Episode 71: The Incarnation and Bible Prophecy

Bible Prophecy Under the Microscope-Episode 71

Like many in Israel at the time of Jesus’ birth, Christians today are looking for a political savior to rescue them and break the chains of tyranny.

It is important to recognize that the Gospels tell of many people looking for the Messiah. How did they have precise timing for when to look? Based on the 490 years of Daniel 9 coming to an end they knew something important was soon to happen. When Philip brings Nathanael to meet Jesus he declares: “We have found him of whom Moses in the Law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph” (John 1:45). When Mary and Joseph bring young Jesus to “present him to the Lord” (Luke 2:22–23), Anna and Simeon are at the temple waiting for the consolation (v. 25) and redemption (v. 38) of Israel. In addition, “wise men from the east” were scanning the skies and noticed a unique star and understood it to be for the King of the Jews. This news troubled King Herod and “all Jerusalem with him” (Matthew 2:1–4).

They were expecting the Messiah, but John reminded them that someone else came first to prepare the way. While he denies being the Christ, Elijah, or Moses, he identifies himself as being the fulfillment of Isaiah 40. The angel Gabriel tells Zechariah that his son will go before the Lord “in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready for the Lord a people prepared” (Luke 1:17), which is a clear reference to Malachi 4.

Geerhardus Vos makes an important observation that this “turning of the hearts” may refer not only to John’s contemporary generation, but serves as a summary of Israel’s history:

It remains possible however that by the “fathers” are meant the pious ancestors of the later apostate Jews in the ancient periods of Israel’s history. These fathers would, in that case, be represented as having retained in their postmortem state a lively interest in the experiences and destinies of their descendants during the later ages of history. In a general way, 1 Peter 1:10–12 might be compared with the last mentioned exegesis, although Peter does not speak of the preoccupation of the Old Testament consciousness with the later period in general, but of the fore-searchings of the prophetic mind specifically.[1]

In this passage mentioned by Vos, the Apostle Peter writes the following:

Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired carefully, inquiring what person or time the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories. It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves but you, in the things that have now been announced to you through those who preached the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things into which angels long to look. (1 Peter 1:10–12)

While Peter doesn’t make direct connection to John the Baptist, it is not difficult to imagine that John’s message is included in what Peter had in mind about “the things that have now been announced.” Earlier in his letter, Peter writes that he is speaking about “a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time” (1 Peter 1:5), which corresponds well with John’s earlier message of imminence, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matthew 3:2). The biblical witness is that John is both the Voice of Isaiah 40 and the Elijah of Malachi 4:5–6 and a necessary part of Israel’s—and the world’s—salvation.

The Greatest and the Least: A Biblical Theology of John the Baptist

John the Baptist was a polarizing figure in early first century Judea. Before Jesus began his own public ministry, John was attracting a number of young tradesmen as followers. Change was in the air and like many social movements, the young men were the first to take notice. John was the transitional figure providing a clear path and a smooth road from the covenant with Adam to the new covenant with the Second Adam. As the final and greatest prophet of the Old Testament, John embodied and fulfilled the very purpose of the Law: revealing Jesus as the Bringer of God’s Kingdom.

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Like many in Israel at the time of Jesus’ birth, Christians today are looking for a political savior to rescue them and break the chains of tyranny. Christian leaders tell people to look up and ahead to Jesus’ second coming and rejoice that their “redemption is drawing near” (Luke 21:28). But was this the response of Simeon and Anna? Were they rejoicing in what God would do millennia in the future, or were they rejoicing about what God was doing then?

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[1] Geerhardus Vos, The Eschatology of the Old Testament (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing, 2001), 163–4.

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