that one magical moment…
nestled in human history…
where everything converged…
to make it the perfect time…
for God to save the world.
A couple of hundred years before and it just wouldn’t have worked.
A couple hundred of years after and it would have been a big mess.
And having blabbed blogged about the Exile of Israel to Babylon for a while now (here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here) I now want to think about blab about blog about how the rest of history converges on the moment that was the fullness of time.
Let’s see…
I’ve covered the birth of Israel, and the Exodus (in full Technicolor by the way – including Vincent Price and Lily Munster). I’ve covered their rise and fall into Exile in Babylon. I’ve covered Babylon losing their top dog status to Persia – and Persia releasing Israel from Exile. And I’ve covered Alexander the Great, who conquered Persia and pretty much all the Middle East.
from what we call Turkey, way over to India, and down to Egypt.
But empires come and go…
and strangely enough Israel, a little nobody of a nation…
has always. held. on.
It had to hold on. The little nobody of a nation was the one that God chose to birth the Savior.
So…
What happened to that little nobody of a nation after Exile to Babylon.
Some of them stayed in Babylon, they had businesses, and connections, and a level of comfort. But lots of them came back to the land of Israel. Still, things weren’t the same as when they left.
Things had gotten run down.
Squatters had moved into the vacancies.
That’s what happens when you leave real estate abandoned.
For a while they were Jews – but Persians.
Then they were Jews – but Greeks.
The Persians never really tried to prevent the Israelites from worshiping Yahweh.
But the Greeks, they had a master plan about making everybody Greek-ish.
The Greeks were kind of snobbish. There were the French of their day. They thought that everybody else was barbarian and if all the world just adopted Greek culture, and language, and philosophy, everything would be kittens and lollipops. And it worked pretty well with just about everybody for a while…
except for that one little nobody of a nation.
When they emerged from Exile in Babylon they were so committed to preserving their culture, and history, and faith in the one true God, that the Greek master plan didn’t work with them at all.
They all learned how to talk Greek – which was uber-important for the fullness of time. But they never surrendered completely to “Helenization” – that is, everything becoming Greek.
The Greeks were none too happy about this.
This would cause problems.
The little nobody of a nation was always seeming to cause problems.
I don’t blame them this time…
sure, they were being rebels…
but rebels with a darned good cause…
and so, there was more trouble with the Jews…
and that’s where I think I’ll pick up next time…
please come back.
{ 12 comments… read them below or add one }
Every day, I learn just that much more from you, Craig, and I’m loving every moment of it! I don’t know why I haven’t noticed “Deeper into Love” before, but will check it out momentarily.
Blessings!
I heart Deeper into Love – having 2 Blogs Is way too much work for one human being – but I kind of have two big, big, big parts of me – one is living out Corinthians 13 – and second I heart my Bible. Therefore – two blogs ツand thank you for your kind words – I heart lots that you read me. God bless and keep you.
“The little nobody of a nation was the one that God chose to birth the Savior.”
And I am a little nobody that the Saviour came to rescue . . . make me a somebody.
Somebody would like to know if you can fix your Monday’s watery thank-yous post, ’cause she left a comment and she knows you would comment back. She really hearts your replies to her comments, but she still can’t see it, because it still cuts off at the picture of the steaming pot on the stove. (I can’t believe I said “hearts”)
very nice play with words there Andrea Dawn – very nice – Gold star kind of nice – I heart that! and thank you for using the word heart as a verb – even though it obviously goes against your nature – I heart that too! and sometimes on Internet Explorer my site decides not to come up – I can’t really figure out why – and I’m not a techie. for some reason Bill Gates has a problem with me and my humble little blogs. It’s not broken on any other browser – just Internet Explorer. If you could – would you please tell a person that – meanwhile I’ll try to fix it again – I’ve already fixed it once –grrrrrrrrrr Internet Explorer! Thank you for being nice enough to help someone else like that. God bless and keep you Andrea Dawn.
I fixed it for now – I hope it stays that way – Bill Gates must have big issues with me – I wish he’d just come talk with me about them – but alas – he resorts to sabotage (⌣˛⌣)
Yes, it is all fixed up . . . hurray! Wow, so many comments and replies to comments on such a refreshing post. So happy I finally got to read them all. Thanks for doing that, Craig.
(ˆ◡ˆ)
I was thinking all the same thoughts that Andrea Dawn wrote. I scrolled down and read all the comments and thought — shoot! Now I have nothing original and great to write because everyone already did.
Isn’t it amazing how God moves the hearts of kings and kingdoms like rivers whatever way He will? Just so someone like little old, insignificant ME can be brought home again. Such a beautiful history lesson, Craig, for someone who always hated history. But when it ties in so significantly with God’s infinite plan of salvation and restoration. . . . it’s just the greatest thing ever. Thank you! (And thank you for your visit to my blog and your kind comments. I really appreciated that!)
I’m with you Cora, we have a history that is tied to a God who moves history. And when those two things come together – it’s kind of magical. And Cora, I heart visiting your blog (ˆ◡ˆ)
and…I think I’ve said it before, maybe in a post – but probably in a comment. That we don’t think enough of how God has to move things – to move things – to move things. He may have to move the entire universe to place a drop of water on a leaf – and when we ask them for stuff – do we really realize how much we’re asking Him to do? Thank you Cora – and God Bless you.
PS now it looks like Laska the love Kitty ^.^ will have to make room in his heart for One. More. Dog.
So…we vacate or abandon something and squatters move in….that is a huge spritual lesson, too, isn’t it? whatever I don’t fill with the truth of the Father will surely be inhabited by the lies of another. there are no true, longlasting vacancies in this life-just bad or good tenants. and we are the landlords of our soul-houses.
Hmmmmmm. Nature abhors a vacuum… Landlords of our own soul houses. beautiful applications – hit right at the center of the heart – somebody needs a blog ツ