Skip to main content

Waiting for the Messiah


The first century Jewish world was just as diverse as any religious movement today is. There were theological arguments, divisions based on class, geographic differences, interpretive schools, and political squabbles. Two thousand years later and halfway around the globe we read about these things in the New Testament, especially in how they relate to Jesus. However, that difference in time and geography causes to be blind to many of the distinctions that existed within first century Judaism.

One thing of particular interest to us is what the Jews of that time expected in their Messiah. We normally give a standard answer of “a military leader” and leave it at that. The truth is the expectations for the Messiah in that world were just as diverse and varied as any set of opinions on an important subject.

Some Jews were looking for a military leader, as we often say, who would slaughter the Romans and establish the nation of Judah once again as a world superpower. Others were looking for a priestly figure who would purify the temple and return the glory of God to Jerusalem. Still others thought that the Messiah would be a prophet that heralded the destruction of the old temple and structures and would begin anew, and there were many more views besides this.

The one common thread through all of these various expectations of the Messiah is that Jesus defied them all. All of them were right on certain points, but they were also all wrong too. In the next few posts I will examine some of these individual groups and what they expected Jesus to be. I’ll look at what they got right and what they got wrong, and also how they show us things about our own expectations about Jesus. Just like them, sometimes we get it right, and other times we miss the mark.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Thankful

Today is Thanksgiving, the day that we are supposed to celebrate all the things we are thankful for. It is a time of family reunions, football, and turkey eating. I sincerely pray that each and every one of you has a good day today. I'll admit that being thankful has not been easy for me this year. As pretty much all of you know, my mother passed away December of last year. Though she had been in the hospital for months, we were not expecting it. In fact I was sure she would be finally able to come home within a matter of weeks. Instead she peacefully passed on into the arms of Jesus, whom she loved more dearly than anyone else. As you can imagine, the entire family was heart broken. After what can easily be described as the worst Christmas ever, I returned to home to Illinois. It was here that I finally broke down. I spent the next months doing everything except being thankful. I cursed God, wept, screamed, begged to have her back, and was generally not the nicest person to be...
3 comments
Read more

Proverbs, Wisdom

Wisdom is an essential part of living a godly life. The ability to make good judgments and identify potentially sinful situations are skills all Christians should have. The Bible repeatedly emphasizes that it is the duty of parents and older Christians to pass on these skills and train younger generations in wisdom. The book of Proverbs is a book all about wisdom. The various authors of the book are trying to pass on the things they have learned to a younger generation. They want all that come after them to know that true wisdom comes from God. Background Like the book of Psalms, the book of Proverbs is a collection of various sayings and proverbs from many different people. The primary author we associate the book with is King Solomon, who wrote the most out of any single author, but he is just one of several writers. It is a very interesting book in this regard. The book of Proverbs can be tricky because it isn't always consistent in how the text flows together. Some...
Post a Comment
Read more

Ordinary Means

The Bible is a book. Think about that for a minute. One of the primary ways God chose to communicate to humanity was through a book. Think about just how many books there are in the world. We have entire stores dedicated to selling books and government departments whose sole job is preserving books. Almost every culture on the planet, in some form or another, has used books.  I think we often forget just how ordinary something like the Bible is. Is it inspired by God? Yes. Is it authoritative? Yes. Is it also a book? Yes. It amazes me more and more the more I think about it that God chose to communicate to us not by some miraculous arrangement of the stars or a telepathic message but rather through a book.  Just like any other book, the Bible was written by ordinary people in their specific cultures, languages, circumstances, genres, styles, and purposes. God chose this ordinary, mundane thing to communicate eternal truth of the most fantastic sort. God took the ordinary and t...
Post a Comment
Read more