Dancing in the Kingdom- Table of Contents
Dancing In the Kingdom – Part 1 – Shadows of the Kingdom – Chapter 1 – Prelude
Clash of empires
[Bible references:1, 2 and 3 Maccabees; Lamentations 3; Matthew 3:1-12]
As the era of the Old Testament ends
- the Assyrian Empire took the tribes of Northern Kingdom into exile where they were never to be heard from again in history,
- the Babylonian Empire conquered the Assyrian empire and then took the best and brightest of the Southern Kingdom to Babylon,
- the Persian empire overtook the Babylonian empire and allowed those Jews to not only return to their homeland but gave them the resources to begin the rebuilding of the city of Jerusalem and the temple.
- the Greek Empire overtook much of the world, including the Persian Empire, then imposed its culture and language on all its territories. After the death of Alexander the Great, the Greek Empire split up.
- Israel is first controlled by the Egyptian remnant of the Greek empire where some Jews were deported to Egypt where the Greek Septuagint version of scripture was written.
- Then Israel came under control of the Syrian remnant of the Greek Empire whose general desecrated the temple, which invoked a successful rebellion led by the Hasmonean family and Israel become independent for a few years. The Maccabee books were written in this time.
- the Roman Empire overtook the Greek Empire but kept Greek as the common language of the Empire, which in later years would become the language the church would use to write the New Testament texts as well as many of the texts that were written by the early church Fathers.
At the time the New Testament begins, the “king of Israel” installed by the Roman Empire was King Herod the Great. All the tumult of the times created an atmosphere where there was much speculation about the end of times and the coming of the Messiah. In fact, around the time of Jesus, there were many who claimed to be the Messiah.[1]
There are up to 400 prophecies concerning Jesus that were written in the Old Testament.[2] All the way back in the third chapter of Genesis, when Adam and Eve rejected God’s authority, God started to lay out His plan to have his image-bearing creatures restored to fellowship with Him. The New Testament introduces us to John the Baptist who could be said to be last of the Old Testament style prophets. He is the one who, as foretold by the Old Testament, was sent to prepare the way for Jesus’ ministry.
The New Testament Gospels, which are biographies of Jesus, emphasize the years of Jesus’ ministry leading up to his death and resurrection.
[1] Tabor, James. “Messiahs in the Time of Jesus” This page lists 12 Messiah-claimants between 47 BC to AD 66. Taborblog, jamestabor.com/messiahs-in-the-time-of-jesus/
[2] Appendix D – Prophecies about Jesus
Observe
Read Lamentations 3. In times of silence and grief, what is a cause for hope?
Dancing In The Kingdom 