lectio divina:: between malachi and matthew

I just finished reading through the old testament last night. I started genesis 1 on 3/18/07, so its taken me awhile; over 2 years! the old testament ends with the exiles returning to jerusalem and rebuilding the temple. as the old testament closes, God is speaking through prophets like malachi and zechariah. but when the new testament begins, there are no more prophets, no more Babylonians and no more Assyrians in the picture. now its Romans and Pharisees and Sadducees. where did they come from? this has sort of fascinated me recently, and I’ve been doing a lot of reading on this subject, and have lots more scheduled for the summer. forgive me if this is boring.


Nebuchadnezzar of the Babylonians empire was defeated by darius and the Persian empire in the book of daniel. daniel predicted that the Greeks would be the next dynasty, and then the romans. he also predicted that alexander the great would quickly take over the entire world and then die at a young age. when alexander’s armies moved into israel, they let them continue their worship of God. it seems that alexander was impressed that one of God’s prophets would mention anything about him. Alexander spread greek culture and language throughout his kingdom- and this is something that the orthodox jews didn’t appreciate. the protestors later became known as the Hasidim (and later the Pharisees). other jews thought this was cool. jews started sporting short haircuts, and they built a gymnasium in jerusalem. when Alexander died, his generals split the kingdom 4 ways, and israel was eventually ruled by Antiochus IV (who led the Syrian portion of the empire). this guy was not into jewish culture or Judaism. he outlawed Judaism, reading the bible, sacrificing at the temple and circumcising babies. he put a statue of zeus in the temple and even sacrificed a pig in the temple in jerusalem. the place erupted in a revolutionary war.


the leaders of the revolt became known as the maccabees. (these are the guys that I have been particularly fascinated with. they are the focus of my reading these days). their leader was “the hammer,” judas maccabbeus. their followers eventually became known as zealots. the maccabees fought to the death, drove out the Syrians and won their independence. in 63 BC, pompey marched on jerusalem, and brought it under roman rule. the emperor left herod the great in charge.


in the meantime, the greek language spread all over the world. the Pharisees became powerful as local leaders who had a deep love for God’s word. the Sadducees were loyal to the empire, and the zealots all wanted their freedom again; and they knew that if they did it once, they could do it again. the sanhedrin were over everyone, and served as the supreme court of the land. and all of israel waited for the prophecies to come true of a coming king that would rule the earth with justice and righteousness. the world was ready for Him.

not only that, there were no prophets for 400 years. no voice of God for 4 centuries. then, as galatians 4:4 says, "when the right time came, God sent His Son." after 400 years, the voice of God was heard again. this time, it wasn’t a prophet, or an angel, or a sign, or even a donkey.
the voice of God screamed out of a feeding trough in bethlehem;
this time, the voice of God came in the form of a baby’s cries.

God came back-
and the world would never be the same again.