Through the Bible - The Silent Years

But when the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law... (Galatians 4:4)

When God seems silent, He is not absent—the 400 years between Malachi and Matthew prove He was working miraculously to prepare the way of His Son.

When the Fullness of Time Was Come

When you read Galatians 4:4, you wonder exactly what the author is trying to say. God is speaking about the period we'll look at tonight—the time between the Testaments. We've just finished the Old Testament, closing the book of Malachi a couple of weeks ago. And when Malachi closes, the nation of Israel is at a very interesting position in history.

They had just come back after a 70-year exile to Babylon. God had spoken through Jeremiah that they would go into exile for their sin, and Daniel calculated from Jeremiah's words that the exile would last 70 years. God had also spoken through Isaiah that a Persian king named Cyrus would give Israel the opportunity to return—and He named Cyrus before he was even born, before Persia was even the prominent nation.

The Return and the Rebuilding

Over a quarter of a million people had gone into Babylon, but only about 50,000 returned. These were the committed ones, who came back with purpose: to rebuild the temple and Jerusalem. As we saw in Haggai and Zechariah, the people became discouraged because of obstacles—just as we get discouraged when God is doing a renewing work and obstacles arise.

So God sent Haggai and Zechariah to encourage the people, especially their governor, Zerubbabel, of the line of David. God told Zerubbabel he would finish the work: "Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the LORD." It was God's work, accomplished through the men He used.

They built the temple, Nehemiah rebuilt the wall, and the city was secure. But as soon as they were secure, they began to drift. So God sent Malachi—just before He ceased speaking for 400 years—to call the people back to Himself. How easy it is for us to drift and backslide. Paul reminds us in 1 Corinthians that all these things happened to Israel as examples for our instruction.

A People Looking for the Messiah

God had told this people through Zechariah that the Messiah would step foot in the very temple they had built. You remember the older men who wept because the new temple wasn't as glorious as the old. But God said the glory of this temple would be greater—not because of gold or silver, which are His, but because His Holy One would step into it.

So the people looked forward to the Messiah. But after fifty or sixty years, when He hadn't shown up as far as they could tell, they were discouraged and backslid. God sent Malachi to call them back, and promised that one would come to prepare the way of the Lord. From the time Malachi spoke around 435 BC until that forerunner came would be over 400 years—with no inspiration, no prophet, no word from God.

Four Hundred Years That Changed Everything

To put it in context: our nation is only 232 years old as we sit here in 2008. Israel spent 400 years without any word from God. We get upset when we don't hear from the Lord after twenty minutes—they hadn't heard for four centuries.

When you compare Israel at the time of Malachi with Israel at the time of Matthew and John the Baptist, it looks like a completely different nation. At Malachi's time, Israel was back in the land under Medo-Persian dominion, with a puppet government, a restored (if smaller) temple, and a high priest still from the line of Aaron. They had no king, but they could trace the kingly line from David to Zerubbabel. They were a united people with a common goal and priestly service.

Four hundred years later, the Medo-Persians are gone; Rome is the dominant power. The center of power has shifted from east to west, and Daniel's prophecies come into play.

Daniel's Dream and the Four Empires

Nebuchadnezzar had a dream and demanded that his wise men both tell him the dream and interpret it. Only Daniel, by the word of the Lord, could. He saw a great statue with a head of gold, chest and arms of silver, a body of bronze, legs of iron, and feet of iron mixed with clay.

Daniel told the king: the head of gold is you. But Babylon would be overtaken by the silver Medo-Persian Empire, then by the bronze Grecian Empire, then by the iron Roman Empire, and finally a Rome-like state mixed with all kinds of religions—the iron mixed with clay. Hundreds of years before, with absolute accuracy, Daniel told what would take place. And history bears it out: Babylon fell to Medo-Persia, Medo-Persia to Greece, Greece to Rome—power shifting from east to west, where it has remained ever since.

A Completely Changed Nation

By the book of Matthew, Rome is dominant. Jerusalem is under a Roman governor; Palestine is a puppet state that never regains full independence. There is no Jewish king—instead an Edomite, an Idumean from the line of Esau, sits on the throne: Herod. The high priest is no longer from the line of Aaron, but a political hireling. The temple, though still significant, is no longer the center of Jewish life—the synagogue has emerged in its place.

Israel has split into three major groups: the Pharisees, the Sadducees, and the much smaller Essenes. None of these existed in Malachi's day. It's during these silent years that they came to power. It's as if the curtain closes on the Old Testament and God changes the entire set. Anyone who's been to a play knows how the stage looks entirely different when the curtain reopens. That's exactly what happens between the Testaments—and God did it for a purpose.

For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. (Romans 5:6)

In Galatians 4 the fullness of time had come; in Romans 5 it was "in due time." At the right moment, Jesus shows up on the scene. Jerusalem changed hands more than a dozen times during these years, with constant upheaval, producing in the people a deep thirst for God to act. Jesus said those who hunger and thirst after righteousness shall be filled—and that thirst explains why the nation was so focused on a political Messiah who would fix everything.

Alexander the Great and the Goat

Daniel chapters 8 and 11 give us the best outline of these 400 years. While in Persia, Daniel saw a ram pressing from east to west, and then a goat with a prominent horn flying from the west to knock the ram over. That horn broke off, and four horns came up in its place. Gabriel explained: the ram is Medo-Persia; the goat is Greece, and its great horn is Greece's first king.

That king arose in the mid-300s BC—Alexander the Great, son of Philip of Macedon, trained by Aristotle (who was trained by Plato, who was trained by Socrates). At twenty, with great power, Alexander united Greece and swept east, destroying the Medo-Persian Empire. For twelve years he never lost a battle, conquering all the way to modern India.

Alexander and the High Priest

As Alexander moved south to conquer Egypt, he had to pass through Israel. Josephus tells us he intended to lay siege to Jerusalem. But a godly high priest named Jaddua—mentioned in Nehemiah—was told by the Lord to go meet him. The priests went out in their white linen. Alexander, seeing them, went ahead of his army and bowed before the high priest, astonishing his men. He said he had seen Jaddua in a vision back in Macedon, and God had told him the priest had a message.

Jaddua brought out the scroll of Daniel and showed Alexander that he was the one prophesied to overtake the world. Alexander was so moved that he entered Jerusalem, offered sacrifices, and granted the Jews the peace they requested.

After twelve years, Alexander reached the point where there were no more lands to conquer. History records he became so depressed that he drank himself to death at about thirty-three, leaving no heir. Just as Daniel said, his horn broke off and four horns rose in its place.

The Seleucids and the Ptolemies

Alexander's four leading generals divided his kingdom. The two most prominent were Seleucus, who took the north (Syria), and Ptolemy, who took the south (Egypt). For about 300 years they battled back and forth, exactly as Daniel chapter 11 outlines in perfect detail—prophecy written hundreds of years before. How did God know? He is outside of time and knows all things.

And who sat between Syria in the north and Egypt in the south? Israel—and Jerusalem, the most fought-over city in history, changing hands at least 27 times. Its name means "city of peace," yet it has known constant war, even to this day, with the three monotheistic religions all claiming the Temple Mount.

Antiochus Epiphanes, the Madman

Around 203 BC the Seleucid kingdom grew powerful under Antiochus the Great, whose son Antiochus Epiphanes rose to the throne. "Epiphanes" means "the illustrious one," but his own court called him Epimanes—"the madman." And he was. He fulfilled Daniel's prophecy of one who would lay siege to Jerusalem, desecrate the temple, and set up an abomination of desolation.

Marching to attack Egypt, Antiochus was driven back when Rome sent ships to rescue the Ptolemies. Word reached Jerusalem that he was dead, and the people rejoiced. But he wasn't dead—and when he heard the Jews celebrating, he stormed back into Jerusalem and killed 40,000 Jews in a single day.

He had already removed the godly high priest Onias III—the last from the line of Aaron—and installed political appointees who tried to bring Greek culture into Jerusalem, the Hellenizing of the Jews. Now Antiochus sacrificed a pig on the altar, boiled its parts, and sprinkled the broth throughout the temple and the Holy of Holies, setting up an image of Zeus to be worshipped. Daniel had said the temple would lie in ruin for 2,300 days—and that is exactly how long it lay desolate until it was rededicated.

The Maccabees and the Feast of Dedication

The Jews were so outraged that a priestly family rose up—Matthias and his sons—including Judas Maccabeus. (The books of Maccabees record this period; they are historical but not inspired, part of the Apocrypha.) With a small army, like Gideon against the Midianites, Judas overcame the Seleucid forces and recaptured the temple around December of 165 BC.

When they went to rededicate the temple, they had only enough oil for one day, yet by a miracle it lasted eight days—the Feast of Lights, Hanukkah. The rededication, the Feast of Dedication, fell on December 25th. To this day Israel celebrates it; in John's Gospel we read that Jesus went up to the temple at the Feast of Dedication in winter, remembering what God did in casting off Antiochus Epiphanes—a type of the Antichrist.

The Hasmoneans, Rome, and the Septuagint

Matthias and his sons began the Hasmonean dynasty, leading Israel religiously and politically for several generations. At first Judas relied fully on God, but over time they leaned on alliances—reaching out to Rome, not yet a world power, for a treaty.

It was during this period, under one of the Ptolemies in Egypt, that the Hebrew Scriptures were translated into Greek. Seventy scholars went to Alexandria and produced the Septuagint ("the seventy") around 284 BC. This is why New Testament quotations of the Old Testament don't always match our wording exactly—they came through the Greek Septuagint and then into English. Notably, the liberal, Hellenized Jews who helped with this work—those who denied the resurrection and miracles—would become the Sadducees.

Rome, Antipater, and Herod

In the last century BC, Rome rose to power under Pompey, who conquered Palestine and declared it Roman territory. He made an alliance with an Idumean (an Edomite from the line of Esau) named Antipater, setting him as regent. When Julius Caesar overcame Pompey, he confirmed Antipater's authority.

Antipater's son was Herod the Great. The Jews hated him because he came from the line of Esau, and they tried to remove him, supported by a remaining descendant of the Maccabees. But Herod lured that Hasmonean to his palace at Jericho, where he conveniently "drowned." The Jews drove Herod out, but he returned with Roman legions and retook the city. Around 46–50 BC he became king—a puppet king under Roman power. To appease the Jews, he poured money into rebuilding the temple magnificently.

God Was Never Silent

That brings us to the New Testament. Jesus wasn't born in year zero—tracing the histories, very likely around 4 BC. Just before His birth, John the Baptist was born, and God begins to speak again. The nation is now at a place of great expectation, longing for God to do something after 400 years.

When wise men from the east came seeking the King of the Jews, Herod—the madman Edomite on the throne—asked the priests where the Messiah would be born. They answered from Micah 5: Bethlehem. Herod feigned a desire to worship Him but plotted to kill Him, slaughtering the children of Bethlehem. But God had warned Joseph to flee to Egypt, where they stayed until Herod died.

Through all of this, even when the people thought God was absent, He was repositioning things, preparing the way of the Lord, readying the moment when Christ would come.

They Were Looking for a Lion and Got a Lamb

By the time Jesus came, the Jews expected a political Messiah to overthrow Herod and Rome. The nation was full of factions—the Pharisees who hated Roman oppression, the Sadducees with closer Roman ties, the Herodians loyal to Herod, the Zealots completely against Rome—all looking for someone to seize power.

When John the Baptist appeared, preaching against Rome and Herod (which eventually cost him his head), the priests asked, "Are you the Christ?" He answered, "No—I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, make straight the way of the Lord," quoting Isaiah 40. Then the One came, and John declared, "Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world."

Why did they miss their Messiah? Because they were looking for a lion and got a lamb—looking for a conqueror on a stallion, and instead He came meek and lowly on a donkey. They had misread their prophecies. He is coming again as a lion, but at the first coming He came as the Lamb to bring peace.

A Coming Prince and a Greater Fulfillment

In Daniel 9 we see one who partially fulfilled the prophecies before Jesus—Antiochus Epiphanes. Many Jews thought those prophecies were finished. But in Matthew 24, when the disciples admired the temple, Jesus said not one stone would be left upon another. When they asked for the sign of His coming, He said: "When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place... then know that the time is near" (Matthew 24:15).

So Jesus revealed that the prophecy hasn't been completely fulfilled. Antiochus was a partial fulfillment; a greater one is coming. Revelation tells us another will arise to establish peace in the Middle East. Many will warm to him, but about three and a half years in, he will enter the temple and exalt himself as God. Then they will realize he is not the one, and he will unleash unimaginable war upon the Jewish people and all who follow the one true God. We call him the Antichrist—and he must appear before the true Christ comes again like a lion.

God Still Moves—and Still Speaks

There are great books that cover this period: Josephus's History of the Jews, secular historians like Herodotus, and H.A. Ironside's The 400 Silent Years. But the key truth is this: although God was not speaking inspirationally during those years, He was not inactive. He was on the move, ordering things, preparing the way of the Lord.

And God the Father is preparing the way for His Son's second coming right now. The things happening in the Middle East were spoken of by the prophets. As Daniel outlined the first coming with clarity, Ezekiel outlines the second, describing alliances that will form—including one between Persia and Gog and Magog. Until 1935, Persia was the name of Iran; the prince of Persia is still there. Gog and Magog are identified with the Scythians, from the region of Russia. There has never been an alliance between Persia and Russia—until the last few years.

One of the most common phrases in Scripture, especially in Ezekiel, is "that you may know that I am the LORD." God is doing these things in our day for that very purpose. He wrote through Ezekiel 2,500 years ago, and we read today's news and see it unfolding. When the king of Assyria, Sargon, thought he was acting in his own power, God said through Isaiah 8 that he was only a tool in His hand. Whatever the powers of our day suppose, they too are tools in God's hand, and His plan will come to pass.

So search the Scriptures line by line, precept upon precept. We've only flown over the Old Testament at 50,000 feet—go back and see what God is saying, because He's speaking to us. God still speaks. Are we listening? These 400 years of silence are proof that God moves in powerful and miraculous ways, readying His people for His coming. He said, "I will do a work that you would not believe if it were told to you"—and He has done it. And we here tonight are proof that He continues to do so.

Closing Prayer

Father, just as we see the geopolitical shift from Malachi to Matthew, we have seen a shift in the last hundred years that is hard to imagine. Truly You are doing a work—You raise up one nation and put down another. But the whole purpose is that we might know that You are the Lord, that every tribe, nation, and tongue would come to realize You are the God of heaven who created all things.

You reveal things to Your people before they happen; the prophetic books are history before it comes to pass. Help us to take an interest in these things, to recognize what's going on in the world, and to be strengthened and encouraged in our faith. The very fact that Israel is once again a nation is powerful proof that You are God and on the throne.

As we see Russia and Persia rattling their sabers, help us who know Your word not to become fearful or concerned, but to look up, for our redemption draws nigh. With the Spirit and the Bride we say, come—even so, Lord Jesus, come quickly. And if You tarry a hundred years, help us to be diligent in the work You've set before us—not loveless, not lukewarm, but pressing on in fervent hope. Thank You that You didn't come back twenty or thirty years ago, for many of us would not be here or know You. There are still more in our town who need to know You. Help us to bring the good news, the living water, the light and life You give. Stir us up and speak boldly Your truth, for we ask it in Jesus' name. Amen.