Session 2: The Final Covenant (2/4)

So throughout Israel's history, God spoke through those whom He appoints as judges, the prophets. Actually by the time we get to Samuel, one of the first prophets, the voice of God was already rare (1 Sam 3). Moving on through the OT, into the major and minor prophets, not only was scarcity of God’s voice often an issue, clarity was also a problem. As Israel continually turned away from God, repeatedly forgetting that their success as a nation is not about their own strength, real prophets began to be persecuted and killed off.

Here is Elijah, a prophet of God, just kicked the butts of the 400 priests of Baal, which was the pagan god sponsored by Ahab and Jezebel, king and queen of Israel at the time. Of course, Jezebel beings hunting Elijah down, and Elijah flees to a cave (1 Kings 19:13-14):

When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave.

Then a voice said to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”

He replied, “I have been very zealous for the Lord God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your covenant, torn down your altars, and put your prophets to death with the sword. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too.”

So as the OT comes to a close, we arrive at what theologians would call the silent years, this 400 year gap between the old and new testament. There were no more prophets, and certainly no kings since Israel was in exile first in Assyria, then Babylon, then Persia, which was then swallowed up by the Greek and Roman empires. The voice of God ceased to exist apart from the previously written down law.

So is it any wonder that the Jewish religious establishment in the NT viewed the law so tightly, that's all they had for 400 years. It also makes perfect sense that John the Baptist was regarded highly, because here is a prophet once again, the direct word of the Lord was proclaimed again, some Israelites even saw him as the saviour. When Jesus asked His disciples who the crowd thought He was, one disciple replied that they think He’s John the Baptist come back to life.

But look at what John the Baptist says about himself (John 3:28-30):

You yourselves bear me witness, that I said, ‘I am not the Christ, but I have been sent before him.’ The one who has the bride is the bridegroom. The friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly at the bridegroom's voice. Therefore this joy of mine is now complete. He must increase, but I must decrease.”

So John the Baptist, essentially seen by everyone as the return of the jedi, return of the prophet, return of the voice of God, this big deal, proclaims that He is only there to pave the way for someone far greater, not just a prophet, a saviour. We see John paving the way for this transition to Jesus. Here is John the Baptist, whom most theologians would consider the last of the OT prophets, essentially proclaiming that a whole new era is coming.

We see that Jesus was indeed different. He was God in the flesh but yet He had a radically different relationship with the people around Him than what people had with God in the OT. He forgave people, not just for the things He witnessed, but for all the trespasses in their lives, which threw the jewish religious elite into fits. He healed people. When He came close to people they didn't die, they were healed. He had compassion for people, he stepped into people's lives and situations rather than command them at a distance, He invited people to dine with Him. A short little tax collector that has been extorting people all his life got to dine with God himself.