What is it we know about the period between Malachi, the births of John the Baptist, and Jesus Christ?
What is first evident is, God was silent to the Jew, and Gentile world for some 400 years. Secondly, God Himself had commanded, and established two bodies of Temple priest, the Levites; and the order of Melchizedek. In Malachi day, the Levites were no longer the Temple priests, having been replaced.
As for the order of Melchizedek, it could only be fulfilled by our High Priest Jesus Christ. So where did this leave the Jews from Malachi to Christ? Before I answer, let’s reflect on other issues God had with the Jews at this period of time.
Israel was being ruled by a Persian governor, Malachi 1:8. How do we know this? The word for governor in Malachi 1:8, is borrowed from the Persian governors in Palestine. The Temple had been finished, and sacrifices were again being offered. But the zeal of the people had sunk to new lows. Morals were failing the heart of the people, for God had been emptied out on the fires of willful, disobedience, and sin.
Marriages to the Gentiles had become epidemic; failing to pay tithes; blemished sacrifice were being offered as sin offerings unto God, and the Temple priests had become negligent;
Malachi 1:6, “O Priest, that despise my (God’s) name.”
Malachi 2:8-9, “Ye are departed out of the way; ye have caused many to stumble at the law; ye have corrupted the covenant of Levi. Therefore have I also make you contemptible and base before all people (Gentiles,) according as ye have not kept my way.”
Until the births of John the Baptist, and Jesus Christ, no prophets had been sent to Israel. Jesus said to the scribes and Pharisees,
Matthew 23:31, “Ye be witnesses unto yourselves, that ye are the children of them which killed the prophets.”
They continued in their murderous ways by first killing John the Baptist, and then Jesus Himself, the last prophet unto the Jews.
Josephus a Jewish first century historian writes, “They (the Jews) are, Atheists and the dullest of barbarians.” Tacitus another historian writes, “They (the Jews) have a hostile hatred of all other men.”
Temple worship had become useless! In the first temple built by Solomon, God promised to manifest Himself; to dwell between the cherubim, that stood at each end of the Ark of the Covenant. Between them was the mercy seat; on this, the splendor and glory of God was exhibited.
In the second temple, the one enlarged and adorned by Herod, five things were missing that were instructed by God to be in the first temple. They were,
1. The Ark of the Covenant:
2. The Mercy seat:
2. The Holy Spirit of prophecy:
3. The Urim and Thummin.
4. The sacred fire.
5. God’s Divine presence.
This second temple had long been abandoned by Jehovah. There was no legal sacrifice for the sin of the Jews, or anyone else. The Levites were replaced by the Pharisees, and to a lesser extent, the Sadducees. The world now lay as an open wound before God; the life blood of all men was being poured out at the altars of Satan.
Ezekiel 36:18-19, “I (God) poured my fury upon them (the Jews) for the blood that they had shed upon the land, and for their idols wherewith they had polluted it.”
Some thirty years after the death of Christ, the Jews continued in their useless, polluted animal sacrificial system of worship. Four hundred years before Jesus came it was written,
Amos 5:21-22, “I hate, I despise your feast days, and I will not smell (savior) in your solemn assemblies. Though ye offer me burnt offerings and your meat (food) offerings, I will not accept them: neither will I regard the peace offerings of your fat beasts. Take away from me the noise of thy songs; for I will not hear the melody of thy viols. Let judgment run down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream.”
Some claim Gentile strangers sojourned in the land, and this may be so. Jews considered Gentile’s to be unclean dogs. But there were the proselytes, those Gentiles that had been circumcised, and who had accepted the Jewish religion. Yet the Jews were forbidden to marry any Gentile, and never were Gentiles allowed in the Temple, beyond the “Wall of separation.” If they disobeyed, they would have been killed.
God said of John the Baptist, “For he shall be great in the sight of the Lord, — He shall be filled with the Holy Ghost, even from his mother’s womb.
Verse 17, “He shall go before him (Jesus) n the spirit and power of Elijah.”
John the Baptist was sent first to prepare the way of the Savior. Yet John said of Jesus, “There is one mightier than I, — He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost.”
Jesus came to the Jew first; then after His resurrection, sent His envoy, Paul the apostle to the Gentile. Jesus said, “I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” Lost here means, the people of Israel were to suffer eternal death, as in future punishment, exclusion from the Messiah’s kingdom,
Matthew 10:5-6, Jesus said to the apostles, “Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not: Go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel,” here we have very clear instructions from the Lord himself.
What gospel were the apostles to teach? Jesus said, “Go preach, saying, the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Theirs was the gospel of repentance, and baptism. After Jesus ascension, they taught the resurrection of Jesus, and of the dead. The Jews had witnessed the resurrection of many O.T. Jews, and witnessed them entering Jerusalem: Matt.27:52-53. This was a sign unto the Jews, a down payment, that thing promised by Jesus; the resurrection of the saints, was being shown now, and would be again done in the future.
Paul had secrets revealed to him by Jesus; mysteries that no man had ever heard; not even the apostles. He calls the gospel,
Romans 2:16, “His gospel.”
Was Paul hijacking the Lords gospel? No. In Romans 15-19, Paul uses the phrases, “Gospel of God,” and, “The gospel of Christ.” Paul claims to be a servant of Christ and not men, Galatians 1:11.
Galatians 1:12, “I neither received it (the gospel) of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ.”
Romans 11:13, “I (Paul) speak to you Gentiles, inasmuch as I am the apostle of the Gentiles, I magnify mine office (his ministry.)”
Ephesians 3:1, “I Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles.”
In verse 16, Paul said, he was to, “Reveal His (the Father’s) Son in me, that I might preach Him (Jesus) among the heathen (Gentiles.)” Compare with,
Galatians 2:2, “I (Paul) went up by revelation, and communicated unto them (those who Paul had gone to 14 years before, Gentiles in Syria, and Cilicia) that gospel which I preach among the Gentiles.”
Paul’s gospel was that of grace; salvation by faith alone, and NOT of works, meaning to keep the law; that the Gentiles like the Jews were granted repentance, and had been adopted into the promises, and blessing given believing O.T. Jews.
Phillip LaSpino www.seekfirstwisdom.com