Simon Pease in an 8- part series considers how understanding of prophecy ‘evolves’
The salvation story – an evolving narrative
The Bible opens with the dramatic events of Genesis, describing in rapid succession God’s creation of the universe, our world, the animals, and finally mankind. Right at the beginning, God has created man and woman to know Him personally and have close fellowship with Him. Yet Adam and Eve are spiritually deceived by Satan, destroying their innocence, bringing guilt and damaging their relationship to God. Nevertheless, God makes an extraordinary promise. One of the woman’s descendants will crush Satan, but also be wounded by him (possibly mortally). Thus, there is an early hint of future deliverance through a mysterious individual. As this Saviour will deal with Satan, the deceiver, this appears to indicate spiritual salvation. Nevertheless, at this point we only have an enigmatic suggestion of a future event.
As the Bible story progresses, we are introduced to Abraham, his son Isaac, and grandson Jacob. God enters into a legal and binding covenant with them, which He repeatedly confirms. Its terms include the permanent gift of land to Abraham and his descendants in the region of modern-day Israel and beyond. Over and above this, God promises to bless him by making him the father of many peoples, stating that through him all nations will in turn be blessed. Furthermore, God states that those who bless Abraham and his descendants will be blessed, whilst those who curse him will be cursed. In due course Abraham becomes the father of the Arab people, and then the Jewish people. Whilst God also makes specific promises of blessing to Abraham’s Arab descendants, His covenant promise concerning the land is exclusively and specifically with the Jews.
As Jacob lies dying, he gives a prophecy to each one of his twelve sons, from whom the tribes of Israel will emerge. Regarding Judah, he states:
“The sceptre will not depart from Judah,
nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet,
until he to whom it belongs shall come
and the obedience of the nations shall be his.” (Genesis 49:10)
This was interpreted by Jewish religious rulers down the centuries as meaning that the Jewish people would be ruled by a king from the tribe of Judah until Messiah came. This understanding is profoundly important, as we shall see.
Fast forward a few hundred years, and the emerging Jewish people have just escaped from slavery in Egypt and are slowly making their journey to the land which God promised them. Some of the local kings, fearing this invasion, bribe the prophet Balaam to curse the Jews. However, God takes control of the prophet’s utterances, and instead he can only offer blessings on that people. Furthermore, he predicts that a warrior ruler will arise from the Jewish tribe of Judah to defeat their enemies (in modern-day terms, Moab is located in Jordan).
“I see him, but not now;
I behold him, but not near.
A star will come out of Jacob;
a sceptre will rise out of Israel.
He will crush the foreheads of Moab,
the skulls of all the people of Sheth.” (Numbers 24:17)
Let us pause for a moment to summarise the emerging picture of the future Saviour at this point:
- He will have a human mother.
- He will destroy Satan, undoing the effects of “the Fall” for all humanity, but suffer in the process.
- He will be Jewish.
- He will appear around the time that Jewish kingship from the tribe of Judah is coming to an end.
- He will rule over the nations.
- He will fight victoriously for Israel and the Jewish people against their enemies.
These descriptions appear almost contradictory, and the tensions between them are most clearly reflected in the diametrically opposed views of much of traditional Christianity and those of Orthodox Jews concerning the Messiah. The former focus (quite rightly) on the Son of God who came and died as the one and only Atonement for sin, but in doing so ignore His Jewishness and His return as the Warrior King. The latter are correct in seeing Messiah as the Saviour of the world and Israel’s King and Saviour in particularly. However, by ignoring Jesus’ fulfilment of Messianic prophecy, especially regarding His death on our behalf, they will almost inevitably embrace a counterfeit Messiah before realising they have made a terrible mistake.
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Simon Pease is author of “Ruth – A Prophetic Parable”. Sub-titled “How does the story of Ruth relate to YOU today?” He teaches on the unity of Scripture and contributes to the UK magazine Sword.
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