John Boda
Psalms through Malachi
We are at the fourth installment of our big picture overview of God’s Kingdom dealing with the prophets who all looked forward to see it coming!
Although Moses was considered the greatest Old Testament prophet, he was largely within the partial
Kingdom time period which we covered in the last series. Here, the two greatest prophets were considered to
be Elijah and Elisha, who both were active in the northern Kingdom during the ninth century B.C.
Other prophets such as Amos and Hosea were also in the northern Kingdom later just before their
destruction in 722 B.C. by Assyria.
Other prophets like Isaiah, Micah and Jeremiah were in the southern part of Judah up to the exile to Babylon in 586 B.C. , Ezekiel and Daniel during the exile in Babylon, and Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi after the return from exile.
There are seventeen prophetic books in the Bible and are divided into the major and minor prophets, not because some were more/less important, but simply for volume. The major prophets like Isaiah and Jeremiah had much more to say, and the minor ones like Haggai and Micah were much shorter.
It would be very easy to get bogged down here in historical information and details, which as important as that is, does not serve us in this overview, so we must move on to the focal points of God’s Kingdom.
The Prophets
Biblical Prophets overall purpose; To ensure obedience to God and his covenant and declare God’s judgment if not.
Most Biblical prophets functioned within the sphere and scope of their particular era and situations,
however, since they speak God’s thoughts and words, the meaning of their statements often has much larger implications! (This is very logical since God is timeless and oversees everything from beginning to end)
Here is one classic example;
David wrote Psalm 22 while he was running for his life and hiding in caves from Saul. He wrote some very emotional and personal words of anguish dealing with his own situation. Yet the words that he wrote, he wrote as a prophet and are forever sealed as Holy Scripture. Furthermore, many of his words have a much larger implication in view, a double meaning;
“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”.
those who see me ridicule me
My heart is like wax and has melted within me
My tongue clings to my jaws, They pierced my hands and my feet
They divide my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots
.
These are just some of the amazing words of David in this Psalm! All things which could very well have happened to him, yet they also speak in detail of the King – Jesus – who at the time, would not be physically born until 1000 years later!
But even more so, scripture many times speaks through the prophets about Kingdom events which have not occurred yet, and to make it even more perplexing, sometimes they speak of it in the past tense! (We will see such examples in Daniel)
Prophetic or Pathetic
There was absolutely no margin of error for Bible Prophets! If you were a Prophet, you spoke the very words of God 100% every time! If there ever was an error, even once, you were a false prophet and the sentence was death.
(Why do you think this was?)
In fact, this was the very calling card of true prophets! If what they said ALWAYS came to pass, then theywere from God, if not, they were of the enemy and were to be not just avoided, but destroyed!
(For further study see Deuteronomy 18: 15-22)
Within the above mentioned scripture, there is also a promise of a very special prophet coming, THE Prophet of God! This is clearly speaking of the King – Jesus, who not only spoke the very words of God, but EVERYTHING he did was exactly what the Father God desired him to do!
The Prophet’s Vision
A New Temple – A New Covenant – A New King – A New Jerusalem – A New Earth – A New Creation!
Even though most of the people who listened envisioned only an improved nation, better policies, more income, better way of life, and freedom from slavery of other nations, the prophets had God’s words, God’s goals, and God’s vision which involved the big, panoramic Kingdom rule coming! Some got it, but most didn’t. (This was the main problem in Israel rejecting Jesus, as they had other expectations and they missed the big picture)
During this period, both split parts of Israel in the north and south, reject the prophetic warnings, and
ultimately reject God, who allows them both to be destroyed and taken away in captivity in judgment. (Israel - northern kingdom first in 722 B.C. by Assyria, then Judah – southern kingdom in 586 B.C. by Babylon)
Later, God causes a remnant to return to rebuild the temple in Jerusalem and many of the people had high hopes of all the prophet’s promised blessings materializing, but their hopes were in vain. The rebuilt Jerusalem was a far cry from its former glory in Solomon’s day, they never enjoyed complete peace, and things progressed from bad to worse again as Alexander the Great and his generals swept conquered the known world forcing Greek customs on the people. (Insert Hanukkah event). Then next was the terrible Iron rule of Rome, which was in power at the time Jesus was born.
The picture was becoming much clearer that;
God had no desire to rebuild the partial model of the Kingdom! God’s goal was to establish the ultimate Kingdom to which the former model pointed to! The partial Kingdom, all the feasts, laws, commandments, were shadows pointing to the coming substance!
let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival or a new moon or Sabbaths which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ.” (Colossians 2: 16-17)
All the Old Testament laws, rituals and even the tabernacle and temple, were all shadows pointing towards the substance and the real which was yet to come!
The earthly temple was important, but it was made with human hands, and only a shadow of the lasting, permanent, eternal one;
“But Christ came as high priest of the good things to come, with the greater and more perfect tabernacle not
made with hands, that is, not of this creation.”(Hebrews 8: 11)
(We must be careful not to always relate distorted thinking to those people back then, but take a good look in the mirror for all of us)
Our problem, many times, is to think and act like God saved us to simply just give us joy, peace, a better life and marriage, and all the religious activities like prayer, worship and Bible study often become and end to themselves! How many times have you heard certain preachers with one primary message – being born again? Yes, that IS very important, but it is only the first step into a much larger world! It is the door, and a means by which we enter through that door (Christ) but there is an incredible world of the Kingdom of God
just beyond it, which God desires all of us to continue towards in our journey.
The point is that prayer, worship, and even salvation are all a means to an end, an ultimate goal of the
establishment of the Kingdom of God on earth!
When the first Apollo astronauts were preparing to go to the moon, they all went through extreme rigorous training. Many scientists and various professionals were all involved every step of the way. They all had one goal in mind – to send these men to the moon and safe return home! Everything they did in preparation was in view of that goal.
Likewise, God has an ultimate goal of restoring his Kingdom to this earth. We are all like those astronauts who go through this life journey assisting and preparing towards that end, the only problem is most are unaware of it!
Daniel
establishment, is Daniel!We need to look at him closely as he was a big part of this Prophetic Kingdom division.
Note: Of all the major Bible characters, only two have nothing bad written about them, Joseph & Daniel (Excluding Jesus of course)
Daniel was one of the prophets who were taken captive by Babylon when they destroyed Judah in 586 B.C. (Destroyed, but not annihilated)
We do not have time to get into the historical account of Daniel, except to say that he was especially blessed by God all during the time he lived as a foreigner and captive Jewish person in a far away land of his captors, all the while knowing that they were the ones who killed many of his family and friends, and ruined much of his culture and world.
While Daniel was in Babylon, God revealed an amazingly detailed picture of all the world’s kingdoms, as well as the final, ultimate Kingdom of God which would come and smash all the rest and be established forever!
Here are some of the key visions given to Daniel by God concerning the Kingdom
;
“I was watching in the night visions, and behold, one like the Son of Man coming with the clouds of heaven! He came to the Ancient of Days, and they brought him near before him.
Then to him was given dominion, and glory and a Kingdom that all peoples, nations and languages should serve him. His dominion is an eternal dominion, which shall not pass away, and his Kingdom shall not be destroyed.
(Daniel 7:13,14)
“Then the Kingdom and dominion and the greatness of the kingdoms under the whole heaven shall be given to the people, the saints of the Most High. His Kingdom is an eternal Kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey him. (Daniel 7:27)
This vision of God’s eternal Kingdom was so new, awesome, and incredible to Daniel, that the very next verse states that he was “greatly troubled” and even his “countenance changed”!
Earlier in Daniel chapter two, he interpreted a dream for King Nebuchadnezzar in which God revealed all the kingdoms of the world, from past to future, and sees a stone made without hands striking the image portraying these kingdoms, and shattering it to pieces, resulting in God’s Kingdom being established forever!
As mentioned, Daniel seemed just as shocked as his listeners to these incredible visions! But God was clearly revealing his panoramic completed picture of establishment of his Kingdom. It seems that Daniel, more than anyone in the Old Testament, was blessed to be given this revelation. All the other true prophets spoke of it also, but Daniel was the one who gave detailed specifics and a complete overview look!
(There is more on Daniel and his amazing prophecies at the end, for those inclined to go further.)
The King & His Kingdom
It is impossible to separate a king from his kingdom! Here in context of God’s Kingdom, that remains very true also.
When we read the Old Testament, we must understand that it is all pointing to the King & his coming
Kingdom! Everything within the old is moving forward with that goal and purpose in mind. (If the Bible is a living organic entity breathed by God through man, then we can expect it to be unified and completely coherent of mind and purpose all leading towards the same goal)
Here is an old saying that bears repeating;
The Old Testament is Christ concealed….and the New Testament is Christ revealed.
That is very true and worth remembering, however, to be perfectly aligned with God’s big picture goals, we can also say;
The Old Testament is Christ – The King & his Kingdom concealed….and the New Testament is Christ – The King & his Kingdom revealed.
The King is all about his Kingdom! The Kingdom is all about the King! We cannot separate the two!
If someone asked you, “What was Jesus’ primary message that he preached?” What would you say?Many would guess, like Billy Graham, his main topic was being born again. Others would say that his main topic was peace, love, and brotherhood. They all would be wrong, dead wrong!
Beyond doubt, his primary message was very short and simple; here are his own words;
“Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is near.” (Matthew 4:17)
That was the very first, and continual message that Jesus preached. He only spoke of being born again once, as important as that is, yet over and over we read of him speaking of the Kingdom of God!
The word – repent – simply means to change your mind and move into a different direction. Yes, being sorry for sins is a big part of it, but in context with his statement about The Kingdom, it takes on another shade altogether.
Repent – change your way of thinking – as you all missed it before and were only concerned with personal and political gain right here and now! Repent – change your way of thinking – and understand that God is about much bigger things, and he wants all of you in on it! The Kingdom of God is very, very near, and coming in full soon!
Repenting & Refocusing
When we read the Gospel accounts, it is easy to get excited and amazed at all the miracles Jesus did, like walk on water, heal the sick, raise the dead and much more! But Jesus always lived within God’s big picture and always had the Kingdom of God in view. All the healings and incredible miracles were NOT his primary focus. They were NOT just something he did to gain attention. They were signs that the Kingdom of God hadcome to earth, and it was very near in coming in full restoration.
How were they signs? In God’s Kingdom, there is no sickness or death, therefore Jesus brought the Kingdom of God to earth and healed people and raised the dead, because in the Kingdom, those things are there at all!
If they were there, any healings or rising of the dead would not be classified as a miracle, but rather the everyday mundane normality! (There are no miracles in the Kingdom of God because the entire Kingdom exists in another realm where to us form our perspective here, the entire realm IS a miracle)
We must refocus! Too many of us have the door as our focus, preaching that Jesus is the door, which is very true, but yet once people come to it, they stop and then go on with their lives with no lasting change.
The Kingdom of God shouts to us that there is a whole lot more of a much larger world just through the door, if we just continue in our journey right now!
C.S. Lewis got it right in his classic book series, and now a chain of popular movies! If you’ve read the books, or seen the movies, you’ll remember that the primary focus is the land of Narnia and the king – Aslan, and the appointments of the young royal family of princes and princesses.
Prophetic Book Overview
.
1. Psalms - The Songbook of a Nation –Written by several writers – 1410 – 450 B.C. –
2. Isaiah – Announcing the Suffering King – Isaiah is author – 700 – 681 B.C.
Key Doctrines: Christ the suffering servant, his 1st & 2nd comings, his kingship & salvation.
3. Jeremiah – The Weeping Prophet – Jeremiah is author – 627 – 570 B.C. –
Key doctrines: Sin, judgment, & the restoration of Israel
4. Lamentations – Hope within Devastation – Jeremiah is author – 586 B.C.
Key doctrines: God’s Judgment and hope found in his love and mercy
5. Ezekiel – Reflections of God’s Glory – Ezekiel is author – 593 – 570 B.C.
Key Doctrines: The sinfulness of Israel
6. Daniel – The First Apocalypse of the Kingdom – Daniel is author – 530 B.C.
Key Doctrines: God’s sovereignty & the coming King & Kingdom
7. Hosea – Unconditional Love & Compassion – Hosea is author – 735 B.C.
Key doctrines: God’s unconditional love for his people
8. Joel – The Day of the Lord – Joel is author – 820 B.C.
Key Doctrines: The day of the Lord is coming of wrath and judgment.
9. Amos – The Importance of True Justice and Worship – Amos is author – 755 B.C.
Key doctrines: Genuine worship of God
10. Obadiah – God’s Judgment of Israel’s Enemies – Obadiah is author – 845 B.C.
Key Doctrines: God’s judgment to Israel’s enemies and his mercy to Israel
11. Jonah – The Reluctant Missionary – Jonah is author – 770 B.C.
Key Doctrines: The mercy of God to all nations & his sovereign rule
12. Micah – Who is Like God? – Micah is author – 720 B.C.
Key Doctrines: God’s judgment of sin and covenant with Israel
13. Nahum – Postponed Judgment Applied – Nahum is author – 650 B.C.
Key Doctrines: God’s judgment of sin is sure, but is delayed if repentance comes
14. Habakkuk – The Just Shall Live by Faith – Habakkuk is author – 610 B.C.
Key Doctrines: The nature of God’s judgment/Proper worship of God/Faith
15. Zephaniah – Shelter in the Midst of Judgment – Zephaniah is author – 630 B.C.
Key Doctrines: The Day of the Lord/Grace & Salvation for his people
16. Haggai – Restoration of the Temple – Haggai is author – 520 B.C.
Key Doctrines: The temple of God & obedience demanded of the people
17. Zechariah – The Coming Messiah! – Zechariah is author – 520 B.C.
Key Doctrines: Repentance/Christ’s 1st & 2nd coming
18. Malachi – Final Prophetic Words – Malachi is author – 730 B.C.
Key Doctrines: God’s covenant with Israel/Israel’s unfaithfulness/Christ’s coming
After Malachi, comes the long period between the Old and New Testaments. In theological history it is called - The Intertestamental Period”, and many call it “The Silent Years” and speaking to his people. It lasted for approximately 400 years; Israel was no longer an independent nation and became a minorterritory in a succession of larger conquering empires.
Yet God was still sovereign and directing events behind the scenes! Apart from God’s care, Israel would have surely become dissolved into the other nations like so many have done.
Most of the people had grown apathetic and tired of waiting for the Kingdom and the coming King.
The Last Word
“ Behold I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the
Lord.”(Malachi 4:5)
Since then, every observant Jewish man, woman, and child earnestly prayed and looked for the coming of Elijah, because he would pave the way, and introduce the Messiah, the King and his Kingdom!
John the Baptizer clearly WAS one and the same as Elijah (According to Jesus himself – Matthew 11:11-13)
(John is considered the greatest Old Testament Prophet of them all)Next, we will begin, “The Present
Kingdom” and look at the personification of the Kingdom of God come to earth in the person of the King himself – Jesus. Please read at least one of the Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke or John
.
More on Daniel
There are twelve chapters in Daniel, which is very appropriate, as twelve is the ultimate perfect number of heaven and eternity! Daniel is given a detailed view into eternity! He is given insight into the panoramic big picture that God is doing with all the nations, both Gentile and Jewish, and also clearly sees the end time events; the tribulation, the antichrist, the coming judgment, and God’s coming Kingdom established on earth forever! This is a lot of insight and vision given to one man!
Daniel is very much complimentary to his New Testament counterpart – John – who also was given a similar look of many of the same things and wrote of it in the book of Revelation.
Daniel Chapter 2
(Greece) to the legs of Iron (Rome) – so far all history – to the feet of clay (Revived Roman Empire) this is yet to come, and may be forming even now. It will be the springboard in which antichrist begins his rule over the entire world.
Basically, we are all living somewhere between the legs and the feet of this image, towards the very end of all things, awaiting the next event – Rapture – when God will once again continue his work on earth counting down the final week of years and ultimately arrive as the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, and an amazing stone cut without hands who will smash this entire image of world kingdoms and establish his own eternal one.
Daniel Chapter 5
Well, it came right out of this chapter!
Daniel is called to interpret another dream, this time of the evil King Belshazzar, and the actual hand of God appears and writes the basic message, you’re done, over, finished, right now! And that very night (maybe hour) the Medes and Persians gained entrance into Babylon and slaughtered the king, the people, and took over world dominance from that night forward.
Babylon was an incredible city at that time! It was an impregnable city with huge walls surrounding it, walls hundreds of feet high and very thick, furthermore, it was heavily guarded all around making it literally impossible to enter for any opposing forces! But that night the armies of the Medes-Persians did just that, how did they do it?
Amazing historical fact confirming the Bible is true
It is very historical as to what happened that night, even to the exact date; October 16th 538 B.C. and the general in charge who conquered Babylon was – Cyrus. The historic accounts are available for anyone, and an event such as this would be very memorable to keep accurate records about, especially for the conquerors
(Medes and Persians)
Babylon had the mighty Euphrates flowing directly through the city. The river was very big and deep and was well guarded. It came in and flowed under the huge walls into the city. The king and city planners had foreseen that it might be used as a means of entrance for opposing armies, so they made two large underwater gates which could let water through, but block any person trying to gain entry. Plus, the gates were far below at the bottom and near impossible for any person to swim unnoticed and work underwater to try breaking the gates
.
That night, Belshazzar was so sure of his brilliance and ego, that he held a huge drunken party for ALL his administration, army, and nobles! This took care of the guards around the walls, but what about the water and the gates below? The Medes-Persians dug a separate channel and re-routed the river in order to nearly dry it up flowing into Babylon. (possibly knee to waist high). The water level lowered without notice because of the drunken feast inside, but the problem was still the gates. However, when Cyrus and his army came to the gates, to their joy and surprise, for some reason they were left wide open! The Medes-Persians snuck through and killed King Belshazzar, his army, and took over Babylon, and became the world ruler from that point on until Greece came years later. Now this is all clear accurate history, but now let’s see what the Bible prophesied about this over 200 years before;
To God, the future is already history, he knows all things, and exists beyond time and space! Over 200 years BEFORE this historic event, God gave a clear prophecy about this to Isaiah!
Read Isaiah 44: 27-28 / Isaiah 45: 1-4
1. The commanding general Cyrus, is named.
2. The drying up of the river is foretold.
3. The drunken party is foretold (45:1) “stripping kings of armor” or “Loosening their loins”
4. The gates being left open are foretold! (God himself did it)
Once again, you can read this as, “Oh yeah, this was all written as a historical account, no big deal” But if you do that, you are ignoring the rock solid fact that Isaiah was written over 200 years BEFORE this event! This is one of the amazing Bible prophecies which should cause further trust and reliance on the accuracy of the Bible!
Daniel 9
In this chapter, God tells Daniel that there will be 70 sevens (490 years) left before all time is ended, God puts and end to sin and sets up his King to rule forever! (A seven or week, is seven YEARS) (Furthermore, a Biblical year is 360 days NOT 365 days)
The start time of this countdown was from “the issuing of the decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem.” We know without doubt, that this clearly occurred on March 14th 445 B.C. by the Persian king Artaxerxes Longimanus, which is also stated in the Bible in Nehemiah 2: 1-8.
62 = 7 weeks of years = 69 weeks of years = 483 Biblical years = 173,880 days (483 years X 360 days)
The Messiah would be cut off (crucified) at the end of the 69 weeks (62 weeks are stated but include the division of the first 7 weeks of years which equal 69)
April 6th A.D. 32 Jesus rides into Jerusalem on his donkey on Palm Sunday and is “cut off” (crucified) a few days later. This precise date was “the time of their visitation” (luke 19) and many of the people knew it and were singing the Messianic Psalm 118 which speaks of the King coming, and “this is THE day”. The Pharisees also knew of this and complained to Jesus to hush the people as they were applying the Messianic Psalm to him, and were in essence saying that Jesus was the King, presenting himself to Jerusalem on that historic day!
Jesus told them if they stopped the rocks themselves would cry out, not denying it.
If you look at the exact time period, take in account the Biblical 360 day year, and also eliminate one year as there was never a “0 B.C.”, also add the various leap year days (116 of them) you will find that from March 14th 445 B.C. to April 6th A.D. 32 is 173,880 days, which is exactly 69 weeks of years, or 483 Biblical years!
There is one week of years left, seven years to complete the 490 year, 70 weeks prophecy.
Most Biblical scholars believe that this last seven year period will begin immediately following the rapture, and is known as “Jacob’s Trouble” “The Day of the Lord” or “The Great Tribulation”.
In other words, God started his countdown time clock of 490 years in 445 B.C. and could have ended all things seven years after Christ was crucified, but stopped his clock at that moment!What began at that moment is what is called “The Times of the Gentiles”, where God is dealing with all the other nations other than Israel, and saving as many who will come to him.We have been living within a parenthesis for over 2000 years! All this time has been due to God’s mercy and grace desiring to save as much of the world as possible!
But very soon God will resume his countdown clock and the last seven years will usher in his great wrath and judgment. (See Daniel 12:1 / II Thes. 2: 3, 4) (antichrist will reign and commit the abomination of desolation midway through this last seven years)
All this should make us give praise to God, and renew all of our hope in his soon return!
We should all be in service to the King, advancing his Kingdom through word and deed,
while at the same time eagerly looking for his soon coming!
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