Sunday Thoughts: 400 Years

The story of God's chosen people, the Israelites, was one of rebellion and repentance, followed by ever more rebellion. God finally had enough of His people's unfaithfulness and allowed them to wallow in their sins, which led to generations of exile, where they fell under the yoke of foreign tyrants.

The remnant of the Israelites who came out of exile awaited deliverance from their enemies. They expected relief in the form of God’s promised Messiah, who would deliver them from their enemies.

The Israelites were used to hearing directly from God via the prophets. You could even say that they had taken that privilege for granted.

"God told the Israelites exactly what they needed to do to please Him and maintain their relationship," writes Lori Stanley Roeleveld at Christianity.com. "The Israelites obeyed for a time, but eventually, they would start following false gods and committing other acts of disobedience. God would then send them hard times so that they would repent from their disobedience and return to Him. They obeyed for a time, but the cycle would begin again."

For a time, the prophets were still relaying God's messages to His people, including the last prophecy, which came through the prophet Malachi.

“Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes. And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction” (Malachi 4:5-6, ESV).

Then came 400 years of silence from God. Not a word, not a sign — silence.

"Now, in the time of Malachi, not only were they not repenting when He pointed out their sin, but they accused Him of being the problem," Roeleveld writes. "God’s relationship with the Israelites had reached a point familiar to anyone who has loved someone insisting on their own way."

"Usually, that’s a time to be silent, fall back to establish a healthy boundary, and allow our loved ones to experience the consequence of that sin," she continues. That's what God did with His people.

Related: Christmas Day Thoughts: Promises Fulfilled

That doesn’t mean that absolutely nothing happened, of course. GotQuestions has an excellent recap of what happened during the intertestamental period. It was a time of political upheaval in Israel, including Greek and Egyptian rule and Judas Maccabeus and his uprising.

Many scholars believe that the fulfillment of Daniel’s prophecy of the desecration of the temple took place during this period when Antiochus Epiphanes turned the temple into a center for Greek worship:

Out of one of them came a little horn, which grew exceedingly great toward the south, toward the east, and toward the glorious land. It grew great, even to the host of heaven. And some of the host and some of the stars it threw down to the ground and trampled on them. It became great, even as great as the Prince of the host. And the regular burnt offering was taken away from him, and the place of his sanctuary was overthrown. And a host will be given over to it together with the regular burnt offering because of transgression, and it will throw truth to the ground, and it will act and prosper. Then I heard a holy one speaking, and another holy one said to the one who spoke, “For how long is the vision concerning the regular burnt offering, the transgression that makes desolate, and the giving over of the sanctuary and host to be trampled underfoot?” And he said to me, “For 2,300 evenings and mornings. Then the sanctuary shall be restored to its rightful state.”

Daniel 8:9-14 (ESV)

"By taking the epitaph Epiphanes ('God Manifest'), Antiochus even claimed to be Zeus incarnate," explains the Biblical Archaeology Society. "Many of the pagan nations embraced and welcomed these policies, but in the land of Judea they caused a cultural civil war, notably among members of the high priestly families."

This, of course, led to the Maccabean revolt and the Hasmonean dynasty. But earthly rule wasn’t what God had in store for His people over the long term. God sent His angel to speak to a priest in Jerusalem, speaking to His people for the first time in 400 years:

In the days of Herod, king of Judea, there was a priest named Zechariah, of the division of Abijah. And he had a wife from the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth. And they were both righteous before God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and statutes of the Lord. But they had no child, because Elizabeth was barren, and both were advanced in years. Now while he was serving as priest before God when his division was on duty, according to the custom of the priesthood, he was chosen by lot to enter the temple of the Lord and burn incense. And the whole multitude of the people were praying outside at the hour of incense. And there appeared to him an angel of the Lord standing on the right side of the altar of incense. And Zechariah was troubled when he saw him, and fear fell upon him. But the angel said to him, “Do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer has been heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John. And you will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth, for he will be great before the Lord. And he must not drink wine or strong drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother’s womb. And he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God, and he will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready for the Lord a people prepared.”

Luke 1:5-17 (ESV)

And the angel appeared to a young woman to announce that she would give birth to the Messiah:

In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. And the virgin’s name was Mary. And he came to her and said, “Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!” But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be. And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.”

Luke 1:26-32 (ESV)

And once that Baby was born, angels announced His birth to the lowliest of the lowly:

And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with great fear. And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.” And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!”

Luke 2:8-14 (ESV)

The Hebrew people expected a Messiah who would rescue them. They thought that Messiah was going to be a political leader who would save the nation from the despotism of foreign oppressors. Instead, He sent His Son as a tiny baby into the world to save us from the ultimate tyranny: our own sin.

When He broke His 400 years of silence, God set in motion the ultimate stage of His redemptive plan. And He did it in the most unexpected way. That’s what we celebrate this week.

Merry Christmas! May you and your family rejoice in what God did through His son Jesus.