jonah, a man selected by God to warn Nineveh of impending judgement, fled to avoid obeying his divine given orders. He died at sea when swallowed by an oceanic leviathan. Jesus provided a description of the sign: “For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the sea monster, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.” (Matt.12:40 NASB) The sign of the prophet Jonah is resurrection from Hades/Sheol. When Jonah died, his body was in the sea creature for three days and three nights, but he himself was in Sheol. Jonah’s testimony stated as much. “I called to the LORD out of my distress, and he answered me; out of the belly of Sheol I cried, and you heard my voice. You cast me into the deep, into the heart of the seas, and the flood surrounded me; all your waves and your billows passed over me. Then I said, I am driven away from your sight; how shall I look again upon your holy temple? The waters closed in over me; the deep surrounded me; weeds were wrapped around my head at the roots of the mountains. I went down to the land whose bars closed upon me forever; yet you brought up my life from the Pit, O LORD my God.” (Jonah 2:2-6 (NRSV))

The Messiah’s use of Jonah’s experience as a picture of the last sign was so very apt. It worked on several levels, and He referred to it several times in His ministry. In addition, it dovetailed very successfully with the third primary authenticating sign, blood on the ground. The sign of the prophet Jonah will be a miracle mightier than all other miracles, for the Messiah would not only die but also rise again.

The sign of the prophet Jonah had three sections, the death of the Messiah, the burial of the Messiah, and the resurrection of the Messiah. As Paul wrote, "Christ (Messiah) died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures" (1 Cor.15:3,4). To ensure that the nation’s leaders understood the significance of this last attesting sign, Jesus educated them by instruction and example. He first related to them a true story, and then later performed an extraordinary miracle, John’s seventh significant miracle, the raising of Lazarus.

Next Time - The RichMan and Lazarus

The Messiah and His Miracles (Continued)

We continue in our study by examining how the Messiah responded to His rejection by the nation's leaders.

We need to note that His ministry changed after the unpardonable sin was committed.

That is, Jesus no longer offered the kingdom to the nation, but rather turned His attention to training the Apostles who would be the main strike force of the new religious movement. In the meantime, those individuals who were persuaded of His Messiahship were assured of their personal, spiritual future.



Large Pot holding water for hand washing

 After His rejection by the ‘special interest’ parties in the Sanhedrin, with the counter rejection of that generation of Israel by God, the conflict escalated. Accusation and counter accusation took place. The Pharisees raised issues from the oral law, asking: “Why do Your disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat bread.” (Matt.15:2) As always, the Messiah gave no consequence to their complaint but put His finger on the heart of the conflict between them, “Why do you also transgress the commandment of God because of your tradition?” (Matt.15:3) The problem of the Pharisees, here identified by Jesus, was not just that they added to the T’nach, which in itself was unacceptable, but also in certain cases allowed the oral law to negate the T’nach. The matter He used to illustrate the point was the matter of ‘Corban’. To declare your possessions ‘Corban’ was to declare they were dedicated to the Lord. If the parents of a Pharisee were in financial need, the obligation on their Pharisee son was to assist, for the Decalogue commanded, “honour your mother and your father”. However, the tradition of the elders allowed the son to declare his possessions ‘dedicated to the Lord’ (i.e. Corban), which then prohibited him from giving them to someone else, including his parents. However, pronouncing his wealth and possessions ‘Corban’, did not remove them from his own personal control and he could still use them for his own needs. Therefore declaring one’s possessions ‘Corban’ had the appearance of being spiritual, when in actual fact it was designed to evade one’s proper family obligations. Jesus branded those that took advantage of such loopholes as hypocrites!

The Messiah identified a Scripture that prophesied of this attitude: “Hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy about you, saying: These people draw near to Me with their mouth, And honour Me with their lips, But their heart is far from Me. And in vain they worship Me, Teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.” (Matt.15:7-9; Isa.29:13) Later He said, “The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat … they bind heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on men’s shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers. But all their works they do to be seen by men.” (Matt.23:1-5) 

Their hypocritical legalism received the strongest outbursts from the Messiah.

(i) “… woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men; for you neither go in yourselves, nor do you allow those who are entering to go in.” (Matt.23:13)

(ii) “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you devour widows’ houses, and for a pretence make long prayers. Therefore you will receive greater condemnation.” (Matt.23:14)

(iii) “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel land and sea to win one proselyte, and when he is won, you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves.” (Matt.23:15)

(iv) “Woe to you, blind guides, who say, ‘Whoever swears by the temple, it is nothing; but whoever swears by the gold of the temple, he is obliged to perform it.’ Fools and blind! For which is greater, the gold or the temple that sanctifies the gold? And, whoever swears by the altar, it is nothing; but whoever swears by the gift that is on it, he is obliged to perform it. Fools and blind! For which is greater, the gift or the altar that sanctifies the gift?” (Matt.23:16-19)

(v) The Messiah put His finger on the weakness of the Pharisaic system: “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith. These you ought to have done, without leaving the others undone.” (Matt.23:23)

(vi) “Blind guides, who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel! Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you cleanse the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of extortion and self-indulgence. Blind Pharisee, first cleanse the inside of the cup and dish, that the outside of them may be clean also.” (Matt.23:24-26)

(vii) "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness. Even so you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.” (Matt.23:27-28)

(viii) “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! Because you build the tombs of the prophets and adorn the monuments of the righteous, and say, If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets. Therefore you are witnesses against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers’ guilt. Serpents, brood of vipers! How can you escape the condemnation of hell?” (Matt.23:29-33)

The eightfold ‘woe’ means there is no reprieve, indeed no hope for these obdurate, blind leaders of the blind: “Blind guides, who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel!” Jesus, speaking as the coming Judge of all men, detailed the sins of the Messiah-rejecting Scribes and Pharisees, and confirmed their judgement: “Assuredly, I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation” (Matt.23:36). What things? “That on you may come all the righteous blood shed on the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah, son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar” (Matt.23:35). The Hebrew Bible, the T’nach, while containing all 39 books of the Christian Old Testament is ordered differently, and goes from Genesis to Second Chronicles. The example of Abel was taken from the first book of the T’nach (Genesis), and the example of Zacharias was taken from the last book of the T’nach (Second Chronicles). Jesus is saying that the attitude of Israel to God’s ministers has been one of constant rebellion. “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing! See! Your house is left to you desolate” (Matt.23:37-38). Consequently, He made His return conditional. “you shall see Me no more till you say, Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD!” (Matt.23:38) “And Jesus went out and departed from the Temple” (Matt.24:1).

Next Time : The Sign of the Prophet Jonah

The Messiah and His Miracles (Continued)

In response to His rejection by the nations leaders, Jesus rejected that generation of Israel, so we continue the study by a further examination of the reasons for the Messiah's rejection of the generation that rejected Him. Following on from the illumination provided by the 10 rebellions that the Rabbis list we consider another.

Bread of Heaven

Perhaps the most significant rebellion of Israel was the one that took place after the ten listed. It was a revolt that arose from their dislike of the heavenly manna, the food provided by YHWH to sustain them. Their rejection of the bread of heaven can be compared with the rejection of the Messiah, ‘the Bread of Life’. In respect of the wilderness generation, God greatly condemned the rejection of the manna, and because of its high significance, did not postpone judgement. The T’nach first gives us the complaint of the rebels: “… the people spoke against God and against Moses: Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and our soul loathes (detests) this worthless bread" (Numb.21:5) Then follows the description of the reaction of YHWH: “So the LORD sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and many of the people of Israel died.” (Numb.21:6) When that generation rebelled against the bread from heaven, YHWH lifted His protection from the nation, effectively delivering them to Satan, who immediately sent in poisonous serpents to wreak havoc among the rebels! The only antidote to the poison of the snakes was faith in the God that had the serpent in subjection, which faith they could express by looking toward the brass serpent impaled on a pole.

The nation under Caiaphas despised God’s provision, Jesus the Messiah, the true bread from heaven. He was “hated without a cause” (John 15:25), and He “endured … hostility from sinners against Himself” Heb.12:3). When Israel rejected God’s Son, their Messiah, YHWH lifted his hand of protection (as He had with the wilderness generation) and effectively delivered the nation to Satan. The dogma of the Sanhedrists, like the poison of the serpents in the wilderness, was allowed to course through the veins of the nation. Jesus left Israel to the Pharisees and Sadducees, personnel who mouthed the doctrines of the Serpent and who had the poison of asps under their lips. They would lead the nation to destruction, in the name of patriotism, and in defence of tradition. Those that followed them and their system of righteousness would perish both physically and spiritually. They would be a nation possessed by multiple evils. Those individuals, who wished to remain under the protection of God, would have to repudiate the decision of Israel’s highest court, and receive Jesus of Nazareth as their Messiah, even though the Sanhedrin rejected Him and Rome executed Him. Like those in the wilderness who wished to survive the activity of Satan, they would have to look to the gibbet, where the physical evidence of ‘the serpent in subjection’ was visible. “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:14,15)

The suffering Servant of YHWH, in His death, followed a path that was the exact opposite to the path of Lucifer. Lucifer tried to exalt himself, while Jesus humbled Himself. Lucifer rebelled against the will of YHWH, while Jesus Messiah embraced the will of His Father. The results were exactly the opposite too. Lucifer was ‘cast down’, where the Son of God was ‘lifted up’. The rebellion of Satan brought death and suffering whereas the obedience of Messiah brought life and blessing. The Roman gibbet on which He was executed became the symbol of the serpent defeated, for through death He rendered powerless the one who had the power of death, that is, the Devil, and freed those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives. God will cast Lucifer down to the lowest depths of the bottomless pit – Jesus will have the highest honour that heaven possesses.

The Unpardonable Sin

The national rejection of Jesus as Messiah, coupled with the slander that He was demon possessed, constituted the unpardonable sin. At that point in Israel’s history, Jesus withdrew His offer of the immediate Messianic kingdom. He changed the Messianic programme from one coming to two. The nation will not now know the reign of their Messiah until Israel’s national leaders, in a spirit of humility and repentance, call for His return. The Sanhedrin, the leaders of the nation, were, at the time of the first coming of their Messiah, servants of Mammon, not servants of God, and thus failed to do what was right. Jesus said He would not return until a future generation of the nation calls for Him, and welcomes Him with the appropriate Messianic greeting: “For I say to you, you shall see Me no more till you say, Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD!” (Matt.23:39)

The language of the Messiah, after His rejection, was very direct. Facing His opponents, He powerfully described them as a “generation of vipers” (Matt.12:34), “an evil and adulterous generation” (Matt.12:39) and a “wicked generation” (Matt.12:45). He prophesied their decline and destruction, and said that since they had mouthed the doctrines of the serpent; they would have to justify their words in the judgement chamber of God. Jesus warned them, that the men of Nineveh will be called as prosecution witnesses against them. Because Nineveh repented, and turned to God, under the preaching of a prophet, while the leaders of this generation would not repent, even under the ministry of such a man as John, the greatest of the old dispensation prophets, or even more incredibly, under the ministry of God’s Son, Jesus Christ. Similarly, testimony from the Queen of the South would also condemn them, because she travelled a great distance to listen to and marvel at the glory and the wisdom of Solomon; but they had rejected a greater that Solomon. Within four decades, the rejection of their Messiah brought the nation to a condition seven times worse than when He began His public ministry. While, at the beginning of the Messianic visitation, they were a subjugated nation, within forty years, they were to lose their lives, their privileges and their Temple; and in 100 years, they would lose their land for nearly 2000 years! What a price to pay!

So the offered Messianic kingdom was rejected, the unpardonable sin committed and a judgement pronounced on that generation.

Next time: The ministry of the Messiah changed after the unpardonable sin was committed.

 

The Messiah and His Miracles (Continued)

The reason for the rejection of the generation that rejected their Messiah

The T’nach gives the reasons for the rejection of the wilderness generation. By examining the narrative of nation’s experience under the ministry of God’s first Deliverer, Moses, and comparing it to the attitude and actions of the nation under the ministry of God’s last Deliverer, the Messiah, Jesus, we will be able to identify some of the principles involved in these sweeping judgements of God.

For the wilderness generation, God identified the point of no return to Moses: “Then the LORD said to Moses: How long will these people reject Me? And how long will they not believe Me, with all the signs which I have performed among them?” (Numb.14:11) Also, “…all these men who have seen My glory and the signs which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and have put Me to the test now these ten times, and have not heeded My voice, they certainly shall not see the land of which I swore to their fathers, nor shall any of those who rejected Me see it” (Numb.14:22,23). Notice, how YHWH refers to the rejection of Moses as a rejection of Himself. The rejection of Moses can be identified in the following rebellions.

In the first one listed below, i.e. “then they said to Moses, Because there were no graves in Egypt, have you taken us away to die in the wilderness”. In the second and third, they “complained against Moses” In the fourth they, “contended against Moses”, and in the ninth and tenth “they did not heed Moses”.

The Rabbis list the ten rebellions as follows:

(i) At the Red Sea: “Then they said to Moses, Because there were no graves in Egypt, have you taken us away to die in the wilderness? Why have you so dealt with us, to bring us up out of Egypt? Is this not the word that we told you in Egypt, saying, Let us alone that we may serve the Egyptians? For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than that we should die in the wilderness” (Exod.14:11,12). They were on the threshold of a mighty miracle if they had only trusted, for the Lord divided the waters of the Red Sea and completed the defeat of Pharaoh.

(ii) At Marah: “Now when they came to Marah, they could not drink the waters of Marah, for they were bitter. Therefore the name of it was called Marah. And the people complained against Moses, saying, What shall we drink?”  (Exod.15:23,24) Again they needed to trust in God! He made the bitter waters sweet and promised that none of the diseases that were common among the Egyptians would affect any Israelite.

(iii) In the wilderness of Sin: “Then the whole congregation of the children of Israel complained against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness. And the children of Israel said to them, Oh, that we had died by the hand of the LORD in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the pots of meat and when we ate bread to the full! For you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.” (Exod.16:2,3) This is where YHWH began to rain on them manna from heaven!

(iv) At Rephidim: “Then all the congregation of the children of Israel set out on their journey from the Wilderness of Sin, according to the commandment of the LORD, and camped in Rephidim; but there was no water for the people to drink. Therefore the people contended with Moses, and said, Give us water, that we may drink. So Moses said to them, Why do you contend with me? Why do you tempt the LORD? And the people thirsted there for water, and the people complained against Moses, and said, Why is it you have brought us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst?” (Exod.17:1-3) Here, significantly, the Lord provided water from the rock.

(v) At Horeb, the golden calf revolt: “And he (Aaron) received the gold from their hand, and he fashioned it with an engraving tool, and made a moulded calf. Then they said, This is your god, O Israel, that brought you out of the land of Egypt!” (Exod.32:4) So serious was this rebellion that YHWH implied that the survival of the nation was in the balance. The intercession of Moses, God’s Messiah, averted immediate judgement.

(vi) At Tabeerah: The rebellion against the route chosen by YHWH: “Now when the people complained, it displeased the LORD; for the LORD heard it, and His anger was aroused. So the fire of the LORD burned among them, and consumed some in the outskirts of the camp.” (Numb.11:1) They survived once more through the intercession of Moses, although a great number first died under the judgement of God.

(vii) At the graves of lust: “Now the mixed multitude who were among them yielded to intense craving; so the children of Israel also wept again and said: Who will give us meat to eat? We remember the fish which we ate freely in Egypt, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic; but now our whole being is dried up; there is nothing at all except this manna before our eyes!” (Numb.11:4-6) Here YHWH gave them meat in abundance.

(viii) At Kadesh Barnea: “So all the congregation lifted up their voices and cried, and the people wept that night. And all the children of Israel complained against Moses and Aaron, and the whole congregation said to them, If only we had died in the land of Egypt! Or if only we had died in this wilderness! Why has the LORD brought us to this land to fall by the sword, that our wives and children should become victims? Would it not be better for us to return to Egypt? So they said to one another, Let us select a leader and return to Egypt.” (Numb.14:1-4) The words of this mutiny form the basis of the judgement of God upon that generation. The rebellious parents were to die in the wilderness, but the children would not become victims. YHWH would protect them and take them into the promised land.

(ix) The rebellion of certain individuals against the commandments of God at the giving of the manna: “they did not heed Moses. But some of them left part of it until morning, and it bred worms and stank. And Moses was angry with them.” (Exod.16:20)

(x) And again, the rebellion of certain individuals against the commandments of God at the giving of the manna: “Now it happened that some of the people went out on the seventh day to gather, but they found none.” (EXod.16:27)

Even a cursory glance at this will see how the children repeat the sins of the fathers. Here are some examples.

The generation that rejected Jesus repeated the essence of the first rebellion of the wilderness generation. If I may paraphrase the first rebellion to suit the second, “leave us alone that we may serve the Romans. It is better for us to serve the Romans than lose our place and nation” (cf.Exod.14.11,12 with John 11.48).

Despite the rebellion at Marah, God promised, “none of these diseases”; providing a wonderful name, ‘Jehovah Raphah’, “I am the Lord that healeth thee”. Jesus, “… healed all who were sick, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying: He Himself took our infirmities And bore our sicknesses.”  (cf. Exod.15.26 with Matt.8.16,17) Yet they still rejected Him!

When they questioned the beneficence of God at Rephidim, God graciously gave them water from the rock. After they accused Jesus of having a devil, He graciously offered them living water (cf. Exod.17.1-3 with John 7.20,37,38).

Israel, in the wilderness, blasphemed YHWH by assigning the redeeming power that rescued them to an idol. The Israel of Jesus’ day blasphemed the Spirit of God, by assigning the miracles performed by the Messiah to the Devil. (cf. Exod.32.4 with Matt.12.24)

To be continued

 

The Messiah and His Miracles (Continued)

WHAT WAS THE RESPONSE OF JESUS TO THEIR DECISION?

There is a point of no return for the obdurate. In His dealings with man, God sometimes says, ‘enough is enough’. The judgements at the time of Noah, and then at the tower of Babel, suggest as much. Twice before, in His dealings with Israel, God has pronounced a judgement that affected the whole nation.

(i) The generation of Israelites that rebelled on the journey from Egypt to Canaan under the leadership of Moses suffered such a judgement.

(ii) Then there was the judgement that sent the nation into captivity to Babylon.

(iii) Now there is to be a judgement on the generation that rejected Jesus as Messiah. When they rejected Jesus as Messiah, particularly for such base reasons and in such a way, that generation of Israel was rejected.

When they dismissed Jesus’ Messianic claims and when they attributed the good works that He had performed by the Spirit of God, to the power of the Devil (Matt.12:24), they committed the unpardonable sin. Their lying blasphemy, which still lives today, has no forgiveness (Matt.12:31,32). Those that attributed the attesting signs to Beelzebub were clearly in the camp of Satan, and Jesus called them a “brood of vipers” (Matt.12.34), words well chosen, for they were true children of the Serpent, and disseminated the lies of the father of lies.

Their rejected Messiah had yet one more message for them. When He was asked for yet another attesting sign, He said: “An evil and adulterous generation craves for a sign; and yet no sign will be given to it but the sign of Jonah the prophet; for just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the sea monster, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth” (Matt.12.39,40, NASB). This sign, which will be more thoroughly examined in chapter ten, has an extra dimension that the Messiah expressed: “The men of Nineveh will rise up in the judgment with this generation and condemn it, because they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and indeed a greater than Jonah is here” (Matt.12:41). “The queen of the South will rise up in the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the Wisdom of Solomon; and indeed a greater than Solomon is here” (Matt.12:42) This suggests that not only have they rejected a prophet greater than Jonah, but rejected the personified ‘Wisdom’ of God (Proverbs Chapter 8). 

Not only did Jesus prophesy the ultimate fate of that generation of the Jewish nation – the most privileged generation that ever lived – a generation who had the living God walking among them, blessing them and teaching them – but He also prophesied their more immediate fate. He gave it in the form of an illustration, no doubt prompted by the case that caused the final rift: “When an unclean spirit goes out of a man, he goes through dry places, seeking rest, and finds none. Then he says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came’. And when he comes, he finds it empty, swept, and put in order. Then he goes and takes with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter and dwell there; and the last state of that man is worse than the first. So shall it also be with this wicked generation” (Matt.12.43-45) 

The eight woes of Matthew 23 repeat His judgement on the Pharisaic Sanhedrists: “Serpents, brood of vipers! How can you escape the condemnation of hell? Therefore, indeed, I send you prophets, wise men, and scribes: some of them you will kill and crucify, and some of them you will scourge in your synagogues and persecute from city to city, that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah, son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar. Assuredly, I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation” (Matt.23.33-36|) 

The rejection of Israel.

Replacement theologians hold that God, in Christ, rejected the nation of Israel and permanently replaced them in His purposes with the Church. The rejection of Israel by Jesus the Messiah was not a permanent rejection. The Messiah, who always chose His words with great care, spoke of one generation of the nation, ‘this generation’. It is ‘this generation’ of Israel that was rejected, because it was with ‘this generation’ of Israel that He contended. “He (the Son of Man) must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation” (Luke 17.25).  And His recorded words of Matthew 21.43, “Therefore I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken from you and given to a nation bearing the fruits of it,” were spoken to the leaders of that generation (Matt.21.:23).

It will be that single generation that will stand at the bar of God and be accused of unlawfully rejecting their Messiah: “The men of Nineveh will rise up in the judgment with this generation and condemn it, because they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and indeed a greater than Jonah is here. The queen of the South will rise up in the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and indeed a greater than Solomon is here” (Matt.12:41,42)

Previous generations had rejected the servants of YHWH, but that one generation alone rejected the Son of God. Their own words will condemn them. Jesus says as much in His parable of the vinedressers. Their response to the claims of the Lord of the vineyard, presented by the Son and Heir, was: “This is the heir, come let us kill him” (Matt.21:38). 

The phrase ‘this generation’ is used in Matt.11.16; 12.41,42,45; 23.36; 24.34; Mk.8.12,38; 13.30; Luke 7.31; 11.29-32; 11.50,51; 17.25; 21.32. Qualifying adjectives of ‘this generation’ include ‘wicked’, ‘evil’ and ‘adulterous’. The rejection of this generation by the Son of God was justified!

The supercessionist view that God permanently rejected Israel is incorrect. While it is true that a rejection took place, it was the rejection of a generation. While it would have major implications for future generations, it cannot be used to teach that the Messiah withdrew God’s covenantal promises from the nation. As with the wilderness generation at the time of the exodus from Egypt, and as with the generation that went into captivity in Babylon, there is an ‘until’ with this judgement. For the wilderness generation, the ‘until’ lasted 40 years. For the Babylonian captives, the ‘until’ lasted 70 years. Here the ‘until’ is not given a time qualification but a moral dimension. Jesus, referring to His rejection and Israel’s subsequent rejection, gives the condition for their restoration: “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing! See! Your house is left to you desolate; for I say to you, you shall see Me no more until you say, Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!” (Matt.23.39; Luke 13.35).  Here, He is anticipating call from a future repentant Israel. Another saying of the Messiah in Matthew supports this. When He spoke to the apostles He anticipated a future restoration of Israel: “assuredly I say to you, that in the regeneration, when the Son of Man sits on the throne of His glory, you who have followed Me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel” (Matt.19:28) 

Paul, the great expositor, also believed in the future restoration of Israel when he looked into the future and said: “all Israel shall be saved” (Rom.11:26); and this is the context for that mighty statement: “the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable” (Rom.11:29). Luke, describing the teaching ministry of the resurrected Messiah in Acts, categorises it as kingdom truth: “to whom He also presented Himself alive … being seen by them during forty days and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God” (Acts 1:3) Just prior to His ascension they asked, “Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” (Acts 1:6) Jesus did not deny the restoration of Israel only informed them that God the Father had not yet published the timetable of it. “It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority” (Acts 1|:7) Paul asked the question, “I say then, has God cast away His people?” and himself answered, “Certainly not!” (Rom.11:1)

Next time: The reason for the rejection of the generation that rejected their Messiah