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VII. After the Exile

A. Restoration and Rebuilding

Jeremiah prophesied that the exile in Babylon would last 70 years (see Jeremiah 25:12;29:10). It actually lasted a little more than half that long. In 538 B.C. Babylon was defeated by the Persians, led by King Cyrus.

Cyrus issued an edict to let God’s people return to Jerusalem and even helped fund the rebuilding of the Temple destroyed by Nebuchadnezzer (see Ezra 1:2-4; 6:3-5; Isaiah 44:24,28; 45:1-3,13).

The remnant that returned to Jerusalem was not necessarily the most pious and God-fearing people. The prophet Malachi gives us a unique window on the spiritual state of the returning exiles - decrying the corruption of the priesthood and the moral laxity of the ordinary people.

The full story of the return of Judah and the restoration of Jerusalem is told in the books ofEzra and Nehemiah. If you want to reconstruct the history of this period, read the books in this order: Ezra 1-6; Nehemiah 1-7, 11-13; Ezra 7-10; Nehemiah 8-10.

The first order of business was rebuilding the Temple, which you will sometimes see referred to as the Second Temple, the first of course being the one that Solomon built. Work on the new Temple was urged on by two prophets of the restoration era - Haggai andZechariah (see Ezra 5:1-2; Haggai 2:1-9; Zechariah 1:16).

When it was complete, Ezra led the people in a solemn renewal of their covenant with God (see Nehemiah 8-10).

The ceremony includes a long prayer by Ezra that recounts the history of God’s covenant love and His saving plan, beginning with the creation of the world (see Ezra 9:6-10:1).

Ezra’s prayer gives us a keen summary of the message of the biblical history - "In Your great mercy You did not completely destroy them and You did not forsake them, for You are a kind and merciful God….O our God, great, mighty, and awesome God, You Who in Your mercy preserve the covenant….In all that has come upon us, You have been just, for You kept faith while we have done evil" (see Nehemiah 9:31-33).

This was a period of renewed national pride and optimism in Judah. The prophets Obadiahand Joel foresaw the exaltation of Zion and a coming judgment on the nations (seeObadiah 5 and Joel 4). The prophet Jonah preached the unthinkable - the conversion of Ninevah, the capital city of Israel’s most dreaded foe.

B. Persecution and Revolt

The relatively benevolent Persian Empire was struck down in 331 B.C. by the Greeks under Philip of Macedon and his son, Alexander the Great.

The Holy Land came under the control of a series of increasingly hostile foreign kings. The history of this period, which closes out the Old Testament period and takes us to about 100 years before Christ, is told in the two books of Maccabees.

Maccabees, like the other books in the Bible, aim to give a religious interpretation of the history of the period.

The message is a familiar one - how God uses foreign kings to mete out punishment upon Israel for violating the Law, and how Israel is saved by returning to the covenant faith of its fathers (see 2 Maccabees 6:12; 7:32-38; 1 Maccabees 2:20,27,50; 4:10).

The most notorious of the "Hellenistic" kings of this period was Antiochus IV, who rose to power in 175 B.C. He called himself "Epiphanes," literally "God Manifest."

Antiochus began a vicious persecution of the Jews under the guise of a false ecumenism - claiming to want to erase religious distinctions among the peoples of the kingdom, trying to make all "one people, each abandoning his particular customs."

Antiochus desecrated the Temple - rededicating it to the Greek god Zeus and bringing in prostitutes to celebrate Greek fertility rituals. He burned any copy of the Law he could find, forbid the Israelites from observing the sabbath, made them eat and sacrifice swine and other unclean animals, and forced them to stop performing the ritual act of the covenant - the circumcision of newborn sons. The penalty for violating Antiochus’ edit was torture and death (see 1 Maccabees 1:41-50, 57, 61-62; 2 Maccabees 7:1-11).

In the face of hardship and persecution, many in Israel abandoned the covenant and the ritual laws. But many others refused to abandon God, preferring "to die rather than to…profane the holy covenant." (see 1 Maccabees 1:11,14-15, 52).

Indeed, we see in the Maccabees the beginnings of a new definition of Israel - not according to ethnic or tribal identify, but according to faithfulness to the covenant: "Israel was driven into hiding, wherever places of refuge could be found" (see 1 Maccabees 1:53;Romans 9:6-8).

Not all who are of Israel are Israel. Israel was now made up of those who kept the faith - even if it meant dying for the faith.

The stories of the martyrdom of the 99-year-old Eleazar, and of the mother forced to watch her seven sons tortured before she herself was executed too for refusing to eat pork, are among the most moving in the Scriptures (see 2 Maccabees 6:18-7:42)

C. Hasmonean Times

The Israelites, led by the Judas Maccabeus, the son of an aged priest, staged a series of revolts and battles against Antiochus and later occupying powers.

Judas was a skilled warrior and a pious man. He purified the Temple, and taught the people to pray for the souls of the faithful departed, and to hope for the resurrection of the dead (see 2 Maccabees 10:1-8; 12:38-46).

Led by Judas and his brothers, the Maccabees - against all odds - ousted all foreign powers from Jerusalem.

Beginning with the high priest John Hyrcanus (see 1 Maccabees 16), Israel enters into a period of about 100 years of independence under the leadership of priests.

The period is known as the Hasmonean dynasty, named for the great, great grandfather of Judas Maccabees. During this period we see the rise of the Pharisees and the Sadducees, Israelite sects that will figure prominently in the Gospels.

Under the Hasmoneans, it seemed, the prayer that began the Maccabees’ history - "May God bless you and remember His covenant with His faithful servants, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob" - had been answered (see 2 Maccabees 1:2).

But there was a problem - actually a series of problems - with the Hasmonean dynasty.

Most critically: What happened to the promise God made to David? Did He grant David an everlasting throne or didn’t He?

Just before Jerusalem fell, Jeremiah had again reaffirmed that God’s covenant with David was eternal: It could no more be broken than the sun and moon could cease to shine, he said.

Jeremiah even said that David’s descendants would outnumber the stars in the heavens and the sands of the sea, another echo of God’s promise to Abraham (see Jeremiah 33:14-23,26; Genesis 22:17).

But that prophecy was nearly a half-millennium old by the time of the Hasmoneans. The Hasmonean priests weren’t kings and they weren’t descended from the line of David or even the tribe of Judah. They weren’t even descendants of Aaron, as the Law of Moses required for priests.

Early on, the people seemed to sense the problem. They agreed to live under this form of priestly, theocratic rule "until a true prophet arises" (see 2 Maccabees 14:41).

But as time wore on, and as the Hasmoneans sought to consolidate and legitimate their power, popular expectations of a new prophet had waned.

Still, in this period there were growing numbers who searched the Scriptures, recalled the writings of the prophets - the many powerful promises that they had made that seemed to have been only partially fulfilled.

Their search grew in intensity after Pompey invaded in 63 B.C. and claimed the Holy Land for the Roman Empire - historical events not recorded in the Bible.

There were numerous strands of prophetic expectation in the period between the Old and New Testaments, all reflected in the debates in the Gospels about whether Jesus was the Messiah.

Many looked forward to the fulfillment of Moses’ ancient prophecy - that God would raise up a prophet like him (see Deuteronomy 18:15-19). But the interpretation of this prophecy and others always pointed back to God’s promise to David.

As the New Testament period begins, the people were waiting for God to raise up a Son of David and restore the Davidic Kingdom (see John 1:21; 7:42).

D. The Consolation of Israel

The people were waiting on the promises of the prophets. They had taught Israel to hope for "a new David," who would be their savior, their "Messiah" - "one anointed" as David had been with oil and the Holy Spirit (see 1 Samuel 16:13).

Isaiah, for instance, prophesied the coming of a son of David, a child born in the line of David, who would gather together God’s scattered people into a new kingdom that would rule the world from Zion, by the Law of God (see Isaiah 2:2-3; Amos 9:11).

Micah said a child would be born in Bethlehem, that he would be the ruler and shepherd who would lead all the return of all "the children of Israel." Moreover, Micah said, the new king would rule "to the ends of the earth" (see Micah 5:1-4).

Daniel, in a prophecy written around the time of Antiochus’ persecution, saw a heavenly vision of the Davidic son ruling from on high: "He received dominion, glory and kingship - nations and peoples of every language serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion that shall not be taken away. His kingdom shall not be destroyed" (see Daniel 7:14).

Isaiah said that this son of David would be called "Wonder-Counselor, God-Hero, Father-Forever, Prince of Peace" and would reign "from David’s throne…both now and forever" (see Isaiah 9:1-7; 7:14; 11:1-5,10; Jeremiah 23:5-6).

Ezekiel, too, had seen a great vision of the new David - a shepherd king who would rule over Israel forever in the land which God had promised to Abraham.

He said God would in those days make a new covenant with the people, an everlasting covenant of peace, and would dwell forever among them in the sanctuary.

"My dwelling shall be with them," God promised through Ezekiel. "I will be their God and they shall be my people" (see Ezekiel 34:24-30; 37:23-28; 16:59-63).

Ezekiel was not alone in speaking of a new covenant, although only Jeremiah would use that actual term.

Isaiah looked forward to the day when God would "renew the everlasting covenant, the benefits assured to David."

He even implied that the Messiah would himself be a new covenant, given the name "a covenant of the people" (see Isaiah 55:3-5; 42:6).

Hosea evoked the messianic images of the Song of Songs, predicting that the Messiah would come as a groom comes for his beloved, that a new covenant would be made that "espoused" Israel and God forever (see Hosea 2:18-25; Isaiah 5:1-7; 54:4-9; Jeremiah 2;32; Ezekiel 16:23; Song of Songs 3:2,11).

Finally, the prophet Jeremiah made this sweeping promise - that God would reunite the Northern and Southern kingdoms, gathering them from all the lands to which they had been banished:

"The days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah…I will be their God, and they shall be my people" (seeJeremiah 31:31-34; 32:36-41).

On the threshold of the New Testament, the devout and the righteous looked to these prophecies, awaiting the consolation of Israel - the coming of the new son of David, the resurrection of his fallen Kingdom (see Luke 1:69; 2:25,38; Mark 11:10; Isaiah 40:1; 52:9;61:2-3).

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