(In my book, The Lamb of God, sought to provide an accurate background of his world during first century B.C. To do that you must know what had come before. Who and what the influencers were. This meditation is meant to give a snapshot of that reality.)
“Behold, the days are coming,” says the Lord God,
“That I will send a famine on the land,
Not a famine of bread,
Nor a thirst for water,
But of hearing the words of the Lord. – Amos 8:11 NIV
When the prophets of old ceased to speak there was a famine in the land of God’s word. For four hundred and forty-four years the people waited for God to save them from their oppressors, but there was nary a word or whisper. They hungered, they thirsted, they grew weak for their lack of knowledge. It was as if Yahweh had said all he could say and he had turned his head away from them, unable to watch all that would transpire in the onslaught of the Gentile nations that would trample Jerusalem. Had his people angered him so abhorrently that even the heavens had turned to bronze? It seemed that every prayer they uttered simply fell back to earth like arrows repelled by a shield.
During those years they had barely endured the campaigns of Alexander, the Ptolemy’s, the Seleucids, Antiochus III and IV, and even the Hasmonean Jews who lead in the unsanctioned role of both King and Priest.
Jerusalem was renamed Acra (meaning: the stronghold of foreign powers). The temple was profaned by the statues of foreign gods. People forgot that their temple had once been designated as Yahweh’s footstool, and Jerusalem was to be the City of Peace. Their Hebrew culture had been effectively canceled, conquered and sacred documents had been taken to the safety of hidden caves. As the first century AD approached, only a remnant of faithful believers in the covenant remained. They fled into the wilderness areas to the north and east, and lived in bleak poverty to order to avoid the impurity of their oppressors. Those who adapted to the Hellenization processes had forgotten the former things and lost their faith identity.
Those years were very bleak indeed, brother fighting against brother, uprising after uprising, opportunists arose at every turn. It got so bad that the tyrant Alexander Jannaeus, who ruled as Hasmonean King and High Priest, put to death over 50,000 of his own people (the Jews) for protesting against him.
Dividing lines were drawn, creating the sects of Sadducees, Pharisees, Essenes, and Zealots. Each sect was based in religious and political belief and actions. Amongst them power struggle ensued, confusing things all the more. Rome entered the scene to conquer. Allied with them were the Idumean father and son, Antipater and Herod. Once the campaign had succeeded, Herod was given reign over the land as a backhanded slap to the Jews.
We have been given to think the church would be a realm of pristine peace, but the history of the Jews, the Temple, and God’s people of faith shows us a different reality. Chaos has historically taunted, threatened and sought to rule the people of God. Into this world of spiritual warfare God’s Son was to be born. Into this hostile environment, the Lord sent his forerunner equipped with the spirit of the prophet Elijah. He would prepare the way for his ministry to begin. John the Baptizer would remind the people who they were, and to Whom they belonged. He would purify them with repentance before the Christ would appear.
–Take away?
Today we look around and we see chaos. Wars, rumors of war, divided party lines, divided churches, a famine of a true word from God, we hear of unstoppable fires, tsunamis, tornado’s, hurricanes, earthquakes, floods, destruction. We see fearful signs, and know of oppressive aggressors, tyrants, and terrorist. We see world rulers with unbelievable wealth and an onslaught of incumbent poverty, we have fear provoking technology, and we experience disease and plagues. We live among unease, violence, perversions,…the list could go on and on…
But remember, it was into the hopelessness of such times that Christ made his first Advent. He first came in ‘the fullness of time”, and he will again. So no matter how frightening our prospects, we must never give up hope or surrender our belief in his power to save us through it all. We wait expectantly with our heads lifted high. We choose to remain a minority, a part of the remnant of people who earnestly wait for his feet to once more touch the Mount of Olives from where they once left.
At his next Advent, he will set all things right. So keep oil in your lamps, don’t allow your hope to waver. Purify and dedicate yourself as his holy temple. May your lamp light miraculously never go out, so that when he comes again the first thing he will see is your joyful face, upturned, hopeful, and silently waiting for Him.
K. S. McFarland 